Is every episode SOMEBODY'S favorite?

[Eddie Roth]

Over here in Germany, there's a new series of books out, Trek episode guides essentially one book per series, and I've been reading the ones on PIC, ENT and TNG while rewatching the shows. Things like that always include some sort of ratings, and while you agree on many, if not most of them, some leave you puzzled. (For instance the fact that they SKEWER ENT's Similitude, which I always considered a highlight of their third season, while they call TOS's The Mark of Gideon a masterpiece - which in turn not long ago was called one of the worst of TOS by the guys on the Enterprise Incidents podcast) That got me thinking about the standards by which people rate and rank their Treks in general and when and why they diverge from a perceived consensus. Any time you see someone's lists of that sort, there seems to be one of the usual favorites that misses while something else ranks highly that seems... idiosyncratic, shall we say.

Myself, I confess that I've always been a big fan of TNG's Sub Rosa - not to the extent that I would include it in a Top 10, but I truly never saw what was so wrong with it. In fact I would rank it as one of my favorite from Season 7.

Do you have such cases as well, where your honest opinion goes completely against the consensus? Or in other words: is every episode of any Trek the favorite episode (or among the favorites) of somebody?

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, sure ever lower rated episode has someone who likes it, just as there are people who like movies like TFF or Nemesis or even the lower tiered series like Voyager, Enterprise or Disco.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I can't see "Shades of Grey" being in the top 10 of anybody's list.
Though I admit to liking the Riker stuff between the clips, it wouldn't save the episode for any. "Code of Honor" has basically no redeeming qualities and have yet to read of anybody saying otherwise.

 

[Bea Jonas]

"Code of Honor" has basically no redeeming qualities and have yet to read of anybody saying otherwise.

Code of Honor featured a terrific score by Fred Steiner, who also did great work on many classic TOS episodes (he's the only composer to write for both TNG & TOS).

 

[tomalak301]

I feel like I can find good in every episode. Spocks Brain and Threshold might not be regarded highly, but I think the first halves of both episodes were actually good. SB had the meeting on the bridge, and Threshold had an interesting premise of could the Voyager crew get home if Warp 10 was perfected.

 

[gweeps]

Maybe.

 

[Greg Cox]

Probably.

In my experience, not just regarding STAR TREK, nothing is so obscure or forgettable that somebody doesn't love it dearly, if only because they imprinted on it at an impressionable age or because it got them through a difficult time.

 

[gweeps]

Well, sure ever lower rated episode has someone who likes it, just as there are people who like movies like TFF or Nemesis or even the lower tiered series like Voyager, Enterprise or Disco.

Voyager is not "lower-tier" Trek. In fact, I'd wager it's the most popular series after TNG for modern audiences.

 

[Oddish]

I think every episode has someone who likes it. And I think that for all of us, there's the episode where our opinion doesn't follow the crowd. For instance, most people really don't like "Shades of Gray", while I'm fine with it for what it is. Most people here seem Ok with "Half a Life", an episode I passionately hate. And yet, many of my opinions (on episodes like "Best of Both Worlds" or "The Visitor") align with the general consensus.

 

[The Wormhole]

Voyager is not "lower-tier" Trek. In fact, I'd wager it's the most popular series after TNG for modern audiences.

Yes, maybe these days. I was thinking more along the lines of when it was airing when it wasn't the most popular show around.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I think every episode has someone who likes it. And I think that for all of us, there's the episode where our opinion doesn't follow the crowd. For instance, most people really don't like "Shades of Gray", while I'm fine with it for what it is.

But if the original question is "is the episode somebody's favourite", even Shades of Gray, at best, makes it to "Yeah, I don't mind it." Which isn't exactly a top 10 listed episode.

I would bet, of all the Star Trek out there, it is NOBODY'S favourite.

Code of Honor featured a terrific score by Fred Steiner, who also did great work on many classic TOS episodes (he's the only composer to write for both TNG & TOS).

Haha love it, I stand corrected.

But I still bet it's not your favourite episode of TNG.

 

[Oddish]

Voyager is not "lower-tier" Trek. In fact, I'd wager it's the most popular series after TNG for modern audiences.

I'm not sure any series would be considered lower-tier, not since Picard finally had a season that worked. But I think that TOS, TNG, and DS9 are considered the A-list. The others are mostly either "good but not great" or "they have potential, but are still relatively new".

 

[BlueStuff]

I honestly doubt it. Bond films? There are only 25 official entries, so I can buy the idea that each one has a fan somewhere in the world who considers it their favourite. Trek? At something like 1000 episodes, I don't think so. Sure, I can believe that every episode is at least liked or even loved by SOMEONE - but considers it their absolute favourite? That's a stretch. Don't even think of the awful episodes, just think of the completely mediocre entries - something like TNG's Masterpiece Society or Voyager's Rise. I think you could search the world for someone who'd call them their favourite episodes and never find one.

