Hi there! Just to say spoilers for all Trek and everything is just my opinion. Let's begin!
875) Man of the People (1992)
TNG 6x3
Writer: Frank Abatemarco
Director: Winrich Kolbe
The story has some cool ideas, but the dialogue and character interactions are so staid and boring I don't enjoy the episode. There is some nice foreshadowing of what will become of Deanna when we see the Ambassador's 'mother', but Deanna's actual descent is unsatisfying and a bit cringeworthy. Marina Sirtis tries her best, but she is shackled by the subpar script. Picard does get one neat speech, though: 'You cannot explain a wantonly immoral act because you believe it is connected to some higher purpose.' But overall, deathly dull.
874) Virtuoso (2000)
VOY 6x13
Writer: Raf Green & Kenneth Biller, story by Raf Green
Director: Les Landau
Just a terrible use of the Doctor. The idea of him wanting to leave the ship for some civilisation that has great meaning for him is a good idea, since it brings up the debate over whether he will be allowed to go, like any non-holographic member of the crew would be. But the reason for him wanting to leave is so small and shallow, the whole thing comes off as ludicrous, and an insult to his character. I do enjoy some of the singing, though, and the final scene where he is cast aside by those who once hero-worshipped him is kinda sad. Still awful, though.
873) The Infinite Vulcan (1973)
TAS 1x7
Writer: Walter Koenig
Director: Hal Sutherland
Messy, rough nonsense, for the most part. The plant-based aliens are interesting, but the episode's not really about them; it's about some gigantic clone of a Eugenics Wars scientist who makes a gigantic clone of Spock. There's really no reason for them to be gigantic; there's some half-baked reasoning that they'll be an interplanetary peacekeeping force, but I don't totally buy into that. Their presence also distracts from what could have been an intriguing story about an alien race devastated by a human disease. The end product just comes off as schlocky, and not in a fun way.
872) Such Sweet Sorrow Part One (2019)
DSC 2x13
Writer: Michelle Paradise, Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
I have pretty much the same criticisms of this as with Part Two; the problems are just less prominent here. First, I hate Spock saying he'll go with Burnham, as I don't buy into the connection the writers have tried to build between this fifty-year-old character I love and this new one I'm indifferent to. Second, the Control storyline is dull and its connection to the dreadful portrayal of Section 31 makes it worse. And third, because I've connected with almost none of the Discovery crew (the only exceptions being Saru and also Jett Reno), I simply don't care about the great final problem they're facing.
Also, let's get real here: they don't need to go to the future to defeat Control. Just find Lieutenant Kirk and get him to talk it to death!
871) Wolf in the Fold (1967)
TOS 2x14
Writer: Robert Bloch
Director: Joseph Pevney
I just feel so tapped out and uninterested throughout this. There are some cool creepy shots with Scotty standing, dazed, over murdered women holding a knife, that make you wonder how in the hell he didn't do it. But a few cool shots do not a good episode make. The bulk of the material is meandering and repetitive, with Scotty continually being tested, then seemingly murdering another woman. I do actually kinda like the final sequence on the Enterprise, which is quite a large part of the episode. It's only fine however, although the reveal that the villain is Jack the Ripper is just insane enough for me to enjoy.
870) Time Squared (1989)
TNG 2x13
Writer: Maurice Hurley, story by Kurt Michael Bensmiller
Director: Joseph L Scanlan
Big yawn. Again, time travel isn't always my favourite (although it can be amazing!), and it's put to poor use here. They try to build up a mystery surrounding the future destruction of the Enterprise, but I'm never fully invested in it. It isn't a complete flop, though: seeing Picard slowly take the same steps to the ship's destruction as his future self is sort of neat. Overall, competently done; the story just didn't grab me.
869) The Child (1988)
TNG 2x1
Writer: Jaron Summers, Jon Povill & Maurice Hurley
Director: Rob Bowman
This episode could have been so much more. The ball-of-light alien that impregnates Deanna to study human childrearing obviously has benign intentions: it makes the experience as physically painless as possible for her. But the fact remains that it forcibly impregnated this woman, which is morally reprehensible to humans. This could have been a challenging story about where the line is drawn in accepting other philosophies, or having to condemn something as utterly unacceptable. It could also have served as an allegory for how women who give birth due to rape, I imagine, have extremely conflicted feelings about their children.
