The least disliked episode 2021 - DS9 Season Three

[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 Three

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Meridian
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Through the Looking Glass
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[no2catsuitKira]

I remove "Meridian" because of the B-story. It is gross and offensive to me.

 

[Orphalesion]

Meirdian. It's Brigadoon in space! Brigadoon in space. I don't know how else to describe why this episode stinks to high heaven. (Then again, I should probably count my blessings that it wasn't literally the village of Brigadoon in space...but that doesn't help much)

Edit: Ninjad
Well then I remove Through the Looking Glass, because the Mirror Universe Sucks in DS9 and there's that problematic stuff with Sisko and Mirror Jadzia.
Season Three

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Defiant
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Qonundrum]

While a three-near-tie, I still have to defiantly remove Defiant from the list. A couple stories back, they just got a shiny metal new ship: A prototype, one made to ostensibly beat up the Borg, but ditched because of numerous safety concerns as if those were no more crucial than stepping on a freshly used piece of chewing gum someone spat out... no biggie, let's give it to Sisko's lot anyway and have them boast about it as if giving them a big flying safety hazard that'll kill them all is somehow a good thing. (The script actually tries, and to his credit Avery just about manages to sell it, but the dialogue he's stuck with does him little favors. "Oh, we got this ship, the thing it's made for isn't an issue and by the way it could kill us in flight because we skimped on a couple L-shaped brackets and bolts but that's A-OK by me!!" Seriously? At the same time, it's not anywhere like "The Bonding", but I'd rather see the little boy, now grown, disillusioned and joining the Maquis than Rikerclone(tm) as a sweeps week grab, of the sort the sketch comedy "The Edge" freely lampooned... in the end, it's not Ronald D Moore's best. Which is depressing because he is one of the best.)


Now, all that was bad enough to begin with and would make a collegiate essay in of itself, but it gets better: It's got stunt casting for sweeps week - Will Riker! Or, rather, his transporter-malfunction-of-the-week ass of a doppelganger! A shame he wasn't a robot, then he'd a be a shiny metal ass... Given how the ship was set up as being, what would happen, is that the Maquis would all set up to go for a joyride of galactic proportions and get blown to bits in the process because it'd tear itself apart. And it's not the best new character trait for Kira either, getting duped by Starfleet. First by not-a-Riker and by next year it's chees(y-dialogue)-peddling Eddington, who sadly isn't in this one, being the culprit...

No, this episode does not introduce the ship, but it quickly forgets something they shouldn't have mentioned via exposiondump to begin with as they could have used it to better effect, arguably:

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Dang, aren't we lucky the Borg was no longer a big big threat trying to blow down all the straw and brick houses? Leaving only a design worthy of outhouses? The Maquis would have ended their own problem there and then if Sisko was hyping up a bluff, especially if an espionage agent were in the room with all that bread buttering going on...

(You can guess one of the other stories I was vying to rant on about, except that had more meat to the bone than this escapade... )


What's left:

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Fascination
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

Fascination is my first pick. As much as I like the scenes when the festival begins, it soon becomes silly when everybody starts chasing after everybody else.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Life Support
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[BlueStuff]

Strong season. Life Support goes bye-bye; Bareil is a bore.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Shakaar
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

Shakaar, he's boring and I don't care for the bajoran politics plot.


The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Explorers
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[BigDaveX]

Explorers; the main plot is decent enough, but it's let down by the Bashir subplot, which feels like something they ripped out of an abandoned Season 1 script and slapped into this one.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Prophet Motive
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[Orphalesion]

Prophet Motive. That whole "Grand Nagus has a religious experience, which leads to wacky hi-jinks" stuff


The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Equilibrium
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing Equilibrium. Besides a semi-interesting revelation about trill society, it’s just kind of a boring episode that doesn’t go much of anywhere.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
Facets
The Adversary

 

[BigDaveX]

Facets - interesting premise, undermined by the writers yet again treating Curzon and Joran as the only pre-Jadzia hosts whose backstory is worth exploring to any degree.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
The House of Quark
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Orphalesion]

It's getting quite difficult.
I'm gonna remove The House of Quark. Yeah, unlike regular Klingon episodes, it's at least somewhat funny, but the whole premise of Quark having to marry a Klingon woman and being forced to weasel himself out of danger on Kronos is kinda sitcom-like.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Distant Voices
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Farscape One]

Strong season. All of the episodes I would have taken out first, second, and third are already gone.

"DISTANT VOICES" goes away. While the premise is fun, it's not as rewatchable as most of the rest here. I do feel the Lethean makeup is one of THE best Michael Westmore ever came up with, and I use this episode as a reason why his later genetic background revelation makes sense. But those reasons aren't enough to keep this afloat among the rest.

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
Second Skin
The Abandoned
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[no2catsuitKira]

I flipped a USB drive because I did not have a coin handy. The decision is whether to remove "The Abandoned" or "Family Business". The result is that "The Abandoned" is removed. I am bothered by casting decisions and that the show seems to come down firmly on the side of genes overriding free will. The only reason "Family Business" was not an automatic deletion is the introduction of Kassidy Yates.

This leaves...

The Search (I)
The Search (II)
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Seven of Five]

The Search (II) has a disappointing conclusion to the first part. With everything that the crew think is happening on the station, at least.

The Search (I)
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Past Tense (I)
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

Past Tense 1, it's super boring and drawn out, I don't get why this story had to be a two parter.


The Search (I)
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Past Tense (II)
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[BlueStuff]

Then I’ll boot the other half of Past Tense for reminding us how old we are. The Bell Riots are supposed to take place 3 years from now!

The Search (I)
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Heart of Stone
Destiny
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Farscape One]

"DESTINY" is now a lost prophecy. A nice look at Sisko as Emissary and Kira's thoughts on it, and having the gorgeous Tracy Scoggins as a Cardassian was a treat. But it was either not as good or had any truly memorable scenes like the rest on the list.


The Search (I)
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Heart of Stone
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Takeru]

Heart of Stone, I never cared for the Kira/Odo romance.

The Search (I)
Second Skin
Civil Defense
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary

 

[Swedish Borg]

Damn it! I almost caught this thread too late!!

"Second Skin" peels off as I don't buy that Kira happens to have a perfect Cardassian duplicate, so perfect that she can fool the duplicate's father into thinking that she's her!!!

I've seen lookalikes, they look... alike... not identical!!!

The Search (I)
Civil Defense
Visionary
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
Family Business
The Adversary