The Five Worst Star Trek Episodes of All Time
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Star Trek's Worst Episodes
Every cloud must have its lining but every starship must also have its gaping hull breach. Television series that are genuinely great, also often tend to be uneven with episodes varying from one to the other in quality and sheer sanity. Star Trek in all its incarnations has had its ups and downs, from the odd vs even curse of the movies, to the episodes of Star Trek so infamously bad they are often remembered better than the good ones, there have been potholes aplenty on the wagon trail to the stars.
Here we present the five worst episodes of Star Trek, selected one from each series to insure a certain amount of fairness, as it would after all be too easy to make up the entire bunch from the third season of Star Trek The Original Series, the first or last seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the fourth season of Star Trek Deep Space Nine or the third season of Voyager, the first season of Enterprise... and so we begin.
1. Spock's Brain - Star Trek: The Original Series
There probably is no more infamous bad episode of Star Trek than Spock's brain. Even people who could not even begin to name an episode have a vague recollection of the one where the planet of women in skimpy costumes stole Spock's brain and the Enterprise crew fitted him with a remote control instead.
Spock's Brain began the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series, infamous in and of itself because NBC had reneged on its promise to Gene Roddenberry causing him to leave the series and paving the way for a disastrous final season for Star Trek before it was cancelled. Oddly enough, Spock's Brain had been written by Star Trek producer Gene Coon under a pseudonym. Gene Coon was considered the second most influential person in the shaping of Star Trek after Roddenberry himself.
Spock's Brain was simply put startlingly bad. From poor set design to a ridiculous story to an awful script and poor direction which allowed in a number of embarrassing errors in consistency to creep in, everything about Spock's Brain pointed to a meltdown in the way Star Trek was run. Despised by the stars of the series, Spock's Brain became a pop culture phenomenon, referenced in songs and TV episodes. It seemed to hold that same element of wackiness as episodes of Batman would, thus transforming Star Trek into pop culture kitsch. It was a significant blow for a show that aspired to make a statement about the world.
Yet in practice Spock's Brain was not so much worse than a number of other Star Trek episodes and its premise not significantly more absurd. Predatory alien women in skimpy clothing, supercomputers that controlled planets leaving their denizens in a kind of paternalistically backward Eden and Spock losing his mind were after all staples of the series. Yet somehow Spock's Brain managed to combine them in a way that made you wince and groan and laugh at the same time.
Runner Up: Turnabout Intruder
Second Runner Up: Catspaw
2. Masks - Star Trek: The Next Generation
Picking a final contender for Star Trek The Next Generation's worst episode is a good deal more difficult than it was for Star Trek The Original Series. Where Star Trek: TOS had one infamously infamous episode, Star Trek: The Next Generation instead had dozens of mediocre ones. If Star Trek The Original Series boldly took risks, aiming for the sky and sometimes crashing down to earth, Star Trek: The Next Generation took far fewer risks preferring a more comfortable mediocrity. First season of Star Trek: TNG boasted plenty of painful moments including the planet ruled by women and the planet ruled by black people. But it was only seventh season TNG that routinely boasted ideas for episodes insane enough to even begin to compete with classic Star Trek. And of all of these no episode was quite as insane as Masks.
Masks was not quite awful in the Spock's Brain sort of way. Spock's Brain after all had a story absurd as it might be. Masks was more of an idea rather than a story. For an hour viewers sat wondering if some sort of lunatic ballet company performing a Latin American production had hijacked the Enterprise and that remains the best possible explanation for Masks. Masks was not so much an episode as a production, a production virtually devoid of story and low on dialogue that featured the Enterprise being transformed into some sort of Incan space temple with Picard and Data entering the roles of space gods or avatars of some sort.
On the surface, Masks likely began as an attempt at doing another Inner Light episode about the artifact of a vanished civilization carrying the weight of personalities and memories, combined with an attempt at giving Data another humanizing experience. Instead what emerged was something so awful that viewers could only gape in disbelief as they watched what seemed to be an experimental production of Enterprise buried in a neo-Incan myth in which nothing much made sense or wanted to make sense.
Runner Up: Sub Rosa
Second Runner Up: Angel One
3. Let He Who Is Without Sin: Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Let He Who is Without Sin features members of the Deep Space Nine crew arriving on Risa which is apparently run by Vanessa Williams. Planet Risa is dedicated to sex, which explains the phallic statues everyone carries around. Unfortunately there are some spoilsports who think that Risa weakens the Federation and hijack the weather control system to make it rain. Also they briefly attempt to take hostages. As it rains on Risa, some of the crew contemplate the possibility that the storm really does prove the Federation is weak.
