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Season 7 Tier List

Arpy

Vice Admiral
Admiral
Target Audience did their tier list for TNG s7 (and DS9 s2) and it got me to thinking. I think this is fairly close to mine. In order from favorite to least:

A All Good Things…
A Lower Decks
A Parallels
A Inheritance

B The Pegasus
B Genesis
B Preemptive Strike
B Attached
B Eye of the Beholder
B Thine Own Self
B Gambit, Part I & II

C Journey's End
C Dark Page
C Firstborn
C Phantasms
C Descent, Part II

D Masks
D Liaisons

F Sub Rosa -- one of the absolute worst, but it has rewatchability
F Interface
F Homeward -- letting an entire people die is unconscionable
F Bloodlines
F Emergence
F Force of Nature

*a lot of good stuff in DS9 s2. I may add a tier list for it too later.
 
I don't know who they are, but I'm always game for tier lists.

Mine is:

A Lower Decks
A Parallels
A The Pegasus
A Preemptive Strike
A Attached

B Thine Own Self
B Homeward
B Force of Nature
B All Good Things

C Inheritance
C Gambit, Part I & II
C Dark Page
C Journey's End

D Eye of the Beholder
D Bloodlines

F Genesis
F Firstborn
F Phantasms
F Descent, Part II
F Masks
F Liaisons
F Sub Rosa
F Interface
F Emergence
 
These posts doing interactive tiers and games are so much more compelling than gawking at videos, but those videos can inspire interactive posts as well and of all the Trek reaction channels out there, TA is more or less the best (or more universally enjoyed?) so there's that... :D

My list, FWIW, and are based within the scope of season 7 - not against the whole of TNG as, in that framing, most episodes would be C or lower due to a general tone that can only be described as "blandness gone wild", something that once described only the music but not describes entire stories:


S The Pegasus (almost seamlessly puts in a backstory for Riker that (a) is compelling and (b) fits continuity better than it should. Add in some great high concept sci-fi and execution along with Romulan mystique that we've come to expect and enjoy, and voila.)
S All Good Things (Yeah, a couple nitpicks persist, but the overall ideas, the bookending of TNG with Q, multiple time periods done cleverly... I can't complain, for which I will complain about since I love to complain.)

A Genesis (Produced really well and straddles the line of biological science, but the pros outweigh the nitpicks for the most part. The one thing that lets it down for me is the Spot-now-a-lizard took me out of the story briefly, which is amazing as it was far easier to roll with the transmogrifications of the bridge crew... plus, all the puppies-now-adult-dogs that Ian was talking about in "The Child" now turned into guppies and had no water to jump into, or something. )
A Phantasms (critters in a conduit emit a signat that get Data to dream psycho things is definitely produced well)
A Thine Own Self (sorta tropey, but holds its own with some innovativeness, and isn't as bland or boring as other episodes, especially with some payoffs later in this episode.)

B Homeward (a little tropey and details have to be glossed over, but the acting and overall ideas feel oddly fresh)
B Masks (definitely has TOS vibes but still done in a TNGeriffic way. Not as instantly rewatchable as other stories, but a robust romp it remains.)
B Interface (a decent Geordi story that also is novel in NOT exploring another failed attempt to go dating a woman because he's a nerd or (insert whatever creative solution(s) cross(es) you mind here. Suffers too much from season 7 blandness.)
B Preemptive Strike (a decent ending for Ro that also continues the stitching in of DS9's undercurrents, though her follow-up in a later sequel has more gravitas to it compared to the general blandness of post season-4 TNG.)
B Parallels (what starts as a great parallel universe story shoves in a needless reset button at the end in a way that's way too contrived. I almost gave this a "C" for that alone.)
B Lower Decks (for the season, it's above average and covering new ground, though the Sito subplot has an unintentional undercurrent that's best not thought into.)

C Liaisons (tropey, TOS-like in a way (but far better than most "monsters of the week don't understand human emotions so what better way to learn about them than to force the humies to fight"), but Trek should always sometimes embrace (or embrace-and-extend) its origins, but this one has moments of absurdist fun. A couple scenes knock it down just enough, unfortunately.

