Overrated or Underrated

[Prax]

I was going to put this this in the General Forum, but every time I think of an underrated or overrated episode, I kept coming back to TNG. So I shall start:

Q-Who- Overrated. This episode receives a lot of praise, and it's mostly deserved. I saw this as kid when it first aired, sitting in the living room with my family, and it was a shock(in a good way)
I've been watching season 2 lately, and when I got to Q-Who, I was struck by how dull and slow it is. When they were in the Borg ship, I was imagining more Borg episodes with this rendition of Borg, where they all just sit in their alcoves, saying absolutely nothing. Even the chase felt like a slow Sunday drive for some reason.

Genesis- Underrated. I think there are a lot of underrated episodes in the last season, but this one gets the most flak, mostly for its kooky premise. I saw this when it first aired as well, and it was terrifying, and I think that still largely holds up. If you set aside the "science," this episode is amazingly well done as a sci fi horror story.

Edit: Genesis maybe actually gets the 2nd most flak of s7.

 

[TV's Frank]

I think it's much more interesting to discuss underrated episodes than pick apart what we think is overrated. I'm a massive TNG fan and I can't think of any episodes I would consider overrated - the great ones are great for a reason and I'm not going to throw darts at "Measure of a Man", "Best of Both Worlds", "Inner Light" and "All Good Things". I'm glad these episodes simply exist as they are, without playing Monday morning quarterback about them. However, in terms of episodes that are underrated, this is a topic that's always entertaining because this is when we each can mention what element(s) stood for out us personally in an episode often overlooked - was it a story element, an actor's performance, FX or production design, music, etc?.

My list of underrated TNG episodes normally includes "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Contagion", "Evolution", "Hollow Pursuits", "Clues", "Legacy", "Data's Day", "Conundrum" and "Inheritence". I might be back with more.

 

[Qonundrum]

"Genesis" was trying to be creative, and to a certain extent actually worked. And for season 7, it's refreshingly original. And more sci-fi high concept harking back to the glory days of seasons 2-4. Being at the latter-end of the run, it's easy to see where and how so many episodes would be underrated. Especially at the time.

"Q Who" exemplifies the weakness with EQ>IQ episodes. They're steeped in generating suspense and other emotional reaction first and foremost, but the drawback is that there's little to the plot that makes rewatching as effective after the first run when the emotion runs dry. No matter how good the EQ succeeds. It'd be far worse if "Q Who" didn't succeed on its first viewing. It's like eating a five course dinner, starting with the frosting-laden cake and ignoring the other courses, but later returning and realizing the courses prior to dessert were just plates full of sawdust, ground up horse hooves, and pus (e.g. cellulose in pasta, gelatin, and milk, like you really wanted to know that...)

 

[Qonundrum]

My list of underrated TNG episodes normally includes "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Contagion", "Evolution", "Hollow Pursuits", "Clues", "Legacy", "Data's Day", "Conundrum" and "Inheritence". I might be back with more.

Great choices!!

"The Arsenal of Freedom" - a latter-half season one episode, is often panned but it's an exciting action piece with an underlying theme of how the makers of the technology either got obliterated in product design phase or an angry customer used their weapons onto them - something that was almost begging for a sequel but lets us simmer over the ideas if we liked the episode enough.

"Contagion" - wholly underrated, robust episode.

"Evolution" - It has some fantastic moments.

"Hollow Pursuits" - I always thought it a fan favorite but given other season 3 greats I can see why

"Clues" - saccharine at times but it has a lot going in its favor

"Legacy" - I loved it at the time. There's a glaring plot hole involving the tracers as I recall, but it's an EQ episode that has enough meat and intrigue for Tasha's sister (who clearly found Perpugillium Brown's wardrobe from "Doctor Who" and decided Peri's sartorial taste was somehow better... erm, okay...) as well as being a solid episode for Data... definitely underrated.

"Data's Day" - is that the one with the Romulan spy? Yup. Underrated...

"Conundrum" - oh look, the Edo ship is back! Except it isn't! This one is underrated as rarely do we see an alien species take over the Enterprise and hijack it for deadly means. Most of the budget went into the phaser effects. But the dialogue is sparkling and the humor utilized flows with the story eminently well. This episode definitely is an underrated one.

"Inheritance" - where Data finds his mother of sorts, who has a big secret? IMHO, they were getting too closed-universe and the old trope of "put human mind into android body" needed more oomph. TOS's "What Little Girls Are Made Of" almost clinched it, but "Doctor Who" did a far better job with the notion in 1982.


I might add:

"Shades of Gray" - remove the clip show aspect and the original plot underlying is pretty good and suitably alien. To me, that's incontrovertibly underrated.

