The Worst of the Worst of Star Trek TNG---The Perfect Mate (Or How the Federation Turns a Blind Eye to Slave Trading)

I finally went through and watched all 7 seasons of TNG.  There were a few stinkers in an otherwise great tv series, and after pondering the themes, general acting, and plot scenarios, I've deduced that the overall worst episode was "The Perfect Mate." It's from the 5th season. It was written by Rene Echevarria and Michael Piller and I would ask them wtf they were thinking.

SUMMATION

"The Perfect Mate" was a dreadful episode, not because of any mystery, suspense, or violence, but because it seemed like it could have been written by a teenage girl with a penchant for romance novels.

An ambassador arrives on board the Enterprise with valuable cargo. That cargo, after it is brought out of stasis prematurely by a couple of sneaky Ferengis who tricked their way onto the ship, tells the Captain that she is the gift for the Chancellor of a planet involved in peace negotiations with the ambassador's planet.

The woman will psychologically bond with her intended mate. Trouble is, she attempts to seduce every man she comes in contact with, which is why she was supposed to be kept in stasis until the wedding ceremony. The ambassador tells her to stay in her quarters and not to mingle. Good advice...but...

Dr. Crusher isn't too crazy about the idea as a woman being a gift for some man, which to her, makes the Enterprise like a transport for slave trading. Picard agrees and decides to talk to the woman, named Kamala, that she should be a free agent and be allowed to leave her quarters---but with a chaperon. Picard enlists Data for that task, who is immune to her charms.

And now the plot complication; the ambassador has a run-in with the Ferengi who are trying to bribe him into a purchase of the metamorph, AKA gift for the chancellor. The ambassador attempts to leave with the threat of telling the captain about their bribe. He is pulled back and is accidentally knocked unconscious, rendering him unable to perform the duties of the reconciliation ceremony.

Now, the captain must take his place and gain help from the metamorph who, surprise surprise, bonds with him instead.


The episode ends with the captain giving away the bride and seeing the ambassador, recovered from his injuries, off the ship.

Why I hated it.

The metamorph tells the captain that she will stay put in her quarters until she's given to her master, but only if he visits her. Picard wants to know why she wants him to visit. She tells him she doesn't want to make love to him. Oh, please.

She goes on to impress him with her brilliance about ancient artifacts. He wants to know how, a woman bred to be some man's gift, she knows so much. She walks by him provocatively and tells him she never knows when the subjects will come up (that's not all that will come up).

She goes on to quote Shakespeare and mention landscapes from his village in France, using her telepathic abilities to entice him all the while telling him that she can only sense men of "deep passion and great conviction, so controlled, so disciplined" and she's "curious to know what lies beneath."

Part of this nauseating dialogue is to tell the audience how wonderful Captain Picard is?

When he tries to shrug her off, he assures her he's a very dull man. He asks her why she's doing this, she says it's because some part of him wants her to.

Now, it's up to Picard to get the help of the metamorph for the ceremony. He delights in discussing the particulars with her. She pleads with him to say nice things to her.

 If this episode were any more sappy, it would be a tree in Vermont.

Why does the federation deal with civilizations that use it's female population as gifts for men of other factions or worlds to uphold peace? Haven't they done away with this archaic swapping of girls as gifts in the 24th century? Yet, Picard goes through with the "giving away the bride."

As he tells an outraged Beverly Crusher, justifying his going along with it, that arranged marriages have been a part of many cultural traditions, including our own. Beverly is correct when she refers to the chaperone ambassador as a "slave trader."

Shame on Picard for justifying it instead of refusing to go along with it simply because it's wrong!


Later, before the wedding ceremony, Picard (almost jokingly) faults Beverly for suggesting to him not to keep Kamala confined to quarters.

Conclusion

Most of the time, the series explored human rights issues indicative to our times---exploitation, handicaps, ageism, prejudice, addiction, war profiteering, immigration, diplomacy, sexual orientation, personal responsibility, environmental responsibility, and superstition vs. rationality.

This episode went back in time. I think the producers of the show could have taken, and should have taken, the high road here. Rather than going along with a people's archaic form of diplomacy, they should have pushed the boundaries of the prime directive to include a provision that disallows cooperation in acts of arranged marriages and the exploitation of citizens for the purposes of being used as commerce or "gifts."

