Star Trek: 10 Story Arcs You Can Binge In A Day
Star Trek is a rich tapestry, but some threads are meant to be pulled.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Star Trek Universe was considered (by some, not us) to be too dense; impenetrable to casual viewers due of the decades of continuity and storylines one would theoretically have to catch up on in order to enjoy an episode of Deep Space Nine or Voyager. Up until Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, the producers of Trek actually made a concerted effort to avoid ongoing story arcs in favor of easily accessible, standalone stories.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's later seasons the writers attempted to push this restriction and there was the occasional stretch of serialized episodes. Star Trek: Enterprise even slowly embraced continuing storylines, experimenting with an entire serialized season. Still, Star Trek's writers generally chose to pepper their seasons with standalone episodes that were loosely connected, but still served to create an ongoing arc.
With over 50 years of episodes and movies to draw from, there are now numerous arcs and running storylines throughout the Star Trek franchise that can be pulled out and enjoyed as single, bingeable marathons. Here are ten examples of Star Trek story arcs you can binge in a day.
10. Captain Pike And The Talosians
The Episodes:
TOS: "The Cage"
Discovery: "If Memory Serves" and "Through the Valley of Shadows"
TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II"
The Background:
This arc dates back to the very first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage", and the very first two-parter, "The Menagerie". Together these three Original Series episodes create a single storyline, however last year Star Trek: Discovery added two additional episodes to the arc that deepen the story and broaden its scope. "If Memory Serves" is an outright sequel to "The Cage" and prequel to "The Menagerie", featuring the return of the classic Talosians and their human captive Vina. "Through the Valley of Shadows" foreshadows "The Menagerie", providing Pike with a glimpse of his future (as seen in that TOS episode) and building his character and status as Trek's most tragic hero.