What is the single best episode of any TV series that you have ever seen?

[Gatekeeper]

There are two Star Trek — Deep Space Nine episodes that I really liked:

1. "Sacrifice of Angels"
2. "In the Pale Moonlight"

No. 1 was really memorable mainly due to the awesome space battle action, something rarely seen with any magnitude on ST. But this episode had everything! Fleets of ships, fighters, and a desperate objective to keep Dominion reinforcements from arriving from the Gamma Quadrant via the Bajoran Wormhole. And, at the last moment, when all seemed lost, the Klingons arrived en masse and gave the Federation fleet a much-needed boost! Then there was Ziyal's tragic death ... Dukat's misery (which I think is what sent him spiraling into insanity) and Weyoun's "I guess we'll be leaving now," comment in regards to the Dominion retreating from DS9.

No. 2 was hard-hitting because it showed that even the most civilized people — in this case, an individual known as Capt. Benjamin Sisko — are capable of overlooking a deadly transgression (in this case, the assassination of a Romulan senator by Garak) if it means, in the long run, it benefits the greater whole. And it did, for the Romulans joined the war against the Dominion, falsely believing the Founders had targeted Romulus and Remus for conquering. Yes, Sisko's decision to cover up for Garak *did* help the Federation and Klingons, but at what cost? His integrity, that's what.

All-around, DS9 was one helluva rockin' ST series!

Gatekeeper

[monolith94]

Futurama can be surprisingly tragic at times. Yes, there was the dog, but there was also the time were he spelled out a message in the stars for Leela, as well as the time were he was forced to exterminate his lover robot. Now, I've been thinking - was that the moral choice? That robot was an algorithim of Lucy Liu's screen characters - not Lucy Liu herself... So I didn't buy that Liu needed to keep her image intact. Also, I thought it was interesting how the robot had stopped saying "Fry" in that robotic voice... I was almost convinced that it was developing ideas and such of its own...

I'll just bring up some dr. who episodes...

The Caves of Androzani
The one where they get trapped in the time circulating human zoo...

Oh hell, they're all good. Even the later ones!

[St Leo]

Yes, there was the dog,

Jurassic Bark is a timeless classic.

but there was also the time were he spelled out a message in the stars for Leela,

Time Keeps on Slipping was a bit spoiled for me by the whole Globetrotter silliness. I guess I just don't know sports.

as well as the time were he was forced to exterminate his lover robot.

I Dated a Robot is certainly not one of my favourites. Parasites Lost and last Sunday's The Sting are much better character-building episodes.

Tale of Two Santas, Where the Buggalo Roam, and A Head in the Polls do drama a lot better. Finally, Roswell that Ends Well, A Pharaoh to Remember, and Anthology of Interest I/II are much sillier.

[St Leo]

Yes, there was the dog,

Jurassic Bark is a timeless classic.

but there was also the time were he spelled out a message in the stars for Leela,

Time Keeps on Slipping was a bit spoiled for me by the whole Globetrotter silliness. I guess I just don't know sports.

as well as the time were he was forced to exterminate his lover robot.

I Dated a Robot is certainly not one of my favourites. Parasites Lost and last Sunday's The Sting are much better character-building episodes.

Tale of Two Santas, Where the Buggalo Roam, and A Head in the Polls do drama a lot better. Finally, Roswell that Ends Well, A Pharaoh to Remember, and Anthology of Interest I/II are much sillier.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
He never made it home?

Oh, er, sorry.

The last episode must have been the weirdest moment in that Sam Beckett's life. He leaps into a bar in a coal mining town. He soon figures out that the moment he leapt was the moment he was born. The barman's name is Al and he seems to know everything (Sam is mostly convinced he's God by the end of it). There's a Ziggy and a Gushi (both scientists on the QL project), Sam looks into the mirror and sees.... himself. Numerous characters from previous episodes are there, just with different names. They all have similarities to those characters though.

Sam helps out when some miners are trapped, and is aided by a crippled miner named Shtopa (sp?). When they are rescued (this is what chillls me the most), Shtopa leaps. Sam kinda freaks out a bit. Eventually Sam talks with barman Al and finds out his mission - to save Al's (Sam's friend Al's) marriage. He leaps and does so. He leaps again, and there is a fade to black. Two captions come up on screen.

The first describes how AL's wife never remarried and they lived happily together. The second is simply:

Sam Beckett never returned home.

I'll just bring up some dr. who episodes...

The Caves of Androzani
The one where they get trapped in the time circulating human zoo...

You mean The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

Earthshock ep 4 was a real... shock. Adric's death - there hadn't been a companion death in the series for 17 years. No end music for the one time in the whole 26 years of the series.

