The Most Disliked Episode of TNG, Season 2 - 2025 Edition...

[Farscape One]

Welcome to our bi-yearly 'Most Disliked Episode' games! Now that the 'Least Disliked Episode' games hosted by BlueStuff (who inspired me to create these games, so thank you very much for paving the way) have concluded, we can begin the opposite side of that coin.

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"
2023 - "Aquiel"
2025 -


Season Two -

"The Child"
"Where Silence Has Lease"
"Elementary, Dear Data"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Contagion"
"The Royale"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Q Who"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Peak Performance"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Farscape One]

Seaaon 2 of TNG is far better than many people give it credit for. It truly showed just how dangerous space is... even the clip show finale illustrated this. I have a lot of episodes I love from this season, so picking my first save is difficult. But I will pick "Where Silence Has Lease" first.

This episode truly showed just how dangerous exploring space can be, and inadvertantly set the tone for much of season 2. A very creepy vibe throughout the whole episode. Despite the fact it took place almost entirely on the bridge, it was never boring. Winrich Kolbe's first directing of the franchise was outstanding, and illustrates why he kept getting called back over and over again. (He ended up doing 50 episodes, second in total only to David Livingston, who did 62.)

Great story and a wonderful villain with Nagilum, who honestly is not a bad guy... just goes about gaining knowledge in a, by our standards, sadistic way.

As a horror fan and one who loves creepy vibes, this was a standout episode.



"The Child"
"Elementary, Dear Data"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Contagion"
"The Royale"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Q Who"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Peak Performance"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Qonundrum]

So many episodes that are easy saves for this season... but a great start for me is also a great start to a great personal arc that blooms throughout the season:

"Elementary, Dear Data"

This introduces the Pulaski/Data rivalry-turned-friendship-later, and does so with some style.

The fact she is dealing with Professor Moriarty, a computer-generated personality, is her first inkling of accepting Data as equally as any biological being she treats.

Yes, for dramatic effect Geordi is holding the drawing of the ship upside down but it's not a big thing. Neither is how the paper survives leaving the holodeck. Supposedly a scripted reason was made, but dropped. Either way, the holodeck is known to use replicator technology, and generated images do use a series of directional forcefields, so a little headcanon that weighs about 46lb, 16oz is going to help with this.

One would think that the holodeck systems wouldn't be so intertwined with the main computer, especially by the 24th century, but who cares? It's a great romp, drawing you in and keeping you there.

Plus, Daniel Davis excels as Moriarty and has excellent screen chemistry with Diana Muldaur.

Plus some double entendres involving his crumpets that nobody noticed.


What's left:
"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Contagion"
"The Royale"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Q Who"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Peak Performance"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Starflight]

This season is great. "The Royale" is the easiest pick so far - the concept is equal parts wondrous and eerie, and the humour works.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Contagion"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Q Who"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Peak Performance"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Farscape One]

Saving "Peak Performance".

One of my favorites of the entire series, this utilizes the entire cast PERFECTLY.


"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Contagion"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Q Who"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Detached Nacelle]

I'm surprised it's taken this long but Q Who is my save. Some early weirdness that has been retconned but it spawned an icon.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Contagion"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Qonundrum]

Forget "The Naked Now", when it comes to spreading diseases, where's the love for one's sister not named after a middle-aged dude?

"Contagion"

Yup! This is a robust and fun outing where the Uss Yamato, not related to D'Amato but reminds one of it because the memory cheats, had been poking about some archaeological fun in the Neutral Zone of all places, encountered an alien probe that reprogrammed its computer systems, and the result was the ship self-destructing. Now, ignoring how this really can't work any better than you taking your Apple II disk that has "Elk Cloner" on it and shoving it into your Atari 130XE and hoping to get the same result. Then again, heuristic pattern matching doesn't make the concept inconceivable for vastly complex auto-handshaking systems made 400 years in the future, or in any relative time period.

It gets really cool when Geordi, via the 24th century equivalent of getting a copy of the floppy and shoving it into his disk drive, and - oops - now Enterprise is infected, which is serendipitous as had they not started reading the contaminated files that actively started reprogramming things (holy hardware abstraction layer, batman!) then when the next shiny blue probe appeared then Enterprise would not have had a chance.

Since the ship has no antimalware software installed, all they can do is power down, refresh the main operating system files from a protected archive (that hopefully wasn't altered by the Ikonian program), and voila.

The Ikonians: Now for all we know, Picard's theory on their not being aggressors is very refreshing, what with confirmational bias and all those other trendy terms that probably weren't invented yet. We may never know Ikonian history, but that's part of this story's magic, mystery, mystique, other M-words, etc.

Also and most importantly, is this screencap from an unofficial attempt at a crossover:

(Aww shucks, it doesn't auto-shrink or pop up when clicked on anymore! )

What's left:
"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Measure Of A Man"
"The Dauphin"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Farscape One]

I was going to save BOTH "Q Who" and "Contagion" next, so you saved me the trouble.

My next save is "The Measure Of A Man".

Great episode, and just shows how excellent courtroom episodes can be.


"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Dauphin"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"
"Shades Of Gray"

 

[Sakonna]

"Shades Of Gray"! It was merely ahead of its time. It's a YouTube playlist of early season highlights.

