The least disliked episode of TNG - Season Five

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that we play every few years or so, and 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 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.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode because you feel they would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Hall of Champions
2011 - The Best of Both Worlds (I)
2013 - The Measure of a Man
2015 - All Good Things...
2017 -

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)

 

[BigDaveX]

Silicon Avatar is the first one to get the chop from me. A potentially cool concept, utterly wasted by the episode turning both Dr. Marr and Riker into strawmen whose arguments are there solely to be dismissed by the enlightened Picard.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
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)

 

[BlueStuff]

Violations is forcibly, telepathically removed. It's just a mess, and I find it unpleasant on the senses.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
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)

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

The Perfect Mate is certainly not perfect. It wasn’t the first time (Elaan of Troyius), it wasn’t the second time (The Perfect Mate) and it wasn’t the third time (Precious Cargo).

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

 

[Mojochi]

The Outcast is cast out. Hamfisted, shoehorned ethical dilemma, that does service to neither the show, nor the social concern it half heartedly tries to address. Plus, it's duller than a sack of hammers

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

 

[JesterFace]

Silicon Avatar is the first one to get the chop from me.

Another odd thing in this episode, Dr. Marr using a tricorder upside down looked kind of silly.

Surprising that no one picked that up in the set or later when putting the episode together.

Fuzzy pic but there it is.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

I think of three of the remaining episodes that bore me... New Ground, Hero Worship and Ethics...

Going to pick Hero Worship. Mostly at random amongst the 3.

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

 

[Armus]

Redemption Part 2 is irredeemable. Rather than boldly going this episode capitalizes on TNG's own mythos and Yesterdays Enterprise. Sela was lame. Furthermore, I'm not a fan of political machinations of the one dimensional cartoon Klingons portrayed in this episode. Also, I didn't like that whiny, wimpy pencil necked Cmdr. Hobson. This episode has too many plot lines that are carelessly thrown together. Having the Enterprise take action to disrupt Romulan influence in a Klingon civil war could have been better than this.

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

 

[BlueStuff]

Time's Arrow I is the worst finale in TNG (except for Shades of Gray obviously) and is a bad two-parter to boot. I can never sit through it.

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

 

[Armus]

Time's Arrow I is the worst finale in TNG (except for Shades of Gray obviously) and is a bad two-parter to boot. I can never sit through it.

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

I'm glad someone shot Time's Arrow right out the window. I think it is TNG's most forgettable season finale. Michael Piller cowrote the episode; he was a good showrunner but high concept sci fi was not his forte.

 

[BigDaveX]

Letting Cost of Living continue in this would be just too high a price. The main storyline of Lwaxana making friends with Alexander is just an incredibly bizarre concept on paper and extremely annoying in execution, and the subplot was done far better in Hollow Pursuits and even Evolution.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[Armus]

Imaginary Friend can disappear. Arguably the worst episode of the season. What was with all the kid shows that year?!

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[Garth Rockett]

I'm going to boot The Masterpiece Society. It's so bland I always have trouble remembering what it's about.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

My least favourites are still here. New Ground is the next of them to go. Aren't many new ways to call an episode dull.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[Herbert]

Going with I, Borg. Nothing says suck like taking a ruthless terrifying villain and making them sympathetic. Barf!

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[Brennyren]

OMG, how is "The Game" still here? Wesley gets one last chance to save the day, Robin Lefler is insufferable, pretty much every adult in the episode is a freaking idiot, those reactions to the game were cringeworthy -- and then there's the whole heavy-handed metaphor about the evils of video games. No thanks, I'm not playing.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[Armus]

Unification Part 2 needs to go next. Spock's appearance on TNG is bland, talky, and forgettable. Nimoy sleepwalks throughout the entire episode.



Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[BigDaveX]

Disaster isn't an outright catastrophe by any means, but it's ultimately brought down by the ludicrousness of everyone on the bridge expecting Troi to take command solely by virtue of her rank, some annoying moments between Picard and the kids, and the potential warp core breach that only poses a threat thanks to the entire engineering crew magically disappearing with no explanation.

And let's not even get into the abomination of a fan fic it spawned...

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[TheCrankyCardassian]

So long to The First Duty. No one ever needed a contrived melodrama that focused on Wesley.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Well, I will now conclude my trio of most disliked episodes of this season and kick Ethics. Whilst I rather like the premise, the episode barely keeps my attention.

Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
A Matter of Time
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light