Ten TV Episodes About the Road Not Taken and the Unlived Life
(This list came about because I realized that my favorite episodes of two different Star Trek series—The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine—shared a premise: a character who is given a glimpse of the life he might have lived had he made different choices, or had the world made different choices on his behalf. I’m thinking specifically of TNG’s “A Different Light” (Picard grows old and raises a family) and DS9’s “The Visitor” (Jake grows old and never stops grieving). Obviously, there’s something about this structure that speaks to me. Here are ten such TV episodes, in order of release. I’ve used asterisks to mark the ones that are my favorite episodes of their respective series.)
The Twilight Zone, season 2, episode 20: “Static”
Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5, episode 25: “The Inner Light” *
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 2: “The Visitor” *
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 3, episode 9: “The Wish”
Justice League Unlimited, season 1, episode 2: “For the Man Who Has Everything”
The Sopranos, season 6, episode 2: “Join the Club”
Fringe, season 2, episode 18: “White Tulip” *
Black Mirror, season 3, episode 4: “San Junipero” *
BoJack Horseman, season 4, episode 9: “Ruthie”
Counterpart, season 1, episode 1: “The Crossing” [though really the whole series is oriented around exactly this: roads not taken and unlived lives]
— July 12, 2021