The Good In Every Episode, TNG Edition...

[Farscape One]

All STAR TREK series have had their share of clunkers. And everyone has a different list of what they consider bad episodes. There are, of course, some that are universally reviled. But even those can have something positive about them.

So here is a challenge...

Every episode each of you consider a bad one, I want you to find something positive about it.

I want to do this for every series, and I already started one for VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE.

I will begin.

"Sub Rosa" - This was never a likeable episode to me. A lot about it just doesn't work, not the least of which this episode could easily have been a SUPERNATURAL episode. (Still very possible, as it will be starting its 14th season in a few months.)

But I always thought Beverly was underutilized, and at least she gets to have her own episode here, including a bit of family history. Frakes' direction was good, given what he had to work with. The house in particular felt very eerie, so points for that. I think McFadden acted well in it, because she can definitely make it happen if given good material. Even Patrick Stewart would have a hard time making this episode work, so kudos to Gates McFadden for giving it the good old college try.

 

[Leviathan]

"Sub Rosa" - the ending credits were played successfully...other than that....

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

"Sub Rosa" - the ending credits were played successfully...other than that....

Oh come on. Let's make at least a feeble attempt to keep with Farscape One's theme.

 

[Mojochi]

Justice is a pretty ridiculous episode, but the Edo god? kinda cool looking, like some kind of cloaked starbase or something

 

[Farscape One]

Justice is a pretty ridiculous episode, but the Edo god? kinda cool looking, like some kind of cloaked starbase or something

Agreed about the Edo god. And the producers liked it enough to use it as the Lysian Alliance command base 4 years later in "Conundrum".

 

[Mojochi]

Agreed about the Edo god. And the producers liked it enough to use it as the Lysian Alliance command base 4 years later in "Conundrum".

Oh yeah, I forgot about that

Oh, here's another one. I don't know if The Royale is overwhelmingly considered a bad episode. Some people quite like it. I've always thought it was a rather silly idea, & execution, but its book ends about the NASA astronaut were very cool. In fact, I remember its teaser as being one of the most eye grabbing of the whole season, when it aired. We were like "Wha wha wha?"

 

[Lance]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that

Oh, here's another one. I don't know if The Royale is overwhelmingly considered a bad episode. Some people quite like it. I've always thought it was a rather silly idea, & execution, but its book ends about the NASA astronaut were very cool. In fact, I remember its teaser as being one of the most eye grabbing of the whole season, when it aired. We were like "Wha wha wha?"

I've always liked The Royale . But I'm a bit of a apologizer for Season Two in particular, it's maybe my favorite season...

I'll go in to bat for The Naked Now . A cheeky riff on a TOS classic it may be, but every time I rewatch it I get swept up in the sheer fun of seeing our characters get drunk and horny, it's an episode that always makes me laugh and puts me in a good mood and it's one of those that proves people wrong when they say The Next Generation was too formal and PO-faced compared to the original series. Here's an episode that celebrates the silly side of the crew. Some have described it as feeling like it's just on the edge of being a self made parody and yes, it does skirt that, but I just adore that it dared to go there. It feels like one of those cheesy 1980s teen sex comedies and I love it.

 

[Qonundrum]

Jessie Lawrence Ferguson takes some generic dialogue in the largely turgid "Code of Honor" and makes Lutan a far more watchable character than what the story deserved. ("Code of Honor" is no worse than "Justice") The incidental music also was also had a cinematic quality that the story doesn't deserve.

"Code of Honor" is also the first story to be influenced by TOS but made as an original story as opposed to remaking a story outright ("The Naked Now" = "The Naked Time" and even the title was as dated and hackneyed before the rest of the story aired...)

To compare and be pedantic with the nitpicky shtick, "Farpoint" was the first original story that didn't rely on any existing TOS stories as such to be influenced by. Only the tried and tested trope of "magical-supernatural-creature-represented-by-glowing-ball-of-light-turned-corporeal-for-easier-reference-and-to-save-on-f/x-costs", and at least "Farpoint" didn't have the same sort of story act template most TOS episodesusing the trope had. But a trope isn't a template (though a template uses a trope), and in TNG the Q also needed more than one episode to actually believe any claims of humanity and even then, the trial never ended (no TOS episode was so unbelievably optimistic regarding the "glowing ball of critter that would eventually support humanity")...

