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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.
00:19Number 10.
00:20The 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.
00:40The 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.
00:48The 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
01:09episode's end.
01:10The 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, which
01:40gave the showrunners a chance to revisit some of the recurring characters to give them a
01:43bit of closure.
01:44Lwaxana 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, Lwaxana'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,
02:13or to 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
02:32Generation that had ramifications for years to come, Sins of the Father introduces the audience
02:36to Kern, the second son of Moog and Worf's younger brother.
02:40Played 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, rather
03:02than Duras' father, sold out Kittimer 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
03:21reassigned 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
03:30with the arrival of Kern. Number seven, The Price. The Price introduces
03:35several elements to the franchise, including the Barzan race and their wormhole, the Delta
03:40Quadrant and its extreme distance, and of course, the characters of Aradar and Kol.
03:44The episode itself is a relatively light fare, appearing somewhat as a love story for Deanna
03:49Troy rather than anything else. However, this episode would have far-reaching ramifications
03:53for the franchise. For example, Aradar and Kol are stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the episode's
03:58end. Star Trek Voyager would pick up on this storyline in their third season episode, False
04:02Prophets. Actor Dan Shore returned as Aradar, though Kol was recast, now played by Lesley
04:08Jordan. The episode establishes the Ferengi as false gods on a pre-warp planet, using their
04:13advanced technology to gain power. However, that is not the only element from The Price to
04:17Come Back. Star Trek Discovery, in its second season, introduced the character of Nan, a Barzan
04:23security officer serving aboard the Enterprise, and later on the Discovery. This informs us that
04:28not only had first contact between the Federation and Barzan people occurred more than 100 years
04:33before the events of The Price, but that Nan must have impressed someone at Starfleet, as she would
04:37have needed sponsorship to gain entry to the Academy. Barzan was not a Federation member world by the time
04:43of The Price. Number 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 a stellar
04:55performance as Professor Moriarty, while Diana Moldauer is excellent as Dr. Pulaski as well.
05:00However, the best moment of the episode probably must go to Worf's sudden jump as Picard pops his top
05:06hat. However, this episode makes the list with the shortest payoff time, with only four seasons between
05:11it and Ship in a Bottle, but with the largest behind-the-scenes reason for the delay. When this
05:16episode was in production, the producers believed that Sherlock Holmes was in the public domain. After the
05:21episode aired, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got in touch to inform them that this was
05:25not the case and they would need recompense for any future depictions of the characters. This
05:30killed plans for rapid sequels and left Moriarty in cybernetic limbo. By the time that Ship in a Bottle
05:36was produced, the delay was actually noted on screen, along with a reference to Pulaski, though not by
05:41name. This would in fact be the final reference to her character to date. Number 5, The Infinite Vulcan.
05:47The animated series is, quite frankly, the bastard stepchild of Star Trek. It will generally be found
05:53at the bottom of many rankings, though this is hardly a fair assessment. There are story ideas
05:57as strong as many of the original series, while it's the execution of those ideas that probably
06:03gives the most pause. However, Star Trek Lower Decks has been striving to bring it back into the
06:08audience's mind. The episode K-Shawne His Eyes Open features the darkest callback in Star Trek Lower
06:14Decks. The Infinite Vulcan introduces a giant, cloned Spock. He is created by the human Dr.
06:19Stavus Coniclius V, a remnant of the Eugenics Wars, who is attempting to find the perfect specimen.
06:25Giant Spock is left on the planet Phylos in an attempt to cure the Phylosians of their sterility.
06:30Fast forward to K-Shawne His Eyes Open, and that same giant Spock makes a cameo,
06:35as a skeleton, adorned in a ripped uniform, hanging from the ceiling. Grim.
06:394. Space Seed Okay, no, this isn't just going to talk about Star
06:45Trek II The Wrath of Khan, although that did come 16 years after the release of Ricardo Montalban's
06:50first appearance in Star Trek. While Khan will generally still consistently be referred to as
06:55the greatest villain in the franchise, it is the Eugenics Wars that are introduced in this episode
07:00that takes point here. The rise of the Supermen and the wars to defeat them would return many times
07:04throughout Trek history. In Deep Space Nine, Dr. Bashir is revealed to have undergone genetic
07:08resequencing as a child, which leads to a tribunal and an evocation of Khan's name. Though Bashir is
07:14spared the legal ramifications, he later helps to treat others who are like him, yet not so fortunate.
