The Single WORST Episode Of Your Favourite TV Series

[Xavier T. Nougat]

Nobody mentioned Stranger in a Strange Land from Lost yet?

After weeks of watching aggravating, soap opera bullshit between Kate, Sawyer, and Jack while we slowly forget about all the cool stuff that they were building up to featuring Ben and the Others, the network advertises that "Three Big Mysteries Will Be Revealed!"

Then we get 45 minutes of EVEN MORE soap opera bullshit, which now slows the show down from it's crawling, tedious pace to a stone-cold coma, while Jack grimaces at the camera and has memories about.... his tattoos.

Yes, Lost. We tuned in because we didn't care about mysteries or intrigue or interesting characters. We wanted to get 45 minutes of extra behind-the-scenes footage of television's dullest character, who has already had 15 episodes devoted to his daddy issues and emotional problems, just to find out about a couple of shitty tattoos that we never noticed before and which will never come up again or be relevant in any meaningful way.

Fortunately, the show got significantly better after this episode. It marks the end of the season 3 slump.

[Icerigger]

All three are golden compared to "Turnabout Intruder", where Kirk's body is taken over by a Woman Scorned. Terrible. Also the very last episode broadcast.

Trek Geek nitpick. Eden was last broadcast, Intruder was last filmed.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by Chronos

OK, I'll grant that "Gray 17 is Missing" was pretty awful, too, but I still maintain that the lack of connection to other episodes made "TKO" worse. OK, there was the thing with Ivanova and her dad, but that was introduced as the C plot in a single earlier episode, and never brought up again after TKO, so it's not really much of a connection.

Quibble--many episodes, not just "a single earlier episode".

There's the 2-3 episode sub-arc with Garibaldi trying to figure out who's sending messages on the uber-forbidden Gold Channel. Then there's the "Dad Dies" ep. Then the TKO/Rabbi subplot. Then there's four or five other eps where Ivanova talks about her relationship with dad and brother and how she's dealing with their deaths. Despite her talking more about her mom, more actual screen time (IMO--I haven't counted. ) is spent on Dad+Brother.

And while "watch your back" might count as foreshadowing if Kosh or someone said it (heck, everything Kosh says counts as foreshadowing, no matter what it is), when some punch-drunk idiot wannabe who only appears in one episode says it, it doesn't mean anything.

No--I meant "foreshadowing" in the standard way: the author is foreshadowing--it's not "oracular warning" like Kosh says. And it gets to the fact that Garibaldi is too trusting of friends and doesn't cover his ass.

Mind you, I can't actually remember what connection to the plot "Gray 17" had, but I know it had more than that.

IIRC, none at all. There's an entire section ring of B-5 that no-one noticed. No maintenence bots, etc. And the wrap-up was A) stupid and B) stolen from Brown's short story "Arena" (which was also stolen for a Star Trek ep)--only stupider. Garibaldi's solution wouldn't have worked. (He dumps a bunch of bullets in a metal tube and lights the back of the tube on fire. This has the effect of turning the tube into a machine gun (firing each bullet one at a time)).

There's no actual "B" plot, but there's like a 3 minute bit where Delenn becomes head of the Rangers and Neroon is pissed off...but it's just a bookmark--nothing actually happens

Plus, the punch-drunk fighter was Sir Lawrence Oliver compared to Jerimiah the cult leader.

PLUS JMS apologized for Grey-17.

Grey 17" is the same thing, for me. There are bits in that I like a lot. And some parts of it just fell down dreadfully. That's simply the nature of the beast. I thought I'd try something different in the tone of "Grey" and while most of the writing works (mostly), the production fell down on a couple of aspects. It happens. It doesn't mean anything.
<snip>
Where it falls down, for me, is the Zarg...I just have this constant desire to go to everyone's house and personally apologize....

That said, if you and I are in agreement that one of those two are "the worst" out ...um...110 eps, B5 did pretty damned good.

