The 3 Good Things and 3 Bad Things Challenge

[TheMadCloner]

Can you name three good things you liked about an almost universally disliked/hated episode, and three bad things you didn't like about an almost universally liked/loved episode?

For example, can you name 3 bad things about "The Inner Light" and 3 good things about "Threshold?"

EDIT: Feel free to do the movies too.

 

[NCC-73515]

Threshold: Historic flight, references real (space)flight pioneers, good make-up.

Inner Light: It was all forced on Picard, why leave him just a flute, very slow pace.

 

[Vger23]

Three Bad Things: Yesterday’s Enterprise
1. Mega reset button- nothing actually happens
2. Yar and Castillo kind of blah chemistry
3. Rocks kill Riker during the final battle

Three Good Things: Spock’s Brain
1. The whole scene on the bridge where they work to track Spock down
2. New ship design
3. DeForest Kelly’s performance “A CHILD could do it!!”

 

[Oddish]

The Inner Light
1. The tech imbalance made no sense. The Federation can't do the brain tricks the Kataan probe did, but they can't even launch a manned rocket.
That's really the only thing, but it's a biggie.

The Best of Both Worlds
1. Shelby was annoying. Seriously.
2. Troi should not have dressed down Riker on front of the crew.
3. Riker proved his command chops this episode. His staying put made less sense than ever.

Yesterday's Enterprise
1. Kill a whole ship full of people because Guinan had a feeling?
2. Why do El Aurians have these mysterious powers anyway?
3. Why was Wesley, a 17 year old kid, serving on a warship?

 

[Lord Garth]

Bad Things about a Good Episode: "Past Tense" (DS9)
1. Now that 2024 sounds like a "real" year instead of a "future" year (like it did in 1995), I hope that "Past Tense" gets things dead-wrong.

2. How did Sisko survive getting shot? If he wore something bulletproof underneath his shirt or coat, they should've shown it.

3. Why is everyone wearing long-sleeves and jackets when the 2024 scenes take place at the end of August?

Good Things about a Bad Episode: "Q-Less" (DS9)
1. Love Q's line about how Earth used to have character. Among his list of things that gave Earth character, he mentions Watergate.

2. Sisko punching Q.

3. Vash wants to put all her merchandise into historical context.

 

[Oddish]

Bad Things about a Good Episode: "Past Tense" (DS9)

2. How did Sisko survive getting shot? If he wore something bulletproof underneath his shirt or coat, they should've shown it.

The attackers were using MP-5K 9mm submachine guns, which fire pistol caliber rounds. And under the Hague rules of the DS9 timeframe, the military couldn't use hollowpoint ammo. So, if Sisko was not hit in a vital spot, he could have survived, especially with Dr. Bashir present to provide care. He would need medical attention fairly quickly, though.

A 5.56mm rifle round or a 12 gauge slug would have been much harder to survive.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Move Along Home

1. Very cool idea of “Trapped in a board game”.

2. The first time we see Quark in a situation where he balances profit against empathy.

3. “IS IT AGAINST STARFLEET REGULATION TO PRESS A FEW BUTTONS??!!”

Scorpion

1. Consulting a whitewashed Davinci hologram on how to deal with the biggest threat in the galaxy?

2. Janeway takes the side of the aggressors and never takes responsibility for it.

3. How can the Doc accomplish in hours what the Borg couldn’t figure out?

 

[Mojochi]

3 negatives in a good one: The Measure of a Man
1. Having to use less qualified local officers as legal council, when they could have representation over deep space communications.
2.The notion that a Lt. Cmdr's sovereignty would never have come up in a career that saw him rise to 2nd officer of the flagship.
3. Picard needing a reminder that losing rights could equate to slavery... Well, Duuuuh...

3 positives in a bad one: Sub Rosa
1. It's one of the most beautifully filmed episodes of the entire series.
2. Gates McFadden has never looked more beautiful.
3. For what it's worth, the actors' performances aren't the problem. They're doing a good enough job with what they got.

 

[TheMadCloner]

I forgot to add in the OP, feel free to do the movies too.

 

[at Quark's]

The Inner Light
2. Troi should not have dressed down Riker on front of the crew.

Actually, I think that is about the best Troi moment in the entire TNG series. It's one of those rare moments where we see her absolutely calm, rational, commanding even, taking control of the situation and not acting in that silly pseudo-emotional way the scripts made her do so often, but coming up with irrefutable arguments.

