10 Star Trek Episodes That Have Aged Like Milk

Published Sep 20, 2026, 12:31 PM EDT

Tom is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, with expertise covering everything from hilarious sitcoms to jaw-dropping sci-fi epics.

Initially he was an Updates writer, though before long he found his way to the TV and movies team. He now spends his days keeping Screen Rant readers informed about the TV shows of yesteryear, whether it's recommending hidden gems that may have been missed by genre fans or deep diving into ways your favorite shows have (or haven't) stood the test of time.

Tom is based in the UK and when he's not writing about TV shows, he's watching them. He's also an avid horror fiction writer, gamer, and has a Dungeons and Dragons habit that he tries (and fails) to keep in check.

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Across its 60-year history, Star Trek has seen the crews of various ships go where no man has gone before. In hindsight, several of these destinations should have remained unexplored. For every great and iconic Star Trek episode that helped redefine TV sci-fi, there is a counterpart that has catastrophically failed to stand the test of time.

While some episodes of Star Trek were simply flops that didn’t live up to expectations, others are genuinely so questionable in retrospect that it’s jarring. These bad Star Trek episodes aren't just sub-par; many are genuinely cringe-inducing to sit through. What's more, they're far from limited to the franchise's earliest iterations like TOS, as several later Star Trek shows produced stories that now feel astonishingly misguided.

"Meridian"

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 3, Episode 8

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rarely struggled to give Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) interesting and believable story arcs, but "Meridian" is a jarring exception. In this season 3 installment, Dax falls for Deral (Brett Cullen), an inhabitant of the titular planet, which shifts between dimensions and only becomes accessible for brief periods. Their attraction escalates incredibly quickly, with Dax ultimately deciding that she is prepared to abandon Starfleet and spend decades trapped in another dimension for him.

The whirlwind romance was already difficult to buy when this DS9 episode first aired 1994, but it feels even more contrived today. Dax effectively prepares to discard her entire life for a man she has known for days. While Dax has always been impulsive, this level of carefree decision-making felt like it totally undermined her character. Meanwhile, Quark's (Armin Shimerman) subplot is considerably worse: he secretly creates an adult-oriented holographic replica of Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) for a customer who’s obsessed with her. "Meridian" therefore combines an unconvincing romance with a storyline built around violating Kira's image and consent, and neither is comfortable to sit through 32 years later.

"These Are the Voyages..."

Star Trek: Enterprise, Season 4, Episode 22

Few TV finales have undermined an entire show quite like "These Are the Voyages...", the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Rather than allowing Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his crew to completely own their final adventure, Star Trek: Enterprise frames its conclusion through TNG’s Riker (Jonathan Frakes) aboard the Enterprise-D holodeck. Essentially, “These Are the Voyages” reframes the entire episode (and, possibly, the entirety of Star Trek: Enterprise if fan theories are to be believed) as a sidebar to The Next Generation.

That decision has arguably aged worse as Enterprise itself has undergone a substantial critical reevaluation. Its fourth season had finally leaned heavily into pre-Federation history, making the finale's decision to shift focus toward two characters from another Star Trek show especially frustrating. Trip Tucker's (Connor Trinneer) abrupt death also feels engineered to manufacture tragedy rather than provide satisfying closure. What should have been a triumphant swansong for Enterprise instead treats Archer's crew as historical holograms supporting Riker's character development, leaving the show itself feeling like a footnote in its own finale.

"Threshold"

Star Trek: Voyager, Season 2, Episode 15

There is a reason "Threshold" is the episode that’s become synonymous with Star Trek: Voyager at its most ridiculous. Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) manages to break the supposedly insurmountable Warp 10 barrier. Unfortunately, the achievement triggers bizarre mutations that culminate in Paris abducting Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and eventually transforming alongside her into amphibian-like creatures.

Then comes the detail that ensured "Threshold" would never escape infamy: transformed Paris and Janeway mate and produce offspring. The episode attempts to dress its premise in evolutionary language, but its claim that accelerating human evolution would naturally produce salamander-like creatures fundamentally misunderstands how evolution works. Worse, the episode simply restores Paris and Janeway afterward and leaves their offspring behind. The combination of dubious science, body horror, and unintended comedy has only become more cringe-inducing with time, transforming what was intended as ambitious sci-fi into one of Star Trek's most notorious misfires.

"The Way to Eden"

Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3, Episode 20

Star Trek: TOS’s "The Way to Eden" could hardly have been more obviously made by establishment television writers attempting to capture the late-1960s counterculture. The Enterprise encounters a group of spacefaring idealists led by Dr. Sevrin (Skip Homeier), who reject technological civilization and seek the mythical planet Eden. Their philosophy might have produced an interesting clash with Starfleet, especially since Spock (Leonard Nimoy) treats their beliefs with more respect than most of his crewmates. Alas, this isn’t what happens.

Instead, Star Trek: The Original Series saddles the group with relentlessly dated slang, songs, costumes, and broad caricatures of hippie culture. Kirk (William Shatner) is even branded a "Herbert," an insult the episode seems convinced will sound like authentic futuristic counterculture vocabulary. The tragedy of Eden itself gives the story some weight, but it arrives after an hour dominated by painfully self-conscious attempts at youth culture. Rather than becoming a timeless exploration of generational conflict, "The Way to Eden" now resembles an incredibly dated misunderstanding of mid-20th century counterculture.

"The Omega Glory"

Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2, Episode 23

Star Trek has always used alien worlds to examine contemporary politics, but The Original Series season 2’s "The Omega Glory" abandons subtlety altogether. In the episode, Kirk discovers Captain Ronald Tracey (Morgan Woodward) violating the Prime Directive while interfering in a war between the Kohms and Yangs. Initially, their conflict appears to be another tragic example of a civilization destroying itself, until the episode reveals what those names actually represent.

