The MOST Disliked Episode of STAR TREK - Season 2...

[Garth Rockett]

Unless I'm missing something, Amok Time was never officially taken off, was it? It just disappeared between Spock's Barber and Maurice. It would have been my first one to take off the list, anyway.

While we await a judge's ruling on that, I'll remove The Gamesters of Triskelion. How can you not love this one? Quatloos, brains in glass jars, a green haired alien babe in a silver bikini, shirtless Kirk fighting for his life - this is one of the ultimate Star Trek episodes!

WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
THE APPLE
CATSPAW
THE DEADLY YEARS
THE OMEGA GLORY

 

[Spock's Barber]

WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
THE APPLE
CATSPAW
THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION
THE OMEGA GLORY

Ugh! Not much to choose from. None of these episodes lights a fire under my ass....so I'll send Deadly Years to the old folks home.

 

[T'Bonz]

WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
THE APPLE
CATSPAW
THE OMEGA GLORY

They all suck, but Gamesters of Triskelion gave us the quatloos line, so I'll remove it.

 

[Brennyren]

I'll give "Who Mourns for Adonais?" a ticket off this planet. Michael Forest brought some genuine poignancy to Apollo's departure.

THE APPLE
CATSPAW
THE OMEGA GLORY

 

[Spock's Barber]

Only 3 episodes left. Which 2 will hit the chopping block? Bwa-ha-ha-ha.....

 

[feek61]

Well, no great ones left but I will save "The Omega Glory" because of Ron Tracy, and the crystalized crew of the Exeter. Plus, it was one of 3 second pilot scripts and the only one of the three from Roddenberry

THE APPLE
CATSPAW

 

[Qonundrum]

"The Apple" - typical TOS episode with evil computers controlling everybody and yet all the people don't look as if computers cater to them.

What the episode that still remains on the list has against it is pretty cringeworthy by comparison:

CATSPAW


(Witness:

* Way too formulaic and I've not mentioned Sylvia rubbing up and down on Kirk to win him over the way her predictable "black cat means bad luck" mascot didn't
* Despite being way too formulaic, there's no real explanation for what the beings do (just tiny alien critters with big mindless magic, coupled with an equally impossibly sized quotient of "suspense of disbelief" to have to even begin to sit through this star drek...)
* Kirk doesn't say "Bones" in an episode otherwise loaded with gags (really, how come Xanadu gets a Razzie and not this episode?! Apart from the former being an actual movie but don't Razzies have TV editions as well?)
* How come the zombifying of the crew only kills some but not others?
* Giver credit to the color and contrast gamut 35mm may have but the outlines to the three witches' outfits are too noticeable
* Marionette puppets with great close-ups where, regardless of distance, nobody is trying to hide the wires. Indeed, the wires are black and thick as opposed to the fishing line fare one might otherwise expect...
* Chekov's Davy Jones Monkees bowlcut wig is on full puffball display
)

The TOS-R remastered version is a bit better in terms of visuals but as a story, at least for everything except the three witches over-lit scene (oops)... But it's still... quite bad. But as far as holiday themed episodes go, is CATSPAW worse than, say, THE STAR WARS 1978 HOLIDAY SPECIAL?

Spoiler

No

 

[Spock's Barber]

Yes, The Apple had some worms in it. Those horrible wigs and the papier mache Vaal still make me laugh.

 

[Vger23]

I would have said "Who Mourns?" before "The Apple."

"The Apple" has some fun redshirt deaths and Spock is a Vulcan punching bag throughout. It goes into the "Spock's Brain- So Bad It's Good" category for me.

"Who Mourns" was almost unwatchable for me.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Here we go.....next up must be Most Disliked Episode of Season 3. So many choices in that season.

 

[Vger23]

Here we go.....next up must be Most Disliked Episode of Season 3. So many choices in that season.

I'm actually in the minority in that I believe TOS is pretty consistently good (with 2-4 stinkers each) across all 3 seasons.

You know that S3 will come down to:
"Spock's Brain"
"And the Children Shall Lead"
or
"Plato's Stepchildren"

maybe "The Way to Eden" will threaten "Spock's Brain..." for the bottom three, but ultimately the bottom two will likely be Plato or Children, because Spock's Brain and Eden will get off due to the "so bad it's good" factor.

There's a lot of great S3 episodes:
Enterprise Incident
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
All Our Yesterdays

There's some intriguing "middle tier" episodes:
Paradise Syndrome
Is There In Truth No Beauty
For the World Is Hollow
Wink of an Eye
Empath
Elaan of Troyus
Whom Gods Destroy
Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Lights of Zetar
Requiem
Cloudminders
Savage Curtain

And then there's the stinkers:
Spock's Brain
And the Children Shall Lead
Plato's Stepchildren
Way to Eden
Turnabout Intruder

This might be 1-2 more "stinkers" than the first two seasons, but otherwise, for me anyway, that ratio is pretty much the same for all three seasons. It's certainly not off enough for me to declare S3 as garbage, though.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I'm actually in the minority in that I believe TOS is pretty consistently good (with 2-4 stinkers each) across all 3 seasons.

