5.6/103,770 votes#1 - Spock's Brain
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1968
An alien female beams aboard the ship and, after incapacitating the rest of the crew, surgically removes Spock's brain. Kirk and the crew have just hours to locate and replace it before Spock's body dies.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Gene L. Coon
8.4/104,071 votes#2 - The Enterprise Incident
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1968
The crew of the Enterprise are on a secret mission to steal a Romulan cloaking device.
Director: John Meredyth Lucas
Writer: D.C. Fontana
6.7/103,436 votes#3 - The Paradise Syndrome
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1968
An alien device on a primitive planet erases Captain Kirk's memory, and he begins a new life with the planet's indigenous people.
Director: Jud Taylor
Writer: Margaret Armen
5.2/103,552 votes#4 - And the Children Shall Lead
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1968
On a distant planet, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find a scientific team dead, and their children who, unknown to the crew, have great powers at their disposal.
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
Writer: Edward J. Lakso
6.9/103,348 votes#5 - Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1968
The Enterprise travels with an alien ambassador whose appearance induces madness.
Director: Ralph Senensky
Writer: Jean Lisette Aroeste
7.2/103,534 votes#6 - Spectre of the Gun
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1968
Having been found trespassers into Melkotian space, Captain Kirk and his companions are sent to die in a re-enactment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: Gene L. Coon, Leroy Cronin
7.7/103,519 votes#7 - Day of the Dove
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1968
An alien force drives the crew of the Enterprise into brutal conflict with the Klingons.
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
Writer: Jerome Bixby
7.1/103,264 votes#8 - For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1968
The crew of the Enterprise rush to stop an asteroid from colliding with a Federation world, but discover the asteroid is actually an inhabited generation ship.
Director: Anton Leader
Writer: Rik Vollaerts
8.0/103,577 votes#9 - The Tholian Web
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 11/15/1968
Captain Kirk is caught between dimensions while the crew of the Enterprise works to retrieve him. All the while, the Tholians demand that the Enterprise leave their space.
Director: Ralph Senensky, Herb Wallerstein
Writer: Judy Burns, Chet Richards
6.5/103,437 votes#10 - Plato's Stepchildren
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 11/22/1968
The crew of the Enterprise encounters an ageless and sadistic race of humanoids with the power of telekinesis and who claim to have organized their society around Ancient Greek ideals.
Director: David Alexander
Writer: Meyer Dolinsky
7.3/103,305 votes#11 - Wink of an Eye
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 11/29/1968
Invisible "time-accelerated" aliens take over the Enterprise and attempt to abduct the crew for use as "genetic stock".
Director: Jud Taylor
Writer: Gene L. Coon, Arthur Heinemann
6.5/103,314 votes#12 - The Empath
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 12/6/1968
While visiting a doomed planet, the landing party is subject to torturous experiments by powerful aliens.
Director: John Erman
Writer: Joyce Muskat
7.0/103,313 votes#13 - Elaan of Troyius
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 12/20/1968
The USS Enterprise ferries a spoiled princess whose betrothal to a royal Troyian is hoped will bring peace to a star system at war.
Director: John Meredyth Lucas
Writer: John Meredyth Lucas
6.9/103,236 votes#14 - Whom Gods Destroy
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 1/3/1969
Captain Kirk faces off with a demented shape-shifting starship captain determined to control the universe.
Director: Herb Wallerstein
Writer: Jerry Sohl, Lee Erwin
7.1/103,406 votes#15 - Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 1/10/1969
The Enterprise encounters two duo-chromatic and mutually belligerent aliens who put the ship in the middle of their old conflict.
Director: Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor
Writer: Oliver Crawford, Gene L. Coon, Leroy Cronin
6.5/103,153 votes#16 - The Mark of Gideon
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 1/17/1969
A race of overpopulated aliens abduct Captain Kirk to solve their problem.
Director: Jud Taylor
Writer: George F. Slavin, Stanley Adams
6.5/103,086 votes#17 - That Which Survives
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 1/24/1969
Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu are stranded on a barren planet where a mysterious woman attempts to kill them one at a time, while the Enterprise must travel halfway across the galaxy to rescue them.
Director: Herb Wallerstein
Writer: D.C. Fontana, John Meredyth Lucas
6.2/103,035 votes#18 - The Lights of Zetar
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 1/31/1969
Strange incorporeal aliens threaten the Memory Alpha station and the Enterprise.
Director: Herbert Kenwith
Writer: Shari Lewis, Jeremy Tarcher
7.3/103,397 votes#19 - Requiem for Methuselah
Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 2/14/1969
The crew of the Enterprise encounter an immortal human in this science fiction variation on Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Director: Murray Golden
Writer: Jerome Bixby
5.4/103,561 votes#20 - The Way to Eden
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 2/21/1969
The Enterprise picks up a group of space "hippies" looking for Eden.
Director: David Alexander
Writer: D.C. Fontana, Arthur Heinemann
7.0/103,169 votes#21 - The Cloud Minders
Season 3 Episode 21 - Aired 2/28/1969
Captain Kirk races against time to acquire plague-fighting minerals from a world in the midst of a civil uprising against a grievous social class disparity.
Director: Jud Taylor
Writer: Oliver Crawford, David Gerrold, Margaret Armen
6.6/103,209 votes#22 - The Savage Curtain
Season 3 Episode 22 - Aired 3/7/1969
Aliens force Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock to join forces with "Abraham Lincoln" and "Surak" to battle villains in a contest of good vs. evil.
Director: Herschel Daugherty
Writer: Gene Roddenberry, Arthur Heinemann
8.1/103,545 votes#23 - All Our Yesterdays
Season 3 Episode 23 - Aired 3/14/1969
Kirk, Spock and McCoy are trapped in two parts of another planet's past - a world threatened with destruction when its sun goes supernova.
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky
Writer: Jean Lisette Aroeste
6.8/103,134 votes#24 - Turnabout Intruder
Season 3 Episode 24 - Aired 6/3/1969
The Enterprise is in danger when Janice Lester, one of Kirk's former lovers, steals his body.
Director: Herb Wallerstein
Writer: Gene Roddenberry, Arthur Singer
The Best Episodes of Star Trek Season 3
Every episode of Star Trek Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Star Trek Season 3!
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...
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDrama
Network:NBC
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"Spock's Brain" is the best rated episode of "Star Trek" season 3. It scored 5.6/10 based on 3770 votes. Directed by Marc Daniels and written by Gene L. Coon, it aired on 9/20/1968. This episode is rated 2.8 points higher than the second-best, "The Enterprise Incident".