On a bulletin-board I frequent, someone wrote that they were hoping to introduce their wife to STAR TREK in the near future and was soliciting his fellow posters for a list of ten episodes that could serve as an introduction to the show.

Some responders focused on episodes that had great impact through the show’s run, and into its spin-offs. But while Khan was a great villain in “Space Seed” — and the show’s sequel, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” the best Trek flick — was “Space Seed” really representative of what STAR TREK is about? I mean, sure, from a slug-fest in Engineering standpoint between our hero Kirk and his nemesis, the genetically modified man from the 1990s, sure. But what’s the moral point of the episode? Leave your enemy alive after you’ve defeated him so he can come back and kill you?

This got me thinking. At its best, STAR TREK was a show which allowed its writers to address contemporary issues in a science-fiction setting. At its worst, it was all about how many hot alien chicks Captain Kirk could get nekkid with. If someone who’d never seen a single episode of STAR TREK asked me what episodes to watch to get an idea for the ideology of the universe Gene Roddenberry created, this would be that list. (more…)