You know that S3 will come down to:
"Spock's Brain"
"And the Children Shall Lead"
or
"Plato's Stepchildren"

maybe "The Way to Eden" will threaten "Spock's Brain..." for the bottom three, but ultimately the bottom two will likely be Plato or Children, because Spock's Brain and Eden will get off due to the "so bad it's good" factor.

There's a lot of great S3 episodes:
Enterprise Incident
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
All Our Yesterdays

There's some intriguing "middle tier" episodes:
Paradise Syndrome
Is There In Truth No Beauty
For the World Is Hollow
Wink of an Eye
Empath
Elaan of Troyus
Whom Gods Destroy
Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Lights of Zetar
Requiem
Cloudminders
Savage Curtain

And then there's the stinkers:
Spock's Brain
And the Children Shall Lead
Plato's Stepchildren
Way to Eden
Turnabout Intruder

This might be 1-2 more "stinkers" than the first two seasons, but otherwise, for me anyway, that ratio is pretty much the same for all three seasons. It's certainly not off enough for me to declare S3 as garbage, though.

You make good points. I've been watching S3 episodes primarilly lately. Each season has a mixture of great episodes, average episodes and stinker episodes. Harve Bennett said the same thing about TOS....great, mediocre and bad episodes.

 

[Farscape One]

Unless I'm missing something, Amok Time was never officially taken off, was it? It just disappeared between Spock's Barber and Maurice. It would have been my first one to take off the list, anyway.

While we await a judge's ruling on that, I'll remove The Gamesters of Triskelion. How can you not love this one? Quatloos, brains in glass jars, a green haired alien babe in a silver bikini, shirtless Kirk fighting for his life - this is one of the ultimate Star Trek episodes!

WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
THE APPLE
CATSPAW
THE DEADLY YEARS
THE OMEGA GLORY

You are correct "AMOK TIME" was not officially taken out.

But since I have not had a chance to vote since yesterday, I will save "AMOK TIME"... it was going to be next on my list, anyway. Excellent view of Vulcan culture, the acting all around, the real show of the friendship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and the fight scene and music that gets homaged more often than almost any other scene in the franchise.

"CATSPAW" is indeed the 'winner' of season 2.

I will post season 3 shortly.

 

[Vger23]

You make good points. I've been watching S3 episodes primarilly lately. Each season has a mixture of great episodes, average episodes and stinker episodes. Harve Bennett said the same thing about TOS....great, mediocre and bad episodes.

Even Star Trek's stinkers are often saved by the inexplicable charm of the series though...whether it was the character interactions or some other element, I find them all nearly bullet-proof.

Often, Star Trek was truly greater than the sum of it's parts...S3 is a perfect example of this.

 

[Farscape One]

I need opinions.

"AMOK TIME" was technically the next to last to be eliminated. However, work got in the way of me votibg it off early in the season, and it got off accidentally by someone, so at the time of my next vote before I did this one, I voted for another episode. (Whoch both were ones I would have voted for as early as possible, anyway. "THE APPLE", ironically, is another one I would have voted for before it got to be next to last... so many redshirt deaths, I actually found it amusing for years. So I have a soft spot for the episode. This and "OBSESSION" REALLY drove the redshirt stereotype home.)

So, which is really the Runner-Up for season 2... "AMOK TIME", or "THE APPLE"?

 

[Spock's Barber]

So, which is really the Runner-Up for season 2... "AMOK TIME", or "THE APPLE"?

It seems to be a choice between a Classic and a Klunker.

 

[Farscape One]

I understand that. I just want to make sure we are all in agreement. Trying to be as fair as possible.

 

[GNDN18]

I need opinions.

"AMOK TIME" was technically the next to last to be eliminated. However, work got in the way of me votibg it off early in the season, and it got off accidentally by someone, so at the time of my next vote before I did this one, I voted for another episode. (Whoch both were ones I would have voted for as early as possible, anyway. "THE APPLE", ironically, is another one I would have voted for before it got to be next to last... so many redshirt deaths, I actually found it amusing for years. So I have a soft spot for the episode. This and "OBSESSION" REALLY drove the redshirt stereotype home.)

So, which is really the Runner-Up for season 2... "AMOK TIME", or "THE APPLE"?

I think “The Apple” should be safe…

No, it’s really the superior episode…

Well, if that’s how you feel—I was just joshing you. Because of its historic importance to space exploration, “Amok Time” FTW.

 

[BlueStuff]

I understand that. I just want to make sure we are all in agreement. Trying to be as fair as possible.

Amok Time was technically the second-last to be saved but that’s only because it disappeared from the list due to an error for a large portion of the game. During that time it was impossible to save it as it wasn’t on the list, only being restored much later. So it should be considered null and void, ineligible. Catspaw loses and The Apple is runner-up.

That’s my opinion.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Catspaw loses and The Apple is runner-up.

That’s my opinion.

Sounds logical. Poor kitty episode loses out to the fruity episode.