[Promethea]

Originally Posted by Annie

I think I've completely blocked out that episode of Heroes that involved Elle, Sylar, the worst acting I've ever seen on film committed by Robert Forster, baked ziti and suicide.

I suspect my own blocking out has been a bit too effective so, at the risk of opening up old wounds, which episode from S3 IS that? (I always thought Robert Forster performed pretty well considering the piss poor quality of the material he was given to work with, btw. )

My own Heroes pick is Episode 3.04 "I Am Become Death" in which Peter travels to the future in the company of his saturnine future incarnation. And from there, the show decides to not only piss all over every bit of characterisation of every character, it also decides to throw out such things as narratives that make any sense. Plus, they introduced a bunch of plotpoints which were never heard of every again, which, as they all stunk was probably no bad thing but did mean they were a massive waste of time.

Close runner up: The 'Villains' flashback episode for adding nothing worthwhile and yet undoing a lot of the loveliness of the far superior previous flashback episode "Six Months Ago". Bad enough that the current season stunk, they didn't have to go back and try and make that earlier ep retroactively dumb. (Is this in fact the episode you are talking about, Annie?)

[Kyla]

For Heroes, can I just pick "every episode where Hiro and Ando are in medieval Japan"? Jesus christ that was a boring storyline.

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by Annie

Eh, weird ass coincidences, the all-Nazi planet, gangsterland, all par for the Trek course, but then:



Dammit Jim, just smack that kid! The child protection workers on that planet died 300 years ago- the only person who'd give you shit about it is Rand, and you get to tell her to shut up since you're her CO.

I honestly thought he was going to throw the little one at the Bonk Bonk kid when I saw that

Miri tried for a little emotional depth. Spock's Brain had the cave babes. The Alternative Factor on the other hand had a hero/villain looking like the guy running into the camera shouting "It's, it's" at the beginning of many Monty Pythons, a spaceship that looked less spaceworthy than Ray Walston's in My Favorite Martian, the hero/villain choking himself in the middle of special effects that were awful even for 1967, and the supposed lead characters standing around looking confused and not contributing to the story in any way. And extra demerits for it being on during the first season when Roddenberry was supposed to care.

[StoutHearted]

Lost: "Stranger in a Stange Land," for all the reasons Xavier T. Nougat mentioned. I think this is even worse than the Nikki/Paolo episode.

The Office: The pilot was pretty bad, but as for a bad episode after the show hit its stride, "Chair Model" comes to mind. Michael gets himself all worked up over a furniture catalog model? Meh.

[Speak to me Maddie!]

Recently we added the original series to the DVR list. My wife enjoys TNG and had come to appreciate DS9, but she had never seen any of the original series episodes.

So the first two episodes that show up on the list are: The Way to Eden and Turnabout Intruder. I'll give her credit, she sat through both episodes, but decided the original series was sillier than The Monkeys. I tried to explain. The reruns reset and we started getting some first season goodness, but it is hard to lose a first impression.

But yes, both of those are terrible. I guess the space hippies one is worse, imo.

[Gangster Octopus]

I can't recall any I don't like from Futurama but that is probably b ecause I am suffering from a case of explosive amnesia.

[lisiate]

As Fiddlesticks pointed out it's hard to think of one for The Wire so I'll nominate one for Firefly instead. For me it's The Message with it's over-elaborate plot and sappy ending.

[Chronos]

As Fiddlesticks pointed out it's hard to think of one for The Wire so I'll nominate one for Firefly instead. For me it's The Message with it's over-elaborate plot and sappy ending.

Though it did have some good bits at the beginning: The alien, "My food is problematic", and Jayne's hat. I'm not actually disagreeing with you, that was my least-favorite episode, too, but "worst episode of Firefly" is still pretty good.

Fenris, are we also agreed that the third-worst episode of B5 was the one with the organic technology doohicky that turned the archaeologist into an unstoppable killing machine? Though I think that was the first or second episode after the pilot, so we can maybe make allowances for the show not yet having hit its stride.

