Game The Most Disliked Episode Directed By Cliff Bole

[Seven of Five]

I think The Collaborator is my first save, as I really like it.

It's good seeing Bareil doing his best to protect Opaka's legacy despite his political interests. Kai Bareil may have been an interesting toy for the DS9 writers to play with in an alternate universe, but they probably made the right dramatic decision. Cow Winn is a brilliant antagonist, played by the always excellent Louise Fletcher.

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
TNG Season 1: "Hide and Q"
TNG Season 2: "The Emissary"
TNG Season 3: "The Ensigns of Command"
TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Extreme Risk"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Qonundrum]

Two come to my head, but

TNG Season 1: "Hide and Q"​

had more overall potential, even if the other was niftier in premise and executed it better...

Q conniving Riker is something of a joy and watching him get tempted, complete with death of on-cue girl, is largely successful. If not slightly corny.

Seeing Riker give everyone what they want is a bit different:

Worf getting jiggy is a bit oddball and out of place, but it doesn't fail at conveying how different another species can be. (Remember, at one or more points humans too were a bit less coy and keeping it so private.) Indeed,

This is sex. But I have no place for it in my life now!

That's an impressive line, and especially for season one. Of any television show. But Q asks him "Microbrain, what possesses you?" - Q should know, the Q put humanity on trial for being savage and all that. He's wanting Riker to use his powers, but Worf responding is not due to Riker believing he knows Worf - none of the crew really does and certainly not the audience. There is a deeper mystery and intrigue.

Indeed, the pattern of giving the crew what Riker thinks they want but don't continues with Wesley - losing ten years of his life but how many people when they're 30 regretted their years? Picard? Naussican at all...

Geordi is given his real vision, and pain-free... his giving it up is genuinely profound. Especially after seeing Yar, which is the first time it's confirmed that Geordi is heterosexual, or at least anywhere between Kinsey 0 through 2. Take your pick. As much as Geordi's eyewear make him a character with more possibilities than most (e.g. any Borg episode where the parallel is brought up, or "The Masterpiece Society", and even a moment in "The Naked Now"), it's also true LeVar Burton is a great facial-expressive actor and the VISOR disallows that by default. But the way he makes Treknobabble sound so natural, it's a decent enough trade-off.

And would anybody really want to see Data as an actual meatbag human? Well, Brent Spiner is kinda delicious looking but you know if Data were to be given a human form they wouldn't make him look like somebody else - the only way to prove sentience for Data would be for him to look something other than what he's programmed to accept.

Lastly, the "penalty box" was also a nice touch, typical of Q's sardonic bent on humor.

The episode, with some honing, could have been so much more than a mixed bag, but I always liked the potential and what did work. I understand why it's a disliked episode by some. I always liked it, and it could have been so much more.


\What's left:

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
TNG Season 1: "Hide and Q"
TNG Season 2: "The Emissary"
TNG Season 3: "The Ensigns of Command"
TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Extreme Risk"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Brennyren]

Even though it should have come much sooner after "Hunters" -- that or been foreshadowed in some of the episodes in between -- I still like "Extreme Risk" for following up on the deaths of the Maquis. Roxann Dawson's performance fully portrays B'Elanna's grief and anger, and Robert Beltran brings a simmering intensity to his performance as Chakotay as he "tough loves" his friend into confronting her demons. The holodeck scenes are visually striking.

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
TNG Season 2: "The Emissary"
TNG Season 3: "The Ensigns of Command"
TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[ananta]

Not enormously excited by this list. I thought Cliff Bole was a more prolific director, too, but outside of TNG his contributions seemed to tail off. I think I’m going to pick “The Best of Both Worlds Part II”. Obviously it doesn’t measure up to the iconic heights of the first part, but it’s still a rip-roaring ride that never lets up. This two-parter was a scale of EPIC that TNG never quite managed again, even in the movies sadly. I think most of us expected the status quo to be reset by the end of the episode, but they nevertheless made it satisfying getting there. That final shot of Picard staring out his window is one of the most harrowing codas of any Trek episode ever. Special mention must be made to Ron Jones’s electrifying score. Just started rewatching season 6 and I swear most the scores from that era (especially Jay Chattaways it must be said) actively depreciate the episodes. I blame Berman though — he had a composer THIS good and he said, “naaaah, this isn’t what we need..we need BLAND!!”. But I digress!

