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Game The Most Disliked Episode Written By Gene Roddenberry

Thank you JonnyQuest for saving that one! "Omega Glory" has a nice sci-fi horror subplot, which is trashed by the parallel Earth subplot that somehow created a perfect replica of Constitution and US flag surviving an aftermath of Yankees vs Commies cringefest.

"Mudd's Women" is a mixed bag of a curate's egg, but Childress and Eve are by far the most depth-given characters, with Karen Steele putting in some great polish -- and either ad libbing or giving dialogue that hints above and beyond the situation of "conventional marriage", about partnerships and working together for equal benefit that transcends and works marvelously well. That's pretty dang big. Still, it's easy to see what's offensive in this episode. That and I've been told I perceive things differently so my perception is bound to be different. But does not everyone have the same issue to varying degrees? Oh well, up next for my list of digressions: "How to make a grilled cheese sandwich with real cabbage and skunk glands."

As expected, Ruth and Magda just seem to be happy to go along for the ride, no pun intended, but in a 49 minute episode it would be too easy to overcomplicate and the most important stuff is accorded to Eve.

Also, the anti-drug message is two decades too early and is rough around the edges, but pleasant nonetheless as TOS is selling self-confidence more than being an object - and recalling "Inside Star Trek" from 1976 when Roddenberry openly confirmed he treated female and male characters as sex objects, "Mudd's Women" is definitely going well above and beyond that to show more facets and that's very appreciable. As much as I liked Yar's impassioned sledgehammer speech, which doesn't not work, the scenes shown in this episode do a number in their own right - just as much as the addicts from "Symbiosis" were and TOS was more adult-themed as opposed to "full families" where the after school scene seemed more germane.

Mudd, a sex trafficker in this story, shows the 23rd century is not exactly a utopia in of itself - and why DS9 is truer in Trek spirit than TNG despite what TNG brought in that worked - but Mudd isn't exactly a Federation citizen either.
 
I just recently properly sat thru all of "The Omega Glory" for the first time. I did not like it!

Thanks all for playing!

Another writing-based quickie up next: "The Most Disliked Episode Written By D.C. Fontana"

MOST DISLIKED "WINNER"LOSERS, 2020
"HEY, THIS PLANET IS JUST LIKE EARTH!": TOS, Season 1: "Miri"
WRITER GENE RODDENBERRY: TOS, Season 2: "The Omega Glory"
SEASON PREMIERE: TNG, Season 7: "Descent, Part II"
PRIME DIRECTIVE: TNG, Season 7: "Homeward"
LWAXANA: DS9, Season 1: "The Forsaken"
ROMANCE OF THE WEEK: DS9, Season 3: "Meridian"
FERENGI: DS9, Season 7: "The Emperor's New Cloak"
DIRECTOR WINRICH KOLBE: VOY, Season 2: "Elogium"
CARDASSIANS: VOY, Season 2: "Investigations"
HOLIDAY: VOY, Season 4: "Day Of Honor"
HOLODECK: VOY, Season 6: "Fair Haven"
DIRECTOR DAVID LIVINGSTON: VOY, Season 6: "Spirit Folk"
TIME TRAVEL/ANOMALY/LOOP: VOY, Season 6: “Fury”
MAQUIS: VOY, Season 7: "Repression"
BARCLAY: VOY, Season 7: "Inside Man"
Q: VOY, Season 7: "Q2"
LATIN TITLE: ENT, Season 1: "Terra Nova"
2-HOUR/2-PART: ENT, Season 1 & 2: "Shockwave"
VISIT TO EARTH'S "PRESENT": ENT, Season 2: "Shockwave, Part II"
KLINGONS: ENT, Season 2: "Marauders"
HALLUCINATION/ILLUSION: ENT, Season 3: "Extinction"
VISIT TO EARTH'S PAST: ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part I"
THR'S 100 GREATEST TREK EPS: ENT, Season 4: "Home"
CAST CROSSOVER: ENT, Season 4: "These Are The Voyages..."
MIRROR UNIVERSE: DIS, Season 1: "What's Past Is Prologue"
INTRODUCTION OF RECURRING ALIENS: DIS, Season 2: "An Obol For Charon" (the jahSepp)
SECTION 31: DIS, Season 2: "Perpetual Infinity"
RECYCLED TITLE: ST, Season 2: "Children Of Mars"
ROMULANS: PIC, Season 1: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1"

TOTAL SHOW WINS
TAS & Movies - 0 wins
ST and PIC - 1 win each
TOS and TNG - 2 wins each
DS9 and DIS - 3 wins each
ENT - 8 wins
VOY - 9 wins
 
"Encounter at Farpoint" was two episodes mushed into one. The space jelly luuuuurve was the least effective, despite having Troi being most effective in sensing the alien emotions that none of the humans could pick up on and keeping that trait as well as having Guinan's dialogue would have made Troi a far better character than "Captain he's showing the obvious" every week.

The court trial and Q are so much better, all in all. It also has a comic book if not cartoonish feel yet still works. Q goading humanity was always more than face value shtick and I love it all. Still, later seasons have Q as being cartoonish yet the whole story he's in didn't feel cartoonish as aresult.
 
I'll next save "Hide And Q." It's not great, but jesus, look at what's left on this list! And "Hide And Q" is kind of fun at least. There's some authentically bonkers weirdness in this. "Vicious animal things." The penalty box. "Is this sex to you?" And most of all, the Aldebaran serpent!

I'm always struck by the sheer ridiculousness of the idea of a lifeform that's three snake heads coming out of an orb-of-light body. I was just looking up the serpent name on Memory Alpha, and was shocked to see an explanation for how this came about... as scripted, it was supposed to be Q appearing FIRST as a rotating ball of light, THEN as a snake, then as John De Lancie. And then they combined the two forms into one!

That is some real in-the-weeds entertainment industry problem solving there. You're so in the thick of it, you get the word that the budget will only allow one transformation in this scene and not two, you LOVED the idea of the lightorb and you LOVED the idea of the snake and you don't want to lose either one of them, how are you going to stay in budget but also keep all your cool ideas -- wait, I've got it, SnakeLightOrb! A harmonious solution that lets you have everything and that doesn't feel bizarre or tortured at all! :rolleyes: ...

Finally got a moment to read through the saved entries... Did not know that about the original intent of glowing orb followed by snakeathon followed by DeLancie (:drool:).

I always saw it as three snakes in an exotic pot, like a rose in a vase. Imagine a row of them in the Planet of the Snakes' courtroom chamber pot place all discussing how to rule their land and how to corral all of those tasty inhabitants of Mouseville and to defend from the inhabitants of Mongooseland......

Here is a link to an image of an Aldebaran Serpent:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Aldebaran_serpent?file=Aldebaran_serpent.jpg

I always wondered whether the Aldebaran Serpent was supposed to be a real species of living beings, presumably from a planet of the star Aldebaran, or was supposed to be more of an Aldebaran depiction of some imaginary being. Q would have had the power to inhabit a statue of a mythical creature just as easy as inhabiting a living biological body, after all.

For example, here is a link to an image of the great seal of Charles VI, Elected Emperor of the Romans (1711-1740):


A link to an imperial coat of arms of 1250:


And a link to an image of the coat of arms of Emperor Francis II & I (1804-1806)::


A "Byzantine" Emperor standing on pillow decorated with two-headed eagles:


An empress of Trebizond wearing a robe with two headed eagles:


A link to the flag of the President of Turkmenistan:


A link to an image of the Hydra:


However, in real life it is possible for advanced animals to have two or more heads:

 
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