"Loud as a Whisper" - the perceptive and struggle is compelling. The ending is a bit fast and this episode helps reveal the inspiration for the TV show "Herman's Head", but it's definitely an underrated episode.

"11001001" is a fan favorite, but is overshadowed by later seasons' new format. One nitpick aside about unlocking the ship's computer because Picard's being there is a fortunate happenstance (when Minuet, programmed by the Binars, should be contriving to get two crewmembers to remain on board. Or remind the Captain to stay on the ship...)

Actually, given season 3's format change that steals and redefined the very show itself, there's a lot from seasons 1 and 2 I'd consider "underrated"...

 

[NCC-73515]

There is no TNG episode that I don't like. There are episodes in all other shows that I don't like, though XD

 

[BillJ]

"The Measure of a Man" is vastly overrated. *ducks*

"The Royale" is underrated.

 

[gakelly]

Conundrum is overrated and I don't even know how most fans feel about it. There are so many terrible plot holes and coincidences that it just sucks on repeated viewings.

If those aliens can erase everyone's memories and have the ability to change the information in the computer like they did with Macduff or whatever his name was on the manifesto, then why not just take control of the enterprise's computers or make Macduff the captain or beam a bunch of aliens over and make them the senior staff? The premise sounds cool if you are 11 years old but when you actually think about it, it's really poorly thought out.

 

[Farscape One]

"The Arsenal of Freedom" - underrated. One of the best uses of the entire cast in TNG. And honestly, of the franchise.

"Masks" - I will always defend this episode because of its use of mythology. It was a great concept, and felt eerie.

"Genesis" - Not a favorite of mine, but it is underrated. The concept is fun, and it had a nice horror vibe.

 

[gakelly]

The Arsenal of Freedom's ending sucked so badly. Just shut it off and the probe on the ground disappears but the one attacking the enterprise doesn't. These probes destroyed the whole civilization and can't even take out 5 or 6 starfleet people?
It seemed like the saucer separation was just to kill time.
It reminds of a season 3 TOS episode.

 

[Farscape One]

They did destroy another Starfleet ship, which was why the Enterprise was there to begin with. (Though they were investigating the Drake's disappearance at the beginning of the episode. They later find that her destruction and the civilization's were caused by the same thing.)

Another episode that gets a lot of flak is "Code of Honor". I agree with what Wheaton said once before... racial casting aside, it's not a bad episode for an early installment.

I'm not sure if it gets a lot of flak, but "Dark Page" was a great Lwaxana story. We see a lot of why she is the way she is, particularly why she acts the way she does with Deanna. It's a really tragic story, honestly. I truly think the seeds of how Neelix was created started with this episode.

 

[diankra]

I do recall finding Shades of Gray surprisingly worrying at the time, given that I knew it was going to be a clip show. The start in media res was unusual, and it seemed just possible that Riker might not survive, though the idea of him dying in a clip show seemed unlikely.

 

[Mojochi]

For underrated episodes, I like to hearken back to Home Soil. It's kind of reminiscent of TOS Devil In The Dark. It has good performances, & keeps you interested throughout imho, & because season 1 gets largely faulted, it often goes overlooked. I kind of feel the same way about Symbiosis. It's easy to cite Season 1 episodes as underrated though, because the whole season is.

So, as for a later season underrated episode.... I guess I'll say Descent 1&2. It's not the best season finale, but it's a pretty solid finale for Lore, with some interesting blowback from I Borg, & not many people seem to like it. It works just fine for me though

As for an overrated one? Not that I dislike it, because it has its fun moments, but I don't see the big whoop over Tapestry. I really don't think we needed a whole "It's a Wonderful Life" episode for Picard. He's not the kind of guy who'd be dense enough to need that reminder, imho, & frankly, we the audience didn't really need to go there, & see all that spelled out for us, especially if we have to look at a 50 year old man playing a cadet around other cadets & girlfriends etc... With the exception of Q, who is always entertaining, it just lands off for me.

 

[suarezguy]

Underrated-I think "Justice" and "Angel One" are OK, pretty far from horrible, while "Datalore" is a great highlight and much too underappreciated.

Overrated-Though still OK, "Darmok" (thin story stretched out and not as profound as it thinks it is or is regarded as) and "Lower Decks" (the new characters were mostly unappealing and the episode relied too much on the tragedy). Also, if it is loved, "Face of the Enemy" (I think it's a would-be thriller that was pretty obvious and also far from actually thrilling).

 

[Prax]

I definitely agree about Darmok and Lower Decks. I've never had a problem with Darmok, but also never understood why it is held up so high. Lower Decks is okay, but that ensign guy isn't very interesting. The nurse is solid, and the Bajoran girl is good. You'd think we'd see this side of the senior staff more often(discussing promotions and crew evals. I know they did it a couple times).

