The Most Disliked Episode of DIS, Season 1: 2021 Edition...

[Farscape One]

This is a twist on a game that is played here, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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 most favorite or the one you deem the 'best.' 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 (or Failures?)
2021 - "The Red Angel"


Season One

The Vulcan Hello
Battle at the Binary Stars
Context Is for Kings
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Lethe
Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
Despite Yourself
The Wolf Inside
Vaulting Ambition
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Farscape One]

And here we are, the start of the Kurtzman era of the franchise. DISCOVERY season 1, in my opinion, had a lot of things that needed work. But the behind the scenes insanity really can be blamed for a good chunk of this season's issues. There were a few gems this season, and I'll start with one that I felt truly was one of the best executions of the premise to date.

"Lethe" was a superb story, and very, very well acted. The best part about this episode is that it retroactively explains WHY there was such a rift between Sarek and Spock. And it doesn't really violate anything that's been established before.

For all the issues that went with doing a show set so close to TOS, and many of the arguments I agreed with, this episode goes a long way toward justifying why the series is set at this time.



The Vulcan Hello
Battle at the Binary Stars
Context Is for Kings
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
Despite Yourself
The Wolf Inside
Vaulting Ambition
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Vale]

I'll save "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad". Rainn Wilson was good fun as Harry Mudd and this episode handled the time loop mechanic well. It's slightly disappointing we didn't get to see him again before Discovery went into the future. Oh well, there's always Strange New Worlds...

The Vulcan Hello
Battle at the Binary Stars
Context Is for Kings
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
Despite Yourself
The Wolf Inside
Vaulting Ambition
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Lord Garth]

"Despite Yourself" is what I'm saving. Seeing the Mirror Universe on DSC was a lot of fun and the first episode of it was my favorite, even though I liked all of them. Love the Mirror Universe and the Disco version is my favorite.

The Vulcan Hello
Battle at the Binary Stars
Context Is for Kings
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The Wolf Inside
Vaulting Ambition
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Seven of Five]

The Mirror Univers story was much better than the Klingon one in the first season. I'll save Vaulting Ambition, because I love seeing Burnham having to interact with the MU version of her mentor, and it's easy to see how the producers fell in love with Mirror Georgiou.

The Vulcan Hello
Battle at the Binary Stars
Context Is for Kings
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The Wolf Inside
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Sakonna]

Ah, Disco season 1, one of the most wildly erratic seasons of Star Trek yet produced (and I know, as I've watched the whole thing 6 or 7 times through now )

"Context Is For Kings" is a remarkable episode. So fresh & dark. Full of excellent character intros.

The Vulcan Hello
Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The Wolf Inside
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Noname Given]

I enjoy anything Michelle Yeoh is in, so saving The Vulcan Hello

Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Choose Your Pain
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The Wolf Inside
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Farscape One]

While this season is a wildly erratic one, I'd argue VGR season 6 is the most erratic quality one in the franchise. (But only barely.)

One thing I don't like about shows of the 21st century is that it's increasingly more difficult to separate individual episodes because they all flow directly into each other. DISCOVERY is the same, which is why it's so hard to pick from this season.

I'll go with "Choose Your Pain". I was surprised at how good Rainn Wilson is as Mudd.



Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The Wolf Inside
What's Past is Prologue
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Seven of Five]

What's Past is Prologue isn't the best episode of the MU arc, but Burnham choosing between Lorca and Georgiou was an interesting dilemma. It's just a shame that after the truth about Lorca was handled in a hamfisted way.

Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The Wolf Inside
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Sakonna]

"The Wolf Inside" is my Disco MU high point (though Burnham's whole justification for why she must speak to Mirror Voq could hardly be more wince-inducing)

Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
Into the Forest I Go
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Farscape One]

"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" is my next save. A good look at Saru's character.


Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
Into the Forest I Go
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Vger23]

"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" is my next save. A good look at Saru's character.

Ugh, such a horrible episode. One of the worst of the entire series.

On the flip side, I’ll save Into The Forrest, which is in my top-3 of the entire run.

Battle at the Binary Stars
The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?

 

[Seven of Five]

The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry is a stupidly long title to type out.

I thought the spore drive was a cool invention, and black alert has a certain way of rolling off the tongue

Battle at the Binary Stars
The War Without, the War Within
Will You Take My Hand?.

 

[Sakonna]

It's an extraordinarily frustrating finale, but I do really think the sequences on the Klingon homeworld are brilliant (until they get to the caves -- it's the curse of Berman Trek! As soon as you get to a cave, the life drains out of your story...), so I'll save "Will You Take My Hand?"

Battle at the Binary Stars
The War Without, the War Within

 

[Vger23]

Binary Stars didn’t deserve to be left this deep into the game…and WWWW is really not bad, but it’s also nothing but a transition episode.

I’ll save Binary Stars.

 

[Seven of Five]

The War Without, the War Within is a disappointing step down after the exciting MU arc. It's not my personal least favourite of S1, but the season just ran out of steam.

 

[Farscape One]

And concluding our first 'Most Disliked' Season 1 DISCOVERY game, "The War Without, the War Within" wins the first season.

Thank you all for voting. I'll start season 2 later.

 

[Quinton]

Whoa, I wish I had seen this sooner. That's one of the better episodes, IMO!

 

[Sakonna]

TWWTWW actually is my least favorite of the season. There's a lot of terrible spread through this season, but this is the only episode where there's nothing about it I love.