[MacTech]

Blackadder the entire Season 1, sorry, just can't get into it, none of my Cunning Plans seem to work

Farscape;
Season 1; Jerimiah Crichton - John gets stranded on some backwater planet for 3 months, when he's rescued, Rygel is seen by the native population as some form of "God", which Fluffy tries to exploit to the fullest, but fails as is normal for him

Season 2; Taking the Stone Not even the comely presence of Gigi Edgely's Chiana character could save this one, pity, as it had a strong opening and lots of potential (plus, I just frelling *love* Chiana ), the scene opens to an obviously visibly distraught Chi, sad, heartbroken about something, she needs someone to talk to, she hopes that Crichton (whom she's secretly been carrying a torch for) would be able to talk to her, spend time with her, make her feel better, help heal her broken heart, crichton, however, is arms deep in Moya's control hardware and he gives her the cold-shoulder brushoff

Heartbroken, abandoned by her closest freind, she steals Aeryn's prowler and storms off to a nearby planet, populated by drugged-out "space hippie" teenagers who turn out to be adrenalin-junkie-suicide-fanatics

the rest of the episode consists of Chi being a spoiled brat and wanting to live with the Space-Hippies, even though they live in a cave with radioactive rock that's slowly killing them.....

watch the first few minutes, up to Chiana nicking Aeryn's prowler, then forget the rest....

Season 3; can't think of a one, S3 was pretty frelling solid

Season 4; hmm, what to choose, there's so many, could it be the "Vomit-O-Rama" episode Coup By Clam, or the frelling stupid "Aeryn gets religion while being tortured by the Scarrans" Prayer, or even "I hate it only because it was the last episode of the series even though it was a great episode" Bad Timing

Let me set things up here, imagine, you've spent four years with John Crichton and the crew of Moya, you know them well, they're your "friends", your "family" (for lack of a better term), they're more than actors and animatronics playing roles onscreen, they feel like real, actual people.....

Aeryn is pregnant with John's child
Chiana has been blinded (possibly permanently) by using her "Bullet-Time" vision to help the crew escape to this point in the series, she is also madly in love with John, even though John is unaware of this (watch her expression seamlessly shift from joy to sadness as she realizes what's happening with John and Aeryn, joy for him getting married to Aeryn, sadness when she realizes she's lost him.... (3:15 to 3:40)
D'Argo has forgiven Chiana for her infidelity, and they look to be getting back together
D'argo and John have become more than freinds, D actually considers him a brother, something Luxans never do to non-Luxans
Pilot and Aeryn have shared DNA (through the efforts of a mad-scientist trying to create a Sebecean-Pilot hybrid) and think of each other as family (extended family)

keep all that in mind when you watch this.... and keep in mind that at the time, Farscape had just been cancelled, and there was no provisions for the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, this ending sequence was the *final* episode of Farscape for all we knew.....

[ryobserver]

My Worst Episode of The X-Files was "Eve" until the very last season managed to top it (bottom it?) with "Scary Monsters". Not a great idea to start with and VERY badly executed, with everyone behaving in ways that made me want to kick them, and the established characters behaving badly in ways that were out of character.

The two worst scenes (I'm not sure which was more appalling): Doggett gratuitously terrorizing the "villain" when he could have just cold-cocked him and gotten the same results; and Scully opening her door to a midnight visitor who just shows up unannounced at her apartment, carrying a box that for all she knows contains the head & genitals of the last woman who was dumb enough to open her door to a total stranger in the middle of the night. (This was supposedly the same Scully who in a first-season episode greeted an unexpected midnight caller with a drawn pistol.)

[Sampiro]

Roseanne may not be my favorite show but it's on the short list (the number 1 spot varies). The single worst episode was in the final season when Roseanne and crew are flown to Europe by a prince played by Jim Varney; if winning the lottery (which could have worked) hadn't already made them jump the shark that most certainly did. The writing was ridiculous and silly (a European prince from a tiny country falling in love with a middle aged American woman he sees in a news clip), you never got over the fact it was Ernest speaking in an English accent, and it set in motion a long series of increasingly dreamlike and absurd episodes.

