(not always in order within section)
The Downright Awful
The Masterpiece Society - the season set a new standard for utterly contrived and one-sided preaching, but this one takes the cake and is the absolute nadir
Ethics - Was this one really to be a Crusher/Pulaski grudge match? On top of the cringe and contrivances, it's an exceedingly poor episode.
I Borg - Guinan's epiphany just wasn't convincing enough in terms of being the one to convince Picard to de-collectivize them, never mind even remotely that quickly. Given how the Borg were written, that's a tad harder to accomplish with any credibility. Janeway's deal in "Scorpion" isn't anywhere near as level of cringe as this episode is, though I recall Hugh was referenced along with Picard/Locutus in that story as well - proving and reminding a meh or even bad story can have a positive influence later on. But, yeah, they should have kept the Borg communication signals shielded, send the Pi calculator source code to the Borg to keep them busy forever, and deprogram Hugh. In other words, was Guinan's character's misuse more detrimental to the series since what she brought into the proceedings created the mess of psychotic maniacs tuned by Lore - seems not unfair, given Guinan was fingering Picard for the blame of Sela's creation... then again, how many years had gone by since Guinan's experience and noting Locutus became de-cybertized, maybe it was her way... yet with that in place it would still make more sense to get Hugh out of there and have TNG become "The Third of Five, Hugh See" show. But then Data would be bored as Picard would then teach Hugh all about humanity... (7/Janeway was a lot more effective with that anyway - yet again, even TNG's foibles did get tightened up and made far better in the spinoffs.)
Hero Worship - just cringey
Unification - Oh look, it's sweeps week for Spock! Part 1 is dreadully over-padded! Spock is underused! Worf signs! Spock is misused! Picard looks like he doesn't want to be there! Data stares! Is the space bar a prelude to the dank, semi-cyberpunk and expanded universe feel that Babylon 5 and DS9 had? Sela is given
F- scripting, reduced to a villain so cringe'n'cardboard(tm) she wouldn't even be in a TOS story! Denise did a lot with what was on paper but given Sela's origin, which is
A+, this treatment of her is so undeserved. At least Spock didn't sing.
The Ugly
Silicon Avatar - It earns three awards! One for foreshadowing of the dire "I Borg", another from diving into the well of small universe synrtome, and the third for being sufficiently preachy... A similar plot thread regarding "we can reason with the uber-evil that has already said it won't via their unprovoked attacks!!!11!!!!!1" And I'm sure the hawtie of the week being instantly vaporized is less cruel than enduring a lifetime of Riker's Space Warts(tm). Actually, most wars don't end with extinction so usually conflicts can have positive outcomes, so I just gave the silicon creature a positive spin, and it wasn't hostile - just hungry. But in real life, deal with a hungry tiger that isn't sentient and it'll be more inclined to lunge at brunch anyway.
The Outcast - I had no idea that test tube babies versus messy flinging of DNA was sooooo controversial. And yet it is not the dumbest episode of this season, there are five worse. (Yes, I know the claim of the episode, but I'd write a book railing on the piece and unlike most I'm not an outsider and have lived what the episode was claimed by the makers what the discussion topic was. But the way it was scripted and filmed, it's about test tube babies and genetic manipulation. That's almost a compliment since it WOULD be the worst episode by far if it didn't allow for multiple perceptions, the way so many season 5 episodes devolved to. )
The Meh
Cost of Living - what's this one about? Oh, it's a mildly tampered edition of "Hollow Pursuits". And, shh, don't let the Romulans or Borg get ahold of the logs discussing how the nitrius deeplothole parasirte from the asteroid had gotten through the shields and deflectors since when we explode asteroids and a big explosion of material bursts forward in the direction of the ship, there's no way we'd have those deactivated. In theory...
New Ground - that's where Alexander comes on board with cliche after cliche and everything's 90% okay at the end?
Disaster - DS9 did the episode a favor with "Starship Down", this one is just a disaster and the science guy was busy as it's usually better to exhale completely before removing the pressure and atmosphere. At least the Ro scenes were interesting
The Perfect Mate - was this one meant for Kirk?
Time's Arrow I - originality for doing something different but something doesn't feel quite right
The Decent
Imaginary Friend - kids would like it, they can relate to kids with imaginary friends. Actually, it wasn't half-bad that, on a ship with kids, a typical Trek incorporeal being bodysnatches a kid to learn how the humans work. The alien's natural form must be similar to a
Chlamydoselachus anguineus since the show had more or less jumped the shark by this season despite the number of good entries...
Darmok - fairly decent but using a real alien language instead of "English structure chucked into daiquiri blender" might have been more interesting. Troi had a similar speech that was handled better in "The Ensigns of Command", too.
The Inner Light - very decent, novel, but the ending features only one pez dispenser dispensing one flute and then it shuts off? The species would want to tell everyone in the universe, not just seek out one being - Picard, no less, given how he treated his own fellow shipmates in that 1996 movie... should have found Janeway instead...
The First Duty - Wesley may have been made more realistic since season 2 but this is a remarkable shift. He comes back in season 7 where, given "Lower Ranks" and Picard somehow getting another one from the group onto his flagship, he would no doubt wish he could become Locutus again the way he'd get all these assignments... it's still a gripping and entertaining piece but it's not exactly new that characters get altered to fit story narrative instead of making stories that fit around characters as they were crafted to be... then again, I appreciate Chekov being more serious in "The Way to Eden" compared to his campy caricature from season 2 so what do I know... apart from that changing characters can be for the better if done right. Wes got that in season 2. Now he's a rug for Farmer Brown (first name Charlie, good grief) to clean his boots with...
Redemption II - I wish the tachyon field was more 3D - I just accept it as "their fuel supplies make it disadvantageous to go around". Data's subplot is still pure forced cringe and laughably unbelievable.
The Good
Power Play - cheezy music dragging down the show aside, it's a great action piece that's perfectly suited to TNG
Ensign Ro - loved her introduction, love the character
A Matter of Time - needed Robin Williams, who would have stolen the show
Violations - very creepy but it works
The Game - probably made to sell the feel what other season 1's stories might be like if made four years later, and wasn't too much ahead of its time as portable video game players were already being used too much
Conundrum - reuse of Edo ship aside, this is one of season 5's better entries
The Excellent
The Next Phase - a great high concept piece, it has the audience focused on enough ideas and discussion to get around obvious plot holes. A good story makes the plot holes easier to roll with. And I'm a sucker for robust philosophical stories, which this story rightly pays attention to. As well as reminding us of the Romulan threat. Accept gravity plating fields that keep even off-phase entities secure (or are corridors the inside of gravity generating tubes?) and viola, problem solved.
Cause and Effect - the trick works for only one viewing, but that's all that's needed and what a trick it is, it pulls out the punches and with great effects to boot. Nobody's done a time loop episode with such deftness before (Dr Who had, which may have been an inspiration, and as with "Time Squared" the TNG entry one-ups it with some clever innovation). Best of all, it largely retains interest where wavering only starts to kick in toward the end. The timing is just about perfect for this script. It's a highly crafted, marvelous episode. Bonus points for anyone who watched commercials circa 1991 and fathomed a possible in-joke when the name "Fletcher" was uttered since Ensign Fletcher caught Geordi who had almost fallen off the catwalk (was (s)he a swimsuit model? What
do they do in Engineering? And why can't we have a proper look?
) and couldn't get up...
Not much of a difference.
