Ride or Die: Defend Your Favorite "Bad" Episodes

[Mojochi]

We all got 'em. The episodes everybody trashes, maybe deservedly so, but you can't help but like it. Stand tall, before the accusers, and state your case! Let's appreciate!

My go to is Conundrum. So yeah, I get it. It's hacky. It's got amnesia tropes, it's a house of cards built upon if not outright plot holes, then at the very least some major hand waving of tech aspects, but look.... It's an 80s tv show, that comes with certain period trappings, not all that dissimilar to the 60s show. However, more important than all that is that they do this one exceedingly WELL.

For this show, there's really no better way to represent these characters, in unexplored ways, that works better than this IMHO. These characters have been defined, refined & outlined for 4 & a half years by now, and as wonderful as that is, it's also very limiting & confining. They're all just who they are now. Ro & Riker have been hating on each other all season long, all of it rooted in rank & character history, personality traits, built on personal experiences. How does Ro act if she doesn't know who Ro Laren or Will Riker are, & isn't constantly having to defend herself, like an inmate? Or the ambitious & commanding Riker, without knowing wtf he's all about anymore? How's he playing life then? Who are they without all that stuff? Who would they be to each other & how, if all the artifice were stripped away? How would doing that improve their interpersonal dynamics going forward?

Forget Ro & Riker, for a minute. Look at Worf & Picard! It's amazing how stripping them down highlights parts of them that they would never see from one another. Picard would never have to negotiate with his own crew, for the things he wants or advocates for. His mediator skills are on full display here... with bloody Worf! And Worf, for as much as we know he ordinarily respects Picard, is totally not having this guy passively leading, in his presence. At his core, he doesn't like a man who presents like this. It truly rubs him against the grain & positions him to angle for leadership harder. What a fantastic dynamic! Picard's easy forgiveness. Worf's eventual humility. It's some of the best personal dynamics they ever shared! We know them better now for this.

Even just Geordi & Data, musing over Data's unique nature, for just one scene, exploring the subject thru the lens of strangers, puzzling a scientific anomaly, while they collaborate at work. Showing them question each other's & even their own being. It cuts right to the core of why they became friends to begin with. How else do you out that, without this tropey trick?

Heck, it made me wish we could see more. Picard doesn't know Beverly? Or Guinan? How do they get on, without those histories? Is Barclay less worried about his social environment, because he doesn't know anyone anymore, or even himself? Hell, the bloody O'Briens are still there! HTF did THAT ordeal go?

Anyway... I'm willing to pony up a little suspension of disbelief, in some rather absurd circumstances, if it buys us the chance to dig into these people in such a fun & illuminating way.

What are your thoughts about this, or another episode you think has overlooked qualities?

 

[Starflight]

"Rascals" is great, just pure fun. The idiocy of Riker losing the ship to like four Ferengi doesn't even bother me since it's perfectly in character for him.

"Night Terrors" seems to me to be so clearly one of the better episodes of the sloggy middle seasons of the show that I genuinely don't get why people bash it.

"Code of Honor" is a bit pulpy and fanficul in the way most S1 episodes are, but it's also probably the only episode of TNG where pre-warp people are actually taken seriously and presented as equals. The laser-grid spiky glove deathmatch is more endearing than alienating IMO.

Not sure if it gets bashed, but "Devil's Due" also stands out as one of the highlights of the often-slow fourth season.

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

I'll do a mix of "fan consensus" examples, plus a couple from my own personal list of "eww, I'd rather make it with my ex than to see this one ever again" episodes that I utterly loathe. Which is impressive as it's far easier to loathe my ex than to lov-- but I digress.

"Rascals" may be the last regular appearance with Gunan and for all we know this episode probably scared Whoopi away, but - as usual - the double-act of her with Ro automatically elevates the story by several points. Plus, the younger actors were well cast as well as having good material for them to act out. The story otherwise has the ship taken over fairly easily, rendered worse by Ferengi having contrived dialogue of "send all able-bodied adults to the surface" while completely ignoring the kids as if the ship didn't have any (until the tail end of the episode where they're threatened with being killed) and aren't we lucky the transporter failure of the week turned the 'dults into kids? Just having the Ferengi cite using kids as slaves may have gotten around a lot...

