Underrated Trek

[alicelouise]

This type of thread probably exists back 10 pages. What ST series or season do you consider underrated or unjustly consigned to a dustbin?

For instance, many consider TOS Season 3 to be the lost weekend of TOS with the exception of "The Enterprise Incident". The rest of course consisting of unwatchable episodes featuring bratty kids/friendly angel and space hippies. The 3rd season has other episodes like "The Tholian Web", "Is There in Truth no Beauty?", and others. These aren't great but they aren't horrible teleplays either.

Everyone's favorite whipping boys VOY and ENT had some gems. VOY had "Equinox". ENT had the "Andorian Incident" which showed the Vulcans as being not so perfect.

TNG has been criticized as having a smugness and self satisfaction permeating the series. With a watch through every TNG season though 1-7 there are watchable episodes with a good story hook.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Myasishchev]

^Is There in Truth No Beauty? is a great episode and tremendously underrated. The Medusans are one of the best aliens ever devised in Trek, brought to life through some of the most imaginative effects.

 

[JustKate]

I think all Trek is underrated by people who "don't like scifi" or Trek. And it's amazing how many have decided this even though they've never watched an entire episode.

I have a friend who hates scifi, but considers 2001: A Space Odyssy, both the book and the movie, absolute masterpieces. "So why not give Star Trek I try?" I ask. But no, she "hates science fiction." The fact that she's found one exception isn't enough to make her even consider the idea that there might be more than one.

Whatcha gonna do?

 

[Ptrope]

I actually consider "The Way to Eden" vastly underrated, something I never thought until seeing ENT, which I consider to be vastly overrated, esp. fan-fave eps like "The Andorian Incident," which, IMHO, is one of the worst teleplays ever written; it seems to me that when ENT tried its hardest, it fell furthest.

"The Way to Eden" isn't just about space hippies - it's a tale of a messiah figure who has laudable goals, but because of his own mania, endangers his followers without conscience. These people are trying to find a real Eden, not just pursuing a myth, and even Spock finds their goal a worthy one. It's a commentary on the blindness of progress that endangers its citizens, subjecting them to biological and psychological threats in the name of that progress and then ostracizing them when they protest.

If you strip out the songs, which are admittedly wretched, it's a clash between conservative and liberal ideologies, both of which have their obvious positives and negatives, and in the end, each side's survivors realize that, in some way, they were all "Herbert."

OTOH, "The Andorian Incident" telegraphed its conclusion in its own teaser, and followed that path in lockstep through 42 minutes of uninspired and wholly implausible plot devices. Its main conceit, that the Vulcans were spies, was a great concept, but the writers didn't seem to realize its potential and so they created the Star Wars prequel trilogy, in essence: with a predetermined outcome, just throw anything that looks or sounds good into the script to fill time, and hope no one notices that the puzzle pieces don't fit together. Proving that the Andorians were right was easy, even for a grade-schooler; the potential existed to show that even though they were right about the Vulcans' actions, they were completely wrong about the Vulcans' intentions. This and "Dear Doctor" were, IMO, the worst eps of ENT and possibly of Trek, for many of the same reasons. It was only after seeing these textbook examples of how not to construct a story that I finally came to appreciate the strength of "The Way to Eden."

 

[Piper]

I'm sure I have others, but the one that comes to mind instantly is Generations, which I think is a tremendously underrated movie. It has a big plot hole at its heart, but the scenes between Picard and Kirk are perfect, it has some intelligent themes and is pretty moving in places. Easily my favourite of the four TNG films.

 

[ToddPence]

I thought "The Way to Eden" had a lot to say about the hypocrisy of the real-life hippies of the 1960's. They preached peace and love and freedom, but often aligned themselves with dogmatic leaders and were not above employing violence to achieve their own goals.

 

[TheGodBen]

"The Way to Eden" isn't just about space hippies - it's a tale of a messiah figure who has laudable goals, but because of his own mania, endangers his followers without conscience. These people are trying to find a real Eden, not just pursuing a myth, and even Spock finds their goal a worthy one. It's a commentary on the blindness of progress that endangers its citizens, subjecting them to biological and psychological threats in the name of that progress and then ostracizing them when they protest.

And if that is what the episode had focused on then it would have been great, but instead it gave us 15 minutes of hippie-music that caused me to bite into my hand so hard that I still have a mark. It is the only episode of any TV show that has ever driven me to self-harm. And I've watched every episode of nuBSG!

