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!

 

[Artoo Atari]

Ones that spring to mind are Justice, Code of Honor, Shades of Grey, Aquiel, Birthright Part 2, Sub Rosa, Force of Nature, Perfect Mate, Rascals, New Ground, Imaginary Friend, Up the Long Ladder.

Pretty much these for me as well. However, even though "Sub Rosa" was a swing and a miss for the writers, I will give some credit to the hair & makeup crew for making Gates absolutely gorgeous in that episode (not that she wasn't already).

 

[suarezguy]

It does seem most people select ones they found offensive content (particularly, though I didn't see what was so bad about, "Justice" and "The Perfect Mate", and "Code of Honor" which yes was pretty bad/offputting though at least a few parts were so bad it's good) or with major focus on kid characters ("Imaginary Friend", "Rascals").

I thought "Rascals" was pretty good enjoyable comedy, definitely going far with both premise and style but I think not too far, from around same time "A Fistful of Datas" was a lot worse and even that was mostly death-by-thousand-small cuts situation.

 

[DonIago]

Aside from the plot contrivance of the ship being taken over in the way it is, I find "Rascals" pretty entertaining, especially the interplay between the actor playing Picard (who earlier played his nephew!) and Jonathan Frakes. I also find it irritating but understandable how the best crew in the fleet struggles with having an apparent child captain...but then, they're not given a lot of time to get used to the situation, nor is it clear whether the de-aging process may have had any neurological impacts over time.

As a somewhat fan of Westerns, I also enjoyed "Fistful" as a bit of a lark, but also one of the rare episodes where Worf and Alexander are actually getting along well.

 

[MarcKyle1964]

“The Inner Light”

Everytime I read that title, I start hearing George Harrison for some reason

 

[SatrianiRules]

Plus the laughable inconsistency...
- Picard's assimilated by the Borg, kills 11,000 people, and is dealing with massive PTSD? Send him back to the captain's chair!
- Picard's spent 35 subjective years on a pre-warp planet? Send him back to the captain's chair!
- Picard's been imprisoned, tortured, and effectively broken by Cardassians? Send him back to the captain's chair!
- Picard's shorter and has hair? Bully him out of the captain's chair!

Ahhh! but they never actually broke him...remember the end? "THERE ARE F O U R LIGHTS!!!!" :-)

 

[Oddish]

Ahhh! but they never actually broke him...remember the end? "THERE ARE F O U R LIGHTS!!!!" :-)

He was saved by the proverbial bell, though. And even if he hadn't broken, he'd still need to take some time off for psychological evaluation. By contrast, in "Rascals", he was not mentally affected. Beverly bullied him out of the captain's chair using a dubious excuse, not because he couldn't handle his new "look", but because the crew couldn't.

 

[TheFlutteringHorde]

For me it's "The Schizoid Man". It's gross, boring, sleazy, and pointless. Nothing is learned, there's no fun character beats, no cool moments, or anything I find worth watching. It's my only hard skip on a TNG rewatch. Even stuff like Code of Honor is at least so bad it's funny, and has a level of fascinating as how it got made. But watching an old guy we don't care about in Data's body perv on a young woman and be an asshole to everyone else for forty minutes just sucks to watch.

Which is a shame because Morgan Sheppard is usually fun to watch!

 

[Riley]

I don't think anything is worse than "Tin Man." It's pure garbage that makes "Sub Rosa" look like a masterpiece in comparison. Worst than the guest star's performance is the terribly written story. Ugh.