The least disliked episode of TNG - Season Two

[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.

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 Two

The Child
Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
Manhunt
The Emissary
Peak Performance
Shades of Gray

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

The Child right off the bat. It was written for Phase II and it was poorly adapted for TNG.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
Manhunt
The Emissary
Peak Performance
50? Shades of Gray

 

[BigDaveX]

I'll go right to the other end of the season and give Shades of Gray the chop because... well, it's not even an actual episode, is it? And even for a clip show, the concept is thin at best; there were better ways of going about it.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
Manhunt
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Trek Survivor]

Of course "Shades of Gray" is an episode.

I'll remove "Manhunt". This one was boring, the pacing was all over the place as was the tone, Majel Barrett was at her worst in acting (and the part written for her) and there is so little to like about it. The old fish-face aliens were fun, I guess...!

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Armus]

Unnatural Selection. The only season 2 episode that I cannot rewatch. It's a shame the one episode to focus entirely on Dr. Pulaski was a lame remake of The Deadly Years.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Removing The Icarus Factor. Ooh look, Riker's dad is aboard... *snore*

You know, seeing that list, season 2 looks more decent than I remember.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
The Emissary
Peak Performance

**edited to reflect the ninja post above this one.

 

[BlueStuff]

The Outrageous Okona is shot out the airlock. Yuck. This was supposed to be a comedy? "You're a droid, and I'm annoyed." Guinan described that joke (her own joke) as "funny". WTF? Had the writers ever heard or seen a joke before?

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[BigDaveX]

I'm giving Up The Long Ladder a push off of the ladder. While I don't believe it was intentionally racist, seeing how Melinda Snodgrass and Maurice Hurley both had Irish ancestry, the Bringloidi are still incredibly cartoonish and annoying. The cloning sub-plot was a bit better, but even more under-developed than... well, the unfinished clones of themselves that Riker and Pulaski kill.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
Loud as a Whisper
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Qonundrum]

There are other possible contenders in my bucket list, but

Loud as a Whisper

As with a lot of season 2, this has an interesting idea but it doesn't quite work. The chorus idea worked rather better in "Herman's Head", though there are some set piece scenes that are effective, especially Troi as this episode would highlight her abilities. But the episode is not the sum of its parts and ends up being a remarkably forgettable story despite some ideas at work. That and Riva's chorus guy who represents his libido - that could have gone in any number of salacious directions. Had this been made before or just after "Justice", I reckon THAT would have been the show's focus instead. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I prefer my sci-fi without sexual innuendo unless it's meant to be an outright comedy like "Red Dwarf".

Almost voted for Schizoid Man. It too has an interesting premise but as much as the episode tries, something doesn't stick, and not because Graves-inside-Data wants to get busy with the lady-of-the-week.

That and I had also rewatched "The Royale" recently and it wasn't anywhere as bad as its reputation suggests, and "Samaritan Snare" was meant to make the viewer uncomfortable, so it's nowhere near the bottom for me either.

Other episodes too have some strong points despite not being fan favorites so the list is now:




Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[dstyer]

I have eliminated "The Royale." I did not care for the concept, nor the acting, even though it was supposed to be acting out a bad novel.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
The Dauphin
Contagion
Time Squared
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Mojochi]

The Dauphin is a stupendous combination of awkward, silly, boring, poorly acted & pointless, & its time for dismissal has come

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Time Squared
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Sakonna]

Time Squared has never done it for me. You can do fun things with short term time travel (see: DS9, "Visionary"), but in Time Squared the story plays out in such a dreary, belabored fashion. Sucks all the excitement and fun out of it.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Pen Pals
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Brennyren]

Signing off, "Pen Pals," for introducing the 24th-century interpretation of the Prime Directive: no interference at all regardless of the nature of the problem, because we can't know what God or Fate or Nature intends. That always struck me as bizarrely mystical for a supposedly rational future.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Schizoid Man
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Mojochi]

It gets tough now, but I'm dropping The Schizoid Man, despite being a Data episode with a cyberneticist, played by a Trek veteran. Something about the execution of this story just doesn't come off as well as it could've. Besides, the possession Trek episode trope is overused

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
Samaritan Snare
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[BigDaveX]

I'm going to make Samaritan Snare go. An interesting concept, and there is some good character stuff for Picard and Wesley (and Geordi to some extent), but ultimately the Pakleds just come across as too stupid for it to seem credible that they'd successfully pull their scam on the Enterprise crew.

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Well, I know it's not a terrible episode, but it is a Riker episode, and Riker is my least favourite character on TNG, so I'll have to pick A Matter of Honor.

Also doesn't help that the title contains one of those words that Americans spell wrong

Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Sakonna]

And now it's at the point where it's really tough, all these episodes are great. I'll toss Elementary, Dear Data, though I mostly have only good things to say about it -- it's a favorite holodeck episode, it's gorgeously produced, it's a great use of Pulaski to give us some tension among the crew, it eventually gives us "Ship In A Bottle", which is an absolute favorite of mine. But it has a few off beats (Geordi storming out of the holodeck because he doesn't like how Data is playing), so the other episodes here just play more smoothly...

Where Silence Has Lease
The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[LJS1138]

I'm going to remove Where Silence Has Lease. Interesting premise, not as badly executed as most episodes, but certainly not the best episode of season 2.

The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
The Emissary
Peak Performance

 

[Mojochi]

Ooo! I still get to knock off a top spot. All good episodes, but I'm going to sack The Emissary. I've never been fond of Worf's K'Ehleyr/Alexander arc even if the actress is really good

The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?
Peak Performance

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Peak Performance is easily the “fourth best” episode of the bunch. That outdated video game...

The Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who?