The least disliked episode of TNG - Season One

[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 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

 

[BlueStuff]

I'll make The Last Outpost the first casualty. I've always hated this one, from the unwatchable portrayal of the Ferengi to the hokey ending.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
Where No One 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

 

[Brennyren]

As Worf would say, "Code of Honor" has no honor. In all of TNG we get, what, one? episode set on a planet populated primarily by non-whites, and they dress like they're in a campy 50's movie set in "Darkest Africa." As for the idea that the sleazy, posturing Lutan is some sort of irresistible primal male? Please. That the resolution involves a serious logic fail is the least of this episode's problems.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No One 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

 

[Takeru]

It's a hard choice because season 1 has a lot of stinkers but I've picked Justice, it makes no sense how they randomly beam down to a pre warp planet, decide to have a vacation without actually checking any local customs and laws. How Picard insists on respecting the Edo's laws regarding Wesley's death when the Edo themselves basically say "If you decide to leave, we wouldn't be aböe to stop you, wink wink nudge nudge" is almost ridiculous. Then there's the giant space station in the sky god who screams at them and in the end Picard's decides "You know, we should just leave" and they leave ...


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
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

 

[Sakonna]

Maybe this is terrible, but I'm going to ax "ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT." I've tried to watch it two or three times in recent years -- and I can't! It's just so rough, the dialogue is so bad. Most of the other terribleness in season 1 has a so-bad-it's-good hilarity and is at least watchable on that level, but Farpoint is just bad!

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
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

 

[Starflight]

Conspiracy, mainly for the ending. It's been a long time since I last saw it so my judgement might be slightly off, but why the hell do they just straight-up kill Remmick? People seem to survive having the alien parasites removed, so it's not like he was already lost. And the alien queen's last words are "we seek peaceful co-existence" before Picard vaporises it? I mean, granted, they obviously weren't seeking peaceful coexistence, but would Picard really kill the alien (which was starting to communicate) and the host for apparently no reason like that? The tone of the rest of the episode isn't much better.

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
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
The Neutral Zone

 

[tomswift2002]

Conspiracy, mainly for the ending. It's been a long time since I last saw it so my judgement might be slightly off, but why the hell do they just straight-up kill Remmick? People seem to survive having the alien parasites removed, so it's not like he was already lost. And the alien queen's last words are "we seek peaceful co-existence" before Picard vaporises it? I mean, granted, they obviously weren't seeking peaceful coexistence, but would Picard really kill the alien (which was starting to communicate) and the host for apparently no reason like that? The tone of the rest of the episode isn't much better.

I just watched “Conspiracy” lately and they killed Remmick because the creatures caused the infected to be resistant to a phasers stun setting, Even on kill, the creatures could hold out for quite a while.


Anyway I’m removing “Home Soil” as it is a very boring episode.

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

 

[Farscape One]

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

There is no safe haven for "Haven". The episode just doesn't work in so many ways, though it at least introduced Lwaxana.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short a Season
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

Removing When The Bough Breaks because the whole premise is kind of ridiculous.

 

[Brennyren]

"We'll Always Have Paris"? Not in this poll we won't, thanks to its revisiting of the Trek cliche of the big brave hero who ran away from love,and couldn't even bring himself to say goodbye lest he succumb to the fatal flaw of actually wanting to spend his life with another person.

It's actually kind of weird that the scenario has replayed itself so precisely for Decker and Ilia, Riker and Troi, and now Picard and Jenice.

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short a Season
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
The Neutral Zone

 

[Sakonna]

"Coming Of Age" is just... ugggghhhh. That subplot with the kid stealing a shuttle is so stupid. The Wesley plot is one of my most hated TV tropes (so prevalent in the 80's & 90's, now thankfully mostly died out): "Will this series regular leave the show?" Unless you're actually writing them out, that's not an interesting story!

And they got in such a rut with Wesley on this in particular, every season there's some episode that's all about Wesley maybe leaving the ship, until he misses his shot for another year due to some contrivance. They should have just gone with: why would this kid rush off to the Academy, when he already has a bridge position on the fleet flagship? He's going to stick around as long as possible!

I liked being introduced to the Benzite's, though. Great makeup design on those aliens. Let's get some Benzite's on Discovery, I want to see the modern update of that!

