Masks... why all the hate?

[Coops]

55% at a minimum.

Most seasons run 25-30% crap.

Nah, for me it's 10%. If I thought more than half a season of shows were crap I'd be questioning myself as to why I'm even watching it.

 

[Eckauskas]

Season 7 had some great episodes in it, so does it balance out the bad ones?

Gambit v Sub Rosa?
Attached v Interface?
Pegasus v Homeward?
Lower Decks v EOTB?

That's even before you remember how good AGT was. Same with Preemptive Strike, Genesis & Parallels*? Season 6, for me, is marginally worse than 7.

*Ignoring the fact it introduced us to a relationship that we didn't want/need to see.

 

[Mojochi]

Ok, so I'll give my take on this. I'd say hate is too harsh a word for how people rate this episode. I haven't seen much hostility toward it, & don't particularly hate it myself. I do think it's pretty bad, in a dead heat tie with Eye of the Beholder for being the 2nd worst episode of the season. (Above of course Sub Rosa)

It starts out fair enough, apart from Troi's abysmal art advice to Data, but it goes along mostly like any other basic TNG episode. Normal ship life, leads to odd occurrences, revealing an intriguing situation etc... but then the whole thing rather abruptly devolves into just a vehicle for the Spiner tutorial of god awful tv overacting. It's actually wincingly laughable how ludicrous his acting is in this thing, like a guy who had a week to come up with a handful of different characters on the fly, & I even recall hearing about them cracking up on the set at it.

It just seemed like the whole episode was born out of someone saying. "Hey, Brent has to play this 1-dimensional guy all the time. Let's throw him another bone like that holodeck episode we did with him as all the characters... except leave out the holodeck part, because that well is dry as shit" & this was the result, excepting that A Fistful of Data's at least had the saving grace of being comedic, which is the only real excuse for going down that Eddie Murphy Klumps road at all imho.

 

[JesterFace]

but then the whole thing rather abruptly devolves into just a vehicle for the Spiner tutorial of god awful tv overacting. It's actually wincingly laughable how ludicrous his acting is in this thing, like a guy who had a week to come up with a handful of different characters on the fly, & I even recall hearing about them cracking up on the set at it.

Maybe it has been too long since I watched this one (years I think) but I thought Data's different characters were good. Weird.

 

[tomalak301]

Before I got to this board, I always thought Season 7 was considered great. Then I got here and was surprised on how negative people were towards it. As for Masks, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. Spiner did a great job with the multiple personality disorder and the ancient history stuff was right up Picard's Ally. My opinion on the Season 7 episodes goes like this:

Descent Part 2 - Kinda below average. Nice to see Hugh again
Liaisons - Hate this episode. The woman who was with Picard was annoying
Interface - Average. Not good but not terrible
Gambit - First two great episodes of the season. Loved seeing Picard not playing himself
Phantasms - It was fun and I liked the use of Sigmund Freud (Sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar)
Dark Page - I've grown to love this episode more and more over the years
Attached - It was good but it felt incomplete. If you're going to make them a couple, it should have paid off later in the season.
Force of Nature - Terrible Episode
Inheritance - Sweet episode.
Parallels - A TNG Classic
The Pegasus - Another Classic
Homeward - Boring
Sub Rosa - I think this episode has been the most surprising to me over the years. People despise this episode. I actually don't, even though it was bordering on porn fanfic.
Lower Decks - Poor Sito Jaxa, but I love this episode a lot
Thine Own Self - Good Data Outing
Masks - See above
Eye of the Beholder - Actually gave me nighmares for a week. I hate Pierce with a Passion
Genesis - I dread when this episode comes up on my rewatch. Not a fan of horror
Journey's End - It was the start of the Maquis arc so it wasn't that bad
Firstborn - Average
Bloodlines - Average
Emergence - Weird
Preemptive Strike - Awesome penultimate episode. Good end for Ro
All Good Things - Still one of my favorite series finales ever.

 

[dupersuper]

Ooo, are we doing lists? Fun!

Descent Part 2 - I agree: kinda' below average. Nice to see Hugh again
Liaisons - stupid
Interface - fine, but I'll never understand why every one was so quick to write Geordies mom and her ship off
Gambit - fun
Phantasms - silly fun
Dark Page - best Lwaxana episode
Attached - fine
Force of Nature - I liked it
Inheritance - fine...more branches added to Data's odd family tree
Parallels - a classic indeed
The Pegasus - another classic
Homeward - horrific; one of my least favourite Trek episodes, down there with Author Author, Dear Doctor, Threshold and Profit & Lace
Sub Rosa - so bad it's fun: "bordering on porn fanfic." indeed
Lower Decks - classic
Thine Own Self - good
Masks - fine
Eye of the Beholder - meh
Genesis - horrible science, a massively traumatic disaster with AT LEAST one fatality but a nearly sitcom freeze-frame on a laugh ending...still fun if you can accept that though
Journey's End - liked Wesley choosing another path, liked the Maquis stuff it set up, uneasy at the slight preview of Voyagers depiction of Native American culture
Firstborn - fine
Bloodlines - fine
Emergence - fun
Preemptive Strike - great Ro episode
All Good Things - good ending emotionally, plot hole with anti-time going forward in the future timeline still bugs me though