The Least Disliked Episode 2023: TNG Season 5

[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 5

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Sakonna]

I adore season 5, but my obvious lowpoint is "A Matter Of Time." This one is just an utter flatline for me, I can't get on board with the basic premise and nothing that follows engages me more. The characters come off like such idiots. A real flop.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Summer Solstice]

"The Inner Light" - sorry to those who really love it, I just think it's a bit boring and I prefer stories that are set in space.


Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

I respect that opinion... but boy, is that a controversial one.

This was definitely TNG's most 'preachy' season, but there is a LOT to love here.

However, I do not love "New Ground". It illustrates Worf being a terrible father.


Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Warp 10 (Pepperoni)]

My first ever post! Hope you don't mind me getting involved with this.

I'll get rid of "The Game". Fun for its campiness but too silly to take seriously. Plus any episode with a focus on Wesley loses points for me.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

My first ever post! Hope you don't mind me getting involved with this.

I'll get rid of "The Game". Fun for its campiness but too silly to take seriously. Plus any episode with a focus on Wesley loses points for me.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

Not at all!! Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!

And welcome aboard!

 

[Seven of Five]

Welcome! to the board!

Cost of Living is a pretty dour combination of Lwaxana and Alexander at their most annoying.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Brennyren]

Removing "Disaster" because while I like Troi well enough, no way in hell should she have been in command in this scenario. Trek never did understand that there's a difference between staff officers and line officers. And she risked the lives of everyone on board in hopes of saving a few, a decision that would only pay off on a TV show -- the whole thing reeked of dramatic contrivance.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

"The Inner Light" - sorry to those who really love it, I just think it's a bit boring and I prefer stories that are set in space.

I respect that opinion... but boy, is that a controversial one.

In an unrelated note, did anyone see where I put my torches? I last remember seeing them when @Sakonna removed, "The Measure of a Man." And who's on pitchfork detail?

My first ever post! Hope you don't mind me getting involved with this.

Welcome!

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "Imaginary Friend".

While Noley Thornton was good casting, I didn't like Isabella. She was creepy, which worked to a point, but was just... off, for some reason.



Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Qonundrum]

Where to begin...

Ethics

Worf has multiple backup organs, what luck!

The guest doctor is written as a villain and NOT as a person with a three-dimensional viewpoint to contrast Crusher's equally 2D viewpoint.

Can I mention again that stupid "Worf has multiple convenient backups, including brain stems and everything!" plot "resolution"? Ugh.

Doesn't matter how robust Worf's moral dilemma/subplot is, and it clearly was where the writers focused the bulk of their time and it genuinely shows, the phony and contrived drama about the "ethics" is so incredibly one-sided...


What's left:
Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Qonundrum]

Removing "Disaster" because while I like Troi well enough, no way in hell should she have been in command in this scenario. Trek never did understand that there's a difference between staff officers and line officers. And she risked the lives of everyone on board in hopes of saving a few, a decision that would only pay off on a TV show -- the whole thing reeked of dramatic contrivance.

^^this

I really wanted to like the conflict, but the story needed Troi to be oh-so-confused in order to let O'Brien and Ro run her over. Especially when the odds were not in Troi's favor, to say the least. At least she recognizes how Ro and O'Brien could easily have been right. It'd have been far worse if she hadn't.

Troi also was lucky because the script demanded all be a very brady smurfy ending. IMHO, a lot of season 5 has a knack of feeling very by-the-numbers and 1D, feeling very artificial and contrived. It did bring up interesting concepts, but the execution was often amazingly awful.

Not to mention, if facing decompression, one should exhale as much as possible - not inhale - right before the pressure is dropped. That's one of many surprisingly bad moments this episode puts out.

Could the episode have been made to feel less contrived? Possibly. I recall DS9 had "Starship Down", which uses the same trope as "Disaster", but does it so much more effectively. But if TNG could redo TOS ideas better (save for "The Naked Now"), then DS9 could take botched TNG ideas and do them right. (or vice-versa by reusing "Sarek"'s big trope of people acting out of character and screwing it up royally for "Dramatis Personae"...)

