The Least Disliked Episode 2023: PIC Season 1

[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: Picard
Hall of Champions
2021 - Remembrance
2023 -

Season 1

Remembrance
Maps and Legends
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
Stardust City Rag
The Impossible Box
Nepenthe
Broken Pieces
Et in Arcadia Ego (I)
Et in Arcadia Ego (II)

 

[Seven of Five]

Stardust City Rag still makes me queasy thinking about Icheb's cruel fate.

Remembrance
Maps and Legends
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box
Nepenthe
Broken Pieces
Et in Arcadia Ego (I)
Et in Arcadia Ego (II)

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "Maps and Legends".

This could have been cut into the other two parts of three part premiere. Feels superfluous.


Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box
Nepenthe
Broken Pieces
Et in Arcadia Ego (I)
Et in Arcadia Ego (II)

 

[Sakonna]

"Et In Arcardia Ego Part 2" for just being a total trainwreck of a finale. Where to start? The show completely loses track of Picard for most of it. The script is paced terribly and engorged with awful dialogue. Most of the plot is nonsensical and major plot threads are left unresolved. It features the most embarrassing effects failures of the modern era.

Worst of all, the final resolution vindicates the anti-refugee stance of the supposed villains of this narrative. Once all is said and done, the story told in season 1 is one in which the right move for the Federation was to refuse to help the Romulan refugees. Had that been the call, none of the mass-death tragedies of the season would have occurred. There would not have been 100K deaths on Mars. Troi and Riker's son wouldn't have died. The synths would not have been inspired to attempt galactic genocide.

I just couldn't believe it landed in a place of "yes, if you let refugees into your society, they absolutely WILL devastate it."

On the plus side, the production team did incredible work on the synth planet. The setting, the wardrobe, the makeup, all top notch. A shame all that talent is wasted on such a disgraceful garbage script.

Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box
Nepenthe
Broken Pieces
Et in Arcadia Ego (I)

 

[James Cole]

"Nepenthe"
for the needless fridging of Hugh and the head scratcher of having Thaddeus Troi-Riker die from that silicon based virus that somehow could be cured by using a positronic brain.

Season 3 wisely gave the actual cause of his death a wide berth.

Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box
Broken Pieces
Et in Arcadia Ego (I)

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part I".

With the exception of one other one left that I like only slightly more than this one, all the others are better episodes.


Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box
Broken Pieces

 

[Sakonna]

The season arc really starts to fracture during the Borg plot of "Nepenthe", and then the mess engulfs the entire episode in "Broken Pieces." This is where season one fully goes off the rails, and there is no recovery.

Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box

 

[Seven of Five]

I've lost a couple of my favourites from the list already. I'll go with Absolute Candor next then, because as much as I like Elnor, the opening four episodes needed some serious editing into two parts.

Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
The Impossible Box

 

[Farscape One]

This is the end for "The End Is the Beginning".

The other two were simply better.


Remembrance
The Impossible Box

 

[BlueStuff]

I’ll have to give the win to Remembrance. That episode gave me a lot of joy and hope for what the season could be. By the time of The Impossible Box, those hopes had already been dashed many times.

 

[James Cole]

It looks like "Remembrance" has won again, but as a NuTrek sceptic that only got around to watching season 1 this year, I have to say I found "The Impossible Box" to be the least objectionable of the run, and the only time I was able to enjoy at least half of an episode without constantly being knocked out of the narrative due to unforced errors and poor decisions. So it at least deserves second place

 

[Anduinel]

The season arc really starts to fracture during the Borg plot of "Nepenthe", and then the mess engulfs the entire episode in "Broken Pieces." This is where season one fully goes off the rails, and there is no recovery.

Remembrance
The End Is the Beginning
Absolute Candor
The Impossible Box

Yep. The tonal whiplash alone was enough to make me dislike the episode, let alone the actual events in it.