The least disliked episode of TNG - Season One

[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!

Season One

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Seven of Five]

Oh my word. How you doing?

I will delete Code of Honor, as it's a horrible, racist episode, and just terrible all round really. Bit of an easy choice to start with but meh!

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
The Last Outpost
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

Voted off the island:
Code of Honor

 

[GalaxyX]

So you're supposed to delete the worst episodes until we get to the least hated one?

Pfft, that's easy, after Code of Honor, Angel One is gag inducing. What were they thinking? Butch 80's amazon women beat up on effeminate pussy men. The whole episode felt like some kind of weird s&m fetish. Might be the only TNG episode I've only seen maybe twice. Remove that abomination off the list.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[BlueStuff]

Oh my word. How you doing?

I'm doing great, Seven of Five! A lot changes in two years, but I'm glad to see you're still around!

 

[BlueStuff]

So you're supposed to delete the worst episodes until we get to the least hated one?

You got it! But don't forget that you need to copy and paste the list of the poster above you, so both Code of Honor and Angel One are off the list now. I'll fix that, and also give The Last Outpost the boot for the dreadful, squirming portrayal of the Ferengi, intended at the time to serve as real antagonists in the series. Unfortunately they were completely ridiculous. Thank Armin Shimmerman for helping to fix that damage!

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eliminating The Last Output.

Other than the coolness of the energy whips we never see again for some reason, this episode is unwatchable. If they were going to have villains who were capitalist caricatures they could have made them seem like competently amoral businessmen instead of mincing, slouching, sleer-talking animalistic stereotypes.

Edit: Guy above me beat me to Last Output by one minute so I'll take out that weird possession episode where reptilian and leonian alien delegates are hunting each other for food in the corridors, Lonely Among Us.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

I will eliminate Justice. The whole episode was pretty hard to watch: everyone running for no reason, random death penalty for stepping on flowers, the random public love-making... just all seemed so dumb. Watching it made me feel dirty, and watching it with a parent or child is awkward.

Also, why was the Enterprise visiting a pre-warp society?

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Green Shirt]

We'll Always Have Paris. Ugh. Two reasons for hating it --Michele Phillips and that horrible holodeck bad actress chick at the table next to Picard.




Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[jimbotron]

Haven - painful episode that introduces us to the generally annoying Lwaxana Troi. The arranged marriage plot was dull, and the "dream girl" plot was laughable.


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Mario de Monti]

That´s not an easy choice, since there really are very few good episodes in the first season, IMO. But I´ll remove "The Naked Now". It always seemed stupid to me, to exactly copy a TOS episode so early in TNG.

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Third Nacelle]

I'll have to remove Hide and Q. It's a bit more tolerable than some of those already removed, but it's easily the worst Q episode. It had a pretty good premise (what would a human do with Q powers?) and took that premise NOWHERE.

Also, just my personal feelings, but I can't stand Riker-focused episodes.

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
Too Short a Season
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[jimbotron]

Too Short a Season - an episode so heavily focused on a guest star that has to play both an old man and a young man required a strong actor. The actor's performance was forgettable, making the episode below average. The makeup was pretty bad too.

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[CorporalClegg]

I'm surprised "Symbiosis" made it this far. Say goodbye to the PSA POS.

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
11001001
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

I'll eliminate The Big Goodbye. It was the first holodeck episode which gave us many many to follow. Some of them were good or interesting, but this opened the door to an all-too-common crutch Star Trek writers would rely on.

It also becomes a bit more unpalatable with the actor who played Cyrus Redblock, hearing some stories behind the scenes. It explained why a memorable character who really dominated the one Seinfeld episode he appeared in never returned despite being family. Some of the stories about this guy were .

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Datalore
11001001
When the Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I will eliminate When The Bough Breaks, as it seems to be the only really terrible episode left.

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Datalore
11001001
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[MacLeod]

I'm going to eliminate the pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" sure it has it's momments and it introduces us to Q but I don't think it's the best that S1 of TNG had to offer.


Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Datalore
11001001
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Dale Sams]

I think it's notable that not a single episode picked thus far has made me go, "What??? You eliminated that!"

The list is getting down to eps wherein the major complaint is "Why would I want to watch that again? It just reeks of bad special effects, an 80's vibe, and mediocre plot"

For that I pick The Arsenal of Freedom.

Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Battle
Datalore
11001001
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Third Nacelle]

I thought The Battle would be eliminated before this. I'm not a fan of (early TNG) Ferengi, or "mind control" as a plot device, so it's gone.

Where No Man Has Gone Before
Datalore
11001001
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[jimbotron]

The Neutral Zone.

So it was about 20th century people woken up from cryostasis, but it was also about the introduction to Romulans (and a hint at what became the Borg). I still can't tell which was the A-plot and which was the B-plot. Early TNG sure had a knack for ruining alien introductions - first the Ferengi, now the Romulans. The stereotypical Southern guy and the stereotypical Wall Street fat cat were grating. Why did this subplot even need to exist?

Where No Man Has Gone Before
Datalore
11001001
Home Soil
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
Skin of Evil
Conspiracy

 

[Dale Sams]

Why did this subplot even need to exist?

Obviously to show how disgustingly inhuman the TNG crew are.

CRUSHER:"People feared dying. It terrified them"

Yes Beverly, I've seen how far you've all come in overcoming *that*.

PICARD: "Well, they're alive now. We're going to have to treat them as living human beings. "

Darn.