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Genesis

"Genesis" is from the last season.

It starts out in sick bay. Spot is going to have kittens. Yes, the Spot that was referred to as a "he" until the last couple of episodes. Who fathered her kittens, the male Spot? How does Spot manage to get out of Data's quarters to get pregnant?

Captain Picard takes Data on a shuttlecraft to retrieve a torpedo. They can't take the Enterprise through the asteroid belt, so why not take a shuttlecraft which will be much more safer?

Lt. Barclay is treated for some type of flu but his body wasn't able to fight it off properly because of a dormant T-cell, so Dr. Crusher injects him with one.

With Data and Picard off the ship, the crew exhibits signs of animal-like behavior. Troi slowly turns into a reptilian creature and turns her quarters into a tropical zone. Worf turns into some kind of lizard monster, and Barclay moves and talks like he's on speed before turning into an arachnid.

When Picard and Data show up after several days, they find the crew in hiding. The one's they do find have changed into primates, lizards (including Spot), spiders, etc. Data sees Spot the lizard has had her kittens, and they are kittens.

They are also unusually big for newborn kittens. This isn't related to the plot, it's just stupid.

Data surmises that amniotic fluid suppresses the transformation. He and Picard head off to find Nurse Ogawa, who announced earlier that she was pregnant. They want to use her amniotic fluid to make a mist to put through the air filters to bring the crew back to their natural state.

Meanwhile, Picard is slowly transforming and is panicky and jumpy. To complicate matters, Worf is trying to break down the doors and get at what he perceives as his mate--the lizard Troi. Picard leads him on a chase through the jeffries tube and shocks him, rendering him unconscious.

Then Data sprays the retro-virus into the system and next scene everyone is back to normal, even Dr. Crusher who was sprayed in the face by monster Worf's venom.
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This episode's one saving grace was the cool makeup artistry. I was especially impressed with Riker's and Ogawa's makeup, just like something out of Planet of the Apes. Other than this, the show was dumb. Picard left the ship to retrieve a torpedo! Spot somehow manages to get out of ship doors and get pregnant, doors that can only be opened by human commands. Don't they practice spaying and neutering their pets in the 24th century? And why did some humans become primates while others became spiders? This episode was dumb all the way around---except for the makeup.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Rightful Heir

"Rightful Heir" is from the 6th season.

Worf is going through a crisis of lack of faith in Kahless, an ancient warrior who once brought honor and unity to the Klingon people. He questions whether or not he actually had faith to begin with after his experience with the young Klingons from the prison camp (see episode "Birthright").

He goes to a temple to meditate in hopes of having a vision of Kahless and receive instructions on the course of his life and regain faith.

Then after several failed attemps, a flesh and blood Klingon appears and tells Worf he is Kahless. "I have returned" he says.

Worf has his doubts and invites this Kahless on board the Enterprise for further biological testing. Klingon Chancellor Gowron brings aboard a knife said to contain the blood of Kahless to see if the sample matches the new Kahless blood. Dr. Crusher performs the test and it's conclusive, the blood samples match.

However, Kahless' memory is full of gaps--not remembering the names of warriors, not providing information about the afterlife--when questioned by Worf and Gowron for details. Gowron challenges Kahless claims about his fighting prowess and they fight. Gowron gets the upper hand and almost kills him when Worf stops him.

Later, when Worf confronts Kahless and the members of the guardians who came aboard with him, the guardians admit that they took samples of the blood and tissue from the knife and made a clone of Kahless. Worf insists that they not propagate this charade and the guardians insist that their people need Kahless to bring in a new era of hope and unity. Gowron insists that the imposter will only bring division and that members of his own crew are now waiting for instruction from Kahless while others view him as a fraud.

In the end, Worf talks Gowron into agreeing to allow Kahless to be emperor, "a figure head" for the people rather than have him executed because it's already too late. It doesn't matter now if this new Kahless lost a fight with Gowron or that he's a clone, what matters is that now he has followers and his death will only cause further division and lead to new civil wars among the people. Worf tells them that the people need something to believe in, something greater than themselves.

There's even an exchange between Worf and Data which inspirers Worf to come up with the idea of making Kahless important in Klingon culture. Data tells Worf that humans told him he was a machine, just a collection of circuits made to perform certain funtions. It was up to him to become a person so he took "a leap of faith" to become more than just a machine.

