Underrated Trek

[john titor]

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."

Many good points made about the Eden episode. Strangely enough when they sing they somehow get reverb on their voices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlPq8W6W-04

 

[Trek Survivor]

Definitely Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The Kirk-Spock-McCoy relationship alone makes this film far better than its lowly reputation suggests.

I was also surprised to see how dismissive of STDS9 season 1 (and 2) many fans are. Season 1 contains some great episodes, inc. the best pilot of any Trek series, "Duet" and "Vortex".

 

[clint g]

I find almost all of Ent to be under rated. I still can't get why its so hated.

 

[D Man]

I'm a fan of TNG season 7. I just like the "feel" it has for some reason, including usually-hated episodes like "Eye of the Beholder." I think of it kind of like I think of B5's last season...not really as good as what came before, but it's still about my favorite characters having wacky adventures. Plus it's funny how Data and Geordi spend pretty much all their time together.

 

[WillsBabe]

I'm a fan of TNG season 7. I just like the "feel" it has for some reason, including usually-hated episodes like "Eye of the Beholder."

You're not alone. I like this episode, too. I like its different atmosphere, and I really like the start where they are racing to stop something and we don't know what. Also, it was a nice, different adventure for Troi.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Much of the Michael Piller era of DS9, especially DS9 season 2. The whole season was essentially a set-up to introducing the Dominion through dropping small hints here and there (Russell T Davies would use the exact same tactic very heavily and arguably more effectively in the Doctor Who revival over 10 years later ) but it had its gems, notabloy the opening Circle trilogy, "Shadowplay", "Rivals" (probably DS9's most underrated episode ever) the Dick-inspired mystery "Whispers", and "Tribunal" (an episode which I found absolutely hilarious).

 

[Myasishchev]

^Tribunal's the one (no, the other one) where O'Brien goes to jail, right? It was all right. Kind of like Chain of Command, with more of a procedural aspect.

 

[Ptrope]

I find almost all of Ent to be under rated. I still can't get why its so hated.

Not so much "hated" as "unpalatable"; I don't 'hate' eating undercooked pasta, but I sure as heck don't think it's a good meal. and I know why. ENT=same thing - undercooked ingredients that could've been a good meal in the right hands.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

^Tribunal's the one (no, the other one) where O'Brien goes to jail, right?

That's one of them, anyway.

It was all right. Kind of like Chain of Command, with more of a procedural aspect.

It's the twisted logic of Cardassian court proceedings that I found amusing.

 

[Myasishchev]

I did think it was funny that the best lawyer on Cardassia is kind of like the tallest Pygmy in the tribe. In seriousness, I think I'd rather practice there. No pressure.

 

[SFRabid]

I find almost all of Ent to be under rated. I still can't get why its so hated.

Not so much "hated" as "unpalatable"; I don't 'hate' eating undercooked pasta, but I sure as heck don't think it's a good meal. and I know why. ENT=same thing - undercooked ingredients that could've been a good meal in the right hands.

That is how I feel when I go back and watch much of TOS. In many ways it put more emphasis on shirtless Kirk and mini-skirts than it ever did on a story line. Many of the stories are "borrowed" and simplistic. Logic was frequently flawed and it took all of three episodes to start messing with canon. But, you have to take it for what it is, a fun romp through space and nothing really serious except for the occasional morality play. Well, until they started putting out episodes like Spock's Brain and The Way to Eden. Those rate right up there with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. So bad it can build a cult following. All you can do is laugh.

 

[SFRabid]

I think Pen Pals from the maligned early TNG was very good. It went beyond the standard Prime Directive story to "sometimes you just need to break the rules."

 

[D Man]

I'm a fan of TNG season 7. I just like the "feel" it has for some reason, including usually-hated episodes like "Eye of the Beholder."

You're not alone. I like this episode, too. I like its different atmosphere, and I really like the start where they are racing to stop something and we don't know what. Also, it was a nice, different adventure for Troi.

It's sort of like her version of "Frame of Mind," another one of my favorites. I tend to like the wacky psychological "it's all in your head" sub-genre Trek jumps into from time to time...which reminds me, I also like DS9's "The Search, part 2." Lots of good stuff even with the enormous reset button.

Another episode that came to mind (also TNG S7) is the "Gambit" two-parter, which has a little bit of everything. It's a great action-adventure, and a nice way to get Picard into some shady business while recalling his love of archaeology. Data in command never fails to interest me. His dressing down of Worf and the later discussion of their friendship is a highlight of the season for me since it cuts right to the core of these two characters. Plus it's always great when Riker gets to play the brigand. The cliffhanger in part 1 is pretty lame, but I'm betting both parts edited together as one show would have made it even more of a fun romp a la the Voyager "TWO HOUR EVENT" episodes like "Dark Frontier."

 

[WillsBabe]

Another episode that came to mind (also TNG S7) is the "Gambit" two-parter, which has a little bit of everything. It's a great action-adventure, and a nice way to get Picard into some shady business while recalling his love of archaeology. Data in command never fails to interest me. His dressing down of Worf and the later discussion of their friendship is a highlight of the season for me since it cuts right to the core of these two characters. Plus it's always great when Riker gets to play the brigand. The cliffhanger in part 1 is pretty lame, but I'm betting both parts edited together as one show would have made it even more of a fun romp a la the Voyager "TWO HOUR EVENT" episodes like "Dark Frontier."

I like Gambit, too. It's a shame that we didn't see more of Picard and Riker working that way together on a joint task. They didn't really have an adventures together - the only other one I can recall is the Minuet episode. There are loads of good bits and pieces in Gambit, but it somehow failed to be a really knock out episode. Personally I found the Vulcan/Romulan involvement and the scanning of all the pieces of pots to be tedious. But the episode has lots of other stuff in it that I enjoyed immensely.

 

[Stewey]

For me it is Star Trek V. I think that the overally story could have been better executed but for me what I love about the film is the character interaction between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. For me it is the closest they got in all the TOS movies to the classic spock/kirk/mcCoy relationship.

 

[RAMA]

STNG's "Masks", and Night Terrors" are both highly underrated.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

I find almost all of Ent to be under rated. I still can't get why its so hated.

I like the general feel of season one but not all the episodes. Season 4 actually makes me feel more stereotypical trekkiness (for lack of a better term) than most other seasons of any ST! It was a delight!

RAMA