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
TNG Season 2: "The Emissary"
TNG Season 3: "The Ensigns of Command"
TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Boris Skrbic]

It's more a series of random events; not unlike a lottery*, where we all pick episodes we like for our reasons, of which vary in extent and in depth.

So it’s about dragging someone’s name through a ”game” of “most disliked”, just like that, without even making it about constructive criticism of someone’s directing style. It‘s a random filter, pure and simple; one could go through IMDb, find any recurring name from the credits, get a list of episodes and that would be that: an arbitrary category for something played by Star Trek fans no less. There is nothing substantial about this, no attempt even to identify the parts the writers came up with as opposed to the director, and yet a person’s name is being highlighted in a negative context.

Even if that wasn't the case, there's a world of difference between criticising someone's work and that person.

It’s not even about criticism of their work, merely using their name as a filter in generating a list of episodes.

Other people are much smarter than you think, and it's not a requirement for the gameplay that the elimination have anything to do with the directing.

And being smart is supposed to be the same as taking actual interest, picking up on directing styles just like that with a lightning-flash ability to distinguish between various people’s contributions to the final product? If so, where are the topics comparing the styles of Cliff Bole and Jonathan Frakes, or going through scripts and comparing them with final shots, looking at deleted scenes and examining why they were taken out? Not seeing that kind of enthusiasm here, merely application of a random filter in conjunction with “most disliked”.

 

[Sakonna]

"The Emissary" is another early TNG highlight for me. Suzie Plaksen in this role is one of the best guest casting decisions they ever made on this show. I like how you see them in this episode (and "Heart Of Glory" and "A Matter Of Honor") playing around with what the Klingons are going to be in the TNG era, before they sort of set the template in season 3.

Also, that detail about K'Ehlyr traveling solo in a torpedo tube launched across space is GREAT. So evocative and freaky and dangerous.

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
TNG Season 3: "The Ensigns of Command"
TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[1001001]

So it’s about dragging someone’s name through a ”game” of “most disliked”, just like that, without even making it about constructive criticism of someone’s directing style. It‘s a random filter, pure and simple; one could go through IMDb, find any recurring name from the credits, get a list of episodes and that would be that: an arbitrary category for something played by Star Trek fans no less. There is nothing substantial about this, no attempt even to identify the parts the writers came up with as opposed to the director, and yet a person’s name is being highlighted in a negative context.



It’s not even about criticism of their work, merely using their name as a filter in generating a list of episodes.



And being smart is supposed to be the same as taking actual interest, picking up on directing styles just like that with a lightning-flash ability to distinguish between various people’s contributions to the final product? If so, where are the topics comparing the styles of Cliff Bole and Jonathan Frakes, or going through scripts and comparing them with final shots, looking at deleted scenes and examining why they were taken out? Not seeing that kind of enthusiasm here, merely application of a random filter in conjunction with “most disliked”.

I already told you once to knock it off. If you don't like the thread, just stay out of it.

Now you have a warning for trolling. Comments to PM. I'm also giving you a reply ban so you don't derail this thread any further.

 

[Seven of Five]

The Ensigns of Command had that awesome B-plot with Picard learning the finer points of diplomacy with the Sheliak.

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Qonundrum]

The galaxy is a big empty place... you may have thought that the distance to the chemist's was big, but that's peanuts, right? But it's outer space. It's cold outside. There's no kind of atmosphere. I'm all alone...

...more or less.

TNG Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"​

This plot shares similarities with "The Naked Now" in that crewmembers are made to act differently after being exposed to some unknown. This time, the unknown is a critter that lives in a nebula. A critter that is an energy-based life form. This is admittedly a cool idea...

