After I talked about TNG episode promo’s last time, I found they they are all on YouTube. And someone was kind enough to make a playlist out of them. So I figured it would be fun to go through them all and see if I could find the worst. And that’s what I did. It’s funny to watch the promo’s evolve from light and fun to dark and foreboding. I guess that makes sense since that’s kinda how the show itself evolved. And as you can imagine, it was easier to pick on the promo’s from those not so great early years. That being said, here are the ten worst promo’s and no I am not including the couple I mentioned last time. These are in broadcast order.
The Battle
Ah, season one. This promo tells us everything we need to know about the episode. maybe to much in fact. We get who the bad guy is, why is he is doing what he’s doing, what he is doing, and even how the problem is solved. Seriously watch the promo you’ve got the episode.
Symbiosis
This is one of those season 1 episodes that is actually pretty decent. It’s basically a commentary on drug dependency. To bad the promo glosses over that to show us the cool powers our visiting aliens have.
Where Silence Has Lease
This one really bothers me because of how out of context a lot the scenes are. The worst is how they make it sound like a big fight scene with Worf has something to do with the plot. Yeah it has nothing to do with it. Also at the beginning the promo makes it sound like a “surprise attack” starts the trouble…when it doesn’t, at all!
The Schizoid Man
Pretty much the same as “The Battle”. The promo gives pretty much everything away.
Matter of Perspective
It’s easy to comment that I am mentioning these ads after I’ve seen the episodes a million times. The whole point of a teaser is to make you want to watch the episode, there’s no way a viewer will know where the scenes fit in the actual story when the promo first aired. Yeah you can argue that, but I swear even before I saw the episode I knew that last show of the trailer spoiled the whole mystery by showing us the “twist” ending. And I was right.
Hollow Pursuits
If I did this as a “Top 10” this one would be a strong contender for #1. In this episode Reg Barclay can’t seem to get away from the fantasy world he has created in the holodeck. Being a very introverted person. The promo tells us NONE of this, it doesn’t even mention Barclay. It just focuses on the crisis in the episode which doesn’t really add much.
Data’s Day
In a way I can’t be to hard on this one. The episode is basically “A day in the life” for Data. While that would a hard concept to sell in a thirty second ad. I think this time it’s a case of trying to hard as it comes off as Data is off one some kind of spiritual journey in the show. Huh?
Redemption, Part 1
Yeah same problem as above, they make a big deal about Worf resigning his commission and leaving the ship when this is the last two minutes of the show.
(by the way the trailer for the follow up is one of the best trailers for TNG)
Schisms
This is one is notorious for being a bad promo because it literally gives away the surprise ending. Something the creators themselves commented on!
Force of Nature
Perfect promo for such an awful episode. Almost everything in the teaser takes place at the climax of the episode. It makes sense since the rest of the show is pointless filler and boring conversation.
Comment and let me know what you think. I wanted to leave with one more, and chose this one. Star Trek Voyager’s promo’s were PAINFULLY misleading. Makes sense since no one watched the show, really. You’d think that every episode had intense action and dramatically high stakes. Not so. This ad in particular makes it sounds like the crew of Voyager and TNG are about to meet, and by mangling one of Troi’s lines even tries to trick people into thinking Picard would appear. Yeah…no. Troi appears (and the episode is decent) but the trailer is way off the mark!
Next Time…on Star Trek:The Next Generation!
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