George Takei selects his favourite Star Trek episodes
Ahead of a special Sulu marathon on TV, the legendary actor shared his top stories
Star Trek fans are not exactly starved for options at the moment, with Star Trek: Picard debuting in the UK today, an upcoming third run of Star Trek: Discovery on the way and new animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks set to follow.
But for some Trekkies, it’s likely that no number of new series will ever quite beat the original – which is why the news of a special Original Series marathon on Horror Channel, hand-picked by George Takei himself, will be a welcome January treat.
"It’s episodes that I am particularly proud of and had fun with and that are memorable to me," Takei told RadioTimes.com, revealing that his very favourite episode would be a part of the marathon.
“My personal favourite is Naked Time where I whip off my shirt and demonstrate my swashbuckling prowess,” he said.
“The script itself is very good as well, there’s that jeopardy where the ship is spiralling down – we’re losing our fuel and rapidly being sucked in and all the crew is being affected by this virus that destroys our inhibitions.
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“And we’re acting out, in my case my swashbuckling and in Riley’s case his Irish singing talents, Spock is breaking down on his control over his emotions and Spock is a strenuously, muscularly restrained and unemotional character and so what’s going to happen dramatically is interesting… its great space opera.”
And apparently, Takei's favourite episode has remained remarkably consistent over the years, mainly because his character so rarely got to move beyond his usual position.
“Oh no it’s always been my favourite," Takei said, "because almost every other episode I’m chained to that console. I got liberated.”
In addition to Naked Time, the other episodes Takei has chosen for the marathon are Shore Leave, The Return of the Archons and Mirror, Mirror, the latter of which Takei described as “like doing repertory theatre.”
Takei also told us that he would love to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Stewart and have his own Picard-style spin-off series that focuses on Sulu many years later.
“I think they would be smart to have a wise, experienced veteran of Starfleet having served as a captain of the Excelsior - a much more complex ship than the Enterprise," Takei told us.
"We’ll see!"
George Takei Selects Star Trek runs from 3pm on Horror Channel on Saturday 25th January
