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The Most Disliked Episode of TNG, Season 4: 2021 Edition...

"The Game" was the very first Trek I ever saw. I was hooked immediately. I also totally thought Wesley and Robin Lefler were the leads.
 
I always liked Lefler. Bonus that she was really easy on the eyes... particularly to teenager me. :)

A shame we never saw her again.
 
The end of "The Game" was nicely handled, I admit. The way Wes was scampering around, you're sure he's the last hope of the Enterprise. Then he's caught, and they force him to play, and it seems like the ship is lost... and then Data shows up, and we find out Wes was just the distraction.
 
Once again about 'Imaginary Friend', I really like it but it gets so much crap here.
Am I the only one who likes it?

However, there are episodes that are loved by almost everybody and I don't like them.
'The Inner Light' comes to mind, not my thing.
 
Once again about 'Imaginary Friend', I really like it but it gets so much crap here.
Am I the only one who likes it?

However, there are episodes that are loved by almost everybody and I don't like them.
'The Inner Light' comes to mind, not my thing.

It's not perfect, but the last time I saw it I found it fairly enjoyable.

Inner Light seemed myopic - the species that creates a probe that seeks out one person to fill their brain with a ton of useless information, then to hand out one flute because they ran out of cracker jack boxes, nor does Picard sterilize it with isopropyl alcohol before using it... and once it completes doing its work and not at the informed consent of Picard, it promptly shuts down so it can't go bopping anyone else to tell them the same thing... it's the ultimate robocall!

BATAI: You saw it just before you came here. We hoped our probe would encounter someone in the future. Someone who could be a teacher. Someone who could tell the others about us.
PICARD: Oh, it's me, isn't it? I'm the someone. I'm the one it finds. That's what this launching is. A probe that finds me in the future.

Not sure who the bigger egoist is, too, but if I were Picard I'd probably feel just as honored... It's a good story, but it's by no means TNG's finest.
 
Here's a thought... the Inner Light probe fixes onto the first lifeform its scans find... and it's Spot.

So in 25 minutes, Spot lives 30 years on Kataan. Then he "returns" to the Enterprise in Data's quarters, and being a cat he can never share his experiences. All anyone finds in the probe is some broken equipment and some sort of flute.
 
Here's a thought... the Inner Light probe fixes onto the first lifeform its scans find... and it's Spot.

So in 25 minutes, Spot lives 30 years on Kataan. Then he "returns" to the Enterprise in Data's quarters, and being a cat he can never share his experiences. All anyone finds in the probe is some broken equipment and some sort of flute.

Okay, but what if Spot got the flash from the Cytherian probe in The Nth Degree? Now I'm picturing a super-intelligent Spot taking control of the ship.
 
One of the few stories I'd have let be worst is saved, but The Mind's Eye gets saved. A rather good kidnap/brainwash trope, with mystery surprise character, the setup and execution are great, even if Ron Jones didn't score it.

Just rewatched it. For some reason, I hadn't seen it in a loooong time, but it's a fine episode.

A nice moment of irony is when they can prove those supposed 'Federation' guns to be forgeries because they're actually too good to be authentic Federation guns, with some specification well above Starfleet standards :)
 
BATAI: You saw it just before you came here. We hoped our probe would encounter someone in the future. Someone who could be a teacher. Someone who could tell the others about us.
The things that caused some questionmarks....
The culture that sent the probe was trying to figure out how to keep their crops alive when there was drought. That was something they couldn't handle but they were able to send a probe that scanned Picard's head (something they had no knowledge of), implanted a whole world into his mind and Picard lived in that world for a life time in 25 minutes. Then they trusted that the one person the probe finds is someone who is interested in sharing his knowledge. Someone else might be pissed off and say nothing to anyone because of the mind trap. People on Katan got lucky they found Picard. Isn't that some kind of crime, robbing someone of their life and make them live in a fantasy? Fortunately for Picard he was able to retun to his own life later.
 
You know, maybe they should have had Picard disappear for a few episodes after "Inner Light". The idea being that he's on Earth, telling historians about Kataan's culture. After all, only he knows anything about it.
 
You know, maybe they should have had Picard disappear for a few episodes after "Inner Light". The idea being that he's on Earth, telling historians about Kataan's culture. After all, only he knows anything about it.

It might have been a good idea to launch more than one probe and maybe they did, only the one was shown to us.
 
It might have been a good idea to launch more than one probe and maybe they did, only the one was shown to us.

If they had real CGI back then, instead of doing just one rocket launch they'd show acres and acres' worth, all rendered in crisp detail with LightWave, to invade litter inform the universe with! :lol:
 
If they had real CGI back then, instead of doing just one rocket launch they'd show acres and acres' worth, all rendered in crisp detail with LightWave, to invade litter inform the universe with! :lol:

Hell, they could have totally done that – Video Toasters were very much a thing when "The Inner Light" was in production!
 
Hell, they could have totally done that – Video Toasters were very much a thing when "The Inner Light" was in production!

Oh, they existed - Babylon 5 and Seaquest prove that there was some value for sure - but they were more qualified or even parochial in scope, and something like acres of mountains, desert terrain, smog, those tiny cows in the background making methane, and big rockets still had more detail via matte paintings and optical/practical effects trickery. Especially with TNG opting to stick with practical effects all around, trying but not adopting CGI in 1986/7 during pre-production phase...
 
However, there are episodes that are loved by almost everybody and I don't like them.
'The Inner Light' comes to mind, not my thing.

Oh I can't stand the inner light. Aside from all the ways the episode fails logic...it's a whole episode of people dressed in beige brabbling about nonsense nobody cares about because we have never seen those characters and will never see them again.
And then it ends with silly flute playing...wow that was really worth mind-raping a major character for.
 
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