Terrible episodes of great shows.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I find the chemistry between Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley can make even the worst TOS episodes at least somewhat fun. Though the 1 with the kids and the evil space ghost was truly painful to sit through. The guy who played the ghost was so terrible an actor it was like he was a vampire draining all life from the show. At least we got Shatner's 'I'm losing my ability to command' ham schtick out of it. When TNG is bad, it's there's nothing redeeming about it. It becomes a black-hole of suck. And Rodenberry's full-frontal assault on capitalism in early TNG was so stupid and made Picard and Riker complete a-holes who it was impossible to root for. Showing a better future is one thing. Telling 99% of your audience that they're unevolved and just horrible people for wanting to make a living is something else.

Move along home for DS9. In season 1 they often tried to be 'TNG, but on a space station,' and this was probably the worst example of that. Obnoxious aliens and a silly story that takes itself too seriously.

I seem to remember reading somewhere years and years ago that the space ghost was an actual lawyer, not a full blown actor. As for TNG, no matter how hard I tried, I could never get into that show, I think I only watched a quarter of the episodes and liked only one of the four feature films (First Contact). Maybe it's just me, but there was an overwhelming air of pomposity and pretentiousness to TNG that rubbed me the wrong way from jump street and made liking the show difficult, and that mindset never changed for as long as it ran.

[sunofdarkchild]

I seem to remember reading somewhere years and years ago that the space ghost was an actual lawyer, not a full blown actor. As for TNG, no matter how hard I tried, I could never get into that show, I think I only watched a quarter of the episodes and liked only one of the four feature films (First Contact). Maybe it's just me, but there was an overwhelming air of pomposity and pretentiousness to TNG that rubbed me the wrong way from jump street and made liking the show difficult, and that mindset never changed for as long as it ran.

Well, First Contact is the only decent film made from TNG. The other 3 movies range from stupid to terrible and are usually both. As for the show itself, I say just watch Q-Who and Measure of a Man from season 2 and skip everything else until season 3. So just those 2 episodes from the entire first 2 seasons. Season 3 is where it finally starts to get good on a consistent basis.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well, First Contact is the only decent film made from TNG. The other 3 movies range from stupid to terrible and are usually both. As for the show itself, I say just watch Q-Who and Measure of a Man from season 2 and skip everything else until season 3. So just those 2 episodes from the entire first 2 seasons. Season 3 is where it finally starts to get good on a consistent basis.

One of the highlights of First Contact was Riker finding Troi drunk oh her cultured ass after having met Zefram Cochrane. As for the TV show, I did like The Best of Both Worlds, part 1 and 2, but I don't recall which season those episodes ran.

[sunofdarkchild]

One of the highlights of First Contact was Riker finding Troi drunk oh her cultured ass after having met Zefram Cochrane. As for the TV show, I did like The Best of Both Worlds, part 1 and 2, but I don't recall which season those episodes ran.

Season finale of season 3 and season premier of seaon 4. Thus began the Trek tradition of season-ending cliffhangers.

[ChrisIII]

I can't decide which was worse, the one about Spock's brain being stolen or the one with the space hippies.

The Way To Eden. What's kind of interesting is that the basic plot (Cult takes over the Enterprise to reach an Eden planet) was basically the plot of STAR TREK V THE FINAL FRONTIER.

Charles Napier, who plays the lead hippie Adam usually played a lot of authority types, such as his later role on DS9 and Murdock in Rambo First Blood 2.

The story also originally was going to have one of the hippies be McCoy's daughter, but instead she wound up being a former love interest of Chechov's. McCoy's daughter sort of is "semi-canon" (She's mentioned in the series bible and animated series).

[AnakinFlair]

I know what you mean. They weren't my favorites either but they weren't bad. Q is one of my favorite Star Trek characters, but surprisingly I wasn't too crazy about the Q-Less episode. Again, it wasn't bad though.

As for TNG, it had some of the best episodes in Star Trek, but you had to sit through a large amount of them to get to the good ones. The problem with that series was that the crew was too 'perfect' in my books. No real character conflict or growth (except Data). Its Captain barely made any mistakes. It didn't make the show terrible (it definitely had its share of terrible episodes), but really boring to watch at times.

You can put the blame squarely on Roddenberry for that. He mandated that there would be no conflict between the crew. Drove the writers crazy, because that's where you can develop some of the best kinds of stories.