07:19Star Trek Enterprise would go further. In the three-part story centering on the augments in
07:24Arik Sun, genetic resequencing is again brought into play. Here though, a group of these augmented humans
07:29goes on a rampage, proving to be at least equal to Starfleet's best along the way. This augmentation
07:35is acquired by the Klingons, leading to a full circle moment in Star Trek. The augmentation
07:40virus that infects the entire Klingon race erases their cranial ridges, leading to the smooth-headed
07:46Klingons best remembered from the original series. Though it took 40 years to get there, Khan and the
07:51events of Space Seed end up retroactively explaining the change in the Klingons overall.
07:563. The Tholian Web The Tholian Web hails from the
08:00original series' often maligned third season. The budget for the show had been slashed as it
08:05went into its final year, with the initial production of the Tholian Web requiring some
08:09creative ideas to make work. A new Constitution-class model was created, rechristened the USS Defiant,
08:15and given a green hue for all of its scenes. As well as this, the Tholian Web spinners were introduced.
08:20Both the Defiant and the Tholians would return in the fourth season of Star Trek Enterprise,
08:25Here, 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 by the Terran
08:37Empire, leading to some fairly big headaches for the Tholian assembly. The two-parter In a Mirror
08:42Darkly is one of the best stories in Enterprise, coming right at the end of its final season.
08:46It ties a nice bow on the story of the Defiant, though it would be mentioned again in Star Trek
08:51Discovery.
08:51It also goes away to explaining how the Terran Empire remained as strong as it was for so long,
08:57with the infusion of future technology. 2. The City on the Edge of Forever
09:02The Guardian of Forever was introduced at the end of the original series' first season in the episode,
09:07The City on the Edge of Forever. It would return in the animated series episode,
09:11Yesteryear. In both cases, it is a stable method of temporal travel, though it clearly has a mind of
09:16its own. Altering the timeline is referred to as one of the greatest headaches for Starfleet,
09:20or simply Tuesday for James T. Kirk. However, this entry is less about Kirk, as ironically,
09:26it is he who ensures the stability of the timeline after his encounter with the device. Rather,
09:32it is Starfleet themselves and others who engaged in the temporal Cold War who had come to abuse the
09:38artifact. Star Trek Discovery's third season two-parter Terra Firma sees the return of the
09:44Guardian to the franchise. This time, it appears initially in a different form. Carl, as it likes to
09:49be called, is presented as a man who speaks somewhat in riddles, holding a copy of the Star Dispatch
09:54prophesizing Georgiou's death. This leads to the jaw-dropping reveal of the Guardian, realized in
10:0121st-century graphics, rendered beautifully for the modern day. 1. The Cage
10:07Quite frankly, of all entries on this list, The Cage is the one that began paying off from the
10:12moment it was created. However, as it was not officially aired until 20 years after its filming,
10:18not many people actually knew that. The introduction of Star Trek, The Enterprise and of course Mr.
10:23Spock cannot be overstated. All of the ingredients for what Star Trek would become are present in
10:28this 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.
10:44The character would return again, played this time by Anson Mount,
10:47for Star Trek Discovery's second season. The episode If Memory Serves features a convention-breaking
10:53moment, opening with clips from the original pilot showing both Geoffrey Hunter and Anson Mount,
10:58one after the other. The episode also sees the return of Veena, played in archive footage by Susan
11:04Oliver and new footage by Melissa George. The success of Mount's take on the character has directly led
11:09to a new series of Star Trek, this time called Strange New Worlds. Sixty years later, The Cage is
11:16continuing to deliver on its promise of a brighter future, helping to greenlight more and more content
11:22for the modern audience. That is everything for this list, and I can already tell that there is
11:27so much potential for more lists like this. So if that is something you would like to see,
11:32let us know in the comments below. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember that you can
11:36get in touch with us over on Twitter at TrekCulture. You can catch myself at Sean Ferrick. You can also
11:40tune in to my podcast at You're on Crackmate, which you can find on Spotify. Until I see you again,
11:46you look after yourselves, you look after your friends and family, you live long and prosper.
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