Worst Episode Not Involving Lizard Babies

[Triskelion]

Well a lot of people say Threshold is the worst Voyager episode, which you may or may not agree with. Me, I love Trek, if they wanted to release five movies based on Threshold I'd be at the theater tickets in hand, 3D glasses on, shushing the pharisees, and buying the plushy lizard babies in the concession stand. Hey, Trek is Trek! I'm there.

Do you consider Threshold the worst?
Barring Threshold, then, what would you consider the next worst episode of Voyager?

 

[startrekwatcher]

Threshold is far from the worst. I actually enjoyed it. I don't watch Trek for a science lesson but I do for character moments and there were several nice ones for Paris.

The Fight to me is the worst. The technobabble was like nails on a chalkboard. Other contenders I would include: Favorite Son, The Q and the Grey, Virtuoso, The Disease, Unforgettable, Vis a Vis, Nightingale.

 

[AuntKate]

For me, it's a tie between "Nightingale" and "Renaissance Man." However, "Favorite Son" is a close third.

 

[Bertie]

"Threshold" is kind of like TOS: "Spock's Brain" or TNG: "Code of Honor": Bad, but has a certain amusement factor as an unintentional self-parody of the entire series.

"Fury" is probably the worst — if you're going to assassinate a character, at least get some good story out of it.

(I could understand why someone might want to rank "Tuvix" or "Repentence" way down there, depending on certain political opinions and how strongly you feel about them. I rank Nazi Prime Directive trash like ENT: "Dear Doctor" and TNG: "Homecoming" at the bottom of all Trek episodes for analogous reasons.)

 

[kimc]

Endgame

 

[TedShatner10]

Chuckles centric episodes like "Initiations", "Tattoo", and "The Fight".

 

[kes7]

Nightingale was bad, bad, bad. I also disliked Body and Soul (the stuff with 7 and the Doc was just icky, and the rest of the story was convoluted) and Tuvix (they KILLED Tuvix, who had become a friend to the crew ... and no one ever mentioned it again).

 

[Lynx]

"Fury" is Voyager's wost episode.

It's actually the worst episode ever in any TV series. Talk about rude, insulting and unnecessary character destruction.

"Threshold" might be a bad episode but it's at least funny in some places and can be regarded as a nightmare Janeway or Paris had after eating too much of Neelix's food. In fact, it never happened.

I mean, Paris breaks the warp 10 threshold, almost dies, turns into a lizard, abducts Janeway who is also turned into a lizard and they have lizard “children” and no one talks about it or jokes about it later!

 

[startrekwatcher]

It's actually the worst episode ever in any TV series. Talk about rude, insulting and unnecessary character destruction.

How so? You might not agree with the creative choice to show a corrupted Kes but that doesn't make it insulting or character destruction.

 

[tomalak301]

I don't think Threshold is the worst episode. That title goes to Spirit Folk, for taking a bad story to begin with and making it even worse.

 

[unimatrix7]

It's actually the worst episode ever in any TV series. Talk about rude, insulting and unnecessary character destruction.

How so? You might not agree with the creative choice to show a corrupted Kes but that doesn't make it insulting or character destruction.

Nooo, no, no, no, you don't go there around here!


*ahem*

My vote goes to The Disease, with Favourite Son in hot pursuit.

 

[Praetor]

"The Fight" is worse than "Threshold." "Favorite Son" might be, too.

 

[WeAreTheBorg]

Well a lot of people say Threshold is the worst episode of anything, ever, which you may or may not agree with.

fixed

Hey, Trek is Trek!

But Threshold is not Trek.

Do you consider Threshold the worst?
Barring Threshold, then, what would you consider the next worst episode of Voyager?

Yes.

After that, probably Twisted.

 

[Timewalker]

Nightingale was bad, bad, bad. I also disliked Body and Soul (the stuff with 7 and the Doc was just icky, and the rest of the story was convoluted) ...

Is that the one where the Doctor was downloaded into Seven's body? I thought that one was a hoot!

Nope, Threshold was the absolute worst. I ran across a fanfic awhile ago where Janeway encounters one of her lizard babies (passing aliens figured out how to use the lizard babies' human DNA to turn them into real humans)... who is understandably pissed off at having been abandoned by her parents.

 

[Praetor]

"Threshold" is VGR's attempt at remaking "The Fly." I give it a little credit for trying.

 

[Square]

Endgame...

especially after reading what Brian Fuller originally had planned for the episode.

It pretty much violated every rule of good storytelling.

Oh, and "Elogium" was gross.

 

[Starbreaker]

Waking Moments. Tap the back of your hand!!!

 

[Lynx]

It's actually the worst episode ever in any TV series. Talk about rude, insulting and unnecessary character destruction.

How so? You might not agree with the creative choice to show a corrupted Kes but that doesn't make it insulting or character destruction.

Well, first of all I wouldn't use the word "creative". "Destructive" is the word I would choose.

Second, it was character destruction. Turning a nice and friendly character into a crazy monster and then into a pathetic wreck can't be anything else than character destruction and don't forget that the original plan was to kill off the character at the end but Jennifer Lien persuaded them to change that.

Square wrote:

Endgame...

especially after reading what Brian Fuller originally had planned for the episode.

What had Fuller planned originally? To kill them all or turn them into lunatics?

Considering the fact that Fuller was one of those behind "Fury" (together with Braga and Michael Taylor), I wouldn't be surprisedif he had planned some whacky, destructive end for the crew or for some of them.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Second, it was character destruction. Turning a nice and friendly character into a crazy monster and then into a pathetic wreck can't be anything else than character destruction and don't forget that the original plan was to kill off the character at the end but Jennifer Lien persuaded them to change that.

Hit the nail on the head there. I mean... First of all, removing Kes in the first place was an absolute mistake, done solely because they didn't want to devote time to do anything with her beyond give her token telepathic mumbo-jumbo talk, but then to bring her back as this... shell of a thing... They almost had something with the idea that she'd been unprepared for the jump to a higher plane she made, that it had overwhelmed her, but then they threw her into the past - that's lazy writing, because it means that the characters never get to see the consequences, and instead, we just get what I guess was meant to be a nostalgia trip, but doesn't manage to really do anything with the setting beyond having Kes and the Viidians, reduced to nothing more than shallow villains, rather than the sympathetic species introduced in 'Phage.' And don't get me started on the temporal paradoxes... Fury narrowly beats out Spirit Folk, because at least the second one didn't brutally murder a character I really enjoyed.

 

[Orac Zen]

"Threshold" isn't even close to being the worst Voyager episode. That distinction belongs to "Fair Haven", Spirit Folk" and "Q2", each of which is so grotesquely, hideously, unwatchably bad they make "Threshold" look like Shakespeare. Other contenders include any chuckles-centric episode, "The Disease", and "The Q and the Grey" (Suzie Plakson's immortal delivery of "You - helm boy" excepted).

Endgame...

especially after reading what Brian Fuller originally had planned for the episode.

Voyager-era Fuller was responsible for "Spirit Folk". As a result of his responsibility for that steaming pile of crap any plan he had for "Endgame" is of zero interest to me - and I say that as a dyed-in-the-wool fan of his work on Heroes and of the superlative Pushing Daisies. And, of course, as one of the 10 or so people on this board who likes "Endgame".