Ranking the Episodes of Season Seven

Season Seven


The Ugly
Masks
Sub Rosa
Emergence

The Bad
Interface
Dark Page
Journey's End

The Meh
Firstborn
Phantasms
Liaisons
Bloodlines
Homeward
Eye of the Beholder
Force of Nature

The Decent
Thine Own Self
Inheritance
Attached
Descent II

The Good
Gambit
Preemptive Strike

The Great
Genesis
Parallels
Lower Decks
The Pegasus
All Good Things...

Like Season Two, Season Seven was feast or famine. A lot of poor and middling episodes, but when they made a good episode, it was really good.

 

The Ugly
Sub Rosa - but the caber toss and people in the 24th century wanting to live in 18th century conditions as if there's no difference!
Force of Nature - on par with season 5's preachiness and it's not like any story since then kept to the new edict made as everyone's authorized to go above the speed limit or all the other species don't give a **** either which way
Emergence - the only thing missing is Picard jumping over the new life form on skis except he did that a few too many times in season 5 already

The Bad
Dark Page - I don't remember this one
Journey's End - Ds9 was already doing Cardassian stories a lot better
Descent II - Meandering plot! Wooden acting! Misuse of Borg and Lore! Incidental muzak at a new low! Ugh!

The So bad It's Good
Liaisons - summed up as "Love and love, what is love! Don't touch me!! Wait, do touch me!! Why are you scared!!!"

The Meh
Interface - Geordi has a mom? You mean the crew other than Riker or Worf or Picard didn't hatch from an egg?
Firstborn - James Sloyan is back, in another role. Okay...
Inheritance - Data has a mommy? A mommy who is also an android? What a shock!
Bloodlines - Picard really made a kid? Okay... "The Battle" did the revenge trope a lot better, and without insinuating Picard boinked someone, much less make a child he'd feel more uncomfortable around
Homeward - it's tolerable and a better version of a movie using it as plot fodder some four years later, but...
Eye of the Beholder - based on a true life Twilight Zone story

The Decent
Masks - very high concept and gives Spiner another chance to act his Starfleet-issued socks off
Thine Own Self - always liked this one
Attached - feels like a leftover from mid-season 1 but McFadden and Stewart always had great onscreen chemistry and it's not a bad story regardless
Phantasms - very creepy, especially loved the phone and Troi bits (with mint frosting :-9)


The Good
Gambit - a bit lengthy, but worthy
Preemptive Strike - a decent finale for Ro, who (oddly) thankfully didn't go to DS9 as Kira rocks

The Great
Genesis - another high concept episode. Almost has a season 2 feel with the sci-fi elements (a lot of season felt like it was returning to embracing sci-fi and high concept over soap opera, which is much appreciated.) I might nitpick how humans devolve into spiders (it's a stretch on a clever idea) but the direction makes up for it
Parallels - the ending also changes the past, which seemed baffling, but the rest of the episode is first rate and is the first proper story involving the Borg since TBOBW. Kudos for having Riker of all people break down psychologically
Lower Decks - first rate with a few great twists, though I do wonder if Picard was setting up the girl and taking advantage of her wanting to make up for past sins to get into a suicide mission because he hated her
The Pegasus - OMG, depth to a character that isn't all sugar and lollipops on that good ship! Riker is the perfect choice. Perfect casting, this one deserved the big budget for those f/x... there are plot nitpicks (every story has them to some degree) but it's all handled so strongly where it counts that I just don't care about treaty nitpickies.
All Good Things... - Plot nitpick and retcon aside, everything else about it more than makes up for the Pasteur creating the anomaly (not the future-Enterprise) and the retcon could be that Q could be known for moving goalposts so it's all good




VERY SPECIAL BONUS: The It's So Bad That The Heckler's Video Improves Upon It
Sub Rosa, again:


(yes, the episode is so bad it deserves to be mentioned twice. Plus, that video elevates it in quality.)

 

Looks like we are in pretty close agreement, although we differ on Masks.

I was definitely impressed with McFadden's directing in Genesis. She should have been directing sooner.

Love the video!

 

Season 7 is TNG's weakest season in my view. There are still a few episodes that I haven't forced myself to watch, including Dark Page, Masks, and Sub Rosa. But there are a handful of episodes that I enjoy rewatching like Liasons, Gambit Part I, Pegasus, Lower Decks, Firstborn, Genesis, and Parallels. All Good Things was a pretty decent finale too.

 

We had to have a common ancestor at some point, yeah?