But instead, the episode portrays Deanna, and everybody else, as 100% OK with what's happened, and implies that a woman should be pleased to have a child even when it is born of rape. It also doesn't at all go into the moral complexity of what the alien did: how it didn't see it as wrong, but the crew should.
This episode, as the first one of TNG Season 2, does have a few nice firsts that I'll point out, though. Geordi becomes Chief Engineer, Worf gets his yellow shirt, Guinan makes her debut and has a neat subplot with Wesley, and most importantly, Riker grows his beard, the source of all his power and sexiness. We also meet Pulaski for the first time, and while I hate her here for how she mistreats Data, she will grow on me over the course of the season. Despite these important firsts, this is still a troubling episode.
868) Bound (2005)
ENT 4x17
Writer: Manny Coto
Director: Allan Kroeker
The twist that it is the Orion men who are the slaves and the women who are the slavemasters is nice, but it's a reveal we get to by slogging through a painful forty-five minutes. So much of this feels so sleazy, especially the beginning dance scene; just eye-candy for male viewers. The plot is also thin and uninteresting.
I will give kudos for Trip and T'Pol's storyline, though: it's great how their mental connection means Trip is also immune to the Orion women's pheromones, and so they get to grow closer while defeating the invaders. After they'd started to divide from each other since the Kir'Shara three-parter and Trip's departure from Enterprise, it's really satisfying to see their romance bloom again here. The scene where T'Pol asks Trip to come back and kisses him is lovely. That storyline's what saves this episode from being irredeemably bad.
867) If Memory Serves (2019)
DSC 2x8
Writer: Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie
Director: TJ Scott
OK, so I've already beaten this drum a lot, but this episode is another example of the Spock's sister idea that I so despise. This episode unrestrainedly nails Burnham into Spock's childhood, realising my worst fears about what this part of her character would mean, as it devalues the story of Spock's early life. The episode is salvaged slightly by Captain Pike's storyline with Vena; there's one nice scene between them in his ready room. You do feel the emotional impact of his seeing her again, but it's still only one scene.
866) Coming of Age (1988)
TNG 1x18
Writer: Sandy Fries
Director: Mike Vejar
Wesley's up for selection, Picard's under inspection, and both storylines are equally bland. The process this episode puts forward for how candidates get into the Academy is ridiculous and convoluted and is happily retconned by later episodes. Picard's inspection serves as an underwhelming set-up for an underwhelming later episode, Conspiracy. So, overall, really nothing I enjoy here.
865) The Masterpiece Society (1992)
TNG 5x13
Writer: Adam Belanoff & Michael Piller, story by James Kahn & Adam Belanoff
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Another rare misstep from the later seasons of TNG. I just find this episode paralysingly boring, which is a shame considering its intriguing subject matter. A society where everyone is genetically engineered to be perfect, and absolutely necessary to that society's functioning. Very interesting. But the execution of the idea falls flat, as none of the guest cast really hit, and a lot of screentime is swallowed up by a dull Deanna romance.
864) Aquiel (1993)
TNG 6x13
Writer: Brannon Braga & Ronald D Moore, story by Jeri Taylor
Director: Cliff Bole
Constantly feels like it's got another shoe that's about to drop, and gives you a lot of potential paths that shoe could take. But when the drop finally occurs, it's rather underwhelming and out-of-left-field, although it is a decent surprise. I also don't care for the Geordi romance; just another example of a bland Trek one-episode romance.
863) Unexpected (2001)
ENT 1x4
Writer: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Director: Mike Vejar
An episode that tries to be intriguing, then tries to be funny, and largely fails on both counts. I appreciate that they were trying to convey how strange and otherworldly the alien ship's environment was, but the visuals and sounds used to do so ended up coming off clunky. This episode also circumnavigates the absence of a holodeck in ENT by having an alien one. This feels very cheap and forced, especially considering how early in the show it is. It's like they didn't trust the audience to enjoy the show without all the trappings of the 24th Century.
After Trip returns to Enterprise, there is some solid comedy with his pregnancy. Him acting hormonal and stuff; that's kinda funny. Connor Trinneer plays it well, for sure. The bit where he has to admit to the Klingons that he's pregnant is also funny, but overall this series of events is too long-drawn out.
