Game The Most Disliked Episode Written By D.C. Fontana

[Seven of Five]

I wanted The Way to Eden to win as well. It's one of those episodes when I'm rewatching, I bang my head back on the sofa repeatedly in disbelief.

However, Lonely Among Us shows TNG's first season growing pains in full. Riker is very sanctimonious when talking to the gatekeeper. And the Ferengi had a terrible first episode. In fact, I'm surprised they weren't axed after this, though I imagine too much money had been spent on them at that point.

 

[Orphalesion]

However, Lonely Among Us shows TNG's first season growing pains in full. Riker is very sanctimonious when talking to the gatekeeper. And the Ferengi had a terrible first episode. In fact, I'm surprised they weren't axed after this, though I imagine too much money had been spent on them at that point.

That's The Last Outpost

Lonely Among Us is the one where they get possessed by some entity or some such. And where the "everybody laughs" gag at the end of the episode involves one of the dog-alien ambassadors eating one of the snake alien ambassadors (or maybe the other way around)
For that alone it deserves to win :-P

 

[Sakonna]

Our first winner of this round from TNG season 1! Took 58 games to get there. (And again I flashback to when I started this cycle and said to Farscape: "We'll do 12 games... maaaaaaaybe 15 if I feel really motivated")

Also: A rare occasion where an episode I actually really love wins! I almost saved "Lonely Among Us" upthread, when I instead saved "Too Short A Season", it was really a coin flip I enjoy them both so much.

Oddly enough, "Too Short A Season" was the 2020 winner of this game.

Of course, I can't claim that an episode that plays cannibalistic murder for light silly comedy is actually "good", so there's that. But I vibe with this episodes badness, in a way that I really cannot with "The Way To Eden", which sets my teeth on edge. (Though I am psyched to hear that those aliens are back in the Lower Decks comic that just started coming out)

Next up: some other writers list! I haven't decided who yet, but we haven't done enough writers. Or maybe "The Most Disliked J.G. Hertzler Appearance"? We'll see what I manage to type up first. Hope to see you all there!
edit: It's going to be "The Most Disliked J.G. Hertzler Appearance"

