The least disliked episode of TNG - Season Six

[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, and at least 6 hours after your last vote.

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 Six

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Rascals
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[BlueStuff]

A reminder to please ensure that both:

1. at least two other posters have voted since your last vote
2. at least six hours have passed since your last vote

...before voting again. Thanks!

 

[BlueStuff]

There are a couple of episodes I dislike more but I'll start by banishing Rascals to the naughty step. The entire concept, as well as the performances, are too annoying. Also, TNG-Ferengi episodes are never good.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Sakonna]

I've always found A Quality Of Life a completely inert hour of television. The other failures this season all have something interesting about them, but this hour is just filler.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing Man Of The People. It's not one of the episodes that has one spectacularly bad thing about it. Just nothing about it works, the villain is boring, his motives don't make sense, the Angry Old Troi scenes are uncomfortable, the way he immediately dies of old age because he missed his ritual by a few minutes was a weak resolution, and why would negative emotions make you age fast anyway? Not spectacularly bad, but everything about it is poor.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[TheCrankyCardassian]

Ship in a Bottle needs to be flushed down the toiled. Holograms aren't people, and the idea that they can be compelling adversaries is contrived nonsense.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Relics
Schisms
True Q
A Fistful of Datas
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Tim Thomason]

A Fistful of Datas is probably the least inspired holodeck malfunction episode (in a season that will bring us the great Ship in a Bottle - although I just saw that that's been removed for some reason!), and is purely a "comedic" episode to let Brent Spiner show some acting range (in a season that will bring us Descent). Completely unnecessary addition to the season and definitely padding. No offense to Patrick Stewart.

Time's Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Armus]

I'm going to make some fans unhappy and put Relics in the scrap yard. Having Scotty suspended in a transporter for 80 years was a clever way to bring him back and having him recreate the bridge of the original Enterprise on the holodeck was a great moment. That being said I think this is one of TNG's most overrated episodes. The Dyson Sphere stuff didn't interest me(there was little excitement in any action scenes or closecall escapes by season 6)and the conflict between Geordi and Scotty wasn't very compelling.

Times Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[BigDaveX]

Gonna have to make Aquiel disappear. I actually don't think it's as bad as its reputation, but it loses steam in the second half and the big monster fight at the end is... unimpressive to say the least.

Times Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Lessons. The only lesson I learned is: here's an episode to skip next time around. (though I did always want that folding keyboard - never knew how it was powered though, the batteries were obviously flat...)

Times Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[oberth]

rightful heir has to go. when i first saw it i thought it was a stOOpid plot - i still do

plain old deus ex machina stuff to save the empire (they did that a lot better with li nalas on ds9)

Times Arrow (II)
Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
Lessons posts crossed
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[BlueStuff]

Times Arrow (II) has been fired away. Bad two parter, bad finale and bad premiere. Never cared for this story.

Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[oberth]

Times Arrow (II) has been fired away. Bad two parter, bad finale and bad premiere. Never cared for this story.

Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

i kicked rightful heir - forgot to take it off the list

 

[BlueStuff]

Thanks, list fixed.

Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Bye bye Second Chances. One of the more forced premises of the show.

Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Birthright (II)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Timescape
Descent (I)

 

[Vger23]

Descent I needs to go. One of my most disliked of the series.

 

[Sakonna]

Kicking "Birthright II"

I spent the whole time my first viewing saying "when are we getting back to the Data story?" Which I liked so much better in the first part!

I also just don't enjoy how racist Worf is in it. There was an interesting way to approach the story of Worf being completely repulsed by this half-Klingon/half-Romulan woman. This was not it, the writing doesn't seem aware enough of how Worf's beliefs will play.

Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Timescape

 

[Qonundrum]

Suspicions is one that I'm always suspicious of.

Ugh. Crusher, typical to seasons 5 and 6, is so pompous with her "I don't need to respect others' beliefs" that she just screws over the wishes of the dead's family... and finds nothing anyway. Why didn't she rule out every other possibility? Had she only worked with Data beforehand...

Why does a species have the ability to simulate death by mentally controlling their metabolic functions the same way anyone else can use a dimmer switch to turn up oven temperature to make their evening casserole?

Never mind a species whose inner organs are both not discrete (they all share functions ever so magically) and are so perfectly distributed - nature's equivalent to the Borg now? That's quite the novelty for such a complex species. Sigh. This episode, liker "Ethics", puts the "CON" in "convenience".

At least she rightly goes to Picard after realizing Reyga had nothing on him. Her relieves her of duty - at least the episode actually went this far. It's better than season 1's "Justice" in terms of the prime directive, though, I can appreciate the conflict... but it's all so stagey.

And the baddie being vaporized means one less witness for when Crusher (never) gets into a court martial the same way Nurse Ogawa won't for assisting Crusher.


What's left:
Realm of Fear
Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Timescape

 

[BigDaveX]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to get rid of Realm of Fear. For me, it's probably the worst Barclay story, as there are far too many bizarre transporter malfunctions in Star Trek - including one in Barclay's own debut episode, no less - for it to seem credible that anyone with a fear of transporters would be regarded as crazy by the average Federation citizen (leaving aside the fact we'd already gone through that with Pulaski), and let's not even get started on the story resolution depending on Barclay being able to move freely when he's a disassembled cloud of atoms floating around in the transporter buffer.

Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright (I)
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Timescape

 

[oberth]

birthright I is out

that was just a 'you might have forgotten it but we got that brand new (!) cardassian space station' reminder

Schisms
True Q
Chain of Command (I)
Chain of Command (II)
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Starship Mine
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Timescape