Good scenes in mediocre episodes

[amp]

"Ménage à Troi" is from season 3 but it plays like a really bad first season episode. Nevertheless, the ending with Patrick Stewart chewing scenery and mangling Shakespeare in a bid to get Lwaxana back always makes me laugh.

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I can't seem to specify the starting point, but the hijinks start at 0:42.

 

[Orphalesion]

"Ménage à Troi" is from season 3 but it plays like a really bad first season episode. Nevertheless, the ending with Patrick Stewart chewing scenery and mangling Shakespeare in a bid to get Lwaxana back always makes me laugh.

Yeah other than the ending that episode really is a stinker; the embarrassing Ferengi plot, that pointless ship-tease with Will and Deanna that goes nowhere, Betazed *yet again* being played by some park in Southern California (I'm so sick of the constant, Mediterranean vegetation in 90s Trek! It's pretty yes, but on every freaking planet? Can we have a New England planet for a change?) And even Lwaxana's arc of "making Deanna enjoy her life more/learning to accept Deanna as an adult" went absolutely nowhere.

I'd say it's the second-worst Lwaxana episode overall (the worst being Manhunt, because that one doesn't have any redeeming features at all)

 

[Farscape One]

I think "Manhunt" does have one redeeming feature.

The scene with Picard trying to alter the violence aspect, each getting more and more crazy. Him throwing himself against the wall calling 'freeze program' makes me laugh hard every single time.

It's a funny scene. To me, at least.

Other than that, I agree the episode is a clunker. (Tracy Torme actually wrote it, but didn't put his all into it because Maurice Hurley heavily rewrote his previous episode. He created a second pen name for the credits on this one.)

 

[Oddish]

"Up the Long Ladder" is a meh episode with an appalling moment (where Riker apparently commits murder), but the "wee drop of the creature" scene between the Irish guy and Worf is hilarious.

 

[amp]

Another amusing "Up the Long Ladder" bit is when the leader of the cloned colony says, "Now, after three hundred years, the entire concept of sexual reproduction is a little repugnant to us," the director cuts to Riker looking extremely uncomfortable.

 

[at Quark's]

Night Terrors to me is a distinctly average (not really mediocre, just average) episode. That is, the premise and atmosphere is interesting enough -people slowly losing their minds over a lack of REM sleep- but some of the execution so silly and needlessly drawn out and dragging on, e.g. with that recurring Troi 'nightmare' where both parties couldn't get more creative in their communication attempts than 'where are you?' and 'Eyes in the dark. One moon circles.' even after repeated attempts.

But the one 'scare' scene that really does it for me is Beverley in the morgue, with the bodies suddenly sitting up, Beverley taking a few steps back in shock, bumping into one that's at her back, her concentrating, telling herself it's not real, looking again and seeing the bodies lying down again. Still sends a chill through my spine after all those years. So simple, yet so effective.

 

[Farscape One]

In defense of the crew and Troi not understanding, their lack of sleep will not help their cognitive or reasoning abilities.

"Night Terrors" is more an average episode than bad, but my view could be colored by the fact I love horror and creepy episodes. (Halloween is THE best holiday, hands down.) I can certainly see why the episode ranks so low with everyone else, though I never considered it 'bad'. As a kid or as an adult.

But I definitely agree about the scene with Crusher. And they used a time honored mentality in getting the right mood of that scene... the simpler it is, the more effective it is. Less is more.

Another nice bit was Picard losing it in the turbolift. For years, we see him as a pillar of calm and thoughtfulness. To see him on the ground like that, screaming... you know the rest of the crew is becoming unhinged in worse ways if even Picard goes bonkers.

 

[at Quark's]

Yes, I must confess that I took the original meaning of "mediocre', which by the latin root of the word I would suppose to have been more like "average" before it actually started to mean 'bad' (and 'good' started to move in the direction of 'average' - such words seem subject to inflation over time).

As for Troi, wasn't she the only one that didn't suffer from sleep / REM deprivation, and wasn't she the only one who stayed reasonably sane, even if under a lot of stress ?

And I agree, the Picard turbolift scene is a great one too.

 

[Farscape One]

She didn't suffer it as badly, but she was starting to go a little off the rails too. She even said she was barely sleeping anymore, which would also impair your mind. Andrus was what she would have become in a little while if they didn't escape.

 

[Oddish]

I liked the denouement scene in "The Game", when Wes is getting hypnotized with the game, and it looks like the whole ship is under enemy control... then the lights go dark and the turbo lift opens, and Data comes out and light-blasts everyone. I thought that part was well handled.

 

[DonIago]

I don't consider "The Game" a mediocre episode, so...

Actually it's one of the few episodes where I like how Wesley is handled.

That's without even considering how much more relevant the message is today than it was at the time... Cellphones, cellphones everywhere...