[caj]

The Way To Eden. What's kind of interesting is that the basic plot (Cult takes over the Enterprise to reach an Eden planet) was basically the plot of STAR TREK V THE FINAL FRONTIER.

Charles Napier, who plays the lead hippie Adam usually played a lot of authority types, such as his later role on DS9 and Murdock in Rambo First Blood 2.

The story also originally was going to have one of the hippies be McCoy's daughter, but instead she wound up being a former love interest of Chechov's. McCoy's daughter sort of is "semi-canon" (She's mentioned in the series bible and animated series).

As Spock would say, 'Fascinating'. I never thought about the connection of this episode and Star Trek V, but you are correct.

The thing about McCoy's daughter would've been interesting. I always hated that they finally had an episode where they gave Chekov something to do and it ended up being this lame-duck episode.

Probably my three favorite episodes of season 3 were:

The Enterprise Incident - the one with the female Romulan captain where Kirk and Spock steal the cloaking device
Spectre of the Gun - where Kirk and Co. are sent back as the Clanton gang to the gunfight at the OK Corral
Turnabout Intruder - the final episode of the series where Kirk's old flame switches bodies with him. It's worth it just to see Shatner ham it up as a female being in Kirk's body.

[ChrisIII]

I know what you mean. They weren't my favorites either but they weren't bad. Q is one of my favorite Star Trek characters, but surprisingly I wasn't too crazy about the Q-Less episode. Again, it wasn't bad though.

As for TNG, it had some of the best episodes in Star Trek, but you had to sit through a large amount of them to get to the good ones. The problem with that series was that the crew was too 'perfect' in my books. No real character conflict or growth (except Data). Its Captain barely made any mistakes. It didn't make the show terrible (it definitely had its share of terrible episodes), but really boring to watch at times.

I think part of the reason Q didn't really work with DS9 is that his goofiness worked better in contrast to the somewhat more stoic TNG crew.

[ZeroBG82]

I think part of the reason Q didn't really work with DS9 is that his goofiness worked better in contrast to the somewhat more stoic TNG crew.

That and the fact that part of what makes Q work is his chemistry with the captain. Both Picard and later Janeway are just scientist enough to put up with him while also being exasperated with him. Sisko always felt like a little bit different kind of commamder. For one thing, he was a bit of a mischievious troll himself. Half the time he might have gone along with Q just because it might be fun. But the other half? Sisko wasn't putting up with any of that. If there was a way to destroy Q he'd find it and keep it up his sleeve.

So you're left with two choices: 1) it goes from being a silly and oddly friendly antagonism to a genuinely malevolent form. Malevolent Q just wasn't how they wanted to play the character after Farpoint. Even Q Who, which is Q at his most petulant and vindictive, is less about Q being a dark god than it is him lording his superior knowledge over the crew. You never truly believe that Q will let the Borg slaughter them, and you trust Picard to humble himself to save as many as possible.

Or 2) You play Q for a joke. And that runs the risk of watering the character down so far you can't use them for anything else.

The real mistake DS9 made was keeping Q tied to the humans. Q vs Quark was where things really could have gotten interesting.

[Osiris-Rex]

The episode of The Big Bang Theory where Leonard meets his childhood bully (its sort of weird the actor is now playing young Sheldon's father) Also the one where Leonard is forced to wear an itchy sweater.
Most the episodes with Priya in retrospect because Leonard ends up getting back with Penny anyway so they are sort of a waste of time.
All of the finale season of Heroes in its first run. All of the finale season of Once Upon a Time. All of the final season of Two and a Half Men. All of the final season of Under the Dome. The fourth season of Arrow.

[Nate Grey]

DS9: Hard to find bad episodes. The one where they're stuck in that game came to mind.

The cast, including Avery Brooks, hated that episode, called "Move Along Home". *shrugs* I liked it, seemed an episode typical for a first season. People also often site "Let He Who Is Without Sin...", the ep where Worf and Jadzia go to Riza, but I kinda liked that one too.

For me, two episodes come to mind for bad episodes of Deep Space Nine:
Profit and Lace, where Quark gets surgically altered into being a woman for...I forgot the reason I think it was to go undercover. I think it was to catch a Harvey Weinstein type character in the act.
Fascination, where Lwaxana Troi somehow makes everyone fall madly in lust with everyone else.

