- 5 months ago
Star Trek knows how to tease and deliver, even if it takes a little longer than expected.
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00:00There are so many moments of Star Trek that might seemingly just fly under the radar for
00:04a long time, until, years later, a new writer, a new director and a new audience pick up
00:11and create something beautiful.
00:12I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture, and here are 10 episodes that paid off way later.
00:20Number 10.
00:21The Measure of a Man Coming in the next generation's second season,
00:24The Measure of a Man is considered by many audience members, including this author, to
00:28be the first truly great episode of the series.
00:31It is Star Trek firing on all cylinders, a bottle show that defines not only the importance
00:35of Data to the Enterprise, but affirms the right to life and liberty for all androids going
00:40forward.
00:41The episode featured several follow-ups in the next generation's run, including The Offspring
00:44and Data's Day, but it would actually form the basis of two storylines in subsequent
00:48series.
00:49The first comes in Star Trek Voyager.
00:50The seventh season episode, Author, Author, is effectively a copy and paste of this episode,
00:55dealing instead with the Doctor's rights as an owner of his creative output.
00:59In this case, it's a poor follow-up.
01:01The Advocate of the Day definitively declines to rule on the Doctor's status as a sentient
01:05being, which is both a deliberate nod to Data's trial, but a bit of a cop-out at the episode's
01:10end.
01:11The direct payoff, however, is Bruce Maddox's appearance in Star Trek Picard.
01:14He was badly affected by the synthetic lifeform ban following the attack on Mars, yet he created,
01:19with Alton Soong, a new race of androids based on Data's neurons.
01:23The inclusion of his character makes this a bittersweet continuation, particularly as
01:27neither Data nor Maddox live to see the ban overturned.
01:31Number 9 Dark Page The next generation's seventh season felt like
01:35something of a victory lap.
01:36As the show was coming to the end of its run, Star Trek Generations was on the horizon,
01:40which gave the showrunners a chance to revisit some of the recurring characters to give them
01:43a bit of closure.
01:44Loxana Troi, having been introduced back in the first season and popping up periodically,
01:48returns in what turned out to be her most heart-wrenching story.
01:52For it is in this episode that the audience learns that Deanna Troi was not an only child.
01:56When she was a baby, the Trois went on a family picnic.
01:58While there, Kestra Troi, Loxana's firstborn, slipped into a pond and drowned.
02:03The event was blocked from her mind, though after years and much heavy telepathic activity,
02:07those walls came down and the truth was revealed.
02:09Deanna was faced with the choice to resent her mother for keeping this information from her,
02:13to accept this and attempt to move on.
02:15In Star Trek Picard, Nepenthe shows the return of Deanna and introduces the audience to her
02:20daughter, Kestra.
02:21We also learn that, like her mother, Deanna lost a child as well.
02:24It's a bittersweet return for the character, but one heightened by the earlier revelations.
02:28Number 8 Sins of the Father Another third season episode of The Next Generation
02:33that had ramifications for years to come, Sins of the Father introduces the audience to
02:36Kern, the second son of Moog and Worf's younger brother.
02:40Created by Tony Todd in his pre-Candyman era, this Klingon warrior became the audience's
02:44gateway into the wider machinations of the Klingon Empire.
02:47This episode set the scene for much of what followed with the Empire, arguably only truly
02:52coming to a close with Deep Space Nine's seventh season episode tacking into the wind.
02:57Here, Worf accepts discommendation from the Klingons, agreeing to a lie that his father,
03:02rather than Duras' father, sold out Kitamer to the Romulans, which sets the stage for Duras
03:07to make a bid for Chancellor. This leads to civil war when the Duras sisters fight Gowron
03:11for leadership. That, in turn, leads to the destruction of the Enterprise D as the Duras
03:16sisters manage to overcome the Galaxy-class ship in Star Trek Generations. Worf is then
03:20reassigned to Deep Space Nine, leading to his meeting with Martok and the eventual fight
03:25to the death with Gowron. The saga of the final days of this era of the Klingon Empire begins
03:31with the arrival of Kern.
