Top 5 Worst Episodes of Entire Franchise

[mitchconner]

Okay, I'm sure this topic or a similar topic has been done a million times, but I'm new and I couldn't find one in the search, so here we go:

5, Sub Rosa (TNG season 7): Doctor Crusher episode. Then there just happens to be an Irish settlement straight out of the 19th century in the middle of outer freaking space. If they ever made a Star Trek soap opera, this episode would fit right in.

4, Melora (DS9 Season 2): Dr. Bashir stars in his own after school special. That was the thing with DS9 -- the episodes were either amazing or awful. There wasn't much gray area.

3, Threshold (Voyager Season 2): Tom Paris breaks the Warp 10 barrier and begins to "evole" and then mates with Janeway as a lizard. So, so stupid.

2, Shades of Gray (Season 2 finale): This was arguably the worst season in the entire franchise but this episode is by far one of the most awful. Two words: Clip show. I know there was the writers' strike but come on... a clip show after 2 seasons? At least this is the only Star Trek clip show I can remember unlike Stargate which did like 30 of them.

1, These Are The Voyages (Enterprise finale): Worst way to end a series -- EVER. First of all, they kill of Trip which was so freaking weak. Then there's the depressing aging Riker and Troi interactions and the incredible flimsy attempt at tying the episode to "The Pegasus" from TNG. I'm sure its all been said before but this episode really pissed me off. Then again, I actually liked Enterprise and feel it was canceled way before its time.


Sorry everyone. I have 20 years of Star Trek related rants to get out of my system.

 

[Mr Silver]

Sub Rosa (TNG season 7): Doctor Crusher episode. Then there just happens to be an Irish settlement straight out of the 19th century in the middle of outer freaking space. If they ever made a Star Trek soap opera, this episode would fit right in.

I actually like this episode. Just to be clear, it's actually a Scottish settlement and it's clearly stated in the episode that the architect of the settlement visited Scotland and fell in love with it. From there he decided to build the settlement based on the place he visited. I think something about terraforming was mentioned as well and the design came about later after the architect had been to Earth.

There are some questionable scenes in it (the possessed corpse and the sleeping sexual stuff), but overall it's a nice little period episode with a few twists and turns.

 

[mitchconner]

Ha -- I couldn't remember if it was Scottish or Irish. I last watched it about 5 years ago and remember the whole experience to feel rather cumbersome. And it's not that I hate Beverly Crusher episodes -- the one where she gets stuck in the weird warp bubble was a classic -- but I just remember not enjoying this episode. Season 7 was kind of a weird season. It had some of the best episodes of the series and many of the worst, and I recall that episode being clustered in the middle of several of the best.

And now that I re-think that season, I'll swap it out for the episode Force of Nature. Oh, god! How could I forget that episode?! It was whole "warp 5 speed limit" episode. I love the environment and all, but even I found that episode a little too preachy. And plus it created an incredibly annoying addition to the Star Trek canon that they kept having to explain until the series ended. Yeah, that episode was way worse... But I still didn't like Sub Rosa.

 

[Biffette]

No, Sub Rosa was way way worse than Force of Nature; at least Force of Nature almost makes sense. Sub Rosa had that crazy Scottish guy fishing around in the weather control room for no good reason, Beverly dating the weird guy and writhing around with the ghost candle, all the while knowing her 100+ year old grandmother was doing the same stuff right before she died. I mean, sharing her dead grandmother's sex candle is ICKY. And dating a guy she knew had just been dating her grandmother? And Picard and the rest of the crew chuckling about the whole thing? Super-weird. Also, there's the bit where the ghost inhabits her dead grandmother's corpse . . . that Data and Geordi have just exhumed. Exhuming Beverly's grandma's corpse? Really? Okay I can handle the energy bolts that she uses to attack Geordi and Data because energy bolts are fun. But the way she tries to but doesn't actually fall down when Ronin ceases to animate her is the icing on this ridiculous messed-up episode.

 

[Keith1701]

Okay, I'm sure this topic or a similar topic has been done a million times, but I'm new and I couldn't find one in the search, so here we go:

5, Sub Rosa (TNG season 7): Doctor Crusher episode. Then there just happens to be an Irish settlement straight out of the 19th century in the middle of outer freaking space. If they ever made a Star Trek soap opera, this episode would fit right in.

