The Most Disliked Episode of DS9, Season 6 - 2025 Edition...

[Qonfounding Ghooool]

I was one little late to save the high concept ship story, so let's look for other little ones and

"VALIANT"

is my next save; another underrated gem from Ronald D Moore where a tenet of "The Arsenal of Freedom" is taken and expanded on in a huge way (e.g. jumping into command during an unsavory situation and trying to hold yourself together along with everyone else, but in DS9's case also being dumb enough to go all "David vs Goliath" under the most obvious circumstances and yet you still feel bad for them instead of appreciating Nelson Muntz that much more for all those times he pointed and laughed. )

True, you have to roll with the contrived setup that managed to get all the kiddie cadets to actually take over, but it does try to address a lot of ideas during its 43 minutes, as well as having a few very suspsensful moments adding much.

The biggest non-battle moment being promoted to captain when not ready and now you're huffin' and puffin' drugs. Or was he sniffling, not sniffing? I don't fully remember.

True, this is another Defiant-class starship, but wasn't that single prototype ship design scrapped because of a massive design flaw that caused it to fly apart at higher warp speeds? Well, true, a few episodes after that big reveal and now they're crankin' warp 9 and I don't recall any indication where O'Brien singlehandedly redesigned the thing, added more support struts and bits of used chewing gum to hold it together better... and for a prototype, they made more... so, fair enough, they worked out the bugs without the need to show extra rows of bolts along the edges and now they have a handful of them. True, headcanon can work, but the reasons for Sisko getting a ship were pretty dour to begin with and with a big list of issues, so now it's all magically improved. Please correct me where I'm wrong on the Defiant class history, especially if there was an eppy where O'Brien fixed all the problems and yet Starfleet didn't haul his heiney home to be the chiefiest chief that every chiefed the shipyards.

And in DS9 style, so you can guess what goes boom-boom at the end. At least this episode wasn't a Galaxy class starship where they raise families so it's not the other kind of "boom-boom", but anyway...

Also, Red Kangs' the best... I mean Police Squad (in color!)... I mean Red Squad (in color!).

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^^ there you go, Nelsonpalooza. No time to snooza...



What's left:
"SONS AND DAUGHTERS"
"YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED"
"STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES"
"HONOR AMONG THIEVES"
"CHANGE OF HEART"
"WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT"

 

[AntonyF]

I'm glad you saved Valiant as I was toying betwen that and the one I'm about to choose... Valiant has some cool 'Defiant' and lots of hot guys. this allows me to save...

"Honor Among Thieves".

It's not without issues, most notably the sort of writing that says "Oh he has a cat, look he's nuanced, look he's not an evil guy." But Nick Tate saves this. He is hard not to like and find nuanced.

I'm not keen on Section 31. But we saw a different side to the Star Trek universe, a darker side... but without feeling like it compromised Star Trek.

It's got its flaws, but I like it.

What's left:
"SONS AND DAUGHTERS"
"YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED"
"STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES"
"CHANGE OF HEART"
"WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT"

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Of the ones left, Statistical Probabilities for a different side to augments.

Ones I considered the weakest have already been saved so who knows where this round will go?

"SONS AND DAUGHTERS"
"YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED"
"CHANGE OF HEART"
"WRONGS DARKER THAN DEATH OR NIGHT"

 

[Severed Heads]

Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night is another episode set in DS9s past that I love.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS"
"YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED"
"CHANGE OF Heart

 

[Faintly Macabre]

"You Are Cordially Invited" is one of the episodes I watch when I am feeling low. The episode is both fun and contains a number of moments important to the series as a whole.

There's an important point made about how Dax sees themselves and how other people view her; Sirella was wonderful; Nog's dance, a good moment; there's arc building in the Odo/Kira reconcilliation; the contrast between Jadiza's party and Worf's rite-of-passage leads to a wonderful implied ending.


"SONS AND DAUGHTERS"
"CHANGE OF HEART"

 

[Frightscape One]

While I love Martokisms ("When a father and son do not speak, it means there is trouble between them."), it is the weakest of the remaining. So "CHANGE OF HEART" is saved.


Which makes "SONS AND DAUGHTERS" the winner of season 6.

Thank you all for playing! I will start season 7 shortly. Hope to see you all there!

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Though arguably the worst Trek episode of any series waa saved, two worthy finalists emerge.

