Game The Most Disliked Episode Written By Joe Menosky

[Court_Vince]

Saving False Profits i found Neelix's dynamic with Arridor & Kol really fun and the society where the story takes place makes it really work for me
TNG Season 6: "Suspicions" (written with Naren Shankar)
TNG Season 7: "Interface" (written)
DS9 Season 2: "Rivals" (teleplay)
VOY Season 7: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" (teleplay with Brannon Braga, story with Mike Sussman and Brannon Braga)

 

[Qonundrum]

I suspect we're getting down on this list...

TNG Season 6: "Suspicions" (written with Naren Shankar)​

Another neat new technological advancement to be promptly forgotten later on, or because it's not often when a starship has to get a suntan by parking directly inside of it.

Surelock Beverly Holmes is an interesting idea, even if the episode's execution is even more wonky than my dating life mixed with the Borg, noting that Beverly is acting a lot like Shelby and the Borg's mantra was like my ex's.

Jo'Brill's redundant anatomy is - despite it all - thought out better than Worf's, even if his tender juicy innards are described similar to the Borg collective and even though the diagram she looks at shows... discrete organs. All except the good ones, of course... still, seeing the diagram in of itself is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure Data's cat was getting revved up too...

This is Guinan's last episode? Could have been far worse...

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I think the episode as a whole could have been stronger. It easily would have in DS9, but seasons 5 and 6 TNG definitely are trying to - on top of everything else - incorporate a feel that DS9 would take and truly run the touchdown with. Which could suggest TNG was trying to groom the audience for the upcoming shiny new spinoff, but I disagree. Beverly has stood her ground before, just on nothing as epic as this.

And this episode would be higher up on the "good episodes list" if it really went with its ideas instead of feeling "plot by numbers".


What's left:
TNG Season 7: "Interface" (written)
DS9 Season 2: "Rivals" (teleplay)
VOY Season 7: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" (teleplay with Brannon Braga, story with Mike Sussman and Brannon Braga)

 

[Seven of Five]

I always had a soft spot for Suspicions, as it was my first episode of TNG. And what a strange first episode to watch, indeed.

I'll save Rivals. It's fluff, but there are a few fun moments throughout it.

TNG Season 7: "Interface" (written)
VOY Season 7: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" (teleplay with Brannon Braga, story with Mike Sussman and Brannon Braga)

 

[Farscape One]

Honestly, I expected the bottom 3 would be "FALSE PROFITS", "THE FIGHT", and "11:59". I was so wrong this time.

Down to me, I guess. Saving "Interface" because at least we got to see Geordi's parents. Well, one of them while the other is an alien posing as one.

"UNIMATRIX ZERO PART II" destroyed the Borg in such a way that it completely declawed them, especially the horrors of assimilation. Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres go back to normal as if they just got a bad cold. Terrible... just terrible. This episide 'wins' by a country mile.

 

[Qonundrum]

Honestly, I expected the bottom 3 would be "FALSE PROFITS", "THE FIGHT", and "11:59". I was so wrong this time.

Down to me, I guess. Saving "Interface" because at least we got to see Geordi's parents. Well, one of them while the other is an alien posing as one.

"UNIMATRIX ZERO PART II" destroyed the Borg in such a way that it completely declawed them, especially the horrors of assimilation. Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres go back to normal as if they just got a bad cold. Terrible... just terrible. This episide 'wins' by a country mile.

Unimatrix Zero - This one should be more horrific - individuals in their bodies still having a conscious semblance of themselves despite the assimilation processes. Like the last 2 minutes of TBOBW where Picard lamented remembering it all but expanded to 75 minutes and people going crazy over it all rather than people wanting to engage in dreary soap opera populated by stick figures hawt for each other. There was an opportunity in this 2-parter but they don't begin to really dig into it.

It's also an interesting allegory of the internet, and is a collective within a collective in a way. But it was so by-the-numbers and loaded with conveniences that even the "shock" of Janeway/Torres/Tuvok being assimilated was just nil. Not because of the trope of "MORE IS BIGGER EPIC BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And no, a blue laser beam did nothing to sell the epic nature of it, this wasn't DVD vs Blu-Ray after all...

 

[Qonundrum]

I always had a soft spot for Suspicions, as it was my first episode of TNG. And what a strange first episode to watch, indeed.

I'll save Rivals. It's fluff, but there are a few fun moments throughout it.

TNG Season 7: "Interface" (written)
VOY Season 7: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" (teleplay with Brannon Braga, story with Mike Sussman and Brannon Braga)

What did you like about it most that kept you hooked? Mine was Encounter at Farpoint and while it wasn't the best ever story, it was the characters of Data and Geordi that had me staying for more. And the ship separating, that was cool at the time. And, yeah, Q was hilarious. Of course, I say the same about Paul Lynde. He would have made a fun Q...