I didn't like this episode because of the faith angle. Having faith in one's self to achive is a good enough point, but using a long dead legend and his teachings as that lesson in faith goes against Star Trek's idea of the search for knowledge using scientific discovery and exploration. Even the show's creator Gene Roddenberry was an atheist and I doubt he would have given much appreciation for this episode. This episode seemed to be promoting the idea of the necessity of having faith to give one's life purpose, focusing on a resurrected being, rather than the humanistic view of self discovery and making the world a better place for it's own sake.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Datalore

This episode could have been subtitled "Senior Staff Goes Dumbass." Datalore is from the first season and has it's good moments, such as the introduction of Data's evil twin Lore.

It begins with an away team, including Data, on Omicron Theta, the planet where Data was first discovered by a research team 26 years prior. The Enterprise away team finds a hidden cave that was meant to look like part of the rock formations, but once unlocked, they find a laboratory and an android in parts---an android that matches Data in physical form.

They also find child drawings of people running from something that looks like a huge snowflake in the sky. This would later be relevant to the plot.

Back on board the Enterprise, a team of engineers goes to work on reassembling the android (why Data wasn't involved in this process except for using his own body as a means to which reconfigure the other android isn't explained, although he possess the intelligence to do so.) Data lets Dr. Crusher know that he has an off switch and swears her to secrecy. As he explains to Crusher, "if you had such a switch, would you not keep it secret?"

Once the duplicate is put together, then the fun begins. He introduces himself as Lore and states that Data was made first because he was an "imperfect" model.

Ok, now for the dumbass actions of the crew. Without knowing alot about the functions of this new android and what he's capable of, they go about showing him around on the bridge. Lore fakes knowing about a lot of scientific theories and mathematical equations and is found out. This should have been the first and only access to the ship he's allowed.

His lack of sincerity and telling Data not to be jealous of his abilities should have been another clue. But even Data allows him access to his computer after he expresses his ambitions and attitudes toward humans. Lore tells Data the colonists on Omicron Theta were jealous of him and forced by Dr. Soong to make a "less perfect" android (Data).

Lore writes a detailed report of his time on the colony and of the "Crystalline Entity," a being that eats all forms of life, the same one that destroyed the colony.

Chief Yar asks the captain how much they can now trust Data! Um, what about Lore, Sugarbritches? Meanwhile, Lore offers a toast of champagne to his brother Data. Data takes a sip and is rendered unconscious.

Really?

Security officer Worf notices Data is using a subspace channel. Gee, why? Maybe he's doing research, suggests Riker. In the words of Homer Simpson---"Doh!"

I know, let's have young Wesley Crusher look in on "Data" discreetly. Crusher becomes suspicious when "Data" displays the same facial tick as Lore. But that's OK, just stop imitating Lore!

"He just told me he turned him off, Mom" says Wesley when the doctor wants him to explain how Data had to turn off Lore. Um, doctor--maybe you should take that as a hint!

Now Lore is on the bridge, posing as Data. "Beautiful, ISN'T it?" says Lore as the crystal entity now appears on the viewer screen. Now Wesley knows who Data really is.

So, in short---Wesley insists it's really Lore but that's not enough to convince Riker or even the captain. They tell Wesley to "Shut up, Wesley!" They even allow "Data" to talk to the entity who is attacking the ship. Gee, Lore knew about the entity but somehow Data knows how to talk to it.

The captain becomes suspicious only after "Data" doesn't understand the phrase "Make it so."

Lore makes his way to the cargo bay area and communicates to the entity telling him the Enterprise plan of transporting a tree out to it to eat. At which time, the shields will be down and it can attack. Data, the doctor, and Wesley confront him and stop him from enacting his plan, but not before Lore gives a phaser blast to the doctor on her way out of the cargo bay when she's told to leave so he won't kill her son. Data and Lore battle it out and Lore gets thrown onto the transport pad and Wesley beams him out into space.

Thinking as the bad guy here, and considering how dumb the crew acted, why not just kill the three with the phaser and finish his plan to kill the crew using the crystal entity?

Finally, the captain asks Data, "You alright?" to which Data replies "I'M fine." Oh oh, he's not as fine as we thought. He used a contraction!

One highlight of the episode is when Worf gets his ass handed to him by Lore in the turbolift.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Man of the People

"Man of the People" was from the sixth season. This episode is ridiculous for many reasons.

