The Least Disliked Episode 2023: TNG Season 4

[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: The Next Generation
Hall of Champions
2011 - The Best of Both Worlds (I)
2013 - The Measure of a Man
2015 - All Good Things…
2017 - The Best of Both Worlds (I)
2019 - Yesterday’s Enterprise
2021 - Q Who
2023 -

Season 4

The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Family
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
The Loss
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree
Qpid
The Drumhead
Half a Life
The Host
The Mind's Eye
In Theory
Redemption (I)

 

[Qonundrum]

A few episodes exist for their own reasons but, in theory,

In Theory

Should have been a good episode.

In practice... um...

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Even the teaser is hilariously awful, using the utterly wrong tone of music* to cover an episode that's almost as atrocious as the previous season's escapade entitled The Price.

Troi insists to be careful, as if Data knows how when it comes to emotions - thankfully everyone else** knows him and can deal with it. Riker goes on and on about not being hurt - but Data has no emotions and cannot be hurt. Is Riker really talking about the luv interest of the week, who complained about going from a guy who had difficulty in emotional connections to a guy who has no emotions?

Indeed, Data is a donkey's hind. He states outright he is incapable of love. Then goes on to emotionally harm someone else, albeit not understanding emotions but via the encouragement of others being even dumber than a programmed series of heuristic/predictive algorithms that don't get it right either way (or make sense, for that matter.)

* Exciting, action-packed music for exploring a bucket full of stereotyping, plus Data's non-libido, on.... Staaaaaaaaaaaaar Trek -The Next Generation!!!

** except for the guest crewmember of the week, on Staaaaaaaaaaaaar Trek - The Next Generation!!!




What's left:
The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Family
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
The Loss
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree
Qpid
The Drumhead
Half a Life
The Host
The Mind's Eye
Redemption (I)

 

[Oddish]

Without hesitation, HALF A LIFE! I hate that episode with a passion. Any episode that presents what is effectively genocide on a global level in a sympathetic light deserves no less.

If I had "Threshold", "Profit and Lace", and "Half a Life" in front of me and a "Delete episode from Trek canon" gun with two shots in it...

I'd shoot "Half a Life" and "Threshold" because I don't waste ammo.

What's left:
The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Family
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
The Loss
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree
Qpid
The Drumhead
The Host
The Mind's Eye
Redemption (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

Another tough season to find fault with. The Loss is probably the weakest one left, so it's gone. I like the scene with Guinan looking out for Troi after the loss of her powers, but unfortunately, the scenes with Troi and her acting out grated me

The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Family
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree
Qpid
The Drumhead
The Host
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Takeru]

Qpid is out, I really did not care for this at all, it's a holodeck malfunction episode without a holodeck.


The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Family
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Host
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Qonundrum]

Dr Pulaski said how

Family​

was something they'd gotten away from in the 24th century... but not something they got away from in "On Golden Pond" or "The Golden Girls".

The episode is actually too plain for TNG. TNG has taken a lot of tropes and used them in clever new ways. That said, we also needed some aftermath for Picard. And yet this episode feels like a predictable soap opera, complete with too much padding that adds little. The episode still could have had room for Picard to have a needed aftermath, plus with the bonus of letting Troi be useful for once, and prior to such a scene the episode could also devote plenty of episode time and make TBOBW a more gripping three-parter, unexpected, where we would not know that all would win by the end of part two as if they're going off a checklist. (Though BOBW2 is pretty amazing, but that's another story.) Or let Picard/Troi flow into the 4th episode. A whole hour of juggling Picard's brood with Worf's brood and then throwing in Wesley's brood, complete with his dad (again) is just too much syrup.

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Really. A mudbath fight and the only thing missing is a ceramic or cast iron tub, so they resort to location filming because that was cheaper. "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"


What's left:
The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Host
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Seven of Five]

Identity Crisis is a pretty decent Fun With With DNA story, one of Braga's tropes throughout his Trek career. Some of them are good, some terrible.

There's nothing standout in the episode to make me want to have it continue though.

