The least disliked episode 2023 - TNG Final Rounds

[BlueStuff]

Here we have the winners and runners up of each season:

Season One: Conspiracy
Wild Card: The Arsenal of Freedom
Season Two: Q Who
Wild Card: Where Silence Has Lease
Season Three: Yesterday's Enterprise
Wild Card: The Defector
Season Four: The Wounded
Wild Card: The Drumhead
Season Five: Ensign Ro
Wild Card: Cause and Effect
Season Six: Ship in a Bottle
Wild Card: The Chase
Season Seven: All Good Things...
Wild Card: The Pegasus

So now it's time for the final part.

*RULES*

Give what you consider to be the worst/your least favourite episode ONE point, and briefly explain WHY. Be sure to copy and paste the list with your point added. When an episode reaches 4 points, it is eliminated. Then a NEW round begins (in this thread) with the numbers restored to 0. Vote ONCE per round. If 48 hours without a vote passes, the episode currently leading in points will be eliminated, and a new round will begin. And enjoy!

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 0
Ship in a Bottle - 0
The Chase - 0
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Farscape One]

I'll start by voting for "Cause And Effect".

While it was a fairly unique use of time travel at the time it was produced, and directed wonderfully by Frakes, it is the weakest episode of the bunch. Plus, time travel is overused in the franchise.


Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 0
The Chase - 0
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Eckauskas]

I’m going to stick a vote on The Chase. Just felt like a filler episode, one I probably enjoyed the least out of the episodes left.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 0
The Chase - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[BlueStuff]

I also think The Chase is a good starting point for early ejection. I'm a little stunned it made it this far.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 0
The Chase - 2
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Seven of Five]

I think that The Chase is the weakest episode here. It's a decent little mystery with a good end, but it's not top tier like most of the other ones left.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 0
The Chase - 3
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Takeru]

Agreed on The Chase, it's a fine episode but not one of my favorites and is eliminated.

For the next round I vote for Ship in a Bottle, I think the mystery was dragged out a bit too long, they should have figured out much sooner that they were still on the holodeck because the very obvious answer to the question "How could Moriarty walk out of the holodeck?" is "He didn't!". And he had already demonstrated his ability to control the holodeck and computer in his first appearance on the show. It shouldn't have been a mystery at all.


Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 0
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Farscape One]

Voting for "Cause And Effect". Same reason as before.


Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[BlueStuff]

I'm nowhere near ready to vote for Cause and Effect before vastly inferior season 1 episodes! Like The Arsenal of Freedom, for instance.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 1
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Eckauskas]

The Arsenal of Freedom for me this time. Mental to think this one’s on the list when so many classics couldn’t make the cut because they came later. And no Season 1 episode should be getting much further.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 2
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Qonundrum]

So, of this list:

"The Wounded" gets a one-up, as it doesn't do too much - apart from introducing Cardassians in a somewhat forced way. I'd swear that DS9 could take the identical subject matter, complete with Captain Gueststaroftheweek visiting O'Brien while on the station. It's pre-spinoff filler that could have been any ol' species. DS9 could set everything up on its own and add content to the species and struggles. TNG easily could have left issues as discussion amongst crew and Ro, then really dive into things for DS9. In other words, this is definitely a DS9 episode repurposed - if not being a backdoor pilot at worst. (That said, as far as backdoor pilots goes, this one is far better than "Assignment Earth"...)


All that said, I do highly enjoy this scene:

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(Even if Picard is basing a belief on supposition - the reason he provides is nimble and perfect and is very much TNG. )

But it feels the least-TNG of the bunch.


Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 2
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 1
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 0

 

[Vger23]

I never felt like "The Pegasus" was as good as its reputation. It's not a bad episode (at all), but I find these others to be more enjoyable.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 2
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 1
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 1

 

[Qonundrum]

The Arsenal of Freedom for me this time. Mental to think this one’s on the list when so many classics couldn’t make the cut because they came later. And no Season 1 episode should be getting much further.

IMHO, TAOF* was simplistic, but solid. I don't think it will, or should, or could be the best-ever episode - but it's definitely far above average for season 1, warts and all. Especially with the budget they had to contend with. This and "11001001" are worthy of praise; the former for getting the saucer separation included for engaging drama (not an easy task) and the latter for breadth of creativity. Both were creative, but "11001001" just does it a bit more for me**.

* no worries, am done with the acronyms for now
** It took me a moment to realize just how horrid a pun that was... sorry about that!

Voting for "Cause And Effect". Same reason as before.

