Trek episode with most UNEXECUTED potential??

[Gavin70]

However, as with most Voyager episodes, all is set to the status quo at the end with no real repercussions or consequences for the crew

This was my chief frustration with Voyager. The whole show was set up to be very much serialised in nature but it felt like the network forced it to be much more episodic than it should have been.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Imaginary Friend

Daniel Sutter had the situation of being a single father of a very sweet, but troubled child who's seeing Troi (!!!) for counseling, as she has trouble making friends. One can't help but axe, "where's the mother?" And if there is no mother, why isn't that factoring in as part of the child's problems? The whole episode ends up not involving the Sutters, but rather the (otherwise invisible) alien that befriends Claire, Daniel's daughter. On paper, it might sound like a parent's worse nightmare and a real and present danger to the ship, but it just came off as weird and boring. Daniel Sutter's story of being a single parent, how he got that way and what it had done to him and his life was much more interesting, to me. I've always liked the character and his unexecuted potential. Hell ... I even related to the Man. He'd have to be a friend of somebody -- Geordi, perhaps -- for the episode to be so devoted to Daniel's story, because it's like ... "who the hell's Sutter?" but what a waste.

 

[Abi Smith]

I can't remember who first put forward the idea, might have been SF Debris, but the Voyager episode Alliances could have been a chance for Janeway and Co to start building the Federation in the Delta Quadrant leading to a much more story arc style structure with more consistency, intead we get USS Reset Button.

 

[Rahul]

I think I'd go with DS9 "Let He Who Is Without Sin." You can't really top that for unexecuted potential, in that the entire episode is supposed to be about sex, yet it's so chaste you can't even have a man shirtless at the beach. There's no point in doing a completely neutered sex episode.

IMO that episode was less an episode about sex, than an episode about our main characters indulging in sex tourism.
Hard to say there was any unexecuted potential. Probably only if they had decided to go really ammoral anti-hero with our main characters. As it was, it was just embarrasing. Both in execution and original potential.

"Birthright Part II" over on TNG would actually be my runner-up -- another shitty installment that totally trashes Worf! He is so awful and racist here, and it's not worth it because they fail to do anything dramatically interesting with his racism. And I loved where Data's story had left off and was DYING to see what happened next with his dream exploration, and nothing. Honestly I think I was 35 minutes into the hour before I finally admitted we weren't doing more with Data. AND they couldn't do another scene with James Cromwell's awesome Yridiian character because he injured himself! So many failures.

Worf was ALWAYS a self-absorbed asshole! That's part of his appeal. That really everyone can get along in the future. Even the big dumb self-absorbed klingon can be a precious member of the society, and work together with the "nerds" and do good. (Being the only single dad on the show fits were well with his douche-bro appereance.) Him facing his predjudices against Romulans wasn't the first, nor the most egregious time.

Totally agree about Data, though! I really thought this was the beginning of an awesome character arc! Instead, we just never, ever got a follow-up on. THAT was truly disappointing, and so so much unexecuted potential wasted.

"Fury" on VOY is another good one. This is dead on:

I was no longer regularly watching Voyager in season 6, but was super excited when I heard Kes was doing another ep and made a point to watch. It really would have been better to not bring her back at all, "The Gift" was a perfect character exit, which "Fury" retroactively destroyed while adding nothing.

Kes was Luke Skywalker before Luke Skywalker was the Last Jedi!

Seriously though, I loved that episode.
I loved seeing Kes again. And I think her journey was a believable one. Her leaving on "The gift" was always an ambigious one - both bursting with potential, but also with danger. It was very fitting with the tone of later Voyager that not everything worked out perfectly fine. And Kes didn't turn out flatly evil - just misguided. Which I believe can be disappointing for a fan of the character. But it fits very well with her journey, how naive but still strong-willed she was in the beginning and still is, just without the youthful optimism. It's just a more tragic story. But ultimately, she still was able to find back to her true self. She just wasn't capable of handling to be completely alone with the unknown and her expansive powers for most of her life. She needed the compassion and friendship of others. Which she didn't get that in her new plane of existence. I love that story. It's a sad one, yes. But also a much more complex and intimate look at her character than we ever got before.

Overall though, I think "Fury" was more of a story for the fans still watching Voyager, in the style of the later series, with more complex and darker themes, and a nostalgic look back at the early seasons. And not an episode to be singularly watched by the people who left early on and were expecting a small, friendly greeting of a familiar character to show by years later.

The only part I didn't like about that episode was that the time-travel/predestination paradox, where Janeway was retconned to know something will happen years later in the timeline (like in 'Relativity', where she was retconned to know about Seven of Nine years earlier), because that takes a bit of the punch out of her original decisions in those cases.

