The Least Disliked Episode 2025 - TOS Season 3

[BlueStuff]

Our addictive biyearly game of rapid elimination returns - and the content keeps coming. 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 favorite 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 Original Series
Hall of Champions
2011 - Mirror, Mirror
2013 - Balance of Terror
2015 - Mirror, Mirror
2017 - Journey to Babel
2019 - The Doomsday Machine
2021 - The Doomsday Machine
2023 - Balance of Terror
2025 -

Season 3
Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Farscape One]

Taking out "AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD".

By the Prophets, this was THE worst episode in TOS. And a strong contender for worst in the franchise.

Terrible acting from the guests, children jacking off the air, and an episode that made Kirk look not only incompetent but also uncaring about his crew. (He doesn't bother to go back to Triacus to pick up his stranded guards.)

This was just a disaster and a terrible, terrible episode.


Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Victoria]

"The Empath" managed to be both unpleasant and boring.


Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Noname Given]

Bye Plato's Stepchildren

For me It's just bad across the board and I hate that it's always referenced for the interracial kiss that:

1) You really don't see on screen.

2) Is FORCED on its participants against their will (and even though there's character dialogue that shows in another situation it might be welcomed by both - that's clearly NOT the case here. Both are slaves in the scene forced to do Parmen's bidding.

For me It's a chore to watch.

Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[raneclowd]

Turnabout Intruder because of course you have to prove how unstable a woman is and that means no woman is capable of being a captain. Bleh. Janeway blew that crap out of the water…it only took what 30 years to get there?!

Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

Gladly taking out "THE WAY TO EDEN".

Just a terrible episode, the third worst of TOS. (Only reason it isn't second is because it gave Chekov something, and the episode was at least easy to follow... unlike "THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR".)

And the songs were just so annoying. (Except for the instrumental one with Spock and the space hippie.)



Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Phaser Two]

Removing, and with pleasure, my bête noire of S3 and for my money the most overrated TOS episode of all - "The Enterprise Incident." This is terribly-written Spock "romantic" fanfic that also manages, at least for the first half of the episode, to attempt an assassination of Kirk's character. Then there's the insulting portrayal of the Romulan commander as a lovesick horndog, culminating in the one-deck-but-two-minute turbolift ride. Joanne Linville's great acting through baaaaaad lines and some fun in the final act can't save it. "Intelligence reports TOS now using atrocious writing design." Oof.


Spock's Brain
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Qonundrum]

Wait, nobody removed the children episode yet?

There's things to like in a lot of season 3, even a handful of items for most of the already-removed ones...

Whom Gods Destroy

At least, for some of the others, they were trying to be original. WGD just feels like a second-rate "Dagger of the Mind", complete with magic shapeshifting explanation that also allows one to change their clothes. It's incredibly shallow. Seeing Marta (aka "not-Batgirl") get blown up mercilessly is probably the one thing, other than the chess move as secret codeword of the sort you'd think they'd have done a long time ago and long before the - what - fourth time Kirk's voice was mimicked and all. Gov. Cory could have been used a lot better, plus - good grief - that's Keye Luke for crying out loud!! They're underusing him?!!

Come to think of it, the only good character in this is Marta, because the dialogue gets to show some complexity out of her with her guile and side-flipping and stuff. Garth is runner-up for the latest take on "evil Starfleet dude of the week, despite Gene saying humanity is now perfect" and that trope began in season 1 with Finney, if not anyone before... Sheesh, now I'm second-guessing as there's one story on the list that's also bad but with one saving grace. But does that one element really outweigh this one? Well, yeah, because for the few good ideas or characters this one has, it all feels like a retread that was done better earlier.


What's left:
Spock's Brain
The Paradise Syndrome
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Victoria]

Dear me, still so much from which to choose...

"The Paradise Syndrome" is one of Star Trek's heavy-handed and inaccurate portrayals of Native American culture. And why does Miramanee have a skirt that is so much shorter than the other women? The episode does gets brownie points for the romance whidh is better portrayed than many in TOS.


Spock's Brain
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

Turning off "THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR".

This was just such a dull episode. Doohan tried his best, but damn... this was just dreadfully boring.


Spock's Brain
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Qonundrum]

The remainder are largely bland-to-excellent, even with ideas whose execution aren't great, but

Spock's Brain

Is just wackadoo played out sincerely.

"Brain and brain, what is brain!" could be a song lyric remix. Since everyone who doesn't have facial hair are walking around in go-go boots, would the episode somehow be better if they broke fourth wall and invited a certain infamous song from 1965?

To start the season, there's this lovely new projection screen that looks fantastic. Shame it wasn't used ever again, and this is the only reason the episode is good - that, and the other bridge crew are given some stuff to say that's not the usual rubberstamp moment.

Spock's brain, taken to be a glorified HVAC gauge, to keep the temperature warm and humidity under control, is the dumbest idea ever. Granted, most sci-fi shows plopping human brains into robot bodies, and yet - for inverting that trope that TOS had shown once and implied once in another story - this one just scribbles it in and doesn't even try that hard. not even Leonard Nimoy can save it and, dayum, that zombie acting is great.

(Even the light fixtures are Starfleet with the colour panels! Or it's Nomad's stepson "Vagabond")

There you go. He's a refrigerator for pickles too!

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See, they're all Federation too with those outfits!! There's Fleet Admiral Beehivehair, Cmdr Tightundiez, SubCommander Thigh, etc... apologies for the video quality, they clearly used a videotape copy (not the original film) based on the interlace line patterns in moving objects like the groovy go-go boots...



What's left:
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[BlueStuff]

There are a lot of problems with The Mark of Gideon, despite a nifty idea. Somehow finding the space to build a replica Enterprise is only one of the gaping plot holes in this one.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

"LET THAT BE YOUR LAST BATTLEFIELD" is laid to rest.

It was definitely very sledgehammery with the message.


Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

I'm removing Spectre Of A Gun. No matter how many times I'm told of why the sets look like that, the set design never ceases to make me angry. In some places you can see the corner of the wall. It's so annoying!

Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Victoria]

"The Savage Curtain" : yet another episode in which Our Heroes are kidnapped and forced to fight against their will. Arena and The Gamesters of Triskelion did it better.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Airin]

Bye "Elaan of Troyius". Sexist, and the conspiracy to steal the dilithium wasn't all that interesting. The whole "Kirk overcomes the love potion because he loves the Enterprise more" doesn't make a lot of sense either.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
All Our Yesterdays

 

[BlueStuff]

List updated. This one's flying by.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Wink of an Eye
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Farscape One]

Closing the eyelids of "WINK OF AN EYE"

Good concept, and the execution was okay, but it's my least liked of what remains.


Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Victoria]

"That Which Survives" is not "for me" and so it doesn't survive. What is with computers and defence systems which kill people first and then ask questions? Surely not everyone who ever visited your planet was an aggressive intruder.


Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
All Our Yesterdays

 

[MarcKle1964]

Oh my...I'm going to go with eliminating For The World Is Hollow... since McCoy's 'fatal soap opera disease' is so conveniently (and quickly) cured by the knowledge of the Fabrini whom we knew nothing about before encountering the LostInSpaceArk a week ago. Why was that B plot even in there??

Medical studies on the efficacy of Fabrini treatment methodology? Dosage Trials on SpaceGuineaPigs? Side effects research and treatments? Human compatibility studies? Nope, lets zap McCoy with the alien concoction and see how he does. He has a habit of doing that to himself anyway. It's a shame, Katherine Woodville is lovely.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Requiem for Methuselah
The Cloud Minders
All Our Yesterdays