1) Troi senses something disturbing about an old woman who is the mother to a negotiator. Both the negotiator, a man named Alkar, and his mother were beamed aboard the Enterprise and are on route to a planet to resolve conflict between two factions. The old woman warns Troi to stay away from him or she'll regret it. Troi relays her feelings about the mother to Riker, but agrees to perform a funeral meditation ceremony with Alkar after the old woman dies suddenly. This is before we know how the woman died. Alkar says his mother was old and lived a long life and Troi accepts this! What happened to her empathic abilities? Could she not sense his deception?

2) After the meditation ceremony, Troi exhibits bizarre behaviors and even walks onto Ten Forward in a provocative dress and showing signs of aging with white streaked hair. This is after she seduces an ensign in the middle of a work schedule. Riker finds her with him in her quarters when they were scheduled to do evaluations but doesn't report it to the captain.

3) Data makes the astute observation that "the counselor has altered her appearance." You think? She seduces Riker and scratches him. Next scene, she's in her quarters decades older. Why isn't she in sick bay by now? Yet the creepy Alkar is able to walk in her quarters. She yells at him in the corridor in front of a witness but isn't reported.

4) It's only after she attacks Captain Picard with a knife that she's taken to sick bay by security. Picard then orders an autopsy on the old woman and discovers that the creepy negotiator uses women as "receptacles' for his evil thoughts and desires so he can use his most noble traits to ensure victory in resolving conflicts. Like he couldn't do that without torturing and killing unsuspecting women?

5) And how is it he could accept his deeds as part of a higher purpose if he has diverted his evil self into others? How can he think his actions noble since ridding himself of his worst impulses and negative emotions?

Dr. Crusher finds a way to reduce the neurotransmitters that are causing Deanna's deterioration by stopping her heart and making her dead. She does this out of urgency to save Deanna but they only have 30 minutes before they have to revive her, in which time Alkar can reestablish a link with her.

Alkar attempts to put his bad vibes into a new host but he's stopped before he completes the meditation ceremony with her and he ends up like the Portrait of Dorian Gray and dies.

Good riddance to bad rubbish! Deanna magically turns into her beautiful self in sick bay with no gradual metamorphosis.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Imaginary Friend

"Imaginary Friend" was from the 5th season.

The episode begins with Counselor Troi talking Clara, a young daughter of a crewman, about the girl's imaginary friend she calls Isabella. The crewman is concerned about his daughter's behavior because the girl spends her social time with Isabella. Troi explains to the crewman that Isabella is with Clara wherever she goes, unlike real friends she leaves behind when her father gets transferred to other ships.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise is exploring a nebula that has formed around a neutron star. We see a ball of light working its way around the ship as the crew goes about their daily business.

Put these two scenarios together, what do you get? As Clara plants flowers, the ball of light finds her and probes the girl's mind and then---a flesh and blood Isabella appears. She leads the child to engineering while they're investigating a sudden turbulence of the ship. The Isabella entity wants to explore the entire ship.

Troi addresses the issue with Isabella in a pretend fashion in front of Clara. Clara relays to Troi that Isabella's response is "You better leave us alone."

This is the first major thing wrong with this episode. Why didn't Troi sense the presence of the intruder or sense that Clara was being sincere about Isabella being real and visible to her? Troi takes Clara for a walk and says that Isabella isn't invited. This does not sit well with the entity. The ship experiences more turbulence and loss of velocity.

The entity acts more malevolent, playing games on Troi and Alexander in the art room, and threatens Clara with death along with everyone else on the ship as the nebula continuously drains the ship of energy.

This episode seems lost in a lack of content, filling the void with Guinan talking to Clara and Troi about her imaginary friend when she was a child.

When the counselor confronts Clara about her bad behavior in her quarters, the Isabella entity reveals herself to Troi, knocking her unconscious.

Clara reveals to the captain in sick bay that Isabella's feelings were hurt when she wouldn't play with her. Again, why didn't Troi sense this?

Then the nebula begins to drain the shields of the Enterprise and the captain meets Clara and Isabella in the garden where Clara first met the entity. The Isabella entity tells the captain that her people in the nebula were trying to determine if the Enterprise was a threat to them and that the energy the ship possesses is something they need to consume. She tells that captain that the Enterprise crew should be destroyed because of the cruel way they've treated Clara. The entity took the perspective of a child. The captain explains that adults protect their children with rules and restrictions.