My fave would have to be The Space Museum ep 1 (can't remember the episode title). Before the story went to crap, they actually had some weird stuff about "jumping a time track", and seeing what could well have been their fate to end up as museum exhibits. Not leaving footprints, blacking out every now and again.... freaky.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
He leaps again, and there is a fade to black. Two captions come up on screen.

The first describes how AL's wife never remarried and they lived happily together. The second is simply:

Sam Beckett never returned home.

/me wipes a tear away.

Classic television, though.

[Static Universe]

Probably dating myself here:

First favorite:

The episode of Hill Street Blues where Hill and Renko get gunned down on the stairway. I remember watching this as a kid and being absolutely stunned by it. Never before had I seen recurring characters on a cop show undergo that kind of violence.

Originally they were both supposed to die, but the public response was so overwhelming that it was decided to let the characters live.

It changed cop shows forever.


Second favorite:

The episode of Magnum PI where Magnum is somehow lost at sea and flashes back through his childhood while he waits to drown. People forget just how good this show got at times.


Third favorite:

Red Dwarf, the "White Hole" episode - Must-See-Stoned TV

[TheStinger]

The red dwarf episode where Rimmer has to save the day i think it is the last epsiode of episode 5.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Static Universe
Red Dwarf, the "White Hole" episode - Must-See-Stoned TV

So what is it?

I've never seen that episode before - no-one has - but I'm guessing it's a ....



Stinger: If you're thinking of the one where Rimmer hs to blow up the time machine then it's the last episode of series 6.

[TheStinger]

Yep thats the one.

Most Red Dwarf epsiodes are classics.

Despair squid was fantastic.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Static Universe
Probably dating myself here:

First favorite The episode of Hill Street Blues...
Second favorite: The episode of Magnum PI...

I know what you mean. I just know that there are at least half a dozen Cheers and St-Elsewhere episode that should come to mind but i don't have that good a memory.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Richelieu


I know what you mean. I just know that there are at least half a dozen Cheers and St-Elsewhere episode that should come to mind but i don't have that good a memory.

Favorite Cheers: The one where Norm gets the job firing people because he's so nice about it

Favorite St. Elsewhere: The two-hour one that tells the whole history of the hospital in flashbacks

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I like the Nightstalker series.

For Star Trek: TNG, the best one is with the aliens that speak in cliches. Such-and-such when the city wall falls down.

Kolchak the night stalker? That's a classic show.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Most of the ones that sprang to mind when I saw this thread were already taken...

"Cylde Bruckman" and "Jose Chung" from the X-Files, the first "24" finale (just absolutely heart-breaking), "The Contest", the Newhart finale.

I'd also mention "Humbug" from the X-Files, a second season episode where they investigate murders at a freakshow. Hilarious.

But a few more that always haunt me when I think of them, all from Homicide: Life on the Street--

--the interrogation of the araber by Bayliss and Pembelton
--the execution of Luther Mahoney by Detective Kellerman
--the squadroom shootout that resulted from that execution
--the finale, where Bayliss leaves the force, and the next scene finds a suspected murderer dead, with no clues or evidence in sight, leading a detective to say, "Whoever did this knew what they were doing..."

That was one of the best series in years. Unfortunately I only caught on to it in the last season. I remember one where the fat cop is actively flashing back to Vietnam and the current murder scene at the opening of the show. I couldn't believe it was television.

[Daz]

Monthy Phytons FC: Spanish Inquisition episode

Seinfeld: that episode which actually starts from the end... you know what I mean....found it: The Betrayal.

[Tolls]

MrWhereItsAt:
"You mean The Greatest Show in the Galaxy."

Not...The Gods Of Rrrrrrrragnarrrrrrrok?


...I'm guessing you weren't being serious, though...surely he's talking about Carnival?

I've been trying to think of a best Dr Who episode. I think I'd go for a regen episode. The Hartnell/Troughton changeover is missing, so that would be cheating a bit...

The last episode of The Wargames, or first episode of Spearhead would be my choice, closely followed by Caves 4.

Have to agree with you on Quantum Leap. That was a great episode.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Everyone that I've talked to about it has hated it and the plot of the episode was slightly incoherent, but it bears mentioning since it was the first thing to come to my mind when I saw the title: Hollywood A.D., X-Files seventh season. I loved it. Simply loved it. There's not much else I can say about it. The "movie" had me laughing several times, it was excellent parody. The plot itself was suitably weird and freaky for X-files, although it was nothing truly special. But the ending... that was the most beautiful part. After a zombie saying "We don't wanna go back to being dead -- no food, no women, no dancing" in the beginning of the episode, after the Lazarus Bowl and its connection to music being explained, after Mulder saying that the dead just want to dance and eat and make love again... that ending... just... *ari gets good vibes from writing this*

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Sikander


Kolchak the night stalker? That's a classic show.

