The Least Disliked Episode 2023: TNG Season 6

[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 6

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Rascals
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[BlueStuff]

Not voting just yet but traditionally, TNG S6 usually produces some... interesting results. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes...

 

[Farscape One]

An easy first elimination for me is "Rascals".

This made the crew look like completely inept. A group of Ferengi in a pair of old Klingon Birds of Prey captures the Federation flagship!!!

No. Just no.

Having said that, it is ironically the one episode of TNG where they cast all the children perfectly.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Farscape One]

Not voting just yet but traditionally, TNG S6 usually produces some... interesting results. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes...

I'm just as curious. The 'Most Disliked' version of this season also wields interesting results.

 

[Oddish]

Birthright II takes my first hit. I found Worf playing the Klingon cultural guru to be thoroughly laughable. And no dreaming Data to counterbalance it.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Sakonna]

It's stock has recently risen thanks to the instantly iconic Peanut Hamper, but I still find "Quality Of Life" a flat episode. It should have worked, but it just does not spark to life (I always thought it was weird how the same episode 9 slot in season 7, "Force Of Nature", was the same exact failure -- all the pieces were there, but watching it I'm bored to tears, both eps are airless and drab in the exact same way)

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[tomalak301]

Aquiel is only memorable because the Dog did it. Other then that, I don't know what it really was about.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Brennyren]

Why is Beverly hosting an engineering conference? My "Suspicions" are that this episode was originally intended to spotlight Geordi when the writers suddenly realized Bev hadn't had an episode yet. That or the writers think that all sciences are similar enough that, since she's an expert in one, she's an expert in all. While I've missed a few episodes of TNG, this is the only one I actually tuned out halfway through.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Sakonna]

"Descent" might be the most disappointing of all the Borg episodes, franchise-wide. There's not much to get excited about here.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Seven of Five]

Man of the People is difficult to watch, with a very dodgy story for Troi.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Farscape One]

Takong out "Time's Arrow, Part II".

Not a terrible episode, but as season premieres go, not a great one either.



Realm of Fear
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Oddish]

Man of the People is difficult to watch, with a very dodgy story for Troi.

The only thing worthwhile about that one was the ethical conundrum: force Alcar to release Troi, allowing the war to continue, or sacrifice one person to save thousands.

Next elimination is Rightful Heir... you know, for a Starfleet member, Worf sure spends a lot of time manipulating Klingon Empire politics at the highest level. This was, IMO, the weakest instance.

Realm of Fear
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Qonundrum]

Aww man, that alien abduction trope could be made to fit, in Staaaaaaaaaar Trek The Next Generation!

Schisms



What's left:
Realm of Fear
Relics
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "True Q".

There were much better uses of Q in TNG.


Realm of Fear
Relics
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Takeru]

Frame of Mind, it was confusing but not in a good way, it felt like the writers screwed up instead of Riker being unsure what was real or not as intended.


Realm of Fear
Relics
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Seven of Five]

Realm of Fear has some decent humor in it, but it's easily the weakest episode with Barclay in it.

Relics
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Sakonna]

This is a great list of episodes, so I'll kill "Chain Of Command, Part II" for being so heavy that I never want to rewatch it.

Plus, as I look at the Picard story in totality now, my overall note is "amazing, but too much torture.' I literally said this in a real-world Trek conversation the other day, "if you were going to cut one torture, it'd be the Cardassian one."

They should have done this same story with Riker or something. Then the Cardassians could have been his Borg.

Relics
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Takeru]

Relics because the Scotty plot took time away from the much more interesting Dyson Sphere which really should have been the focus of the episode. Scotty was acting like an entitled douchebag, he waltzed into engineering like "Hey, let me distract you and interfere with your work" and then has the nerve to be pissed at Geordie for kicking him out instead of kissing his useless, annoying ass.



A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Qonundrum]

A holodeck of boredom:

A Fistful of Datas​

There've been how many holodeck stories now, nine? This one's the lamest. Plus, if a random energy surge causes this much mayhem...


What's left:
Chain of Command (I)
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Second Chances
Timescape

 

[Qonundrum]

Relics because the Scotty plot took time away from the much more interesting Dyson Sphere which really should have been the focus of the episode. Scotty was acting like an entitled douchebag, he waltzed into engineering like "Hey, let me distract you and interfere with your work" and then has the nerve to be pissed at Geordie for kicking him out instead of kissing his useless, annoying ass.

Yeah, letting unauthorized personnel is a very arbitrary thing on this ship. They prevented little children from roaming around in there last season - ask Clara and Isabella about that.

The ageism stinks as well.

It's also highly contrived; Scotty would be excited, sure, but he's taken the time to read manuals before doing stuff as shown, and he of all people knows the potential dangers with this type of hardware.

Thankfully the episode does improve as it goes on, just work hard to headcanon how beaming can take place with shields up while remembering Geordi's comment of:

LAFORGE: Well you know, that's interesting because I was just thinking that a lot of these systems haven't changed much in the last seventy five years.​

Not only does that (a) validate the contrived setup and maltreatment of Scotty's character, and (b) prove the episode is almost total cobblers, it's also (c) amazing which systems triggered imbalances by the slightest button press, while others haven't been significant at all.

All nitpicking aside, James Doohan puts in a powerful dramatic performance - award worthy, IMHO, and probably more in that one hour than what he'd done in the 79-91 movies combined. He also has some on-screen chemistry with LeVar Burton, helping to raise this story in being better than what's on paper.

And, yup, I wish they did more with exploring the Sphere's interior.