The Least Disliked Episode 2023: ENT Season 3

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - now with more shows than ever. 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 favourite 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 it would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Star Trek: Enterprise
Hall of Champions
2011 - United
2013 - Azati Prime
2017 - Azati Prime
2019 - In a Mirror, Darkly (I)
2021 - United
2023 -

Season 3

The Xindi
Anomaly
Extinction
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Twilight
North Star
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Harbinger
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown
Zero Hour

 

[Farscape One]

Oooh, I get first pick!

"EXTINCTION" goes... extinct. It was just dreadful.


The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Twilight
North Star
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Harbinger
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown
Zero Hour

 

[Seven of Five]

You beat me to it with Extinction, so I'll remove North Star instead. A dodgy time travel plot and the Temporal Cold War? Oh dear.


The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Twilight
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Harbinger
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown
Zero Hour

 

[Sumire]

I’m jettisoning Twilight. Controversial, I know. I promise this is not just because I’m a Trip/T’Pol shipper. I am not a fan of the implication that Archer not being in command and T’Pol taking charge (and wearing the uniform hooray) leads to the virtual extinction of humanity. I am an Enterprise cheerleader but the “Archer is the most important person in the whole dang galaxy, everything hinges on him!” thing is very much not my cup of tea.

The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Harbinger
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown
Zero Hour

 

[Farscape One]

"NORTH STAR" was going to be my next one, but since Seven of Five beat me to it, I'll go with my next option... "HARBINGER".

Reed and Hayes looked like morons here. And I've honestly never liked the T'Pol/Trip 'will they/won't they be together' storyline. It's a tired trope.



The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown
Zero Hour

 

[Summer Solstice]

Zero Hour because of time travel and I was very disappointed by the ending of the Xindi storyline.


The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown

 

[Seven of Five]

Oops I got mixed up earlier when I voted for North Star when I should have voted for Carpenter Street! However, North Star is a boring Western, so its fine to stay off.

I'll vote off Carpenter Street then being as its more boring time travel, and more TCC, and being as that I thought that was in North Star.

The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Doctor's Orders
Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown

 

[Farscape One]

Wow, Seven of Five... "CARPENTER STREET" was exactly the next one on my list to kill. Damned Temporal Cold War...

So my next elimination will be "HATCHERY".

A lot of people looked stupid here.


The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Doctor's Orders
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown

 

[ReddishAlert]

Phlox and Porthos are my two favorite characters in Enterprise but… I’m removing Doctor’s Orders for being a well worn plot even if more entertaining because Phlox is so great and Porthos a good boy. Still, an oddly placed filler and too much like a more zany “One.”

The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown

 

[Seven of Five]

Chosen Realm is the next one to die. It starts off intriguingly enough, but the last act just becomes an over-the-top action-packed mess.

The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "E²".

Because DS9 did it better with "CHILDREN OF TIME". And I'm also tired of time travel.



The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

In ten posts you've taken out four of my favorite eps of Season 3! That's why I don't vote in these threads, I just watch

 

[Sakonna]

Well, back when I was murdering "Counterpoint" in the Voyager game, I was mentioning the next "beloved classic" of which I would like to burn every copy is in ENT season 3. So here we go --

BEYOND THRILLED to drive the knife into two-time champion "Azati Prime", which I utterly despise. The episode is a completely bogus cheat. All of it's power and impact is derived from building to it's huge "all is lost" cliffhanger -- which the show has no intention of honoring, the next episode all but abandons it.

It's like the joke about hacky old-timey serials, one episode ends with the heroes falling off a cliff and the next starts with them still standing on the edge.

I didn't watch the Xindi arc till years later and was so eager to get to the acclaimed "Azati Prime." I couldn't believe what a cheap, empty fraud it was once I got there! I even remember coming here to figure out how I'd confused the episode titles, because it seemed LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to me that lazy hackwork like "Azati Prime" could be embraced by anyone

Anyway -- DIE TRASH EPISODE DIE!!!!!

The Xindi
Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[Seven of Five]

E² is a decent episode but it's stupidly placed in the arc, there is the overuse of time travel already in the series, Blalock's acting as an older person was a little off to all of that, and Children of Time was miles better. I don't mind it being gone.

My next vote is The Xindi. A decent start to the year, but it was nothing special, and Archer was captured again for the billionth time.

Drink! Drink! Drink!

Anomaly
Rajiin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "RAJIIN".

It's the weakest one of the arc left on the list.


Anomaly
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[ReddishAlert]

I’m removing Exile. I think the premise and even structural execution are done well, and it is one of the better episodes at letting you get to see who Hoshi is, but it backs off of going deeper than surface level into the story and relationship between Hoshi and squid head (*I’m almost sure that isn’t his actual name) and the complexity of the situation.

Anomaly
Impulse
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[Sakonna]

"Anomaly" The early Xindi installments really struggle to get a handle on the rules of the Expanse. Also, the title was annoyingly boring even before Discovery re-used it exactly.

Impulse
The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[Farscape One]

Getting rid of "IMPULSE".

The teaser was quite possibly the shortest in the franchise, and seemed like a good hook. But we ended up with zombie Vulcans.

I love horror, but this just didn't work for multiple reasons.


The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council
Countdown

 

[Seven of Five]

I'm struggling to pick now as they're all good.

Countdown is fine as it builds up suspense to the finale, it just didn't wow me as much as The Council did. The capture of Hoshi almost felt tacked on too.

The Shipment
Similitude
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council

 

[ReddishAlert]

This is a genuinely difficult decision as I like all these episodes. I’m going to go for Similitude only because the concept of these clones, genetic memory, the possible extension of the lifespan of these clones are all things which would seem to be relevant in other situations. So I’m always reminded they only come up here for the sake of the story set up. Still, kind of hate to do it as Trip, Sim and T’Pol are excellent and I love the semi-personal/semi-mission based reasons Archer needs HIS Trip back.

The Shipment
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Damage
The Forgotten
The Council