Worst TNG Episode Ever?

[Herbert]

Shades of Grey and The Outrageous Okona are in a class by themselves.

I always liked Okona.
As far as season one is concerned, it's love/hate for me. Some of my favorite episodes are in season one. My problem with season one (and this is typical in the first season of many shows) is that everyone is still finding their feet and figuring out what to do with these characters.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I've never watched Sub Rosa all the way through and having now watched it, it's a bit of a stinker.

 

[ALF]

The Royale for a very specific reason. It's not a bad episode. But I went through this 2 or 3 year period where every single time I'd think to tune into a TNG rerun on TV I would end up with The Royale 95% or at least it felt that way. I really grew to hate it!

That's understandable. It's a funny one but if I had to watch it over and over again it would be a bit much. It's the classic "trap" episode trope where they spend the whole time trying to escape.

I've never watched Sub Rosa all the way through and having now watched it, it's a bit of a stinker.

Congratulations for getting through it. Sub Rosa is the TNG ultimate candidate for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The bridge fog is good but the best part is when Crusher gets with that ghost - it's totally sensual.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Oh yeah the Crusher masturbation. Eeeww

 

[Sakonna]

If nothing else, you have to praise Gates McFadden in "Sub Rosa" -- she did not hold back! She fully committed to that insane script! With a lot of other actors, you would feel their hesitation when they're rolling around on an otherwise empty set having orgasms from lighting a candle.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

If nothing else, you have to praise Gates McFadden in "Sub Rosa" -- she did not hold back! She fully committed to that insane script! With a lot of other actors, you would feel their hesitation when they're rolling around on an otherwise empty set having orgasms from lighting a candle.

Yeah that is true, she's a great actress and very underused. Aside from TNG I don't think there is much of anything that she has done in a big way has she?

 

[Qonundrum]

A Matter of Perspective gets my vote.

(Sidenote: remove the clip show scenes and even "Shades of Gray" had some decent sci-fi potential with the alien world, indigenous plantlife near-fatally injuring an officer, etc... it was also due to a writer's strike that had SoG being rushed through, Matter of Perspective was just awful from the start. )

 

[Qonundrum]

Someone else besides me thinks 'The Inner Light' is not a good one? Weird...

What is also weird is that in many threads people say they don't like 'Imaginry Friend' while I think it's a great episode.

It's not the best-ever episode but it's decent.

And "Imaginary Friend" is underrated.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

On the other hand on other forums I've seen people go gaga over "The Inner Light"

 

[euphorik]

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

never had a problem with "masks." not an especially great episode in my book, but there are certainly other episodes far more deserving of scorn than that one.

"imaginary friend" is unwatchably awful, as is "sub rosa." i just watched "cost of living" for the first time in years and was amazed to find that it was even worse than i remembered, and is certainly as bad as the two previously mentioned. for my money, the majority of the true crap episodes fall in the last couple of seasons. "suspicions" is another piece of junk - where dr. crusher suddenly develops a fascination with shield technology (what?!?) and a compulsion to play "quincy" at the expense of her career. horrible episode.

that being said, as much as i will stick up for the early seasons, "when the bough breaks" is a complete POS. horrible cutesy-pie garbage.

 

[Garth Rockett]

FWIW, several years ago I did a series of Survivor-style polls to determine the TrekBBS's least favorite episodes of each series, and then did a final face-off to determine the least favorite overall. I recently came across my spreadsheet where I kept track of the voting, and the "winner" of least favorite episode of TNG at that time was "Code of Honor", with "Shades of Gray" a close second.

 

[Sakonna]

i just watched "cost of living" for the first time in years and was amazed to find that it was even worse than i remembered

I also recently rewatched "Cost Of Living", and found it better than I remembered, in that going in I couldn't recall anything positive about it but I found there are a few scenes that I enjoyed (Deanna trying to get details on Lwaxana's wedding, Lwaxana's monologue about being alone).

But for me the craziest thing about that episode is that in the climax of the ship-jeopardy B-plot, they have to shut down life support, we have all these scenes on the bridge of the crew reaching the brink of death before Data saves them with seconds to spare -- AND THIS DOES NOT INTERACT WITH THE LWAXANA/ALEXANDER A-STORY AT ALL! And their story is supposedly all about learning how to embrace life! And yet at this moment at which these characters must be confronting their own mortality, we don't see them, we don't cut to them, they have no dialogue referencing the ordeal, their story wraps up without any acknowledgement of the events of the B plot.

If they'd done something with that, there could have been something interesting here about what life is like for the Enterprise civilians -- you're living on the ship with your family and trying to figure out your own life, and being repeatedly confronted with these terrifying threats that are totally outside your control. That's an interesting side angle that they never really explored.

 

[Bella Cullen]

sub rosa

 

[JRoss]

Tie between Masterpiece Society and Homeward. Homeward's idiotic story is uplifted by good performances by Sorvino, Johnson Gerald and Del Arco. I can't even remember anything about Masterpiece Society because it was that boring.

 

[Negatronic]

Without a doubt... Sub Rosa is the worst. Then Remeber Me

 

[Mojochi]

It's amazing how many episodes I see getting thrown up here. I mean everybody has different tastes, but while many of them aren't that great & some are even pretty terrible, out of 7 seasons, people in this thread have condemned nearly an entire season's worth of episodes as being the worst one, when clearly, if you are splicing together a crappy clip show, bookended by some pretty dreadful exposition scenes, that is by far the most powerful example of a cutting edge sci-fi show falling prey to "phoning it in" that there can possibly be imho. Shades of Gray is easily the biggest atrocity they ever fumbled lol

 

[Herrick]

I just finished the series tonight. Masks was so bad that I minimized it and did other things while listening to it. I think Spiner is as good at playing Data as Nimoy was at playing Spock but I have not been a fan of Spiner's acting when he's not playing normal Data (Lore, Noonien Soong etc) with the exception being the western episode. Masks epitomized the annoyingness of Spiner especially that stupid voice he used. Absolutely cringe worthy.

Runner Ups: The flashback episode of the season 2 finale and the one where the "African" aliens kidnap Yar.

 

[Sakonna]

Watched "Coming Of Age" yesterday -- I had no recollection of how terrible it was! I definitely should have had that on my worst episodes list all along.

 

[Herbert]

It's amazing how many episodes I see getting thrown up here. I mean everybody has different tastes, but while many of them aren't that great & some are even pretty terrible, out of 7 seasons, people in this thread have condemned nearly an entire season's worth of episodes as being the worst one, when clearly, if you are splicing together a crappy clip show, bookended by some pretty dreadful exposition scenes, that is by far the most powerful example of a cutting edge sci-fi show falling prey to "phoning it in" that there can possibly be imho. Shades of Gray is easily the biggest atrocity they ever fumbled lol

I agree. Shades is the absolute worst. Death to all clip shows. (well, the Seinfeld one was at least funny so that one gets a pass)

 

[Herrick]

I agree. Shades is the absolute worst. Death to all clip shows. (well, the Seinfeld one was at least funny so that one gets a pass)

It was pretty bad but at least the budget problem can be used as an excuse.