...especially when it speaks after having taken over Picard. The dialogue combined with Stewart really sell the emotion behind the energy critter's point of view and it's astounding.

The fact the crew are changed one at a time and not simultaneously helps a lot.

How Picard is saved is borderline hokey, with a big letter "P", but there's still a certain charm.

First, a side-note: As usual, Cliff Bole's direction adds a lot to this episode. It's easy to see why he, like others, are in 80s/90s-Trek top tier list. I can't think of a bad director as such, and it's about personal taste for any of us, but his style I appreciated a lot.

Back to the plot: The Anticans were well-realized. The Selay do sound great (complete with hissssssss on the 'S' sounds) but (to me) they don't quite look right. Maybe it's the lack of animatronics? Or expectation, perhaps. For the time, they are still very decent, and the costuming outside of the masks were impeccably out-of-the-ballpark great. Their subplot was kept light for a reason; it's revealed an Antican ate one of the Selay - which probably means their attempts to get into the Federation probably didn't work out - could easily have been taken too far for censors to digest.

Spoiler: um,

pardon those unpalatable puns

Indeed, this is the first episode hinting at replicator food isn't as "yummy for the tummy", even if the Antican delegate describes the process as "barbaric" - in an interesting reversal and of equal fervor to Riker's boasting of how eating real meat was considered barbaric. There's food for thought... Especially given this line:

No sir. I didn't understand that kind of hostility even when I studied Earth history.

Which is why Riker isn't a diplomat or counselor.

But I say "hinting" since Riker, possibly to avoid a long argument, makes a direct equation of replicator food being just as fresh and tasty. Yeppo, because- adjectives. Yes, because adjectives do more to prove freshness than actually eating it. Aren't tomatoes icky? and what are those little slimy black round things? Oh, olives... blech... So talk about a word salad! And nobody likes to eat salad anyway, which is why all those adverts say "free refills on all the bowls of salad you want"...

There's that scene where compromised-Picard tortured the bridge crew? That was another solid moment. The script has a lot of such moments, and proves season 1 wasn't all rubbish. And keep in mind, since I often don't, despite fumbles, TNG was made in a far stronger period of "You can't remake Star Trek!!!" Which is odd since TNG was technically a sequel (with some mild retconning, but with 80 to 100 years spanning both shows there's plenty of maneuverability without tripping over one's self.) To be there as a writer or anyone else on the team, having that albatross pecking away during all stages of development. Season 1 had a lot more in its favor that ultimately had the albatross flying away, especially season 2 (3 polishes off what 2 started and largely fixed, but the polish was transcendental...)

And speaking of food, anyone hungry else for butterbeans?

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What's left:

TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 2: "Tuvix"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Farscape One]

Saving "TUVIX", because no one else did. Not even Janeway...

STAR TREK is, at its core, at its best when it does a morality play. Few episodes are as hotly debated as this one, even 25 years later. Another early VOYAGER gem, I even cried a bit when I first saw it as a kid. Now... I will still shed a few single man tears over Tuvix.

Excellent performances all around, and kudos to Kate Mulgrew for bringing it home with that final haunting look on Janeway's face. Possibly the most expressive one she did for the series.

What's left:

TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Qpid"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Brennyren]

Saving "TUVIX", because no one else did. Not even Janeway...

I have to say, part of what I appreciated about that episode was that, unlike some other Trek eps, it did not take the easy out. Tuvix did not volunteer, he wasn't going to die anyway, and he wasn't taken out accidentally for some other reason. We can argue all day long about whether Janeway made the right choice -- but she did actually have to make it.

While I did (and do) object to the characterization of Vash as Picard's "true love" (Vash and Picard aren't then-RL-item Stewart and Hetrick) when she was clearly a Romance of the Week, I have to say I loved the Robin Hood pastiche in "Qpid." The atmosphere, costumes, and setting were perfect, down to Vash as a self-rescuing damsel. And it made me laugh more than once -- to be accurate, Worf did.