03:32Number seven, The Price. The Price introduces several elements to the franchise, including
03:37the Barzan race and their wormhole, the Delta Quadrant and its extreme distance, and of course,
03:42the characters of Aradar and Kol. The episode itself is a relatively light fare, appearing
03:47somewhat as a love story for Deanna Troi rather than anything else. However, this episode would
03:52have far-reaching ramifications for the franchise. For example, Aradar and Kol are stranded in the
03:56Delta Quadrant by the episode's end. Star Trek Voyager would pick up on this storyline
04:00in their third season episode, False Prophets, actor Dan Shore returned as Aradar, though
04:05Kol was recast, now played by Leslie Jordan. The episode establishes the Ferengi as false
04:10gods on a pre-warp planet, using their advanced technology to gain power. However, that is
04:15not the only element from The Price to come back. Star Trek Discovery, in its second season,
04:20introduced the character of Nan, a Barzan security officer serving aboard the Enterprise,
04:25later on the Discovery. This informs us that not only had first contact between the Federation
04:30and Barzan people occurred more than 100 years before the events of The Price, but that Nan
04:35must have impressed someone at Starfleet as she would have needed sponsorship to gain entry
04:39to the Academy. Barzan was not a Federation member world by the time of The Price.
04:44Number 6, Elementary Dear Data. Elementary Dear Data is almost as pure a comedy episode
04:50as it's possible to get while the ship is still in very real danger. Daniel Davis delivers
04:55a stellar performance as Professor Moriarty, while Diana Moldauer is excellent as Dr. Pulaski
04:59as well. However, the best moment of the episode probably must go to Worf's sudden jump as Picard
05:05pops his top hat. However, this episode makes the list with the shortest payoff time, with
05:10only four seasons between it and Ship in a Bottle, but with the largest behind the scenes
05:15reason for the delay. When this episode was in production, the producers believed that Sherlock
05:19Holmes was in the public domain. After the episode aired, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan
05:23Doyle got in touch to inform them that this was not the case and they would need recompense
05:28for any future depictions of the characters. This killed plans for rapid sequels and left
05:33Moriarty in cybernetic limbo. By the time that Ship in a Bottle was produced, the delay was
05:37actually noted on screen, along with a reference to Pulaski, though not by name. This would in
05:42fact be the final reference to her character to date.
05:45Number 5, The Infinite Vulcan. The animated series is, quite frankly, the bastard stepchild
05:51of Star Trek. It will generally be found at the bottom of many rankings, though this is
05:54hardly a fair assessment. There are story ideas as strong as many of the original series, while
06:00it's the execution of those ideas that probably gives the most pause. However, Star Trek Lower
06:06Decks has been striving to bring it back into the audience's mind. The episode K'Shawn
06:10His Eyes Open features the darkest callback in Star Trek Lower Decks. The Infinite Vulcan introduces
06:16a giant, cloned Spock. He is created by the human Dr. Stavos Coniclius V, a remnant of
06:21the Eugenics Wars, who is attempting to find the perfect specimen. Giant Spock is left on
06:26the planet Phylos in an attempt to cure the Phylosians of their sterility. Fast forward
06:30to K'Shawn His Eyes Open, and that same giant Spock makes a cameo, as a skeleton, adorned in
06:36a ripped uniform, hanging from the ceiling. Grim.
06:40Number 4, Space Seed. Okay, no, this isn't just going to talk about Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan,
06:46although that did come 16 years after the release of Ricardo Montalban's first appearance
06:51in Star Trek. While Khan will generally still consistently be referred to as the greatest
06:56villain in the franchise, it is the Eugenics Wars that are introduced in this episode that
07:00takes point here. The rise of the Supermen and the wars to defeat them would return many
07:04times throughout Trek history. In Deep Space Nine, Dr. Bashir is revealed to have undergone
07:08genetic resequencing as a child, which leads to a tribunal and an evocation of Khan's name.
07:13Although Bashir is spared the legal ramifications, he later helps to treat others who are like
07:17him, yet not so fortunate. Star Trek Enterprise would go further. In the three-part story centering
07:23on the augments in Ariksun, genetic resequencing is again brought into play. Here though, a group
07:28of these augmented humans goes on a rampage, proving to be at least equal to Starfleet's
07:33best along the way. This augmentation is acquired by the Klingons, leading to a full circle moment
07:39in Star Trek. The augmentation virus that infects the entire Klingon race erases their cranial
07:44ridges, leading to the smooth-headed Klingons best remembered from the original series. Though
07:48it took forty years to get there, Khan and the events of Space Seed end up retroactively
07:53explaining the change in the Klingons overall.