 

[Seven of Five]

I don't know about what I enjoyed particularly about the episode, but I was a big fan of Whoopi Goldberg, so that had me intrigued. I'd seen a dozen or so episodes of TOS growing up with Dad, and a couple of the films, so my interest in the franchise was growing.

Visiting my cousin during school weeks, and he used to have it on. I started watching with him whenever I went round, but by the time the amazing All Good Things was on, that hooked me. The show went back to the beginning on BBC and I didn't miss an episode.

We had fun watching it together, sometimes alone, or sometimes with his family or a mutual Trek-fan friend of ours. It was also around the time VOY was starting up, and DS9 was starting its second season, and that's where I started with those. And TOS started to air as well - basically, the 90s were a great time to get into Star Trek.

 

[Sakonna]

I thought I had the weirdest first TNG experience with "The Game" (was I hooked and ready for the continuing weekly adventures of Wesley Crusher and Robin Lefler!), but "Suspicions" might have me beat.

"Unimatrix Zero, Part II" is quite the satisfying winner for me -- and while I'm figuring out what to post next, let's quickly do...

"THE MOST DISLIKED 47TH EPISODE OF A STAR TREK SERIES"
TOS Season 2: “The Immunity Syndrome”
TNG Season 2: “Shades Of Grey”
DS9 Season 3: “The Search, Part II”
VOY Season 3: “Remember”
ENT Season 2: “Cogenitor”

(47th episode of each series, per original air order, with the two-hour pilots counted as single episodes. To flashback to the beginning of the thread, this is our 47th game, and Joe Menosky is the man who first started inserting constant references to 47 in ST scripts. And I really like the idea of this mini-list, but it doesn't seem to warrant it's own full thread...)

 

[Sakonna]

I'll start with a possibly shocking save for "Shades Of Grey." But hear me out! I have watched it easily 6 times in the last 2 years, as opposed to a single rewatch for "Remember" (IIRC, inspired by an elimination @Brennyren posted on one of these -- I did find I liked it!) and zero for the other three. "Shades Of Grey" is actually an excellent fit for how I watch Star Trek now, which regularly involves just jumping around to favorite scenes or sequences on Netflix. Whereas once this clip show was an affront, now it's kind of nice there's an episode that does the random scene mix for me.

I have actually tricked a few IRL Trek fans of mine to rewatch "Shades Of Grey" ("I don't remember this episode at all!", they all say at the beginning), and they have all been stunned to find they loved it too. One actual quote: "I'm so glad you tricked me into rediscovering it, I never would have watched it willingly!"

I'm also frequently in the mood for some slice of season 1/2 TNG weirdness, but I can't settle on a single episode. I then finally realized that the solution when really stuck is always: just watch "Shades Of Grey" and get them all! (Or occasionally hit the "Angel One" or "The Last Outpost" flashback and suddenly feel "THAT ONE" and switch over to the full ep)

PLUS the framing sequence is actually really good. The planet set is great, the poisonous vine is creepy, there's some great dialogue, Sirtis, Muldaur, and Frakes (when conscious) are all delivering A+ performances, and there's all that Riker chest hair.

"Shades Of Grey" forever!

TOS Season 2: “The Immunity Syndrome”
DS9 Season 3: “The Search, Part II”
VOY Season 3: “Remember”
ENT Season 2: “Cogenitor”

 

[Brennyren]

I hated the ending of "Cogenitor" -- I still think Trip was in the right, dammit! But I'm going to save it anyway, because this is the only one of the episodes listed that I remember feeling passionate about, and that's worth something.

TOS Season 2: “The Immunity Syndrome”
DS9 Season 3: “The Search, Part II”
VOY Season 3: “Remember”

 

[Seven of Five]

Oh my god I love this mini one!

The Search Part II has a silly ending, but I still love the two-parter for introducing Odo's people, and the twist of them actually ruling the Dominion.


TOS Season 2: “The Immunity Syndrome”
VOY Season 3: “Remember”

 

[Farscape One]

"REMEMBER" was a strong Dawson performance, and had a great message about revisionist history. The other episode only really had the Spock and McCoy scenes going for it.

"THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME" will 'win' this mini-game.

 

[Qonundrum]

Dang. I came in late. "Immunity Syndrome" is something only TOS could get away with because it is so out there. How it manages to get the viewer to forget that this giant space amoeba is traveling slower than light speed and thus takes away from a fair amount of dramatic urgency is actually pretty great...

The episode uses more or less the same template as "The Doomsday Machine" but still makes it its own...

The bickering between McCoy and Spock was some of the series' franchise's finest and not played up as a superficial, flandersized insult (see "I, Mudd" for an example).


