The least disliked episode of the franchise - Final Showdown

[BlueStuff]

Okay Trek fans, anyone who's been following this game on all the other boards knows what it's all about. For anyone who doesn't, a series of elimination/voting games to determine the least disliked episodes resulted in what we have here as the winners and runners up of each series:

The Original Series

Winner: Mirror, Mirror
Wild Card: Journey to Babel
Wild Card: The City on the Edge of Forever

The Next Generation

Winner: The Best of Both Worlds (I)
Wild Card: The Inner Light
Wild Card: The Measure of a Man

Deep Space Nine

Winner: In the Pale Moonlight
Wild Card: Call to Arms
Wild Card: Tacking into the Wind

Voyager

Winner: Meld
Wild Card: Before and After
Wild Card: Prey

Enterprise

Winner: United
Wild Card: The Forge
Wild Card: Damage

So here we are, at the Final Showdown, featuring all of these episodes!

*RULES*

Give what you consider to be the worst/your least favorite episode ONE point, and briefly explain WHY. Be sure to copy and paste the list with your point added. When an episode reaches 5 points, it is eliminated. Then a NEW round begins (in this thread) with the numbers restored to 0. Vote ONCE per round. And enjoy!

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 0
Before and After - 0
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

 

[Admiral Shran]

And so, it starts. Glad to see you've taken my suggestion for the Final Showdown. I think made the recommendation back in the DS9 games, IIRC.

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 0
Before and After - 1
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Before and After - It simply can't compete with the rest. It also includes the ludicrous Ocampan reproductive issues and has Harry Kim as Tom Paris' son-in-law.

 

[Mr Silver]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 0
Before and After - 2
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Ugh... The mess that was Before and After (what about YOH and Scorpion?!)

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 0
Before and After - 3
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

I like "Before and After" but how exactly did it and its friends beat out some of the other VOY episodes? Kind of surprises me but such is life!

 

[Claudia]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Before and After - 3
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Meld - I can live with the 3 contestants of all the other series, but VOY's lineup is just bizarre IMO, especially Meld...

 

[DevilEyes]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Before and After - 4
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0


Before and After is an OK episode, but there are several much better episodes of VOY, really, including those that got eliminated much earlier.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

There's your first elimination then. Before and After. 5 points. It's a interesting high concept episode. But not all that memorable. Robert Picardo wore a wig. There's some "Year of Hell" foreshadowing. That's about all I can recall off hand.

 

[Claudia]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Prey - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Again Meld - can't stand that episode...

 

[Admiral Shran]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Prey - 1
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Prey - Some good Seven of Nine character stuff, but it ultimately goes nowhere. And, it's easily the weakest compared to the rest.

 

[Mr Silver]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 2
Prey - 2
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Compared to Meld, Prey is easily the weaker episode. I also feel that the two VOY episodes on the list aren't the strongest of the series and cannot hope to have a chance of being the least disliked.

(I also corrected Claudia's vote as it appears they forgot to mark it down)

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ Actually, Meld should be at one point. Once Before and After was eliminated, the scores were reset to zero.

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Prey - 2
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Poor, poor Voyager. Getting its arse handed to itself on a silver platter like this. There really were many better episodes to choose from. Ah well.

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Prey - 3
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

"Prey" gets another vote from me.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Agreed about Voyager. A similiar issue happened with Enterprise. There a few better than those listed. But at least they turned out to be important landmarks.

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
Prey - 4
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Sorry about Meld. That was my fault. Not restoring it to zero when the next round began. I think that episode still has the edge over Prey. As much as I admit to enjoying seeing a Starfleet/Hirogen v Species 8472 hunt.

 

[DevilEyes]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

And Prey is gone. Good episode, but I prefer Meld - and all the other episodes are better, IMO. Frankly I'm not sure it would be any different if any other VOY episodes were here.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 1
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

I'm so sorry, Delta Quadrant.

 

[Claudia]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 2
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

Again, Meld...

 

[ChristopherPike]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 2
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 1

Damage for me. Bet you didn't see that coming! I have a thing about not allowing the ends to justify the means. However Archer may have been driven to it.

I was tempted to go for Meld. But in a choice between Vulcans losing control, I've got to hand this one to Tim Russ and that great scene where he's counting the number of ways he could kill Janeway. Tour-de-force stuff.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 3
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 1

Meld - It's among my favorites of VOY, but I can't in good conscience vote for any of the others over it. Sorry, VOY.

 

[Mr Silver]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
Meld - 4
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 1

Meld, none of the VOY episodes can stand against the others.

 

[DevilEyes]

Mirror, Mirror - 0
Journey to Babel - 0
The City on the Edge of Forever - 0
The Best of Both Worlds (I) - 0
The Inner Light - 0
The Measure of a Man - 0
In the Pale Moonlight - 0
Call to Arms - 0
Tacking into the Wind - 0
United - 0
The Forge - 0
Damage - 0

I love Meld, but it's a tough competition, too tough for VOY episodes.