I can't think of any episode of 1999 that even remotely reminds me of "Tin Man".
"Tin Man" the worst episode of TNG ever?
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I can't think of any episode of 1999 that even remotely reminds me of "Tin Man".
The show in question was called "Voyager's Return" and had Jeremy Kemp as the guest star.
http://www.space1999.net/moonbase99/voyager.htm
http://www.space1999.net/moonbase99/voyager.htm
I think that the Tin Man was an ok episode. I actually rather liked it. I couldn't watch it twice in a row but Its still good.
Except for a "man trying to redeem himself", these episodes have nothing in common.
Yeah, well, I didn't get it either when I rented and watched the episode.
Hey, any episode that helps preview a concept that would be used later in one of the best Scifi Series ever is a good episode in my book. 
This episode isn't bad, but Tam was annoying as Hell. It was great Data character building though.
This episode isn't bad, but Tam was annoying as Hell. It was great Data character building though.
I rate this as one of the better episodes rather than the one of the worst. "Rascals" gets my vote as the worst TNG episode by a wide margin. I absolutely cannot get through 10 minutes of that swill without suffering strong urges to damage the TV or computer it's playing on.
I don't see any connection between this episode and 1999's "Voyager's Return" at all. Now 1999's "The Infernal Machine" is another matter. This episode also features a living spaceship.
I don't see any connection between this episode and 1999's "Voyager's Return" at all. Now 1999's "The Infernal Machine" is another matter. This episode also features a living spaceship.
Shades of Grey is the worst. No ifs ands and buts about it.
Say what you will about Rascals, Tin Man, Imaginary Friend, that Lwaxana/Alexander episode, Justice, etc.
None of them where clip shows.
A clip show people. A CLIP SHOW!
For the second season of a hour-long TV series and they dusted off a 100th episode sitcom plot device. Yes, yes, there was a writer's strike. No excuse.
A. Clip. SHOW!!!
Say what you will about Rascals, Tin Man, Imaginary Friend, that Lwaxana/Alexander episode, Justice, etc.
None of them where clip shows.
A clip show people. A CLIP SHOW!
For the second season of a hour-long TV series and they dusted off a 100th episode sitcom plot device. Yes, yes, there was a writer's strike. No excuse.
A. Clip. SHOW!!!
I’ve got to disagree with you on this one. Tin Man is easily in my top 20 favorites. I liked the concept of a race between the Federation and the Romulans to make first contact with a mysterious living starship.
And Tam was a terrific guest character, an isolationist wacko from the usually serene Betazoid species. His tortured history, his fragile psyche, along with Riker’s righteous anger towards Tam, and his long-range telepathic contact with Gomtu made him a compelling character.
The ultimate joining of Tam and Gomtu is for me, in retrospect, predictable, but touchingly so. I was still just a teenager the first time I saw the episode, and so the ending actually came as something of a surprise to me. Yeah, the special effects were a bit cheesy, and the Romulan commander chewed the scenery briefly, but the message of the episode and the crew’s enthusiasm for the mystery of the alien ship connected with me.
But, to each their own. Just my $0.02.
And Tam was a terrific guest character, an isolationist wacko from the usually serene Betazoid species. His tortured history, his fragile psyche, along with Riker’s righteous anger towards Tam, and his long-range telepathic contact with Gomtu made him a compelling character.
The ultimate joining of Tam and Gomtu is for me, in retrospect, predictable, but touchingly so. I was still just a teenager the first time I saw the episode, and so the ending actually came as something of a surprise to me. Yeah, the special effects were a bit cheesy, and the Romulan commander chewed the scenery briefly, but the message of the episode and the crew’s enthusiasm for the mystery of the alien ship connected with me.
But, to each their own. Just my $0.02.
It's always been one of my favorite episodes. Tam was kind of annoying, but that was the point. He was tortured and took it out on people around him. The acting was spot-on, and it only stood out in comparison to the relatively bland regular characters.
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This is one of those episodes I haven't seen in well over 10 years, which predates my joining TrekBBS.
There were three types of episodes while I was watching TNG, "This episode is good!", "This episode is there", and "Oh no! Not this episode! Change the channel!" This one is "There". I never gave the episode a second's thought until I saw Dennis Bailey's name on the board and thought "That name sounds familiar, where do I know about it from?" Then he mentioned "Tin Man", I remembered an interview I read about it way back when in Starlog's Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine, asked him about it, and the rest fell into place. Never bothered to rewatch the episode though. I never felt a burning urge to revisit it.
If I remembered it as a great episode I would've put it on again, if I remembered it as a bad episode I would've put it on to confirm what I would've thought all along. Based on the lack of reaction 15 years ago (when I assume I first saw the episode in reruns) and nothing more than passive curiosity six years ago, I'd have to say this episode is strictly middling.
There were three types of episodes while I was watching TNG, "This episode is good!", "This episode is there", and "Oh no! Not this episode! Change the channel!" This one is "There". I never gave the episode a second's thought until I saw Dennis Bailey's name on the board and thought "That name sounds familiar, where do I know about it from?" Then he mentioned "Tin Man", I remembered an interview I read about it way back when in Starlog's Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine, asked him about it, and the rest fell into place. Never bothered to rewatch the episode though. I never felt a burning urge to revisit it.
If I remembered it as a great episode I would've put it on again, if I remembered it as a bad episode I would've put it on to confirm what I would've thought all along. Based on the lack of reaction 15 years ago (when I assume I first saw the episode in reruns) and nothing more than passive curiosity six years ago, I'd have to say this episode is strictly middling.
Without trying to wander too far off-topic, I will grant that Shades of Grey was not one of Trek's best moments. I rarely watch it anymore but I do cut it some slack since it was a rush job due to the lack of writers and a contractual obligation to deliver a new episode. Kind of hard to write much dialog when you don't have any writers around.
The same excuse can not be made for any of the other episodes you've listed.
Actually, the WGA Witer's strike occured between the 1st and 2nd season of TNG, not the second and 3rd; so the writers were in fact there and available.
Shades of Grey was done because they simply ran out of production money for the season and DID need to deliver a 'new' episode; so this is what they could afford at the time.
Big deal. It was a crappy episode for sure. Totally worthless and devoid of any entertainment value. But it didn't assassinate the characters as "Rascals" did. It didn't contain gross scientific errors as many other bad episodes (including "Rascals") did. It didn't tell an unbelievable story which made it impossible to suspend disbelief. It didn't violate continuity.
Instead of a 1-10 scale, a -10 to +10 scale should be used to rate episodes. "Shades of Gray" gets a zero here because it had no value but didn't offend either. "Rascals gets at least a -8 because it made our beloved characters look like monkeys, told a difficult to believe story and was scientifically laughable.
...and - on top of everything - it was supposed to be cute.
very well said re "shades of gray." yeah, it's a crap episode, it's so craptastic in fact that it's not enough bad enough to be BAD, it's just sort of ph-neutral, like it doesn't even exist. i guess it's kind of a chicken-(or turkey)-vs-the-egg....is it worse to suck on autopilot or to suck while trying, but i'm w/ grandpa...i'll take "shades of gray" over "imaginary friend" any day of the week.
and "tin man" still sucks rank gomtuu ass.
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