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Your Top WORST Episodes!

I really like Masks and don't have issues with many episodes listed here. But then I am someone who defends Shades of Gray, so I'm kinda contrarian like that.

Justice. Just seedy... and oh we know this is a seedy sex planet let's take Wes down and put him in jeopardy. Oh god he found jeopardy instantly, what a surprise. Throw in random god thing too, because...

Loud as a Whisper. Felt dated like a TOS episode and I hated Riva when I watched it as a kid and still didn't like him when rewatching this year. He just comes across as a prick from the first moment.

Up the Long Ladder is a stinker, and just... problematic... shall we say. I think it's far worse than Code of Honour because I think if you look at Code of Honour yes they are shown as rituatlistic, but they are also astute (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson is great as Lutan) and they make vaccines so are clearly portrayed as intelligent. Yet Up the Long Ladder, well the Irish are just dumb drunks is the takeaway.

Aquiel. Pretty bad. Another Geordi being lame story.

But in all credit to TNG I don't think there are any that are horrific, just bad.
 
Loud as a Whisper. Felt dated like a TOS episode and I hated Riva when I watched it as a kid and still didn't like him when rewatching this year. He just comes across as a prick from the first moment.

That, and the "solution" seemed to come out of nowhere. And didn't really make much sense, at least to me.


Up the Long Ladder is a stinker, and just... problematic... shall we say. I think it's far worse than Code of Honour because I think if you look at Code of Honour yes they are shown as rituatlistic, but they are also astute (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson is great as Lutan) and they make vaccines so are clearly portrayed as intelligent. Yet Up the Long Ladder, well the Irish are just dumb drunks is the takeaway.

"Up the Long Ladder" was screwed up in all sorts of ways. Riker commits murder, Pulaski condones murder, the Irish men are indeed drunks, the two colonies don't seem suited to coexist at all, and it's a throwback to the TOS trope of forcing Federation norms on other cultures.

The only thing I liked about this one was watching that one guy's eyes cross when he drank that Klingon booze. :lol:
 
"Up the Long Ladder" was screwed up in all sorts of ways. Riker commits murder, Pulaski condones murder, the Irish men are indeed drunks, the two colonies don't seem suited to coexist at all, and it's a throwback to the TOS trope of forcing Federation norms on other cultures.

The only thing I liked about this one was watching that one guy's eyes cross when he drank that Klingon booze. :lol:
I have to say that despite the episode's borderline racist paddywhackery, I do find Danilo Odell to be extremely funny. Maybe it's just because he gets all the best lines and is clearly having the grandest of times throughout.
 
I have to say that despite the episode's borderline racist paddywhackery, I do find Danilo Odell to be extremely funny. Maybe it's just because he gets all the best lines and is clearly having the grandest of times throughout.
Sometimes that makes all the difference. I've seen Patrick Stewart in a couple of rather bad movies, and he seemed to be enjoying himself.
 
Loud as a Whisper. Felt dated like a TOS episode and I hated Riva when I watched it as a kid and still didn't like him when rewatching this year. He just comes across as a prick from the first moment.
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Interesting - I quite like "Loud As A Whisper" (but I'm VERY partial to season 2), and I liked the solution that was arrived at.

I can't hate "Up the Long ladder" either, though I accept a lot of the criticisms are hard to defend against.
 
I really like Masks and don't have issues with many episodes listed here.

It's a proper example of exploring the unknown. Like what the captain blaberdoos on during the opening credits. It's refreshing to have a latter-day TNG episode not being about hauling dignitaries around in a glorified taxi or supplies as a glorified SUV.

But then I am someone who defends Shades of Gray, so I'm kinda contrarian like that.

The non clipshow bits are pretty terrific, and the alien planet scenes are steeped in atmosphere and really sell an unknown environment. Pesky opening credits again, though at the same time the good exploratory stuff can't be done every week. Otherwise everyone would want to see their doctor every day to have a colonoscopy done. Oh wait, people seem to dislike those, so that's not a good analogy... would you believe, "all you can eat for free buffet"?

Justice. Just seedy... and oh we know this is a seedy sex planet let's take Wes down and put him in jeopardy. Oh god he found jeopardy instantly, what a surprise. Throw in random god thing too, because...

Because the same scene has Mommy Crusher saying to bring on down the boy Crusher and just before Geordi and Yar say they all go at it like bunnies at the drop of any hat, with both Mommy Crusher and Riker being completely nonplussed about it all. But they probably have cures for all the superbug strains of gonolis and syphirrhea by then, of course...

Loud as a Whisper. Felt dated like a TOS episode and I hated Riva when I watched it as a kid and still didn't like him when rewatching this year. He just comes across as a prick from the first moment.

I still adore this one for its freshness and new and even unconventional approach. It may also have been an inspiration for the 1990 sitcom "Herman's Head". Granted, bits of the same episode would be put into a blender and the puree that plops out is the bulk of "The Loss", which is a worse episode but - dang - Marina Sirtis goes above and beyond with the acting.

