About Trek-a-Week

The premise: Ben and Katherine (husband and wife) are watching fifty episodes of Star Trek throughout 2017 — around one a week — and then writing about each one here.

Who are Ben and Katherine?

Ben: Hi, I’m Ben and I’m a professional cartoonist and comics/art teacher. More to the point, though: I’m a lifelong Star Trek fan. I’m a fan, but not a fanatic. I’ve seen all the live action series and I’ll admit to owning a stuffed tribble, but I don’t attend cons, cosplay, etc.

Tweet at me: https://twitter.com/ben_towle

Katherine: Well, hey, y’all! I’m Katherine and I work as a BI/data warehousing architect, which means I write a lot of SQL code and love all things data. I’ve watched several Star Trek episodes here and there and as a computer programmer I feel a kinship with some of the characters. I can’t say I’ve seen every episode in any of the series. So I’m looking forward to a more intentional viewing.

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/sqlsassy

The Episodes:

Ben: Honing the list down to fifty episodes was tough. Some of these are “fan favorite” episodes that pretty much every Trekkie loves; some are ones that are personal faves of mine (seriously, does anyone other than me like A Piece of the Action non-ironically?).

A few caveats:

1. I picked only episodes that worked as stand-alone stories. This made Deep Space Nine — and to a lesser extent Enterprise — somewhat challenging.
2. I tried to pick initial episodes for each series that communicated the basic premise of each series. This was difficult since none of the series really has a great initial episode.
3. Some of these I’ve not seen in a long time and may actually be terrible.

The Original Series (TOS)

Corbomite Maneuver
Balance of Terror
Space Seed
The Devil in the Dark
City on the Edge of Forever
Amok Time
The Trouble with Tribbles
Doomsday Machine
Mirror Mirror
A Piece of the Action

The Next Generation (TNG)

The Measure of a Man
A Matter of Honor
Q Who
The Defector
Yesterday’s Enterprise
Best of Both Worlds I
Best of Both Worlds II
First Contact
Cause and Effect
The Inner Light
Relics
Chain of Command I
Chain of Command II
Lower Decks
All Good Things

Deep Space Nine (DS9)

Captive Pursuit
Duet
The House of Quark
The Visitor
Trials and Tribble-ations
Far Beyond the Stars
In the Pale Moonlight
Children of Time
Once More Into the Breach

Voyager (VOY)

Projections
Living Witness
Year of Hell I
Year of Hell II
Timeless
Bride of Chaotica
Author, Author
Endgame I
Endgame II

Enterprise (ENT)

The Andorian Incident
Dear Doctor
Dead Stop
Cogenitor
Twilight
In a Mirror Darkly I
In a Mirror Darkly II