 

[Qonundrum]

I've always liked The Royale . But I'm a bit of a apologizer for Season Two in particular, it's maybe my favorite season...

I'll go in to bat for The Naked Now . A cheeky riff on a TOS classic it may be, but every time I rewatch it I get swept up in the sheer fun of seeing our characters get drunk and horny, it's an episode that always makes me laugh and puts me in a good mood and it's one of those that proves people wrong when they say The Next Generation was too formal and PO-faced compared to the original series. Here's an episode that celebrates the silly side of the crew. Some have described it as feeling like it's just on the edge of being a self made parody and yes, it does skirt that, but I just adore that it dared to go there. It feels like one of those cheesy 1980s teen sex comedies and I love it.

I first need to say that TNG had a real opportunity with remaking "The Naked Time" as that one fleshed out the crew in some interesting and even frightening ways. Did "Now" have one crewmember paint "sinners repent!" on a bulkhead while in his "drunken" state?

And, yeah, while "Now" was ultimately little more than a token, trite cliché of 80s sex comedy, it still had its moments: Seeing a crew quarters room having its atmosphere setting disabled and everybody frozen to death, in various stages of undress, was rather chilling but in a horrific way. Please pardon the pun. Especially as it was supposed to be an orgy starting to commence (note the naked and semi-naked figures, especially the naked bloke who's in the smack middle of the set as Geordi somewhat understandably enjoys staring at, or the other nekkid folks in the room and yet the censors never figured that out - how cool was that!) And Data uses correct terminology regarding airflow when exposed to the vacuum of space.

Spoiler: Like who wouldn't want to be there? ...

...unless they were frigid...

I did like the updated setting of another starship carrying the virus, though I don't remember how it ended up on the Tsiolkovsky, just that the records from "the old Enterprise" (really??) didn't cure it. Hmmm, after 80 years, one would think that a virus might mutate and render old cures harder or impossible to treat as a result. Crusher of all people should have known that...

That and Wesley was clearly an influence for a certain Professor Farnsworth, but there I go nitpicking the story instead of defending it...

"Now" had a ton of potential, which managed to work on some supplemental scenes (especially the nudie room thanks to the rabid frostbite), but it all really needed to be "po-faced", especially as it was early season 1 and the show needed to establish itself before being so self-aware. Unlike "Spock's Brain", a reviled story that isn't the worst of the bunch because it has just enough self-conscious fun with itself, "Now" is simply too new and is trying to say "We're remaking old stories because we're better and have more compared to 20 years ago, ha-ha." And yet "Now" is widely reviled. Because of how hollow it ultimately is.

Doesn't mean I dislike it, I clearly enjoy some of it but it wasted its potential.

Though seeing Crusher try to seduce Picard, and Data's limerick, it's still fun. Even more so when you bring over a bunch of non-Trek fans after after drinking a few brewskies and turning the A/C up to max...

 

[Mojochi]

("Code of Honor" is no worse than "Justice")

I'll 2nd that

You know, I can barely stomach the story & performances for Eye of The Beholder, but in stark contrast to some of season 7's lackluster writing, was how marvelously the production had mastered shooting the show, especially on episodes that focused themselves aboard ship, like this one. There is just some amazing staging & beautiful shooting in this episode, taking us places on the ship we'd never been, shooting it from angles that made things so much more abstract. Some of the director's choices & production design for these later seasons' episodes is terrific

 

[Shikarnov]

I despise Masks, but I can say it has heart, and really tries to explore some far out ideas. It fails, but it does so because the story is complicated and confusing, which is a nice change of pace from the usual lazy contrivances we see in other bad episides.

 

[Lance]

I first need to say that TNG had a real opportunity with remaking "The Naked Time" as that one fleshed out the crew in some interesting and even frightening ways. Did "Now" have one crewmember paint "sinners repent!" on a bulkhead while in his "drunken" state?

