The least disliked episode of TNG - Season Five

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that was played here a couple of years ago, and it proved to be a lot of fun, spanning across each Trek series, as well as a great way 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 favorite 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. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Winners
Season One - Heart of Glory
Season Two - Q Who?
Season Three - Deja Q
Season Four - The Drumhead
Season Five -

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)

 

[MacLeod]

I'm going to eliminate "Cost of Living", It's been a while since I've watched S5 and I can abrely remember what this one was about, whilst for most of the others I can. So it made little lasting impact.


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
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

Getting some random winners of these contests, which is fun to see!

I'm getting shut of The Game, as it's a pretty boring one where Wesley comes back specially to save the crew.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
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
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Mario de Monti]

I´m still trying to recover from "The Drumhead" winning season 4 ...

Anyway, my first choice for season 5 is "Ethics". While it´s not a bad episode per se, I find Beverly so unbelievably stubborn and closed-minded that everytime I watch the episode I feel like banging her head against the nearest bulkhead

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

 

[CmndrSela318]

I hereby remove the most boring episode of the season:
The Masterpiece Society.
There are a lot of others I'd like to remove but that one will be sufficient.

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

 

[MikeS]

I, Borg. I was so looking forward to their return after BOBW and was royally let down. This ruined them and set them up for the even worse Descent.

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

 

[R. Star]

Taking out New Ground... sorry, watching the most Deadbeat Dad in the Quadrant and second most annoying kid in the galaxy(second only to Wesley) isn't my idea of entertainment.

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

 

[Mario de Monti]

So I get to do one more before I go on holidays

"Imaginary Friend" is out - there are just too many children episodes in season 5 and this one is just somewhere between dull and dumb.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Really sorry, but I'm taking Darmok out of the game. It's OK, but I do find it to be one of Trek's all time overrated episodes.

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[datagal]

Violations need to be remove from this list. Two words: Brain. Rape. Too weird.
My other choice was The Outcast but Violations is much weirder.

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[sadsquid]

Wow, great choices so far. I agree with all of the above!

I'm sorry everyone, but I'm going to have to take out The Inner Light. I never really understood the love for this episode. A probe gives Picard memories of a (frankly, quite boring) society on the verge of extinction, but as it goes on, it tries to get you emotionally involved in the society and it's people, but for me at least, it failed. I didn't like the society or the people in Picard's 'fake' life. They pretty much violated Picard, so no, I'm sorry, but I can't feel very emotionally attached to them.

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

 

[Ysmalari]

I'm taking out Silicon Avatar, something about the actress that played Dr Marr always drove me up the wall so I never felt any sympathy for her whatsoever, which rather defeated a large part of the premise!

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I am removing The Outcast. The J'nai are an interesting idea, but the childish way they deal with sexuality and identity bugs me (why would Riker get so coy about discussing sex?).

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[MikeS]

Hero Worship. I know I'm supposed to come up with a reason for this, but like the episode I just feel "Meh". I remember reading an interview with one of the writers at the time of season five who bemoaned how much they were trying to remind us that families were carried onboard this ship. I know how he feels. Season five is not as good as some people lead you to believe and I believe that this episode is slap bang in the middle of the worse "three-in-a-row" of TNG's run.

When we finish all of these, is anyone interested in restarting the hurt/heal game? That goes on much longer and I really enjoyed those.

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Ysmalari]

Hurt/Heal game? I wasn't around for that one how does it work?

 

[Chensams]

Can't believe Inner Light is gone already...

Matter of Time is out. Really not that good of an episode, wonder how different it would have been in Robin Williams had the role.

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[datagal]

Cause and Effect. Like Groundhog's Day but slightly less interesting and funny.

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow (I)[/QUOTE]

 

[R. Star]

Hurt/Heal game? I wasn't around for that one how does it work?

Traditionally you give every episode 10 points and each turn you subtract 2 from one episode and add one to another. Basically it stops the great episodes from being eliminated on page 1 like with this game.

But speaking of this game... Time's Arrow... couple a boring Cliffhanger with Samuel Clemens just being a detestable neanderthal and... you get this episode... cut.

Redemption (II)
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

OK, it's getting hard now. I'll have to go for Ensign Ro for no other reason than finding Bajor/Bajorans slightly less interesting than other Trek aliens. Still a decent episode though.

Redemption (II)
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase

 

[CoveTom]

The Perfect Mate. Probably fairly unique in this, but I always hate love stories of any kind on Trek.

Redemption (II)
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase