The Best Star Trek Time Travel Stories Ever, Ranked

Star Trek: First Contact gives Captain Picard his own Wrath of Khan, subbing in the Borg for Khan and Moby-Dick for Shakespeare. Given that focus, the time-travel plot devised by Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, and Rick Berman seems like an odd fit, a distraction caused by an unlikely decision by the Borg to assimilate Earth in the past. However, by revisiting the life of Star Trek hero Zephram Cochran, First Contact deals with questions of greatness and legacy.

Long remembered as the man who invented Earth’s first warp-capable vessel, thus catching the attention of passing Vulcans and setting the stage for the Federation, the Cochran who greets Riker, Troi, and LaForge is a disillusioned drunk. Ably directed by Jonathan Frakes, with a strong performance by Trek regular James Cromwell as Cochran, First Contact leans into the themes of legacy while telling a fun adventure story. It never quite gives Cochran’s partner Lily (Alfre Woodard) the attention she deserves, but that might only further prove how history has a tendency to misremember things.

9. “Blink of an Eye” (Star Trek: Voyager Season 6 Episode 12)

Voyager sometimes receives criticism for its recycling of TNG ideas, and that’s certainly the case with some of its most famous time-travel episodes, such as the ’90s set “Future’s End” two-parter and the finale “Endgame.” But “Blink of an Eye” stands out as an excellent Voyager time-travel episode, precisely because it takes a unique approach to the concept.

“Blink of an Eye,” directed by Gabrielle Beaumont and written by Scott Miller and Joe Menosky, from a story by Michael Taylor, takes place outside of a planet surrounded by a tachyon field, which causes time to pass at a faster rate. Janeway sends the Doctor to visit the planet at various intervals, during which he sees its people evolve. However, Voyager presents an enigma they cannot easily address, with some worshiping it as a deity and others treating it as an object of examination. In addition to a great supporting turn by Daniel Dae Kim as an astronaut from the planet, “Blink of an Eye” uses time movement as a compelling way to frame the debate between science and religion.

8. “Yesterday’s Enterprise”(Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 Episode 15)

Among the many problems in the first season of TNG was the unceremonious death of Tasha Yar, killed by a terrible-looking alien in the 23rd episode. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” serves as a much more noble send-off. When the time-displaced Enterprise-C comes through a wormhole, the present is changed. The Enterprise-D becomes a warship and Picard, flinty and haggard after years of combat with the Klingons, has lost his sense of discovery and wonder.

Directed by David Carson and written several members of the TNG staff, “Yesterday’s Enterprise” lets Yar make the more heroic choice. When Guinan realizes that time has changed for the worst, Yar decides to transfer to the Enterprise-C to give it a fighting chance back in the past, a sacrifice that saves the present.