10 Most Unique Star Trek Episodes 

A shame "Those Old Scientist" didn't get a mention. I can't recall any other episode that attempted to combine animation and live action, be a 100% comedy, AND a crossover all at once. One of the best and unique episode in the franchise's history.

Celia Rose Gooding was, indeed, exceptional in Subspace Rhapsody, but let's not discount Christina Chong, who has a singing career as well as an acting one. Both were absolutely brilliant in this episode. Also, credit needs to go to the composers. The big songs they both sang were not only perfect for them, but brilliant in their own rights.

"Carbon Creek" from Enterprise it's also worth mentioning. It's fun to see Star Trek's "main cast playing a past relative of a main character(s) in a flashback" trope. but also important since we see when Vulcans become awere of the humans back in the 1950s during the Cold War and Space Race going on. That episode is one of my favorite and it's so much underrated.

'Trials and Tribbelations' and 'Those Old Scientists' are two episode that should be in the top-3, if you ask me. "Conspiracy" and "In the Pale Moonlight" should also be in this list.

Prodigy fifth season? Wow the save Prodigy campaign went well then

Far Beyond the Stars was also interesting in seeing much of the cast in a more natural look without their alien make-up.

I also LOVED that in the musical, they made the SHIPS dance. Lolololol

•Cause And Effect is one of my favorite TNG episodes of all time. •I couldn't stand The Inner Light the 1st few times I saw it. Then one day, it just clicked. Now it's one of my all-time favs. •Pathfinder is also amazing. I can't help but tear up thinking of how it would've felt to hear a voice from home after all that time.

Great list Course Oblivion is indeed unique, but depressing as hell and I love Pathfinder in many ways

How "Those old scientists" didn't make this list is a mystery to me. I just *knew* it was going to be number 1.

Star Trek's musical episode has me listening to teh soundtrack over and over because it's so fun and emotionally beautiful. On my Spotify wrapped, musicals are one of my big categories solely because of this album.

Course: Oblivion is a great example of the consequences of a Starfleet captain's actions. Something which is rarely addressed in Star Trek

Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad is also kinda unique in the sense that it tells a time loop story from the point of view of the people NOT aware of it as they encounter the one person (Stamets) that is.

yall can say what you want but klingons singing is the best one! loved it have the videos and like to sometimes just listen to it. they should make a whole track!

What about Voyager "Blink of an Eye" I think, where they were stuck above a planet that was going through time at 100x speed, but there are so many episodes that could be considered "Unique".

Great list. Still, if you're looking at unique episodes, I would have to include "The Empath" from TOS Season 3. While the impetus may have been to create an episode employing minimal sets, "The Empath" employed almost none at all, with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in a black space with no walls and only one platform to sit on. This could easily be adapted into a one-act play performed in a downtown black box theater. Nevertheless, the result, due largely to wonderful guest star Kathryn Hayes as the mute Gem, is one of the most moving episodes in the entire franchise.

Subspace Rhapsody has Quickly become one of my favourite episodes, it always puts a grin on my face, love it! 🖤😉

Surprised that the episodes In A Mirror Darkly (told via the Emissary’s POV/Captain’s Personal Log), First Contact (the TNG episode not the film, told from the prespective of aliens), and A Mirror Darkly (set exclusively in the Mirror Universe) didn’t make the cut. Wasn’t surprised to see Subspace Rhapsody take the #1 slot.

Odo: I've been watching you for a long time, Rom. You're not as stupid as you look. Rom: I AM TOO!!! That one always makes me howl! But "Necessary Evil" was one of my favorite episodes of season 2 of DS9. And I admit, I play and sing Subspace Rhapsody on a regular basis, lol.

Another unique episode is the In a Mirror, Darkly in that it's (to the best of my knowledge) the only mirror universe episode that is eniterely set in the mirror universe and without any characters from or other connections to the prime universe.

Good list. I also get the feeling Strange New Worlds is going to attempt to add more entries over the coming seasons as they are not scared to try out crazy ideas.

Best Trek channel, hands down.

What about Strange New Worlds 'Those Old Scientists?' (eps 02-07) Animated characters transported to live series. There is nothing more unique than that! Live long and prosper.

I’ve been rewatching SNW and LD and a couple other Trek shows to fill my day’s waiting for new Trek series shows. I’ve noticed the background music in other episodes of SNW is the music used for the songs in Subspace Rhapsody.

8:38 "Star Trek Prodigy offered in its 5th season..." I don't think we're there yet Tom... Not unless you're from the future! :o

So happy Prodigy's Kobayashi made it on to the list. Being able to harness original voice footage from across several series into an animated version was amazing.