WORF: Sir, I protest! I am not a merry man!

(GEORDI is playing the lute badly, when WORF takes it off of him and smashes it against a nearby tree.)
WORF: (not even arsing himself to fake sincerity) Sorry.

TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Silicon Avatar"
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[ananta]

Saving "TUVIX", because no one else did. Not even Janeway...

Touché! This episode made me extremely angry, and I never quite forgave a Janeway afterward. Basically the writers backed themselves into a corner to the lasting detriment of the characters. But it was a well performed episode I have to say and it certainly pulled me in and gave me the feels (of Rage!)

 

[Sakonna]

I think I might enjoy this list more than most, there are many remaining that tempt me to save. I have "Silicon Avatar" on right now (as a bit of a sick Mother's Day programming choice), and this is a great one! The relationship between Dr. Marr and Data is a very compelling one, this actress is wonderful.

The attack on the colony at the beginning was also much more elaborately staged than I recalled, it's a quite effective scene.

Saving "TUVIX", because no one else did. Not even Janeway...

HA! I need to give this one a rewatch, it's been too long...

TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Qonundrum]

I keep forgetting about this one:

TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"​

Thanks to Wes and yet another experiment that runs amok like Daffy Duck, Beverly is stuck in a collapsing warp bubble and it's a race against time to save her... on Staaaaaaar Trek: The Next Generation! (those old TV teasers were actually cool...)

The episode sets up the transition of Bev into the bubble extremely well - including the parallel with Quaice - and the reason for her being there is held off to the end, which is where all those obvious questions of "How can she breathe in the void?" and so on be asked because the episode did the best part of the job, keeping a mystery going and the audience hooked already. Not that I thought of breathing at the time, but rewatches always have something new and/or revealing.

It's always great to see the Traveler back, which in of itself answers nimbly the obvious questions and more with a simple twist of "time and space and thought".

Beverly figuring out the parallel in her universe was pretty cool - just as much as the opening of the story tells us in plain sight what's about to happen to her. It's rather nicely scripted.

Okay, the f/x of the bubble collapsing run faster than the time Beverly endures, is temporally incongruous - We all know she'd get out of it alive and most people aren't sit there counting the nanoseconds away. But raise your hand if you're a nerd...

But since I can't re-post that video of "Collapsing New People" again since I already used it as a side "note" in another response - I'll segue back to that hand-raising thing:

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(A song about multiple meanings behind the same act. It's a possible go-to manual of body language for anyone with my condition for sure, but what were we talking about again, how many bananas are hit to make a home run? Yet in baseball nobody licks the plate they're on... )


What's left:


TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Remember Me"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
DS9 Season 3: "Facets"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[ananta]

I was just gonna save “Remember Me”! Great minds...!

Instead I’ll save DS9’s “Facets”. This was just a fun episode, with the entire cast on great form. Jadzia’s sudden friendship with Leeta seemed a little forced, especially as I don’t think they even shared a conversation for the rest of the series, but that’s what you get when you have a notable problem with the male:female cast ratio. Avery Brooks was genuinely chilling as Joran, and the late great Rene Auberjonois ACED it as Curzon. There’s something quite touching about the final twist and both Curzon and Odo’s unwillingness to part company. Having mentioned Tuvix above, I realise it’s just as well Sisko was in command and not Janeway, otherwise things would have likely got nasssty. #justiceforTuvix

TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 2: "Lifesigns"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll save Schmully's episode, Lifesigns.

In what was one of Star Trek's better ROTW episodes, I can't help be charmed by the Doctor falling for his Vidiian patient. Their horrible Phage disease is such a predicament for them, and to watch Dinara Pel see herself free from is always joyful.

TNG Season 3: "The Hunted"
TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Farscape One]

"Qpid" AND "LIFESIGNS" were going to be my Plan A and B for my next save, but glad you all beat me to it.

So it's "The Hunted" next. We rarely see our crew outfoxed so easily, AND with them doing everything exactly right. They just simply had a smarter opponent.

