10 Best Entry Points For Star Trek Newcomers

As long time readers of TrekCulture will know, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is this writer's favourite iteration of the franchise. How then to pick an entry point to the show if I'm not going to simply start with Emissary? Although it is easily one of the best pilot episodes of Star Trek, it is not necessarily the only place to begin. Duet ranks as one of the finest episodes of the franchise as a whole, which is a rare thing to say about a first-season episode of anything.

Harris Yulin's performance as Amin Maritza is outstanding which, when paired against a rarely-better Nana Visitor as Major Kira, offers a dark, poignant look at collective guilt. Though it can be a heavy place to start a viewing of the franchise, it offers a distillation of what Star Trek has been time and again. It shows the true face of evil, warts and all, letting the viewer decide what's the right or wrong thing to do.

To discuss the ending would be to spoil part of the plot, though suffice it to say that Duet offers no easy answers to its dilemma, instead inviting the viewer to react in real time to a discussion of war crimes, trauma, and the pain of survival. It's less final frontier and more looking in a mirror at the world today - it's Star Trek.