To adress the objections of...what's your NAME? ;)
-Relics: Looking at your list and mine we see a real difference right off the bat- you seem to have a much more diverse list than I. Spoiler Alert for mine- no VOY or ENT episodes crack my Top 20; those shows were far below the TOS/TNG level, and...well, I'll include some of DS9 in that ilk, DS9 seems just more of a sort of cult show than the others, which were far more often one-offs and focused on that story and churned out great individual stories, where DS9 might have three bad stories, six mediocre ones and 3 incredible stories combine for one story arc that was pretty good overall...but I'm ranking episodes and not arcs, so DS9 suffers there, if I did story arcs, DS9 would have a LOT more sway. VOY and ENT ahd great episodes, but I hnoestly don't think even their best episodees are better than Kirk's exploitations or Picards or, for the parts that truly are great, Sisko's. So- Relics. I have that one there because it's a great episode, and of course mainly for the double-act. Again, this is as close as we get to what would likely be the most monumental Trek event possible, the TOS and TNG crews crossing over in proper- really, a movie with that where Kirk doesn't just show up in the last half hour and dies a quick, cheap death would be such an enormous hit. The other reason I have it there is because I think Scotty, who of course steals the whole show, is really reaveled a lot as a character, but even more so, we really feel for him because of scenes like Geordi, justtrying to do his work and be polite in spite of Scotty constantly messing things up, finally tells Scotty to leave him alone and says, as much as he respects Scotty, "I've got work to do, and frankly...you're in the way!" Take that in- SCOTTY is being kicked out ENGINEERING. That'd be like telling Mickey Mantle he's no longer welcome in the outfield at Yankee Stadium- painful for everyone involved. He goes to the holodeck, and there's the old Enterprise, and all the memories come flooding back- but it's not real, just a fantasy, and he, like the audience, has grown old, and far away from this ship, which, in either the Trek or real universe of sets and props, is long gone, no matter how much we miss it. This is an episode for the Trekkers, so that's why it's on the lsit but jsut at #20- it's the best form of fan service, and the best of anything really deserves a nod, but it IS mostly only a fan service, so no matter how great the acting and whole chemistry of the episode is, the plot doesn't carry it any higher, and it just ekes in at 20, while episodes that are better in a story or technical way miss out a bit because there are so many it's impossible to include them all- but this stands out.
-The Offspring- Those qualities in DS9, again, I just feel they're lost as individual episodes too often because the arcs overshadow them, so even if there was an equal or better episode of this nature there, it just doesn't seem to stand out as much as this one does as an episode by itself; besides that, Data stories, when not over done, are some of the best in trek and this is easily one of the best, we get Data learning and teaching, and it's not just for laughs and fun the way he had to teach Q in "Deja Q" (though that's a good episode as well, not Top 20 by any stretch but a good one) but a real child. Watching Data is almost like watching ourselves- in "Measure of a Man" we ask what makes us human, here we ask ourselves about parenting and children and their relations.
-The same "DS9 story arc" argument for that aspect (really, if this were about story arcs and not stories DS9 would kill the others, but that's because TOS and TNG never really did that many story arcs, Roddenberry didn't like them, and I think on the whole Trek is best without too many, TNG ahd a few big ones like Q and Data growing and the Borg and that was just perfect in my view...the Dominion War was a great thread, but if that was going to be the case I almost wish they'd have jsut from Season 1 made it about that war, too many story arcs seem to tangle unless you watch and know everything in succession) and then for the "TOS-cookie-cutter" one...I don't think so. Yes, Kirk dealt with PLENTY of self-proclaimed gods, but this episode isn't really about a being that claims to be god, it's about what our attitude towards God should BE. And notice the answer- kill a god to let people be free and by themselves...it's almost like Nietzsche himself got up from the grave to write the script! ;) This episode's all about that debate, the planet IS the Garden of Eden, and, as they state at the end, interestingly enough the gallant Enterprise crew, in that context, plays the role of the Serpent, the devil from Genesis...er, not THAT Genesis, the BIBLE's Genesis. ;) The only cookie-cutter aspescts are "proclaimed god figure" and "trouble beaming up the landing party" and that applies to all of the series, so I don't hold it against them, especially when they raise such a good question about whtether it's better to live the life the natives/Adam and Eve would have led, just blindly worshipping a god and being young and happy, or to break that god's rules and learn for yourself to grow, even if it means a loss of paradise.
