The MOST Disliked Episode of TNG - Season Five...

I will save "Silicon Avatar". I thought Dr. Marr was a tragic character, and her going from racism of Data to respect and basically seeing her son in him was touching. The ending is quite sad.

A Matter Of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Imaginary Friend

 

Only not so great ones left imo ... I'll save Imaginary Friend, the girl playing the friend was really good at playing creepy and threatening and then switching back to friendly.


A Matter Of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society

 

While there's still the time, I'll save A Matter of Time. Matt Frewer's character is a little goofy, but still pretty entertaining, and the discussion between him and Picard near the end works really well.

New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society

 

What I never got about this episode is why he stole all that stuff in the first place. The crew believed him to be from the future, he could have simply asked for a tricorder and some other equipment as keepsakes (maybe not a weapon, that would have been suspicious) and the crew probably would have handed it to him.

 

I suppose a combination of his just having a criminal mindset, given the clear implication that he did something nasty to the previous owner of the time pod, and his being worried that the crew would start questioning him on why he wanted actual bits of working technology instead of just scanning them to either replicate or create holographic duplicates of, which may have caused his story to start unravelling.

 

I think this selection/season exemplifies the difference between "least liked" and "most disliked": most of the remaining options are pretty meh/bland episodes, but not truly terrible ones.
The terrible ones (The Game, Power Play, Disaster) have been saved.

I'll save The Masterpiece Society. Although the episode's execution is not that great, the dilemna presented is intriguing.
Have fun with the blandfest that remains:


New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations

 

As with everything else in life, it's a matter of opinion. Some of the 'terrible' episodes may be considered quite good to some people. For example, I consider "Disaster" to be good for several reasons. First, it makes full use of the entire cast, and used quite well, I might add. Second, there was a good mix of drama and comedy. Third, there was some growth for some of the characters. Like Picard... he started the series as quite uncomfortable around children, and only slowly turned around as the years went on. Until here... after this episode, he seemed much more at ease around kids.

My point is that just because a few people, or even a vast majority of people, may think something sucks doesn't mean that is true of everyone. Like my grandfather used to say, "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all of the time." That statement is probably the most true in the entertainment business, particularly television.

 

Of course it is. I hesitated to include an "IMO", but thought it went without saying.

About Disaster: I don't particularly disagree with your points. On the other hand:

- disaster movies are so formulaic and the episode fits the formula very well.
- fake jeopardy. Nobody was going to come out of there without a limb... or in a coffin, and we knew that from the start.
- the obligatory (and always annoying / shouty) emergency birth. I really hate births on screen. It's a wall of noise that serves little purpose, so when it's done in the context of such a contrived plot, it gets doubly annoying.

 

I will save "Hero Worship". Data has always been my favorite character, and as a kid growing up on TNG, I can see soneone looking at Data as a hero. In a very real sense, he was my scifi role model... his character made me so interested in more scifi that my love of the genre is a huge part of who I am. He is my scifi hero. I saw myself in Timothy when it first aired.

And when you think about it, Data is very much a hero. This episode has a special place in my heart.

New Ground
Violations

 

I will save Violations... like "The Outcast", "Violations" is one of those episodes that doesn't really work and ages poorly. But also like "The Outcast", I believe their heart was in the right place, I appreciate the intent if not all the results.

Meanwhile, "New Ground" gives us Alexander as an ongoing concern, and that's unforgivable.

Plus, forget the recurring children theme of season 5, I never realized how many of these episodes have the same lousy generic B plot: ship imperiled by special effect. The only thing that changes is the effect... "Cost Of Living" has the shimmery red dust, "New Ground" has the blue wave, "Imaginary Friend" has the glowy red dots, "Hero Worship" has the blue cloud...

 

You just listed three fantastic episodes, clear winners all around.

Meanwhile, didn't you save "When The Bough Breaks" right away in season 1, even though it's the obvious rock-bottom of TNG's worst season?

DS9 has "Let He Who Is Without Sin", VOY has "Threshold", ENT has TATV, but my sense is there is no TNG episode that doesn't have it's passionate defenders.

 

The 'winner' of season 5 is "New Ground".

On a side note, I have always considered this season, along with being the "children season", to be the most preachy. I often wondered if it was partly due to not only being during the 25th Anniversary of STAR TREK, but also when Gene Roddenberry died.

Thank you all for voting. Season 6 will be started shortly.

 

I greatly enjoy all of those episodes.

 

As others have said, it is a matter of opinion, but out of curiosity I decided to pull up my records and see which episodes were the least popular in the version of this game I did 8 or 9 years ago. That version had a different set of rules, where people voted for their three least favorites, and the top five from that poll faced off where everyone voted for their least favorite. I felt like that method captured the broadest dislike for any given episode at that time.

Looking at the season five results from all those years ago, none of the three "terrible" episodes in your list made the five least popular from the season. Of 94 votes cast, 4 went to The Game, 1 went to Disaster and 0 went to Power Play.

FYI, the episodes that advanced to the next round were Cost of Living, Imaginary Friend, The Outcast, New Ground, Hero Worship, The Perfect Mate and The Masterpiece Society (seven episodes instead of five due to ties in the first round). Four of those were in the final seven this time too. I don't think the results of this game are as far off from the broader opinions of this board than you think.

 

Didn't you mean "The Reckoning"? Or "Profit and Lace"?

Of course it's all a matter of opinion. I was obviously stating mine, but don't feel like saying "IMO" before most comments.

 

Nope... I have heard positive reviews of both. "Let He Who Is Without Sin" is the one where I've never witnessed anyone saying anything positive about it. Probably only a matter of time, though.

 

Actually, I do have one positive thing to say about "LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...", and I've always felt this.

The childhood story that Worf told Jadzia, it certainly explains so much of his behavior. I thought it was an important piece of the Worf puzzle, and a look at his background that didn't involve Klingon society.