• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Best and worst single episodes of Star Trek

You know it's weird but I think I'm just wired differently from a lot of people. Now I'm not saying that Move Along Home is a great episode, but I've always kind of liked it, mostly for the fact that when all is said and done, it really is just a game they are playing, and I always thought that was a great way of subtly getting across the idea that in first contact with an unknown race you can't take anything for granted.
 
I'm going to go with

Best: The Inner Light - TNG
Worst: Shades of Gray - TNG

...I mean, come on, a Riker clip show?! After only two seasons? But Picard living an entire lifetime, A+++!
 
Best-
TOS- The Doomsday Machine
TNG- Best of Both Worlds pt 1
Voy- Scorpion pt 1
DS9- Trials and Tribble-ations
ENT- In a Mirror, Darkly

Worst-
TOS- The Alternative factor
TNG- Shades of Grey
Voy- Threshold
DS9- Crossover (to me they ruined the Mirror Universe)
Ent- TATV
 
There's too much Trek out there'd for me to classify best and worst, but one of my favorites is Darmok, simply for the audacity of building a prime time television episode around linguistics -- and making it work, dramatically.

Shades of Gray has to be the worst, just because it was a cheapo clip show with an utterly ridiculous framing device.
 
Best-
TOS- Balance of Terror
TNG- Inner Light
Voy- N/A
DS9- The Visitor
ENT- In a Mirror, Darkly

Worst-
TOS- Spock's Brain
TNG- Shades of Grey
Voy- Impossible to choose - all of it's so bad
DS9- Move Along Home
Ent- TATV
 
Best and Worst implies an empirical absolute. I prefer to state which is my favorite.

My favorite,

DS9 "Duet" The powerful emotions, incredible character developments, unraveling of a mystery, and sacrifice of one man all make this my favorite.

Least favorite

VOY "Threshold" New dilithium crystal or not, no way a single crew who haven't been resupplied in years is able to build something that achieves *infinite* speed. The evolution non-sense is just icing on the cake. Ignoring that evolution can't happen without a biosphere to interact with, does that episode actually suggest that newts are much more suited for space travel than humans?
 
I think TATV beats out all trek episodes for worst. I mean, by itself it might be mediocre but the fact that it was the series finale and it got hijacked by a previous trek's characters just puts it at number one for worst for me.

Best? I'll go with BoBW.
 
I'm not sure what the best is, that is a hard one. However if I would have to choose an episode that really stank, it would have to be "Threshold" from Voyager. This is the episode where Tom Paris goes through a state of "reverse evolution" so to speak and he turns into an amphibious type of creature. Even Brannon Braga who wrote it said it sucked!
 
It looks like we are in agreement! I should have read some of the other posts before I posted mine!
 
Best and Worst implies an empirical absolute. I prefer to state which is my favorite.

My favorite,

DS9 "Duet" The powerful emotions, incredible character developments, unraveling of a mystery, and sacrifice of one man all make this my favorite.

Least favorite

VOY "Threshold" New dilithium crystal or not, no way a single crew who haven't been resupplied in years is able to build something that achieves *infinite* speed. The evolution non-sense is just icing on the cake. Ignoring that evolution can't happen without a biosphere to interact with, does that episode actually suggest that newts are much more suited for space travel than humans?

It looks like we are in agreement. Apparently this episode universally sucks!
 
Last edited:
For the Best Episodes:

Voyager- Course Oblivion: If they didn't reveal that the crew were duplicates so quickly, I think it would have been even more effective.

TNG; Yesterday's Enterprise: It had the action, almost looked like a mini movie.

DS9: I think they had quite a few because they were more bolder in their storytelling.

In the Pale Moonlight
Far Beyond The Stars
The Visitor

TOS: Balance Of Terror or Mirror Mirror

The Worst:

There is an episode on Voyager that is so bad, it might possibly be even be dangerous;

"False Profits" -the One with the Ferengi :rommie:

DS9: The Emperor's New Cloak,

The funny thing is, as dated an "tame" TNG was , I couldn't really think of an episode that bad..

So it will have to be "Shades of Grey"
 
Threshold wasn't that bad! Neither was False Profits. Year of Hell though, that is. Put Voyager through a year of crap at the mercy of a time travelling mad scientist/ship commander, then reset the whole damn thing by destroying the time traveller's ship.

Arg.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top