The Least Disliked Episode 2025 - TNG Season 5

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - now with more shows than ever. It's generally a lot of fun, providing a chance to mentally revisit those episodes you may not have thought about in a while. With that in mind, why not play again?

So, here's the game. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. I'll provide a list of the episodes for each season and you need to eliminate your least favourite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just because you feel it would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win. Pretty simple. Enjoy!

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Hall of Champions
2011 - The Best of Both Worlds (I)
2013 - The Measure of a Man
2015 - All Good Things…
2017 - The Best of Both Worlds (I)
2019 - Yesterday’s Enterprise
2021 - Q Who
2023 - Q Who
2025 -

Season 5
Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
The Masterpiece Society
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

Dismantling "The Masterpiece Society".

This one was just so boring. And I feel like there was a better story with Geordi and the scientist about his visor and being born blind vs. not existing on that colony to begin with. But the focus on Troi's love story just was not interesting enough compared to what we could have had.




Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
Imaginary Friend
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Takeru]

Imaginary Friend, no thanks.
This episode does nothing for me, an alien sees the ship from a kids perspective and decides to murder everyone because they're meanies. I've seen this plot before and it always ends with a stupid sappy scene where the kid says something like "Please don't murder my family, they hug me, and read me stories and make me hot chocolate" and the alien is like "Well ... okay. *stops choking the adults* Can we still be friends?" and the kid says "Of course you're my best friend!!!" as if that thing isn't a monster that would kill all of your loved ones because of a misunderstanding.



Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
Cost of Living
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[BlueStuff]

Killing Cost of Living. I'd never seen this one until recently - now I wish I never had. Lwaxana and Alexander, what a combination! What could go wrong?

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
The Outcast
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Victoria]

The idea behind "The Outcast" was a worthy one but ended up dancing round the issues and appearing to support "conversion therapy".
Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Ethics
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

This is going to possibly be surprising, but I'm taking out "Ethics".

I actually really like the episode, but it puts Crusher in a horrible light and this episode is a microcosm of why she is my least favorite CMO.

Worf absolutely had a right to perform ritual suicide if that was his choice. The whole 'no one commits suicide in my sickbay' is pushing your values onto the patient's. I get why she says that, and I'm (obviously) all for saving lives. But if the patient decides it's their time, that is their decision. You can't force someone to live with a disability if they don't feel it's something they can live with. It's wrong.

And the final scene with Dr. Russell... it was her at her most preachy, and it just soured her on me. It just cements that her way is the only way. And as a doctor, she should be more open to other possible ways.

While I love the scene with Riker telling Worf why he won't help him and I thought it was fantastic (and one of Frakes' best in general), and the rest of the episode is good... because it damages a character so badly that I count it as a 'worst episode' for a specific character (in this case, Beverly), I have to eliminate it this early.


Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
The Game
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

The Game was a dull episode for Wes to reappear in the show.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Perfect Mate
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Victoria]

The Perfect Mate is an uncomfortable episode on many levels. There's a woman being transported as freight. It might not be Federation policy to interfere in other people's customs but there's a difference between "non-interference" and "facilitating". The Federation appear to be facilitating both slavery and prostitution. Then there's the "Perfect Mate" herself who is, and is going to be be, the traditional servicer of men's wants. Not sure why Kamala "permanently bonding" with Picard makes anything any better - she's still the passive object of men's desires rather than a free actor.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
A Matter of Time
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Sakonna]

"A Matter Of Time" doesn't work at all. The scene-to-scene plotting is so stupid. Our characters are rendered such idiots to make the story work.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Silicon Avatar
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "Silicon Avatar".

I have to agree with Dr. Marr and Riker... the Crystalline Entity had to be stopped because it would just go on killing and destroying.

In the time it would take to figure out how to string together a 'NO KILL I' to it, the Entity could easily just keep going on a planet wide feeding frenzy.

The ending with Data saying what he did... I dudn't really like that. It too easily painted her as a villain.


Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Hero Worship
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

Season 5 could have had the subtitle, 'Attack of the annoying kids.'

Hero Worship had a decent idea, but was ultimately poorly executed.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)l
New Ground
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Brennyren]

Taking out "I, Borg," because as far as I'm concerned, Picard is responsible for everyone who died or was assimilated because he was too damn nice to make the hard choice. Yes, Hugh was cute. So were a lot of people who subsequently fell to the Borg.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)l
New Ground
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "I, Borg," because as far as I'm concerned, Picard is responsible for everyone who died or was assimilated because he was too damn nice to make the hard choice. Yes, Hugh was cute. So were a lot of people who subsequently fell to the Borg.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)l
New Ground
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
Cause and Effect
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

I am in complete agreement with you. This is why I think Picard would not be effective during wartime. It's probably also why Starfleet had him go do diplomatic missions in the middle of the Dominion War instead of be on the front lines, despite the Enterprise-E being quite well armed for battle.



Taking out "Cause And Effect".

Despite it being a novel idea and well directed, I'm just so tired of time travel episodes.


Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Victoria]

Episodes with several story lines can be good or can be a bit of a mess. I like Troi being in command and Worf's "You may now give birth" but there's a further "attack of the annoying kids" (thank you, Seven of Five). Star Trek does not do children well.

"Disaster" by name: disaster by nature.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Time's Arrow (I)

 

[Seven of Five]

Times Arrow was not the best cliffhanger, especially considering what had come before.

A single episode may have worked better.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Violations
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[BlueStuff]

Violations was an attack on the senses. Unpleasant subject matter filmed in an unpleasant way. “Oh boy! Violations is on! That’ll be fun!” Said no one.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
New Ground
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[Detached Nacelle]

I make no apology for the removal of New Ground. Both plots are really boring in this episode for me. Among many weak Alexander episodes without anything else going on to buoy it.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase
The Inner Light

 

[CoveTom]

I am debating between a couple of beloved episodes here, but I'm going to go ahead and remove "The Inner Light" for being another "Picard has something potentially life-altering and psychologically traumatizing happen to him and is back in the captain's chair like nothing happened" episode.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Unification (II)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase

 

[Victoria]

I liked Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar but not as Sela. In "Unification II" Sela mounts an invasion of a planet with...3 ships. With that level of acumen, it really makes you wonder how Sela got to be leading anything at all.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Conundrum
Power Play
The First Duty
The Next Phase

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

My first choice will be "The First Duty", as I'm not keen on Starfleet Academy stories.

Redemption (II)
Darmok
Ensign Ro
Unification (I)
Conundrum
Power Play
The Next Phase