Beloved episodes you can't get into

Hearing D.C. Fontana say that "The Doomsday Machine" was her least-favorite episode (!) got me to thinking: What other precious episodes aren't necessarily beloved by everyone?

I'll start, with "A Piece of the Action." I don't find it amusing or even very interesting. To me, it feels like a 30-minute sitcom stretched to fill an hour-long timeslot. Self-consciously cute. And it's part of the too-many-parallel-worlds syndrome that affected the second season in particular.

Others?

 

TOS S1 City On The Edge Of Forever.

I actually love the opening dialogue between Kirk, Spock, and the Guardian of Forever.

The rest of it is very 'meh' for me. I don't really buy the whole Kirk conundrum and sadness because in the end, she died 300 years before he was born. Any real relationship between them is impossible because she's already dead and has to be for him and the Federation to exist.

So yeah the whole aspect of Kirk pining over someone who died 300 years before he was born just leaves me flat.

 

I have two.

"The Devil in the Dark." Too much talk, no compelling guest star, no women, low-key monster hunt, soft-headed action-free resolution, no original music score, no new ship fx shots, and no time aboard the Enterprise.

"Errand of Mercy." Similar problems without even a monster hunt. Plus Kirk and Spock in tights. The overall look of the episode, in Earth tones, doesn't exactly rock my world.

 

The Enterprise Incident is largely horrible Spockophilic, Kirk-hating fan fic. It's a mess.

 

I've never understood the hype around "The City On The Edge Of Forever". It's a mediocre story at best IMO. Not totally bad, mind. Just not my cup of Earl Grey, I guess.

 

I agree; I don't like it and hardly ever watch it.

 

“The Trouble With Tribbles” is meh. It has moments, but it’s too light for my tastes. “A Piece Of The Action” and “I, Mudd” are both just too absurd. “I, Mudd” is particularly grating given there is a potentially dark and serious story idea buried in it and the robots are played in a cringe inducing manner.

Those three episode make me side with Roddenberry and Freiberger regarding no more comedy episodes in TOS.

 

Your choice but I didn't feel it was Kirk-hating. I just thought the episode made Spock look a bit cringe hanging from the tree. Kirk did what he had to do. I felt a bit bad for Kirk with everyone betraying him.

Way more interesting than the "Inner Light" though - toot toot toot toot.

 

Friday's Child. I'll watch it, but I find little tension in the piece. I like the ship scenes better than the planet ones, but even then most of it seems a little flat.

 

Mudd episodes for some reason.

 

Friday's Child is beloved?

For me -- Trouble With tribbles. It's okay and a change of pace but the love it gets is way is too much.
And then we waste one of the animated episodes with a terrible sequel.

 

They're both garbage. They are beloved to some people? And the animated sequel was trash as well.

 

Most Mudd episodes because they can't decide if it is dangerous or funny. It's not an enjoyable watch.

Catspaw is not one I find fun at all.

City on the Edge of Forever. Too contrived even by TV standards.

 

^^^
FYI - Given your comment above, I think you're confusing TOS S3 The Enterprise Incident, with TOS S1 This Side Of Paradise.

 

Now it makes sense. I didn't think of "This Side of Paradise." I was trying decide if "cringe hanging from a tree" was a figure of speech, like "baloney on a stick" or "nonsense on stilts," meaning "cringe, and a lot of it."

 

agreed about A Piece of the Action.
I never liked Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, either. I keep thinking I will, one day.

 

Two episodes comes to my mind: "Requiem to Methuselah" and "Plato's Stepchildren". It's curious to me as to why these episodes are so praised, since I find them unwatchable.

I kinda like "I, Mudd" and "Catspaw" TBH. They aren't good, but at least they're fun to watch. I rather watch those two than the ones I mentioned.

 

"Charlie X" - embarrassing first half makes it a chore to get through. The rec room scene is terrible.
"This Side of Paradise" - sappy and the overuse of the Ruth theme is laughable and Jill Ireland is terrible.
"Devil in the Dark" - overbaked Nimoy, slow pace, boring sets, New Jersey union guys in space. I didn't miss women, like @ZapBrannigan, I missed the Enterprise.
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" - it's fine. Really. But it's too light for me.
"Amok Time" - once you're past the "discovery of what makes Spock tick" portion, it's boring until the fight.
Any and all full out comedy episodes.

I honestly tend to favor the episodes most fans don't like (with exceptions). While the cast loved the Gene Coon era, I found the first half of the first season to lack the same excitement and feel of the first portion of the year. I love the mystery, grim feel and scares of the Roddenberry/Black episodes. And that same sense of spookiness and drama came back in the third season. While I agree the first portion of the second season is Trek firing on all thrusters, over time, the Coon humor and repetition sucked a little of the energy out. I actually enjoy what John Meredyth Lucas brought to the show. He brought back the military flavor and space opera.

We all have a different "version" of Trek that we prefer, but as far as Dorothy Fontana, the only episode she wrote that I truly love is "Journey to Babel." That one is lightning in a bottle.

 

Funny: I like most of the episodes that were brought up in this thread (I particularly like "Devil in the Dark" because it was the very first episode I saw all the way through), but on the other hand, I cannot understand all the love that seems to be lavished on "The Man Trap," which always struck me as a perfectly conventional, run of the mill, downright stereotypical, nightmare-fodder monster story

 

I actually don't there there is all that much love lavished on "The Man Trap." It has usually been considered a very poor choice for a premiere with a monster, a slow pace and droning music.

However, I do happen to love it and feel the creature is handled with more intelligence and consideration than most "monster on the loose" type shows of the day. Sure, the crew considers it a beast, but it's really just an animal trying to stay alive and requires affection as much as food. I think that brings it a little higher than the stereotypical monster. But, naturally, YMMV.

I even like the music.