The least disliked episode 2023: TOS Season 3

[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 Original Series
Hall of Champions
2011 - Mirror, Mirror
2013 - Balance of Terror
2015 - Mirror, Mirror
2017 - Journey to Babel
2019 - The Doomsday Machine
2021 - The Doomsday Machine
2023 -

Season 3

Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Seven of Five]

Poor season three, the season of the lights being on but no one is home. Still some good episodes, but a lot of dreck.

My first save is And The Children Shall Lead, because there isn't a scene in this where the children didn't annoy me. I shudder when I think about this episode.

Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[BlueStuff]

Well, I may as well remove Spock's Brain since I rewatched it just a few days ago. I laughed out loud at the sight of the main trio walking down a corridor, McCoy remote-controlling Spock, with Nimoy looking visibly embarrassed. Who can blame him?

The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Vger23]

I’ll die on the hill that S3 is not nearly as bad as fans like to make it seem. It goes for some hard sci-fi concepts and it does well to get away from the overuse of then parallel Earth” trope S2 relied so heavily on.

That said, S3 contains one of my least-liked episodes of the entire franchise, and that is “Plato’s Stepchildren” It’s just too mean spirited and sadistic.

The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Brennyren]

"Turnabout Intruder" goes. Later Treks can retcon all day long -- this is one case where I really don't mind. But the girl I was when I first watched this episode knew damn well what it was saying about women and power, and she didn't like it. Neither do I. (Props to Bill Shatner and to Sandra Smith for some brilliant acting, though.)

The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Seven of Five]

The Way to Eden is another episode that makes my skin crawl, but at least it had some interesting moments for Chekov.

The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Vger23]

Ok...for me personally, now it gets really hard. Everyone has eliminated what I consider the "weaker" episodes (yes there are still some "meh" episodes, but I find something positive in each of them), and almost exactly in the same order I'd have eliminated them in (kind of weird lol).

Let's see.....

I think I'll eliminate "The Mark of Gideon," even though I don't dislike it nearly as much as the rest of fandom seems to. This is one of the episodes I remember seeing when I was very young, and it definitely left an impression on me. I like the creepy vibes while Kirk tries to figure out what is going on as he wanders around aboard this "empty" Enterprise. I also like some of the jousting between Spock and the Gideon council.

But, the implausibility of the whole thing, and the gaping plot hole of "how did they find room to make a full replica of the Enterprise?" makes this one that is subject to dismissal at this juncture.

The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

The Way to Eden is another episode that makes my skin crawl, but at least it had some interesting moments for Chekov.

While I don't disagree at all with pulling TWTE at this point, I do think that there are some extremely interesting concepts in this episode that get lost in the silliness of trying to depict futuristic hippies. And, Dr. Sevrin is a very interesting antagonist, portrayed brilliantly by the late Skip Homeier.

 

[Seven of Five]

As much as I like to see plots where the secondary characters get something to do, The Lights of Zetar, unfortunately, is not it. Devoid of anything of substance, and the way Scotty keeps referring to Mira as the girl is insulting.

The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Vger23]

There are some great moments in "The Paradise Syndrome." The Spock/McCoy dynamic is good. I also like that we (finally) have a Kirk "love story" that is believable and develops over a reasonable amount of time, like in COTEOF. The ending is touching and extremely tragic. But, it also doesn't hold my attention very much, and it has other flaws and faults that put it below these others.


The Enterprise Incident
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[BlueStuff]

Current list - please wait until two other posters have played since your last turn.

The Enterprise Incident
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Seven of Five]

I forgot about the existence of Elaan of Troyius, which featured a guest character that makes me want to bang my head on the table.

The Enterprise Incident
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Noname Given]

Dumping Spectre of the Gun. Star Trek is itself a western in space on many an epiaode; but I'm not really a big fan of westerns, so an episode where they REALLY double down on the 'Western' motif...yeah, pass.

The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Vger23]

I'll phaser "Requiem for Methuselah," I guess. It's not a bad episode at all, but the entire premise that Kirk could be so blindly and overwhelmingly in love with a woman he spends mere hours with is a bit ridiculous. If this had been stretched out over several days, I'd have bought more of what they were selling.


The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

Almost missed this party.

Taking out "FOR THE WORLD IS HOLLOW AND I HAVE TOUCHED THE SKY".

It defies belief that the terminal disease McCoy had, the Fabrini happened to have a cure for. I understand why the writers went for it, but it just felt... (wait for it)



Hollow.


And the title is just unnecessarily long. While I do appreciate the poetry behind some lengthy titles, an episode title should not be double digit length. (Eleven words!)


The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Seven of Five]

That Which Survives is a bit of a slog to get through and should have stopped surviving a while ago.

The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Phaser Two]

Intelligence reports that we're waving a hearty goodbye to The Enterprise Incident - which is actually a far worse episode than many others that fandom routinely downgrades. It does serious damage to the Kirk/Spock relationship, the Romulan commander is unbelievably stupid (completely undermining the writers' choice of gender), and many parts of it are played like a terrible piece of fan fiction. Ugh.

Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "THE SAVAGE CURTAIN".

While not a bad episode, it's generally not one I revisit a lot.


Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Qonundrum]

Quite a few are good, quite a few are worth being ragged on, quite a few fall into both categories, but - dang:

The Empath

is nothing but a superficial, dubious, empty, and outrageously cretinous way to show horror and (implied) gore for its own sake. This episode is the truest garbage, outdoing even "Eden" and the others that get gripes.

Not that I'm editorializing or anything... So, that said, showing violence can be useful to get audiences to empathize with a character or situation, or to loathe a villain, but the excuses scribbled up for this episode more than stretch credibility beyond risibility. This episode feels like 50 minutes of veneer with nothing under that layer to make it worth anything.

On edit: So glad this episode was removed earlier, even if the quota rule got put into effect. Also, if it's not too late, get some popcorn and a time travel machine and go back about 5 minutes before reading my novella-sized whinyrant.

What's left:
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Sakonna]

I don't get much out of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" beyond the dumb gimmick. It only feels notable to me as a joke.

I absolutely fucking love "Whom Gods Destroy" and "All Our Yesterdays", but I feel like most people don't. Happy to see them so close to the end.

Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Whom Gods Destroy
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

I love both of those, too, Sakonna. Especially "WHOM GODS DESTROY".

Very strong episodes left. I'll take out "WINK OF AN EYE" only because I like the others more.



Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Whom Gods Destroy
All Our Yesterdays