Worst TNG Episode Ever?

[Overgeeked]

Just got finished watching 'Masks' and I think it takes the cake as the worst TNG episode ever. Anyone else?

Totally love Masks. Possibly something from S1 takes the cake for worst of the worst.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think Inner Light is one of the series best but it's a perfectly decent episode.

My pick is Code Of Honor. I don't think being offensive automatically makes something bad. But if there weren't hundreds of years of people being stereotyped as the Code of Honor aliens, it would still be a horrible episode. It's just a horribly written episode with villain motivations that make no sense, and character behavior that makes even less sense. These people kidnap their chief of security, make it seem very likely they intend to rape her, and they still don't just beam her up because the safety of their officers is less important than respecting ritual? In the real world nobody would morally censure them from just taking the vaccine after they pull that criminal bullshit. If the characters were white, it would still be a horrible episode. If every alien in the series were black, it would still be a horrible episode.

 

[Terok Nor]

It's a really dumb episode. I still can't get over the lack of imagination that came up with the name "Yareena" as Lutan's wife.

 

[RandyS]

It's a really dumb episode. I still can't get over the lack of imagination that came up with the name "Yareena" as Lutan's wife.

I never noticed that before, but now that I think about it, maybe it was supposed to be an ironic take on Yar.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

 

[DataLore16]

These are episodes I have chosen based on what episodes I would tend to skip right over if I were watching by season. There are some other episodes not listed that I would include for one reason or the other are subpar TNG episodes but have some reason why I like them. The ultimate worst episode is Code of Honor, IMO.

Season 1: Code of Honor, Too Short a Season, Home Soil
Season 2: The Schizoid Man, The Royale (Not going to bother with Shades of Gray)
Season 3: The Bonding, The Vengeance Factor
Season 4: Identity Crisis, In Theory
Season 5: Violations
Season 6: Realm of Fear, Man of the People, Aquiel, Suspicions
Season 7: Liaisons, Interface, Dark Page, Sub Rosa, Eye of the Beholder, First Born

 

[STEPhon IT]

Masks was pretty terrible too, but not as bad as Sub-Rosa.

 

[RAMA]

Masks is in my top 25 STNG episodes. Sub Rosa is not.

 

[justaredshirt]

I have go against the crowd here and say I think Shades of Grey simply because it was a clip show and Conspiracy because it was such a cool concept but it went no where could have been a whole season worth of ideas right there but at least we could've got some closure to the arc

 

[doublegoodprole]

Sidebar: Which is worse: The episode "The Inner Light" or the song it takes its title from?

 

[The Caretaker]

Up The Long Ladder

Purely for the cringeworthy Irish peasants...

 

[Seven of Five]

These episodes below are the ones I've had the hardest time re-watching during my latest binge. There are also several other episodes which were poor to middling, but they tended to have something to them that stopped them from being outright stinkers.

Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Justice
Angel One

The Outrageous Okana
Up The Long Ladder
The Royale
Shades of Gray

Menage a Troi

Devil's Due

Cost of Living
Imaginary Friend

Man of the People
Aquiel
Suspicions

Force of Nature
Sub Rosa
Masks
Genesis
Emergence

Bottom 5:
Code of Honor
Shades of Gray
Cost of Living
Justice
Masks

 

[Admiral Shran]

BOTTOM 10
167. The Outrageous Okana
168. Justice
169. Half a Life
170. The Neutral Zone
171. Angel One
172. Code of Honor
173. Up the Long Ladder
174. The Last Outpost
175. Shades of Grey
176. Homeward

 

[flandry84]

Cost of living.....Lwaxanna in a mud bath ~shudder~
Imaginary friend...awful.

Just rewatching TNG and realising just how ...stately(or just plain sedate)the whole series is compared with many sci-fi shows.

 

[Terok Nor]

I can still watch the bad episodes and find something to enjoy about them even if it's only to mock them. The 2 episodes I can find no joy in are The Outrageous Okona and Shades Of Gray. There is no rewatchability factor in these ones for me. The Bonding was depressing but at least it was well written and acted.

 

[Seven of Five]

Cost of living.....Lwaxanna in a mud bath ~shudder~

Yeah the mud bath was strange enough, but whoever thought of teaming up two of TNG's most annoying characters needs a good slap.

 

[Mojochi]

There may be plenty of terrible stories, & scripts, etc... Eye of The Beholder, & Imaginary Friend are just plain painful viewing experiences, but Shades of Grey may be one of the lowest points in the entire franchise, that they even stooped to that level

 

[JesterFace]

Imaginary friend...awful.

Imaginary Friend just plain painful viewing experience

Imaginary Friend is great, I might have wondered it before around here that am I the only one that likes it...

 

[Vandervecken]

Rascals. Detest it. I'll watch Sub Rosa and even Shades of Grey before this thing.

 

[The Toddler]

For me 'The Inner Light' didn't work for two reasons.
2) Was Picard really ready to return to command of the flagship of the federation after a lifetime on some distant planet...

Exactly. It would be hard enough to remember exact codes and procedures after a few years away from a job let alone half a lifetime. Although since only half an hour had passed in real time, perhaps he recovered more quickly.

Along these same lines, the episode "Genesis" never sat well with me. The entire crew is horribly mutated (which was a stretch all by itself), and they can go back to normal without suffering any ill effects?

 

[Vandervecken]

Exactly. It would be hard enough to remember exact codes and procedures after a few years away from a job let alone half a lifetime. Although since only half an hour had passed in real time, perhaps he recovered more quickly.

Along these same lines, the episode "Genesis" never sat well with me. The entire crew is horribly mutated (which was a stretch all by itself), and they can go back to normal without suffering any ill effects?

Was it ever established what killed Deanna Troi in the alternate AGT future? I always thought it was a combination of Genesis and other things that had happened to her, like the space pregnancy in The Child.

But, yeah, there should have been more ramifications than this. Including psychological. And how about the poor bastard whom Worf probably killed? Not to mention lots of new medical protocols for activation of T cells.

 

[suarezguy]

"Masks" was pretty bad but not really particularly so; I think "Sub Rosa," "Cost of Living" and most of all "Aquiel" were the worst.

I'm don't really get the strong dislike of "Angel One" and "Justice," they seemed middle-of-the-road to me.