Bottom Five Episodes

[Stroudarian]

Alright folks, earlier this week I posted a question asking you to list your top five favorite episodes. Now, I am curious as to which five episodes would you select at your least favorites? I tried my best to select five, as I encountered a similar problem with listing my top five; it is very difficult to do. Not because there are so many episodes that I dislike, but because there are so many great episodes, that I find it difficult trying to select five episodes that I do not find appealing, especially from one of my favorite shows of all time. Season 1 is by far my least favorite, but to be fair, every show has to spend its time in "purgatory" and should be permitted to find its groove. I feel that by Season 2 the show had found its identity, but that does not negate the fact that I dislike so many episodes from the first season. Anyway, my five are listed below. Please share your list as well.

5. Journey's End
4. Angel One
3. Shades of Gray
2. Sub Rosa
1. Masks

 

[Tosk]

There's just no way I could narrow it to five.

 

[Vger23]

Imaginary Friend
Hero Worship
Dark Page
Aquiel
Sub Rosa



Honorable mention:
The one where Beverly is investigating the death of the Ferengi scientist. That's a bag of crap too.

 

[Vger23]

There's just no way I could narrow it to five.

There was admittedly a lot of crap to sift through with TNG. I discounted the first season, which meant I left Datalore, which is a total bag of shit, off my list, for example.

The bad was really bad and the good was really good. Typical of a sci if series that goes 7 years of 26 episodes each.

 

[Mojochi]

Shades of Gray: Trek has never sunk so low imho
Code Of Honor: The most tone deaf crap of all
Aquiel: Such a phoned in mess
Sub Rosa: The cringiest
Imaginary Friend: The yawniest

 

[Vger23]

Shades of Gray: Trek has never sunk so low imho
Code Of Honor: The most tone deaf crap of all
Aquiel: Such a phoned in mess
Sub Rosa: The cringiest
Imaginary Friend: The yawniest

I only skipped Shades and Code because they were too obvious!

 

[Sakonna]

My worst three are episodes I find both really bad AND deeply bland and boring... so many of the other "bad" TNG's have a quality of transfixing oddness or 80's campiness or interesting character work that can make them fun to rewatch, despite their problems. But these episodes offer nothing on any level, I never need to see another minute from any of them again.

A Matter Of Time
The Quality Of Life
Force Of Nature

(edit: just realized the above list is the ninth episode from each of the last three seasons -- tough slot, apparently! -- or I'm in a time loop and the number "9" is the key information I need to escape)

And I'll round my 5 out with:

Code Of Honor -- for the racism
The Outrageous Okona -- for destroying the concept of humor

 

[tomswift2002]

In Theory
Data’s Day
Aquiel
Homeward
When The Bough Breaks

 

[Nakita Akita]

Masks
SubRosa
Suddenly Human(although Picard wears some sexy outfits, on the other hand he gets stabbed)
Inner Light
Up the Long Ladder( total racist)

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

The Quality of Life (law of diminishing returns, completely abysmal, no redeeming messages (even TNG's three most racist stories show at least one scene with merit and as such can't make the bottom ten)

The Masterpiece Society (even season 1 and 2 stories mentioning The Prime Directive do it with more authenticity despite their mistakes, not to mention how most of season 5 is so overly contrived with its one-sided, one-dimensional preaching)

Sub Rosa (needed to make fame by the Big-O, there is 0 substance)

Suspicions (Crusher gets off way too easily for quite a major offense she committed)

I, Borg (all of a sudden, everyone makes friends with the Borg. Contrived, unconvincing, Picard's original plan would also have prevented the mess known as "Descent" (#6 on my list but at least "Descent" didn't change characters to fit the narrative the way Chekov was allegedly altered to deal with space hippies ))

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Sub Rosa
Code Of Honor
Up The Long Ladder
Rascals
Shades of Gray

 

[Sakonna]

(even TNG's three most racist stories show at least one scene with merit and as such can't make the bottom ten)

Assuming 1 and 2 are Code Of Honor and Up The Long Ladder, but what's the third one?

 

[Vger23]

The Quality of Life (law of diminishing returns, completely abysmal, no redeeming messages (even TNG's three most racist stories show at least one scene with merit and as such can't make the bottom ten)

The Masterpiece Society (even season 1 and 2 stories mentioning The Prime Directive do it with more authenticity despite their mistakes, not to mention how most of season 5 is so overly contrived with its one-sided, one-dimensional preaching)

Sub Rosa (needed to make fame by the Big-O, there is 0 substance)

Suspicions (Crusher gets off way too easily for quite a major offense she committed)

I, Borg (all of a sudden, everyone makes friends with the Borg. Contrived, unconvincing, Picard's original plan would also have prevented the mess known as "Descent" (#6 on my list but at least "Descent" didn't change characters to fit the narrative the way Chekov was allegedly altered to deal with space hippies ))

I too believe that I, Borg is dull, overrated crap. Not bottom 5, but pretty shitty.

Descent is definitely bottom of the barrel too.

 

[Vger23]

I think there are a lot if people who mistake the meaning of the word "racist" in this context.

There are some episodes that certainly insensitivity portrayed racial stereotypes. But that is not "racist" per se.

 

[Lynx]

TNG have very few bad episodes but here are the five worst:

Shades Of Grey
Lessons
The Outcast
Sarek
Cost Of Living

 

[tomalak301]

Cost of Living
The Child
When the Bough Breaks
Imaginary Friend
New Ground

The most annoying aspect of TNG for me (And I love TNG) were episodes dealing with Children, so I could have added stuff like Hero Worship to this list as well.

 

[Vger23]

Cost of Living
The Child
When the Bough Breaks
Imaginary Friend
New Ground

The most annoying aspect of TNG for me (And I love TNG) were episodes dealing with Children, so I could have added stuff like Hero Worship to this list as well.

Agree. Hero Worship is an immediate skip. As is Dark Page, Imaginary Friend, The Bonding, and Suddenly Human. All nearly impossible. Just like anything on VOY with Icheb and the Borg kids. Frigging awful.

 

[Armus]

Here are 5 that easily come to mind...

Home Soil
Suddenly Human
In Theory
Imaginary Friend
Descent Part II

Here are 5 more...
Unnatural Selection
Aquiel
Dark Page
Sub Rosa
Masks

 

[Armus]

I think there are a lot if people who mistake the meaning of the word "racist" in this context.

There are some episodes that certainly insensitivity portrayed racial stereotypes. But that is not "racist" per se.

I never understood all the charges leveled against Code of Honor. That being said, sensitivity to offensive stereotypes is not a bad thing...I find Code of Honor to be an entertaining, campy episode with a good moral core. Lutan could have cared less whether Yareena died fighting Tasha; he would have inheritated her lands either way...thanks to Dr. Crusher's skill he got his comeuppance and Hagon was made Yareena's first.

 

[Elephant999]

Here are my 5:

Shades of Grey - I detest clip shows with a vengeance.
Up the long ladder - Such an offensive stereotype of the Irish
The last outpost - Stupid idea that Depicting the Ferengi as monkey like creatures with stupid whips would be good entertainment. Awful amateur episode.
Justice - A mixture of soft porn, scantily clad gorgeous young people inexplicably running everywhere and a ridiculous punishment scenario, plus Wesley!
Schizoid Man - Dreadful dialogue, stupid premise.