-Plato's Stepchildren: Now here I REALLY disagree. The plot's cookie cutter, that I won't argue, but many Trek plots are, so I don't hold that against this one, as the execution on it's so good. It's The Kiss that makes this episode a classic, and I would argue it's FAR more progressive than Sisko as a black captain. Look at the time difference- the relatively-tolerant 1990s vs. the 1960s...enough said there. Aside from that, we actually see a lot of black people in charge, even in TOS, so the only thing new about Sisko is he's a black captain who's a main character, and that's a step foward, but not nearly as much as letting two people of different skin tones kiss. Look at those two back to back- one makes the statement it's OK for people of different races to kiss or even love, and the other says it's OK for black people to be a star on a TV show...I know you can also say "it also says a black person can be a leader," but as TOS had some and TNG had a LOT of black leaders, including black admirals and so peole that actually would outrank the white-bred Kirk and Picard, Sisko is a step foward, but not as big a step as Kirk and Uhura kissing...especially since that kiss set new TV standards and really helped to pave the road for Sisko as a black captain in the first place.
-Let that Be Your Last Battlefield: Yeah...OK, that one IS rather cookie-cutter; I won't call it a poor episode at all, I think it's good, but maybe not Top 20...which is good, sort of, as I left one episode off my list I forgot about and now I have a space to put it, I won't take it off, but consider it an either/or, and likely chose the "or" because it's the far better episode.
-Space Seed: It's a bit high but that's because this is like Batman meeting the Joker or Superman meeting Lex Luthor for the first time, it's a pretty big event...maybe it should be lower as a stand-alone episode, maybe not at #9, but certainly it's Top 20.
-Darmok: Why is this better than "Yesterday's Enterprise," which would easily make this list if it were a Top 25, just barely bets left off for me? "Yesterday's Enterprise" is a great episode and has a great premise, but there's not too much there that you wouldn't find in another time travel story of Trek's or in an episode like "Balance of Terror." This is one of those Enterprise-in-battle stories, and it just happens to be mixed with a time travel story...which does make it better as it succeeds on both of those levels, where one might have only had this an OK or good episode, both levels working make it great...but only for what it is. This episode isn't too deep, and in all honesty, it's not too suspenseful- we KNOW the timeline will be fixed and the Federation won't lose to the Klingons, and as that's a huge concern raised in the episode, and we know the answer from the outset, the suspense aspect is lost, a suspense that "Darmok" maintains because we have no idea what that alien captain wants from Picard or what he'll do, or even what he's thinking or saying, we don't understand him any better than Picard does. What's more, bringing Tasha Yar back for this is a great move, but it also hurts the episode as well- we know Tasha...we know she's already dead, and so seems rather destined to die, so we're just waiting for her time to come, and when the Enterprise C's captain dies, we ALL know what's coming. "Let's make sure history never forgets the name...Eneterprise!" is a great line, and if this were a Top 25 this episode would make it, but here it just misses the cut. "Darmok" keeps the suspense, but what's even better and part of what drives this episode so high is the alien captain himself and how we are, becasue of him, as an audience really pulled into the story personally. As we can't understand him, and only know what Picard knows, the audience is invited to PLAY Picard the whole time through, they're trying to figure it out as much as he is, and as they only have what Picard has, can only see through Picard's eyes and the like, the audience takes Picard's role in this, and they make a certain connection in that way. The literary aspects of this episode also really drive up the ranking; again, that the Epic of Gilgamesh, written before man even invented paper and barely after he'd to invented the wheel, still holds for us, and still holds for Picard, and still holds for the alien. The affirmation of the worth and sheer importance of literature and our shared culture is huge, and what's even greater is the fact that the alien understands the Earth's Gilgamesh perfectly, and Picard can identify with the alien's Darmok; this sort of idea that we have a sort of universality about us, that the same ideas and values and actions can permeate space and time, that a story as old as that of Gilgamesh can be just as relevant to a 24th Century starship captain from France and an alien who has never even seen Earth before as the Sumerian writers and audiences over 5,000 years ago is a strong message, a truly great one, one I think is a pretty good message and a rather important one, both from a cultural standpoint and from a scholarly one (if you're investigating the natuer of literature, an episode like this is huge for those who study and teach Philosophy of Aesthetics or Theory of Literature at Yale) and so cracks the list. Finally, again, I also liked how this episode played off another classic one, "Arena," notorious for that chhezy Kirk/Gorn fight in a similar situation, and Worf even suggests taht happen here; Picard instead shows his way of doing things, so where Kirk relies on his wits and instinct to survive the strong (if terribly ostumed) Gorn, Picard talks and reasons things out with his alien champion, and so we get a great Kirk/Picard comparison out of this episode, not one that favors either captain, but just shows why both are the icons they are.
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