The least disliked episode 2021 - TNG Season Five

[Qonundrum]

I'm gonna shock people and extinguish The Inner Light Picard gets zapped by a random space drone thing and then we spend a whole episode with some alien farmers/suburbanites dressed in beige who brabble about their gardens drying up and in the end Picard plays a flute.
Also there ought to have been better options to preserve a memory of their culture than just uploading some rando's memories into a space drone thing and inflicting them on some other rando.
Also, in typical 90s network television manner, Picard is neither changed by this experience, nor does it have any long-term effects, except for occasional flute playing.

Though it was a nice touch to have the alien flautist's son be played by Patrick Stewart's real son.

90s, 80s, 70s, 60s... even 00s... can modern shows return to that type of weekly reset button trope? Or rather they can, but can audiences re-adapt? Heck, there are some shows that could be incorporating camp but everyone takes it literally as face value. I say "could be"; the makers letting audiences figure it out on their own, if that's what's going on. But I digress (no way!).

I got the impression that this myopic society's probe had shut down permanently after mind-raping Picard. Which would be even dumber that the probe throughout all of space is looking for just one suitable being, mind-rapes, then shuts down forevermore but not until a big long flute pops out, of which said being now knows how to play with masterstroke - so glad all beings have the lung capacity and power and are capable of playing a woodwind/reed instrument as such... Didn't the species tell the blasted thing that anyone organic it comes in contact with will die just like everything else in the way they perceive death as being? Chalk up one for "inane nihilism" on top of everything else.

 

[Qonundrum]

Say good-bye to the nerd fantasy that is The Perfect Mate.

Oi, I resemble that remark!!

It wasn't that great of an episode either. It was fairly dated even back then. Tim O'Connor made me pine more for Buck Rogers (and in more than one way but that's not important right now.) The episode is more akin to TOS, which did something not too dissimilar in "Elaan of Troyius" and seeing her running around calling everyone pigs was far more exciting than Riker telling the bridge he'll be in holodeck four doing who knows wha-- wait, it doesn't take much to figure out what he's going to be doing and the answer to that is "eww". At least he's "not opening up another man's gift". Cringe on so many levels and if this were an episode of Batman you know they would have supplanted "gift" with "package" (*snarf!*), this outing ranks up there with the supremely craptacular Justice and Code of Honor. Heck, if this were in season 1 it'd be closer to average as far as stories go, and we'd also have Riker openly saying how humans don't diddle like that anymore because it's barbaric to do anything like that. On the other hand, this episode did the same shtick with more subtlety, which only just goes to show that not all season 1-style stories would have fared better with the tighter production team. "The Game", a story better on all counts, is a premiere example of that and it's by no means season 5's greatest either...

 

[Orphalesion]

Honestly, "Perfect Mate" makes me always think how Famke Janssen plays essentially the same role in it and Fox's X-Men movies: a passive psychic with no inherent character or agency, who just exists to be "girlfriend" to the male characters (her character at the end of the episode only came about because she imprinted on Picard and became HIS ideal woman)
(Let's just pray the Disney/MCU version of the X-Men will allow Jean to be a proper character in her own right...)

 

[Brennyren]

"Disaster" goes for annoying the crap out of me by failing to understand the chain of command on a ship. Troi is a staff officer, not a line officer; she's not in the chain of command. Ro is a line officer -- it should have been Ro in command. And "Disaster" also goes for retroactively annoying me in a later episode, when Troi takes the "Bridge Officers' Test" because, she says, she enjoyed the taste of command. What kind of psycho would find this experience enjoyable?

Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

 

[BK613]

@Brennyren You didn't actually remove Disaster from the list, you know...and I agree with your assessment about the chain of command.

 

[Brennyren]

And now it goes for playing a part in me embarrassing myself! (Thanks for the heads-up, @BK613 !)

Ensign Ro
Unification I
Unification II
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

(Let's just pray the Disney/MCU version of the X-Men will allow Jean to be a proper character in her own right...)

It'll help if they give her any kind of plot relevance other than "about to become Dark Phoenix." The reason Jean's turning into Dark Phoenix had such impact in the comics (and for that matter in the 90s cartoon, the only media presentation to tell the story well) is because she had a long history as a hero, and a fully-realized character, first.

 

[Orphalesion]

After considerable thought I decided to remove "The Next Phase", since it's one of the episodes still on the list that aren't as good as the others, obviously it's nice to see more of Ro, but her being present alone doesn't magically produce a good episode.Plus that whole "we're ghosts, but not really!" thing is a bit blah.

Unification I
Unification II
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

It'll help if they give her any kind of plot relevance other than "about to become Dark Phoenix." The reason Jean's turning into Dark Phoenix had such impact in the comics (and for that matter in the 90s cartoon, the only media presentation to tell the story well) is because she had a long history as a hero, and a fully-realized character, first.

And she needs to be allowed to be more than just "the girl Cyclops and Wolverine fight over". Honestly I wouldn't complain if they drop that whole love triangle completely and just have Jean be single.
I never was much of a fan of the 90s cartoon so I'm not very familiar with that version, but in regards to the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga, I do believe X-Men:Evolution with its strong focus on characterization and inter-personal relationships would have done a very good job with Phoenix, if Season 5 hadn't been cancelled.
I honestly think Evolution had the best version of Jean outside of the comics and allows her to be a character in her own right (though I might be biased since Evoluion was my introduction to the X-Men)

 

[Albertese]

I'm shooting "Time's Arrow, Part I." Honestly I think this one is pretty good, but there was a period in the early 2000's when our local affiliate seemed to play this episode like six times every year. I just have seen it enough.

Unification I
Unification II
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty

 

[BK613]

Gonna shut down Power Play. Just another alien possession story...

