What are your favorite time travel episodes? Also what are your least favorite?
DS9 Trials and Tribble-ations
it’s not an “episode” but Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
TNG Yesterday’s Enterprise I’ve also always found to be an intriguing glimpse at an era we’ve never really seen otherwise
My far-and-away favorite is Paste Tense from DS9. The conversation between Bashir and Sisko in the tent city hits me like a hammer on the heart every time.
Least-favorite would have to be the lion’s share of Picard s2, but specifically the episode where the gang tries to pull an Ocean’s 11 at that gala event and Picard gets run over by a car.
Past Tense is such a well done two-parter, too. Having watched it again recently it’s a bit scary how close it came to reality…
Least-favorite would have to be the lion’s share of Picard s2, but specifically the episode where the gang tries to pull an Ocean’s 11 at that gala event and Picard gets run over by a car.
I agree. And that episode was especially stupid, but it was a special kind of stupid. I thought the late Annie Wersching’s performance as the Borg Queen was a highlight. It reminded me of Wayne Pygam’s scene-chewing-but-snarky performance as Head Scorpius from Farscape. And then Alison Pill got to show off her pipes singing “Shadows of the Night” while the band and spotlight operator jumped right in. Made no goddamn sense, but I loved it.
Also, Pat Benatar is now canon in Star Trek.
Made no goddamn sense, but I loved it.
Ha. I just assumed she assimilated an ipod somewhere between scenes.
What’s funny is that I really loved Picard S2, the gala thingy included
TNG: Time’s arrow. I loved the Guinan backstory, Mark Twain, the western setting, and especially that it was all Data centric.
Does Voyager’s Shattered count? The ship being split into different phases in time both past and future. It’s one of my favorites.
For DS9 - Little Green Men and Trials and Tribble-ations are classic!
I’d say Shattered counts since it’s in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Star_Trek_time_travel_episodes
Chakotay needing to convince past Janeway to trust him and follow him through various events of past episodes was pretty interesting.
The DS9 episodes were just fun and I feel like there’s not many that go back to that time period like Little Green Men did. Most time travel episodes either go further back (1800’s, WW2 itself, etc) or are set in the ‘present day’ (Voyager’s/Enterprise’s/Picard’s).
There are so many good ones to choose from across all the shows. Since Past Tense and All Good Things have already been mentioned, I’ll say Time’s Arrow. The hook at the beginning of the episode is just too good. I mean,
spoiler
finding Data’s head in a cave on some random planet while Data is standing right there?
The whole scene with Mrs. Carmichael trying to collect rent… Mr. Pick-ard! Snake canes eating souls, Mark Twain, Guinan and Picard meeting…
Also, Little Green Men is a great one.
Yesterday’s Enterprise…
No, wait: it has to be Trials and Tribble-ations
Time’s Arrow is really fun
TNG’s All Good Things is probably my all-time-favorite; with close-seconds to DS9’s The Visitor and TOS’s City on the Edge of Forever as runners up. Honorable mention to DS9’s Far Beyond the Stars, while technically a vision/fever-dream it’s one of Star Trek’s finest hours.
Far Beyond the Stars is probably DS9’s best episode IMO - but it’s funny, I never considered it a time-travel ep before. I guess it fits that bill too.
I suppose it sort of is a time travel episode?
Avery Brooks’ acting in that one is top notch either way.
I also suppose if we are counting it, then we should also discuss The Visitor. Tony Todd does such a great job as old Jake, and as a father myself, this episode hits the feels really hard. And then later Tony Todd is back as Kurn and there’s no way you could tell it’s the same actor, other than his voice.
The Visitor is probably my favorite, and in the running for my favorite episode. I remember when I put that episode on, innocently all ready to enjoy another episode of DS9… 45 minutes later I’m basically sobbing in front of my tv lol. The beautiful thing is it probably wouldn’t have hit as hard if they didn’t do such a great job of setting up Jake and Sisko’s relationship leading up to it. Not to mention the performance from all three actors. Watching their faces as they interact with one another is incredibly convincing and just pulls you fully into the scenes emotionally.
Absolutely! I can’t believe I forgot to mention Cirroc Lofton when referencing The Visitor. 😅
Yeah, it never occurred to me to count it but if it counts then it has to take the crown.
@GuyGamer234
“A Quality of Mercy” (SNW S01E10)IMHO a clever reference to the TOS episode (without messing with the canon) and not the usual “we have to prevent this to save the future” plot.
Favourites: Yesterday’s Enterprise, Troubles and Tribbleations, Past Tense, Time’s Arrow, All Good Things, and Star Trek IV.
Lease favourites: Literally all of the rest.
Perfect list
It’s hard to choose a favorite, but one that comes to mind is the Star Trek Enterprise episode “Carbon Creek” where some Vulcans crash land on Earth in the 1950’s (before first contact) and introduce humanity to velcro.
+1 for Carbon Creek. I guess it’s technically not exactly a time-travel episode, but it scratches that itch better than most.
I was surprised recently to realize that it might actually be “Time’s Arrow”-- the more so because I’m not as much of a TNG person as I always thought I was. But Time’s Arrow is a fun romp through a nifty and underserved setting, and the ending with Mark Twain is I think one of the most important sequences in TNG.
@GuyGamer234 I love “Future’s End” from VOY and “Past Tense” from DS9.
TOS: City on the Edge of Forever - Written by Harlan Ellison with Joan Collins as Edith Keeler.
One of the all-time best episodes of all of trek.
I’ll vote for Prodigy’s Time Amok.
The premise was really creative and it was delightful seeing the cast work together while not sharing the spot light with each other. And oh Gosh… poor Rok-Tahk.
Yesterday’s Enterprise, if I had to pick one.
Some more obscure ones that I like and I haven’t seen mentioned thus far in this thread:
- I will always pull for Time Amok from Prodigy. It’s where in my eyes the series really started opening up. It touches on the deepest themes of Star Trek while still being a fun sci-fi concept.
- Terra Firma from Discovery is basically Tapestry, mirror universe edition. Might have worked better as a one parter but it was fun deconstructing how the prime universe had changed Emperor Georgiou.
- Timeless from Voyager set some bad precedents for time travel, but it was a good Harry Kim episode.
- Shattered is probably where I’ll stop any future Voyager rewatches. A fun retrospective on the series, and Chakotay actually gets to do something for a change.
Side note, have we not had any time shenanigans in Lower Decks? I know it’s technically coming by way of SNW, but still.
