What was your worst TNG episode?

[Starflight]

I love Rascals, but I love most episodes where TNG manages to wrench its head out of its rectum and have some fun.

But the worst is... Half a Life. Any episode that dares to condone a level of genocide that would make Adolf Hitler recoil in horror cannot occupy anything other than the worst episode ever slot.

This is one of my favourites but I never read the episode as condoning the practice; the POV character is Lwaxana who thinks it's grotesque. iirc Picard does give his usual brainless "it's their culture, who are we to say what's right or wrong" verdict, but even then he offers the guy asylum.

Michelle Forbes' character puts the culture's case across but I didn't feel like you were meant to agree with her, she's just another source of intense societal pressure acting on 60-year-old guy.

 

[ananta]

Michelle Forbes’ character in “Half a Life” was one of the most vile, egregious and loathsome characters I’ve ever seen in Star Trek. She wants her father to kill himself just so the neighbours won’t talk and she’s willing to psychologically torture him to manipulate him into it under the pretence of “loving” him. I love Michelle but I can’t watch that scene without wanting to hurl something at the screen (and her hair is incredibly stupid too).

 

[Oddish]

Michelle Forbes’ character in “Half a Life” was one of the most vile, egregious and loathsome characters I’ve ever seen in Star Trek. She wants her father to kill himself just so the neighbours won’t talk and she’s willing to psychologically torture him to manipulate him into it under the pretence of “loving” him. I love Michelle but I can’t watch that scene without wanting to hurl something at the screen (and her hair is incredibly stupid too).

She was the epitome of their vile, toxic, genocidal culture concentrated into one person. And the reason why their inevitable doom when their sun fails them feels less like tragedy and more like poetic justice.

And yeah, her hair was pretty dumb too.

 

[ananta]

I forgot to add “Descent Part 2”. Absolutely horrible episode, irredeemably bad. If AI had been a thing back then I’d have accused them of using it to resolve the cliffhanger. Absolutely nothing works about it. It guts everything that made the Borg work and Lore as cult leader is quite cringeworthy. Also Tate and Barnaby are two of the most annoying crew members we’ve ever met on any series.

Kill it with fire!