The Best Episodes of Star Trek Season 1
Every episode of Star Trek Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Star Trek Season 1!
Space. The Final Frontier. The U.S.S. Enterprise embarks on a five year mission to explore the galaxy. The Enterprise is under the command of Captain James T. Kirk with First Officer Mr. Spock, from the planet Vulcan. With a determined crew, the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes, tribbles and genetic supermen led by Khan Noonian Singh. Their mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.
Season 1 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Star Trek" season 1 is "The Man Trap", rated 7.2/10 from 6125 user votes. It was directed by Marc Daniels and written by George Clayton Johnson. "The Man Trap" aired on 9/8/1966 and is rated 0.2 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "Charlie X".
7.2/10 6,125 votes#1 - The Man Trap
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/8/1966
Kirk and his crew are at deadly risk from an alien creature that feeds on the salt in a human body and can take on any form.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
7.0/10 5,709 votes#2 - Charlie X
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/15/1966
Charlie Evans, the sole survivor of a transport crash, is transferred to the Enterprise from a different ship. Why are they so eager to rid themselves of him, though? There's more to Charlie than meets the eye...
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
Writer: Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana
7.7/10 6,649 votes#3 - Where No Man Has Gone Before
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/22/1966
While exploring the edge of the galaxy, the Enterprise encounters an energy barrier that gives some crewmen strange powers.
Director: James Goldstone
Writer: Samuel A. Peeples
7.8/10 5,396 votes#4 - The Naked Time
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 9/29/1966
A strange alien substance causes the crew to lose their inhibitions.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: John D. F. Black
7.6/10 5,108 votes#5 - The Enemy Within
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/6/1966
A transporter malfunction causes Captain Kirk to split into his "good" and "evil" selves, and a landing party will freeze to death if they don't merge the two back together.
Director: Leo Penn
Writer: Richard Matheson
6.7/10 4,976 votes#6 - Mudd's Women
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/13/1966
The Enterprise picks up a intergalactic conman, Harry Mudd, and three incredibly beautiful women who harbor a dark secret.
Director: Harvey Hart
Writer: Gene Roddenberry, Stephen Kandel
7.5/10 4,809 votes#7 - What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/20/1966
Nurse Christine Chapel is reunited with her old fiance on Exo III, but the scientist has plans for Captain Kirk and the Federation.
Director: James Goldstone
Writer: Robert Bloch
6.9/10 4,645 votes#8 - Miri
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 10/27/1966
Kirk and a landing party are stranded on a planet due to a disease that causes any adult to die a painful death, and must deal with the local children who have survived.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: Adrian Spies
7.4/10 4,516 votes#9 - Dagger of the Mind
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/3/1966
Kirk investigates an experimental facility for holding prisoners and finds a sinister scheme.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: Shimon Wincelberg
8.0/10 5,073 votes#10 - The Corbomite Maneuver
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/10/1966
The Enterprise encounters a vast alien ship that threatens the Enterprise with destruction.
Director: Joseph Sargent
Writer: Jerry Sohl
8.2/10 5,043 votes#11 - The Menagerie (1)
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 11/17/1966
Spock kidnaps his former captain, the crippled Christopher Pike, and heads for a quarantined planet, putting his career and Kirk's life on the line.
Director: Marc Daniels, Robert Butler
Writer: Gene Roddenberry
8.1/10 4,832 votes#12 - The Menagerie (2)
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 11/24/1966
Spock's court-martial continues as he attempts to justify his abduction of Pike, the theft of the Enterprise, and his heading for a planet declared forbidden by Starfleet.
Director: Marc Daniels, Robert Butler
Writer: Gene Roddenberry
7.1/10 4,381 votes#13 - The Conscience of the King
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/8/1966
Kirk is one of the last survivors who can identify a mass killer, who lurks among a Shakespearean troupe aboard the Enterprise.
Director: Gerd Oswald
Writer: Barry Trivers
8.8/10 5,900 votes#14 - Balance of Terror
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/15/1966
Kirk pits the Enterprise against an invisible spaceship testing the Federation's defenses.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: Paul Schneider
7.4/10 4,598 votes#15 - Shore Leave
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 12/29/1966
The Enterprise crew take shore leave on a peaceful, pastoral planet... where their dreams and fantasies come to life.
Director: Robert Sparr
Writer: Theodore Sturgeon
7.6/10 4,411 votes#16 - The Galileo Seven
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/5/1967
Spock commands a stranded away team when their shuttlecraft is stranded on a planet with hostile natives.
Director: Robert Gist
Writer: Shimon Wincelberg, Oliver Crawford
7.2/10 4,313 votes#17 - The Squire of Gothos
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/12/1967
The Enterprise finds itself at the mercy of a seemingly omnipotent being who fancies himself an 18th century Englishman.
Director: Donnie McDougall
Writer: Paul Schneider
7.9/10 4,679 votes#18 - Arena
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/19/1967
When a mysterious alien race destroy an Earth colony, the Enterprise pursues, but Kirk and the alien captain are forced to fight each other by powerful aliens.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Fredric Brown, Gene L. Coon
7.9/10 4,466 votes#19 - Tomorrow Is Yesterday
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 1/26/1967
In a freak accident the Enterprise is sent back to 20th century Earth, and must find their way back without changing history.
Director: Michael O'Herlihy
Writer: D.C. Fontana
7.4/10 4,125 votes#20 - Court Martial
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/2/1967
Captain Kirk's career is at stake when he is put on trial for the loss of a crewman during an ion storm.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Don Mankiewicz, Steven W. Carabatsos
7.1/10 4,013 votes#21 - The Return of the Archons
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/9/1967
The Enterprise encounters a seemingly peaceful civilization run by a "benevolent" being named Landru... who intends for them to join his people.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Gene Roddenberry, Boris Sobelman
8.7/10 5,592 votes#22 - Space Seed
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/16/1967
The Enterprise picks up a crew of genetic supermen from the 20th century... and their leader, Khan, plans to create a new empire.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Gene L. Coon, Carey Wilber
8.0/10 4,337 votes#23 - A Taste of Armageddon
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 2/23/1967
The Enterprise arrives at a planet to establish diplomatic relations and finds itself in the middle of a "peaceful" war that threatens to destroy the ship.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Robert Hamner, Gene L. Coon
7.8/10 4,209 votes#24 - This Side of Paradise
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 3/2/1967
The Enterprise crew try to rescue colonists from deadly radiation, but instead encounter strange alien spores that seem to offer paradise.
Director: Ralph Senensky
Writer: Jerry Sohl, D.C. Fontana
8.3/10 4,465 votes#25 - The Devil in the Dark
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/9/1967
Kirk investigates a series of grisly murders on a mining planet that are the work of a seemingly hostile alien creature.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Gene L. Coon