I feel like "Shades Of Gray" is acquiring so many new fans as it ages that I'm almost surprised it hasn't already been saved.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Dauphin"
"Time Squared"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"

 

[Starflight]

"Time Squared" is peak season two tonally, there's a real atmosphere of creeping doom.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Dauphin"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"
"The Emissary"

 

[Farscape One]

Saving "The Emissary".

I love K'Ehleyr. She was was awesome. Great Worf episode, too.


"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Dauphin"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Pen Pals"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"

 

[Qonundrum]

Nothing schizophrenic or outrageous about my next pick,

"Pen Pals"

The ending is way too schmaltzy and contradicts outright all the risks of doing the brain wipe (was Data deliberately wanting her to remember, where if that happened her family and species may or may not do nasty things, including sending her to Starfleet?) No worries, the TV show does not follow up on this and the expanded universe novels aren't canonical so they could have a dozen novels discussing three dozen outcomes and it'd make nary a difference.

But that quibble aside, it's the turning point for when Dr Pulaski is finally won over with Data and it's a joy to watch.

What's left:
"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Dauphin"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"
"Manhunt"

 

[Qonundrum]

"Shades Of Gray"! It was merely ahead of its time. It's a YouTube playlist of early season highlights.

I feel like "Shades Of Gray" is acquiring so many new fans as it ages that I'm almost surprised it hasn't already been saved.

I was tempted to save it for the jungle scenes alone, which are steeped in atmosphere not often felt in TNG. Not since Doctor Who in the mid-70s has an alien jungle planet been so wonderfully realized and, in ways, Doctor Who's "Planet of Evil" still outranks it.

The strike and other issues necessitated this clip show to save on time and costs. Without the clip show but with a full season, I suspect the jungle elements would have been used to far greater effect.

This story is by no means season 2's worst, objectively speaking, just let down with clips.

Plus, it's not "The Golden Girls", a show that surely has the record for the most amount of clip shows used in its 7-year run.

 

[Sakonna]

I've long loved "Manhunt." I'm a huge fan of Lwaxana and Dixon Hill and these fish people are a delight.

This ep also features some particularly great moments of Riker/Troi chemistry.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"The Dauphin"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"

 

[Farscape One]

Saving "A Matter Of Honor".

Great Riker episode, and we get a look at Benzite society. (I wish we saw them more often.)



"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"The Dauphin"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"

 

[Starflight]

Happy to take out "The Dauphin" - the romance between Wesley and the titular character really lands emotionally, and her guardian stomping around the ship beating the shit out of people is funny.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"Unnatural Selection"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"

 

[Sakonna]

"Unnatural Selection" has a spookiness I always enjoyed. I appreciate it for giving Pulaski something to do.

"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"Loud As A Whisper"
"The Schizoid Man"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"

 

[Farscape One]

Saving "Loud As A Whisper".

Good story, and a good illustration of how one can contribute to society well despite a disability.


"The Child"
"The Outrageous Okona"
"The Schizoid Man"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"

 

[Uncle Sock]

Saving "The Child" because it introduced Pulaski.


"The Outrageous Okona"
"The Schizoid Man"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"

 

[Qonundrum]

If it weren't for not having insomnia, I'd have saved one or two others with sleep-inducing paragraphs prior to now. Anyway, an underrated episode showing that one time we get to see Dr Selar,

"The Schizoid Man"

has some fantastic acting for an unusual yet engaging story that is a little reminiscent of TOS yet isn't all rolled into one, if you're into unusual yet engaging stories that are a little reminiscent of TOS yet aren't all rolled into one as some people just call this one "crap" but that's up for the individual tastes within each of the audience, and I really do not like how my new desktop taskbar icons keep shifting left and right with this sickeningly smooth animation that I thought I'd disabled yesterday and where the heck did that segue come from? Oh well, did you know that chocolate can exacerbate IBS symptoms? Therre. now you're as empathic toward Troi as she would be to any of the crew.

So TOS always had android duplicates (What are Little Girls Made Of) and selling immortality by plopping a brain into a robot body (I, Mudd), or the one time Redjak went from person to person then hopped into the computer (Wolf in the Fold). Now we have this TNG episode where it's a goofy mix of all three that, while isn't the most universally loved, isn't universally hated either, and does make use of the themes it's innovating on and yet it doesn't feel derivative, where a lesser script and lesser acting could have. But the episode is still filler and somewhat predictable, not a standout.

Oh, one other thing, another influence is the season 2 theme exploring Data as a sentient being woven in and this episode allows a fresh facet into this, even hinting on themes to be used in "The Measure of a Man"...

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(Did you know that the title of this episode pays homage to the same title of an episode of "The Prisoner" (1967)? Sadly, Patrick McGoohan was sadly not available, so Dr Ira was played by the inestimable W Morgan Sheppard instead... which may be for the best because Sheppard's range - along in Babylon 5 and other shows - really brings out what was needed for Dr Graves. Then comes Brent Spiner who has to act not just Data, but Data being operated by Dr Graves' consciousness... plus Suzie Plakson as Dr Selar and there's quite a lot of talent working in this story's favor. If you can handle watching Dr Graves being Dr Graves, of course, but a generic personaliy would not have worked.... )

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(From one great scene to the next... Also, is Dr Selar a possible influence for T'Lyn (Lower Decks)?)

And now, instead of putting up the clip of the eulogy scene, I'm off to make some hot chocolate.

What's left:
"The Outrageous Okona"
"The Icarus Factor"
"Samaritan Snare"
"Up The Long Ladder"