## [t3_ppet4b](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/ppet4b/which_tos_episodes_are_of_lasting_value_apart/)
The other night, I caught "Operation -- Annihilate!" on H&I's nightly run through all the Star Trek shows. I enjoyed it from a lot of different perspectives. It introduces Kirk's brother and, more broadly, the idea that he has a family apart from the ship. It famously gives us Spock's "inner eyelid" that saves him from blindness. And it is the first episode to have an extended outdoor shot, not a stage set -- which was actually pretty jarring, given the different lighting, etc. There were also a lot of interesting one-liners that I could recognize as the source of later episodes and tie-in novels. In short, exploring this corner of the Star Trek canon was a nice way to unwind after a long day at work.

But looking at the episode from a more objective perspective, I found it harder to enjoy. Why introduce Kirk's brother and kill him off is Kirk is hardly going to react at all? Why try to set up a moral dilemma where Kirk may have to kill "millions" to stop the spread of the virus when -- probably due to budget constraints -- the entire settlement was portrayed as being mostly empty? Doesn't Spock's internal eyelid feel a little cheap as a solution? And doesn't it break his character that he wouldn't think of or mention that possibility until it actually happens? What motivation could he have other than to rib McCoy? And aside from quibbles with the logic of the plot, the pacing dragged -- as often happens in TOS episodes. You can really see them struggling to fill the whole runtime. 

In short, there's probably not much enduring value in "Operation -- Annihilate!" for someone not already invested in the idea of Star Trek. Only the fact that it is part of that bigger project makes it worthwhile to dig this baggy and kind of phoned-in sci fi story out of the archives. What it lacks in itself, the rich web of associations created by the franchise makes up for. And I would venture to say that "Operation -- Annihilate!" is close to the median TOS episode. If you were to pick episodes at random, that's the level of quality you're mostly getting. 

This leads me to the title question: How many episodes of TOS would you feel comfortable recommending to someone who doesn't care about Star Trek and never will? I'm not asking for good introductory episodes for beginners here. I'm asking for episodes that hold up as standalone works of fiction -- episodes where the plot, characters, concepts, and moral dilemmas are still thought-provoking and enjoyable. Which episodes would be worth digging through the archive for if the Star Trek franchise had petered out in the early 70s, never to be heard from again? 

Please show your work -- don't just give a title. What makes your chosen episode an enduring work that transcends "Star Trek"?

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submitted to [r/Daystrom Research Institute | Star Trek Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daystrom Research Institute | Star Trek Discussion) by [u/adamkotsko](https://www.reddit.com/user/adamkotsko)