 

[vfxart]

While I love Martokisms ("When a father and son do not speak, it means there is trouble between them."), it is the weakest of the remaining. So "CHANGE OF HEART" is saved.


Which makes "SONS AND DAUGHTERS" the winner of season 6.

Thank you all for playing! I will start season 7 shortly. Hope to see you all there!

Oh jeez, and yesterday was the anniversary of its release...

 

[AntonyF]

Not only is Sons and Daughters a poor episode, every time I read it I hear the Australian soap opera theme tune. I can't take it seriously.

 

[Frightscape One]

Though arguably the worst Trek episode of any series waa saved, two worthy finalists emerge.

3 of the 5 worst episodes of DS9 have already been saved from the Finals. (In my view, "LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...", "PROFIT AND LACE", and the very worst, "THE RECKONING".)

All it takes is one fan of an episode, and timing, to save it.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

I always thought P&L was the one with nothing to recommend it, but that's just me.

 

[Frightscape One]

I always thought P&L was the one with nothing to recommend it, but that's just me.

Oh, it doesn't. I just find "THE RECKONING" much more offensive.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Sounds like me and TNG's "Half a Life".

 

[kkt]

I always thought P&L was the one with nothing to recommend it, but that's just me.

Even the mediocre episodes have SOMETHING to recommend them, at least one performance or set or costume. Something.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Any episode that can be about a planet full of women going from chattel slavery to full equality... and still be misogynist as is several levels below mediocre.

 

[Frightscape One]

Nearly every bad episode in the franchise has something good or decent in it. Even "PROFIT AND LACE". The trick is finding it with some of them, because there are episodes that make it REALLY hard to find that good thing.

Take "PRECIOUS CARGO" from ENT. For me, I honestly cannot find a single thing about it that is salvageable. Even the finale at least had that final scene and voiceover with the various Enterprises. Which is why while I hate "THESE ARE THE VOYAGES..." more, I feel "PRECIOUS CARGO" is legitimately a worse episode.

"PROFIT AND LACE" is another of those that is hard to find good in. There are two things in there: Slug-o-cola and Rom showing Quark how to move like a female. Both things are hilarious.

Hell, I found two things about "AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD" (THE worst episode of TOS, I feel) that are positive: we see a maternal side with Chapel with the ice cream scene and Uhura's fear of being old making sense with established continuity/trait from before. (In "I, MUDD", she was very fascinated and almost seduced by the idea of eternal beauty and not aging by being put in an android body. And it's a legit fear: age comes with all sorts of issues like hearing loss, eyes going bad, possible memory issues, etc.

 

[AntonyF]

"PROFIT AND LACE" is another of those that is hard to find good in. There are two things in there: Slug-o-cola and Rom showing Quark how to move like a female. Both things are hilarious.

How to move like a female... I'm gonna stop there.

I could look for good in Hitler but I won't, and nor will I with Profit and Lace. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. A shitty turd of a cigar.

 

[Frightscape One]

How to move like a female... I'm gonna stop there.

I could look for good in Hitler but I won't, and nor will I with Profit and Lace. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. A shitty turd of a cigar.

It was the easiest way to describe that scene. Nothing more to read into than that.

My point, though, is that it's extremely rare for an episode to be completely devoid of something to like. (Which is also a matter of perspective, anyway.) If I didn't bother looking for something good in an episode, I'd also put "Subspace Rhapsody" as among those rare ones that have nothing redeeming about it. (And for me personally... I still don't find anything redeeming about it. But that's more because I despise musicals in general... that episode was already fighting an uphill battle for me. And enough people here find something good about it, so it doesn't even matter.)

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

I'd also put "Subspace Rhapsody" as among those rare ones that have nothing redeeming about it. (And for me personally... I still don't find anything redeeming about it. But that's more because I despise musicals in general... that episode was already fighting an uphill battle for me. And enough people here find something good about it, so it doesn't even matter.)

That seems to be more about your opinion of the art form. I'm a veteran of multiple musical theater productions, and Subspace Rhapsody is one of my favorites.

 

[Frightscape One]

That seems to be more about your opinion of the art form. I'm a veteran of multiple musical theater productions, and Subspace Rhapsody is one of my favorites.

I know it is more because of my distaste for musicals, which is why I mentioned that was a cause to begin with. Normally, I can get past just about anything and find something to enjoy about an episode. With musicals, I just can't.