Game The Most Disliked Trek Noir

[Cyfa]

ENT: “Carpenter Street” is my save this time. I don't think I was that enamoured with it when I first watched it, but I rewatched it last year and really got into the Earth's past-based story shenanigans, and T'Pol getting to grips with time-travel. Plus, Leland Orser is always worth a watch.

TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TOS, Season 3: “Turnabout Intruder”
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
TNG, Season 6: "Man Of The People"
TNG, Season 6: “Aquiel”
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation”
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
ENT, Season 4: "Bound"
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
DIS, Season 3: "That Hope Is You, Part 1"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"
PIC, Season 2: "Penance" [spoiler tag discussion of "Penance"]

 

[Oddish]

Well scripted and very well acted by William Sadler, who always delivers on any of his performances. I may be in the minority, but I actually liked Section 31.

If the Federation were a body, S31 would me like its... ah, digestive terminus. Nasty, disgusting, and rarely discussed in polite company... but necessary nonetheless.

Saving "Man of the People", for the interesting moral dilemma it presents: save one person you know while indirectly killing thousands? Or seek the greater good? The episode dodges the conflict, but it still bears thinking. And for a mental health pro, Troi does psycho surprisingly well.

TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TOS, Season 3: “Turnabout Intruder”
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
TNG, Season 6: “Aquiel”
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation”
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
ENT, Season 4: "Bound"
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
DIS, Season 3: "That Hope Is You, Part 1"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"
PIC, Season 2: "Penance" [spoiler tag discussion of "Penance"]

 

[Sakonna]

"That Hope Is You, Part 1" was a fabulous introduction to the 32nd century. This is one of the most rewatchable Discovery's for me.

TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TOS, Season 3: “Turnabout Intruder”
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
TNG, Season 6: “Aquiel”
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation”
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
ENT, Season 4: "Bound"
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"
PIC, Season 2: "Penance" [spoiler tag discussion of "Penance"]

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll save PIC's Penance next.

Spoiler

This episode continued the high-paced start to season two with Q's timeline shenanigans. The alternate timeline that was created was like the Mirror Universe but dialed up to 11.

The collection of skeletons of well-known characters from Trek's past was a dark highlight.

TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TOS, Season 3: “Turnabout Intruder”
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
TNG, Season 6: “Aquiel”
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
ENT, Season 4: "Bound"
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Qonundrum]

I'll save The Conscience Of The King: I love that Kirk had to be absolutely certain before he moved on Kodos.

Entirely agreed!

Also, that one's worth saving for Lenore's deliciously filthy double-entendres if nothing else.

But I also recall enjoying this one as there was a nice murder mystery going on and we see Riley again. If anything, I'd have hoped for Charles Nelson Riley but that's not going to happen...

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A shame Lt Riley didn't make more appearances...

 

[Qonundrum]

TOS, Season 3: “Turnabout Intruder”

William and Shatner and Sandra Smith do a tour de force in having to act like their nemesis, convincingly, and without going OTT, and it's rather great. Shatner had the easier role as he seems to like doing "crazy acting" and by this point in season 3 he'd done a lot of that already - and amazing stays just short of the stratosphere in his least-restrained moments. Smith has to sell a rational Kirk and is superlative with the task. The makers knew this would be the last episode, but it didn't stop them from not getting lazy in the casting department. Kudos.

That said, the story can't make up its mind whether it's saying women can't be captains at all or if Lester is just angry because she is clinically insane and is blaming Kirk. Given that ST4-TVH is the first to show a female captain, I'm leaning toward the former. And honesty, who doesn't Madge Sinclair but that's a different and more expansive topic considering how much work she'd done...

(On edit: Fixing what was supposed to be a double-negative as the acting was clearly a positive... )

What's left:
TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
TNG, Season 6: “Aquiel”
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
ENT, Season 4: "Bound"
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Sakonna]

I think there's fun to be had with "Bound." Lower Decks has also retroactively elevated it. Within "Bound", the reveal the Orion females are "in charge" feels a little Mens-Rights-Activist. But then Lower Decks made it fully great in their explorations of this notion via Tendi.

TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
TNG, Season 6: “Aquiel”
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Summer Solstice]

We're good, the list below is correct

Thanks for checking/fixing it!

We're now down to episodes I haven't seen, episodes I haven't seen for a long time and episodes I don't particularly enjoy.

I'm saving Aquiel. It's not boring and the shapechanging alien was a cool idea. Someone early on in the episode should have questioned how the dog got trapped in the Jefferies tube though...

TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Qonundrum]

TAS, Season 1: “The Lorelei Signal”
A tad underrated, it's amazing TOS didn't get to do this one. Seeing Uhura take command rocks and Chapel's up there in getting some material better than 95% of TOS as well.



What's left:
TOS, Season 1: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[dupersuper]

What Are Little Girls Made Of?: Kirk's trick was clever, if racist.


TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
VOY, Season 3: “Darkling”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Brennyren]

Saving "Darkling," again, for Robert Picardo's work, again. Guy elevates his material, what can I say?

TNG, Season 2: "Manhunt"
DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Qonundrum]

What Are Little Girls Made Of?: Kirk's trick was clever, if racist.