862) Eye of the Beholder (1994)
TNG 7x18
Writer: Rene Echevarria, story by Brannon Braga
Director: Cliff Bole
It was all a dream! Oooooh! Yeah, this one frustrates me. I was rather enjoying the episode up until they made that reveal. The inexplicable suicide of a crewmember is weighty and intriguing, and Deanna's psychic experiences seem to add fascinating pieces to the puzzle. But then it's revealed that almost the entire episode happened inside her mind, meaning that all that stuff I enjoyed didn't happen. The resolution that what she experienced were all psychic echoes from a previous murder is cool, but I wish they'd thought of a way to actually have this episode's content actually happen. Also not a fan of Worf/Deanna, but I mean, who is?
861) The Mark of Gideon (1969)
TOS 3x16
Writer: George F Slavin & Stanley Adams
Director: Jud Taylor
The deliberate misunderstanding over the beam-down coordinates is unbelievable, as Spock would surely have noticed the discrepancy immediately. The story itself is interesting: a planet so overpopulated everyone is literally packed right in with each other. But the exploration of this idea falls flat: Kirk has another bland romance on the Enterprise replica and Spock has a very dry B-plot about navigating diplomatic vagaries. Also find the ending of the Gideons asking the Enterprise to leave, rather than discussing relocation, a little off.
860) Human Error (2001)
VOY 7x18
Writer: Brannon Braga & Andre Bormanis, story by Andre Bormanis & Kenneth Biller
Director: Allan Kroeker
When I first watched VOY on TV with my parents as a kid, I knew that Chakotay and Seven got together at some point, and I was looking forward to seeing their romance. As the seasons passed by, and nothing was ever established between them, I grew increasingly confused as to why they hadn't started their romance story yet. Then we get to this episode in the latter half of the final season, which is the only episode before the finale where anything is written for them. That is nowhere near enough build-up for their relationship, even if this episode was good, which it isn't.
I do find Seven's exploration of her human side in the holodeck interesting and actually quite sad, but it's still mostly bland, especially her interactions with the holographic Chakotay. They don't put much effort into making their relationship individual and unique to them; their interactions are all quite generic. The problem that develops with Seven's emotion-inhibiting implants is whatever, and the episode leaves you thinking: 'That's it? That's all they're doing to establish their relationship?!'
859) Saints of Imperfection (2019)
DSC 2x5
Writer: Kirsten Beyer
Director: David Barrett
The stupid black badges aside, I was quite excited to see Section 31 on my first watch of DSC after they were teased in Point of Light. Then this happened, and I discovered how the organisation would be treated for the entirety of DSC Season 2, and indeed nu-Trek as a whole.
Section 31 does not have ships, anymore than they have a base. They are also almost entirely unknown by the population of the Federation. This episode begins this portrayal of them as a public wing of Starfleet, which I have already ranted against in previous posts. I also hate the scene at the end between Pike, Leland and Admiral Cornwell. Our boy Pike at least stands up for Starfleet morals, as a Starfleet officer should, but he's shut down by Cornwell, who defends Section 31 as a necessary part of the Federation's existence.
This fundamentally undermines the optimistic future of Trek, as it presents the Federation as an organisation that permits Obsidian Order-type activities, like murders and abductions, to further its interests. When in reality Section 31 is a secret, rogue organisation of Federation citizens who violate everything the Federation stands for, and are presented as such to the audience. This dreadful portrayal is a problem throughout the entire season, but it's strongly featured here, which is why this episode is down so low.
I will say that the main story of Discovery entering the mycelial network is an interesting sci-fi concept, and there's a classic Trek story about making sure not to damage the life-forms who we discover in this episode live in the network. The finding of the presumed-dead Doctor Culber is OK too.
858) The Ambergris Element (1973)
TAS 1x13
Writer: Margaret Armen
Director: Hal Sutherland
One thing I appreciate TAS for is the fact that it really used the fact that it's animated. It told stories that visually couldn't have been done in live-action at the time. That being said, I wish the stories themselves were better. This feels like the writer thought 'Let's do an episode underwater', and never fleshed it out beyond that original idea. The plot is predictable, the guest characters' conflict thin, and I don't like the design of the big seamonster. Kirk and Spock's transformation is neat, though.
