Welcome to the Conference Lounge's discussion and examination of Star Trek's Top 50 Episodes of all time. From 'The Cage' right through to Voyager's finale episode - all have fallen under scrutiny and have presented their cases. But only the best 50 will make it....
There's no easily defined formula which describes what makes a good Star Trek story outstanding. At the end of the day it's viewers choice. But I think you'll agree the episodes listed here in this top 50 would certainly be candidates anywhere else. The basic format goes as follows: Each episode has a brief list of their respective production staff credits and cast. A outline of the plot is given with my comments on that episode coming next. Then there are at least 12 screen capture pictures for each show. Later on, in the top twenty that is expanded to 18 screen captures, and some of the two parters have 18 or 24. There are also selected dialogue excerpts, and some Wavs for the particular episode, and if there are captured Video sequences a link to the Video Clips page is provided. The layout of the top 50 goes like this:
| Episodes 1 - 10 The very best of the best |
| Episodes 11 - 20 Epic two-parters and other greats |
| Episodes 21 - 30 The best of the rest |
| Episodes 31 - 40 Great bottle shows, and others |
| Episodes 41 - 50 Bringing up the rear |
These weren't the preset rules, it's just how, in retrospect it has turned out. There are some great two part episodes that don't make it this top 50. Rather than having a good Star Trek story simply panned out to two episodes isn't always good enough. They have to be outstanding. The likes 'The Best of Both Worlds', 'All Good Things' and 'Chain of Command' fall into this category.
I hope you enjoy browsing this section. If you want to know what I thought of all the other episodes not listed within, have a look at the Basic Episode Listings.