MOST DISLIKED WINNERS, 2022
WRITER GENE RODDENBERRY: TOS, Season 1: "Mudd's Women"
MAJEL BARRETT APPEARANCE: TOS, Season 3: "And The Children Shall Lead"
3RD SEASON: TOS, Season 3: "And The Children Shall Lead"
'HEY, THIS PLANET IS JUST LIKE EARTH!': TOS, Season 3: "Plato's Stepchildren"
ANIMATED: TAS, Season 1: "The Eye Of The Beholder"
ROMULAN: TAS, Season 2: "The Practical Joker"
WRITER D.C. FONTANA: TNG, Season 1: "Lonely Among Us"
WEDDING: TNG, Season 2: "The Outrageous Okona"
DIRECTOR WINRICH KOLBE: TNG, Season 5: "The Masterpiece Society"
5TH SEASON: TNG, Season 5: "The Perfect Mate"
ROMANCE-OF-THE-WEEK: TNG, Season 6: "Aquiel"
KLINGON: TNG, Season 6: "Birthright, Part II"
DIRECTOR CLIFF BOLE: TNG, Season 7: "Liaisons"
DIRECTOR LES LANDAU: TNG, Season 7: "Dark Page"
DIRECTOR ALEXANDER SINGER: TNG, Season 7: "Homeward"
WRITER RONALD D. MOORE: TNG, Season 7: "Journey's End"
7TH SEASON: TNG, Season 7: "Firstborn"
HOLIDAY: DS9, Season 3: "Meridian"
CARDASSIAN: DS9, Season 6: "Sons & Daughters"
MIRROR UNIVERSE: DS9, Season 6: "Resurrection"
BAJORAN: DS9, Season 6: "The Reckoning"
FERENGI: DS9, Season 6: "Profit And Lace"
COMEDIC/LIGHT-HEARTED: DS9, Season 6: "Profit And Lace"
6TH SEASON: DS9, Season 6: "Profit And Lace"
JEFFREY COMBS APPEARANCE: DS9, Season 7: "The Emperor's New Cloak"
WRITER JOE MENOSKY: VOY, Season 5: "The Fight"
HOLODECK: VOY, Season 6: "Spirit Folk"
MAQUIS: VOY, Season 7: "Repression"
BARCLAY: VOY, Season 7: "Inside Man"
2-PART/DOUBLE EPISODE: VOY, Season 7: "Flesh And Blood"
RECYCLED TITLE: ENT, Season 1: "Terra Nova"
VAUGHN ARMSTRONG APPEARANCE: ENT, Season 2: "Shockwave, Part II"
2ND SEASON: ENT, Season 2: "Shockwave, Part II"
DIRECTOR LEVAR BURTON: ENT, Season 3: "Extinction"
DIRECTOR MIKE VEJAR: ENT, Season 3: "Rajiin"
NAMED FOR CHARACTER: ENT, Season 3: "Rajiin"
DIRECTOR DAVID LIVINGSTON: ENT, Season 3: "Harbinger"
SEASON PREMIERE: ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part I"
EVERY 47TH RELEASE: ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part I"
"I'M AGING WRONG!": ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part I"
VISIT TO EARTH'S PAST: ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part II"
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 BEST EPS: ENT, Season 4: "Home"
DIRECTOR ALLAN KROEKER: ENT, Season 4: "These Are The Voyages..."
1ST SEASON: DIS, Season 1: "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"
TIME TRAVEL/TRAVELER/LOOP/ANOMALY: DIS, Season 2: "Perpetual Infinity"
FEMALE DIRECTOR: DIS, Season 2: "Perpetual Infinity"
SEASON FINALE ANTAGONIST: DIS, Season 2: Control
DIRECTOR JONATHAN FRAKES: DIS, Season 3: "There Is A Tide..."
47TH EPISODES: DIS, Season 4: "The Examples"
4TH SEASON: DIS, Season 4: "The Galactic Barrier"
4TH & 7TH EPISODES: ST, Season 2: "Ask Not"
TREK NOIR: PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"
CAST CROSSOVER: PIC, Season 1: "Et In Arcardia Ego, Part 1"
GUINAN: PIC, Season 2: "Monsters"
BORG/XB: PIC, Season 2: "Mercy"
Q: PIC, Season 2: "Mercy"
COUPLE: LD, Carol Freeman/Alonzo Freeman
REGULAR CHARACTER: PRO, Drednok

TRIPLE WINNERS
DS9, Season 6: "Profit And Lace"
ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part I"

DOUBLE WINNERS
TOS, Season 3: "And The Children Shall Lead"
ENT, Season 2: "Shockwave, Part II"
ENT, Season 3: "Rajiin"
DIS, Season 2: "Perpetual Infinity"
PIC, Season 2: "Mercy"

TOTAL SHOW WINS
SNW & Movies: 0 wins
ST, LD & PRO: 1 win each
TAS: 2 wins
TOS: 4 wins
VOY & PIC: 5 wins each
DIS: 7 wins
DS9: 8 wins
TNG: 11 wins
ENT: 13 wins

 

[Seven of Five]

Eh. Considering that I rewatched it all not that long ago it says enough about both episodes.

Very surprising that there haven't been more episodes from TNG S1 appearing on the list until now.

 

[Oddish]

I still say titles of 5 letters or less would be a good one. Q Pid, Q2, E², Meld... who will prevail?

Easier for you to type in, too.

 

[Orphalesion]

While, of course, these games aren't necessarily a measurement of quality, I do think that TNG was the most uneven Star Trek show in terms of tone and quality, which could vary very drastically from one episode to the next. Other shows were/are a lot more consistent (either good, bad or mediocre).

 

[Qonundrum]

That's The Last Outpost

Lonely Among Us is the one where they get possessed by some entity or some such. And where the "everybody laughs" gag at the end of the episode involves one of the dog-alien ambassadors eating one of the snake alien ambassadors (or maybe the other way around)
For that alone it deserves to win :-P

Yeah, it feels like a TOS script was unearthed and produced, just without any sex stuff added.

But that's Marc "Gul Dukat" Alaimo!

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They missed a big opportunity to show Yar releasing the critters, who quickly bite her and then run to the nearest vents. Season 1 put out far worse scenes...

