The least disliked episode of TNG - Season Five

[BlueStuff]

This is a game that we play every couple of years, 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, please 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 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 - The Best of Both Worlds I
2019 -

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

 

[Farscape One]

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
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow I

I will start by ending "The Game". This episode, while predicting the current era of people obsessed with games on their phones and such, just didn't work for me.

Riker basically causes the situation because of a sexy alien on Risa. Wesley saves the ship again, something that while it didn't happen as often as most claim, did happen enough (or where he had a big hand in saving the ship) to be ridiculous.

 

[Sakonna]

Heh! "The Game" is a favorite of mine, but I knew it would go quick...

I am so excited to toss "A Matter Of Time" I just loathe this one, the plot doesn't withstand 2 seconds of scrutiny, the crew come off as complete morons. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
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

 

[Farscape One]

Funny enough, I was torn between "The Game" and "A Matter Of Time" as my first pick.

In the end, I picked the former because it was the last time we saw Lefler, and I thought she could have been a good recurring character. (Doesn't hurt that she was easy on the eyes in those days.) It irked me that we got robbed of that, so out it went. Plus, I have always liked Matt Frewer's performances... MAX HEADROOM, THE STAND, SUPERNATURAL, ORPHAN BLACK... the list goes on.

 

[BlueStuff]

Lwaxana plus Alexander means the Cost of Living is just too high.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
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

 

[BigDaveX]

Imaginary Friend. Despite some great visuals of the Enterprise in the nebula, the plot just feels incredibly trite, cliched, and overall uninteresting.

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

 

[tomswift2002]

“The Inner Light”. I just never really liked this episode. It’s an ok episode, but I never really enjoyed it.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I[/QUOTE]

 

[Brennyren]

Destroying "Silicon Avatar." Because frankly, I thought that was what the crew should have been trying to do from the beginning. Creatures that survive by eating thousands of sentients at a clip don't seem like the type that you want to cozy up and chat with.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eliminating the VERY generic episode New Ground. For all the reasons it won its dubious honor of Most Generic.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

 

[Starflight]

I'll remove The Outcast. The only way it works at all is if you imagine it's Riker's self-insert fanfic, where everyone's vaguely out of character and Worf (in addition to being suddenly and inexplicably sexist for this one episode) has a hilariously off-brand speech about how Riker is the most honourable person he knows or something.

All Riker's crap about "the battle of the sexes" is utterly despair-inducing considering this is meant to be a utopian future. He can't envision a society where people don't have a concept of gender or sex, even though there are plenty of species - not just in the universe, but also within Starfleet - with no sexes or more than two? Whatever.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

 

[Seven of Five]

The Masterpiece Society is very dull. Off it goes.

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I

 

[Armus]

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
The Next Phase
Time's Arrow I


Bye bye I Borg, the pet Borg episode. The producers were clearly tone deaf towards the fans who still wanted some ambition and adventure in their Star Trek. This was the followup to the epic Best of Both Worlds?

 

[Farscape One]

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Time's Arrow I

"The Next Phase" gets phased out. A good Geordi and Ro pairing, and not a bad episode, but it's the weakest of the remaining.

 

[gakelly]

Redemption II
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics

The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Time's Arrow I

Cause and Effect. I'll take Groundhog's Day instead.

 

[Sakonna]

Redemption II
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification I
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Time's Arrow I

Well, since my elimination of "Measure Of A Man" went over so well, I guess it's time to reveal... I've also never really liked "Darmok"

I mean, I get it, intellectually I like the episode concept, I see why others like it, but it's just never once moved me. That's my reaction every time I've seen it: cool idea, but the execution is flat and it's not pulling me in and I'm not actually caring.

 

[Starflight]

As long as we're slaying sacred cows, I think it's time to remove Unification, since I'd honestly rewatch every other episode up there before it. Seen it several times and every time I've been literally unable to care about anything that happens, which is remarkable considering Leonard Nimoy himself shows up, and I'm interested in Romulans. It just doesn't work at all for whatever reason.

How does removing two-parters work? I guess I'll just take part 1 out and leave part 2 for someone else.

Redemption II
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Time's Arrow I

 

[BigDaveX]

Disaster. Not an uninteresting episode by a long shot, but let down by several contrivances such as the entire engineering crew magically disappearing, and Troi ending up in command purely by virtue of her rank.

Redemption II
Ensign Ro
Unification II
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Time's Arrow I

 

[Seven of Five]

All of my favourites have long since vanished. On to this season - I'll get rid of Violations. It's alright but the 'twist' is telegraphed a bit too much.

Redemption II
Ensign Ro
Unification II
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
Time's Arrow I

 

[Sakonna]

As long as we're slaying sacred cows, I think it's time to remove Unification, since I'd honestly rewatch every other episode up there before it.

That's interesting... I love "Unification", but I always thought mine was a minority opinion.

I saw it initially in reruns, and I'm wondering if anyone else's local station did what mine did, which was to slavishly air the episodes in production order, no matter what. They'd also air the reruns in 2 hour blocks, and since "Unification" was shot out of sequence, that's the way I always experienced it. Part II would start, and then play straight into Part I. I was amazed that years and years and years passed with the episodes always rerun in this way.

I don't think I saw them in sequence for the first time till 2 years ago.

So that might be the secret to loving "Unification." Watch it out of order and it's great.

 

[Farscape One]

Redemption II
Ensign Ro
Unification II
Hero Worship
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate

"Time's Arrow" is going to another time. A good episode, but not a great season finale.