07:56Number three, The Tholian Web. The Tholian Web hails from the original series often maligned
08:01its third season. The budget for the show had been slashed as it went into its final year,
08:06with the initial production of the Tholian Web requiring some creative ideas to make work.
08:11A new Constitution-class model was created, rechristened the USS Defiant and given a green
08:16hue for all of its scenes. As well as this, the Tholian Web spinners were introduced.
08:21Both the Defiant and the Tholians would return in the fourth season of Star Trek Enterprise.
08:26Here it is explained that once the ship vanishes, it reappears in the Mirror Universe. Captured by
08:31the Mirror Tholians, they are attempting to strip it for parts. However, it is taken
08:36by the Terran Empire, leading to some fairly big headaches for the Tholian Assembly. The
08:41two-parter In a Mirror Darkly is one of the best stories in Enterprise, coming right at
08:45the end of its final season. It ties a nice bow on the story of the Defiant, though it
08:49would be mentioned again in Star Trek Discovery. It also goes away to explaining how the Terran
08:54Empire remained as strong as it was for so long with the infusion of future technology.
09:00Number two, The City on the Edge of Forever. The Guardian of Forever was introduced at the
09:04end of the original series' first season in the episode The City on the Edge Forever. It
09:09would return in the animated series episode Yesteryear. In both cases, it is a stable method
09:14of temporal travel, though it clearly has a mind of its own. Altering the timeline is referred
09:18to as one of the greatest headaches for Starfleet, or simply Tuesday for James T. Kirk. However,
09:23this entry is less about Kirk as, ironically, it is he who ensures the stability of the timeline
09:30after his encounter with the device. Rather, it is Starfleet themselves and others who engaged in
09:35the temporal Cold War who had come to abuse the artifact. Star Trek Discovery's third season two-parter
09:41Terra Firma sees the return of The Guardian to the franchise. This time, it appears initially in a
09:47different form. Carl, as it likes to be called, is presented as a man who speaks somewhat in riddles,
09:52holding a copy of the Star Dispatch prophesying Georgiou's death. This leads to the jaw-dropping
09:58reveal of The Guardian, realised in 21st-century graphics, rendered beautifully for the modern day.
10:05Number 1. The Cage. Quite frankly, of all entries on this list, The Cage is the one that began paying
10:11off from the moment it was created. However, as it was not officially aired until 20 years after its
10:18filming, not many people actually knew that. The introduction of Star Trek, The Enterprise and,
10:23of course, Mr. Spock, cannot be overstated. All of the ingredients for what Star Trek would become
10:27are present in this first hour. However, it would be 2009 before Christopher Pike would be reimagined,
10:33appearing in the J.J. Abrams film played by Bruce Greenwood. While Sean Kenny had played the character
10:38in The Menagerie, that came at a time when not many audience members truly understood who Pike was.
10:43The character would return again, played this time by Anson Mount, for Star Trek Discovery's second
10:49season. The episode If Memory Serves features a convention-breaking moment, opening with clips
10:54from the original pilot showing both Geoffrey Hunter and Anson Mount, one after the other. The episode
11:00also sees the return of Veena, played in archive footage by Susan Oliver and new footage by Melissa
11:06George. The success of Mount's take on the character has directly led to a new series of Star Trek,
11:11this time called Strange New Worlds. Sixty years later, The Cage is continuing to deliver on its
11:18promise of a brighter future, helping to greenlight more and more content for the modern audience.
11:23That is everything for this list, and I can already tell that there is so much potential for
11:29more lists like this. So if that is something you would like to see, let us know in the comments below.
11:33Don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember that you can get in touch with us over on Twitter,
11:37at Trek Culture. You can catch myself at Sean Ferrick. You can also tune into my podcast at
11:42You're On Crack Mate, which you can find on Spotify. Until I see you again, you look after yourselves,
11:47you look after your friends and family, you live long and prosper.
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