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short a Season
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
The Neutral Zone

 

[NovaStar]

I’ll remove Too Short A Season. To this day I still don’t really understand it and it was far more annoying then it should have been. Not to mention the bad acting of Admiral Jameson and that terrible makeup.

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodybe
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal Of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin of Evil
The Neutral Zone

 

[Brennyren]

"Symbiosis" has to go, if only for the eye-rolling preachiness of Tasha's "Just say no" speech. Hey kids, drugs are bad, mkay?

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal Of Freedom
Skin of Evil
The Neutral Zone

 

[Qonundrum]

Aw man! So many to whine about!

Datalore sets up some lore with Data but is so chock full of clunky scenes, making Wesley Wonderbbread look like less of a loaf by dumbing down all the senior officers' dialogue to compensate (I still can't believe it, over 30 years later, that they would elevate a character's alleged genius by devolving everyone else around them as a narrative shortcut, and this episode is a prime example as such), and basic plot logistic failures... ugh.

The Crystalline Entity, on its surface, is pretty cool - but how can Lore communicate with it (not the universal translator), why do the senior officers just swallow the great plan to beam off a chunk of it - never mind other implications... does Picard go boldly and say "Make it so" every time Worf tells him to show their superiority by transporting from the other ship a bunch of severed body parts? This is, as the vernacular goes, "creepy AF". And yet the episode does handle the horror content competently in other scenes.

Is Chief Engineer Argyle's first name "Socks"? Yes, he's the 14th new chief engineer this season (or felt like the 14th at the time) and he's a bona fide 17k gen-u-eye-eeeeene cubic zirconium Scotty clone, and yet Data doesn't mind being disassembled and reverse-engineered when they'd have more than one special android as a result? How come Socks isn't Commander Bruce Maddox's senior officer? How come Maddox wasn't wearing yellow? Oh, wait, I'm now jumping ahead and that story was at least well-written...

Yes, despite all the contractions, Spiner steals the show. So does Ron Jones, delivering a cinematic script so far above and beyond a story riddled with little innovation on "the evil twin" trope (again, Spiner carries the whole thing). But this episode needed more than one actor to really dig into it, to elevate such dialogue. I'd otherwise say Wil Wheaton, who deserves honorable mention for dealing with some truly atrocious dialogue.

(the direction of the episode was pretty solid as well. The plot problems aside, it does remain engaging. Which is a pretty big deal.)

And, yes, I do rate this one lower than others remaining on the list because it's such an uneven story, and I hadn't gotten to the leftovers-from-1982 mannequin's hairdo yet!:



The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal Of Freedom
Skin of Evil
The Neutral Zone

 

[Sakonna]

Man, season 1 and 2 TNG is really where my hearts at lately. I know many of these episodes are considered "bad," but everything left on this list is some flavor of "Actually Good" or "So Bad It's Good" for me. I love them all in their own way!

I'll get rid of "The Neutral Zone." I basically like it's whole deal, but a lot of the air goes out of it in the last act or two, the climax doesn't gel like I want it too. And some of that dialogue about how evolved humans are now... oy.

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal Of Freedom
Skin of Evil

 

[NovaStar]

I’ll safely remove The Neutral Zone. Granted it gave people the first appearance of Romulans in TNG but the subplot with the 20th Century humans felt really wasted and the crew was not the most friendly towards them, especially Claire and Sonny (the grieving mother and a smoker).

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Heart of Glory
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Heart of Glory
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil

Removing Lonely Among Us. The B plot is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen on television, and the A plot is just sorta bland.​

 

[tomswift2002]

“Heart Of Glory” is gone. It wasn’t a really good reintroduction for the Klingon’s, also the writer’s seemed to ignore Worf’s line about growing up on Gault and just retroactively Had Worf growing up in Russia after this episode.

Also, @BlueStuff, do we know what the Season 1 winners were for the previous years?

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil

​

 

[BlueStuff]

Also, @BlueStuff, do we know what the Season 1 winners were for the previous years?

​

2011 - The Arsenal of Freedom
2013 - Heart of Glory
2015 - Heart of Glory
2017 - Heart of Glory

 

[BlueStuff]

I'll end The Battle. TNG's Ferengi episodes were very poor, and although this was probably the best of them, it's still not very good. Too slow.

The Naked Now
Where No One Has Gone Before
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil