Damon Lindelof reveals favourite Star Trek episodes

Lost producer Damon Lindelof has revealed his favourite episodes from the original series of Star Trek.

The producer revealed his three top episodes of Star Trek in a new interview with SFX magazine as part of their ‘cheeky’ bid for clues about J.J Abrams forthcoming movie sequel. So which three episodes did Lindelof list as his favourite?

“City On The Edge Of Forever’ is up there. Probably ‘Mirror, Mirror’ is my favourite episode of the original series. And I like ‘The Menagerie’, the two-parter, where they kind of repurpose the original pilot.” – Damon Lindelof in SFX

City on the Edge of Forever is perhaps one of the more famous episodes of the original series. It was written by Harlan Ellison and was one of several episodes to deal with time travel. In the episode Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) are transported to 1930s New York. There Doctor McCoy accidentally alters history by saving a woman’s life. Kirk and Spock have to put history back on the right course but the Captain falls in love with Sister Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), the woman who was meant to die.

Mirror, Mirror is another famous episode of the original series as it dealt with the “alternate” universe plotline. Kirk ends up in a parallel universe; a more brutal universe than he is used to. Mirror, Mirror would be revisited in subsequent spin-offs Deep Space Nine (which had something of a mini-arc with the mirror universe) and prequel series Enterprise.

The Menagerie was the only two-part story of the original series and was basically a reworking of Star Trek’s original pilot The Cage – which was replaced by Where No Man Has Gone Before. The two-part story was conceived to ease production problems facing the original series with footage from the scrapped pilot incorporated into The Menagerie by way of back-story of the Enterprise. The episode won a Hugo Award for Best Drama Production – as did City on the Edge of Forever.

You can read the full interview with Damon Lindelof in the latest episode of SFX Magazine which is on sale NOW.