"Code of Honor" has some terrific guest actor performances that keep it all watchable, even if the script is super-hokey and even insulting (Picard lobbing torpedoes over the planet to threaten the inhabitants with (?!!) is one of many horrid scenes, and the anlysis of the weapons by Geordi and Data amounts to... nothing as special as the setup was trying to make it out as being.) Loved Yareena, even if the script is so lame that her name is "Yar" with "eena" added. The story is one of the few that shows Tasha given something decent as she's holding her own, plus the fight at the end was pretty decent - and dangerous what with all the fluorescent tubes used because that was cheaper than overlaid special effects to show the deadly glow. (Still looked good, though!) And with the emphasis on the women owning the land and all, this does a better job than "Angel One" as there's more complexity and not being clunky. Best of all, the juxtaposition of Lutan keeping his word while Picard breaks the prime directive at almost every turn is what the story was trying to go for the most. (With season 1 blu-ray yoinked out, guess what's now on my list...) There are a couple clunker scripts from seasons 2, 5, 6 and 7 that are decidedly worse, if not simply inaner if not outright dumber.

Another bit of iron pyrite, "Datalore" has one of the cheeziest scripts, but it's Brent Spiner's acting (especially as Lore) and that incidental music that really sell the palpable threat of the virtually psychotic Lore, above a script so hacked-up that they're beaming things with shields up, making Wesley seem clever by dumbing down the adults, and everything else no season one story of any show should be doing.

"The Naked Now" dated 5 minutes before the episode's name got printed in "TV Guide" as now became then and cue that scene from "Spaceballs". That now to the side, we get one of the earliest bits of real science in the show (air blown out into space, not sucked, thank you Cmdr Data!). We also get to see some subconscious traits of Geordi and Yar that are worthwhile - even if low-hanging fruit. Indeed, there is some psychology-based accuracy on what some survivors of nasty things might do: https://www.helpguide.org/mental-health/ptsd-trauma/sex-and-intimacy-after-sexual-trauma , so while the story may have been turned into an hornball-driven farce thanks to ( (guess), whose rewrites also prompted DC Fontana to leave TNG completely), it still manages to have some genuine gold nuggets in a barrel full of iron pyrite and freshly squeezed bird droppings.

Is "Genesis" deemed a bad episode just because the use of "real science" got fudged and how a simple line or mild premise change could have fixed that with ease? If so, then note how the explanation is held off to the end, wisely letting the mystery and presentation do the work. Add in Gates McFadden, who not only puts in a first-rate performance when attacked by Worf but also makes her directorial debut one of the best EVER in the entire show's run (and she didn't direct anything else?!?!?!?!?!) Set pieces in the script do hold their own, but her direction really ensures this just isn't a bad story. Any quibbles are at script level and those are few.

"Symbiosis" has some well-acted characters and situations you love to hate. I don't mean "the speech", which is corny, but how Picard is placed and used with "the Prime Directive" packs a greater story narrative as to how he can, or cannot, assist in their situation. Plus, season 1 often incorporated real science and - gasp - got it right. Unlike that season 5 story that is truly a bad episode since it throws every character trait out the airlock along with the basic science that was told right in seasons 1, 2, 3, and... if I recall... 4 as well, then by now there's no way tha-- before I really digress, so I'm moving on:

"When the Bough Breaks" is one of the better Wesley stories, has a cool sense of mystery to the Aldeans, and the message about ecology and radiation, while being somewhat direct, wasn't as sledgehammerry as some season 5 escapades... (then again, I can tolerate the speech from "Symbiosis" better than others too...)

Corny or not, especially when the music tells us it's a funny scene, "The Neutral Zone" doesn't fully play it safe with the concept of finding a derelict sleeper ship except it's not Khan but a handful of bog-standard humans from a myriad of backgrounds now put into the more sterile TNG 24th century environment for plotting as opposed to the TNG exploring 1988 Earth (ripping off ST4-TVH), which makes it even more effective in a way as the shoe's on the other foot: How would you react if waking up 400 years in the future to find either an oddly-shaped robot that says "beedeebeedeebeedee" or, better yet, a giant starship with a whole galaxy to explore and not all of the species out there want to eat humans as breakfast? Indeed, Ralph (Peter Mark Richman) had the guts to wander up to the bridge to get answers, after the earlier scene in the story that has Picard haughtily telling the post-slumber trio about their century and why the ship doesn't have locks on their doors as well as the comm panels. Plus, the TNG universe (prior to blu-ray) was in the Doctor Who universe since the Doctor Who actors were all part of the lineage of Clare, and that's as far as I get with crossovers since most of them are far cornier than all of TNG/s1's stories combined.

