The Ugly
Sub Rosa - but the caber toss and people in the 24th century wanting to live in 18th century conditions as if there's no difference!
Force of Nature - on par with season 5's preachiness and it's not like any story since then kept to the new edict made as everyone's authorized to go above the speed limit or all the other species don't give a **** either which way
Emergence - the only thing missing is Picard jumping over the new life form on skis except he did that a few too many times in season 5 already
The Bad
Dark Page - I don't remember this one
Journey's End - Ds9 was already doing Cardassian stories a lot better
Descent II - Meandering plot! Wooden acting! Misuse of Borg and Lore! Incidental muzak at a new low! Ugh!
The So bad It's Good
Liaisons - summed up as "Love and love, what is love! Don't touch me!! Wait, do touch me!! Why are you scared!!!"
The Meh
Interface - Geordi has a mom? You mean the crew other than Riker or Worf or Picard didn't hatch from an egg?
Firstborn - James Sloyan is back, in another role. Okay...
Inheritance - Data has a mommy? A mommy who is also an android? What a shock!
Bloodlines - Picard really made a kid? Okay... "The Battle" did the revenge trope a lot better, and without insinuating Picard boinked someone, much less make a child he'd feel more uncomfortable around
Homeward - it's tolerable and a better version of a movie using it as plot fodder some four years later, but...
Eye of the Beholder - based on a
true life Twilight Zone story
The Decent
Masks - very high concept and gives Spiner another chance to act his Starfleet-issued socks off
Thine Own Self - always liked this one
Attached - feels like a leftover from mid-season 1 but McFadden and Stewart always had great onscreen chemistry and it's not a bad story regardless
Phantasms - very creepy, especially loved the phone and Troi bits (with mint frosting :-9)
The Good
Gambit - a bit lengthy, but worthy
Preemptive Strike - a decent finale for Ro, who (oddly) thankfully didn't go to DS9 as Kira rocks
The Great
Genesis - another high concept episode. Almost has a season 2 feel with the sci-fi elements (a lot of season felt like it was returning to embracing sci-fi and high concept over soap opera, which is much appreciated.) I might nitpick how humans devolve into
spiders (it's a stretch on a clever idea) but the direction makes up for it
Parallels - the ending also changes the past, which seemed baffling, but the rest of the episode is first rate and is the first proper story involving the Borg since TBOBW. Kudos for having Riker of all people break down psychologically
Lower Decks - first rate with a few great twists, though I do wonder if Picard was setting up the girl and taking advantage of her wanting to make up for past sins to get into a suicide mission because he hated her
The Pegasus - OMG, depth to a character that isn't all sugar and lollipops on that good ship! Riker is the perfect choice. Perfect casting, this one deserved the big budget for those f/x... there are plot nitpicks (every story has them to some degree) but it's all handled so strongly where it counts that I just don't care about treaty nitpickies.
All Good Things... - Plot nitpick and retcon aside, everything else about it more than makes up for the Pasteur creating the anomaly (not the future-Enterprise) and the retcon could be that Q could be known for moving goalposts so it's all good
VERY SPECIAL BONUS: The It's So Bad That The Heckler's Video Improves Upon It
Sub Rosa,
again:
(yes, the episode is so bad it deserves to be mentioned twice. Plus, that video elevates it in quality.)