Let He Who is Without Sin is not spectacularly bad. Being spectacularly bad requires ambition. Let He Who is Without Sin is however pretentious, foolish and pointless. All qualities that would embody Ira Steven Behr's tenure on Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Robert H. Wolfe's tendure on Andromeda.
Runner up: Take Me Out To the Holosuite
Second Runner Up: Field of Fire
4. Favorite Son - Star Trek Voyager
Had Lisa Klink never put pen to paper, Star Trek Voyager might have had many candidates for the title of worst episode but once Lisa Klink decided to create her very own version of Spock's Brain, the die was cast.
Unlike Spock's Brain, it is quite likely that Favorite Son began as either a parody or some attempt to comment on the gender in Spock's Brain specifically or Star Trek in general. It's hard to know and it's harder to say. But what viewers were instead treated to, was Kim displaying signs of being an alien and arriving on a planet filled with seductive women eager to bear his child, suck the life out of him and turning him and any other men they can entrap into skeletons (apparently they somehow suck the flesh and skin away too) and proceed to try to beat him into submission with phallic shaped sticks when he refuses.
The results were bad. Very, very bad.
Runner up: Twisted
Second Runner Up: The Fight
5. Unexpected - Star Trek Enterprise
Star Trek Enterprise attempted to recapture some of The Original Series and it succeeded in part with Unexpected. Unexpected did not capture any of the classic Star Trek vision or imagination, it did capture some of the sheer awfulness of its worst episodes.
Unexpected featured Trip Tucker, Enterprise's engineer becoming impregnated by an alien woman by touching her hand. He then develops wacky pregnancy symptoms including cravings and a fixation on safety and possibly another nipple. As painful as all of that was, what helped set it apart were the utterly terrible alien sets which easily could have been topped by any set designer in the last two decades and were actually worse than the sets on the original Star Trek engulfing the viewer in a kind of amateurish psychedelic alien disco.
Trip winds up becoming the first human male impregnated by an alien and viewers thankfully bid the episode goodbye and the ratings rapidly decline.
Runner Up: A Night in Sickbay
Second Runner Up: Vox Sola
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Oh Masks the book was significantly better than Masks the episode... bad as it was. Spock's Brain did turn into Plan 9 From Outer Space... the footage was just better integrated and the plot a little more coherent
Daniel, why is DS9's 'Field of Fire' given a nod on this list? That's the one with Ezri solving murders, right? I'd really like to hear your thoughts on that episode. Also I'll never understand why TOS' 'The Alternative Factor' never seems to make these lists...?
It was a terrible episode simply put and seemed to be part of DS9's odd hatred for Vulcans in the final seasons.
Alternative Factor rarely makes the lists because people usually list the more outrageous episodes and TOS had no shortage of those, e.g. spock's brain
I love "Masks" to death. Maybe it's because I've spent so much time reading different cultures' myths and folklore and books by characters like Joseph Campbell and James Frazer about how they all tie together, but I think a culture using hijacked replicators to stage the mythic cycle that was important to them is a smashing idea, and I think it translated well onto the screen in terms of the designs and Brent Spiner's acting. It's definitely bizarre for "Star Trek," but I can really get into it.
I'm with you on all the others. They may not be absolute worsts for those series, but they're all ones that immediately come to mind when I think of worst episodes.
I have another candidate to consider. The episode is called "Emergence" from The Next Generation's last season. I saw it last night and I realized that there is an entire scene where Captain Picard was literally pasted into a meeting in the conference room. They used green screen to make it appear that he is having a meeting with the crew. There must have been a scheduling problem that made them film his parts separately. It's pretty hilarious. It also explains why Picard is mysteriously absent from more than half the episode. The episode itself sucks in too many ways to mention.
yes that was pretty bad, another season 7 disaster
I always thought "The Way To Eden" from TOS was the worst
I'd like to nominate "Birthright" parts 1 & 2 (TNG), especially part 2, which is an uninterrupted hour of Worf obsessing over retardedly contrived Klingon culture, and being too racist to nail a half-Romulan. Some of the worst guest actors in the series too, which is really saying something.
Birthright was undeniably bad and continued TNG's decline by making two formerly great races look ridiculous. But I do have a weak spot for the Data's dreams storyline.