 

[Sakonna]

Seriously though, I loved that episode.
I loved seeing Kes again. And I think her journey was a believable one. Her leaving on "The gift" was always an ambigious one - both bursting with potential, but also with danger. It was very fitting with the tone of later Voyager that not everything worked out perfectly fine. And Kes didn't turn out flatly evil - just misguided. Which I believe can be disappointing for a fan of the character. But it fits very well with her journey, how naive but still strong-willed she was in the beginning and still is, just without the youthful optimism. It's just a more tragic story. But ultimately, she still was able to find back to her true self. She just wasn't capable of handling to be completely alone with the unknown and her expansive powers for most of her life. She needed the compassion and friendship of others. Which she didn't get that in her new plane of existence. I love that story. It's a sad one, yes. But also a much more complex and intimate look at her character than we ever got before.

Overall though, I think "Fury" was more of a story for the fans still watching Voyager, in the style of the later series, with more complex and darker themes, and a nostalgic look back at the early seasons. And not an episode to be singularly watched by the people who left early on and were expecting a small, friendly greeting of a familiar character to show by years later.

You make an excellent case for it! My objection wasn't to the overall direction, I quite like the basic premise of "Kes returns -- FOR REVENGE!" And I enjoy the first 20 minutes, if I catch it in reruns I will happily watch the beginning. I love that shot of her walking down the hall with the bulkheads exploding behind her, despite the fact that it's such an obvious digital effect. My criticism would be that the storytelling just starts to fracture after that, and it becomes increasingly confused until that logical mess of an ending.

I'm trying to think of what approach I might have liked more. Maybe encountering a Kes who is becoming Q-like in her morality -- her powers have warped her principles, she has some "lesser" beings under her thumb in some way. That could have been some great drama, if they really fleshed out Kes's new point of view, she and Janeway could have really gone at it in some compelling clash of values.

There was also something I always found a bit odd about how Neelix and Kes were initially defined by their adventurous spirit, their certainty that what they wanted was to leave the strictures of their home space/planet for a one way ticket in the opposite direction, and yet both characters were returned to their own people at the end of their journey's.

I'm intrigued by your analysis of later Voyager as darker. That's exactly what I always wanted it to be, and it's persistent lightness is exactly what drove me away. I never fully tuned out, but starting with season 5 I was only catching about a quarter of the episodes. In the ensuing years I've probably gotten up to 75% of these last three seasons, but in very piecemeal style, catching reruns here and there. I've sometimes wondered if I should go back and try to do a re/watch in order.

 

[Rahul]

You make an excellent case for it! My objection wasn't to the overall direction, I quite like the basic premise of "Kes returns -- FOR REVENGE!" And I enjoy the first 20 minutes, if I catch it in reruns I will happily watch the beginning. I love that shot of her walking down the hall with the bulkheads exploding behind her, despite the fact that it's such an obvious digital effect. My criticism would be that the storytelling just starts to fracture after that, and it becomes increasingly confused until that logical mess of an ending.

That's also a very valid description of the episode!
The time travel aspect in the second half of the episode is mostly used to have a nostalgic look back at early Voyager - brighter lit set, ridiculous hair, even the early villains (Viidians) were used again. That's also an episode I like, but it's basically two different things meshed into one episode. That probably explains why overall I like it very much, but would probably not put it in the top of Voyager episodes.

There was also something I always found a bit odd about how Neelix and Kes were initially defined by their adventurous spirit, their certainty that what they wanted was to leave the strictures of their home space/planet for a one way ticket in the opposite direction, and yet both characters were returned to their own people at the end of their journey's.

Yeah, that wasn't right. Generally I think Voyager ended very poorly. Not just was I NOT a fan of the Neelix good-bye episode (hey, lets start a fight with the bad guy! Instead of searching for a diplomatic solution. What could go wrong? - Honestly, I still expect the Talaxian colony to be blown up the second Voyager left...), but I think the series finale was not just one of the weakest finales, but one of the weakest Trek episodes in general... The dumb type of time travel, ablative hull armor, one-shotting Borg cubes anyone...? Ugh.

I'm still a fan of Voyager in general. But in their last season, they kinda' blew it. And the finale for me is equal with the finale of nuBattlestar Galactica in how disappointing it was and what a disservice it did for the series overall.

I'm intrigued by your analysis of later Voyager as darker. That's exactly what I always wanted it to be, and it's persistent lightness is exactly what drove me away. I never fully tuned out, but starting with season 5 I was only catching about a quarter of the episodes. In the ensuing years I've probably gotten up to 75% of these last three seasons, but in very piecemeal style, catching reruns here and there. I've sometimes wondered if I should go back and try to do a re/watch in order.