The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Host
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Summer Solstice]

"The Host" - it really bothers me that in this episode they don't really talk about consent. The way the Trill Symbionts are in this episode looks a lot like they use the hosts as slaves and that isn't addressed in the episode and Dr Crusher doesn't ask too many questions even though you might expect a Starfleet doctor to have a lot of questions about ethics. The Goa'uld in Stargate are the same concept for an alien, but done much better because the ethics aren't glossed over.


The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Brothers
Suddenly Human
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Qonundrum]

I don't know how I didn't see this one earlier:

Suddenly Human is incredibly bad, despite a premise that's a mix of losing an adopted family, cult mentality, rescue from a literal and/or proverbial kidnapping, re-establishing self-identity, creating the perfect recipe for pudding pot pies-- Jono Jeremiah is just a leapfrog of Locutus and the trope was being well overused by this point. Early season 4 was loaded with "family" issues, some better than others... Come to think of it, "Suddenly Salad Human" is surprisingly reminiscent of 'Charlie X', but despite Charlie having nucular parents and granted magical powers and all, that story was far more engaging. Also, no kid was going to get close to getting all stabby on Kirk.


What's left:
The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Devil's Due
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Seven of Five]

I always forget Devil's Due exists, as it's a little mediocre. It has some fun moments for sure, like Picard proving Ardra is full of crap, and Data's reaction to it during their trial.

The Best of Both Worlds (II)
Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Farscape One]

A very, very strong season overall. Like season 3, hard to find a single clunker.

Taking out "The Best of Both Worlds Part II".

Again,not this episode's fault, but the Borg wore out their welcome in the franchise long ago.



Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Clues
First Contact
Galaxy's Child
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Oddish]

Getting rid of "Galaxy's Child". I liked the giant alien baby just fine, but the "Geordi LaForge is a creeper" character assassination was another matter.

Remaining episodes:
Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
Data's Day
The Wounded
Clues
First Contact
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Sakonna]

"Data's Day" does nothing for me. I think what kills it for me is what a dreadful start is to Keiko & O'Brien. It feels like they haven't even met!

They went on to become Trek's best couple on DS9, but you see why their rep is so terrible when you see the beginning.

Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
The Wounded
Clues
First Contact
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[tomalak301]

I think Clues works if you only watch it one time. When you watch it multiple times, it becomes kind of annoying, and Picard was way to overly excited about the whole Clues thing. I wonder if one can rewrite the episode where it's Data that had to solve everything rather than the one who caused everything and have it be like a real world Sherlock Holmes.

Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Future Imperfect
Final Mission
The Wounded
First Contact
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "Future Imperfect".

You know it was not real because there were no shots of the Enterprise. A fine ending that tugs at the heartstrings, but a little weaker episode in general before.


Brothers
Remember Me
Legacy
Reunion
Final Mission
The Wounded
First Contact
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[Seven of Five]

Legacy is probably the weakest one left. It was interesting seeing the crew meet Ishara, in particular Data, and see whether they could trust her. The rest of the episode is forgettable.

Brothers
Remember Me
Reunion
Final Mission
The Wounded
First Contact
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption I

 

[BlueStuff]

I like all of these episodes to varying extents - all except Brothers, that is.

Remember Me
Reunion
Final Mission
The Wounded
First Contact
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption (I)

 

[tomalak301]

Taking out First Contact this round. If the gender roles were reversed, that scene between Riker and Bebe Neuerth's character would be kind of creepy.

Remember Me
Reunion
Final Mission
The Wounded
Night Terrors
The Nth Degree
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption (I)

 

[Farscape One]

Still a very strong list. It's getting harder and harder to pick one.

Taking out "The Nth Degree" only because it's the slightly weaker one of what's left.


Remember Me
Reunion
Final Mission
The Wounded
Night Terrors
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption (I)

 

[Oddish]

If the gender roles were reversed, that scene between Riker and Bebe Neuerth's character would be kind of creepy.

The scene is creepy without gender reversal.

"Final Mission" is a decent episode, but the only thing about it that stands out is Wesley's departure. Most of the rest of these are amazing.

Remember Me
Reunion
The Wounded
Night Terrors
The Drumhead
The Mind's Eye
Redemption (I)