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The Least Disliked Episode 2025 - TOS Season 2

"The Ultimate Computer" is such a silly premiss. What could possibly go wrong with allowing a computer to make your decisions for you? I mean, the potential shortcomings are glaringly obvious. (Mind you, the same stupid choice keeps being made today so perhaps I have too high a regard for the intelligence of Star Fleet and the Federation)

Amok Time
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
Journey to Babel
The Trouble With Tribbles
The Immunity Syndrome
 
Damn, I wouldn't want to be the person who has to choose the worst episode out of those five.

Oh it's me? Well, uh... I'm picking Journey to Babel. It's an incredibly important episode for the series, as it introduces both the original Federation members and Spock parents. It's well-written, well paced and very entertaining. But the editing is a bit dodgy sometimes.

Amok Time
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
The Trouble With Tribbles
 
My guillotine is going to fall on "The Doomsday Machine" on the grounds it is the one I like least of the remaining episodes.


Amok Time
Mirror, Mirror
The Trouble With Tribbles

Time for the blindfold and a random stab, I feel!
 
NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!! "THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE" was taken out?!

Farscape One... his heart saddened and eyes tearful.



Since my favorite is now gone, I will make "AMOK TIME" the winner. I love all these final ones, but between this and "MIRROR, MIRROR", the former really underlines the bond between Kirk and Spock even more.

"AMOK TIME" wins.
 
Damn, I wouldn't want to be the person who has to choose the worst episode out of those five.

Oh it's me? Well, uh... I'm picking Journey to Babel. It's an incredibly important episode for the series, as it introduces both the original Federation members and Spock parents. It's well-written, well paced and very entertaining. But the editing is a bit dodgy sometimes.

I'd be more than happy to time travel back and rip the shreds out of most of them! :devil:

"Babel" deftly retcons Spock's "ancestor" mentioned in WNMHGB into his father, but since that's a sly positive, the real rippers are how some costumes/masks don't fit quite right, the alien ship isn't convincing for even for 1967 (I recall TOS-R being far, far better in this regard), this episode was providing a drama template for about 90-or-so TNG episodes (many of which being in season five onward but only without the exciting space battles). Then again, the sitcom "The Golden Girls" also dredged up a ton of family members for drama fodder too, but at least it was intentionally funny...
 
I was hoping "Journey To Babel" would take it, but I'm not unhappy with the final two. I do prefer them both to "The Doomsday Machine."

I wonder if "Mirror, Mirror" is my favorite TOS? It might be. I don't usually think of best or worst TOS episodes like I do with the other series. But it's a pretty damn perfect episode.
 
I was hoping "Journey To Babel" would take it, but I'm not unhappy with the final two. I do prefer them both to "The Doomsday Machine."

I wonder if "Mirror, Mirror" is my favorite TOS? It might be. I don't usually think of best or worst TOS episodes like I do with the other series. But it's a pretty damn perfect episode.
These things are of course incredibly subjective, but after watching the entire series over again with my kids (their first time) a couple years ago I thought Mirror, Mirror was the best of the series. Action, humor, actual peril, great acting, a well-written female character (by TOS standards), a show-not-tell demonstration of what the Federation is (by showing you what it isn't) and the possibility of redemption, even amid endemic violence and amorality. When I finished the episode I thought "I can't believe they did all that in 48 minutes." It's why I have avoided any Mirror Universe stuff since then. What more is there to say? It was already done perfectly.
 
These things are of course incredibly subjective, but after watching the entire series over again with my kids (their first time) a couple years ago I thought Mirror, Mirror was the best of the series. Action, humor, actual peril, great acting, a well-written female character (by TOS standards), a show-not-tell demonstration of what the Federation is (by showing you what it isn't) and the possibility of redemption, even amid endemic violence and amorality. When I finished the episode I thought "I can't believe they did all that in 48 minutes." It's why I have avoided any Mirror Universe stuff since then. What more is there to say? It was already done perfectly.
Also it has Spock's best mind-meld scene.
 
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think S2 is actually a less standout season than S3. S3 has more clunkers, but S2 has a large number of episodes in the "Good, not Great" realm for me...so as good as it is, it feels less "remarkable" than S1 and S3.

Least Favorite / Skippable
Who Mourns for Adonais?
The Apple
Catspaw
The Deadly Years
Wolf in the Fold

Good but not Great/Relatively Entertaining
Amok Time
The Changeling
I, Mudd
Metamorphosis
Friday's Child
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Piece of the Action
The Immunity Syndrome
A Private Little War
Return to Tomorrow
Patterns of Force
By Any Other Name
The Omega Glory
Bread and Circuses
Assignment: Earth


Favorites/Frequent Rewatch
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
Journey to Babel
Obsession
The Trouble With Tribbles
The Ultimate Computer
 
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