When we last saw the crew of the Starship Enterprise — Star Trek: Strange New Worlds edition, that is — Captain Christopher Pike was caught in the heart of a particularly Star Trek-style quandary: does he follow orders and maintain the fragile peace with the Gorn, or does he rescue the kidnapped Starlet crew and settlers and risk inciting intergalactic war? The third season premiere of SNW will answer that question, but while we wait, it’s worth revisiting some of the best episodes of past Star Treks that have taken things to the brink of war — and beyond. For your consideration, fellow cadets: three of the best Star Trek at War stories.

This is For Your Consideration, in which we try to come to terms with the inescapable fact that, honestly, there’s too much out there to have time to watch, read, or hear everything — by making some suggestions about things that you might have overlooked but would enjoy, anyway. Think of it as recommendations from a well-meaning friend.

‘Balance of Terror’ shows how well Star Trek: The Original Series dealt with restrictions

Whether it was the era in which the show was being made, or simply the reality imposed by the budgetary restraints of 1960s television, the original Star Trek series shied away from delivering massive action set pieces or intergalactic warfare if at all possible. This had two big benefits: it meant that things like the Kirk/Gorn battle in ‘Arena’ so memorable when they did happen, because they were so rare, and it pushed writers, directors, and actors into extracting every bit of tension from story as they could, because there wasn’t a special effects distraction to do it for them. This means we got to enjoy episodes like ‘Balance of Terror,’ in which a Cold War-esque stand-off between Starfleet and the Romulan Empire becomes one of the most anxious episodes imaginable, despite the fact that no-one had ever heard of the Romulans prior to this episode. Paranoid, sneaky, and nail-bitingly tense, this is an episode that feels like the kind of war story that the 1960s excelled in — one that is filled with the space of what’s not happening, and how scary it would be if things got worse.

Available to stream on Paramount+

‘The Best of Both Worlds Part 2’ is Star Trek: The Next Generation at its most deceptively destructive

‘The Best of Both Worlds’ was a big deal when it first aired, ending with a cliffhanger that feels like it informed Strange New World’s second season cliffhanger in a major way: putting regular cast members at risk from a seemingly unbeatable foe and cutting out just before all hell is about to break loose. The second half of the story is a breathless rush to save the kidnapped, brainwashed Captain Picard while the Borg seemingly effortlessly destroys the majority of Starfleet’s starships, impressively making the entire thing seem utterly hopeless until the very last minute. It’s a bracing, exciting watch that successfully manages to make everything feel important and unexpected, even as it helpfully distracts you from thinking too much about the astonishing amount of people who must have been killed in all those destroyed spaceships. (Really, the death toll of this one episode alone is astonishing, if you stop for a second to consider it.) War is hell, but apparently, it can also make really good television, if this episode is anything to go by.

Available to stream on Paramount+

Deep Space Nine’s ‘In The Pale Moonlight’ deconstructs the moral superiority at the heart of Star Trek

As if Star Trek: Deep Space Nine hadn’t already earned the unofficial title of ‘most morally ambiguous Star Trek’ by the time the Dominion War storyline started up at the end of the show’s third season, that extended plot — which spanned the next four seasons of the show, all the way up until the series finale — cemented the show’s standing as the Star Trek show for people who think things are more complicated than they might seem at first. ‘In the Pale Moonlight,’ which aired late in the show’s sixth season, really doubled down on that, showing Captain Sisko compromise his own morals repeatedly in service of the greater good, attempting to justify his actions to himself — and the viewers — via a monologue in the form of a log entry explaining everything. It’s wonderfully dark, delivered with melodrama and elan by Avery Brooks, and so very watchable… even if it quietly dismantles the moral superiority that Star Trek and Starfleet had built up for three decades by the time the episode debuted. Quietly a masterpiece.

Available to stream on Paramount+

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