Least discussed episode

[Jim Of Seattle]

Admittedly new to the bbs, excited to participate.

So I'm reading around here and I see the same episodes being talked about more than others. The big faves of course, and the love-to-hate-em episodes. It got me thinking. What is the least talked about TOS episode? Of course, all of them are brought up regularly, but if you took everything written about each episode and concatenated it into a huge long scroll, (all in the same font and spacing to make it fair of course), which episode's scroll would be the shortest?

The next question: Why is that the winner (loser)? You can't say it's because it's bad, Spock's Brain and Children...Lead are discussed all the time.

Here's my off the top of my head vote:
Obsession

Others?

 

[NovaStar]

The Immunity Syndrome. Largely for me the most forgettable. I can’t remember a thing from it. It’s just meh

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

Oh but it's about the coolest special effect in the whole series!

 

[Phaser Two]

Nice question.

I definitely don't think it's Obsession, though. The capabilities of the creature, the discussion of its disposition, and (for me) flushing the radioactive waste into the ventilation system (????) come up a lot.

One possible answer might be This Side of Paradise. Very seldom mentioned AFAIK in my nearly three years around here.

 

[drt]

I feel like This Side of Paradise is mentioned now and then since it's a "Spock shows emotions" episode.

My vote is The Empath (although, as it happens, i recall someone bringing it up earlier this week - but that seemed like the first time in ages).

 

[Spock's Barber]

Assignment Earth, maybe because it barely passes as a Star Trek episode. GR’s potential tv series pilot features more of Gary Seven and Roberta than our Enterprise crew. Kirk and Spock kind of fumble around; then they almost cause World War 3. What else is on?

 

[tomalak301]

I don't see A Private Little War mentioned all that much. The Mugatu was a weird creature.

 

[Phaser Two]

Assignment Earth, maybe because it barely passes as a Star Trek episode. GR’s potential tv series pilot features more of Gary Seven and Roberta than our Enterprise crew. Kirk and Spock kind of fumble around; then they almost cause World War 3. What else is on?

Er . . . that may be an episode you don't like, but it currently has its own thread! It's discussed pretty heavily I'd say.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Er . . . that may be an episode you don't like, but it currently has its own thread! It's discussed pretty heavily I'd say.

...but it only had 108 responses until it was derailed onto other topics.

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

Oh yeah, The Empath is right up there. Possibly the hardest episode to sit through. Excruciating. At least Spock's Brain isn't boring.

 

[Greg Cox]

This thread already seems to be veering from "least-discussed" to "that episode I don't like," which are not necessarily the same thing. "Turnabout Intruder" and "The Way to Eden" are both terrible eps, but are frequently mentioned--if sometimes as cautionary examples. We all know the most celebrated episodes, as well as the famously worst, but I suspect the OP is thinking of the "mid-tier" episodes that get discussed less often.

"Miri," possibly. Or "Friday's Child" or "Mark of Gideon"?

 

[Greg Cox]

Er . . . that may be an episode you don't like, but it currently has its own thread! It's discussed pretty heavily I'd say.

And has inspired umpteen books and comics. Just saying.

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

Indeed. The scatter diagram does show some correlation between quality and discussed-ness though. People love to talk about Spock's Brain and Way to Eden, but they're not bad in the same way the Empath is bad. In fact, if you look at them through this special lens I have sitting right here, those episodes are actually pretty good, while the lens does not fix The Empath, or Is There In Truth No Beauty, or For The World We're In Right Now Is Actually Hollow And Not Only That But As It Happens I Have Touched What Can Be Considered Sky

 

[dahj]

The Deadly Years maybe?

It's not really bad to be hated by anyone, and it's not really good to top anyone's list. The "everyone gets old fast" storyline isn't exactly unique, and the fact that it can be summed up by those four words doesn't invite much discussion on what's it really about.

 

[Maurice]

FTWIHAIHTTS. Almost no one discusses it except to comment on the name.

 

[Delta Vega]

This is just another subtle "worst episode" thread
I cannot abide the aberration that is "A Piece Of The Action", and apart from ridiculous pantomime "1920s" gangsters, there's nothing I care to remember about the daft storyline.

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

This is just another subtle "worst episode" thread

Not at all. Spock's Brain / Way to Eden. Highly discussed. And I guess I didn't specify originally, but I was thinking in all of Trek fandom, not just tekbbs.

I am planning on starting a thread comparing most and least plausible parallel Earth episodes. Though in my mind they are all implausible.

Dodge mentioned Deadly Years, not a bad one at all.

 

[Delta Vega]

Not at all. Spock's Brain / Way to Eden. Highly discussed. And I guess I didn't specify originally, but I was thinking in all of Trek fandom, not just tekbbs.

I am planning on starting a thread comparing most and least plausible parallel Earth episodes. Though in my mind they are all implausible.

Dodge mentioned Deadly Years, not a bad one at all.

I wasn't having a go my friend, simply having a bit of fun

 

[Jim Of Seattle]

Made me think of another geeky deep dive: Which episodes have the highest and lowest quality-to-discussion ratios. Someone mentioned This Side of Paradise being a nominee for little discussed (though was later rebuked), but that's generally considered pretty high quality, whereas people can't stop ragging on poor old Spock's Brain.

FWIW, in my total fanatical Trek fandom days, (1974-1980) And the Children Shall Lead was generally considered the worst episode in Puget Sound Star Trekkers. I still don't think Brain was even in peoples' bottom 10. And at the convention I attended in 1977, we got to vote on which 5 episodes we wanted screened, and Piece of the Action made the cut. But now, pretty horrid. The problem is that it lived off its comedy, and comedy too often doesn't stand the test of time.

 

[Spock's Barber]

This is just another subtle "worst episode" thread
I cannot abide the aberration that is "A Piece Of The Action", and apart from ridiculous pantomime "1920s" gangsters, there's nothing I care to remember about the daft storyline.

Even in my infancy of watching TOS, I could never understand Kirk and Spock going totally gangster in this episode. Just silly.