The Most Disliked Episode of TNG, 2023 Edition - Season 2...
- Thread starter Farscape One
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It's a bit of a dumb episode, but Samatitan Snare introduced the world to the Pakleds, and they were fun.
It also has the awesome B-plot with Wesley learning about Picard's artificial heart. Patrick Stewart and Wil Wheaton are great here.
The Outrageous Okana is just a stupid episode.
It also has the awesome B-plot with Wesley learning about Picard's artificial heart. Patrick Stewart and Wil Wheaton are great here.
The Outrageous Okana is just a stupid episode.
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It's an excellent episode for sure, wryly crafting a terrific situation and resolution, also showing that their peace treaty is not-quite-solid. Not in the same way as "Heart of Glory", and yet this episode doesn't demystify the Klingons and more than "Glory" had. Early TNG nailed it, with these stories and Michael Dorn for taking the reins on one of TNG's best characters. (He also elevated DS9, and why he never got his own show as Worf is easily the strongest in terms of not needing a full ensemble to bounce off of, but ensembles never hurt. Unless Worf gets beaten up by them to show the other trope of "baddie of the week is stronger than everyone else". )
Foreign exchange programs were all the rage at the time, and even "Married with Children" partook in the trope.
It's an all-time favorite for me as well. It starts out with a bang, so you know what's to follow will be exciting.
Computer viruses were new, but as with log tampering in TOS's "Court Martial', most general audiences wouldn't know. As a nerd, I knew enough of viruses, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the freshness and breadth of the story.
The Iconians are postulated as not being conquerors but perceived as such. Once again, early TNG is eschewing triteness and cliche and it's brilliant.
Carolyn Seymour rocks. She returns in season 6, but nobody bothered to use the same name as a bit of worthy continuity. The same season effed up with not having Moriarty remember Pulaski either*, so either TNG was pretending season 2 didn't exist, or there's a different licensing issue where they couldn't reference a character without ponying up some dough. I dunno.
* I'll headcanon he was keeping mum because the Countess would get all jealous and beat the virtual bits right out of him, how cliche... but I digress.
The episode is also careful in crafting HOW a warp core breach can take effect. Sadly, that amounted to nothing as that becomes flanderized over the years as far as plot crutches go, as much as using the transporter as a crutch as well. Ditto for making Data go haywire and having Picard or someone else bark at him threatening disassembly just like how they threaten a biological crewmember by dismembering them until they behave. Really peachy there, huh? But all those tropes become ripe for parody, that's for sure
The Borg were technically influenced by the Cybermen**, but who cares. Most show critters are influenced and innovated by something or some things preceding them; the goal is to take them to a new level. For the budget the TV show had, the Borg and their ship look better than spectacular and, indeed come across as a threat.
I also love how 5.25" disk bezels are glued to the walls as part of their set design. NERDS!!!!!!!!!!
It's sad that, of all the things nerds have said to have done, they didn't create an online dating service exclusive to nerds... The sense of mystery and threat is huge, and only their immediate sequel finds a fresh new way to get around being corned by the big stompy bad where, when most shows bring in the big bad, they flounder and sometimes badly. But before I digress...
Best of all, Q with season 2's trappings of warning and danger can't be beat. He's a bit on the nose with "it's dangerous", what with everything else that's happened in this season - before or after. But it's not grating. Thank John DeLancie for that!
** Their creator of these e-critters from "Doctor Who" circa 1966 had concerns of artificial organs replacing biological squishy bits and was thinking of robots and combined the two. He also removed emotions, though two of his penned stories clearly show them having more emotions than all the 1980s' Cybermen stories combined. But I digress...
Seconded. Any nitpicks, at least for me, are rendered softer because of all the aspects that work or work wonders. It's well-told and is another story I adore for its innovations and what it succeeds with.
It's also a possible influence for the TV show "Herman's Head" (though after its first season, retooling took place and seasons 2 and 3, especially 3, sadly lost their spark and chemistry. But I digress again, as if that's a shock or anything...)
Some say this is a precursor to the season 4 episode where Troi loses her powers (unlike for Riva's chorus, Troi's powers return in a delightfully unrefreshing cliched denouement), I'll rewatch "Whisper" far more times before bothering with the Troi extravaganza because that one's plotting is dreadful, with Marina Sirtis*** being misused.
*** she auditioned for Dayna Mellanby in 1979. Imagine her instead of Josette Simon. I can't. Josette made the role her own in series 3 of "Blake's 7"... please don't tell me I just digressed again...
Don't forget the dude the floating light bulb critter violated to get the other half of the recipe as well, but it's for the same cause and reason - the alien stated outright it didn't have an understanding and wanted to learn about our type of life. How this incorporeal being could interact so distinctly -- at least it's not direct bodysnatching, that's another interesting twist to the plot.
Pulaski is a genuinely underrated character and I loved how she hates Data, and how season 2 has a proper arc - before arcs were cool - in how she accepts, stands up for, and arguably befriends Data. People just moan and gripe about "muh McCoy clone" yet then drool incessantly about how great the EMH is in Voyager, despite him being so much more an actual clone that he even cops the same dialogue! "I'm a doctor, not a second-rate copy!" Pulaski was at least limited to a rough outline of a character trope**** but they played it differently and innovatively. EMH was the ripoff - though Robert Picardo was inspired casting, as it takes a lot to make a ripoff so loveable and the EMH has some outstanding episodes... but I digressarooney again.
