10 Great Star Trek Filler Episodes

Summary "Filler" episodes of Star Trek offer in-depth character developments and explore unique themes beyond main storylines.

In the streaming era, every Star Trek episode must now pack a punch and contribute to the character arcs or themes.

Sometimes seemingly standalone filler episodes, although not essential to the main plot, can still be memorable and engaging.

Some of the best episodes of classic Star Trek shows are actually "filler" episodes, written to pad out seasons of broadcast television that often ran upwards of 22 episodes. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise have clear story arcs, especially in their later seasons, while Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Voyager take a more episodic approach to their storytelling. Episodes that depart from the main story lines of Star Trek shows aren't always essential viewing, so are referred to as "filler", but sometimes Star Trek episodes don't have to be part of the main plot to be excellent.

As Star Trek shows in the streaming era need to ensure every episode packs a punch due to their shorter seasons, genuine filler episodes just aren't possible. Instead, "filler" has become a much more subjective term used to describe an episode of Star Trek that seems to take a detour from the show's main story arc, ignoring the fact that every episode of Star Trek is crafted with an intention. Stories that stray from a primary path can often be important to developing character arcs or reiterating themes. That's true in any Star Trek series because every episode has the potential to tell a great story, whether it's a tight part of the show's story arc or it's a filler episode. Here are 10 great Star Trek "filler" episodes.

Related How To Watch All Star Trek TV Shows In Timeline Order The Star Trek TV franchise has existed for 57 years and consists of 12 shows (and counting). Here's how to watch them all in timeline order.

10 Star Trek: Voyager Season 6, Episode 3

"Barge of the Dead"

By Star Trek: Voyager season 6, the USS Voyager crew is well on their way home to the Alpha Quadrant, thanks to incidents in a string of earlier episodes that reconnect Voyager with Starfleet Command. Attention on the journey home is diverted for a while to focus inwardly on Lt. B'Elanna Torres' (Roxann Dawson) near-death experience in Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 3, "Barge of the Dead", a story devoted to exploring Klingon beliefs about death and the afterlife from B'Elanna's perspective.

As a half-Klingon, Torres is an outsider in her own culture, so when B'Elanna believes her actions have doomed her mother Miral (Karen Austin) to eternal torment in Gre'thor, Klingon hell, B'Elanna has a chance to reconcile with her Klingon heritage. "Barge of the Dead" is one of B'Elanna Torres' best episodes, but without lasting consequences, it's still just filler.

9 Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 22

"Real Life"

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As a filler episode, Star Trek: Voyager season 3, episode 22, "Real Life", is just a stepping stone in The Doctor's (Robert Picardo) early journey to exploring life as a human. The Doctor creates a holographic family for himself in hopes of being able to relate to more of Voyager's crew, but the perfect simulation is a bit too cloying for Lt. Torres, who makes some adjustments to the Doctor's family members in order to make them more realistic.

Although The Doctor does speak to other USS Voyager crew members about his family, most of the action takes place on the holodeck, where the Doctor spends time with his fictional wife and children, learning to navigate difficult interpersonal situations with nuance and grace. The Doctor's holographic family lasts for exactly one episode, making "Real Life" particularly heartbreaking filler.

The Doctor's Holographic Family Members Name Relationship Played By Kenneth Self Robert Picardo Charlene Wife Wendy Schaal Jeffrey Son Glenn Harris Belle Daughter Lindsey Haun

8 Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 2

"Darmok"

Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) unexpected side quest to El-Adrel with Dathon (Paul Wingfield), the captain of a Tamarian ship, is the basis of "Darmok," one of the finest stand-alone episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Being stranded together forces Picard and Dathon to find ways to communicate around "Darmok's" metaphor-laden Tamarian language and become friends, just as Dathon intended to do by recreating a story familiar to the Tamarian crew: Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 2, "Darmok" emphasizes the importance of communication and underscores how having a cultural context can aid in truly understanding someone, and has itself become a cultural touchstone for Star Trek fans, but its detachment from an ongoing plot in Star Trek: The Next Generation classifies it as filler.

7 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1, Episode 19

"Duet"

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1, episode 19, "Duet", may not seem like filler in retrospect, because its focus on the fallout of both sides after the Cardassian occupation of Bajor is a theme that would become common in Deep Space Nine. Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) faces off in brilliant verbal back-and-forth against alleged Cardassian war criminal Aamin Marritza (Harris Yulin) in a stellar episode with the emotional impact of a live stage play.

By planting the seed for what Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would eventually grow into, "Duet" is filler because it stands out from most of the earlier episodes in Star Trek: DS9 season 1, and is unrelated to the intentional storylines of Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) acclimating to DS9, the discovery of the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, or the Federation's involvement in Bajoran politics.

Related 10 Ways DS9 Season 1 Is Better Than You Remember Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1 had problems, but everything that made the show so great is in place from the moment Commander Sisko steps aboard.

6 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 10

"Similitude"

Star Trek: Enterprise season 3, episode 10, "Similitude", is filler that focuses on a deep moral question of medical ethics, when Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) suggests growing a rapidly-aging clone of Commander Trip Tucker (Conner Trinneer) in order to harvest organs that will save Trip's life. The clone, nicknamed "Sim", is not technically human, and will die of natural causes after a very brief life, but still seems very much like an individual person.

