The Least Disliked Episode 2023: DISCO Season 4

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - now with more shows than ever. It's generally a lot of fun, providing a chance to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favourite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just because you feel it would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Star Trek: Discovery
Hall of Champions
2019 - Project Daedalus
2021 - If Memory Serves
2023 -

Season 4

Kobayashi Maru
Anomaly
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
The Examples
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
All In
Rubicon
The Galactic Barrier
Rosetta
Species Ten-C
Coming Home

 

[Farscape One]

I will take out "Rubicon".

I don't remember it at all, so that's a good enough reason to be eliminated.


Kobayashi Maru
Anomaly
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
The Examples
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
All In
The Galactic Barrier
Rosetta
Species Ten-C
Coming Home

 

[Sakonna]

"The Examples" What a dog of an episode. "We refuse to be rescued from imminent death until you listen to a series of long, boring speeches." Terrible structure, terrible pacing.

And the great episode this could have been is RIGHT THERE - all the pieces of a compelling Trek episode are present, they are just assembled in gruesome Frankenstein-ish manner.

Kobayashi Maru
Anomaly
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
All In
The Galactic Barrier
Rosetta
Species Ten-C
Coming Home

 

[Seven of Five]

I love this season, and the arc of trying to communicate with Species 10-C was mainly well done and contained many very Star Trek moments. That said, the season did feel so padded and should have been 10 instead of 13. The Galactic Barrier is a good example of this, so it's gone.

Kobayashi Maru
Anomaly
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
All In
Rosetta
Species Ten-C
Coming Home

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "All In".

Seven of Five mentioned the season was padded, and I completely agree. This episode is another example of unnecessary padding. (I really think the season could have been done in 8 episodes.)


Kobayashi Maru
Anomaly
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
Rosetta
Species Ten-C
Coming Home

 

[Sakonna]

I love this season and I wouldn't have wanted it to be any shorter. I think they just extended the wrong area -- way too much Book & Tarka. And some other characters were given short shrift.

If the Book & Tarka buddy show is diminished and screentime reallocated to other characters at other parts of the season, it's a perfect 13 episodes.

The mistake was slavishly continuing to follow Book & Tarka for every step after they teamed up. They did not need to be tracked in that way, the correct move was to stop showing them to the audience until they could resurface at the most shocking moment.

I'll ax "Coming Home", which I love, but I can't deny that final scene with the 10C needed several more turns through the rewrite cycle. It's an unfortunate spot to have your single big failure of the episode.

I was also so fascinated when the realm of the 10C showed up in SNW: "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach", minimally reskinned to now be a completely different planet. And I thought we were done with the Berman-era practice of endlessly recycling the same planetary matte painting.

Kobayashi Maru
Anomaly
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Seven of Five]

They are as desperate to save money as ever - look at the cancellation and removal of Prodigy by Paramount+.

Anomaly didn't really do a lot for like a lot of the other arc episodes, so it's gone.

Kobayashi Maru
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Stormy Weather
...But to Connect
Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "Stormy Weather".

This one also seemed rather tacked on and could have been taken out completely and just had some scenes inserted in other episodes for the arc.


Kobayashi Maru
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
...But to Connect
Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Sakonna]

Heh, I think "Stormy Weather" is one of the iconic Disco episodes. A climax of getting the ship to sing to help her overcome her emotional obstacles and save the day is just such a perfect encapsulation of core Disco, once it got to the future and actually found it's identity.

I'll ax "...But To Connect", which is awesome but some of that digital doubling of the conference attendees was glaringly obvious.

Kobayashi Maru
Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll go with Kobayashi Maru next. It's a great start to the season but doesn't have the punch that later episodes have. It's also a shame that Booker didn't actually die this season, to ensure that Burnham would have actually faced the Kobayashi Maru.

Choose to Live
All Is Possible
Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Farscape One]

I get the feeling you are all waiting for me to pick the next episode.

I will take out "All Is Possible" because the others remaining are a bit better.


Choose to Live
Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Vger23]

Two things I thought were kind of dumb in the new Trek universe that has been built in the streaming era are the whole story around Michael Burnham’s mom and the Qowat Milat. “Choose to Live” has elements of both.

Rosetta
Species Ten-C

 

[Farscape One]

I'm glad these two are the final ones for this season's game... they are my picks for season 4.

 

[Sakonna]

"Species Ten-C" is just a bit tighter than "Rosetta", so I'll ax that and make "Species Ten-C" the winner.

 

[Vger23]

I liked S4, but didn't love it. It's funny how difficult it was to remember these episodes, to be honest. I hardly remembered any of them, and had to look them up just to get context.

I think that was the issue with S4 for me. It was "fine," but there was very little of it that was memorable. Tarka was a high point of the season. Great character, interesting performance...reminded me of Sybok a little bit, in that he was an antagonist who wasn't really a "villain" and was definitely someone you could sympathize with.

It felt like they tried genuinely hard to do a great "discovery/quest" plot, but it just wasn't quite interesting enough to be memorable.

 

[Unique]

A climax of getting the ship to sing to help her overcome her emotional obstacles and save the day is just such a perfect encapsulation of core Disco

I could not have written a more withering indictment if I tried. I need this on a mug and a T-shirt, stat.

 

[Uhura's Song]

I thought "But To Connect" and "Stormy Weather" were two of the best episodes of the year. Right up there with Species 10-C/Coming Home. I'd be hard pressed not to have both in an all-time DISCO top 10.

S1:
1. Into The Forest I Go
2. Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad
3. Context Is For Kings
4. Choose Your Pain
S2
1. If Memory Serves
2. New Eden
3. Through The Valley of Shadows
S4
1. Species 10-C
2. But to Connect
3. Stormy Weather
4. Coming Home

My Disco rewatch is almost done with S2, so I will withold on S3. S4 is fairly fresh, but it has been a bit.



Of course, Daedalus might be my least favorite episode of S2. Suffice to say I have different tastes than some of the more frequent posters here.

 

[Farscape One]

I thought "But To Connect" and "Stormy Weather" were teo of the best episodes of the year. Right uo there with Species 10-C/Coming Home.

Of course, Daedalus might be my least favorite episode of S2. Suffice to say I have different tastes than some of the more frequent posters here.

That's part of the fun of these games... you never know who's going to win. It just takes one person to not like a favorite of others to get knocked off.

And the reverse is true for the 'Most Disliked' games.

 

[Uhura's Song]

I have to say, my Disco rewatch project has now gotten through Ep 9 of S4. And I find I have to rescind my "Stormy Weather" comments. My memory had a lot of the good Zora stuff in that episode, but it was actually in "But To Connect."

I liked "All In" better this time.

Thru 9:
Best in show: "But To Connect"
Runner Up: "Choose To Live"
Good or better: "The Examples," "All In," "Rubicon."
OK: "Kobayashi Maru," "All Is Possible"
Meh: "Anomaly," "Stormy Weather."

Unlike previous seasons, the season closed stronger than the others but started weaker.