Comfort episodes/movies

[tim0122]

Apologies if there is already an active thread for this topic. In my watch/rewatch of the franchise, I noticed I'll soon be at TNG season three's Captain's Holiday. I haven't seen this episode in forever. I don't even know if I'll still like it. But knowing I'll be watching it again, brought a smile and comfort to me during these dark times.

It made me wonder, what are your Star Trek comfort episodes/movies that you pop on when you need an escape and a figurative warm blanket to wrap up in?

One for me might be Time's Arrow. It's not an episode, but I'm also always comforted by the DS9 opening theme, which always makes me feeling I'm coming home again. I haven't lately, but I've often pulled it up on YouTube when feeling lost, scared, or in need of a pick me up.

 

[ananta]

The TOS movies are my comfort Trek.

 

[Michael]

Just going to quote myself from a thread a couple of months ago asking a very similar question …

Good question! I think this will very likely be different for everybody, but yes, I have a number “comfort” episodes, that despite having already watched them countless times, they just have a calming effect on me. I’m not sure though if it’s always necessarily really the episode themselves that have that effect or if it’s more a case of the episodes connecting me to my childhood / easier times.

Off the top of my head I would name:

“The Cage” (TOS)
“Yesteryear” (TAS)

“11001001” (TNG)
“Peak Performance” (TNG)
“A Matter of Perspective” (TNG)
“Cause and Effect” (TNG)
“The Next Phase” (TNG)
“Frame of Mind” (TNG)

“Emissary” (DS9)
“Whispers” (DS9)
“Visionary” (DS9)
“The Visitor” (DS9)
“Trials and Tribble-ations“ (DS9)
“It's Only A Paper Moon” (DS9)

“Parallax” (VOY)
“Eye of the Needle” (VOY)
“Night” (VOY)
“Rise” (VOY)

“Dead Stop” (ENT)
“The Crossing” (ENT)
“Observer Effect” (ENT)

It’s interesting, because this isn’t necessarily a list of the best episodes (although I personally think they all are wonderful episodes) and if you’d ask me for my favorite episodes, the list would be different (although there would definitely be overlaps). So it’s definitely not necessarily the quality of the episode that gives it that emotional support aspect. It has more to do with how an episode puts me in a certain mental state. Sometimes it has something to do with the mood of the episode, though. Some episodes are very calm and low-key with not much loud action happening necessarily. And what’s maybe also interesting to note is how most of these are self-contained stories that you can just pop in and know that there will be a satisfying end in 45 minues.

For an episode that I feel is very much about emotional healing and that also has that effect on the viewer I’d name TNG’s “Family”. And also “Night” and “Mortal Coil” (both from VOY).

What are some you would name, @Youcan'tsaythattoasehlat ?

 

[1001001]

Just going to quote myself from a thread a couple of months ago asking a very similar question …

Yeah, that thread is only 2 months old, and is pretty much the same.

But since the OP of that thread never came back, I’ll let this one stand instead of merging it.

This is the other one: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/emotional-support-episodes.318119/

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

The Offspring, TNG.

 

[Cyfa]

When I just want to sit down and forget about everything going on, I do tend to turn to the same handful of Trek eps and films:

The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home

ENT: "Vox Sola", "Carbon Creek", "Dead Stop", "A Night in Sickbay", and "Precious Cargo"
VOY: "Eye of the Needle"
DS9: "Destiny", "The Assignment", and "In the Cards"
TNG: "First Contact", "Disaster", "Cause and Effect", and "I, Borg"

or I just start yet another rewatch of Lower Decks

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

"I, Borg"

That one for me, too! I forgot to bring it up. Lol

 

[Michael]

When I just want to sit down and forget about everything going on, I do tend to turn to the same handful of Trek eps and films:

The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home

ENT: "Vox Sola", "Carbon Creek", "Dead Stop", "A Night in Sickbay", and "Precious Cargo"
VOY: "Eye of the Needle"
DS9: "Destiny", "The Assignment", and "In the Cards"
TNG: "First Contact", "Disaster", "Cause and Effect", and "I, Borg"

or I just start yet another rewatch of Lower Decks

Wow, quite a bit of overlap with my list! And the ones you’re mentioning that aren’t on my list are definitely ones I could see myself adding. Probably explains why I get along so well with you.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

What I said in the other thread: "The Devil in the Dark" and "Subspace Rhapsody." Maybe also "The Inner Light."

