You know, Threshold could have been good, if the result of Paris' warp 10 flight had been something Event Horizon style, and not seeing a fast speed evolution (which is, in itself, totally ridiculous).
I have to pull out my Companion to refresh my memory as far as which episode i consider the worst.... but i do not have to pull it out to say that i LOVED both The Q and the Grey AND Course: Oblivion. I even cried during Oblivion! *ducking from things being thrown at me* but....at least i get to say my mother's favorite expression again......"That's what makes horse racing!"
I voted Threshold because even Brannon Braga says it was dreadful. Though I hate The Fight and Tattoo also. Maybe I just hate any episode revolving around Chakotay. I quite like Spirit Folk despite the awful stereotyping of Irish folk. But then this is Tom's view of an early 20th C Ireland so maybe it is meant to be inaccurate and stereotypical. We'd make a stereotypical holoprogram if we were making it historical.
Tom pulling his own tongue out it probably one of the most alarming things Trek did. In fact I think the BBC may have censored that clip Course: Oblivion, probably the saddest. Yes death was inevitable, but they still had hope their logs would be saved. So cruel... I'm honestly not sure I've even seen all of Sprit Folk, and I've seen every episode of Trek upto (and including) Endgame!
I think my least favourite episode would be Human Error, or Unforgettable maybe, but Spirit Folk certainly comes a close third. Oh, and Endgame of course. And an honourable mention to Tsunkatse, which I switched off halfway through out of sheer boredom. Maybe the ending is the most exciting bit; I guess I'll never know (shame). There are several others which I find a bit boring but don't quite earn the 'terrible' crown like some do. I actually love both Q and the Grey and Course:Oblivion, and I'm kind of 'meh' about Threshold. I saw it before I got into the fandom and saw how much hate there was for it, and I thought it was a bit ridiculous but still entertaining in places (the bits with Tom losing it in sickbay are pretty good). The ending is, obviously, deeply stupid.
C:O is actually one of my favorite episodes. Plus, NO RESET! Threshold was VOY's worst. Just for how retarded it was in concept.
My problem is that the episode gave us a whole episode of character development, that has no impact on anything. Tom and B'Elana work things out and get married, for example, in nothing but a little fuck you to the fans. At the end of the day, the episode is just a waste of time because their deaths and sacrifice are meaningless. To me that's worse than the reset button. The whole episode is a reset button. To me it's worse than the Demon planet episode, because it forces us to remember that stupid episode and try to work through the logic of it. Seriously, how does that goo from the planet go from replicating organic matter, to replicating anti-matter, and bulkheads, and sophisticated computer equiptment? And if the magic goo could do all that, why would it randomly just start to break down? There are just to many leaps in logic required for this. And if there was something meaninful at the end of the day, maybe I'd be willing to suspend disbelief, but not as is.
Haha, I'd forgotten about that. That should get a Sonak Award for being unpleasant Trek (yes, I just made the Award up, don't look it up). Surely the worst thing about Threshold is the end though. I mean...what? From what I recall, the Doctor, who couldn't find the cure while Tom was suffering, just undoes it all, Janeway quips that she didn't imagine having children with Tom, and they carry on flying home. And this was the guy who wrote Frame of Mind and Parallels.
Why is Nightingale not on this list? Truly cringeworthy, both the A and B stories. An hour of watching men make asses out of themselves. Joy.
It was hard for me to pick just one terrible Harry Kim episode. Yes, Nightengale was bad, but was it worse than Favorite Son (where Harry's convinced that he's special, only to learn that all the beautiful women want to eat him, not have sex with him)? Was it worse than The Disease where he can't even get laid without completely embarrasing himself and putting the mission in danger? We might need a whole separate thread for the category of bad Harry Kim episodes.
It was the double-whammy of Harry AND Icheb completely embarrassing themselves that really pushed that episode over the edge. There was no respite from the cringing. The A and B stories were both opportunities to watch supposedly intelligent young men completely humiliating themselves. I'm sure some people are into that kind of thing, but I'm not. And of course, there was Nice!B'Elanna, who honestly did seem like she was hitting on poor Icheb, and Perceptive!Seven, who was suddenly a master of motivational leadership. The women were out of character just to make the boys look pathetic. I loathe that episode. The only redeeming part was how the the Icheb actor couldn't keep a straight face while "breaking up" with B'Elanna. I thought he was going to lose it when he got to the part where he says "my scans indicated a state of arousal." (He probably did, on multiple takes, actually. Could you get through that line with a straight face?)
Threshold had crossed into camp for me, so it is redeemed. The Q and the Gray was just an embarrassment. I voted for that one.
Ooo, I forgot about the Icheb subplot. Yeah, that was terrible. What is it about B'Ellana that inspires geeks to strike out with her? First Vorrick, then Icheb. Btw, how can I be the only one who thought Course: Oblivion was terrible?