I'm sorry, but you've missed the boat on Voyager. Inarguably, the worst episode has to be "Threshold." Tom Paris exceeds warp 10 (haven't they always said that was impossible?) and then "evolves" into a gila monster.
But wait, it gets so much better! Then Paris kidnaps Janeway and they have gila monster babies on some passing jungle planet.
And best of all, after Janeway and Paris are returned to human form (those Star Fleet doctors can cure ANYTHING, even EVOLUTION!) they leave the kids behind.
And I ask you, why not? It's not like they MEANT to have kids. And it's not really breaking the Prime Directive if there really isn't a civilization already on the planet, is it?
But I think that for the rest of that series, Tom Paris should have blushed like a schoolgirl whenever he happened to make eye contact with the Captain. It would be only natural.
I second Threshold as being by far the worst episode of Star Trek Voyager. It started as an intriguing idea but the end result was a complete mess. It was so disgusting that even the writer (Brannon Braga, I believe) pleaded guilty on all counts.
I don't know the name, but there was one episode of Voyager which was a sub-Sci-Fi-Channel-Saturday-night-movie-version of Aliens, with Janeaway as a VERY poor man's Ripley, hunting aliens on an empty Voyager. I think she even stripped off her uniform top and went around in a Ripley-esque undershirt, to accentuate her grim and sweaty hunting. Horrific.
You're thinking of Macrocosm
I forget the episode name, but the TOS episode with the cosmic hippies playing those stupid instruments and the same "groovy" song over and over again tops my list.
You're thinking of, The Way to Eden
I like your choices but not your comments on Ira Steven Behr, he seems to be the one writter on Trek who actualy tried to make characters on DS9 interesting and complex...the exact opposite of Riker, La Forge, Kim, Chakotay etc
Though it is a Star Trek cliche, the episode in which Kirk falls in love with a woman a few seconds after meeting her, so he can henceforth treat her like his property and instantly forget everything about being a captain is in fact "Requiem for Methuselah". It's excrutiating. Furthermore the set and several plot devices are obviously left over from previous episodes and the "twist" is telegraphed in advance from the next galaxy. "Whom Gods Destroy" recycles just as many bits of old plots (at one point a character even says "that looks familiar") including the whole prison planet cliche. We meet a madman who wants to take over the galaxy but he's actually not that mad, just a bad dresser, so most of the episode is taken up with conversation over dinner. There's also a bad dance sequence.But that's not as hideously tacky as the musical numbers in "The Way to Eden", in which hippies in space are led by some fantastically brilliant (supposedly) dude who in fact acts like a dunce at every opportunity. Because the plot requires it. "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" is an equally dumb plot in which (one more time) a smart woman turns out to be a jealous maniac, but can nonetheless be brow-beaten by Kirk into saving Spock from an insanity that has no cure. In "That Which Survives" a planetary defence system is apparently an image of a woman who can only move very very very slowly and kill one designated person at a time. Why not use a nuke? Or at least clone 500 of them at a time? The plot is just as illogical (there, I've said it) and tediously slow. In "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" we have another fake planet, dead society ruled by computers, and an automatic defence system. At least here they use nukes. But they don't work, so we have to sit through this pile of crud.In "The Lights of Zetar" the wincingly bad Scotty moons over some woman who gets infected with floating lights. Until depressurised. Or pressurised -- I forget which. "The Cloud Minders" is about class struggle. Ha-ha-ha-ha! In this one Kirk goes crazy and Spock falls in love, which is the same thing.All of these episodes are much worse than "Spock's Brain", which at least has memorable lines, some great set pieces and a good deal of over-the-top charm. I have remembered "Spock's Brain" for decades but until I recently rewatched the entire series I'd thankfully banished rubbish like "The Gamesters of Triskelion" from memory.
I agree some of those were pretty bad, though I'd agree some of those you listed were artifacts of the time. And yes plenty of plot devices were repeated, but that holds true for all SF. How many private eye stories set in a cyberpunk future can you come across over the last 20 years.
But it was never the plots that made TOS good anyway, and the series had at least a 50 percent fail ratio.
Ira Steven Behr was responsible for making DS9 retarded. His whole Vic Fontaine obsession nearly took over the series and turned it into a joke.
I would nominate Skin of Evil for the worse tng episode. Sure it doesn't compare to angel one or code of honour for just downright ackward moments... but this episode presents terribleness in two different ways. For one how it kills off yarr and subsiquent pithy moments/funeral. And 2nd for the terrible oil creature which motivated me more to want to go out and drown the writers in an oil spill. Thats a one two knock out I'm not sure the others deliver.