As for underrated, I would say that the second season of DS9 is unfairly dismissed by some because it came before The Way of the Warrior. It had a great opening arc about the Bajorans, there is some really memorable 5-star episodes such as Necessary Evil, Whispers and The Wire, and the last third of the season was pure gold.

 

[alicelouise]

Ptrope: Interesting reviews of "The Andorian Incident" and "The Way to Eden". The space hippies showed as much intolerance of differences as Kirk and Chekhov(BTW was way out of character in this episode).

 

[dreadpiraterose]

I think the Animated Series is totally underrated. The animation isn't great, but the scripts were actually really well written. Lots of them were penned by Trek regulars and sci-fi writers. In fact, some of the best McCoy-Spock-Kirk dialogue (non-movie) I've seen was in the Animated Series.

 

[Michael]

I actually consider "The Way to Eden" vastly underrated, something I never thought until seeing ENT, which I consider to be vastly overrated, esp. fan-fave eps like "The Andorian Incident," which, IMHO, is one of the worst teleplays ever written; it seems to me that when ENT tried its hardest, it fell furthest.

"The Way to Eden" isn't just about space hippies - it's a tale of a messiah figure who has laudable goals, but because of his own mania, endangers his followers without conscience. These people are trying to find a real Eden, not just pursuing a myth, and even Spock finds their goal a worthy one. It's a commentary on the blindness of progress that endangers its citizens, subjecting them to biological and psychological threats in the name of that progress and then ostracizing them when they protest.

The Way to Eden is probably one of my favorite TOS episodes. But for entirely different reasons. I love the music in this episode. I'm not kidding, they are some very good tunes, if you ask me. I know that this opinion is often frowned upon by many here, but I also really enjoy the so-called camp factor of this episode. For me, this episode epitomises the way in which TOS could do humor. Add to that the fact that this episode is also about Chekov (who's one of my favorite characters in all of Trek) and you have a very enjoyable ride.

Having said that, I would have loved to see DC Fontana's Joanna realized.

This and "Dear Doctor" were, IMO, the worst eps of ENT and possibly of Trek, for many of the same reasons.

I agree with you on The Andorian Incident (what an excuse of an episode not even Jeff Combs could save), but why the hate for Dear Doctor? I think it's one of the best episodes of ENT.

[DS9's second season] had a great opening arc about the Bajorans, there is some really memorable 5-star episodes such as Necessary Evil, Whispers and The Wire, and the last third of the season was pure gold.

Agreed. The second season of DS9 was wonderful! The Circle Trilogy at the beginning was one of the boldest moments of Trek, in my opinion.

Chekhov(BTW was way out of character in this episode).

How's that? The Way to Eden being one of the few episodes dealing with Chekov at all, I find it questionable that you consider his behaviour in this episode out of character. It's one of maybe three episodes that deal with him at all!

I think the Animated Series is totally underrated. The animation isn't great, but the scripts were actually really well written. Lots of them were penned by Trek regulars and sci-fi writers. In fact, some of the best McCoy-Spock-Kirk dialogue (non-movie) I've seen was in the Animated Series.

Couldn't agree more. TAS is an unbelievably underrated series.

 

[Myasishchev]

I think the Animated Series is totally underrated. The animation isn't great, but the scripts were actually really well written. Lots of them were penned by Trek regulars and sci-fi writers. In fact, some of the best McCoy-Spock-Kirk dialogue (non-movie) I've seen was in the Animated Series.

Including the one where the Vulcan becomes infinite? Well, still finite, but not so as you'd notice...

 

[Kirkman1987]

TOS season 3 - I really like at least half of this season. For every clunker there is a decent or even great episode

Generations - almost as good as first contact imo, and I never have had a problem with Kirk's death in this film.

Star Trek V - not great but much better than it gets credit for.

I would say TMP, but it has in my estimation been gaining a following since the director's cut came out.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I always thought TMP was very underrated even way back when. Yes the direction wasn't the greatest which made the films pacing seem slow. But it also represented what was good about Trek. It had an intelligent, cerebral plot that required more than phasers or techno-babble to solve it. It explored great questions about the meaning of existence. It had some stunning graphics and the Vger cloud was a frightening and ominous villain.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I think a lot of my favourite "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes are standard favourites among the majority of fans (i.e. "Yesterday's Enterprise", "The Best of Both Worlds"), but the one I love almost as much of those that I never hear anyone talking about is "The Hunted".