Riker is publicly engaging in a dogfight with his first officer, neglecting his higher responsibilities in the middle of a war, pulling his rank. It's only fitting she publicly addresses him on that and pulls his own rank on him.

Threshold :
1. So "out there" that it's actually entertaining, lots of unexpected twists in the story. Way more so than many mediocre, predictable episodes you feel secretly tempted to fast forward to the resolution of the story already when there's still 20 minutes left on the clock.
2. Paris actually has a very interesting character journey and some growth in this one- his anticipation at becoming famous, his jealousy when Janeway tries to let Kim do the ride, his moment of transcendence, his starting to distrust the people around him because he thinks they don;t really like him for what he was/ is/is becoming and his instability, and finally his acceptance of the fact that fame isn't a quick fix to personal problems. In a way it's a bizarrely enlarged version of some of the rollercoaster emotions people must experience when they're getting famous unexpectedly.
3. The creation of an entirely new species! And even better, it originates by the captain having sex with one of her underlings. That's what a lot of fanfic out there probably is about, but taken up a notch or two!

(OK, the 3rd one isn't entirely serious)

Favor the bold/Sacrifice of Angels

1. Resolution is lame, as one poster here called it a 'get out of jail free-card' recently. Can't get out of the corner you wrote yourself into? Let the gods simply make those 2700 ships disappear with their magic wands!
2. I really don't like how easily swayed Odo is, given his incorruptible (even if dour) character that we've all come to know and love. Fortunately he redeems himself (somewhat) at the end.
3. There's an awful lot of serendipitous timing in this one, isn't there? The Klingons appear just as it seems the Federation is losing the battle; then the battle lines break just in time for the Defiant to reach DS9, exactly at the moment the self-replicating mines are disabled; Ron misses disabling the phasers by seconds because they apparently couldn't break him from prison half an hour earlier, Odo manages to switch over back to the Good Side just in time etc.

 

[Farscape One]

3 good things...
Well, I've already defended "THRESHOLD" with 3 things on my "Defending The Episode..." thread.

3 bad things...
I'm picking from my favorite of the various shows to try to be fair... DS9, "TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS".

1. Kira getting the solution was never shown... just that she consulted the Orb. A quick scene could have been added.

2. The Defiant being able to uncloak, beam them aboard, and recloak THAT quickly? Too bad we never saw that before or after this episode.

3. Sisko should have come clean about the tribbles being back.

(I'm reaching, I know. But I had to really reach to find fault in that episode.)

 

[Lord Garth]

Good Things about "Haven" (TNG)
1. Wyatt has awesome '80s hair.
2. The Tarreilian ship looks like something out of a music video.
3. Troi knocking over that thing Homm was constantly hitting.

Bad Things about "The Defector" (TNG)
1. The Klingon ships uncloaking behind the Enterprise as they face the Romulans looks overcrowded. They needed to zoom out that shot just a little bit.
2. Data asking if he can watch Riker and Troi interrogate Admiral Jarok made me cringe.
3. I wish there was more to Jarok's wanting to defect.

 

[Farscape One]

That's "The Defector", not "The Enemy".

 

[Brennyren]

Bad Things about a Good Episode: "City on the Edge of Forever" (TOS)

1) The landing party picked a hell of a time to stop paying attention to the crazy guy.
2) "Got his head caught in a mechanical rice-picker" is possibly the worst explanation of Spock's ears that has ever been devised.
3) Edith's predictions are just a little too on-the-nose, don't you think?

Good Things About a Bad Episode: "Aquiel" (TNG)

1) A rare Geordi episode! LeVar Burton was (IMO) one of the best actors on the show, and he never got enough to do.
2) And the woman he was attracted to wasn't the baddie, so one cliché -- and some heartache for Geordi -- avoided.
3) Aquiel proves to have some character. When Geordi offers to get her a berth on the Enterprise, she declines, saying she'd rather earn a place on her own merits.

 

[ananta]

3 bad things about “Space Seed” (choosing this because I just happened to watch it last night).

1. It’s a big one. Marla Mcgyvers is an utterly dreadful portray of womanhood (or personhood in general); psychologically weak and fickle, inept at her job, traitorous, all because she has the hots for an alpha male type who clearly will treat her abusively. You do get people like that I guess, who just can’t help themselves and enjoy being controlled and dominated, but despite my love for TOS it didn’t do any favours for women.
2. Kirk’s solution to give Khan his own planet is questionable and of course opens the door to future catastrophe. Of course Khan and his genetically engineered super humans would fund a way to escape at some point. The least the Federation should have done was keep a close eye on them and quarantine the planet.
3. Covering Ricardo Montalban’s face with what looked like boot polish to make him look Indian is a questionable choice, although blackface clearly wasn’t as much an issue back then. I’m glad they ditched it for the movie though.

