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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 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.

Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDrama
Network:NBC

Season 3 Ratings Summary

The best episode of "Star Trek" season 3 is "Spock's Brain", rated 5.6/10 from 3737 user votes. It was directed by Marc Daniels and written by Gene L. Coon. "Spock's Brain" aired on 9/20/1968 and is rated 2.8 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Enterprise Incident".

  • Spock's Brain
    5.6/10 3,737 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

  • The Enterprise Incident
    8.4/10 4,038 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

  • The Paradise Syndrome
    6.7/10 3,402 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

  • And the Children Shall Lead
    5.2/10 3,526 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

  • Is There in Truth No Beauty?
    6.9/10 3,325 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

  • Spectre of the Gun
    7.2/10 3,503 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: Leroy Cronin, Gene L. Coon

  • Day of the Dove
    7.7/10 3,488 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

  • For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
    7.1/10 3,227 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

  • The Tholian Web
    8.0/10 3,545 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: Chet Richards, Judy Burns

  • Plato's Stepchildren
    6.5/10 3,405 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

  • Wink of an Eye
    7.3/10 3,273 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: Arthur Heinemann, Gene L. Coon

  • The Empath
    6.5/10 3,279 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

  • Elaan of Troyius
    7.0/10 3,279 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

  • Whom Gods Destroy
    6.9/10 3,201 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

  • Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
    7.1/10 3,371 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, Leroy Cronin, Gene L. Coon

  • The Mark of Gideon
    6.5/10 3,124 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: Stanley Adams, George F. Slavin

  • That Which Survives
    6.5/10 3,055 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: John Meredyth Lucas, D.C. Fontana

  • The Lights of Zetar
    6.2/10 3,003 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

  • Requiem for Methuselah
    7.3/10 3,358 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

  • The Way to Eden
    5.4/10 3,525 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: Arthur Heinemann, D.C. Fontana

  • The Cloud Minders
    7.0/10 3,138 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

  • The Savage Curtain
    6.6/10 3,182 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: Arthur Heinemann, Gene Roddenberry

  • All Our Yesterdays
    8.1/10 3,514 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

  • Turnabout Intruder
    6.8/10 3,106 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