This one is a deep cut. It’s the “Top 5 Two-Hander Episodes” in Star Trek, which in television parlance is a production term referencing stories centered around two characters who are often isolated together in contrast. There are plenty of examples in Trek history where scripts have focused on a pair of characters who share a number of scenes together as the focus of the story. Our expert panel of host Jim Moorhouse and guests Chris Burris and Lee Hutchison go through an array of picks in this classic TrekRanks topic.

Episode Rundown:

• Diagnostic Cycle: We discuss in detail exactly what a two-hander in television production is.
• Prime Directive: Each guest on this week’s panel reveals exactly how they narrowed down their list and made their final choices.
• The Order of Things: All the picks are revealed with the TrekRanks’ original “Five words and a hashtag” summary, along with one episode that helps frame their choice.
• Secondary Systems: For a few extra picks that just missed our final list.
• Regeneration Cycle: The panel recaps their picks and we dissect some of the interesting statistical anomalies that arose from the discussion.
• Temporal Inversion: We flashback to a previous episode of TrekRanks and relay some of the feedback received from listeners.

 If you have your own picks you would like to relay to us, please hail us at 757-828-RANK (7265) and record your own personal TrekRanks log to let us know your Top 5 Two-Hander Episodes. (Or you can record it yourself and just DM us @TrekRanks on Twitter.) Your comments could be used as part of a Temporal Inversion on an upcoming episode (and might get you a chance to be a guest on a future episode, too).

 And don’t forget to check out TrekRanks.com for our entire back catalog of episodes and a detailed rundown on every episode of Star Trek ever.