D Force of Nature (not necessarily unworthy, but (a) wields a big sledgehammer that looks like it was pinched from a circus, and (b) it's now a drinking game you will lose if you chug one every time someone in Starfleet says "you're authorized to go above warp 5"). The fact they try to remind of how big outer space is by having a ship lose its ability to fly at FTL speeds is the closest to Trek ever managing in terms of comparing to Kirk's pilot where they nail the tone about losing the ability to fly FTL)
D Eye of the Beholder (Rarely are effects an issue, but the forced perspective of the nacelle interior doesn't work and they missed an opportunity to show HOW they get in there as there are windows in the rear pylons... but by then, the treknobabble was too often being rubberstamped for any ol' thing and using style over substance too... I suppose someone would murder during the construction of the new flagship... plus, Troi didn't sense anyone there for 7 years while picking up on thousands of people light years away??)
D Attached (mostly for the forced telepathy thing, but it's surprisingly forgettable an episode)
D Gambit, Part I & II (bland, boring, lame cliffhanger and given how the nacelles are the Federation's equivalent to a Ford Pinto*..., lame music, tries to feel like the inverse of Star Wars... should have had Brian Doyle-Murray as Baran instead... oh yeah, Baan = barron, okey dokey then... the rating is possibly too generous except there's a decent story in this, and a good climax - if you can buy into switching your human emotions off faster than Data can switch his off in the movies, on the occasions where he has the chip installed and can turn it off and on...)

F Descent, Part II (after a mostly promising part 1 with a great theme and slightly small-universe-syndrome cartoony cliffhanger, nobody realized how "Descent" would really fit the definition of the eponymous title for this horrid conclusion.)
F Dark Page (another sub-par Lwaxana tale, her stories from seasons 1-4 were far better, and we still don't get a satisfying explanation for Troi's full lineage)
F Inheritance (enough with Data's nuclear family, literal or otherwise, this got boring long before season 6's escapade "The Quality of Life")
F Journey's End (feels like a last minute attempt to throw in some people and situations and then bring back the Traveler again...)
F Bloodlines (Season 1's Bok revenge plot was refreshing and original. This is just 43 minutes of codswallop cheap soap opera.)
F Firstborn (another snoozer about a complete stranger popping in to tell Cousin Oliver Alexander about things and, oh, it's Alexander's future self. Okey dokey then.)
F Sub Rosa (unlike Beverly, I'm not going there, not even to defend the caber toss scene)
F Emergence (doesn't even make me think of a good song with Vertiform City ♫)

* You guessed it and feeling trepidation over... the asterisk of dooooooooooooo-- ! So speaking of yon Pinto, that was so embedded in pop culture that it was still quite "a thing" by the time the following clip was made (mid-80s)**:

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** but completely coincidental to the number of times the 1701-D blew up (or risked doing so, which was something like 10, but that aside we all thought Uncle Arthur was a major character in "Bewitched" and he as only in 10 stories too...)
 
Mine, with a bit more specificity

(A) Lower Decks
(A) Parallels
(A) The Pegasus
(A-) Preemptive Strike

(B+) All Good Things
(B) Attached
(B) Thine Own Self
(B) Inheritance
(B-) Gambit, Part I & II

(C+) Dark Page
(C) Journey's End
(C) Descent, Part II
(C-) Homeward
(C-) Emergence

(D+) Genesis
(D+) Phantasms
(D+) Liaisons
(D) Bloodlines
(D-) Force of Nature
(D-) Eye of the Beholder
(D-) Interface

(F) Masks
(F) Sub Rosa
(F) Firstborn
 
Mine, with a bit more specificity

(A) Lower Decks
(A) Parallels
(A) The Pegasus
(A-) Preemptive Strike

(B+) All Good Things
(B) Attached
(B) Thine Own Self
(B) Inheritance
(B-) Gambit, Part I & II

(C+) Dark Page
(C) Journey's End
(C) Descent, Part II
(C-) Homeward
(C-) Emergence

(D+) Genesis
(D+) Phantasms
(D+) Liaisons
(D) Bloodlines
(D-) Force of Nature
(D-) Eye of the Beholder
(D-) Interface

(F) Masks
(F) Sub Rosa
(F) Firstborn
“Firstborn”’s that low for you, huh? Why is that?
 
“Firstborn”’s that low for you, huh? Why is that?
Well... I just forgot to position it above the other Fs when I was rearranging lol. (All Fs are Fs, after all)

For the record, I think it's better than Masks & Sub Rosa, but worse than Interface, because that whole "Alexander is a wuss Klingon" plotline was garbage, no matter how much sci-fi, time traveler mumbo jumbo they dressed it with. It further undermined Worf as a character, & just doesn't work.

I'll give credit to it for one thing though, that they got back James Sloyan, who is outstanding in The Defector, but as good as he is, he couldn't save this one. Maybe I'd give it an F+ if there was such a thing lol

E-??? :lol:
 
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