3 good things about “Let He who is without sin”

1. It’s a stinker, but it looks great at least. Nice location shooting and great to see characters on the beach (although it looked kinda windy). The closing shot was incredibly beautiful.
2. The cast look great too—especially Terry Farrell. I’m gay, so ‘no hetero’ but she looks gorgeous in her swimsuit. Julian is cute in his tank top and yoga pants too.
3. While Worf is generally insufferable throughout the episode, the story about his childhood actually sheds a lot of light on the character and is an essential piece of backstory.

 

[at Quark's]

As for 'the Defector' , they should make one of those 'recut' scenes ...

TOMALAK [on viewscreen]: I expected more from you than an idle threat, Picard.
PICARD: Then you shall have it. Mister Worf?
<Footage from Parallels: a gazillion Enterprises appearing and still more popping into view each second >
DATA: At this rate, the sector will be completely filled with Enterprises within three days! (One of those unintentionally funny Data statements, imho).

Good things about a 'bad' episode
Where no one has gone before (cheesy as hell)
1. Being very early TNG, this still feels fresh. Filled with a sense of deep wonder about the mysteries of the universe, long before they found TNG's "success formula"
2. The traveler, in representing a race that feels genuinely 'old' and somewhat worn out, ages ahead of anything the Federation has to offer, much more so than, say, the Q who feel like a bunch of showy upstarts in comparison. (Not his pedo vibe, though!)
3 The Picard with his mother scene. First time we see this more vulnerable side of Picard,

Bad things about a 'good' episode:
In the Pale moonlight
1. I know the Romulans are paranoid, but I still don't believe them to take the decision to go to war over the evidence of only a single optolithic data rod that still very well could (and in fact, is) a fake. They should still be cold and calculating enough to make very sure it's real evidence, first.
2. Sisko's acting doesn't convince me when he has to act those more melodramatic emotions. People... are dying out there every day!
3. Even though his deletion of the log is a neat conclusion of the episode, in reality Sisko probably should have had this cleared with top-level Starfleet (and I wouldn't be surprised if he actually did). This simply is not something a lowly captain decides to do on his own. In that case, it would have made more sense to keep the log, but have it only available a top-level security access.

 

[Lord Garth]

That's "The Defector", not "The Enemy".

Thanks. Changed it.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Bad Things about a Good Episode: "The City on the Edge of Forever" (TOS)

1) "Captain, I'm frightened." Couldn't Uhura have said something else, ANYTHING else? But no, she's the girl, so she has to be frightened. One of those unfortunate TOS moments that hasn't aged well at all.

2) Edith Keeler's speech. God, this makes me cringe whenever I watch the episode these days. As noted above, it's WAY too on the nose. "Man's going to split the atom and then going to go into space and they're totes going to solve all of our problems, you guys!!!" Weird thing to think to get yourself through the Depression. Maybe it could've just been a speech about about man helping each other through the tough times, or overcoming our differences and even celebrating them? I think that would've worked just as well.

3) I kind of wish that Kirk and Spock had a change of clothes at some point in 1930.

Good Things about a Bad Episode: "Spock's Brain" (TOS)

1) The scene on the bridge where the crew tries to deduce which planet Spock was taken to is really good.

2) DeForest Kelley's performance is wonderful after McCoy gains the knowledge to reattach Spock's brain. The "A child could do it" line is utterly convincing.

3) The costumes for the Eymorgs are pretty great. Hats off to William Ware Theiss.

 

[Nerys Myk]

3) I kind of wish that Kirk and Spock had a change of clothes at some point in 1930.

Spent all their money on "stone knives and bear skins".

 

[Oddish]

Good Episode: Before and After
1. First Officer Tuvok was wearing the wrong color. Again. He must really like yellow.
2. Human/Ocampa romance, given their respective lifespans...
3. Why did Kes keep going back? And why did she reverse course?

Bad Episode: Non Sequitur
1. Earth, yay! Plus we see the part of Starfleet that designs the cool toys that Trek crews fly around in.
2. We see the life Harry should have had: romance, career success, and fast promotion.
3. Alternative history for Tom; we see what Janeway saved him from.