Most overrated/underrated Trek episodes
- Thread starter TalkieToaster
- Start date
I think the whole fighting for eternity to save the universe thing is a cool idea. That makes for a good thirty seconds of entertainment value, I guess.
City on the Edge is anything but overrated, a true classic. I do agree with a previous poster that The Conscience of the King is criminally underrated though.
Most underrated TNG: The Survivors, a chilling mystery with a lot of pathos and depth, if you allow yourself to see it. Most don't, however.
DS9 had many underrated episodes simply because the show 1. had so many good episodes altogether, and 2. because the flashy, action-oriented ones tend to outshine the smaller stories that often, however, had even more depth of character. On this list: Progress, Life Support, Necessary Evil (although the latter cannot be truly considered underrated).
Most underrated TNG: The Survivors, a chilling mystery with a lot of pathos and depth, if you allow yourself to see it. Most don't, however.
DS9 had many underrated episodes simply because the show 1. had so many good episodes altogether, and 2. because the flashy, action-oriented ones tend to outshine the smaller stories that often, however, had even more depth of character. On this list: Progress, Life Support, Necessary Evil (although the latter cannot be truly considered underrated).
Not so much over/under-rated but a defining episode for Voyager is "Threshold".
What they should've done was change "Year of Hell" from an episode into a season-long story arc like the Dominion War was for DS9. ALSO, at the end of the arc, don't reset everything. Endgame would've been much more powerful if B'elanna and some grunt from the lower decks makes it back in a shuttle 30 years after setting off.
What they should've done was change "Year of Hell" from an episode into a season-long story arc like the Dominion War was for DS9. ALSO, at the end of the arc, don't reset everything. Endgame would've been much more powerful if B'elanna and some grunt from the lower decks makes it back in a shuttle 30 years after setting off.
That was Braga's plan, but UPN nixed it and made it a two-parter instead.
Most overrated: "In a Mirror, Darkly". It's awful. Who cares about these stupid mirror morons? What point does any of this serve? Such a waste of a TOS crossover.
It screws up continuity, too - with the Defiant, the mirrors should have had a massive technological boost by the time of "Mirror, Mirror"
It screws up continuity, too - with the Defiant, the mirrors should have had a massive technological boost by the time of "Mirror, Mirror"
Nah, I'm with the King here. It just felt ugly and sleazy, much more so than Trek XI. Though I'm not too concerned about continuity; it's not much of a stretch to imagine that a bunch of ships ganged up on the vessel and managed to blow it up before the timeline could be severely affected.
Drat and triple drat. Seeing Voyager disintegrate was the high point of the series.
Saito S said:
Oh, I definitely agree with you about "Space Seed." I just watched it earlier this week, in fact (first time in many years - I never have liked it, but we just got TOS for Christmas and it came up in the queue so...), and it was even worse than I remembered. The only really good thing about it is Ricardo Montalban, whose considerable charisma (and Lord, does he have a lot of it) was still not enough to mitigate the many, many problems this episode is festooned with: horrible, cliche-ridden dialogue; miscasting (Ricardo Montalban as a Sikh? Please); several major plot holes plus lots of minor ones; and, worse of all (for me, anyway), Marla McGivers acting like a besotted teenager swearing eternal love to her abusive boyfriend rather than a grown woman and a Star Fleet officer. And she wasn't the only one acting besotted either, since all the other officers except Spock fawned over Khan like starstruck groupies as well.
I didn't like this episode when I first saw it and I like it even less as the years go by. I almost gave up on Star Trek movies when they announced that Khan would be the villain of the second movie - that's how much I dislike this episode.
I think "Balance of Terror" is usually pretty high up on the great episodes chart. It certainly is on mine - it's right up there at or near the top of the list - but I think it's generally well thought of as well.
Last edited:
Careful now JRoss, Ellison might hunt you down and sue you.
Definitely underrated, I'm a minor fan of Robert Brown and thought he did a fine job portraying two characters. As far as "incoherent," I believe the first half of the episode is supposed to be deliberately confusing to the viewer, at least as far as there being two Lararus's. The ending contain a lot of pathos.