Here is an episode that has just about everything I love in a Star Trek episode, like fascinating conversations and interactions between characters that generate humour and/or power based on our knowledge of their personalities and backstories, an eloquent exploration of a worthy moral issue (how society should deal with the psychological problems of war veterans), and great scenes of action and suspense.

It also has a consistently interesting guest star...one of the most well-cast unknowns ever in the series. Like Q, he brings out the best in so many of the regular cast members by interacting so wonderfully with them. I love the way he starts off antagonist towards Troi, and then there's a very natural and realistic build up to the final scene where she is so happy for him and he is grateful to her. I love the mutual respect that develops between he, Data, and Worf. The context of it makes "I, too" one of my all time favourite Data lines. Worf's reasoning that the only way someone could be so cunning would be if he had Klingon blood is both cute and admirable as it shows Worf's almost childish arrogance and the solemn dignity of his pride.

On top of all that, there's also the soldier's brilliantly imaginative tactics to outsmart the crew both before and after he is captured, and the tremendously satisfying conclusion, where Picard gets to be kinda badass as he basically tells the prime minister of the in denial, corrupt, soldier-exploiting planet, "We're not doing a damn thing for you. You fucked up and it's time for you to clean up your own mess".

 

[BillJ]

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1

 

[Gepard]

...but why the hate for Dear Doctor?

Possibly because of its endorsement of a moral clusterfuck emerging from the writers laughable understanding of evolution. We're supposed to give equal time to the doctor who's advocating genocide because he doesn't understand how natural selection works?

 

[Michael]

...but why the hate for Dear Doctor?

Possibly because of its endorsement of a moral clusterfuck emerging from the writers laughable understanding of evolution. We're supposed to give equal time to the doctor who's advocating genocide because he doesn't understand how natural selection works?

Yeah, I concur that the science of Dear Doctor was wobbly at best. But I felt that the dilemma was a very intriguing one. Letting those people die was the wrong thing to do, I won't argue that. But I think it made for an interesting exercise in the pre-Prime Directive handling of such a moral issue. While I could understand why they wanted to save them, I equally realized that they did not want to play god. In the end it was an episode which made you think. And I guess that's what I liked about it.

 

[Tachyon]

Voyager's pre-Seven seasons, especially Season 2, which is very good and solid season. The writing is to the point.

Excluding the all time stinker Threshold, that is. Damn that was baaaaad.

 

[Ptrope]

...but why the hate for Dear Doctor?

Possibly because of its endorsement of a moral clusterfuck emerging from the writers laughable understanding of evolution. We're supposed to give equal time to the doctor who's advocating genocide because he doesn't understand how natural selection works?

Exactly. The moral issue of the story was manufactured on top of some of the most incredibly ill-conceived 'science' as anything that's ever been written (right up there with Mission to Mars in its stupidity). This was another one of those ENT stories where the writers clearly thought they were writing an intelligent, thought-provoking story, but their 'science' was so misbegotten that they undermined their moral argument completely, in the process adding to the general air of incompetence fostered under Captain Archer. It's a shame that they tarred Phlox with this brush, as well, because generally I liked his character, and Trip, quite a bit. But when a supposedly intelligent, even brilliant character utters such nonsense, in a venue that not a few scientifically-minded people watch, it casts a pall over the entire enterprise (no pun intended).

Again, like most of the episodes of the first two seasons of ENT, this one had a great idea - I'll never fault them for having come up with a real trove of these in those two years - but they completely bungled it in the execution. Whether this was because they had faulty scientific advice (in this case) or faulty story editing (which was the case for most of ENT's eps), it's hard to say. Even granting that B&B tried to make a good show, it was clear that they couldn't get out of the way of their own egos - whatever they wrote didn't seem to be subject to objective review, so the flaws, often fundamental ones, never got corrected, if they were even noticed at all. ENT was a huge missed opportunity for Trek, doomed from the start by an accountant who thought he was a visionary, and a visionary who thought he was a craftsman.

 

[Eddie Roth]

Agreed about VGR's pre-Seven seasons. I find they play much better now than they did back then, when we had just come off 7 years of (superior) TNG and had a new DS9 at the same time. It didn't compare favorably. Now this is different.

Also agreed that Season 3 TOS is often summarily dismissed because it didn't measure up to the previous two. But people forget stuff like All Our Yesterdays and several of the so-called "bad" episodes. I'd rather takle something hokey like Spocks Brain or the Way to Eden than some generic, boring ENT Season 2 episode.