It depends. The series becomes notably more mature with the introduction of Seven of Nine and the Borg, and touches on heavier themes, mostly through Seven, of victimhood and guilt and stuff. And the menaces become notably darker, like the Hirogen and so on. And the Delta Flyer is IMO one of the best addition to the franchise - a smaller craft apart from the main vessel, that allows them to move their character further away from their main ship, and thus sells the isolation of the overall situation even more. The middle of the series is probably the best. But even then, it never gets really dark, just a bit more mature. And even then, it's usually the "event" episodes that are worthwile, a lot of episodes still feel like filler to get to the good stuff. Until the very end those same new themes have also kinda' played out and become more repetitive - "Seven learns xxx this episode" became a cliché, and (what I really hate) violence increasingly becomes the answers in solving conflicts. Something that transcended to early ENT as well, and IMO this starker focus on "fighting action" with phasers and ship battles is what has made the Star Trek franchise so stale since then, and still plagues each of the newer iterations.

I think an attempt at rewatching Voyager could be worthwile - maybe all those years later your look on things has changed, and you can appreciate more of the stuff for what it is, than what you wish it would have been. That being said, it's still the same show. So if you don't take enjoyment out of watching it, there really is no reason to force oneself to it.

 

[eschaton]

I think an attempt at rewatching Voyager could be worthwile - maybe all those years later your look on things has changed, and you can appreciate more of the stuff for what it is, than what you wish it would have been. That being said, it's still the same show. So if you don't take enjoyment out of watching it, there really is no reason to force oneself to it.

I relatively recently finished a Voyager rewatch. Actually, watch, considering like many I didn't see a lot of the series when it was first run, and was watching all of Trek to be a completist. While I'd ague that the latter seasons of VOY had less total stinkers overall (and a few excellent episodes) much of it was very mediocre - basically just going through the motions. Voyager basically had three, and only three plots:

1. Hey, we have a way to get home! Oh, no, wait, we didn't.
2. The ship is in danger due to an anomaly/alien race. We'll defeat it with technobabble, and some 30-second combat scene in the last five-minutes of the show.
3. Let's focus on a popular (or conversely unpopular) character for a whole episode. This is usually when they didn't whiff it. The problem is the conclusions of these episodes are basically never followed up upon later.

 

[Vger23]

I relatively recently finished a Voyager rewatch. Actually, watch, considering like many I didn't see a lot of the series when it was first run, and was watching all of Trek to be a completist. While I'd ague that the latter seasons of VOY had less total stinkers overall (and a few excellent episodes) much of it was very mediocre - basically just going through the motions. Voyager basically had three, and only three plots:

1. Hey, we have a way to get home! Oh, no, wait, we didn't.
2. The ship is in danger due to an anomaly/alien race. We'll defeat it with technobabble, and some 30-second combat scene in the last five-minutes of the show.
3. Let's focus on a popular (or conversely unpopular) character for a whole episode. This is usually when they didn't whiff it. The problem is the conclusions of these episodes are basically never followed up upon later.

I'm basically in the same place right now. Doing a re/watch of VOY.

I find your summary to be pretty much exactly how I feel. You forgot plot 4, which is: We are in an inexplicable, crazy, mind bending scenario, which is just a bogus switcheroo that will be settled and forgotten by the end of the episode"

I find VOY to be likable and quaint, but nothing to be passionate or inspired about. It's just sort of there. It's not bad or offensive...it just exists. It's basically exactly how I feel about "The Orville" which, to me, is a virtual copy of VOY's tone and format. It's light, risk-free, uninspired, watchable background noise.

Not bad, but not worth any time or discussion once it ends.

 

[eschaton]

I'm basically in the same place right now. Doing a re/watch of VOY.

I find your summary to be pretty much exactly how I feel. You forgot plot 4, which is: We are in an inexplicable, crazy, mind bending scenario, which is just a bogus switcheroo that will be settled and forgotten by the end of the episode"

I find VOY to be likable and quaint, but nothing to be passionate or inspired about. It's just sort of there. It's not bad or offensive...it just exists. It's basically exactly how I feel about "The Orville" which, to me, is a virtual copy of VOY's tone and format. It's light, risk-free, uninspired, watchable background noise.

Not bad, but not worth any time or discussion once it ends.

