The Least Disliked Episode of TNG - Season Six

[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 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

 

[Farscape One]

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

Eliminating "Rascals". Two out of date Birds of Prey, crewed by Ferengi, successfully take over the Federation flagship? That alone merits this episode being taken off the list, which is an otherwise really strong season.

The only good thing was the casting of the kids. I think they nailed that pretty well.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eliminating Rascals. The same crew who used to set the self destruct sequence at the slightest chance of the ship falling into enemy hands turned control of the ship over because they got one phaser on one person. And the kid stuff is badly written too.

Edit: Eliminating Fistful of Datas because Farscape beat me to eliminating Rascals. One holodeck malfunction episode too many, and not a good homage on the genre.

Time's Arrow II
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
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]

"Realm Of Fear" The core idea is good, but it's sabotaged by poor pacing, and the transporter/creature effects just do not work.

Time's Arrow II
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
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]

Aquiel - very poor Geordi show. The conclusion was embarrassing. I haven't seen it in years and I still remember some nonsense with a dog.

Time's Arrow II
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
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

 

[Brennyren]

I will not harbor "Suspicions." The ship's doctor inexplicably hosts an engineering conference (without so much as bringing in any of the resident engineers), and investigates a murder (without bringing in trained security). The episode also introduces metaphasic shielding, which will enable starships to travel in close proximity to a star, and which would be much more impressive if we hadn't already seen both TOS and TNG Enterprises doing exactly that without metaphasic shielding. And finally, we have the guy who sneaks himself out of a morgue drawer, steals back his clothes, and sneaks aboard a shuttle, all without being noticed. My "suspicion" is that this episode makes no sense.

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

 

[Takeru]

Tapestry is out, the assumption that Picard wouldn't have much of a career if he didn't almost die in a bar fight doesn't make sense, that should have tought him to take less risks if anything. The "I could die at any moment so I better take every chance I get" lesson works better after an almost deadly accident the person couldn't have predicted, Picard's lesson would have been "Don't be a douche, take a step back and don't risk it".
The episode also basically tells us Picard is completely irrelevant in the bigger picture, nothing changed without him being in charge but be still pouts and wants to be important, he'd rather die as the captain than live as a measly lieutenant in the science division ... and all this time I thought everyone is valuable, apparently not in the eyes of Jean-Luc. And weren't we told before that it's hard to be assigned to the Enterprise? That everyone wants to be there and only the best make it? So presumably Lt. Picard still had important skills that were needed, the Enterprise was never portrayed as a posting useless officers who don't get anywhere get, Picard still had a career others would kill to have just by being on the Enterprise.


Time's Arrow II
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright I
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[NovaStar]

I’ll remove the Quality of Life. Honestly, mainly because it’s not as memorable as the rest of them. It didn’t leave any impact on me.

Time’s Arrow II
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright I
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[BigDaveX]

Man of the People. Embarrassing, sexist garbage. That's all I have to say.

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright I
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[Sakonna]

"Rightful Heir" has always left me cold -- it's OK, but it just doesn't click with me. It's also harmed by the lack of follow-up -- this was a long walk to reintroduce a version of Kahless to the Klingon narrative, they should have actually done something with him after!

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright I
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[Starflight]

Birthright I. I don't know why it has to be two parts long when it already feels boring and over-long by the end of the first part. Also, debatably, Worf is a dick in this.

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[Farscape One]

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Schisms
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

"True Q" is false. It's the weakest of all the Q episodes on TNG.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eliminating Schisms. They had a decent idea but didn't execute it well.

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Birthright II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[Seven of Five]

Birthright II for me. Part I was much better with Data's dreams, but then it ended and we just had Worf on the planet.

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[tomswift2002]

Birthright I. I don't know why it has to be two parts long when it already feels boring and over-long by the end of the first part. Also, debatably, Worf is a dick in this.

I still think “Birthright Part 1” is the better of the 2, because of Data & Dr. Bashir’s story. It’s to bad they didn’t continue that in Part 2.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I still think “Birthright Part 1” is the better of the 2, because of Data & Dr. Bashir’s story. It’s to bad they didn’t continue that in Part 2.

I think Bashir felt forced into that episode. The whole thing about "Nobody has ever asked me if my hair...grows..." came off to me like "Hey, isn't this Bashir guy interesting? Bet you'd like to see more of him, huh."

 

[tomswift2002]

Frame of Mind is gone. Was it really ever here? That was one confusing episode. Even now, after all these years, I still have no real good idea as to what the crux of the story was suppose to be about and whether Riker was on the Enterprise or in that jail.

Time’s Arrow II
Relics
Chain Of Command I
Chain of Command II
Ship in a Bottle
Face of the Enemy
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent I

 

[tomswift2002]

I think Bashir felt forced into that episode. The whole thing about "Nobody has ever asked me if my hair...grows..." came off to me like "Hey, isn't this Bashir guy interesting? Bet you'd like to see more of him, huh."

Sorry I’d disagree. Sure Data had been in Starfleet for decades, but I think it was the kind of question that someone like Dr. Bashir might ask, as for humans and other species with hair, it is just something that people would assume would grow, as it’s how humans get rid of their protein, but with Data, as he would point out in “Insurrection” his dimensions would remain the same for height and arm/leg length from the day he went online to the day he goes offline, and he doesn’t have protein. Plus Bashir probably read up on Data in all those medical journals and maybe that was the one thing that wasn’t mentioned.

But in Part 2, instead of Data/Bashir, maybe it could’ve been a Troi/Dax story or another TNG/DS9 pairing.

 

[Starflight]

Unbelievably, I totally forgot about Bashir showing up in Birthright. Both parts just blur together in my head into that dull planet-side story with Worf.

 

[Seven of Five]

It's funny it's like they shoved two random episodes together to make a two-part episode.