Good Bad Episodes

[Steven Of Nine]

There are only a handful I skip - off the top of my head they are Gamesters, Is There In Truth?

These are two bad episodes I love to watch over and over.

Is there... has a lot going on, not least of which is people's hidden motivations. People do things completely against expectation because of their own petty (not so petty to them) jealousies and desires. As a youth, and younger person, I hated this 'boring' one. Now I love it.

Gamesters is just pure schlock, plenty of skin, and Kirk fights a lot. Awesome.

Whom Gods Destroy is my all time favourite BAD one. Ihnat, as Garth, is superb. Lines like "I may have you beaten to death," and "I'll kill you with my bare hands!" never fail to amuse. He and Shatner throw great overacting tantrums.

Love it.

Spock's Brain and The Way to Eden are camp fun of the highest level.

The Alternative Factor, And the Children Shall Lead... I jsut can't stand. I never watch them.

 

[Jbarney]

Good post.....Here are a list of some of the episodes I have only seen a couple of times, none in the last 15 years or so because when I saw them I did not want to revisit them. With summer coming....who knows.....

What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Dagger Of The Mind
Metamorphisis
Is There In Truth No Beauty
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink Of An Eye
That Which Survives
The Mark Of Gideon
The Lights of Zitar


Wow....just noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the episodes in the middle and near the end of the 3rd season....

 

[Brutal Strudel]

"What Are Little Girls Made OF?" is a personal favorite of mine, sans irony.

 

[Shieldsdown]

The Alternative Factor, has to go down as one of the worst Trek episodes ever. Just about the only one I avoid.

 

[seigezunt]

I love The Way to Eden for the rockin' jam sessions.

 

[Cakes488]

I love The Way to Eden for the rockin' jam sessions.

That's right baby... and we reach on that....
I'm gonna wrap my knuckles and jump for joy, I got a clean bill of health from Doctor McCoy.

I liked this episode for a lot of reasons...one of them being Kirk as the uptight father figure (authority) juxtaposted against the hippies....

 

[KingstonTrekker]

"Spock's Brain"

I like it. Sure it makes little sense in many regards, but I like it.


One thing I do like about this episode is the screentime that Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu receive while Spock is in sickbay lacking a brain.

 

[Gorn Captain]

So in reviewing the first season on Blu Ray, I think the only "bad bad episode" is The Man Trap.

 

[stoneagepunk]

I don't think that Spock's Brain is that bad. Plato's stepchildren is the most ridiculous.

I generally do not like episodes too much, that focus more on other people than on the enterprise crew. Like Who mourns for Adonais, A private little war, etc.

I like the empath, and Bread and Circuses has some great conversation between Spock and McCoy.

 

[AtoZ]

I like The Alternative Factor for two distinct reasons. Shatner's dramatic flair when reasoning that Lazarus is using a "door" to bridge universes and Eddie Paskey's "moment of glory" at the helm firing phasers.

Those two points alone make this one a winner in my books. A gem of questionable luster, perhaps?

 

[Cakes488]

So in reviewing the first season on Blu Ray, I think the only "bad bad episode" is The Man Trap.

I can tell you I hated Man Trap as a kid because I felt they reran that one more than the others. I'm sure (?) that's not true but I felt like every time I turned on Trek it was that ep so I declared a dislike for it. It took 20years but I'm over it now.

I like The Alternative Factor for two distinct reasons. Shatner's dramatic flair when reasoning that Lazarus is using a "door" to bridge universes and Eddie Paskey's "moment of glory" at the helm firing phasers.

Those two points alone make this one a winner in my books. A gem of questionable luster, perhaps?

LOL with the gem thing again...but as long as you like it then I think you can consider the gem gleaming.

 

[Steven Of Nine]

I can tell you I hated Man Trap as a kid because I felt they reran that one more than the others. I'm sure (?) that's not true but I felt like every time I turned on Trek it was that ep so I declared a dislike for it. It took 20years but I'm over it now.

That was me and "Catspaw," a Bad Bad Episode. I was at college, so I didn't get STrek as much as I'd like. And when I could... it was always "Catspaw."

 

[Gorn Captain]

So in addition to introducing a good bad episode, a bad bad episode, I would now like to reveal a new term for this thread, the okay bad episode. This is the type of episode that is mediocre, but you don't hate it, and you watch it because in its mediocrity, it retains its freshness, because it didn't bear repeat watching.

For an example of that, ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Day of the Dove"

 

[Peter the Younger]

"A Private Little War" has a great premise and an interesting moral compromise that I really like, sandwiched in between some really awful OTT acting. And a white gorilla with a horn on it's head. (Seriously, if someone is new to Trek and this ep comes on, I grab the remote before they can see it.)

"All Our Yesterdays" has some pretty cheesy acting as well, but it was the first episode I remember as a kid, and so I have a great affection for it. (I also remember being scared of Mr. Atoz for some reason. Weird.)