4, Melora (DS9 Season 2): Dr. Bashir stars in his own after school special. That was the thing with DS9 -- the episodes were either amazing or awful. There wasn't much gray area.

3, Threshold (Voyager Season 2): Tom Paris breaks the Warp 10 barrier and begins to "evole" and then mates with Janeway as a lizard. So, so stupid.

2, Shades of Gray (Season 2 finale): This was arguably the worst season in the entire franchise but this episode is by far one of the most awful. Two words: Clip show. I know there was the writers' strike but come on... a clip show after 2 seasons? At least this is the only Star Trek clip show I can remember unlike Stargate which did like 30 of them.

1, These Are The Voyages (Enterprise finale): Worst way to end a series -- EVER. First of all, they kill of Trip which was so freaking weak. Then there's the depressing aging Riker and Troi interactions and the incredible flimsy attempt at tying the episode to "The Pegasus" from TNG. I'm sure its all been said before but this episode really pissed me off. Then again, I actually liked Enterprise and feel it was canceled way before its time.


Sorry everyone. I have 20 years of Star Trek related rants to get out of my system.

I think my list would match with yours for the same reasons.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Welcome mitchconner
It's a good list. Though I would make a few changes. I would remove "Melora." Well, I might hate it just as much as you do. However, it's one of those episodes I'll give to them gladly. Consider: this episode evolved out of a desire to actually have the Melora character be a member of the main cast back when the show was being developed. They didn't do it only because doing the zero-g effect would have cost prohibitive on a regular basis. They didn't even consider that the character herself was a bad idea, not until this episode (which got the concept out of their system) was produced.

2. I would add Prophet and Lace in it's place.

I would also remove TATV. Sure it's disappointing, particularly as a finale. And it was misguided. However, they were facing a cancelled show and a cancelled franchise. It's very hard, beginning with a blank sheet of paper to write any episode, let alone one that caps a franchise. They gave it a game try, and there are really good scenes here. I love Archer giving T'Pol a hug. I also like the scene between Trip and Riker.

Good stuff there.

I might add Cost of Living in it's place.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

I'd remove Melora and substitute it with Meridian.

And I kinda like Threshold in an amusing way. I'd put And the Children Should Lead in.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Here's mine, for what it's worth....

5.) Shades of Grey (TNG Season Two) - Yeah, a clip show, in Star Trek. And it was in TNG Season Two! What more needs to be said?

4.) Let He Who Is Without Sin... (DS9 Season Five) - A lot of people say Profit and Lace is the worst of DS9. Well, at least that one was only mildly below average, at least until Quark showed up with boobies. Then it went downhill so fast you couldn't keep up. This episode is crap right from the start. It's like the writers sat down and said, "Let's have an episode where we totally shit on the whole concept of Risa that we've built up, make each and every character be as annoying and awful as possible, have a half-assed attempt to show conservatives as evil and stupid only to have our 'heroes' look even worse and show that Worf is an ass because he doesn't bow to every one of Dax's wishes."

3.) Threshold (VOY Season Two) - What can I say that hasn't already been said? The scientific, character and narrative problems are so awful that it's unbelievable. But, at least the episode was able to hold my attention, unlike....

2.) The Fight (VOY Season Five) - It literally took me three attempts to watch this episode the first time around. It actually kept putting me to sleep! That's how boring it is. Also, apparently Chakotay has TEH CRAZY GENE! We've never heard of it before, but he's supposedly had it the whole time. Who knew?

1.) TATV (ENT Season Four) - I hate this episode so much that I refuse to write the full title. Beside being bad, bad, bad from a storytelling viewpoint (worst episode ever!, not to mention an absolute failure as a finale for a show, let alone a franchise!), it's also a deliberate slap in the face to actual fans of ENT as far as I'm concerned. This isn't a "valentine to the fans." It's a baton passing back to the heydays of TNG, nothing more. If it's a tribute to all Trek, why is the ENT story secondary to the Riker-Troi one? Where are the references to DS9? VOY? Aside from the montage at the end of the three Enterprises, where are the references to TOS? And that was only added in at the last minute by Mike Sussman! The more I think about it, the more I think it's a slap in the face not just to ENT fans, but also to TOS, DS9 and VOY fans as well. This episode hurts me.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Just five? But there are so many episodes in certain seasons that make me rage! Forcing me to choose between zero and one representatives from the third season of TOS, the first two seasons of TNG, the seventh season of TNG (which for the record I'm quite fond of... once you remove the bad episodes), the first couple of seasons of Voyager (although the bad episodes are spread about more evenly here, I guess?) and the first two seasons of Enterprise.