Unification I
Unification II

Cause and Effect
The First Duty

 

[Qonundrum]

After all the hype of the leeeeeeeeeeeegend of Spock, Unification II was a massive Dissolution that landed with a noise louder than the sick elephant at the zoo... Anyone, even androids, can do the Vulcan neck pinch now in the same way we all whip out butter knives to cut margarine with. Spock says some stuff. So can a sock puppet. They may as well have done a crossover with one of Lambchop's frayed yarn bits instead. Why not, Shari Lewis wrote for TOS... Worse, after a strong introduction, Sela is reduced to that of cartoon caricature. I suppose they were trying to emulate TOS's more action-themed style, but numerous season 1 episodes did so and far better. So did TOS.

What's left:

Unification I
Cause and Effect
The First Duty

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing Unification I. Not a bad episode or anything. The whole setup just seemed like a bit of a contrived way to get Leonard Nimoy in.

Cause and Effect
The First Duty

 

[BK613]

I wish we'd seen more of Kelsey Grammer. Bye to The First Duty

Cause and Effect

 

[Qonundrum]

"Cause and Effect" - a brilliant new way to show a time loop and ended at just the right time because hearing about ensign Fletcher falling*. Naturally, such an innovative form of storytelling had to start with a bang...


* and can't get up, per the rather topical joke of the time thanks to that Lifecall commercial, and thankfully they kept the line in numerous remade commercials - of which all were just as badly acted or worse.

 

[Qonundrum]

After considerable thought I decided to remove "The Next Phase", since it's one of the episodes still on the list that aren't as good as the others, obviously it's nice to see more of Ro, but her being present alone doesn't magically produce a good episode.Plus that whole "we're ghosts, but not really!" thing is a bit blah.

The suspension of disbelief needed is higher than George Harrison's infamous visit to Haight-Ashbury*, but the philosophical slant between Ro and Geordi made up for it. Still love the ending when Data figures it out because I resemble that remark. Sadly, with so much in Trek, there's no sequel over the Romulans' act that's arguably tantamount to war, but whatever.

* well, he was offered drugs, turned it down for some reason, and guess what happened after that...

 

[BK613]

ensign Fletcher falling

Actually, Ens. Fletcher saves Geordi from falling.

 

[Swedish Borg]

"Cause and Effect" is a great episode don't get me wrong but do you guys realize that its plot rests entirely on the fact that Picard is too damn stupid to know that his crew can do TWO things at the same time!!! Which they ended up doing Btw!!!

How about " Make it so... what Data AND Riker said"

 

[Orphalesion]

I'm honestly a bit that "Cause and Effect" won. It's not a very remarkable episode in my honest opinion. It's solid, but not really unique or exceptional. To me it's a, for the lack of a better term, a run of the mill adventure for TNG.

In fact in my last message I had a hard time considering whether to remove Cause and Effect or the Next Phase, I only chose Next Phase because it seemed more cliche to me and I found the whole funeral and Geordie's and Ro's reaction to it rather cheesy.

But then again, there's nothing that says that all the winners have to be "exceptional" or unique.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Ethics (aka the battle of pseudo-medical lingo)

Evil Doc: "He's dead"
Bev : "What happened?"
ED : "Low broccoli count"
Bev :" Did you try melted icecream therapy?"
ED :" It wouldn't work, not enough bacon bits"
Bev :" How about rotating his tires?"
ED :" Are you kidding? First he has blue eyes and more importantly... We are TUESDAY!!! Hello!!!"
Bev :"Oh Yeah I forgot about that, so what did you do?"
ED..........:"Intense teeth flossing."
Bev........:"What!!! But that procedure has been discredited by the good doctor committee."
ED........:" The good doctor committee! Are you kidding? One of them is still recommending leeches!"
Bev...:" Well, you know Denobulans..."

 

[Orphalesion]

Ethics (aka the battle of pseudo-medical lingo)

Evil Doc: "He's dead"
Bev : "What happened?"
ED : "Low broccoli count"
Bev :" Did you try melted icecream therapy?"
ED :" It wouldn't work, not enough bacon bits"
Bev :" How about rotating his tires?"
ED :" Are you kidding? First he has blue eyes and more importantly... We are TUESDAY!!! Hello!!!"
Bev :"Oh Yeah I forgot about that, so what did you do?"
ED..........:"Intense teeth flossing."
Bev........:"What!!! But that procedure has been discredited by the good doctor committee."
ED........:" The good doctor committee! Are you kidding? One of them is still recommending leeches!"
Bev...:" Well, you know Denobulans..."

It was also silly how callous "Evil Doc" was portrayed in that scene.

Bev: This nab is DEAD!
ED: Yeah, well, poop happens, but I was able to advance some of my own theories on Kitten Crushing by killing him and trapping his soul in this metal container over there, where he will experience a nightmarish nothing for all eternity. So it worked out pretty well!

 

[BK613]

I'm honestly a bit that "Cause and Effect" won. It's not a very remarkable episode in my honest opinion. It's solid, but not really unique or exceptional. To me it's a, for the lack of a better term, a run of the mill adventure for TNG.

In fact in my last message I had a hard time considering whether to remove Cause and Effect or the Next Phase, I only chose Next Phase because it seemed more cliche to me and I found the whole funeral and Geordie's and Ro's reaction to it rather cheesy.

But then again, there's nothing that says that all the winners have to be "exceptional" or unique.

Maybe it seems pedestrian now but it should be noted that the airing of "Cause and Effect" (March 23, 1992) predates the release of Grounndhog Day (February 12, 1993) by almost a year so the mainstreaming pop culture references of a time loop hadn't happened yet. Seemed like a very fresh story idea at the time...