 

[Cyfa]

Wow, quite a bit of overlap with my list! And the ones you’re mentioning that aren’t on my list are definitely ones I could see myself adding. Probably explains why I get along so well with you.

~ I was thinking the same thing! I hummed and hahed about DS9 "Whispers" and "Trials and Tribble-ations" but I haven't watched them quite as many times as the others. ENT's "Observer Effect", too.

 

[Artoo Atari]

Wow, there are many for me. Off the top of my head I'd say...

TNG: "Darmok", "Cause And Effect", "Allegiance"
DS9: "Inquisition", "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", "In The Pale Moonlight", "The Ship"
ENT: "The Communicator," "The Andorian Incident"
VOY: "Blink of an Eye"
SNW: "Children of the Comet"
TOS: "Balance of Terror"

 

[1001001]

VOY: "Blink of an Eye"

That’s one of my all-time favorite Star Trek episodes.

 

[Artoo Atari]

That’s one of my all-time favorite Star Trek episodes.

Not only a great episode, but just such fantastic science fiction in general.

 

[Qonundrum]

So many to choose from!

Not in any particular order, and only from memory as if I looked up season/episode lists this would get too long:

A Taste of Armageddon
Space Seed
The Doomsday Machine
The Gamesters of Triskeleon
The Immunity Syndrome
The Enterprise Incident

And the other problems is, some of the spinoffs ran for so long that the lists just do get larger than just the three I'm thinking of gravitating to the most:

11001001
Skin of Evil
Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary Dear Data
Contagion
Q Who
Evolution (best. self-aware. story. title. ever.)
The Survivors
Booby Trap
The Best of Both Worlds pt 1
The Best of Both Worlds pt 2 (though I do put pt 2 over pt 1 for ingenuity in resolving the thing as effectively as it had)
Legacy
Ensign Ro
The Next Phase
All Good Things

Duet
Move Along Home
The Way of the Warrior
Our Man Bashir
Let he Who is Without Sin

Meld
Scoprion
Dark Frontier
Flashback (I grew to love this one)
Blink of an Eye

 

[D Man]

Pretty much all TNG for me. These ones just cheer me right up no matter what, though I’ll pick a different flavor depending on what kind of down I’m feeling.

“Yesterday’s Enterprise”
“BOBW 1”
“The Inner Light”
“Conundrum”
“Cause and Effect”

 

[Artoo Atari]

Pretty much all TNG for me. These ones just cheer me right up no matter what, though I’ll pick a different flavor depending on what kind of down I’m feeling.

“Yesterday’s Enterprise”
“BOBW 1”
“The Inner Light”
“Conundrum”
“Cause and Effect”

I forgot about "Conundrum." That's a really good one.

 

[somebuddyX]

"Latent Image" is my favourite episode of Star Trek ever precisely because of this. It's about a guy who suffered a trauma and having a mental breakdown coming to terms with himself with the help of his friends.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

It's never actually occurred to me to put a specific episode of something on to make me feel better. I don't really think it'd work well for me though as I usually lose interest and stop paying attention if I already know what's going to happen.

 

[Artoo Atari]

It's never actually occurred to me to put a specific episode of something on to make me feel better. I don't really think it'd work well for me though as I usually lose interest and stop paying attention if I already know what's going to happen.

True. But I believe that in many of us, rewatching old episodes, reading old books, playing old games, etc can spark positive nostalgic feelings that may serve as a psychological comfort.

 

[ananta]

Duet
Move Along Home
The Way of the Warrior
Our Man Bashir
Let he Who is Without Sin

Duet? Be interested to hear why it’s in your list of comfort episodes. It’s a stunning hour of television, but it’s one of the most uncomfortable episodes for me to watch.