I loved Take Me Out to the Holosuite! Wonderful light-hearted episode in the middle of all that war stuff.
Nice blog. I found this while engaged in a nerd debate.
I would say the worst episodes of TNG and Voyager are the ones where they mutate into animals. I can't remember the name of the TNG episode but I think that it was first season. It involved crewmembers deevolving into various creatures. And a third vote for "Threshold"!
Personally I found "Masks" to be too interesting in its wierdness for it to be counted as truly bad.
The worst DS9 episode in my opinion has to be "The Sound of Her Voice" because I write fanfiction. The plot and characterization of this story is what every beginning fanfic writer comes up with, a ghastly example of a Mary Sue story down to the last seconds of film. Ironically, the term "Mary Sue" originates from a TOS parody fanfiction. FYI: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
The Sound of Her Voice walked on the Mary Sue side, but it wasn't the only one. The last season of TNG showed us what a fan written series would be like and it wasn't pretty.
Love your picture of Bones.
Yes.. Spock's Brain is pretty embarrassing to watch with a non ST fan. Another bad one for me was TNG's The Naked Now. Picard was sooooooo undignified and the story ... why did anyone bother!
But, sad as it may sound, I really like watching the good and the bad. Taken together, it just feels good.
Just thought - maybe the bad episodes make the good ones feel extra extra fabulous. You think?
You left out the episode 'Final Mission' from The Next Generation which was clearly the worst episode of any series in terms of the gawd awful writing, plot holes as wide as a Gates McFadden's clevage.
Has no one here seen "The Omega Glory" in TOS? Lucky you. Starts out good, rogue Starfleet commander tames some "savage" indigenous population, Kirk and friends transport down to square off with him. The "savages" turn out to be parallel universe Americans, complete with the same flag. Kirk has some hilarious propaganda scenes at the end where he recites lines from the Constitution. Head-clutchingly uncomfortable.
I nominate This Way to Eden, the episode in which the space hippies take over the Enterprise--exquisitely bad!
O! Come on! No mention of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"? "Operation: Annihilate"? "And The Children Shall Lead"? "The Omega Glory"? So many bad episodes!!!
I don't even have to think about it: from TOS "The Alternative Factor" is BY FAR the WORST episode of all the series combined, and that includes "Spock's Brain"!
The space hippies The Way To Eden is my runner up, and second runner up would probably be Turnabout Intruder (I had forgotten about this one).
Hoo boy...seconded for "Omega Glory". My brother and I, long-time TOS trekkies, watched that on TV, and thought it was okay. Then Kirk started reciting some '60s Cold War sci-fi-dime-a-dozen propaganda bull$%!* about a country which by the 23rd Century doesn't even exist. I cried.
I'm watching "Spock's Brain" tomorrow and looking for a tape or DVD of "Masks". Both sound like they will send me into laughing fits.
Oh, and although it's not all that relevant, I do laugh every time Shatner says "Sabotaaj".
I'll be another voice saying "The Way to Eden" was one of the worst of the Original Series. When '60s shows tried to comment on Counterculture the results were seldom pretty. You can see other examples of this in "Lost in Space" and "The Andy Griffith Show."
"Brain and brain, what is brain?" That was a great line from Spock's Brain, and it makes me laugh 40 years later, and for sheer farce, nothing touches this episode. The idea that McCoy could put back Spock's brain and it still works was wonderful, highlighted by reconnecting his vocal cords so Spock could walk him through the process. Anesthesia is for wimps.
I do want to mention "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" as another candidate. This show shoved McCoy into multiple plot devices simultaneously--he's going to die AND he falls in love. No disrespect to McCoy or DeForest Kelley, but the girl he fell in love with looked about half his age, and you wonder what she saw in this guy unless he mentioned his retirement pension and/or life insurance policy to her. We also had the world-controlling computer theme, as well. I would also cast a vote for "And the Children Shall Lead" as a rotten episode.
Masks was horrible also, with most of TNG rotters indeed coming in the first and last seasons.
This was a great post, worthy of much comment, laughter and debate!
"The Apple", "Catspaw", "The Paradise Syndrome", and "Area" are pretty awful.
And yet we continue to buy the dvds and watch the reruns to this day.......what is wrong with us?
With all the excellent choices that have been posted thus far, I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Plato's Stepchildren" from TOS. My gawd, it's painful to watch.
The storyline was OK, but the over-the-top acting during the "controlled" scenes was some of the worst in the history of television.