IMHO, it's a clever and original take on "hi audience, we're trapped in a time loop!" trope - but even on initial viewing, act 3 was really beginning to stretch things. But it didn't get any worse. How to otherwise start the story without the bang, then surprise with a bang by the end of act 1, might have tightened things up just enough... it's still an eminently clever use on the trope and I always salute it.

But I do put a small handful of season 1 episodes above it. Which is not an easy task, because C&E as well as those choice season 1 episodes are hinting and showing the new styles TNG was bringing to the table. (Heck, season 5 and its sudden left turn to soap opera makes the few episodes involving strange and new worlds and civilizations and all that elevated just because of that alone!)

I think that The Chase is the weakest episode here. It's a decent little mystery with a good end, but it's not top tier like most of the other ones left.

But it does answer, sufficiently but not perfectly, some issues in the Trek universe as to why almost everyone's humanoid. They do explain the Preservers (of TOS fame) indirectly in the process, and one has to wonder if the being who left the message on how they spread may have been proto-Q. Lots of fiddly questions just begging to be thought of, possibly. The fact that the episode has guest actors from Doctor Who and The Avengers doesn't hurt it at all, either. Plus, it's a better episode than (here it comes) "The Inner Light", which is a not-dissimilar idea, but is executed in some far more bizarre ways ("So we're an egocentric and narcissistic dead civilization that made a probe that seeks out one person, violates their mind by telling them how how great we were, states how the probe is indeed seeking out only one person, dispenses a flute that should have been turned to dust by now for warm fuzzy effect, then promptly shuts off irrevocably." At least Picard got a family in this story better than the mindtrip from GEN...)

 

[Summer Solstice]

"All Good Things" - I'm not a massive fan of time travel episodes and it's a shame to finish the show seeing a future for the characters that won't happen. (If it wasn't for the TNG movies showing what happened to the characters next I would dislike this episode as much as I dislike "Endgame".)

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 2
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 1
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 1
The Pegasus - 1

 

[Eckauskas]

Shows how wildly different fans opinions can get, because AGT would probably my choice to win the thing.

 

[Eckauskas]

IMHO, TAOF* was simplistic, but solid. I don't think it will, or should, or could be the best-ever episode - but it's definitely far above average for season 1, warts and all. Especially with the budget they had to contend with. This and "11001001" are worthy of praise; the former for getting the saucer separation included for engaging drama (not an easy task) and the latter for breadth of creativity. Both were creative, but "11001001" just does it a bit more for me**.

* no worries, am done with the acronyms for now
** It took me a moment to realize just how horrid a pun that was... sorry about that!

It’s not a terrible episode by season 1 standards, I just think it’s weaker than the others on this list. I was actually torn between this and Ensign Ro though.

 

[Seven of Five]

The Arsenal of Freedom gets my vote this time. It's the weakest one left, even though I like it. It's a great use of the ensemble, and Geordi does a good job keeping the asshat engineer in his place. It's just not the best S1 had to offer.

Conspiracy - 0
The Arsenal of Freedom - 3
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 1
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 1
Ship in a Bottle - 1
All Good Things... - 1
The Pegasus - 1

 

[Vger23]

So, to be clear on voting rules....that's it for me, correct? I can't vote again until one episode is eliminated?

I just want to be sure before I screw the whole thing up lol!

 

[Eckauskas]

So, to be clear on voting rules....that's it for me, correct? I can't vote again until one episode is eliminated?

I just want to be sure before I screw the whole thing up lol!

Yeah, that’s the rules as far as I can see.

 

[Brennyren]

"The Arsenal of Freedom" is entertaining, but it's up against some of the classics of the series. So that's its four votes and elimination.

My vote in the next round is for "The Pegasus." Because while it at least offers an explanation for why Starfleet won't use a cloaking device, it's an explanation that makes Feddie diplomats look pretty stupid, agreeing to a deal that significantly handicaps our Fleet.

Conspiracy - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 0
Ship in a Bottle - 0
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 1

 

[Qonundrum]

Shiny new round! So my vote until the next story is eliminated is...

...drumroll...

...more drumroll...

...super irritating drumroll...


"The Wounded"

Same cause and reason above, and the other episodes all do more for me. But YMMV, IMHO...


Conspiracy - 0
Q Who - 0
Where Silence Has Lease - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Defector - 0
The Wounded - 1
The Drumhead - 0
Ensign Ro - 0
Cause and Effect - 0
Ship in a Bottle - 0
All Good Things... - 0
The Pegasus - 1