857) Persistence of Vision (1995)
VOY 2x8
Writer: Jeri Taylor
Director: James L Conway
Illusion storylines aren't generally my favourite thing either, and this is a weak depiction of that story type. It all feels weird and ethereal, a vibe I like, but without any substance to make me invested in the episode. Has a solid use of Kes to defeat the alien in the end, but beyond that I think this is an unimpressive outing. I'll also take this opportunity to vent that we never got a conclusion to Janeway's governess holodeck program, because I was genuinely curious about that story.
856) The Fight (1999)
VOY 5x19
Writer: Joe Menosky, story by Michael Taylor
Director: Winrich Kolbe
This is a good example of the VOY writers having no clue what to do with Chakotay. They often give him episodes that could happen to any character: here they give him a sudden interest in boxing, that we've never seen from him before. Just feels so generic, and not individual to his character.
The episode itself is extremely underwhelming. I do like some of the imagery and directorial choices in Chakotay's boxing visions, but that's about it: the actual story, of Chakotay going mad whilst trying to communicate with these otherworldly aliens, is serviceable but executed unimpressively. Not for me.
855) Manhunt (1989)
TNG 2x19
Writer: Tracy Torme
Director: Rob Bowman
The worst TNG Lwaxana episode, by far. There's some enjoyable comedy when Picard is trapped alone with Lwaxana, who insists the Captain's attracted to her, but the episode soon meanders into nothingness. Picard hides in the holodeck, where nothing happens, then Riker hides, and nothing continues to happen, then Lwaxana comes, there's some comedy, and the episode ends with her being embarrassed by choosing a holographic man as her mate. You keep thinking some other shoe is going to have to drop, but the episode just whittles away its time on the holodeck. Truly pointless.
854) Prodigal Daughter (1999)
DS9 7x11
Writer: David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
Director: Victor Lobl
This feels like an episode of Murder, She Wrote, and not even a good one. It's a good decision to have Ezri return to her family so we can get some background on the new character, but her family's business politics are so dull and dry, as are their emotional conflicts. The murder doesn't do anything to pull me further into the episode, and the resolution is a decent twist, but the emotional impact is limited. Just generic, soap operatic family drama.
853) Alter Ego (1997)
VOY 3x14
Writer: Joe Menosky
Director: Robert Picardo
Ah, they had to give Robert Picardo a hologram episode for his directorial debut, didn't they? That's cool. Unfortunately, the episode is not cool. There is an interesting shift from it being a Harry episode to it becoming a Tuvok episode (we've never really seen that before in any other Trek episode), but the story remains equally unintriguing for both of them. The revelation that the holographic woman Harry's infatuated with, and who develops feelings for Tuvok, is actually a lonely woman, sparks zero emotion in me.
852) Heroes and Demons (1995)
VOY 1x11
Writer: Naren Shankar
Director: Les Landau
Ah, the holodeck episode formula. Characters go inside a holodeck, something goes wrong and the safety protocols are switched off or something, and they have to struggle out of whatever setting they've been flung into. These episodes can be good, even great, but this is not one of those times.
I will say that it's a logical early use for the Doctor, but I feel his story falls flat during the course of the episode. Robert Picardo is sublimely sarcastic and put-upon, as always, but the writing doesn't serve him very well here. There's little to no emotional weight from his interactions with the Beowulf characters, and the confrontations with 'Grendel' are bland. Hang in there, Doc, you've got some great episodes in your future.
851) Fascination (1994)
DS9 3x10
Writer: Philip LaZebnik, story by Ira Steven Behr & James Crocker
Director: Avery Brooks
Yeah, the DS9 Lawxana Troi episodes... they are really not it. As a teen, I actually kinda enjoyed this one, but I find it tiresome and tedious now. It's sort of fun to see all the characters going after weird partners (Jadzia after Sisko, Quark after Keiko, Kira and Julian after each other - the actors of course were briefly married in real life). However, it's only fun up to a point, and mostly makes me bury my head in my hands in disinterest.
I'm also really cross that this was the penultimate appearance of Vedek Bareil, one of DS9's superb recurring characters. With his death coming up in a few episodes, do they give us a dignified penultimate outing for the character? No, they have him make a fool of himself chasing after Jadzia. Just really frustrating to see. Lwaxana also plays little role in the episode; her lack of presence is again surprising given how dominant of a personality she is.
Well, that's it for today. I swear I will get more positive in time; I'm just moving through a lot of the bad episodes right now. We're not even out of my bottom 100 yet, after all. Thank you very much for reading, and Live Long and Prosper!
