10 Stand-Alone Star Trek Episodes More Important Than You Realise
1. Meridian
Meridian is a third-season entry for Deep Space Nine and is, in a word, dull. It's not that it's particularly badly written, it simply doesn't have an interesting A-plot. The Defiant discovers a planet that shifts into another dimension for fifty years, emerging long enough to let Dax fall in love with one of the inhabitants. She chooses to go with them. It doesn't work. Not the point of this entry.
It's the episode that gives the great gift of Jeffery Combs to Star Trek. This was his first appearance, long before donning the lobes of Brunt or the snark of Weyoun. Here, he appears as Tiron, a merchant looking for a very specific holosuite program from Quark.
Combs' contribution to Star Trek is hard to truly sum up. He was one of the best villains in Weyoun, and one of the greatest love-to-hate characters in Brunt. His turn as Shran gave him a somewhat swashbuckling heroic type, whereas his portrayal of an evil AI in Lower Decks is just perfect.
He is one of the few actors to appear as many times as he has, with as many different characters as he has. The fandom waits with bated breath for his return to live-action. And to think - it was this forgettable little episode that gave us one of the greatest gifts of all.