The Most Disliked Episode of TNG, 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?)
2011 - "Shades Of Gray"
2018 - "The Outrageous Okona"
2019 - "Code of Honor"
2021 - "Journey's End"


Season One -

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
The Arsenal of Freedom
Symbiosis
Skin Of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Farscape One]

My first save of TNG is "The Arsenal of Freedom". I've always had a soft spot for episodes that uses the whole cast, and this one utilizes the full cast very, very well, and they all come across as very good at their jobs. (With the exception of Wesley, but the story didn't need him here, as this was a full blown assignment from Starfleet.) Yar giving good advice, Crusher coming up with the solution, Geordi showing good leadership skills... even Troi doing her job well with the advice she gave Geordi.

On top of that, the story is great, the pacing and direction is focused and keeps the action and tension tight, and we get to see the ship separate. And having Vincent Schiavelli is the cherry on top.

Always a rewatch for me. Almost certainly my favorite of season 1.


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
Symbiosis
Skin Of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Orphalesion]

And as per usual, I'll save Haven.

Yes it's pretty goofy and there are several gaping plot holes and nothing on earth or in heaven can excuse the way this episode portrayed Riker, but even after all those years I like the "space opera" vibe several elements of this episode have: A planet so beautiful its rumoured to have healing powers, two lovers forming a psychic rapport and finding each other across time and space etc.
Plus I like all the exotic stuff in the episode: Lwaxana's plant pet, all the glittery costumes, the colour changing rose, the talking jewel box, the shot of the First Electorine of Haven standing there in her gossamer-like outfit in front of a scenery of romantic cliffs (quite good bit of world building imho)
And I really, genuinely like the scene where Lwaxana talks to Wyatt about how all sapient life in the universe is one on a fundamental level.
Speaking of...it gave us Lwaxana.

...oh and Tasha cosplaying as the singer from Roxette.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
Symbiosis
Skin Of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
Conspiracy
The Neutral Zone

 

[Vger23]

I like S1 a great deal more than most, and I always loved Conspiracy for its tonal departure, creepy vibe, and semi-serialized connection with “Coming of Age”

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
Symbiosis
Skin Of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Farscape One]

I like season 1 a lot, too. It's not their best season, but I love how they experimented in different styles to see what works. Definitely not as bad as many say.

Saving "Where No One Has Gone Before". Very early TNG that showed how special the series can be. Great ideas behibd the whole thing, and pretty well executed, too. I love the look of the edge of universe... it's like a bubble bath for thoughts.


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
Symbiosis
Skin Of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Sakonna]

I am also a huge fan of season 1. Honestly, it's one of my favorite seasons of Trek overall. From today's vantage, it's 80's messiness is just so damn charming, and really induces in me such a strong nostalgia high. I could save most of these.

But I'll go with "Skin Of Evil." I love Armus. I love that planet set. It's a great showcase for Troi, which doesn't happen all that often. And it gets knocked for this, but I find the random, pointless nature of Tasha's death really powerful. Honestly, watching this when I was a kid helped evolve my ability to process death in real life. Big fan!

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
11001001
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
Symbiosis
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Saving 11001001. One of the more unique ideas of the first season with the first unique use of the holodeck as a honeypot.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
Symbiosis
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Pikirk_Janesisko]

Well, I kinda hate season 1 to be honest. I can count in one hand the episodes that I actually like. My choice is Symbiosis because is suprinsingly a very well made episode. The premise with the Prime Directive is very interesting and the characters find a clever way to deal with it. It isn't perfect though, like the scene with the "PSA" by Tasha Yar it's a bit cringe for me. It's a shame that is one of her last scenes on the show.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
Angel One
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Seven of Five]

Oops, I've managed to miss the TOS contest. I'll save Datalore because Brent Spiner did a great job as Lore in the episode, and it was fascinating learning about Data's history.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
Heart of Glory
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Farscape One]

Sakonna, I completely agree with you about Yar's death. It was one of the most realistic deaths because she died doing exactly her job. And her job was an extremely dangerous one. It's a credit to Starfleet training that more don't die regularly.

It is my honor to save "Heart of Glory". Great early Worf episode, and the first of MANY appearances by Vaughn Armstrong.


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Angel One
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Sakonna]

I am again torn between many episodes here I love. I was coming to save "Heart Of Glory", which I am watching right now, but instead I'm going to go with "Angel One", for giving us Trek's most iconic matte painting!

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/reused_planets_angelone.htm

Just kidding. I mean, I am saving "Angel One", but the real reason is it's an episode I really enjoy taking out every few years and seeing "now how does it play?" It's completely stupid in so many ways, and yet there's also real boldness in some of their creative decisions -- I can't think of many other shows that would put their hot male lead in an outfit like Riker's (whereas a billion shows do this with their hot female leads). Or that would cast the male Angel-One-ians the way they did.

It's a bit like the male skants -- it seemed so harebrained for so long, and suddenly it was one of TNG's great ahead-of-it's-time ideas.

I also always enjoy laughing at how this episode uses "can we negotiate the release of these jerky hostages no one cares about?" as it's huge A story, and the filler B story that everyone seems totally bored with is "EVERYONE ON THE ENTERPRISE IS GOING TO DIE OF PLAGUE WITHIN 24 HOURS!!!!!!!!!"

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
The Big Goodbye
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[Seven of Five]

The Big Goodbye is next for saving. It's the first holodeck malfunction episode, and it has a lot of fun moments throughout. It's great seeing Picard finally unwind as he's a bit stiff in the first season. It's worth watching the episode just to see Crusher's goofy way of eating gum.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
We'll Always Have Paris
The Neutral Zone

 

[oldtrekkie]

"coming of age" has already been eliminated so I'll first remove it from this list.

Now I am gonna save "The Neutral Zone" because it reveals a few things about Picard et al. Not all good.


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Lonely Among Us
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
We'll Always Have Paris

 

[Sakonna]

"Coming Of Age" actually hasn't been saved yet, so restoring it to the list.

And I'll next save "Lonely Among Us", another episode beloved by me for the charming nature of it's rough-draft-working-out-the-kinks experimentation. I am endlessly fascinated by the Anticans and the Selay. Worf's electrocution is classic. I love the moody evening lighting they play with for the corridors in this episode.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
The Last Outpost
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
We'll Always Have Paris

 

[Farscape One]

Saving "The Last Outpost". The Ferengi introduction was bad, but the first half of the episode when the crew is trying to determine what's going on is really well done. And quoting Sun Tzu is never a bad thing.


Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Too Short A Season
When The Bough Breaks
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
We'll Always Have Paris

 

[Oddish]

Rescuing "When the Bough Breaks", because if you end it where the kids retuen to the ship and pretend that the smarmy "win-win" ending didn't occur, it's not too bad. I like Wes better as a kid trying to deal with a difficult situation than as a space time manipulating prodigy.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Too Short A Season
Home Soil
Coming Of Age
We'll Always Have Paris

 

[Seven of Five]

Coming of Age is next. I like that it's connected to Conspiracy, and the story about Wesley and the academy wasn't too bad.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Too Short A Season
Home Soil
We'll Always Have Paris

 

[Farscape One]

You mean "Coming Of Age", right?

 

[Seven of Five]

Yeah. It's too early I'm off to work in a second!

 

[oldtrekkie]

Too Short A Season is not as bad as the rest plus it has an interesting plot twist.

Encounter at Farpoint
The Naked Now
Code of Honor
Justice
The Battle
Hide and Q
Home Soil
We'll Always Have Paris