I have the Original, made for TV movie on Video.

Classic!



ACK!

[Tuberski]

I have one other memorable episode:

The Fantasy Island where Mr. Rourke has to fight wtih Satan over a young woman.

Very classic!

ACK!

[monolith94]

Ari - you are not alone! I love that episode too...

[Grandpa Troll]

I love and respect my Dad more than any man I know. In the 1970's I was a bad person and very much a dissapointment to many family members.

My Favorite Episdoe?

Taxi

Judd Hirch was waiting for Christopher Lloyd to return from meeting up with his Dad after many years having had a fallout (me too )...
Judd asked Chris.."What did you talk about?"

Christopher, stares quietly and said "I asked him, Dad, all these years, so many questions, tell me...If they call an Orange an Orange, why dont they call a Banana a Yellow?"

For me, I was expecting some gut-wrenching, soul-bareing thought exposed from the pains of the heart, which I had, but instead he made me break down and just smile, later..me and Dad would recant that episode and both laugh..just personal pleasures of a great memory!

My second favorite Episode would be Mash when Radar announced Colonel Henry Blake died in a Crash..sad..even though McLean Stevensons character had not been the impact role that Colonel Sherman Potter (Henry Morgan) ended up being.

Peace

Grandpa Troll

[JohnT]

The M*A*S*H episode was "Abyssinia Henry", Troll.

[Static Universe]

The final episode of "Blake's 7" where Blake reappears and then the whole crew gets shot down.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
The last episode of Quantum Leap is one that springs to mind. After so many stories following the format, this is one that stops me cold when I see or hear bits of it.

And that last caption has to be, after so many years, one of the saddest (scripted) moments in a TV show's history.

So is no-one going to tell us what happened to him in the end??

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by JohnT
The M*A*S*H episode was "Abyssinia Henry", Troll.

Thanks

Peace

Grandpa Troll

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh


So is no-one going to tell us what happened to him in the end??

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt


Oh, er, sorry.

The last episode must have been the weirdest moment in that Sam Beckett's life. He leaps into a bar in a coal mining town. He soon figures out that the moment he leapt was the moment he was born. The barman's name is Al and he seems to know everything (Sam is mostly convinced he's God by the end of it). There's a Ziggy and a Gushi (both scientists on the QL project), Sam looks into the mirror and sees.... himself. Numerous characters from previous episodes are there, just with different names. They all have similarities to those characters though.

Sam helps out when some miners are trapped, and is aided by a crippled miner named Shtopa (sp?). When they are rescued (this is what chillls me the most), Shtopa leaps. Sam kinda freaks out a bit. Eventually Sam talks with barman Al and finds out his mission - to save Al's (Sam's friend Al's) marriage. He leaps and does so. He leaps again, and there is a fade to black. Two captions come up on screen.

The first describes how AL's wife never remarried and they lived happily together. The second is simply:

Sam Beckett never returned home.

[Locutus]

JohnT:
Thank you for writing that great review of Once More, With Feeling

I'm a big BtVS fan (well, I'm not going to conventions or anything, but I'm not happy if I have to go a week without my Buffy ) but I totally despise musicals (and that's an understatement). So that episode was the one episode of BtVS I deliberately skipped. But your great break-down encouraged me to download it after all.

So I watched it... and then I watched it again, and again, and again I think I've seen it at least 5 times this week... (but that also might have had something to do with the fact that I was ill and didn't have anything better to do ) It was indeed a great episode -- best BtVS episode ever, possibly even the best ever episode of any TV series

Every word you said was true. And I loved the eye for detail and the little inside (and not-so-inside) jokes: Xander's sex obsession which he can only barely hide ("I'm sure they're making every effort -- Oh, yeah!", "Warm in the night when I'm right in her tight... embrace, tight embrace" ), the irony in Tara's song, Anya's bunny obsession ("There's nothing we can't face... Except for bunnies" ), the references to earlier shows ("... some kid is dreaming, and we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare", "His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe"), the singing crew members (Marti Noxon and David Fury), the new opening theme and the sung 'Grr Arrrgh' at the end, etc...

And I was pleasantly surprised by James Marsters' singing talents (it was interesting to hear him without a British accent for once ), his song Rest in Peace is my personal favourite (it helped that that's 'my' style of music). Though Amber does indeed have the best voice, I felt James was right up there; and Emma (Anya) and Tony (Giles) were quite good as well

[JohnT]

Sweet. Another convert.

Thanks! ASH and Marsters are professional singers, btw, as well as Amber Benson. I believe that Alyson Hannigan is tone-deaf, which is why you didn't hear much from her.

[monolith94]

Eh, I just downloaded it, and I thought it was above average... maybe if I had seen it on a bigger screen...

Ally McBeal had some great episodes...