Masks wasn't that bad at all worth watching just for Brent Spiner flexing his character talents, granted it's nonsene, but... to the two others you picked Sub Rosa / Angel One, yeah there totally terrible...
"The Way to Eden," rates as my most unwatchable episode. I can sit through Spock's Brain, but haven't watch that one from start to finish in perhaps a decade. The Warp ten episode where Paris and Janeway turn into lizards. Yeah, pretty bad. I remember a circus type episode featuring Michael McKean from Voyager that I loathed as well. Two out of every three episodes from Star Trek's third season were horrible. It's just the way it was.
I'm trying to watch every TNG episode made, no matter how bad, but Birthright 2 finally beat me. Worf disrupts a peace loving culture with his bigoted, violent views and we're supposed to side with him? Come on.
There's plenty of episodes that have bored me to death, but this was the only one to have really pissed me off.
@Jo Woodward: I think people continue to watch the re-runs and buy the DVDs, because despite some of the episodes being bad, the series as a whole is fun to watch.
Also when I think about it, the worst episode of TNG would have to be the one where Barkley creates holographic versions of the Enterprise bridge crew. It’s the one where Data, LaForge, and Picard are The Three Musketeers. I thought the episode was funny as a child, but now it’s just awful.
I hate TNG episode with Q where the crew becomes Robin Hood and his gang. So embarassing!
I actually enjoyed watching the Enterprise runner up episode: A Night in Sickbay. I was surprised to see it on the list as there are far worse episodes eg. S04E04 Borderland, S04E05 Cold Station 12 and S04E06 The Augments. How boring, anybody else agree with me? And oh my, what about Voyager S02E15 Threshold? Damn that was a horrid episode, thank you Brannon for f***ing that one up.
So weird. "Masks" is hands-down my favorite episode of TNG. It was an acting tour-de-force by Brent Spiner, and a writing triumph in general. You wrote: "Masks likely began as an attempt at doing another Inner Light episode about the artifact of a vanished civilization carrying the weight of personalities and memories, combined with an attempt at giving Data another humanizing experience." Exactly, and they nailed it.
"Emergence" is the absolute worst episode of TNG ever. The suspension of disbelief for "Masks" was rather high, but I had to credit the episode with a good dose of originality in its storytelling. But "Emergence"...there are just no words to describe my loathing. I really just hate episodes of Star Trek or any series that present new realities that should radically transform the characters or their lives ...but are never heard of again.
Don't forget how in "Masks" the archive was using the Enterprise's replicators to transmute the whole ship into a an ancient shrine. They only have 30 minutes until the whole ship is turned into a temple! Wah!
What, no mention of Threshold? The Voyager episode were Tom goes to infinite speed and evolves into a salamander. The only episode of Star Trek to be stricken from cannon by the creators.
For shame.
The worst episode of Star Trek TNG to me was "Shades of Gray". With Voyager, I actually think "Tsunkatse" may be the worst.
I thought Take Me Out To The Holosuite was a great episode. Def. not deserving as DS9's second worst
Robin. 'Is there no truth in beauty was not a dunmb episode at all because it addressed probably the most important thing in human history. There is a line at the end where kirk says 'here's to beauty and ugliness and all the diversity that make up human nature - making the true divine beauty'. This was a product of the 60's consciousness and is actually the key to advaita and the key to seeing good and bad in everything therefore providing perpetual 'happiness' or joy. Something that you may have missed.
Threshold from Voyager! Tom Paris breaks warp factor 10 and then turns into a giant Salamander, and then bonks Captain Janeway and they have Salamander babies? And then everything is back to normal? More surealism than Science Fiction.
Yes, for Masks (STTNG). But for sheer monumentally 'bad', you can't go past Threshold (STV) and The Way To Eden (TOS) - both totally unwatchable.
That said, there were whole episodes in Voyager that gave off the stink of "This show is well and truly in its death throes"... how about the one where B'lanna Toress and Tom Paris go through their Mom and Dad schtick? Episode after episode! Soap opera... plah! But for sheer "We need to up the ratings" stinkeroo; the one where Chakotay has a pretend-passionate affair with 7 of 9. No build up, no reason for it, no on-screen chemistry... bleearrggghhh!
How "The Child" didn't win out for TNG I'll never know.
For me, 'Dear Doctor' has to be the worst episode in all the Star Trek franchises, for three reasons:-
Firstly, it tries to sell the theory of 'Intelligent Design', thoroughly discredited now. In the episode, the 'Menk' are shown to be evolving in a certain predetermined direction, that's not Darwinian Evolution that is Intelligent Design!