It was very distasteful, hasn't dated well at all, and Kirk uses it in "This Side of Paradise" as well - even the legendary DC Fontana wasn't perfect. (Okay, from an audience point of view it's uncomfortable and is arguably meant to be, if the viewer is watching from the viewpoint of Spock (as third person). Kirk doing whatever it took to get Spock to realize that it wasn't him... except the story also makes it clear to the viewer that he's a phony. Hell, of all the stories to play doublemint gum with Kirk, "Whom Gods Destroy", did by far the best job at confusing the audience - and with by far the best way to show Spock knows the innate differences between the real Kirk and the phony to not have to use something so vulgar in the first place!

More opinions of the story: The title is bonkers. The story itself is bonkers. The story posits a refreshing sci-fi idea about transplanting a soul into a machine, but without the execution to match.

From recollection, Chapel does not much more than pine away over a lost love. Even by 1966 that's beyond cliche. And surely the episode title isn't about that, since that idea didn't dawn on me until ten seconds ago as I otherwise spent zero point forty-nine centuries trying to figure out what the bleep a gigantic 78rpm record player with Kirk's sexy hairless double and whose RPM should splatter Kirk's brains inside his skull had to do with anything involving the title... maybe somebody's brains were already splattered by LSD at the time... Like the center of the tootsie pop, we'll never know how many licks it takes to find out... Also, Chapel was neither little nor a girl... Andrea isn't tall and if she was a recent creation then "girl" might apply, but that's stretching it more than the silly putty used to keep that scanty little outfit on...

The casting of Ruk was inspired, but please don't say that when his agent called he answered, "You rang?"

But he also gets attacked by Kirk wielding a giant-- um, stalactite --yeah that's the actual word since everyone else loves to say any word that otherwise amounts to "big dildo" in their reviews, since they prefer "phallic club", which sounds rather like a nightclub I used to frequent... Given how bonkers the story is, nobody's going to blame them... At least Kirk tried to use it as a club and not a fencing foil but the goal was for the scene to induce suspense, not high-decibel laughter sufficient to break all the windows in the neighborhood with.

And if you don't believe me about that one bit:

https://troubledscience.com/Ref2.html
https://www.tor.com/2009/04/28/lemgstar-treklemg-re-watch-7ldquowhat-are-little-girls-made-ofardquo/
https://www.retrospace.org/2008/12/captain-kirk-and-his-phallic-cave-rock.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlypeni..._stalactite_captain_kirk_uses_as_a_weapon_in/ <-- hey cool, this one has a giant full-frontal photo of it!
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/oddpl8/kirks_phallic_stalactite_this_had_to_be/ <- references Memory Alpha, so it must be true


(on edit: Typos)

 

[Sakonna]

I will save the delightful "Manhunt." After "Fascination", my 2nd favorite Lwaxana episode.

DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The Valley Of Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: “Stardust City Rag”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Oddish]

Starting to reach the bottom of the barrel... but I'll save Stardust City Rag. Picard and Seven, two of the best Berman era Trek characters, together. And yes, what happened with Icheb was gut-wrenching, but at least his killer was brought to justice.

DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 5: “A Simple Investigation"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The ValleyOf Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll save A Simple Investigation again because I love Odo in this.

DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
DS9, Season 7: “Prodigal Daughter”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The ValleyOf Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Cyfa]

DS9: “Prodigal Daughter” is my save. I liked meeting Ezri's family and seeing (a small part of) the civilian side of the Federation - plus, her (reused) house is gorgeous!

DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
DIS, Season 2: "Through The ValleyOf Shadows"
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Through The Valley Of Shadows. Great episode for Pike, Burnham, Spock, Culber and Reno. I really need to get around to rewatching Discovery Season 2 one of these days.

DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
DS9, Season 4: "The Muse"
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Farscape One]

My final vote for this game is "THE MUSE".

While the creativity vampire was an interesting concept, and I love Meg Foster, it just didn't work for some reason. But the Odo/Lwaxana story was sweet, and was definitely the better part of the episode.


DS9, Season 2: “Second Sight”
ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Cyfa]

DS9: “Second Sight” is not an awful episode, but it's hardly an utter delight either. However, I'm saving it because I liked Sisko's and Fenna's/Nidell's interactions, and that Seyetik did something good for his wife at the end.

ENT, Season 3: “Rajiin”
PIC, Season 1: "Broken Pieces"

 

[Qonundrum]

I will save the delightful "Manhunt." After "Fascination", my 2nd favorite Lwaxana episode.

That's a good one. Lwaxana is a hoot, most of the jokes hold up, she also gets the best line at the end as she fishes out the fishy machinations of the Antedean delegates in a way that even Troi never could... There's also a nice speech about how different species have mutual feelings and promoting mutual understanding (something "Doctor Who" did in 1980 with "The Leisure Hive" only without the Wesleyisms, though it's clear the preceding Rikerism was prodding Wesley - for slightly different results:

RIKER: So what did you think of the Antedeans, Wesley?
WESLEY: They are rather strange-looking, Commander.
DATA: Judging a being by its physical appearance is the last major human prejudice, Wesley.
PICARD: Your point is well taken, Mister Data. I'm sure that to the Antedeans, we are equally unattractive.
WORF: Captain, we are being hailed by a small transport vessel, just coming into range.
TROI: Oh, my God--
((The Antedean ship fires at point blank range on the Enterprise an unending stream of electric eels and it blows up. Cue end credits.))

(...Sorry for adding some science fiction into science fiction, that last line really didn't happen...)
)



And, lastly, Mick Fleetwood gets costumed up as a big blue fish and serenades Worf with "Hold Me", in a way not unlike this:

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