For
a couple years now I have been doing a regular series called Underrated
Trek, where I discuss episodes which, while not that popular if not
hated outright, I like for some reason. But there are some episodes that
even I can’t defend, they’re just bad for one reason or another. Not
the worst ever, but bad enough that I can’t even find something positive
in them. So as we wind up the year I decided it was time to give these
episodes a little attention.
Here are ten episodes that I just can’t get behind.
The Omega Glory
I briefly mentioned this back on the 4th of July for its forced
Patriotism. But the truth is, the episode is just bad. This was one of
Gene Roddenberry’s proposals for a pilot idea. Of course they went with
“Where No Man..” Which was a good call because this episode is just
boring. It’s all over the place and the American parallels are to much.
So much that for once the parallel Earth setup fails, it just feels
silly.
Spock’s Brain
There’s just no defending this one, it’s campy and silly. It feels
closer to being a Lost in Space episode than a Star Trek episode. What
in the world was Gene Coon thinking? I mean he was a talented guy he
could have done something with this! Instead he half assed a bad script
and put a pseudonym on it. The first ten minutes are good, setting up an
interesting premise, but then t just gets dumber and dumber.
Code of Honor
There is so much to say about this one and very little of it is good.
The one good thing is this is the only episode to focus on Tasha. Unless
you count Skin of Evil. Or Yesterday’s Enterprise. That’s about where
the good news ends with this one. It’s boring and definitely mired in
1st season goofiness. Did I mention it was also racist and just a bit
offensive? Even the actors have come out over the year to admit this
missed on almost every level.
The Dauphin
Three words:Wesley in Love. Do I need to go on? This episode is so bad
they had to force conflict onto it, with awful CGI to boot! There really
isn’t much to say here, pretty weak.
Force of Nature
One of, if not THE, strengths of Star Treks is dealing with a real life
issue in a smart and intelligent way. But sometimes, it doesn’t work.
This episode is about the environment which seems like a good subject to
tackle, but it just wasn’t well written. It takes forever just to get
the plot going and in the end it all feels so one sided and preachy.
Move Along Home
It’s been well documented that season 1 DS9 was not very strong. Despite
the fact that this show was supposed to darker and tougher than TNG, it
took a few episodes for the creators to understand what that meant.
This is a great example, as the the crew is forced to play a game for
real while aliens make Quark control them on a chess board. I saw this
kind of plot used in an old G.I.Joe cartoon, so you can guess how strong
this script was. Even for TOS or TNG this would have been goofy, but in
DS9 it’s just a FAIL.
Heart of Stone
This one is inexcusable. There was potential here with the idea, having
Kira trapped and no way to be saved, but they botch it. They did it two
ways, by having the special effects make the effects on TOS look good in
comparison. And then with a cop out ending which nullified everything
that happened in the episode. The B story is actually a lot better, but
man was this episode terrible.
Fair Haven/Spirit Folk
This is Voyager at it’s worst. The best way to describe it is to explain
that my wife, who hated Star Trek, loved this episode. Not only is it
boring….yeah that’s about it. It’s boring! Did I mention the Irish
stereotypes? How about the fact that Janeway has an affair with a
hologram which got passionate? Wait if it’s a hologram that means she
was…..Pass! The second episode takes the premise of holograms becoming
self aware and just gets ridiculous with it. To be fair, Spirit Folk is a
touch better but man is Fair Haven a snooze fest.
The Fight
Every series had to do a boxing episode. It seems to be a rule, though I
don’t understand why. The episode forcing a character to box is usually
clunky and awful. This is no exception. The boxing of stuff is beyond
forced, even including Ray Walston reprising a character he’s played
before on TNG because….of reason, I guess. The episode involves Chakotay
and a dream quest and….you know I really don’t care enough to relive
this one.
These are the Voyages…
As always I need at least one Enterprise episode. But I couldn’t think
of one, because I mostly don’t remember the episodes from that show. So I
settled for this this very obvious choice. Never mind that the episode
is a slap in the face to Enterprise. Never mind that Riker and
especially Troi are basically wasted here. Never mind that the episode
actually harms a decent episode of TNG (The Pegasus). Never mind that
the actors clearly put in as little effort as they could on it. But,
this was the series finale? And you can’t argue “oh they didn’t know
that at the time”, yeah they did! Rick Berman said it was a love letter
to the fans. I think he wrote it angry and didn’t put much thought into
it. This episode is one of Trek’s biggest blunders and even I am hard
pressed to defend it. I’ve said before that the only cool thing is the
last thirty seconds, and I stand by that.
Finally, what about the movies? Is there a bad one that I can’t
defend? I guess that Star Trek Insurrection would be the one. At least
Star Trek V is fun to watch in a bad movie kind of way. And Generations
is a major guilty pleasure for me. And Into Darkness certainly wasn’t
all bad. But Insurrection is boring, dull, and stupid. I don’t think
I’ve seen it more than once and that will probably never change.
I was thinking of ding an overrated Trek article on episode people love that I don’t. Maybe someday.
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