Secondly, Doctor Phlox uses the lamest argument ever for justifying genocide through inaction, that of self-interest and naked ambition.
He asks Jonathan Archer how he would have liked it if someone had helped the Neanderthals. Presumably, being Starfleet, Archer would have been overjoyed, thrilled to bits, to be given the opportunity to share a planet with another species.
Taking the line of argument Doctor Phlox uses for not giving the 'Valakians' a cure to their disease, you could justify almost crime, in history. You could say that the American Indians were meant to die of chicken pox and the common cold or Jonathan Archer 'might' not have become the first white American captain of The Starship Enterprise. You could argue the Jewish holocaust was meant to happen or 'perhaps' a descendent of a Jew could have become the captain of the Enterprise instead of Archer, maybe even one of William Shatner's distant relatives. Oh no! Thank God and Intelligent Design that never happened!!
Thirdly, worst of all crimes, in my opinion, the episode mistakenly draws a line, makes a distinction, between ordinary disease and genetic disease.
All disease has a genetic component. Viruses use genes to spread; bacteria battle your immune system and flourish if you have not evolved a some form of genetic defence. The episode is partly in the form of a narrative from the perspective of a Doctor so you that mistake is unforgivable. Aaargh!!! Awful episode!
The episode on DS9 where quark goes to Ferengular to visit his mom is by far the worst episode I've ever seen. Grand Nagas is sooo annoying. It was a horrible episode ugh.
I'd say EVERY episode of Voyager stank. Terrible show.
I just saw "Dark Page" from S7 of TNG. Awful. Whatever posessed the writers to think we give a crap about Troi's Mothers mental problems?
This is an excellent post with excellent comments. I kept thinking, "Oh yeah, that one"
On general principles, I hated any episode with a pompous, putting-on-airs title, like "Where Silence Has Lease" and one that was mentioned several times, "Is There No Truth in Beauty?"
Best awful line: In Angel One (like that's what a planet ruled by chicks halfway across the galaxy would be called), Riker says "It's not my function to seduce or be seduced by the leader of another world." It was thoughtful of him to use both permutations, to make clear that either role in a seduction involving a planetary leader, seducer or seducee, was unacceptable. But it also left open the possibility of seducing or being seduced by any other alien woman.
Why did Dr. Crusher always use drugs that sounded like some 2.0 version of an existing one, like "polyadrenaline"? Won't anything totally new have been discovered between now and then? By contrast, will none of the old favorites, like aspirin, still be around?
Similarly, everything in the Trek universe seems to be made of newly discovered elements like "nutronium" and (my favorite, from Barclay's holodeck episode) invidium, as in "invidium has been confirmed."
My problem with Voyager is that technology was the answer to every problem. "Reroute the plasma conduits through the warp field polarity inducers and reinitialize the replicator coils!" "Yes, Ma'am." Each episode had 55 minutes of conflict, then someone would flip a switch and fix it.
My favorite stupid plot contrivance: Remember the cute but dull girl in the episode with the Gatherers, the slobs who were cast out from their society and went around robbing planets? Riker discovers that the girl is going to kill the head slob, but instead of putting her in handcuffs and/or transporting her to the ship, he vaporizes her just so he can feel morose for the last five minutes of the show.
Best episodes: almost anything involving time travel or primitive societies.
Why bash TOS? The third season was idea based and at least they tried, which is more than I can say for Voyager. But yeah, I think The Child is definitely the worst TNG hands down. Dear God, it seems like a nightmare
remembering that. That scene with the little light. . .I feel really sad for Marina Sirtis when I think about that. How could they do that to her?
Do I have any seconders for "The Alternative Factor"? Has anyone seen this episode? It's AWFUL!
By the way, I really enjoy reading all your posts! Great site.
love voyager. in the main,that is. they pissed about too much with time travel related mumbo though. And this ruined several episodes. espeacially the final episode, but more so the 2 parter "year of hell"
almost 2 hours of action then all wiped out by the magic of temporal mechanics. (how i hate that phrase)
I have watched all the Trek Series, and besides TOS, I think the best series after that is a batttle between DS9 and Voyager.
DS9 departed a lot from the Stereoyping of the previous series and was a lot more adult.
When first shown,it was probably not that well liked. Though when watched again, has probably a more cult following than DS9 and Voyager.