Welcome! to the board!

Cost of Living is a pretty dour combination of Lwaxana and Alexander at their most annoying.

It didn't help that Majel's husband Gene had just died, and her sadness understandably starts to show in the script. Lwaxana's subplot is still the better of the two; bringing in Cousin Oliv- Alexander was the worst decision put into TNG*. TNG had been looking for a character to bounce off the others for internal dramatic conflict, but after Pulaski, Shelby, Barclay, Ro, and they need a kid as if that'll fix the problem more easily?

Cousin Oliver - TV Tropes
Old Hero, New Pals - TV Tropes
The Other Darrin - TV Tropes (cuz Alexander the great(est character ever) got played by many kids )
All-Stereotype Cast - TV Tropes (probably)


* Though could "Reunion" from season 4 carry its most necessarily plot strands without bringing in one of the most obvious tv tropes ever

 

[Oddish]

"The Inner Light" - sorry to those who really love it, I just think it's a bit boring and I prefer stories that are set in space.

However, I do not love "New Ground". It illustrates Worf being a terrible father.

Wow... one of Trek's finest episodes, eliminated before that piece of garbage. This is an unpredictable game to say the least!

Goodbye to "Violations", because someone decided Trek needed more psychic rape scenes.

What's left:
Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Qonundrum]

Wow... one of Trek's finest episodes, eliminated before that piece of garbage. This is an unpredictable game to say the least!

Goodbye to "Violations", because someone decided Trek needed more psychic rape scenes.

Ostensibly a psychological horror flick of the sort that was popular in the late-70s and early-80s, this one definitely is garbage. Who couldn't fathom Skipper from Gilligan's Island there from being framed?

"The Inner Light" - sorry to those who really love it, I just think it's a bit boring and I prefer stories that are set in space.

It's TNG's updated take on TOS's "The Paradise Syndrome", and with the same types of plot holes and oversights the TOS original had. By 1991, the idea of a space probe built by an overly-egocentric species that's wandering the galaxy and looking for just one person and then it powers itself off after doing a mindrape (what is it with season 5 and these violations anyhow) and doling out a flute but no packet of Pez was even more contrived than a planet with an asteroid-deflecting beam that's activated by communicator and has a defense mechanism that causes amnesia and reprogramming them to be an ersatz deity. Now imagine if they did a more literal remake, with Picard screeching "I AM PICK-ROCK!" Zoiks...

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "The Masterpiece Society".

This was a BORING episode, and it completely sidelines what could have been an excellent version of this episode with the scene of Hannah and Geordi and the visor. That would have been a much better focus for the story than Troi and Connor.


Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Sakonna]

I'll axe "Redemption II." I kind of find it OK, but it's a disappointing premiere.

And the actual explanation for Sela is an outrage. We had to do "Yesterday's Enterprise" to give Tasha a noble death -- and then this screw it up again by revealing that she got delivered into sexual slavery instead?

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

The Outcast is a pretty terrible allegory for LGBT rights, with the only decent scene towards the end of the episode with Worf helping his Riker out.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Takeru]

Edit: I was gonna kill The Outcast because "Riker falling in love with a woman played by Melinda Culea" is not nearly as progressive as the writers thought and while I was typing my rant Seven of Five sniped me.

In that case I eliminate The Perfect Mate because it's very boring, one of the worst sins an episode can commit.


Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Sakonna]

"Hero Worship" is one I almost never rewatch, it's such a downer.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

I'm going to have to take out "Time's Arrow" next.

It pains me to do this because it's Data, and his conversation about mortality in Ten Forward is one of my favorites of Data, but as a season finale, it wasn't as good as other season finales.


Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll go with Silicon Avatar next, which is probably the weakest left. It's pretty decent, but the others are more memorable.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase