Star Trek: Every Two-Parter Ranked From WORST To BEST

10. The Menagerie, Part I, The Menagerie Part II

Star Trek's very first two-parter could have just been Star Trek's very first clip show — of a pilot nobody had seen at the time. Instead, its framing device was largely clever enough to be captivating from the get-go, even if you have seen The Cage in the interim.

As The Menagerie, Part I begins, the Enterprise has been called to Starbase 11, only to find that the messenger could never have sent the message. The teaser ends with a shock revelation. Spock is about to commit treason and mutiny, and it all has something to do with his former captain, Christopher Pike.

Spock's plan is partly interrupted by his court-martial, or so it would seem. The Menagerie's solution to its fourth wall break is that it was all a Talosian transmission. "Lock him up" (and the death penalty) was then Star Trek's original cliffhanger — "To Be Concluded Next Week". Fortunately, the court-martial itself was all an illusion too, affording Captain Pike the same measure of salvation.