[enalzi]

Originally Posted by Hampshire

The Expose' episode from LOST.
It was a watchable episode but so completely out of place from the rest of the series. To follow two secondary characters, Nikki and Paulo, for one episode on their own storyline felt like an odd experimental show that they never tried again.

Are you kidding me? That's a great episode! Not only did we get to see more Arzt, but they killed off two of the most hated characters of all time by burying them alive.

And I third Stranger in a Strange Land being the worst, for all reasons mentioned. Plus that Other's Sheriff character that never appeared again. Lost is normally pretty good about minor characters coming back, but that didn't happen.

[breezman]

Originally Posted by salinqmind

This. Was just insultingly bad. Absolutely painful. And "the daughter" on this was one of the ugliest, most emaciated, repellant skanks I've ever seen anywhere. Like the total opposite of the beautiful Christina Applegate.

There was no daughter on Top of the Heap. Are you maybe thinking of Unhappily Ever After?

[fluiddruid]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

ST:TNG: Family The show was hated, and, as was usual, the producers took the wrong lesson from that. They thought the problem was that there were no action sequences. But, no, the problem was that it was a mass of third-rate cliches and by-the-book heart-tugging revelations. Not a single moment of it rang true (especially absurd was the Picard vs. his French brother -- both with English accents -- solving things after a bit of mudwrestling).

I actually kind of like this episode (except for the mudwrestling epiphany, which was admittedly silly).

I liked ST:TNG an awful lot, but man there are some crap episodes. Any of the holodeck episodes are strong contenders for awfulness, especially the Professor Moriarty ones, but I just watched "Force of Nature" a few weeks ago and yikes, what a stinker. A very, very thinly veiled metaphor for environmentalism -- Jesus, I hated when they tried to make shows "topical", a completely confusing and anticlimactic message ("uh, yeah, our starships are fucking this shit all up, so let's just, uh, study it and only use Warp 4. Except only Federation ships will actually follow this rule anyway, and nobody can make the Ferengi or Romulans or anyone else do it, and ... yeah"), and an excess of boring technobabble, even for Star Trek. Oh, and let's not forget someone killing themselves just to prove a point, and the completely wooden response of not only the regular cast but the individual's own brother seems to barely notice. Booooooo.

X-Files: Well, practically everything towards the end. The one when Mulder was resurrected from the dead, I guess, but I stopped paying attention after that.

[Kolga]

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

The West Wing, "Isaac and Ishmael," aka "A Very Special Episode About the September 11 Attacks." It was preachy and lame and happened outside the "reality" of the regular series. At the time I only found it mildly cringe-worthy, but in retrospect it was just completely awful.

I am a completely indiscriminate lover of The West Wing, even the seasons after Aaron Sorkin left, and I actually do not mind the episode you mentioned.

But I cannot, will not, absolutely refuse to ever watch again the episode "Han," the 4th episode from the 5th season. I will not watch it for any reason, for any amount of money. It OFFENDS ME, it's so ridiculous horrifically unrealistic in the context of the already-established characters. NONE of those people would allow that to happen, or be complicit in it. It's egregiously WRONG.

[Lute Skywatcher]

M*A*S*H: "Major Fred C. Dobbs". Hawkeye & Trapper drive Frank to request a transfer, which results in Hot Lips also requesting a transfer. Rather than go on double shifts until replacements are found, they concoct a scheme to have Frank reconsider by relying on his greed and some gold paint.

Even Larry Gelbart considered this the worst of the series.

[Clothahump]

Star Trek: TOS is one of my favorite shows for the promise that it held. But my word, was it ever plagued by bad writing. And "The Way to Eden" was the worst of the bunch. Space hippies take over the Enterprise? Spock jams with them on his harp? Somebody was smoking some bad shit to come up with that script.