And as for Voyager, it reveted back to a simple concept (as opossed to DS9's complex one).
The First female Captain and argubly the best, Voyager remans a warm welcome.
And the Worst Trek series-that goes to Enterprize. Archer, the worst Captain and misscast. The rest of the charaters, especially the non white one's were too painfully racial-stereoytped.
Spock's Brain... the worst hands down! Great list! Thanks!
I don't think Season 7 of "Next Generation" was that bad. "The Pegasus," "Parallels," "Interface," and "Phantasms" are some of my favorite episodes of any "Trek."
The season premier and finale also seem quite popular with fans, although I haven't seen them in a really long time.
And just to throw something new out here, I thought the "Voyager" episodes set in the holographic Irish village were appallingly bad. In most episodes that inconsequential holodeck nonsense would be relegated to the B-plot, but instead it became the focal point of 2 different episodes.
Nice list for the most part, but I think Enterprise's "Hatchery" is the worst Star Trek episode of all time. Archer argues that they should save a bunch of insectoid Xindi eggs because they could show that they aren't as ruthless as the Xindi think... and the reasoning for this in the episode is that some technobabble took over his brain so that he'd want to be paternal toward the eggs. So, after he's cured, the leave the baby Xindi to die. It's such an anti-Star Trek idea, and so badly handled that it made me finally give up on Enterprise completely.
the early years were defined by dodgy sets and scantily clad women appeared to take your focus away from said dodgy sets. most amusing to me was the carpet underlay on the walls in the turbo lifts. however the painted backdrops from TOS survived to be used through all generations of the franchise. bearing in mind they were trying to get away from the 50's alien movies where the order of the day was shoot first ask questions later and portray harmony throughout the galaxy and beyond.
in enterprise of course they do not have the prime directive to guide them so get to interfere! i think on the whole people have forgotten that star trek is fictional entertainment and not a documentary.
Turnabout Intruder was a ripoff of an Outer Limits episode named "The Human Factor" with Gary Merrill and Sally Kellerman. Apparently the writer of Turnabout Intruder couldn't come with anything original.
TOS: The Alternative Factor.
#1 on my list.
TOS: And the Children Shall Lead, A Way to Eden, Catspaw.
TNG: Angel One, Code of Honor, Haven (oh Hell, just about all the Lwoixana Troi ones), The Outrageous Okona, The Dauphin, Peak Performance, Shades of Gray, Devil's Due, Dark Page, Sub Rosa, Masks, Emergence
Annon are you actually JAF, like the Alternative Factor is a weak episode but it isn't even close to TOS worst episode, too weird for so many people to bring it up as worst here I think it is all the same persons comments. TOS worst is "The Way to Eden" only good part is when the hippies die from being burned by acid. TNG its "Shades of Grey" a clip show as a Season Finale need I say more. The author is correct about the worst DS9 episode "Let he who is Without Sin" was boring and pretentious garbage. Voyager its "Threshold" for all the reasons commentors here have previously listed. and I also go with "Dear Doctor" for Enterprise like a previous commentor although I thought the author made a stong case for "Unexpected".
Just watched "Spock's Brain" after many years. Better than I remember. Some very good ideas in it. Of course it is a complete rip-off of the Krell from the movie "Forbidden Planet", but still enjoyable. I especially like the scene on the bridge where the crew are discussing the M3 planets. This is not one of the worst original "Star Trek" episodes by a long shot.
Oh, and I have to agree with Steve, "The Omega Glory" is very bad. The more I think about it, there are many TOS episodes much worse than "Spock's Brain". "A Piece of the Action" comes to mind as well as "The Way to Eden". I'm beginning to think some people put "Spock's Brain" on their worst episodes list solely for the title of the episode. Pretty lame.
Spock's Brain was a bit disappointing when I first saw. In the same way as Plan 9 it was not as bad as a lot of people led me to believe. The idea of using Spock's brain as the caretaker of the civilization isn't that ridiculous and the idea was used in Terry Pratchett's non-comedic pre-Discworld novel Strata. That part is fine. I agree that the episode is terrible but that was very, very poor execution of a not bad idea.
Pretty much any story Ira Steven Behr wrote can be written off as garbage. DS9 never worked for me anyway, as they were no longer bolding going anywhere and the attempts to tell "darker" stories helped to dismantle Roddenberry's vision and were a major cause of the decline of the franchise. The process started there, set into high gear with the Dominion war and becoming too focused on action, given a huge boost toward its doom by Voyager, and buried at last by Enterprise. (The finale of Enterprise should be listed here as its worst.)
