The least disliked episode of TNG - Season One

[Farscape One]

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

"The Naked Now" puts their clothes back on. A rehash of "THE NAKED TIME", it rather clumsily puts hidden desires of the leads to the forefront. And virtually all of them, it's not really accurate. When the writers develop the characters more and they don't even bother using this as a reference point for hidden wants, you know the episode is a failure.

 

[Spirit of 73]

I'll get rid of Hide and Q. The first part is just silly and pointless, and the last part is the most ham-handed drama of any TNG episode in the entire series run.

The Big Goodbye
Angel One
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil

 

[Takeru]

Angel One is out, they do a sexism episode with the sexes switch and that's already a strike against it (all reverse -isms are stupid imo) but that it's the "real" outside men who have to show them the way while the native men spray themselves with perfume is ridiculous, they were an after thought and treated as a joke like when Riker wore their clothes and they had Troi and Tasha giggle.

The Big Goodbye
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil

 

[BigDaveX]

Skin of Evil. Sorry, but there's a reason why main characters are (or were at the time) expected to meet their end with a grand, heroic gesture, and the rest of the episode isn't strong enough to make up for how poorly-handled Tasha's death was.

(Also restoring Where No One Has Gone Before, which was accidentally cut out two posts above)

Where No One Has Gone Before
The Big Goodbye
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom

 

[tomswift2002]

“Where No One Has Gone Before” is gone. Was Picard trying to save power on the ship, since that scene in sickbay was really dark, except for the huge spotlight above the operating table.



The Big Goodbye
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom

 

[Farscape One]

11001001
The Arsenal of Freedom

Waving farewell to "The Big Goodbye". While it was arguably one of the best 'holodeck gone wrong' episodes, and it being the first, and it was a good episode, there is one thing that has always bugged me.

Turning off the holodeck could delete ACTUAL PEOPLE INSIDE? That was one of the most ridiculous plot devices to keep our heroes in danger that I have ever seen. Aside from that, it was a well crafted episode.

 

[Takeru]

The Arsenal of Freedom is out, I disliked that the danger simply stopped because they decided "Convinced, we'll buy it!", that was kind of lame.

11001001 wins, it's a lot more fun.

 

[Qonundrum]

"Arsenal" did end up having a cheesy ending - though "We'll make a sale", to me, wasn't anywhere as cringey as the same machine creating a weapon to go after the Enterprise and it looks identical to the itty bitty thing going after the away team (a term inspired by "The A-Team"? ). That got up to the level of dingaling that "The Changeling" had with being able to create energy bolts equivalent to 90 torpedoes that the ship could survive numerous blasts from.

Still, the last two contenders are definitely high points of TNG's fledgling season. Many hits, many misses, many lost potentials, many "What the heck are they smoking?!" moments, many more "What the heck should they start smoking?!" moments... but the cast, regardless of some of the most atrocious stuff on paper, as well as no competition and big big budget, helped ensure TNG would survive... with season 2 definitely going where no one has gone before and with all 4 cylinders now in sync and almost consistently so.

 

[Qonundrum]

Angel One is out, they do a sexism episode with the sexes switch and that's already a strike against it (all reverse -isms are stupid imo) but that it's the "real" outside men who have to show them the way while the native men spray themselves with perfume is ridiculous, they were an after thought and treated as a joke like when Riker wore their clothes and they had Troi and Tasha giggle.

The Big Goodbye
11001001
Arsenal of Freedom
Skin of Evil

I'll admit, some kudos are worthy for their attempt to do something with the trope, but nothing shown is memorable or even slightly thought-provoking in any good way. It's a missed opportunity.

Reverseisms are definitely cliche and trite, unless something majorly innovative is done to make it stand out as "more original" rather than "highlight the latest fashion trends", which in 1987 included big shoulder pads, the ever-awesome color palette of beige and spangly silver (puke), the omnipresent smell of hair spray one could whiff on the opposite side of the TV screen, but - yeah - the episode is so unsure of how to go above and beyond that it falls into the traps it's trying to avoid and you mentioned all the good reasons already.

It's almost like a poorly thought out episode of "Sliders", but that show found more innovative and properly thought provoking ways to explore the idea. Indeed, it had its own gender reversal theme for a couple episodes in seasons 1 and 2 and those ("The Weaker Sex", "Love Gods") are far more solid and thought out to begin with...

What could "Angel One" have done better? Apart from avoiding the use of stereotypes in an episode meant to fight them as that at best accomplishes nothing. And even using sexes as such - aren't there personality tests that reveal people of both sexes show up in all categories?

 

[gakelly]

The fact that these 2 episodes were the last ones show just how awful season 1 really was.

 

[Takeru]

What could "Angel One" have done better? Apart from avoiding the use of stereotypes in an episode meant to fight them as that at best accomplishes nothing. And even using sexes as such - aren't there personality tests that reveal people of both sexes show up in all categories?

The biggest mistake in my opinion was not giving the male Angel Onians a voice, the men were represented by outsiders and the Angel Onian sympathetic to their cause was Bonnie from Knight Rider. The planet's men were just extras which was an awful choice in an episode that pretends to be about their rights, how can you do that and then completely ignore them?

 

[Discofan]

I am glad "Code Of Honor" was the second eliminated. I would have put it first.


It's a total disgrace.

 

[Brennyren]

I am glad "Code Of Honor" was the second eliminated. I would have put it first.


It's a total disgrace.

You're welcome , and I agree. I think this is the worst episode TNG ever did.