[salinqmind]

Originally Posted by breezman

There was no daughter on Top of the Heap. Are you maybe thinking of Unhappily Ever After?

Probably. Both were awful, though - because they were trying to be Married With Children II, they get mixed up in my mind.

Mr. Salinqmind wishes to advise that the worst LOOKING episode of NYPD Blue was the one where Sipowitz practically mooned the viewing audience as he and the Mrs. took a shower .

[HPL]

Originally Posted by Drain Bead

One of my favorite TV shows in recent memory was Battlestar Galactica. Three words that should make any BSG fan shudder are "The Woman King."

Well, "Black Market" might give it a run for it's money in the "Useless episode" department.

But "The Woman King" was pretty bad. It might have been otherwise if they had actually set up the premise and then followed through. Instead, we just got an episode that doesn't really go anywhere and seemingly comes out of nowhere.

[HPL]

Right now I'm really into the new Dr. Who and having just finished the 4th season, I'd have to say I thought "Fear Her" was one of the weakest episodes. I don't know why, but it's probably because it never explains how the whole alien drawing power thing is supposed to work or what it does. I also got rather annoyed by the whole "Draw the Earth" and everyone will be affected thing.It felt like a cheat, even by this shows standards.

[olivesmarch4th]

You know that episode in the last season of Star Trek: TNG where Wesley goes off with the Native Americans and became a time traveler or whatever?

(Journey's End).

That episode makes my soul hurt.

[Ranchoth]

Originally Posted by fluiddruid

I just watched "Force of Nature" a few weeks ago and yikes, what a stinker. A very, very thinly veiled metaphor for environmentalism -- Jesus, I hated when they tried to make shows "topical", a completely confusing and anticlimactic message ("uh, yeah, our starships are fucking this shit all up, so let's just, uh, study it and only use Warp 4. Except only Federation ships will actually follow this rule anyway, and nobody can make the Ferengi or Romulans or anyone else do it, and ... yeah"), and an excess of boring technobabble, even for Star Trek. Oh, and let's not forget someone killing themselves just to prove a point, and the completely wooden response of not only the regular cast but the individual's own brother seems to barely notice. Booooooo.

Phil Farrand, who wrote the Nitpickers Guide books, noted that the person who killed themselves to prove their point was like an environmentalist protesting the danger of a nuclear planet near a town by...blowing up the nuclear plant.

And according to the tech backstory of Voyager, Voyager's engine's were a newly developed type that wouldn't damage subspace when used (maybe it was the tilting that helped). So they just shot that plot point down, for good measure. Whats worse is that is was Voyager that wrote off a stupid technobabble point from TNG. That's only slightly humiliating.

[MsWhatsit]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

You know that episode in the last season of Star Trek: TNG where Wesley goes off with the Native Americans and became a time traveler or whatever?

(Journey's End).

That episode makes my soul hurt.

I can't believe you reminded me of the existence of this episode. I had previously been successfully able to block it from my memory.

Although actually my vote for worst TNG episode is that god-awful one where Troi gives birth to the star baby.

[whiterabbit]

Originally Posted by Clothahump

Star Trek: TOS is one of my favorite shows for the promise that it held. But my word, was it ever plagued by bad writing. And "The Way to Eden" was the worst of the bunch. Space hippies take over the Enterprise? Spock jams with them on his harp? Somebody was smoking some bad shit to come up with that script.

Perhaps it's just my age -- 33 -- but I find that one so bad it's horribly entertaining. I mean, space hippies???? Bwahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! My mom who saw the eps in first run might have a different view on that one, I'll try to remember to ask. But really the entire show has gotten, for me, so dated it's kinda cool again. But oy, it's dated. The sexism makes me want to scream.