Turnabout Intruder was a rip off of the 1963 Outer Limits episode named The Human Factor with Gary merrill and Sally Kellerman. But I agree the HF wasn't nearly as insulting an episode as Spocks Brain which was actually so idiotic that it wasn't even funny.
Regarding "The Alternative Factor" frequently not being mentioned among the worst "Star Trek" episodes. There's an old saying - the only worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Yes, Spock's Brain was bad - however, it was so bad it was good. And whatever else one could say about "Spock's Brain", at least it wasn't boring - ridiculous, silly, outlandish - yes - but not boring. However, "The Alternative Factor" is one of the few actually boring Trek episodes, and therefore people do not watch it and do not remember it.
There are plenty of crappy episodes in each version of Star Trek, and lots of weaknesses in many of the good ones. I try to concentrate on the best stuff and the good feeling I have about Star Trek generally. None of the shows were as good as I'd like to remember, but all Star Treks were usually worth the time. That said, I wonder why no one mentions Conspiracy as a stinker. The whole pseudo-1950's implanted bug thing was embarrassing and pretty stupid.
Voyager's Threshold, TOS's Spocks Brain and DS9's Take me out to holoshuite, Prodigal Dautgher and Field of Fire rank as the absolute worst episodes of the franchise. Haven't seen Enterprise yet.
Just watched "Alternative Factor" last night and had forgotten how much I hate it. Hate the alien's ridiculous beard, hate the stupid little Jetson's saucer ship crashed on the planet, hate the repetitive "grappling" sequences using negative photography, hated the plot that makes no sense. At least "Spock's Brain" was funny. On another note, any TOS episode that features Uhura singing automatically gets points docked in my book.
The problem with Alternative Factor is that it is the worst episode (by far) of a decent TOS Season 1, so it stands out. If it had been Season 3, it would blend in with the other bad episodes. Spock's Brain is so bad it's funny, which is more than I can say about The Empath. 55 minutes of nothing happening on a black set. As for TNG, it doesn't get worse than Man of the People. I'm still trying to get that one out of my mind. DS9's worst is The Muse. Haven't seen the other series enough to rate.
Worst star trek includes the planet populated by Indians, The planet run by hoodlums, and the cloud monster.
Worst TNG, All Good Things. Two episodes, One klingon ship destroyed. Only exciting thing that happens.
Ds9, woman with an atitude, Black man with an atitude, Alien with an atitude. Everyone had a chip on their shoulder.
I like Threshold. Why, you ask?
Because at _any time_ afterwards, Janeway could honestly said of Paris 'He turned me into a newt!...
... I got better.'
Worst episodes for me:
TNG: 'Outcast' or 'Journey's End'
Enterprise: 'Meld' ? The one with the Vulcans who can mind-meld.
Nothing of the others stand out as bad.
("a circus type episode featuring Michael McKean from Voyager" is my favourite! "I think that it was first season. It involved crewmembers deevolving into various creatures" I don't mind; it's 'Genesis' and is from Season either 6 or 7.)
You missed one of the worst. "Remember Me" (ST:TNG). A truly nonsensical bit of sci-babble in which Beverly Crusher creates her own universe which is rapidly shrinking into nothingness. The writers should have been shot.
I'll take Spock's Brain over any of the Next Generation Mr. Data gets laid episodes (out the airlock with ye pinnochio) or any episode that involves Lluwaxan Troi or any episode featuring any children in a prominent fashion such as the execrable Hero Worship or any episode with that little Klingon pos Alexander. My god the entire episode of New Ground was about how Alexander wasn't doing well socializing. Who gives a shit? In fact the worst of the Next Generation was as exciting as watching a board meeting for a company that makes paper boxes. At least Spock's Brain had some dramatic tension.
Just saw the episode, 'Assignment: Earth'
Wow, that was bad. Not THE worst, but right up there.
I can't believe no one mentioned star trek voyager season 5 episode 205 Gravity! Chekotay spends the entire episode boxing an imaginary alien or sweating and writhing in sick bay. I have watched every series and every episode. This one is just painfully terrible!
Patty Inglish, MS Level 7 Commenter 4 years ago
I never saw Masks, the TV episode, but I read Masks, the book and didn't care much for it either. Spock's Brain must be in the same league with perhaps Plan Nine from Outer Space. Perhaps all these series ran out of ideas and pieces together very bad fare just to have something to film... Angel One was pretty bad imo as well. LOL