The least disliked episode 2021 - DS9 Season One

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - now able to include Disco's third season as well as the debut years of Picard and Lower Decks. It's generally a lot of fun, providing a chance to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favorite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just because you feel they would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Hall of Champions
2011 - In the Pale Moonlight
2013 - In the Pale Moonlight
2017 - Improbable Cause
2019 - Tacking into the Wind
2021 -

Season One

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Q-Less
Dax
The Passenger
Move Along Home
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Farscape One]

I get to go first for my favorite STAR TREK series!

"Q-LESS" goes. We didn't need Vash here, though it was fun to see Sisko deck Q.



Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Dax
The Passenger
Move Along Home
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Orphalesion]

Alright....DS9....this should be interesting.

Well...Bye-Bye Dax! This episode made me dislike Jadzia. Everybody is tearing their right arm out in a desperate attempt to save her and Jadzia....sits there like a little child, looking slightly nauseated...for the entire episode...even though she could clear the whole thing up with one sentence. Yes I even take the silly gamester episode over that.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Passenger
Move Along Home
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[BlueStuff]

And I'll take care of the silly gamester episode right now - move along, Move Along Home. Embarrassing!

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Passenger
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing paSsenGer. For the haMmy perFormace of ra-O van-Ti-Ca.

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
If Wishes Were Horses
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets[/QUOTE]

 

[Orphalesion]

If Wishes Were Horses...then I still wouldn't like this episode. It's the same old thing...each time Star Trek pulls out the "weird space thing makes random stuff/characters appear" card I roll my eyes and skip the episode on re-watches.
And really? Rumpelstilzkin? Really?

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
The Forsaken
Dramatis Personae
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Qonundrum]

(Melo)Dramatis Personae was just a using the TNG Sarek story as a template; swapping out a condition to introduce the mental brainadope that gets everyone going nuts. Or might it be akin to "Power Play"? Wither way, valerian puts me to sleep. I mean, Valerians put the audience to sleep. Didn't care for it then, and DS9 has also put out better stories giving tweaked takes on the characters, which pack a greater punch as a result. Never thought I'd say it but the mirrorville episodes were not the most least-effective... that said, they got Sisko right and Avery (as usual) steals the show, but that's just not enough. (And unlike "Starship Down", their redo of "Disaster", the rewatch of DP didn't reveal anything of interest. Maybe I need to give it another go. Not until another dose of Alamaraine, but I like that story so it won't be too long.)


What's left:
Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Nagus
Vortex
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Farscape One]

"VORTEX" is gone. Croden was just unlikeable.


Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Nagus
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[no2catsuitKira]

Removing "The Nagus" because obnoxious Ferengi are obnoxious.

Leaving...

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Battle Lines
The Storyteller
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Swedish Borg]

"The Storyteller", because it's just stupid. It bugs the hell out of me. the last time I tried to watch It, I stopped mid-episode...

I mean seriously, so because of this thing these people are condemned to be forever a bunch of superstitious nincompoops!!! What if one of the villagers decides to become someone.... NORMAL?

Leaving...

Emissary
Past Prologue
A Man Alone
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Battle Lines
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[BigDaveX]

A Man Alone. One of those stories where you can tell they came up with the twist ending first, but then didn't do a terribly effective job of writing the stuff that actually lived up to that twist.

Emissary
Past Prologue
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Battle Lines
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, I was going to eliminate Storyteller if it was still here. A group of villagers literally being attacked by a physical manifestation of their own stupidity, and the only way to stop it is to coddle them like five year olds.

Removing Past Prologue. I can barely remember it. It's just kind of generic, it feels like an obligation episode, something they had to do to suit the premise of the show but wasn't very interesting.

Emissary
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Battle Lines
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[BlueStuff]

Erasing Battle Lines - I found it a very boring episode, not to mention an unsatisfying end to Kai Opaka's story.

Emissary
Babel
Captive Pursuit
Progress
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[May 20]

Erasing Progress - it's sad to me when the B story is so much more entertaining that the A story. I love Jack and Nog with the yamok sauce, but Kira trying to save the farmer rubs me the wrong way, and then we never hear about him again. To be fair, though, I don't know that I would do much differently if I were in either of their situations.

Emissary
Babel
Captive Pursuit
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Qonundrum]

If memory serves, Captive Pursuit features the magic of the replicator system reproducing in an instant and workable copy of a defective alien component from a being from a quadrant that's entirely new. There's some okie doke right there. Letting the door open so this one can fly out of the coop.

Tosk and his pursuers aren't bad, Tosk being a token term as well as his presentation from start to finish, direct on screen or referred to offscreen, are also thought-provoking, and it's very nice to see other than humans being "the most dangerous game"(tm) and put into third person perspective, but this story could have been more well-rounded. Even offering asylum to Tosk as opposed to the replicator the scenes that shatter suspension of disbelief would have been a better choice.

All other things considered, there's one sweet line at the end and Avery Brooks, as usual, reminds why he was cast over Capaldi and others:

Save it. You ignored your duty to Starfleet. You took off your comm. badge so you could ignore me. You even ignored the Prime Directive by interfering with their damned hunt. Another stunt like this and your wife won't have to complain about the conditions here anymore. Do I make myself clear?

(on top of numerous other lines in this episode, including Sisko asking O'Brien how to write up the report - There's some great stuff in this episode. It's not the worst story, but it deserved to be better.)

What remains:
Emissary
Babel
The Forsaken
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Swedish Borg]

"The Forsaken" because there are too many plotlines comingled and none is particularly interesting, so it's even hard to remember exactly what happens in that episode. I remember Odo and Lawxanna in a turbolift... And Bashir being first snobbed and then praised by a bunch of people who I think were supposed to be ambassadors but acted like assholes...

I am sorry but ambassadors are supposed to be... DIPLOMATIC!!!

Being a diplomat means that you do your best NOT to offend people NOT the opposite!!

What remains:
Emissary
Babel
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Takeru]

Emissary, it's a pretty good pilot but the wormhole scenes go on a bit too long, they bored me towards the end, I kept thinking "I get it, let's move on".


Babel
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Swedish Borg]

Emissary, it's a pretty good pilot but the wormhole scenes go on a bit too long, they bored me towards the end, I kept thinking "I get it, let's move on".
...

Plus there are scenes that don't make a lot of sense like why is Jadzia seeing a nice summer-like green landscape while Sisko is seeing some hellish place? That's never explained.

 

[BlueStuff]

Babel wasn't bad, but it was a little early for them to go to the "oh no, a virus!" well of plots.

Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets

 

[Swedish Borg]

Ok, the winner is, unsurprisingly "Duet".

I am not a big fan of Bareil episodes, I think he's a little bland.