After getting attached to this new version of Trip, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) can't help but wonder whether killing Sim is really the right call, even though doing so will inevitably mean the end of both Sim and Trip. "Similitude" is a single episode that isn't part of Star Trek: Enterprise's longer arcs, and has no lasting repercussions, but the questions asked of viewers make it very memorable filler.

Actors Playing Sim in Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 10, "Similitude" Maximillian Kesmodel Age 4 Adam Taylor Gordon Age 8 Shane Sweet Age 17 Connor Trinneer Adult

5 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4, Episode 2

"The Visitor"

Taking place almost entirely in an alternate timeline, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4, episode 2, "The Visitor", has no impact on the rest of the series, despite being a deep character study of Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) and Jake's love for his father, Captain Benjamin Sisko. In an alternate future, an elderly Jake Sisko (Tony Todd) tells a visiting reader, Melanie (Rachel Robinson), why Jake stopped writing.

Because Jake's death resets the timeline, this stellar DS9 episode is categorized as filler.

Jake's life story is told through flashbacks to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's present day, beginning with the apparent death of Benjamin Sisko. An entire future timeline is constructed around the question of what might happen without Ben Sisko, from the consequences of losing Bajor's Emissary to Jake's ceaseless work to bring Ben back from subspace, making "The Visitor" a sci-fi thought experiment and a character study in one, but because Jake's death resets the timeline, this stellar DS9 episode is categorized as filler.

4 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2, Episode 2

"Carbon Creek"

Over dinner one evening, Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) recounts the story of her foremother, T'Mir (Jolene Blalock), whose Vulcan survey team accidentally crashed on Earth in the 1950s, over 100 years before Earth's First Contact with the Vulcans in 2063. Star Trek: Enterprise season 2, episode 2, "Carbon Creek", is a true departure from any of Enterprise's storylines, and doesn't provide any deep character studies of Enterprise's main characters, since it's the story of T'Mir and her teammates, so it can't be anything but filler.

T'Mir sold humans Velcro, a Vulcan technology, which explains why Earth has Velcro in Star Trek's reality.

Being filler doesn't stop "Carbon Creek" from being a joy to watch, however. T'Pol plays the part of a potentially unreliable narrator to Captain Archer and Commander Tucker, and there's surprising warmth and humor found in Vulcans attempting to fit in with the culture of small-town Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania.

3 Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episode 25

"The Inner Light"

Often cited as one of Star Trek's best episodes, Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 25, "The Inner Light", is an example of a filler episode that takes an interesting science fiction premise unlike any previously seen on Star Trek, and runs with it to great acclaim. An alien probe from a dead world makes Captain Jean-Luc Picard believe he's a man named Kamen, who resides on Kataan, the dying planet that launched the probe.

Captain Picard lives Kamen's whole life in the span of about 20 minutes, fulfilling the purpose of the probe to promulgate the memory of Kataan and its people. "The Inner Light" is a side story that takes place primarily in Jean-Luc's mind, with little impact on any other characters, but its status as filler doesn't mean it isn't incredible.

Related Captain Picard’s 10 Best Star Trek TNG Episodes, Ranked Captain Jean-Luc Picard anchored every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but some episodes let him take more of a spotlight.

2 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6, Episode 13

"Far Beyond the Stars"

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While the Dominion War is heavily underway, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 13, "Far Beyond the Stars", tells the story of Benny Russell (Avery Brooks), a Black writer working for a pulp sci-fi magazine in the 1950s. Although Benny Russell faces discrimination on a daily basis from the publisher of Incredible Tales, Benny is determined to continue writing about Captain Benjamin Sisko commanding the space station Deep Space Nine, and fights to have his story published intact, without changing Sisko's race to white.

It's a filler episode that's completely divorced from the ongoing Dominion War storyline, and "Far Beyond the Stars" is also one of the best commentaries on real-world racism that Star Trek has ever done by being completely fearless with its unsubtle message.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 9, "The Elysian Kingdom", like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Far Beyond the Stars", blurs the line between fantasy and reality when Strange New Worlds' cast plays the crew of the USS Enterprise as characters from a storybook written by Benny Russell.

1 Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 28

"The City on the Edge of Forever"

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As the most episodic of the Star Trek series, it can be argued that nearly every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series is technically "filler", even Star Trek: The Original Series season 1, episode 28, "The City on the Edge of Forever", which is hailed as a triumph in storytelling. After traveling to the 1930s, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) faces a dilemma when forced to choose between the life of the woman Kirk loves, Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), or the fate of the world, after learning that Edith's death directly influences the Allied victory in WWII.

The journey to the past features none of the pulp sci-fi trappings common to Star Trek: The Original Series, with its lone alien voice being the Guardian of Forever (Bartell LaRue), a sentient gateway through time who facilitates the episode's time travel. Although the Guardian of Forever returns in Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: Discovery, "The City on the Edge of Forever" stands entirely on its own, and Edith is never referenced again.

There is something special to be found in so-called "filler" episodes of Star Trek shows. Filler episodes give writers chances to dive deeper into the lives and motivations of individual Star Trek characters, making them more well-rounded overall. Because there were over 20 chances in a single season to create a hit, there's less pressure for every episode in one season to knock it out of the park, so writers took risks with high-concept Star Trek stories that weren't necessarily about visiting another strange new world. To this day, some of these experimental, character-driven filler episodes are among the best risks Star Trek has taken.

Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise are streaming on Paramount+.