Is there a list of important/key episodes – but not just the good episodes? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world to c/startrek@startrek.website

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There are many lists with recommended/must-watch episodes. But they usually just include episodes that are considered good or great.

Is there also a list with episodes that are important but not necessarily good? By important I mean episodes that introduce new concepts or new characters (or kill off important characters), or that have lasting repercussions in the overall story of the series or Star Trek as a whole, or are necessary to watch first for a pay-off way later.

For example, TNG's "Skin of Evil" shows the death of a main character but it's hardly a good episode. The same goes for DS9's "Life Support". I wouldn't exactly call ENT's "Storm Front" good either but it's important to cap off the temporal cold war. TNG's "Ménage à Troi" shows Wesley being promoted to Ensign but the rest of the episode is rather mid (except for the Picard meme) so that it wouldn't ever appear on any must-watch list. etc.

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[-] MurrayL@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

When I was going through TNG and DS9 for the first time with my wife, I built our watchlist based on a combination of Kethinov’s and Jammer’s reviews.

Kethinov is particularly of interest here because he gives a ‘filler rating’ for each DS9 episode, separate from its overall rating, which tells you if it’s important to the longer-term story.

[-] UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I've also frequented Jammer's Reviews for years because most of the time I agree with him. I also used it for the watchlist for my GF but building that list purely on good episodes gave me the idea to ask what the important episodes actually were.

I didn't know about Kethinov. Thanks for that.

this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026

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