And the special effects were marvelous. To the point I don't even watch the CGI edition as the CGI - while usually good in TOS-R - doesn't convey the same awe-inducing sense of death.

The original teaser:

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(note the appearance of the giant amoeba thing and the shuttle - there's a real creepy vibe... or to those viscerally unaffacted it's a new backdrop for a Jefferson Airplane video...)

The remade, antsintheirpants and ADHD-inducing teaser:

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(oh look, they spoiled it by showing who Kirk picked too!)

The Jefferson Airplane video:

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[Sakonna]

A rare win for TOS!

Next up, possibly a rare win for DS9. Another game themed on one of Trek's men of many faces: "The Most Disliked Jeffrey Combs Appearance"

MOST DISLIKED "WINNER"LOSERS, 2020
"HEY, THIS PLANET IS JUST LIKE EARTH!": TOS, Season 1: "Miri"
47TH EPISODE OF A SERIES: TOS, Season 2: "The Immunity Syndrome"
WRITER GENE RODDENBERRY: TOS, Season 2: "The Omega Glory"
WRITER D.C. FONTANA: TNG, Season 1: "Too Short A Season"
DIRECTOR CLIFF BOLE: TNG, Season 6: "Aquiel"
TREK NOIR: TNG, Season 6: "Aquiel"
SEASON PREMIERE: TNG, Season 7: "Descent, Part II"
PRIME DIRECTIVE: TNG, Season 7: "Homeward"
WRITER RONALD D. MOORE: TNG, Season 7: "Journey's End"
DIRECTOR LES LANDAU: TNG, Season 7: "Bloodlines"
DIRECTOR JONATHAN FRAKES: TNG Feature: "Star Trek: Insurrection"
LWAXANA: DS9, Season 1: "The Forsaken"
ROMANCE OF THE WEEK: DS9, Season 3: "Meridian"
FERENGI: DS9, Season 7: "The Emperor's New Cloak"
DIRECTOR WINRICH KOLBE: VOY, Season 2: "Elogium"
CARDASSIANS: VOY, Season 2: "Investigations"
WEDDING: VOY, Season 3: "Favorite Son"
HOLIDAY: VOY, Season 4: "Day Of Honor"
HOLODECK: VOY, Season 6: "Fair Haven"
DIRECTOR DAVID LIVINGSTON: VOY, Season 6: "Spirit Folk"
COMEDIC/LIGHT-HEARTED: VOY, Season 6: "Spirit Folk"
TIME TRAVEL/ANOMALY/LOOP: VOY, Season 6: “Fury”
WRITTEN BY JOE MENOSKY: VOY, Season 7: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II"
MAQUIS: VOY, Season 7: "Repression"
BARCLAY: VOY, Season 7: "Inside Man"
Q: VOY, Season 7: "Q2"
BORG: VOY, Season 7: "Endgame"
LATIN TITLE: ENT, Season 1: "Terra Nova"
DIRECTOR LEVAR BURTON: ENT, Season 1: "Terra Nova"
MATRIARCHAL ALIENS: ENT, Season 1: "Shockwave, Part I"
2-HOUR/2-PART: ENT, Season 1 & 2: "Shockwave"
VISIT TO EARTH'S "PRESENT": ENT, Season 2: "Shockwave, Part II"
VAUGHN ARMSTRONG GUEST APPEARANCE: ENT, Season 2: "Shockwave, Part II"
KLINGONS: ENT, Season 2: "Marauders"
DIRECTOR MIKE VEJAR: ENT, Season 2: "Marauders"
DIRECTOR JAMES L. CONWAY: ENT, Season 2: "Judgment"
FAMILY: ENT, Season 2: "Horizon"
HALLUCINATION/ILLUSION: ENT, Season 3: "Extinction"
VISIT TO EARTH'S PAST: ENT, Season 4: "Storm Front, Part I"
THR'S 100 GREATEST TREK EPS: ENT, Season 4: "Home"
CAST CROSSOVER: ENT, Season 4: "These Are The Voyages..."
DIRECTOR ALLAN KROEKER: ENT, Season 4: "These Are The Voyages..."
MIRROR UNIVERSE: DIS, Season 1: "What's Past Is Prologue"
INTRODUCTION OF RECURRING ALIENS: DIS, Season 2: "An Obol For Charon" (the jahSepp)
SECTION 31: DIS, Season 2: "Perpetual Infinity"
RECYCLED TITLE: ST, Season 2: "Children Of Mars"
ROMULANS: PIC, Season 1: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1"
COUPLE: PIC:

Spoiler

Rios/Jurati

TOTAL SHOW WINS
TAS - 0 wins
Movies & ST - 1 win each
PIC - 2 wins
TOS, DS9 and DIS - 3 wins each
TNG - 7 wins
VOY - 13 wins
ENT - 15 wins