 

[Oddish]

I honestly doubt it. Bond films? There are only 25 official entries, so I can buy the idea that each one has a fan somewhere in the world who considers it their favourite.

Except maybe Quantum of Solace.
Only thing I even remember about that one is Bond going back to the PPK. In other words, giving up nine rounds of magazine capacity and trading down to a round about one-third as powerful. Like trading in a broadsword for a steak knife. Rest of the movie... I don't know... had something to do with water I think.

 

[JamesRye]

Surely, surely, no one's favourite is Profit and Lace. Anyone?

 

[Ovation]

Surely, surely, no one's favourite is Profit and Lace. Anyone?

I like profit. I like lace. So…

 

[Oddish]

I wonder what rationale a person would give for liking "Profit and Lace" (the episode, not financial growth and ornamental fabric).

At least "Code of Honor" had a crazy B-movie laser cage catfight scene.

 

[Timewalker]

Well, sure ever lower rated episode has someone who likes it, just as there are people who like movies like TFF or Nemesis or even the lower tiered series like Voyager, Enterprise or Disco.

Lower tier? Voyager?

Popularity isn't only measured by people watching. It's also measured by how they engage with it in other ways.

For example, this is a screenshot I just took of the basic stats of the number of Star Trek stories published on fanfiction.net:



Note which series outranks TNG by more than two to one. It's Voyager.

VOYAGER has The Most Stories of all of them. They range from short drabbles to stories that have been going on for years, and the chapters number well over a hundred. There's everything from humor to adventure to some that explore some very serious ethical ideas.

That's a sign of an engaged fandom, and fanfic writers don't do it for money, like the professional authors do. They do it because they love the show and have a story to tell.

I feel like I can find good in every episode. Spocks Brain and Threshold might not be regarded highly, but I think the first halves of both episodes were actually good. SB had the meeting on the bridge, and Threshold had an interesting premise of could the Voyager crew get home if Warp 10 was perfected.

Threshold... I spent time recently searching out fanfic related to that episode. It doesn't make me like it any more than I did before (which is to say I really don't like it at all), but to its credit it has spurred some people to discuss the ethics of child abandonment (yes, that's what the crew is guilty of, leaving Paris and Janeway's offspring behind on that planet).

Probably.

In my experience, not just regarding STAR TREK, nothing is so obscure or forgettable that somebody doesn't love it dearly, if only because they imprinted on it at an impressionable age or because it got them through a difficult time.

I'm reminded of Robert Silverberg's novel, Up the Line, and I haven't forgotten that novel you co-authored in that setting. I'm part of Silverberg's email group (he doesn't like social media, so leaves that to others), and if memory serves, he announced a couple of years ago that Up the Line had been optioned.

Of course that doesn't mean a movie or series will actually get made, and they'd have to change a couple of things. It's precisely the sexist attitudes of some of the characters that prompted some of the ladies in my old Time Travel Novels group on Yahoo to give a massive thumbs-down to Silverberg's book. I told them yes, these characters' attitudes aren't great. But that doesn't mean Silverberg himself has those attitudes (he definitely doesn't). I asked them to please just consider the time travel concepts used in the book and read to the end - and it's such a WTF? ending that it really gives the engaged reader a reaction they likely didn't expect to have.

Anyway, this particular novel is one of my favorites, I'm fully aware that some people have very valid reasons for disliking it, and I don't care. I love the concept of time tourism, and the crazy shenanigans and problems people can get into or cause by not being careful. It's also what helped me decide on my SCA persona's backstory, and to take an interest in Byzantine history.

So people who like some unpopular Star Trek stories may actually like them for reasons other than the ones generally expected. It may seem baffling, but whatever. For instance, I'm not a person who likes the plot of "Sub Rosa" and have never liked Beverly Crusher. But I am a fan of Duncan Regehr, so this episode is one I'll watch.

Voyager is not "lower-tier" Trek. In fact, I'd wager it's the most popular series after TNG for modern audiences.

Well, it's certainly the most popular choice for fanfiction, at least on one site (haven't checked the other major sites).

 

[Oddish]

For example, this is a screenshot I just took of the basic stats of the number of Star Trek stories published on fanfiction.net:

Note which series outranks TNG by more than two to one. It's Voyager.

VOYAGER has The Most Stories of all of them. They range from short drabbles to stories that have been going on for years, and the chapters number well over a hundred. There's everything from humor to adventure to some that explore some very serious ethical ideas.

I believe it. I have four or five VOY stories on this site myself. Proof that the series and the characters had incredible opportunity for stories, both silly and serious. It's too bad such a wellspring of story potential went to that particular set of showrunners.

 

[JamesRye]

I like profit. I like lace. So…

Surely it's no where near even the top 50 episodes though.l like Move along Home in a kind of 'so bad it's good way.' But Profit and Lace......