No episode more perfectly encapsulates the problems with Voyager than Barge of the Dead. One of many great Torres episodes, which admittedly happened because Ron Moore had an unused Worf story idea laying around which Fuller reworked to fit her character. But Torres basically ends the episode as being "born again" in the Klingon religion. Then, next season in Prophecy, we meet a ship of Klingon religious fanatics, and Torres openly says she doesn't believe in Klingon religion.

 

[XCV330]

No episode more perfectly encapsulates the problems with Voyager than Barge of the Dead. One of many great Torres episodes, which admittedly happened because Ron Moore had an unused Worf story idea laying around which Fuller reworked to fit her character. But Torres basically ends the episode as being "born again" in the Klingon religion. Then, next season in Prophecy, we meet a ship of Klingon religious fanatics, and Torres openly says she doesn't believe in Klingon religion.

that lack of continuity, lack of consequences, hey the carpets look great! mentality of Voyager is why my attempts to rewatch it have failed. There are good episodes but even those suffer from the Voyager Reset Button. It had the perfect premise.

I read once that the writers of Leave it to Beaver were instructed not to make jokes too funny. The network wanted a show that one could lightly chuckle along with, but not laugh too hard to. That sounds odd now, but it worked then. Voyager tried to be the show DS9 was never intended to be, while capitalizing on the success TNG had. So it's a nice, brightly lit show where the stakes are medium-high. And it worked enough for 7 seasons. People still like it. I never really did.

 

[at Quark's]

Perhaps 'Parallels' could have been the start of a spin-off series 'Sliders: The Next generation'....(Picard as Arturo, Wesley as Quinn, Lefler as his almost-girlfriend, Worf as an angry Rembrandt accidentally pulled in).

I would have watched it, if only for the cheesiness factor of it

 

[The Old Mixer]

I tended to like Voyager episodes better the first time I saw them...on TNG.

 

[Tracy Trek]

The episode would have worked so much better, if B'elanna's depression had been hinted at and foreshadowed in previous episodes.

As someone who also has suffered from depression in the past I disagree with most of what you have written here. I do agree that they could have hinted a bit at her mental state in previous eps, but often people who are in psychological distress hide their emotions and true state, sometimes quite effectively. As per a TV show maybe this stance has problems in terms of conveying the full story to the viewer, but I liked this ep. Thought it worked well and was able to fit the "untold" pieces together in my brain due to my own past (and some present) experiences. I watched it for the first time very late on a night that I had insomnia due to distress, so maybe my appreciation was elevated because of that.

Although it wasn't enough. Wasn't there a bit of a hint that something was off with Torres in the episode Night? Tom says something about pain sticks.

Seeing "Unification" brought up reminded me about "Relics". Not so much the Scotty arc, which is...arguable...but that they bring up a Dyson Sphere, but when they finally crack it open all they find is an unstable sun? That's it?

There was a bit more description of the interior of the sphere in the novelization of the episode.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

There was so much wrong with Let He Who Is Without Sin. Besides being an annoying 'Dax and Worf bicker' episode, they bring up a ridiculous cliche villain with a ridiculous plan that had no chance of affecting anything except ruining people's vacation, it brings Worf far out of character to even consider taking their side.

They couldn't salvage the episode and make it anything without having the show pass judgment on the hedonism planet and not just Worf, and that wouldn't have come off well. I suppose they could have had an actual Dominion attack happen while they were on Risa to give more weight to the argument that they're weakening themselves by frittering their time away.

I think they missed some opportunities in Course: Oblivion to have Voyager come upon a place that the other Voyager had been to and deal with existential issues coming up from exact duplicates of themselves who were actually doing better than they were (Until they came apart).

 

[mos6507]

The Cloud Minders gets my vote. David Gerrold's original idea could have been a powerful moment in Trek. I like that his ending of the episode had no clear resolution to the problem. Because the problems are societal and not just mining practices. It ends with just a hope that as both sides talk they might work out their differences.

True, but real life tends to be that way.

 

[Commishsleer]

TOS- "And The Children Shall Lead".
Could have been an eerie horror story (if 60s censors allowed it) with Midwich Cuckoos acting type children.
Let down by some really bad casting and a poor script.

TNG - The episode where they meet the sleeper ship with the 21st? century humans aboard.
They could have kept the 21st century humans aboard for several episodes to show them the wonders of the 24th century and also to provide an amazing opportunity for 24th century historians.
Instead we got the episode that made me hate Riker with his holier than thou vegetarian (except for Gagh) non-drinking atitude, a captain who didn't even want to perform a rescue anyone and was too good to even visit them,

 

[DonIago]

Did "The Neutral Zone" air before or after Picard's interest in archaeology was established? If the latter it makes even less sense that he wouldn't want to see living relics of the past.