Clara asks the entity not to hurt them. Picard orders the ship away from the nebula but gives them a beam of energy to consume before leaving.

The child who played Clara was fine, but the child actress who played Isabella was wooden and gave me the creeps. This episode was mostly focused on the guest child actor and her exchanges with the other child and dealt with the childhood issues of imagination and loss of friendship. Heavy on human drama best suited for a children's book, but very light on science or excitement. It was a waste of time and should have been scrapped for something more appropriate for this series.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---The Outcast

"The Outcast" was the 17th episode of the 5th season. It features an androgynous race of people who ask for the help of the Federation when two crewman on a shuttlecraft get lost in their atmosphere while exploring a null in space.

Riker volunteers to take a shuttle to look for the missing along with a Janii named Soren. It is the times they spend on the shuttlecraft where a relationship develops between Riker and Soren. Soren reveals to Riker that she identifies herself as female and has longings for him.

According to Wikipedia, "this episode was intended to address the contemporary issue of LGBT rights." I think it fails as a Star Trek episode, not so much for the plot itself, but that Commander Riker falls in love with the character of Soren and runs the risk of ruining his career for this androgynous person. In the past, he left Troi to pursue his career! It seemed out of character for him to put love for anyone above his career in Starfleet. And this love affair could jeopardize not only his career but violate the prime directive.

Also, the subplot, which was weak, seemed more of a fill in for the main story. Why would Riker volunteer for such an assignment rather than a regular helmsmen? (Yes, I know...almost every episode has this idea of putting a senior staff at risk).

The show's only redeeming part was Soren's speech to the council of Jnaii (after her love for Riker is found out) where she chastises her society for treating those who are different as outcasts and forcing "therapy" on them.

She is then taken away to undergo treatment for her "sickness." Riker, with the help of Worf, beams back down to the planet to get Soren and offer her asylum on the Enterprise, but too late. She tells Riker she's sorry and why would she want to go with him when she's no longer "sick." The "therapy" worked, which is opposite the reality of today's conversion therapy in which Christian therapists attempt to "heal" homosexuals.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---The Perfect Mate

"The Perfect Mate" was a dreadful episode, not because of any mystery, suspense, or violence, but because it seemed like it could have been written by a teenage girl with a penchant for romance novels.

An ambassador arrives on board the Enterprise with valuable cargo. That cargo, after it is brought out of stasis prematurely by a couple of sneaky Ferengis who tricked their way onto the ship, tells the Captain that she is the gift for the Chancellor of a planet involved in peace negotiations with the ambassador's planet.

The woman will psychologically bond with her intended mate. Trouble is, she attempts to seduce every man she comes in contact with, which is why she was supposed to be kept in stasis until the wedding ceremony. The ambassador tells her to stay in her quarters and not to mingle. Good advice...but...

Dr. Crusher isn't too crazy about the idea as a woman being a gift for some man, which to her, makes the Enterprise like a transport for slave trading. Picard agrees and decides to talk to the woman, named Kamala, that she should be a free agent and be allowed to leave her quarters---but with a chaperon. Picard enlists Data for that task, who is immune to her charms.

And now the plot complication; the ambassador has a run-in with the Ferengi who are trying to bribe him into a purchase of the metamorph, AKA gift for the chancellor. The ambassador attempts to leave with the threat of telling the captain about their bribe. He is pulled back and is accidentally knocked unconscious, rendering him unable to perform the duties of the reconciliation ceremony.

Now, the captain must take his place and gain help from the metamorph who, surprise surprise, bonds with him instead.

The episode ends with the captain giving away the bride and seeing the ambassador, recovered from his injuries, off the ship.

During this nauseating 45 minute too long show, we are treated to dialogue about how wonderful Jean-Luc Picard is because he made Kamala realize how fulfilled she is now for having met him and that she learned about duty and responsibility from him and she will marry the chancellor for the good of her people. She has maintained her empathic abilities and will know how to please her new spouse but will retain the gifts and knowledge she learned from Picard.