And, yeah, while "Now" was ultimately little more than a token, trite cliché of 80s sex comedy, it still had its moments: Seeing a crew quarters room having its atmosphere setting disabled and everybody frozen to death, in various stages of undress, was rather chilling but in a horrific way. Please pardon the pun. Especially as it was supposed to be an orgy starting to commence (note the naked and semi-naked figures, especially the naked bloke who's in the smack middle of the set as Geordi somewhat understandably enjoys staring at, or the other nekkid folks in the room and yet the censors never figured that out - how cool was that!) And Data uses correct terminology regarding airflow when exposed to the vacuum of space.

Spoiler: Like who wouldn't want to be there? ...

...unless they were frigid...

I did like the updated setting of another starship carrying the virus, though I don't remember how it ended up on the Tsiolkovsky, just that the records from "the old Enterprise" (really??) didn't cure it. Hmmm, after 80 years, one would think that a virus might mutate and render old cures harder or impossible to treat as a result. Crusher of all people should have known that...

That and Wesley was clearly an influence for a certain Professor Farnsworth, but there I go nitpicking the story instead of defending it...

"Now" had a ton of potential, which managed to work on some supplemental scenes (especially the nudie room thanks to the rabid frostbite), but it all really needed to be "po-faced", especially as it was early season 1 and the show needed to establish itself before being so self-aware. Unlike "Spock's Brain", a reviled story that isn't the worst of the bunch because it has just enough self-conscious fun with itself, "Now" is simply too new and is trying to say "We're remaking old stories because we're better and have more compared to 20 years ago, ha-ha." And yet "Now" is widely reviled. Because of how hollow it ultimately is.

Doesn't mean I dislike it, I clearly enjoy some of it but it wasted its potential.

Though seeing Crusher try to seduce Picard, and Data's limerick, it's still fun. Even more so when you bring over a bunch of non-Trek fans after after drinking a few brewskies and turning the A/C up to max...

Nice analysis, and I'd definitely place it more in the "guilty pleasures" catagory than something I'd outright defend as being intrinsically good On a subjective level I never get tired of rewatching it even as on an objective level I definitely agree with many of your criticisms.

Looking at the early drafts of it, the story went through several iterations mainly thanks to Roddenberry (or his lawyer) rewriting it to be a goofball comedy. If you ever get a chance to read a synopsis of Dorothy Fontana's pass at the story you can see something that is clearly much closer in intent with the TOS episode, exploring the psyches of these new characters, as well as being more serious minded and with greater levels of horror (the initial contact with the other ship saw crewmembers commiting suicide cult style rather than blowing an escape hatch during a sex orgy). It does rather leave one wondering what a serious-minded version of the story could have been like, but I gotta be honest and admit I hold no hatred in my heart for the cheeseball sex comedy version we ended up with, either.

 

[Vger23]

Datalore- the crystalline entity is truly alien and inspires a sense of wonder

Code of Honor- cool matte paintings and sets depicting Lutan's planet...felt pretty atmospheric.

Shades of Grey- one of TNG's best indoor planet set dress-ups

Descent 1 and 2- Good cinematography I guess...and a cool Borg ship maybe?

Damn...this is hard when I start thinking about gutter trash like Aquiel, Imaginary Friend, Suddenly Human, and several others. I'll need to come back at it tomorrow

 

[Farscape One]

"Imaginary Friend" - I have to say the concept of an alien race seeing everything from a child's point of view was a nice idea. And we see Troi utilized more here.

 

[at Quark's]

"Imaginary Friend" - I have to say the concept of an alien race seeing everything from a child's point of view was a nice idea. And we see Troi utilized more here.

I'd have to think very hard to find something I like in that episode. Perhaps the mug of Deanna's eternal chocolate the alien kicks over her table

 

[Herbert]

I suppose Heart Of Glory would be a good candidate for me. I never liked it but it does show us some Klingon culture

 

[Herbert]

Time Squared (another personal stinker) does show our usually very in control captain being quite unnerved and uncomfortable meeting his own future double.

 

[Vger23]

Haha...I loved that episode!

Time Squared (another personal stinker) does show our usually very in control captain being quite unnerved and uncomfortable meeting his own future double.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Also I kinda think that weird poison glove obstacle arena thing in Code of Honor was cool.

 

[Kilana2]

Angel One: Riker's chest hair.....