 

I posted this in a thread earlier this year where I rated every episode. It turns out S7 is my least-favorite TNG season:

(1- not rewatchable, 2- rewatchable/average, 3- classic/favorite)





Season 7:
Descent Pt2 1
Liaisons 1
Interface 1
Gambit pt1 2
Gambit pt2 2
Phantasms 2
Dark Page 1
Attached 2
Force of Nature 1
Inheritance 1.5
Parallels 3
The Pegasus 2
Homeward 2
Sub Rosa 1
Lower Decks 3
Thine Own Self 2
Masks 2
Eye of the Beholder 1.5
Genesis 1
Journey's End 2
Firstborn 2
Bloodlines 1.5
Emergence 2
Preemptive Strike 3
All Good Things 3

Average Score: 1.82
Total Score: 45.5

 

Genesis only a one?

 

I agree with every episode you put into pro and con. I especially like the Gambit two parter. There was some real swashbuckling adventure to it and maybe PIC will catch some of its spirit.
All Good Things ranks among the very best of TNG. It is a masterpiece.
Pegasus and Genesis are also nice episodes. The conclusion of the Descent story could have been worse, yet I would have liked to see more of the TNG borg COLLECTIVE besides the individualist borg led by lore. I have to admit I always found the tng borg more frightening than the semi reimagined borg starting with first contact.

 

Without a doubt! The Borg Queen was a bad idea.

 

I dont know if I would go that far by calling it a bad idea, but the queen only should have been mentioned but never been seen. I liked the time when the borg were a faceless enemy, being really relentless and powerful. Just the way they were in tng, but including the concept of assimilating individuals. I also preferred the original interiors of the borg cube. By making the interior darker and with green Club lighting it wasnt getting scarier. Au contraire mon capitaine.

 

It completely changes what the Borg were. Plus, she was played a little corny.

 

My quick ratings are here. The show was very hit and miss at this stage of its life, and I think I prefer season two on the whole. But there is still some good stuff:

Excellent
All Good Things...
The Pegasus
Preemptive Strike
Lower Decks

Good
Parallels
Inheritance
Phantasms

Average
Dark Page
Interface
Attached
Gambit (both parts)
Journey's End

Mediocre
Thine Own Self
Liaisons
Descent, Part II
Eye of the Beholder
Firstborn
Emergence

Poor
Genesis
Bloodlines
Masks
Force of Nature
Sub Rosa

 

It's really striking how many of the episodes this season involved family members of the crew, many of them previously unseen:

Descent II (Data's brother)
Interface (Geordi's mom* and dad*)
Dark Page (Troi's mom and sister*)
Inheritance (Data's mom*)
Homeward (Worf's brother*)
Sub Rosa (Beverly's grandmother*)
Journey's End (Beverly's son)
Firstborn (Worf's son)
Bloodlines (Picard's supposed "son"*)

*Characters never seen / mentioned before

In fairness, Luxwana and Alexander were regular recurring characters, so it wasn't too surprising to see them. And even though Wesley had left the ship, I'm sure the writers wanted to wrap up his storyline. But I'm not sure if we really needed to see Lore again or any of the other newfound relations.

 

Genesis seems to be a very divisive episode. I thought it was great, but there is very little middle ground in opinion on this one. Not sure why.

 

I thought Genesis was one of TNG spookiest episodes, and the whole idea of the crew de-evolving into some messy and dangerous animals was fun. I haven't seen it in years. I remember reading a review of Mark. A. Altman where he said it would have much better with less technobabble.

 

I guess Genesis is more of a brainless-fun kind of episode, a bit like Threshold and Spock's Brain. It depends on what sort of mood you're in.

 

Here's my two cents:

The Great
The Pegasus
Attached (although the end still ticks me off)
Gambit (both parts)
Journey's End
All Good Things

The Good
Parallels
Dark Page
Eye of the Beholder
Thine Own Self
Firstborn
Preemptive Strike

The Meh
Inheritance
Interface
Bloodlines
Lower Decks
Liaisons

The Bad
Homeward
Phantasms
Descent, Part II
Emergence
Force of Nature

The Ugly
Sub Rosa

Please God, Burn the Masters
Genesis
Masks

 

Another hater of Genesis!

Mad Mike, what pissed you off about the end of Attached? For me, I thought they gave the wrong lines to Picard and Crusher. She should have come onto him and he, after his experience in Lessons, should have been the one to gently rebuff.

And you forgot Parallels!

 

I really wanted to see them get together, but if it had went the way you suggested... I could find that satisfying.

Whoops, I knew I would end up missing one. *Fixed

 

Regarding the Borg...

I think I will agree that the TNG version is scarier, though watching assimilation as it happens is truly frightening.

And I think the reason the TNG ones are scarier is because of the minimalist approach to the makeup and effects. Granted, that's more a product of the times and what is in budget but I believe, in most cases, less is more.

My wife cited a great example... THE TERMINATOR. The scene when he takes out his eye. It's clearly an artificial face, and it would look different if it was made now, but it actually makes him creepier AND scarier because of the fake nature of the effects/makeup.

I've also said this before and I will always say it... it is MUCH more difficult to act and emote through makeup and prosthetics than your natural face. That kind of acting is becoming a somewhat lost art due to the advances of CGI post-production.