Up the Long Ladder is a stinker, and just... problematic... shall we say. I think it's far worse than Code of Honour because I think if you look at Code of Honour yes they are shown as rituatlistic, but they are also astute (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson is great as Lutan) and they make vaccines so are clearly portrayed as intelligent. Yet Up the Long Ladder, well the Irish are just dumb drunks is the takeaway.

I'll second that.

Jessie pretty much makes the story watchable with a magnetic delivery of material that, I believe, is trying to juxtapose him following his code of honor whereas Picard throws tantrums and surely bypasses protocol and fires torpedoes close to the planet surface to terrorize the locals. CoH is a definitely throwback, right down to the music. There are elements of "Amok Time" as well, not directly so, and at least CoH tries something new with old material in that regard. Unlike the trashy "The Naked Now"... which is sad, as even the trash had later episodes somehow elevating the notion that Yar and Data banged. The show took a risky on that and knew they had something special, and knew how to make it work.

Plus, extreme or not, it shows that different species on different planets can excel in some technologies and not others. Is it not been claimed that some earlier human civilizations hadn't mastered "the wheel", despite coming up with lots of other neat things? The Ligonians do have teleportation technology, and technically vaccines prevent or mitigate an infection rather than being a cure to those who already have it, but the former still has much value and it's just a scripting oopsie.

That, and I don't find it compelling to watch Riker chat up the lady of the week to give her tootsies a bath. Then again, Kirk went out of his way to horndog it up at fairly dumb times too. The strange thing is, it's easier to fathom Dr Pulaski doling out STI treatments than to do so for McCoy or Crusher! And that's the best tangent that leads to the one absolute thing about UtLL that's actually cool: Pulaski partaking in Klingon poetry by taking the antidote as preparation of partaking as it involves a drink whose ingredients are toxic or lethal to humans.

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Some season one-esque dialogue aside, it's not bad and is another great early-TNG example of worldbuilding.


Aquiel. Pretty bad. Another Geordi being lame story.

The lamest. The only interesting thing is... well... um... eeh... ooooh... ugh -- Yeah. like I remember this one either. Something about the doggy doing it, or the guest Klingon, or the ooze that came in handy... didn't Geordi read Aquiel's diary outright? Sheesh, even the ditzy computer with its 9.37% margin of error knew how to not intertwine personal logs into the simulation, the lack of which helped (but not exclusively) to create the errors in the first place (and even then, since Leah's first on-screen action is to caress Geordi's shoulder to get his attention, as opposed to simply tapping on it! Geordi wasn't asking for that moment either...)
 
Interesting - I quite like "Loud As A Whisper" (but I'm VERY partial to season 2), and I liked the solution that was arrived at.

Same here. TNG really got 95% of itself fixed with season 2 and the differences shine through marvelously.

I can't hate "Up the Long ladder" either, though I accept a lot of the criticisms are hard to defend against.

It's not my favorite, but it's more watchable than "The Loss" for its sci-fi ideas alone.
 
I don't really like "Clues" but it's not the episodes fault.
I don't like "Half a Life." I hate that planet and I hope their sun explodes and kills them all.
 
I don't really like "Clues" but it's not the episodes fault.
I don't like "Half a Life." I hate that planet and I hope their sun explodes and kills them all.
I just rewatched those. I'm always fond of Clues. Rewatching Half a Life it really strikes me what an amazing actress Majel is. They way they stripped her back and just had long dialogue between her and the guest star... it was great. The actors that is. I'm not saying the epsiode itself is great, but they were.
 
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I can't think of 10 right off the bat and I like a lot of episodes that most people hate. But what does come to mind is 'We'll always have Paris' I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. The next one would be the 'Outrageous Okona' and then 'Sub Rosa'
 
I can't think of 10 right off the bat and I like a lot of episodes that most people hate. But what does come to mind is 'We'll always have Paris' I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. The next one would be the 'Outrageous Okona' and then 'Sub Rosa'

"Paris" seems to be one of those bland and ineffectual, forgettable ones, despite that one memorable scene that I always misplace as being in "Home Soil" for some reason.

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"It's me!" (0:51) Woops, the contractions are as impressive as the effects in this one. :D

I should rewatch this one again, maybe on Monday Monday while I'm California Dreamin'... :shifty: :hugegrin:
 
I just rewatched those. I'm always fond of Clues. Rewatching Half a Life it really strikes me what an amazing actress Majel is. They way they stripped her back and just had long dialogue between her and the guest star... it was great. The actors that is. I'm not saying the epsiode itself is great, but they were.

"Half a Life" really shows the power Majel has in dramatic acting. Steals the show, along with David Ogden Stiers.
 
"The Host" - Terrible episode, particularly the ending. The only redeeming factor is that it set up the Trill storyline for DS9, which gave us Jadzia and Ezri.
 
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