And then there are the random one-star showings in the middle of a really strong season, like "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." in DS9's stellar fifth. Oh, this is too, too hard. But I'll take a crack at it.

5. TOS: "The Way to Eden"
4. DS9: "Move Along Home"
3. VOY: "Threshold"
2. TNG: "Sub Rosa"
1. TNG: "The Code of Honor"

Ugh, this is just too hard. I might come back later with a top twenty-five or something. Hell, ENT didn't even get a chance to show off how bad it could sometimes be here.

 

[Shazam!]

Sub Rosa is totally brilliant - You have Beverly Crusher sexing it up and fog on the bridge of the Enterprise

 

[mitchconner]

2.) The Fight (VOY Season Five) - It literally took me three attempts to watch this episode the first time around. It actually kept putting me to sleep! That's how boring it is. Also, apparently Chakotay has TEH CRAZY GENE! We've never heard of it before, but he's supposedly had it the whole time. Who knew?

Oh man, I totally forgot about that abortion of an episode. I never really liked how they handled Chakotay and his relationship to starfleet in general. I think the whole Maquis subplot was kind of hit and miss, but that wasn't really the focus of that episode. Although I've watched every episode of Voyager multiple times, that's one of them I always skip. I really don't see the appeal of boxing as a framing device for a science fiction program -- although Battlestar did have a decent boxing-related episode...

The standard DS9 Ferengi episodes were pretty awful as well. They became the Lwaxana Troi episodes of DS9 (aside from the actual Lwaxana Troi episodes...). Almost as bad as the Kes episodes of Voyager.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Sub Rosa is great in its own way

 

[ChristopherPike]

I'd love to include TATV. I truly hate it. Literally despise how they ended one of my favourite shows. Sure enough, I can read the novels but they're not immortalised on screen for millions to see. My heart tells me to put it on the list. But my head tells me an unsatisfactory attempt to wrap up Enterprise doesn't necessarily make it bad Star Trek. Faced with cancellation, I'd probably not bother bringing closure at all and leave the door open for fans to imagine what they want to have occurred next - in a way 24th Century characters idly remarking on such-and-such's demise before we even see it obviously makes it very final. It still scrapes its way into my 5 worst shows in that particular series however... and I wouldn't hesitate putting it among the all-time bottom 10.

5. "The Way to Eden"
4. "Spock's Brain"
3. "Profit and Lace"
2. "Threshold"
1. "Shades of Grey"

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

That's a rockin' ENT avatar, ChristopherPike.

 

[sonak]

it amazes me that "the alternative factor" never comes up in these lists, one of Trek's most unwatchable episodes.

for me it's:

1. the alternative factor
2. Shades of Gray
3. A night in Sickbay
4. The Fight
5. Let He Who Is Without Sin

I go for "difficult to watch," not "so bad it's good," like "threshold" or "spock's brain."

 

[Guest12]

I think I'd differ from a lot of others for not including TATV. As a finale, definitely, terrible, but as an episode, there are much worse.

1) "Move Along Home" -- worst episode of DS9 ever. I realize it was probably just supposed to be a "fun" episode, but no.

2) "Marauders" -- seriously? If I wanted to watch A Bug's Life, I'd watch Pixar.

3) "Shades of Gray" -- for the same reasons listed by others.

4) "Spock's Brain" -- needs no explanation

5) probably "Threshold" but since that's been said a million times before, I'll add "Time and Again" (granted it was VOY's third episode) but I can't get over the fact that the aliens spoke English w/o the communicators and Tom was able to read the alien clock since it used Arabic numerals.

 

[ChristopherPike]

That's a rockin' ENT avatar, ChristopherPike.

Cheers. Hopefully I'll be able to finish off the video that's going with it, before September's out. Causing me nothing but problems right now and I'm painfully slow at doing stuff like that.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Even if it's late, better that than never as they say. I'll have to make sure I see it!

 

[JiNX-01]

TOS: And the Children Shall Lead
TNG: Anything with Lwaxana Troi in it.
DS9: Move Along Home
VOY: Threshold
ENT: This Ain't The Valentine

 

[SteveDavis]

I don't think so these episodes were worst