Great list of great episodes

Love Subspace Rhapsody. ♥️

Ok everyone in Spock's voice, "Check the circuit!".

Best thing about this list is that all 10 episodes are VERY good.

Nice work.

Some of the songs from Subspace Rhapsody officially made it to my playlist in the car lol I think Those Old Scientists is up there, too as far as unique episodes go.

DS9 never actually did a full-fledged musical episode, but season six and seven had quite a few episodes with music in them.

I would add the horror episode with the clown who tells Janeway at the end that he's afraid of death and Janeway whispers, " I know."

It would have been impossible for the officer behind Bateson to be Savik - the Bozeman had 'vanished' years before Savik even entered Starfleet Academy!

Great list, now for Ten More Episodes.

Heh the danger of "unique" is if you get too wacky you can lose some. I have had a couple buddies that love SNW and stopped the music episode 5 minutes in. I kind of only sort of hung around for the episode. But fun takes on structure, like Cause and Effect, is always fun

you have to watch "Oblivion" along with "Demon" to get the point.

Thanks. 🖖🏻

Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding and Rebecca Romjain are all trained musical theatre actor/singers. Bruce Horak is a known and accomplished singer.

Subspace Rhapsody was ridiculous and hilarious. Great One-Off Episode to never happen again. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it should stay the only musical episode.

Oh! Now do Phaser designs ranked.💙

I still wish they could have done the proposed Short Trek with Picard and Uhura on the Leondegrance it would have been nice to have Nichelle back to give a coda to Uhura.

I was never crazy about "Beyond the Farthest Star" from the standpoint of the message of race relations (and womans role in the workplace) that it was trying to convey. It showed how bad things were back then. Okay I get it. But it was too heavy handed and to me Star Trek and all sci-fi can be used to get that same message across without beating you over the head with it. Still the best line ever is, "Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side." And there you go. Both subtle and a slap in the face at the same time. Another great line that I think was better than "Beyond the Farthest Star" was "Going to Vic's won't make us forget who we are or where we came from. It reminds us that we are no longer bound by any limitations. Except the ones we impose on ourselves." But of course, you needed Beyond...... for that to make any sense. But that is just IMHO.

I stand pleased to see Pathfinder, you mention the situation, and something started to messing with my eyes...

DS9's Waltz also comes to mind. Basically Sisko and Dikat duking it out in an (almost) 2-man theater play.

I didn't knew that Star Trek Prodigy was already on Season 5 😂

When you introduced Kobayashi, I swear it really sounded like you said Prodigy's fifth season, so much so that I rewound the video and it still sounded like that even though that series hasn't had a fifth season and probably isn't likely to. It was the first and so far only season. did anyone else think that sounded like fifth and not first?

We need a full music video for the Klingon Boyband.

Aw, I was really hoping to see the Singons again. I'm reminded of the music video for Raumschiff Edelweiss when I saw the singing Klingons If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it highly enough. Look for the "official video" in the title. And relive 1993.

What about the episode of Nick generation when they first met the traveler and ended up going off to that funky edge of the universe place where their thoughts came to life. That's a lot more unique than some of the stuff you put here.

Always love Cause And Effect

SNW Elysian Kingdom should be on this list. Also, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (the Laan Time travel episode), for the chutzpah in putting Kirk and a Noonien Singh as a romantic duo. Come to think of it, A Quality of Mercy (SNW revisiting Balance of Terror) also should be on this list. And, of course, Mirror, Mirror, for giving popularculture the "goatees are evil" trope.

Unique does not implicitly indicate greatness - and some people (myself for one) HATE musicals. There I’ve said it, I’m out there now. Indeed uniqueness infers that it will never be repeated - so yes, let’s keep the musical unique and never repeat or return to the format but other members of this list DO warrant returning to, so maybe ultimately this list becomes a list of but one episode…

My favorite Star Trek episode of all of the series' is "Mirror, Mirror".

When you feel secure, you can play a bit.

Carbon Creek?

Cause and Effect was one of my favorite episodes as a ~9 year old.

The SNW Fairy tale episode should have been included!

I don't think it's a coincidence that the klingon kpop bit was ringtone length, no longer, no shorter

#4 still haunts me

In my head cannon Gary 7 is a temporal agent

IT'S REEEEAAALL!!!!

The make-up in Course Oblivion is fantastic, what are you talking about?

A thing can't be the most unique, something is either unique or not.

Skin Of Evil. Killing off a series regular and having her stay dead was shocking in the 80s.

