What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

Worst against the worst will have more diverse results, I think. Some of those episodes might have people who liked them. I enjoyed Twisted, for instance, and thought Acquiel was decent (though its status quo maintaining ending seemed a bit too convenient).

 

"Acquisition(ENT)" isn't even close to the worst for its series but I will watch it over seven of the other episodes mentioned in that category.

 

Which Lower Decks IS, in my opinion.

Though I still say it can be enjoyed as a straight forward Star Trek show as well, on account of how well the characters are written.

 

Yep, and it's just plain fun. It's lovingly reverent of the rest of the franchise, has witty characters and knows how to be both Star Trek AND a comedy. Even dramatic Star Trek isn't always great at being dramatic Star Trek.

 

You're making me want to watch more LD now. Saw two; didn't like it.

 

I agree "ACQUISITION" isn't the worst, but it's definitely very bottom tier for me.

Okay... what about "PRECIOUS CARGO" instead?

(I was tempted, before and now, to put "THESE ARE THE VOYAGES...", but I despise that one so badly it would not be fair to the other episodes.)

 

LOWER DECKS is really, really good.

I will agree that the first couple episodes, the humor might take a bit of getting used to. But it definitely shines brighter as the season progresses.

Between that, DISCOVERY, and PICARD, I'm actually looking more forward to LOWER DECKS returning than the others. And I do really enjoy the others.

 

"Precious Cargo(ENT)" isn't just bottom tier, it's so low even the Mole People are complaining how much the episode sucks.

 

Makes my list a little more fun to figure out, eh?

 

I mean, some have posted that the first two didn't land well for the comedy and it only improves from there.

 

"Hey, Landru shouldn't still look like the 1967 set prop! That's cheesy!"

It's also canon, Nerds. Get over it. Try to enjoy the show and if it's not for you then fine.

 

Well, heck...I'll play.

Some examples...
"The Inner Light" vs "THE VISITOR"
UGGGHHH This is a really tough one. I love them both wholeheartedly. But, I think I have to give "The Visitor" a slight nod, because I really resonate with father/son stories, and the actors all just blow this one away.

"THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER" vs "IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT"
COTEOF gets the nod on this one. I really like "Pale Moonlight," but I don't hold it in as high regard as others. "City" is just a flat-out masterpiece that has gotten less-and-less attention through the years because time travel stories are now so cliche and obvious.

"BALANCE OF TERROR" vs "LIVING WITNESS"
"Balance of Terror" by a mile on this one. "Living Witness" frustrated me because it falls into the category of "major stuff that ends up not mattering"....kind of a "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing" story. Good episode, no doubt, but the GNDN Star Trek outings never really do much for me (see also: classics like "Yesterday's Enterprise" etc)

"Yesterday's Enterprise" vs "YEAR OF HELL"
Well....given what I just wrote...I'm grateful that two GNDN episodes are against each other. I'd have to go "Yesterday's Enterprise" on this one, mainly on the strength of the return of Yar and the choices and sacrifices that needed to be made. "Year of Hell" is very entertaining, but also massively frustrating in that all the substance and grit that should have been the entire VOY series is present in this concentrated format of a 2-parter, and then promptly vanishes.

"ERRAND OF MERCY" vs "UNITED"
"Errand of Mercy" introduced the Klingons, and is one of my all-time favorite TOS episodes. I had it on VHS when I was a kid and I swear I watched it every week. The odds of me picking "United" here are approximately 7,824.7 to 1.


Or perhaps a more interesting experiment... the worst against the worst.

"AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD" vs "PROFIT AND LACE"
ATCSL is a much more enjoyable episode than "Profit and Lace." I can't even watch the latter. It's atrocious.

"Sub Rosa" vs "FALSE PROFITS"
"False Profits" sucks, but at least it has some fun / silliness in it. "Sub Rosa" is an embarrassment not just to TNG, but to the entire franchise.

"SPOCK'S BRAIN" vs "ACQUISITION"
"Spock's Brain" by a lightyear. There's some really great, memorable stuff in that episode, despite it being pretty bad otherwise. "Acquisition" is just crap with very little redeeming quality whatsoever.

"Rascals" vs "TWISTED"
I actually LIKE "Rascals" quite a bit, so this is a no-brainer.

"Aquiel" vs "THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOAK"
It's hard for me not to call "Aquiel" the worst Star Trek episode ever made. Not because it's as bad as "ATCSL" or because it's as backward as "Code of Honor"...but it sucks like those episodes do...and it's also dreadfully boring. That's unforgiveable for me, so it's "Emperor's New Cloak" for sure on this one.

 

"Sub Rosa" is kinda like the "Spock's Brain" of TNG. I love it for its stupid dumbfuckery (I love them both).

 

'The Inner Light' best and 'Aquiel' worst?
Neither is the best or the worst but (at least so far) I've found 'The Inner Light' little bit boring and 'Aquiel' is an entertaining one. Maybe I'll revisit 'The Inner Light' pretty soon and check out what happens. 'Aquiel' on the other hand has some sentimental thing going on, it was the first of two episodes I got on VHS back in the 90s.
However, 'The Inner Light' has Stewart's son in it and 'Aquiel' has Querns from Oz. =)

 

My controversial Trek opinion for the week is that I think 'The Inner Light' is somewhat overrated.

Kor

 

Oh I hate the Inner Light.

 

There's a whole video on that. Even though I love the episode myself, it makes valid points.



My controversial thought (and you should hear the ones O keep to myself) is that "A Night in Sickbay" wasn't bad, it was just ahead of it's time. That episode would have been perfect for "Lower Decks".

 

In my opinion "The Inner Light" is just OK. It doesn't really do much aside explore Picard in a much different scenario than most. I appreciate the flute recurrence but that's about it.

As for "A Night In Sickbay" it would work better maybe on Lower Decks, but that's only because the gross incompetence put on display by Archer is something that I would expect from that crew than the captain of Earth's first Warp 5 vessel.

 

Yeah I know and love Allison's videos about Star Trek, and yes her reasons to dislike the Inner Light are similar to mine.

Don't insult the crew of the Doritos like that, they are way more competent than Archer's bunch

 

In my humble opinion (yeah, I spelled it out), the biggest problem with Aquiel is that it was an attempt to retell a classic film noir by a writer that, as far as I could tell from the episode, had no idea what made the classic film a film noir in the first place. Or a classic, for that matter.