Wait, people dislike "Power Play"? Then I guess that's my favorite maligned episode.
Favourite Much-Maligned TNG Episodes
- Thread starter BigJake
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Wait, people dislike "Power Play"? Then I guess that's my favorite maligned episode.
I've always liked it. Colm Meaney and Marina Sirtis get to chew the scenery like they couldn't at almost any other point in TNG and Data was creepier here than he was even in "Descent" or "Masks." I didn't know it was so maligned and disliked. I realized it wasn't on many fans' Best Of lists and that's understandable, but not liked? Goes to show I'm not in the TNG forum very often.
I like the one where the crew gets turned into kids and the one where Barclay turns into a giant spider. (It's late and I don't have the energy to look up the titles.) They're goofy, but entertaining, and the casting of the child actors is dead on--or so I recall.
And I'm tempted to defend "Sub Rosa" as well. To be honest, I've only seen it once and my memories are hazy, but I think it gets points for trying to break out of the box and do something different. An erotic ghost story on STAR TREK? Okay, that's something we hadn't seen before . . ..
And I'm tempted to defend "Sub Rosa" as well. To be honest, I've only seen it once and my memories are hazy, but I think it gets points for trying to break out of the box and do something different. An erotic ghost story on STAR TREK? Okay, that's something we hadn't seen before . . ..
I think Genesis is really funny; devolved Riker and frog-Troi are a couple of my favourite moments of the series. I laugh every time. It's like an entertaining MST3k movie.
"Rascals" and "Genesis". Never could stand "Rascals", "Genesis" is straight 1950's sci-fi goodness.
Another vote for The Royale. One of a handful of pre-season 3 episodes I'll happily watch.
Maligned?
My nod goes to second season's "Up The Long Ladder." It just works well enough for me. I think it's helped by the more polished and more consistent performances of the cast allowing me to just go more easily with what transpires.
There are also a number of first season's episodes that would have come off much better with the polish seen in second and third season episodes.
My nod goes to second season's "Up The Long Ladder." It just works well enough for me. I think it's helped by the more polished and more consistent performances of the cast allowing me to just go more easily with what transpires.
There are also a number of first season's episodes that would have come off much better with the polish seen in second and third season episodes.
I'm a fan of The Hunted. I just really like the chase sequence. I think it's maligned because of the strangeness of the ending, how they just kind of get up and leave.
Naked Now didn't really succeed in being funny. It made no sense that Data could contract the drunkenness (Even Picard was questioning the writing in character). The Wesley scenes were the worst of the 'Kid is smarter than the grownups' thing, and all of engineering seemed incompetent for allowing a child to take over the entire ship.
I agree Power Play is awesome. I love episodes where you see a lot of tactical plotting by the characters.
Here's the thing about Code of Honor. Clearly, they should have done more than one episode with an alien race that has dark skin. And the one episode that called for an extremely paternalistic, misogynist culture where women are the property of men and can become so just through a successful ritualized kidnapping is the one episode where it occurred to them to give the aliens dark skin. It does seem suspicious that this may be an association the writers had in their heads. They read the script and it's the first image that came to their minds.
Naked Now didn't really succeed in being funny. It made no sense that Data could contract the drunkenness (Even Picard was questioning the writing in character). The Wesley scenes were the worst of the 'Kid is smarter than the grownups' thing, and all of engineering seemed incompetent for allowing a child to take over the entire ship.
I agree Power Play is awesome. I love episodes where you see a lot of tactical plotting by the characters.
Here's the thing about Code of Honor. Clearly, they should have done more than one episode with an alien race that has dark skin. And the one episode that called for an extremely paternalistic, misogynist culture where women are the property of men and can become so just through a successful ritualized kidnapping is the one episode where it occurred to them to give the aliens dark skin. It does seem suspicious that this may be an association the writers had in their heads. They read the script and it's the first image that came to their minds.
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"The Royale" is fun. Cheesy, entertaining fun. Plus we learn more about the history of 21st century space exploration and that the United States has 52 states and stars on its flag at some point during the century. It can be a little goofier in spots than I'd prefer, but the whole point of the episode is that the aliens who abducted and cared for Colonel Richey used a crappy 20th century pulp novel to create an "ideal" environment for their captive, and old pulp and crime novels can be notoriously cheesy and goofy. They even say so within the context of the episode.
It's a fun story. Had a bit of a classic TOS feel at times, and that's a good thing.
It's a fun story. Had a bit of a classic TOS feel at times, and that's a good thing.
If anything I thought the episode was more sexist than racist. It wasn't a good episode, but I don't see it as controversial as others do.
The Masterpiece Society is a relatively decent examination of xenophobia and eugenics. I don't like it per se, but I don't dislike it as I guess many do.
Genesis is awesome - there is some great makeup in that.
Agree on all that. With regard to The Hunted, I read that there had been planned a bigger, more ambiguous ending, but they ran out of time and money.
Racist might be a strong word to describe Code of Honor, but it is clearly backward, IMO, and you sum up the problem with it quite well. It struck me as something that would have come out of the 1940s, honestly.
Genesis is awesome - there is some great makeup in that.
Agree on all that. With regard to The Hunted, I read that there had been planned a bigger, more ambiguous ending, but they ran out of time and money.
Racist might be a strong word to describe Code of Honor, but it is clearly backward, IMO, and you sum up the problem with it quite well. It struck me as something that would have come out of the 1940s, honestly.
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I also like "Man of the People"; crazy Troi is terrifying , and I love the scene where she verbally destroys the ensign.
I think Memory Alpha's analysis is close to on the money with regards to how I see the episode - the writer/director seemed to me, to be emulating the sort of pulp adventure stories from the early 20th century, and unintentionally ended up emulating less desirable sensibilities of the time in the process. Other than that, and the sexism, it's ok I guess. I thought the bit where they turned on the laser fence for the obligatory fight scene was cool when I was a kid.
I think what sparked some people's opinions towards the episode was this little tidbit from Wil Wheaton in one of his TNG reviews:
Sparks McGee said:
If you believe this story, it's definitely enough to color one's opinions on the episode. That, and many Trek cast and crew members have a generally poor opinion of the episode. More than enough to influence fan opinion over the years:
space so the bottom part of this post doesnt get eaten by the top because it's a segue
I have to say I have quite a soft spot for The Royale. The basic concept was workable, just the execution was a little bungled. Like many Season 1 episodes.
I loved some of the lines from The Royale parodying really bad literature.
"No dame's worth dying for."
"DON'T CALL HER THAT!"
"No dame's worth dying for."
"DON'T CALL HER THAT!"
The Royale had one of my favorite Trek scores, the Jazz tune they were playing when Data was playing Craps. I hate most of the Scores in Star Trek so that says something about the episode right there. Also, it's just a real fun episode.
I never realized how hated "Genesis" was until I joined a few online communities. I always enjoyed it. Season 7 is one of my favorites, and it gets ripped pretty bad by TNG critics.
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