10 Best Star Trek The Original Series Episodes

9. Amok Time

Star Trek Amok Time 1
Paramount

Amok Time is all about Spock, and with Leonard Nimoy's character being the franchise's best, that means it'll be in everyone's good books.

Released during the show's second season, Amok Time focuses on the Enterprise's First Officer as he experiences the call of 'pon farr', a Vulcan condition that occurs during their adult life. The catch? If Spock doesn't finish the tradition and marry a chosen suitor, then he'll die. Life or death stuff, then, for a crew member supposedly unperturbed by emotional duress.

Like the aforementioned Enemy Within, Amok Time features an iconic Star Trek scene in which Kirk and Spock battle to the death to the tune of Gerald Fried's now iconic '2nd Kroykah' composition. Like that episode though, Amok Time is a lot more than just that; it's a story all about Kirk and Spock's friendship, with the former disobeying Starfleet orders in order to save his friend and ally from certain death.

Those classic, more bombastic elements of Trek are there for all to see in this episode, but - as was more often the case with these episodes - the character-driven aspects of the show are what stand out the most. Nimoy and Shatner play off each other brilliantly, and DeForest Kelley's Bones is a fantastic presence as always.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.