The Kohms parallel communists, while the Yangs are descended from "Yankees" and preserve distorted versions of the American flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the United States Constitution. Kirk eventually recites the Constitution's preamble and lectures the Yangs about its universal meaning. Star Trek: TOS frequently explored Cold War anxieties effectively, but "The Omega Glory" turns that subtext into an extraordinarily blunt patriotic pageant. The implausibility of an alien planet independently reproducing recognizable American history makes this Star Trek episode beyond difficult to get through. Its message about freedom may be sincere, but the delivery feels like accidental self-parody.

"Profit and Lace"

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 6, Episode 23

First airing in 1998, "Profit and Lace" is particularly uncomfortable because Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was usually capable of much smarter social commentary. When Ferengi leader Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn) needs to convince a powerful businessman that allowing women to earn profit is worthwhile, Quark undergoes surgery to present himself as a woman named Lumba. The episode then mines his transformation for broad comedy while attempting, poorly, to make a point about sexism.

Even without applying modern discussions of gender identity directly to a 1990’s sitcom-style plot, the execution is extraordinarily awkward. Quark's new body and subsequent encounters with sexual harassment are repeatedly played for laughs, while the episode relies on stereotypical ideas about femininity to sell the disguise. The premise could have led to some sharp satire, but "Profit and Lace" handles it so badly that the intended critique becomes overwhelmed by gender-based jokes. For a franchise famous for progressive storytelling, it remains an unfortunate low-point for Star Trek.

"Angel One"

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 14

On paper, the TNG episode "Angel One" has an unmistakably Star Trek premise. The Enterprise-D discovers a matriarchal civilization where women dominate society and men occupy subordinate roles. Riker, Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), and Data (Brent Spiner) are tasked with finding the survivors of a crashed freighter. However, this quickly evolves into a philosophical dispute when it emerges that the survivors, all male, are now fugitives. What’s more, they’ve disrupted the status quo of the planet’s society by demanding equality, giving the episode an obvious opportunity to examine institutional sexism.

Unfortunately, "Angel One" approaches gender inequality through a simplistic role reversal that feels more reductive and heavy-handed than it does insightful. Its women are characterized as physically imposing, authoritarian, and sexually dominant. Instead of interrogating how patriarchal systems actually operate, the episode largely imagines sexism as the same stereotypes with men and women swapped around. Early The Next Generation often had ambitious ideas before it had learned how to execute them gracefully, and few episodes demonstrate that growing pain better than “Angel One”.

"Mudd's Women"

Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1, Episode 6

Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) would eventually become one of Star Trek's more memorable rogues, but his debut TOS season 1 is considerably harder to enjoy today. "Mudd's Women" sees the Enterprise rescue Mudd and three extraordinarily beautiful women he is transporting to become wives for miners. Their appearance is maintained by what they believe is the mysterious Venus drug, making them intensely desirable to virtually every man who encounters them.

This Star Trek episode eventually tries to offer a message about confidence and self-worth when Eve (Karen Steele) discovers that her transformation can be achieved through a placebo. Still, this doesn’t make up for how much of the story treats women as commodities. The miners essentially need wives, Mudd supplies them, and much of the drama revolves around whether the women remain sufficiently beautiful to fulfill that function. Even allowing for its 1966 origins, "Mudd's Women" represents the sizable gulf between Star Trek's progressive aspirations and some of its earliest forays into deconstructing gender politics.

"Turnabout Intruder"

Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3, Episode 24

The final episode of Star Trek: The Original Series should have been a landmark event. Instead, season 3’s "Turnabout Intruder" gives the show one of its most dated examinations of gender. Dr. Janice Lester (Sandra Smith), a former lover of Kirk's, forcibly switches bodies with him because she resents the opportunities she believes have been denied to her as a woman. Lester then attempts to command the Enterprise while Kirk is trapped inside her body. What follows is rampant narrative sexism in no uncertain terms.

Lester is depicted in the Star Trek episode as increasingly hysterical, irrational, and emotionally unstable, reinforcing precisely the sexist stereotypes it should have been counteracting. Its notorious implication that women are barred from becoming starship captains has also sat awkwardly alongside subsequent Star Trek canon, which established female Starfleet captains operating before Kirk's era. Rather than ending The Original Series with an optimistic statement about the future, "Turnabout Intruder" concludes its historic run with gender politics that already felt outdated in the late 1960s and have only become more glaring since.

“Code of Honor"

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 4

Few Star Trek episodes have aged as catastrophically as TNG’s "Code of Honor," which first aired in 1987 and was seen as problematic even then. In the season 1 episode of The Next Generation, The Enterprise visits Ligon II to obtain a desperately needed vaccine, only for planetary leader Lutan (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) to abduct Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). She subsequently becomes entangled in a ritual dispute with Lutan's wife Yareena (Karole Selmon), eventually leading the two women into a fight to the death.

The basic premise could have been an ordinary early The Next Generation alien-culture story. The execution made it infamous. The Ligonians are played predominantly by Black actors and presented through a collection of tribal imagery, customs, accents, and attitudes based on deeply uncomfortable stereotypes. Members of the TNG cast and creative team have subsequently disowned the episode, and it’s easy to see why. Plenty of weak Star Trek episodes can now be enjoyed as campy throwbacks to bygone eras of TV. "Code of Honor" is different: its racial stereotypes make revisiting it genuinely unpleasant, and no installment has aged more poorly.