I've always loved "Skin of Evil" so if fan consensus dislikes it, I've never understood why. Yar's death is anything but trite, tropey, or cornball, even if she regularly re-recorded her "toodles" videos recognizing all her former associates (is that why it's disliked?)

"Disaster" I loathe the most or near to. Sci-fi does require mixing real science with made-up stuff that the audience has to buy into with suspension of disbelief and all, but when you've had 5 seasons of characters with now well-established traits and multiple examples of real science used before accurately thrown out the window for cheap cheap drama, that's bad. I'll keep the diatribe limited as, despite a long list of flaws, this episode still has a couple things going for it as (a) the basic idea of a starship being stranded as this hadn't been done since "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1966, though I'd rather watch it to get a more palpable sense of desolation of being stuck "out there") and (b) taking enough reasonable time to try to save lives before hightailing it out there the way Ro had not wrongly wanted was pretty decent. Coast through the rest, and three's enough in this one to rewatch, as opposed to a handful of episodes so bad that I don't want to name them as I'll feel icky as a result.

Lastly, at least for now as I can't think of others and the one I wanted to remember I forgot because I didn't write it down while in the middle of a paragraph and you can see how lengthy my e-StreamsOfConsciousness
can be, "Sub Rosa" gave us two laudable things: 1. dozens of youtube review videos having a field day* with it, and 2. introducing me to caber tossing, and yet I still can't give a toss.


* this one's by far my favorite, which one is yours? :

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[Mojochi]

"Night Terrors" seems to be to be so clearly one of the better episodes of the sloggy middle seasons of the show that I genuinely don't get why people bash it.

I don't even get why Night Terrors gets slammed. I've actually always liked it, for not too dissimilar a reason as why I like Conundrum. I adore the simple premises where everybody gets to play a "thing". Conundrum - Amnesia? Night Terrors - sleep deprivation? Sarek - inexplicable belligerence? I am sold dude.

"Symbiosis" has some well-acted characters and situations you love to hate. I don't mean "the speech", which is corny, but how Picard is placed and used with "the Prime Directive" packs a greater story narrative as to how he can, or cannot, assist in their situation. Plus, season 1 often incorporated real science and - gasp - got it right. Unlike that season 5 story that is truly a bad episode since it throws every character trait out the airlock along with the basic science that was told right in seasons 1, 2, 3, and... if I recall... 4 as well, then by now there's no way tha-- before I really digress, so I'm moving on:

How can anybody dislike the episode that reunites Kirk's son, David, & Khan's #1, Joachim?

 

[BigJake]

Like some others, I'm weirdly fond of "Code of Honor" and "The Naked Now," and I'm recently on record as a defender of "Masks." I did not know that "Conundrum" needed defending, particularly, but I'm on the same page as the OP with that one.

So I'm going to give some props to "Too Short a Season."

There's a lot to like about this episode, though it does have its flaws. The various stages of ageing makeup on the guest star Clayton Rohner are pretty crucial for selling the premise, and... I don't think that really worked out, with all due respect to what I'm sure were the production team's heroic efforts. I think Rohner himself has not been unfairly charged with some degree of over-acting, and the de-ageing formula at the heart of the plot is one of those things that probably should not have appeared and disappeared largely without comment on the broader show... although that's more a sin of the wider production than of this particular episode.

That said... I'm pretty fond of "Too Short a Season" for precisely the reason a lot of people dislike it: it's one of the TNG episodes that primarily functions as a sequel to a TOS episode. But in this case -- and with all love to "The Naked Now," which I think really is more like a retread than a sequel -- I think its sequel status is fascinating, and that it uses this to make a very interesting point.