Plus, it was a great message about taking care of our veterans, who fight and die for the rest of us.

And bonus... Picard throwing the Magistrate's words right back at him at the end. That HAD to be satisfying.


TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"
TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Qonundrum]

There may be no Mork but Jeanie DaVinci is there - at least corporeally but with bumpy forehead.

TNG Season 3: "A Matter of Perspective"​

The story itself is lifted from All in the Family's third season episode "Everybody Tells The Truth" and played out without the comedy element. It's a trope not done in every show, which is a shame as it's a good enough one to be used at least once. Though I'm pretty sure the trope originated somewhere else before that 1970s sitcom.

Could the Holodeck recreate the entire wave processing machine? Only if the Enterprise computer had the schematics to recreate it fully.

But the ending ties up all the different perspectives beautifully...

...Well, all but one: Did Riker really assault Manua, since Troi claims Manua was telling the truth per her perception - just like everyone else was with theirs? Was this an afterthought to the script or is it possible to misperceive something and think of it as being the real thing? Which was the intent of the episode regarding Riker potentially murdering someone, so how does this assault part get forgotten? Again, "script afterthought" almost makes sense. Or it's the Mandala Effect in action, noting it's spelled "Mandela" but nobody remembers that... Just like how Berenstein Bear character Sister Bear looks nothing like Lisa Simpstain... Dang, what if the story uses Simpsons and Berenstain Bear characters to fill up the plot with instead?

And speaking of perspective, which Arturo slid into the next parallel dimension with the group?

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(Hint: It wasn't ours, based on a novel use of deliberate yet minuscule continuity fluffs in later episodes! If the dialogue alone wasn't telling. )

What's left:

TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Bliss"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)

 

[Xhiandra]

Okay, full disclosure: I hate these threads.

Full disclosure: so did I. Now, I participate in them. Of course, it's quite silly and takes up a lot of the forum that could be used for more specific/in-depth discussion, but after all these years, it's normal that such trends emerge. It's that of talking for then 25727th time about Kirk's intonation on the 3rd word in episode 12 of series 1. And these threads do fulfil a purpose: they help you rediscover episodes you didn't remember.

I'm waiting for "3rd Most Disliked Episode Aired on an Odd Numbered Date in October Directed by a Left Handed Woman"...

Now that would be a great list. Take notes, Sakonna.

 

[Sakonna]

And these threads do fulfil a purpose: they help you rediscover episodes you didn't remember.

Something I don't think of that much, but you're right, these threads point me to episodes that I find myself suddenly appreciating for the first time. A perfect example of that is "Bliss." This episode made no impression on me at all back in the day, and a year or two ago someone was praising it in one of these games, I rewatched and now LOVE it and it's become one of my absolute Voyager favorites. The nature of the threat in this one is a delightful blend of hilarious and creepy, I love both the comedy of everyone's glassy-eyed heavenly fantasies of earth, and the unsettling darkness of the sequences inside the beast.

The Seven/Naomi pairing is always an extremely winning one, perhaps never moreso than in this episode. I love that final scene of them in the astrometrics lab when Naomi is studying earth, it's very sweet and also totally cracks me up.

SEVEN: Does studying this image [of Earth] increase your desire to go there?
NAOMI: Not really.
SEVEN: I concur. It is unremarkable.

Jeri Ryan is so damn good, she is surgical with these line readings. The precision of her dismissiveness of Earth is perfect.

TNG Season 4: "Redemption" (Part I)
TNG Season 5: "Unification II"
TNG Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
TNG Season 6: "Realm of Fear"
TNG Season 6: "Aquiel"
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions"
TNG Season 7: "Liaisons"
TNG Season 7: "Eye of the Beholder"
TNG Season 7: "Emergence"
DS9 Season 1: "Dramatis Personae"
DS9 Season 3: "Equilibrium"
VOY Season 2: "Cold Fire"
VOY Season 3: "False Profits"
VOY Season 3: "Future's End, Part II"
VOY Season 5: "Dark Frontier" (Part I)