But I did find amusement how each person finds the other's point of view to be sickening in their own way.

Also, harking back to the Naked Now, there's a great review of it here:

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[Qonundrum]

I actually expected "THE WAY TO EDEN" to win. Maybe I'm just a Herbert...

Same here. Had time permitted I'd have saved it sooner as the remaining episodes were (IMHO, no relation to IMDB) less-than-stellar. For the usual reasons, in that there's rather a great story in this superficial mess and some of its scenes outweigh the really bad stuff:

• Chekov is no longer used just for comic relief
• Chekov gets the lady instead of McCoy or even Kirk for the 30th time
  
• There's some subtle nuances between the "hippies" - the insane leader (Sevrin), plus his followers who act like they're naturally duped (Irina, Adam, the no-names groovin' in the background) or are otherwise acting as if they're in the group to later take advantage of what Insane Leader wants (Tongo Rad dude)
• The nifty coincidence of Herbert Armstrong, whose anti-hippie tirade book came out at the perfect time (it's been said by too many that "Herbert" was an in-joke about one of the producers).
  
• Kirk admitting that he too recognizes the yearning for a simpler life is a brief character moment also worthy of "The Naked Time"
  
• The sledgehammery metaphor about the ACID plantlife, even the GRASS will slowly kill ya
  
• A synthetic biological virus borne out of such enclosed environments, for which he's a blissful carrier of and doesn't mind spreading it while knowing he's got it... it's rather a diamond in the rough
  
• The song, whose lyrics Charles Napier contributed, including "I'm talkin ''bout you, I'm talkin ''bout me. Long time back when the galaxy was new. Man found out what he had to do. Found he had to eat and he found he had to drink. And a long time later he found he had to think. Uh huh. Yes, think. I'm standing here wondering... ", are rather brilliant.
• It may be the end of the final season, but the acting's fairly good - and Skip Homier is suitably great as Sevrin. Not to mention Charles Napier again, who does a great job acting above and beyond the bleach job
• The episode's existence is more proof that, like or dislike, sledgehammer tactics started in 20th century Trek

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(Rarely does a remix intrigue, but this one's top notch...)

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

For the usual reasons, in that there's rather a great story in this superficial mess and some of its scenes outweigh the really bad stuff:

It would have been a better story if it had still been about Joanna McCoy!

 

[Brennyren]

Our first winner of this round from TNG season 1! Took 58 games to get there. (And again I flashback to when I started this cycle and said to Farscape: "We'll do 12 games... maaaaaaaybe 15 if I feel really motivated")

I have to ask: how many games were there in the 2020 cycle? I remember that as being a more-or-less endless stream (river?) of games -- and one of the things that saved my sanity in the early part of the lockdowns.

 

[Farscape One]

Like Marcus Cole on B5 said once, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? As many as they want to."

I think the same answer applies here.

 

[Oddish]

As long as we keep coming up with ideas for new ones, I think.

 

[Sakonna]

I have to ask: how many games were there in the 2020 cycle? I remember that as being a more-or-less endless stream (river?) of games -- and one of the things that saved my sanity in the early part of the lockdowns.

There were 49 games in 2020, before I suddenly went pandemic-crazy and had to stop.

But making the games really did help maintain my sanity in those early pandemic days, too! Plus, it gave me more free time to really work out the hard ones.

It's funny that the list I was working on in early March 2020 was "disease episodes." Never ran it, and I still don't really feel like pulling that one out of the files!

Just decided the next one will be "The Most Disliked J.G. Hertzler Appearance", which I had thrown out as a maybe earlier this week. As today brought a new J.G. Hertzler appearance to the Trekverse, the timing is just too perfect.

 

[Farscape One]

Martok is my favorite Klingon! I can't wait to see how this game turns out.

 

[Eddie Roth]

This game can surprise you. The "winning" episodes aren't always the really bad ones (I don't think "Threshold" has ever won one). They're just the ones no one cares enough about to save.

Which is why the philologist in me always cringes at the title of this series of threads (no offense to Sakonna - the games are lots of fun!) because this is really not about what is MOST DISliked, but about what is the LEAST liked, or respectively the entry that inspires the least amount of passion regarding whatever the question is. This concludes my overly academic nitpick. Carry on.