10 Star Trek Episodes With The Highest Stakes

8. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country Praxis
Paramount Pictures

Though the stakes were high, thankfully this wasn't a galactic-life ender. At least, not in the short term anyway. The hostilities between the Federation and the Klingon Empire had been on a slow boil for decades by the time that Praxis exploded. Were it not for that, they could easily have erupted into open war again - spelling doom for all surrounding worlds.

When the cabal of traitors - ironically working together to derail the peace talks - did their best to assassinate anyone and everyone who might truly achieve peace, it was down to the Enterprise-A and the Excelsior to save the day. This was a mission of espionage, border violations, aerial battle, and a flagrant disregard for Khitomer's invite list. 

Kirk and Sulu overcome Chang, Spock exposes Valeris, Scotty whacks West, Uhura gets the ship across the border, Chekov discovers the crucial blood clue, and McCoy is getting too old for this sh*t - it's peak Original Series fare, with certainly quadrant-ic consequences if they fail. 

The crew's final journey was nothing if not spectacular. 

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Seán is the host and head writer/presenter for TrekCulture, as well as a writer/presenter on WhoCulture and WhatCulture Horror. He has authored two novels, dozens of short stories, and hundreds of articles for WhatCulture. He holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. As part of his work with TrekCulture, Seán has been invited to participate in collaborations with Roddenberry Entertainment, as well as contributing to several Star Trek community projects. An avid fan of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the horror genre at large, Seán's expertise has helped develop these channels to the successes they are today. As host of the Ups & Downs series on TrekCulture, Seán has become internationally recognised for his positive yet critically informed approach to reviewing every episode of modern Star Trek, ensuring he is one of the go-to voices in the Trek community. Favourite Quote to describe himself: "I'm serious about what I do, just not always about the way that I do it"