**** just like Data, Riker, and others - what a shock, How come only Pulaski gets graft, especially when Riker comes closer to being a direct Kirk ripoff? Data was based loosely on Spock archetypes at most, combined with other elements and taken in new directions. Both Spock and Data owe more to autistics anyway, but before I digress again...
Majel Barret has natural comedic talent. I love her more in season 4, but most of her jokes hold up and she steals the show.
Loved the scene where Troi and Riker explain to Picard about what happens to Betazoid women,
Lwaxana being fooled by the Holodeck and not being able to read anybody is probably one of the better humorous moments.
Loved how Lwaxana reveals the delegates and their acting fishy with their scheme to blow up the conference. And at least let Mick Fleetwood belch out a song while in that costume while playing a guitar for crying out loud. Then again, that would be intentionally campy, TNG was avoiding intentional camp because it had enough sense to do so for this subplot, and the Mamas and the Papas stunt casting from last season didn't have her belch out any songs either... but I digress again.
^^this
It's surprisingly engaging, from start to finish. Suzie Plakson makes another appearance and she's so good as an actor that you can't tell any similarities between her, Dr Selar, the female Q from VOY, Tarah in ENT, etc.
An underrated episode. Full of great actors and some sparkling dialogue, I never fast forward it in season 2 rewatches.
Dr Graves is certainly meant to be a jackass for audiences to hate, which carries over a bit on the nose for audience identification once he takes over Data, but the proceedings are suitably haunting and very in tone for season 2 and its tone on the universe in general. w Morgan Sheppard certainly steals the show.
The clip show bits were rushed in because of the aftermath of the strike, and Marina Sirtis acts her heart out over the threat to Riker's life and it's all great stuff. Clip show clips aside, the alien planet's realization and season 2 sense of threat make this one of the few examples of all of sci-fi where an alien planet can convey such a sense of dread and danger. That alone is so glossed over that it's unfair.
It's not a perfect episode, but it's by no means "WORST EPISODE EVER". Not by a long shot.
After season 1 stumbling more than an elephant in a banana peel factory, season 2 really goes to town on the prime directive concept and is used to great effect.
Pulaski is impressed with Data and she's right.
Wesley gets a good moment as well.
If anything, I hated the ending, where Data - for nothing other than contrived sentiment for the audience to emit a river of tears over - gives out the conch as Sarjenka might remember it and recovery her memories, since dialogue bestowed by Pulaski before emphasizes the process might not work (or be dangerous). And yet it's in-character for Data as well, who is trying to learn "humanity", so it doesn't not fit either. Don't you hate it when that happens? It all almost seems worthy of a sequel, but an expanded universe novel brought her back...
The episode may have been an influence for season 5's "The Masterpiece Society", a very poor copy despite it having one very worthwhile scene...
"Snare" is a weird one, and the Pakeds are often like the Borg. Only more vicious and less-repetitive in vocabulary (esp. by VOY's time). The fact they come back for LDS and used very appreciably only sweetens the deal.
he B-plot with Picard and Crusher was solid as well.
True, it's not the best, but not the worst for sure.
"Okona" deserves to lose. It's a ham-fisted mashing of "Romeo and Juliet", "Three's Company", and what "Jerry Springer" would become.
Okona isn't outrageous at all.
Oh, they can't get dumb deck numbers consistent - maybe that's what's outrageous about this episode, they eschew the smallest modicum of sincerity for the most out-of-place "69" joke. You know it's a real steaming pile when even I am whining about it... sheesh, they replaced the family tree from "The Neutral Zone" where the lady's family was comprised of all the actors that played Doctor Who, so why couldn't they swap out the errant deck number with the correct one? They can also virtually add numerous instances of crayon-style font to read "69" all over the door if they think it'll somehow help the episode... :\
The comic scenes stink, for which none of the best comedians of the time would have elevated this story in the slightest, and any of these scenes are buoyed - by accident - by the double-act of Whoopi Goldberg and her on-screen chemistry with Brent Spiner as they're stealing the show with how they react to the concept of what is funny. Then again, circa 1989, I always misheard and Guinan didn't resemble a Noid looking for pizza either...
Speaking of that:
(so spot on...!)
Amongst other fun video clips where rabid delivery time is lampooned and others...
I almost saved that one first, just to know the game wouldn't end before my next turn. Of course, it did end... but at least the underrated Shades was saved. It's no Visitor or Subspace Rhapsody... but it's good enough for an episode shot with a ludicrous timetable.
S2 had some fine episodes, and fewer stinkers. There's a reason why "growing the beard" is a universal TV trope.
So we have our season 2 winner, "The Outrageous Okona".
Interesting to note that this is the first time this episode has won, though it was runner up twice before. "Samaritan Snare" never appeared as either previously. I guess the Pakleds didn't find enough things to make them go...
I will post season 3 later this evening. Hope to see everyone there!
Thank you all for playing!
Interesting to note that this is the first time this episode has won, though it was runner up twice before. "Samaritan Snare" never appeared as either previously. I guess the Pakleds didn't find enough things to make them go...
I will post season 3 later this evening. Hope to see everyone there!
Thank you all for playing!
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