For Voyager, interestingly...only Threshold. I've complained about the reset button nature of the show, but in retrospect, while that complaint still stands it is otherwise very watchable. Threshold though is like they were deliberately trying to make the worst episode ever.

[caj]

The episode of The Big Bang Theory where Leonard meets his childhood bully (its sort of weird the actor is now playing young Sheldon's father) Also the one where Leonard is forced to wear an itchy sweater.
Most the episodes with Priya in retrospect because Leonard ends up getting back with Penny anyway so they are sort of a waste of time.

Agree with most of this, but...

I love the episode where Priya tries to discredit the Roommate Agreement but in the end, Sheldon blackmails Leonard into signing a new one by threatening to send an email to Priya's parents about her relationship with Leonard.

Sheldon: You may have gone to Cambridge, but I'm an honorary member of Star Fleet Academy

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Probably my three favorite episodes of season 3 were:

The Enterprise Incident - the one with the female Romulan captain where Kirk and Spock steal the cloaking device
Spectre of the Gun - where Kirk and Co. are sent back as the Clanton gang to the gunfight at the OK Corral
Turnabout Intruder - the final episode of the series where Kirk's old flame switches bodies with him. It's worth it just to see Shatner ham it up as a female being in Kirk's body.

My top three from season three:

1) The Enterprise Incident - a wild and wooly outer space spy caper worthy of John le Carre or Ian Fleming
2) The Tholian Web - one of the more gripping and emotionally charged episodes from that season
3) Day of the Dove - Forget Michael Dorn or Christopher Lloyd, Michael Ansara was THE baddest Klingon EVER

[TriggerWarning]

Since we seem to have delved into a Star Trek episode discussion, I'm going to throw out Far Beyond the Stars in Deep Space Nine. This is the episode where Sisko is in a coma and dreams that the whole cast are science fictions writers in the 50's and his stories won't be accepted because he's black.

I know some love this episode but to me it just felt ham fisted and out of place. Yes we all know the 50's and 60's were a very racist time but we are a show in the 23rd century. So having him dream of living in that era was like lazy low hanging fruit writing to show racism themes and such. Star Trek has done much better racism parallels.

[Godzilla2099]

That and the fact that part of what makes Q work is his chemistry with the captain. Both Picard and later Janeway are just scientist enough to put up with him while also being exasperated with him. Sisko always felt like a little bit different kind of commamder. For one thing, he was a bit of a mischievious troll himself. Half the time he might have gone along with Q just because it might be fun. But the other half? Sisko wasn't putting up with any of that. If there was a way to destroy Q he'd find it and keep it up his sleeve.

So you're left with two choices: 1) it goes from being a silly and oddly friendly antagonism to a genuinely malevolent form. Malevolent Q just wasn't how they wanted to play the character after Farpoint. Even Q Who, which is Q at his most petulant and vindictive, is less about Q being a dark god than it is him lording his superior knowledge over the crew. You never truly believe that Q will let the Borg slaughter them, and you trust Picard to humble himself to save as many as possible.

Or 2) You play Q for a joke. And that runs the risk of watering the character down so far you can't use them for anything else.

I agree with most of this. Q synced better with the TNG Cast because they were so stoic and uptight. But also the situations DS9 dealt with were more deep and intense. Having a malevolent entity like Q directly lend a hand wouldn't have been as meaningful. The only scene where Sisko and Q worked better were in the comics. Q said he know of the Pah Wraiths but wasn't allowed to interfere.

Strongly preferred Q as a genuinely malevolent form but opened to make wise cracks to those he interacts with. Q Who was one of my favorite episodes of TNG. The other moments I enjoyed Q was when he saved Picard's Life. He acted like the Ghost of Christmas Past and Present when Q found Picard in the afterlife and helped Picard understand the choices he made. I actually found him best when he worked as a teacher. And the time he gave Data the gift of laughter.

The real mistake DS9 made was keeping Q tied to the humans. Q vs Quark was where things really could have gotten interesting.

Quark would have been predictable and I don't see him giving Q any amusement. Rom on the other hand would have been pure gold. Rom has a conscience, and depending on the topic, a complete buffoon or one of the smartest individuals you'll meet.