Essentially this episode is a stealth commentary on the likely outcome of the kind of Prime Directive "compromise" that featured in TOS' "A Private Little War." It's apt that Jameson is basically an officer from Kirk's era or shortly thereafter, and I do feel a sense from it that though he might have departed Mordan IV with one of those TOS-style "laughing it off" end sequences in the initial instance, it nagged at him for good reason. And, as "Wrath of Khan" did for "Space Seed," this episode explores, in an intelligent and critical way, the real consequences of playing those games.

For all the criticisms of Rohner, his short-lived "young Jameson" is convincing as someone who might have been very Kirk-like in earlier life. Though they never could have gotten away with being critical in this way of Kirk's wild swings, it's a strength of Rohner's performance that Jameson makes a capable surrogate for that kind of critique. One of the worthiest reasons to revisit TOS ideas in TNG is precisely to do this kind of commentary and think these ideas through, and I do think that the overall point of "Too Short a Season" largely lands.

That engagement with ideas and legacy earns it a much higher rating from me than it appears to have done from a lot of viewers.

 

[Uncle Sock]

“Lessons” is my favorite Star Trek episode of all time.

I’m fully aware of everything that’s wrong with it—the implausibility of Picard and Darren falling so deeply, so quickly; the fact that Darren has to leave the Enterprise simply because the relationship doesn’t work out; the odd roll-up piano; the unnecessary firestorm B-story. All of it. And my biggest pet peeve? That Picard can apparently hear a different note that Darren played.

But despite all that, it remains my favorite episode in the entire franchise. Wendy Hughes was a fantastic actress, and she gave Darren real depth—far more than the typical one-dimensional “romance of the week.” She was far superior to Vash and felt much more like a true partner for Picard. I love the idea of two people falling in love through shared music, of Picard opening up to her in a way he hasn’t allowed himself to in a long time—if ever. And Picard “fencing” with Riker like that? I'm smiling every time.

I love everything about it. Lessons is my comfort episode. I’ve easily watched it dozens of times, probably more. Whenever I’m struggling or in a mood, I put it on and feel better almost instantly.

In fact, I think Lessons is a perfect example of what Star Trek is really about. Yes, it’s a sci-fi show set on a spaceship. But what makes Star Trek unique—and so appealing to me—are the quieter moments, the philosophy, the reflections. Not the big space battles. The social critique woven into sci-fi stories. All of that. And Lessons captures it beautifully.

 

[Mojochi]

“Lessons” is my favorite Star Trek episode of all time.

I’m fully aware of everything that’s wrong with it—the implausibility of Picard and Darren falling so deeply, so quickly; the fact that Darren has to leave the Enterprise simply because the relationship doesn’t work out; the odd roll-up piano; the unnecessary firestorm B-story. All of it. And my biggest pet peeve? That Picard can apparently hear a different note that Darren played.

But despite all that, it remains my favorite episode in the entire franchise. Wendy Hughes was a fantastic actress, and she gave Darren real depth—far more than the typical one-dimensional “romance of the week.” She was far superior to Vash and felt much more like a true partner for Picard. I love the idea of two people falling in love through shared music, of Picard opening up to her in a way he hasn’t allowed himself to in a long time—if ever. And Picard “fencing” with Riker like that? I'm smiling every time.

I love everything about it. Lessons is my comfort episode. I’ve easily watched it dozens of times, probably more. Whenever I’m struggling or in a mood, I put it on and feel better almost instantly.

In fact, I think Lessons is a perfect example of what Star Trek is really about. Yes, it’s a sci-fi show set on a spaceship. But what makes Star Trek unique—and so appealing to me—are the quieter moments, the philosophy, the reflections. Not the big space battles. The social critique woven into sci-fi stories. All of that. And Lessons captures it beautifully.

The only thing I don't like about Lessons is... Troi is nosy. Mind ya bizness & go binge some chocolate, or something, lady. The captain is enjoying a concert, & he don't need you looking over his shoulder, at who's he's got an eye for.

I never had any issues with any of the other stuff. That's mostly just how tv shows work... Especially episodic ones, from back then. It's ultimately just good drama tv, set to the Star Trek aesthetic.

Oh, and ooooooo Beverly be jelleeee.

Go find your own duet, woman.