IMHO this episode is somewhat similar to the Jet Li movie "The One," (I love Jet Li movies) with the double Lazarus's in the Yu Law/Gabriel Law roles. The two productions aren't identical, but many of the basic concepts are there. It also kind of makes William Shatner the counterpart of action star Jason Statham.
I realize I'm going to get drawn and quartered for saying this...but I was surprised to discover how much "Descent" (TNG) gets dumped on around here. I still think it was a very good two-part episode. And it's actually one of the reasons I can't stand VOY, for totally dumping on what we established post-liberation Borg are like. Strong-emotion-preventing device? Oh, please...watch Hugh go off on LaForge and tell me he had any such device! Seven sure shouldn't have! If anything, Hugh tended towards "extremes" of emotion.
Underrated..."Ties of Blood and Water." My God. I cried like a baby when I saw it.
Overrated: "Far Beyond the Stars."
Underrated..."Ties of Blood and Water." My God. I cried like a baby when I saw it.
Overrated: "Far Beyond the Stars."
TOS:
TNG- The Inner Light.
I read people hail this as greatest of TNG episodes. I just never got into it. The 'relive your life through someone else's thing- there are a lot of those episodes.
It seemed somewhat bland to me. I preferred Tapestry.
Underrated
TOS; Balance Of Terror. It hasn't been put down, but I rarely see it listed as 'one of the greats'. I liked the ending of this episode.
VOY; Course Oblivion -Where the crew discovers they're only duplicates of the originals. I think it's very underrated, I've even seen it described as one of the worse episodes, go figure.
TNG- The Inner Light.
I read people hail this as greatest of TNG episodes. I just never got into it. The 'relive your life through someone else's thing- there are a lot of those episodes.
It seemed somewhat bland to me. I preferred Tapestry.
Underrated
TOS; Balance Of Terror. It hasn't been put down, but I rarely see it listed as 'one of the greats'. I liked the ending of this episode.
VOY; Course Oblivion -Where the crew discovers they're only duplicates of the originals. I think it's very underrated, I've even seen it described as one of the worse episodes, go figure.
Manny Coto's plan had Enterprise continued was to have a Mirror Universe episode a year, a sort of show within a show. Mike Sussman even submitted has story outline for season 5's MU episode to Pocket Books, where it was turned into a short story for one of the Mirror Universe anthologies.
Or assault me. He's an angry, angry man.
That makes no sense to me. Is Ms. Green of the opinion that military officers routinely assassinate neutral party politicians and foreign criminals?
The biggest annoyance in ITPM is how quickly everyone forgets about Vreenak's guards. I guess if you ain't in the Senate, your life is cheap.
Greg Cox said:
What it didn't need to be was two hours long. I don't think anyone ever realized how badly the returns diminish on the Mirror Universe. You can only go back to the same well so many times, especially when the well is so stupid.
Anyway, I'm glad to see City on the Edge of Forever getting knocked down a peg. I don't hate the episode, but it's definitely my choice for most overrated piece of Trek of all time: both its time-travel theory and understanding of how America became involved Second World War are, well, as Wolfgang Pauli said, not even wrong; and, most unforgivably, it's boring.
Underrated for TOS: Is There in Truth No Beauty? The effect used for Kolos is the height of cool alien design, an op art masterpiece unequalled before or since. And the story is okay.
Overrated for TNG: The Best of Both Worlds. You'd think a society of cyborgs would have better information security, but I guess you'd be wrong.
Underrated for TNG: Where Silence Has Lease. I believe this is considered a bad episode by most, but it's really one of my favorites. The unsettling atmosphere elevates this one to a classic in my book. As far as creepy episodes, only Remember Me is its equal.
Overrated for DS9: DS9 is hard because most DS9 episodes considered great in fact are. Thus I choose Duet. Duet is also great, but it's what pretty much every episode should have been in the early seasons, but instead it's an exception to the rule. What should have been standard quality fare is therefore elevated to the bestest thing ever, when maybe it ought not have.
Underrated for DS9: Chrysalis. It's fucking enchanting. Also, not an episode, but Avery Brooks' acting is consistently underrated. Yeah, he sells it to the cheap seats. It's awesome. What've you got against emotion, folks?
Last edited:
Similar threads
