I meant to post this exactly on September 8th, but it got away from me. But I still want to share this because 50 years ago, NBC aired the very first episode of Star Trek. Both Sam and I are huge Star Trek fans — in fact, here’s a photo of us visiting Captain Kirk’s future birthplace in Riverside, Iowa earlier this year!

I could go on and on about why I love Star Trek and what it means to me — but ask me in person and when you’ve got hours to spare because I will talk your ear off and maybe also involuntarily cry a bit. Something about Star Trek drives past my crunchy exterior into the warm, squishy caramel of my soul. So in celebration of this anniversary and because I feel like it, here are my 10 favorite episodes of Star Trek: TOS, all of which you can stream right now from Netflix.

10. The Doomsday Machine (season 2, episode 6)

There are a few “officials who pull rank and put the Enterprise in jeopardy” episodes out there, but this storyline with Commodore Decker is by far one of the most intense. The Enterprise goes to answer a distress call from the USS Constellation, only to find it severely damaged and the entire crew missing, aside from Decker, the Constellation’s captain. It turns out Decker had tried to save his crew from a giant attacking machine by beaming them down to a planet, only to witness that same machine devour the planet, taking his crew with it. Obsessed with his need to destroy the machine that destroyed his ship and his crew, Decker perilously takes command of the Enterprise while Kirk is stranded on the barely functional Constellation. Scotty also has a big part in this one, and I feel like every episode could have used more Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott.
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