Subspace rhapsody taught me the K in K-pop means Klingon. lol

I would agree with maybe 5 of your examples. Some, such as Assignment Earth, Pathfinder and Kobayashi feel like you are over reaching to find uniqueness. They are good episodes but not so unique as to be listed in the top 10. Does Pathfinder or Kobayashi really bring any more tears and excitement than seeing the TNG crew and the Enterprise D reunited on Picard? Wouldn't bringing the entire cast of one series back to reprise their roles in another series certainly be considered unique? I would consider the ENT episode where they find the USS Defiant in an asteroid to be unique in clearly linking an episode of TOS decades before to a current series. Or the ENT storyline finally explaining why Klingons in TOS did not have skeletal skull ridges. Wouldn't DSN's tribble episode be considered unique. One series incorporating the footage of another series into its main storyline. I'd say that was better than the Menagerie. Or the SNW episode with the overlap with the animated LWD - how unique is that?. The Pale Moonlight also stands alone as an episode solely presented as a personal log but shows the extremes main characters will go to in order to achieve their aims. Nothing so chilling before and rarely later although the SNW episode UNDER THE CLOAK OF WAR must certainly be seen as unique with the final decision of the doctor. Have we seen anything like that before in all of ST? Subspace Rhapsody was technically unique but also overall a throw-away episode that I never plan to watch again.

I would say In the Pale Moonlight deserves an honourable mention

who does not want to see the the Klingon's sing again in some other episode ?

Sorry, but there is no Season 5 of ST: Prodigy.....yet

wait...prodigy season 5?? regardless what episode is that i dont think I've seen it before

Yeah, of COURSE "The Inner Light" is on this. As it should be.

#1 was PI-SS funny! Laughed all the way thru it! Such a TALENTED cast, esp Celia & Christina! PRO singers both of them!

Shades of Gray? A clip show is pretty unique.

There's also 'Carbon Creek' from Enterprise, a story (as T'Pol alleged it to be at the end of her telling it) of how Vulcans came to be temporarily trapped on Earth long before the events of First Contact, a break from the usual space-faring storylines, and somewhat alluded to in Picard S2 (though, well, hmm, yeah, stil not that convinced I liked S1 and S2 much myself!) with that FBI fella having been "assaulted" by a Vulcan trying to do a "Forget me" meld on him as a kid when out in a wooded area and was out for vengeance of space-people, presumably they were just doing surveys of Earth after discovering intelligent(ish) life on the planet through the Carbon Creek incident...

Subspace Rhapsody became my favorite episode of Star Trek ever. It's was just sooooo much fun. It shouldn't have worked. It should have been terrible. Instead it was brilliant.

Now they just need a live action or Lower Decks Doctor Who crossover

Well, its not to late to make an Assigment: Earth TV series.

If Teri Garr doesn’t like taking about the one and only episode of Star Trek she was in, why would she even go a Star Trek convention in order to not talk about it? You said she doesn’t like talking about it at conventions. Where did she go, Close Encounters of the Third Kind conventions?

Sorry, no, the flute theme is not related to the Picard show theme music. no melodic similarities.

I will always remember the dancing Klingons. That truly made the episode.

In the pale moonlight?

🖖

Those Old Scientists

I don't think that the actual actors sing in the episode "subspace rapsody".

🖖 make lists, be unique

either something IS or ISN'T unique. You can't be any more or less unique than another unique thing.

5th season of Progidy?

Great list. I have to say that Subspace Rhapsody is by far my favorite Trek episode in recent years --- and that's saying a lot given how rich all of Strange New Worlds episodes are, not to mention the many many others from the other series. The thing about Subspace Rhapsody is how beautifully realized the music is... profoundly so. Anyone that has had experience with musical theatre will agree... this was special and done so to the n'th degree.

Those old scientitst , start at animated go to live action with time travel then back to animation again,

in the pale moonlight. breaking the forth wall with a captains log. a star fleet captain involved in several murders. breaks convention!

kilngon pop would also just be K=POP.

OK, on reading the comments it is abundantly clear that I'm not the only person who caught you saying fifth season. L O L. You guys need to catch this stuff in editing before you put the video live

I thought Those old Scientists was the best episode of Star Trek I've ever seen (And I've been watching it for like 40 years now) but then Subspace Rhapsody came along and made me forget all about Boimler and Marine. Subspace Rhapsody was so good A++

DS9 is the best Star Trek ever!!!

I hope that "Subspace Rhapsody" Is the last time they do a musical. The episode should be buried in the same landfill as the E.T. 2600 cartridges and forgotten about.

You left out Enterprise, "These are the Voyages..." the entire episode is Riker's holodeck program!

Something is either unique or it isn’t.

I freaking love the snw musical episode!!!