I had to keep telling myself "easy stomach, easy" while watching this insipid monstrosity.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Justice

In "Justice" the away team that consists of Riker, Troi, Worf, Yar, and Wesley (to see if it would be a good place for children to go on vacation), encounter half clothed humans called Edos who, according to Geordi, "make love at the drop of a hat." "Any hat," Yar contends.

As the away team are on the planet, an object appears in space (NOTE: this object also resembles the space station in "Conundrum") and releases a transparent bubble-like projectile which enters the ship and knocks out Data, scanning his memory banks.

Meanwhile, Wesley found some young teens to play ball with and ends up falling backwards into a greenhouse. Simultaneously, Yar, in talking to the Edos, is told that they have no police enforcement because they depend on mediators to determine if someone dies. Every infraction, no matter how slight, is punishable by death.

So, the two things that make this race of beings so creepy is their free love mixed with the death penalty--for falling into a bed of flowers!

Now Picard is struggling with what this entity in the sky knows, particularly about the prime directive, and not allowing the Edos to execute Wesley. He beams down to the planet to negotiate Wesley's release but needs to know for sure it's safe with that overprotective entity in the sky watching over them.

After some drama involving Dr. Crusher and Picard, the thing blocks the away team's signal to the Enterprise but then allows them, with Wesley, to beam back to the ship when Picard explains to it that no law can be absolute and that justice is an exercise in exceptions.

This episode was just annoying and badly scripted. It was like watching a PG-13 version of a 1950's Playhouse outerspace adventure.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---A Matter of Time

"A Matter of Time" was the 9th episode of the 5th season. It featured Matt Frewer has a man who suddenly appears aboard the bridge and states he's a traveler from the 26th century.

From the get-go, this visitor is extremely annoying and offers little information about himself all the while getting excited about insignificant things such as the arrangement of Captain Picard's statuettes on a table in his ready room.

One thing ridiculous about this episode, besides the obnoxious visitor, is that the captain seems to accept at face value that he is who he claims to be and allows him to roam the ship and give out questionnaires to senior staff about their thoughts on their modern technology. He can also be seen stealing ship's equipment such as tricorders and the doctor's diagnostic tools. He also has the annoying and nervous habit of constantly looking at his futuristic watch, insisting he only has so much time.

Meanwhile, Geordi in engineering is busy trying to come up with a way to stop the planet, that's orbit they are in, from freezing over from dense volcanic ash in its atmosphere. Picard tries to enlist the advice from the time traveler in how to proceed with the experiment and whether or not it will work. The traveler, who calls himself Rasmussen, refuses to help and uses the excuse that he could jeopardize future events.

The experiment to restore the planet's atmosphere and save its millions of inhabitants is successful and Rasmussen makes his exit to the shuttlebay and finds the crew waiting for him. He allows Data to enter the craft he arrived in with the understanding he can have a look around. There he attempts to abduct Data and take him with him back to the 22nd century where he's actually from. He reveals he's an inventor and has plans to use the stolen technology to make a profit. What he doesn't realize that the crew is on to his game and has deactivated the devices, rendering them useless.

Data comes out of the craft with Rasmussen. The craft, being on a time schedule that Rasmussen was following, suddenly disappears to the future while Rasmussen is now stranded in the 24th century and escorted by security to await justice.

This episode was irritating. Most guest aliens and humanoids on the show are pleasant additions to the storyline, or at the very least tolerable. This one was a downright nuisance.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---The Icarus Factor

"The Icarus Factor" is the soap opera in space episode. Commander Riker's father comes aboard the Enterprise to see his son off to command The Aries. Both men are carrying a lot of baggage from days gone by. Dr. Pulaski, an old flame of Kyle Riker's, reminds Will to jettison the baggage before taking his new command post. Troi confronts Kyle about he and his son's past competing with each other and it's time to let it go.

They have it out in a type of jitsu match with implements that resemble broom sticks with Star Wars like sound effects. Old feelings come out during the match including Riker's contentions that it should have been his father who died instead of his mother. The father admits his failings as a father but also tells Will he loves him. They reconcile. Nice ending to a sappy story line.

The highlight of the episode is Worf's ascension ceremony in the holodeck. He walks through a gauntlet of Klingons stabbing him with pain sticks while railing in Klingon dialect.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---Tapestry

The premise of “Tapestry” is to teach Picard that if he chose to play it safe through his life, he would not be the man he is today.