I've seen "Where Silence Has Lease" maligned a lot, and I think I've seen it on "worst episodes" lists, but I've always thought it was fantastic. Underrated.

 

[Vger23]

"The Measure of a Man" is vastly overrated. *ducks*

"The Royale" is underrated.

This is word-for-word what I was going to post.

I also think "Datalore" is one of the worst episodes in the franchise. So I'll add that to the "overrated" tally.

 

[ThankQ]

"Arsenal of Freedom" is underrated. Vincent Schiavelli is always great. Plus the "walking around a planet encountering things" had a snazzy TOS vibe.

"The Neutral Zone", "The Royale" and "Up the Long Ladder" are my TNG guilty pleasures that I don't tell anyone about.

"The Defector" I think is a TNG Top 10, but it never makes any of the lists.

"The Most Toys" never gets any love in the whole Data Character Arc discussion, but I think it's the most important Data episode that doesn't feature some kind of encounter with Soong.

"Devils Due", "The Game" and "A Fistful of Datas" are my guilty pleasures from the second half of the series.

"Cause and Effect" is fucking awesome.

"Schisms" and "Frame of Mind" are also on the cusp of TNG Top 10 but don't seem to get many mentions.

 

[TV's Frank]

Conundrum is overrated and I don't even know how most fans feel about it. There are so many terrible plot holes and coincidences that it just sucks on repeated viewings.

If those aliens can erase everyone's memories and have the ability to change the information in the computer like they did with Macduff or whatever his name was on the manifesto, then why not just take control of the enterprise's computers or make Macduff the captain or beam a bunch of aliens over and make them the senior staff? The premise sounds cool if you are 11 years old but when you actually think about it, it's really poorly thought out.

Because that wasn't the point of the episode. The point of the episode was exploring whether we as humans exhibit the same traits and characteristics without remembering the histories that made us, basically what are our inherent personality traits that exist and are expressed regardless of whether we recall our own pasts, our own histories and experiences. This is what Star Trek is about, exploring what it means to be human in an allegorical context, not just showing aliens being clever. You shouldn't be trying to "logic" these allegorical stories anymore than taking Biblical parables at face value when they're meant to be metaphor.

 

[ThankQ]

In other words, repeat to yourself, "It's just a show..."

 

[tomalak301]

As the years have gone on, I've found The Defector to be in my top 3 episodes of the series, yet it doesn't get the recognition from the Trek fan community. I think it served as everything TNG was about, working for a peaceful solution rather than going in guns blazing, and it was probably the best use of the Romulans in the series, maybe second to Face of the Enemy. Also, it was what I wish Nemesis was based on. Heck, if Star Trek: Picard addresses Admiral Jerok's letter home to his family, I will be greatly impressed.

In terms of other underrated episodes from each season:

Season 1: Lonely Among Us
Season 2: The Royale
Season 3: Transfigurations
Season 4: First Contact
Season 5: Ensign Ro
Season 6: Suspisions (I know this episode isn't well liked, but I thought it helped make the Ferengi more 3 deminsional. Before Nog wanted to join Starfleet, you had another Ferengi who believed more in science than profit and he too wasn't taken seriously at first)
Season 7: Thine Own Self

As for overrated episodes, over the years I've come to find The Inner Light to be overrated. I just can no longer get over the fact that Picard was mind raped.

 

[TV's Frank]

As the years have gone on, I've found The Defector to be in my top 3 episodes of the series, yet it doesn't get the recognition from the Trek fan community. I think it served as everything TNG was about, working for a peaceful solution rather than going in guns blazing, and it was probably the best use of the Romulans in the series, maybe second to Face of the Enemy. Also, it was what I wish Nemesis was based on. Heck, if Star Trek: Picard addresses Admiral Jerok's letter home to his family, I will be greatly impressed.

In terms of other underrated episodes from each season:

Season 1: Lonely Among Us
Season 2: The Royale
Season 3: Transfigurations
Season 4: First Contact
Season 5: Ensign Ro
Season 6: Suspisions (I know this episode isn't well liked, but I thought it helped make the Ferengi more 3 deminsional. Before Nog wanted to join Starfleet, you had another Ferengi who believed more in science than profit and he too wasn't taken seriously at first)
Season 7: Thine Own Self

As for overrated episodes, over the years I've come to find The Inner Light to be overrated. I just can no longer get over the fact that Picard was mind raped.

All your choices for underrated episodes are rock solid - I have a soft spot for Lonely Among Us as well, as it was one of the first season 1 episodes I saw upon its initial airing. Somehow, following seeing Farpoint, we as a family missed watching some of the subsequent episodes. I was trying to record them on VHS as they aired and I think Lonely Among Us was the first I recorded.