Discussion on:

The five worst Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes EVER!

I happened to like Fistful of Datas! It's campy, but then most of TNG is campy anyway. Just to spite you, I'm gonna go watch that episode right now. :P

I'll join ya

It was a fun hour. Not every book needs to be War and Peace, some can be a Peanuts comic. Bonus! Joy Garret from Days of our Lives.

I was always told if Riker has a beard watch it. If he is clean shaven change the channel immediately! I enjoy the cheese watching the replays and marvel at a pretty well crafted show. I do think the show was better than the movies. Only first Contact was worth watching. All the others were god awful. What a shame they could have made classic sci fi movies that would have belonged in the Pantheon of sci fi. The worst was the pop up joystick that Riker got to use to evade the bad guys in Insurrection. My jaw hit the ground so hard its never been the same being stunned at the stupidity of actually writing that into the script.

Curse you, I had completely forgotten these and was happily remembering the good episodes of TNG. Now I feel obligated to re-view and comfirm, curse you.

There were plenty that didn't make the list, but only barely. So long as you're punishing yourself, I'd recommend:

Justice
Emergence
Masks
Naked Now
Code of Honor
Up the Long Ladder
Skin of Evil
Force of Nature

If you survive the glut of bad Season 1 episodes (aka the Beardless Riker season) the occasional later missteps are tame by comparison.

You're going to leave out the 3rd episode; The Naked Now? Dr. Crusher actually used the logs from Dr. McCoy in order to create a cure because it was nothing more than a rehashing of the TOS episode. I was convinced this series wouldn't make it past the first season after that.

Any episode with Lwaxana Troi or Alexander gets an immediate delete from my DVR.

One of my favorite episodes is "Half a Life," which is led by Majel Barrett (as Lwaxana) and David Ogden Stiers.

But your right, Lwazana or any kid for that matter, except possibly the one where the girl had the imaginary frienbd who was actually a very powerful alien.

using that logic shouldnt you technically delete almost all the episodes since she is the computer voice?

I always thought that show would have been better if they actually had used women who were wrestlers or more aggressive looking. All they did was put them in big heals to make them tall. Lame. I liked Fistful of Data's and the other episodes. Yes, they're campy. It's part of their charm. And I LIKE the episodes with Majel Barrett!!

While not as unintentionally campy, I thought the acting was about on par with the first season of the original series. The only thing that may have kept it a notch above was better sets and special effects. Luckily for everyone; the network, the producers, the actors and of course the audience, it did get better.

I have to agree about Fistful of Datas - remember loving for all its daftness. As to the rest, not sure - will have to go and watch again - but I love your style, especially the bit about over-acting! Watching out for your choice of the BEST of TNG...

Have to do the worst of DS9, Voyager and Enterprise first, then rank the movies, then I'll Circle back to Best Of for each show.

Though I'd find DS9 a tough pick, lots of bad episodes...

As well as any with Troi's mother, and any involving the children on the ship.
As well, any Wesley centric episodes and any broken holodeck episodes (which seemed to happen every time. Why wasn't the thing built with an off button?)

It also annoys me that frequently the Enterprise would be defeated because the fools would only fire one shot. How come they never said "Fire everything we have".

I like Disaster quite a bit, but it's the exception, largely because the kids were just one of the four plot threads. Rascals, Hero Worship, When The Bough Breaks, The Bonding -- none of these are making an All Time TNG Greats list.

(And yes, that list is coming.)

Two weak Klingon ships defeated the enterprise cause idiot Riker only fired once.

The show could have worked with the just the Captain being turned into a child, the other 3 were just annoying and pointless. (Though the awkward scene with O'Brian and his now child wife was funny)

And it only took what, 8 Ferangi to capture a ship of 1014 crew?

I liked Disaster, Rascals and Hero Worship, but I agree that they aren't among the best episodes.

There is one excellent Wesley centric episode: "The Game" with Ashley Judd as his budding love interest.

Especially 'Justice', aka 'Wesley, get off my damn lawn'. The only good thing about Wesley was that without him, we wouldn't have Will Wheaton's great guest shots on "Big Bang Theory".

On the other hand, any episode that fleshed out the Klingonese culture rocked.

He is on Eureka now and his character is great as a real jerk. The plot is a space program and they make many references to him not ever being in space. It is really funny especially when I realized who it was.

The one where Moriarty takes over the computer, and the one where Geordi (spelling?) meets Leiah and has warp puppy love.

"Watch only if Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo are seated in the front row."

rotflol!

Also check out the new version: RiffTrax! Pure awesome!

... have to be the worst episodes by far. One ... okay. Two ... have I seen this before? How many holodeck failures does it take to have the system finally ripped out of the ship permanently, or should I say the fleet, as Voyager had it's share as well.

The premiere had promise until we find out the creature in question was a space jellyfish. A week later the next episode airs and they had to use a plot from TOS. I thought the series was doomed as it appeared they already ran out of ideas. Thankfully things got better after that. The Borg certainly was one of the best additions to the franchise.

...where after it's discovered that their warp-drive technology was destroying subspace, that Star Fleet imposed a warp-speed limit. Real subtle, guys.

Moral Allegories work better when they aren't quite so bludgeoning and pedantic

The worst episode was the one where they killed off one of the original crew from the first season. I think her name was Crosby and she played the security officer (better played by Warf); the actress did not like the limited role and quit. The character was killed by a pool of black slime and the end of the episode was the long video goodbye from the character to the crew.

That would be Denise Crosby I believe, if i'm remembering the character correctly.

I remembered her last name but not her first name or the name of her character. The reason she quit the show was that her character was supposed to be security officer but she mostly just talked to computers. I think this was parodied in "Galaxy Quest" as well as other characters.

Continuing the proud Hollywood tradition of "preventing" an actor from returning to a spurned series by killing the character off. Of course, this being Star Trek, that isn't as effective an F-U as it would be on mundane shows. Between time travel and alternate realities, Tasha/Crosby appeared in 4 episodes after this one.

I contend that this episode changed everything for Star Trek. I think they saw the audiences psoitive rection to the war like world rather than campy sci-fi. Their uniforms changed after that and then they met the borg. Sci-Fi on TV changed after that episode. Unfortunately they didn't listen to Geinan who warned them that this is wrong this sn't a ship of ware there are supposed to be families on this ship - this timeline must cease to exist!

Gotta be careful, though. Don't want to tip my hand for the upcoming Best of TNG list.

I still get goose bumps when Picard goes in to that "Let's make sure history never forgets the name 'Enterprise'!" speech.

If someone doesn't like this one, they don't like Trek in particular, space operas in general, or sci-fi as a genre. Try mysteries or Harlequin romances.

Maybe it was just the writing on the early shows, but she seemed to ruin every episode she was on.

Though her re-appearance with the Romulans was a good twist.

"Romanians". This adds a hilarious dimension to imagining all Star Trek Romulan encounters replaced with Cold-War era Romanian stereotypes.