Q is brought back again for this lesson. A lesson I find redundant and not necessary, for Jean-Luc Picard is already a starship captain who had a tendency to be reckless and rowdy in his youth and yet became the man he is.


We learn for the first time that Picard has an artificial heart and it’s failing him after an energy blast by a hostile alien. (edit: actually the first episode to mention it was "Samaritan Snare) Then he wakes up in bed in his cadet days with Q laying beside him, announcing to Picard that he is dead and gives him a chance to relive his life and avoid the incident, a confrontation with an alien race called the Nausicans. A spear is driven through his heart, thus having his life saved via an artificial heart.


Picard chooses to relive those days and avoids the confrontation while alienating his friends at the Academy. He wakes up in sick bay and sees he’s no more than a low man on the totem poll junior lieutenant.


Picard realizes that he’d rather be dead than have this life. Q restores his current life with artificial heart in tact.


Why was this show about an already accomplished man like Picard? Such a waste of time and so unnecessary.

Worst of Star Trek TNG---The Game

“The Game,” episode 6 of the 5th season. The show starts out with Riker on Reisa enjoying the flirtations of a female who hides his communicator and then introduces him to a game in which the wearer puts on headset with two scopes that point toward the eyes. The object of the game is to put the 3-D disk into the funnel. Once successful, the gamer gets a jolt of a stimulate and then moves on to the next level.


Riker than brings this game onto the Enterprise and the crew becomes addicted. Troi, Dr. Crusher (who has just welcomed Wesley back onto the ship for a visit) and Riker sabotage Data in sickbay and then Riker introduces the game to Geordi.


Crusher tries to introduce the game to Wesley, unsuccessfully. Instead, he goes on a dinner date with a young Ensign who tells him about this game that the engineers are playing. They brush it off as a fad„ but intelligently decide to examine it before playing it. Smart move as usual, Wesley!


Wesley decides to bring it up to the captain. Safe move, right? You’d think. But stupid Jean-Luc has already been playing it.


This is the first stupid thing. Captain Picard would normally want something tested out first, especially if it came from a planet that’s games are of unknown origin. But nope, he’s addicted just like the rest! Showing once again that Wesley is the grown-up in this episode (just like he was in Datalore).


Second thing, Wesley and the young Ensign manage to enter sickbay after it’s been quarantined off.


Now the alien ship, captained by the woman Riker was playing around with on Reisa, give commands to Picard and the bridge crew. Their scheme is to take over the Enterprise and the federation.


In an exciting action sequence, Wesley is pursued and chased by Riker and other crew members as Wesley is figuring out how to fix Data and bring the Enterprise back on track. He is captured in the crawl spaces and forced to wear the game device. Like something right out “A Clockwork Orange,” his eyes are forced open to watch as the disk goes in the funnel.


Then it’s Data to the rescue, activated and shining a strobe light into the eyes of the bridge crew, snapping them out of it and they realize what they were about to do.


Wesley says good-bye to his Ensign friend, played by Ashley Judd.


If this were a real life scenario, Commander Riker would probably be court-martialed for what he’d done and stipped of his command. This is one episode that should not have been produced. An otherwise brilliant bridge crew are reduced to trance-like idiots while the young Wesley saves the day.

Worst of Star Trek TNG--Lonely Among Us

While I’ve got time on my hands, I’m putting together a best and worst of the Star Trek TNG series. FYI, Netflix has all the series on instant play for those that don’t own the series on DVD (or VHS in my case).


One of the worst of the first season was an episode called “Lonely Among Us.” It contains the expendable crew member scenario where one of the ship’s main engineers is electrocuted by an entity that found its way into the ship’s circuitry.


Right after this, the bridge crew, including Counselor Troi, are amused by Data’s new found love of Sherlock Holmes. He sports a pipe and tries in a British accent to unravel the mystery of this thing in the system. What? No tears for the crew member that was killed? He wasn't even rushed to sickbay in an attempt to revive him. Worf reports “he’s dead” and that’s that.


The episode’s saving grace is the side story involving the Selay and the Anticans, two alien races that can’t get along but hope to join the Federation. It’s apparent at the end of the show that they won’t become friends anytime soon when the Anticans, who eat live meat, dine on one of the Selay delegates for supper.


Another cool moment is when Picard gets shocked by the entity as it blinds the bridge crew and sets sail with Picard’s body as it’s capsule, in tow.