[tumbleddown]

Originally Posted by Kolga

But I cannot, will not, absolutely refuse to ever watch again the episode "Han," the 4th episode from the 5th season. I will not watch it for any reason, for any amount of money. It OFFENDS ME, it's so ridiculous horrifically unrealistic in the context of the already-established characters. NONE of those people would allow that to happen, or be complicit in it. It's egregiously WRONG.

Okay, refresh our collective memories on this one? Episode guides online are useless in relation to your specific complaint about mischaracterization.

[Gyrate]

What - no hate for Genesis from ST:TNG? Troi turns into a frog-person, Picard starts becoming a lemur and - yes really - Spot "devolves" from a cat into an actual iguana.

Also, at the end they're laughing off Beverly's little "oops, I accidentally created a plague that contaminated the whole crew" gaffe. Um...didn't the proto-Worf actually kill a couple of crewmembers along the way? Hilarious! But hey! We didn't know them, so that's okay.

[Kolga]

Originally Posted by tumbleddown

Okay, refresh our collective memories on this one? Episode guides online are useless in relation to your specific complaint about mischaracterization.

In order to do justice, I would have to watch it again. However, the gist of the story is that an incredibly talented North Korean pianist passes a note to Bartlet & Co. that he wants to defect. Because the U.S. is about to enter the possible beginnings of disarmament talks with North Korea, they refuse to help him and Bartlet tells him basically to sacrifice himself on the altar of potential world peace. Later, the North Koreans cancel the talks (independently of the defect plotline).

The way that I remember thinking about it is that the characters were all acting absolutely diametrically opposed to the way they'd been acting for the last four seasons, not only in the sense of denying Han (the titular pianist) defection (these were people who'd arranged a breakout of about 100 Chinese stowaways from a California National Guard holding center a few seasons before) but in their interactions with each other. But again, specific examples would require that I watch the episode to refresh my memory.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by Chronos

Fenris, are we also agreed that the third-worst episode of B5 was the one with the organic technology doohicky that turned the archaeologist into an unstoppable killing machine? Though I think that was the first or second episode after the pilot, so we can maybe make allowances for the show not yet having hit its stride.

I didn't think it was actually...bad. It set up the whole "shadow" thing (with the organic tech) and gave us a few hints about organic tech. Although the ending just sucked donkey balls. (The sentinal-bots killed everyone who wasn't genetically pure and wiped out the whole race because no-one's 100% genetically pure? A) It was a blatant swipe from X-Men 57-59. and B) the X-Men ended it better: Sheridan does a Cap'n Kirk "confuse the robot" gambit. Boring. Cyclops tells the "Wipe out impure people" that the sun is the source of all mutations so go attack the sun". Much better)

The one with the lady Dr. Mengele (G'kar's first assistant went nuts and tried to kill her) was in the same category--not good or anything, but not to the status of actually being bad.

Or the one (that cemented my dislike for Dr. Franklin*) where he just casually ignores a patient's wishes (the Space-Jehovah's Witness Kid) and his parent's wishes AND the Captain's wishes and performs surgery on him against his will "for his own good".

There's a bunch in the first half of the first season that aren't good but aren't actually bad either.



*I hate the character--he's an arrogant, smug, pompous, self-righteous prick (which is wonderful characterization and the actor was fantastic)

[TruCelt]

South Park was my favorite show.

Then came Lemmiwinks. [shudder]

I haven't watched it since.

[Greg Charles]

Originally Posted by dhkendall

Nit: Armin Tamzarian.

I was going to nit back that it should be Armen, a popular Armenian name. How hard is that? Armenia => Armen. However, it seems the Simpson writers misspelled it. Now I really hate that episode.

Greg (of the Zamanigian clan)

[Lethal Babydoll]

Wesley Crusher and the Indians. Oh lordy lordy.

[cerberus]

The Enterprise finale sucked - come on, take the prequel and spend huge amounts of time on a stupid, dead end Riker B plot that not even TNG really cared about. And end the series in a holodeck in Enterprise D? And close the series using TNG stock shots?

Stupid

[Icerigger]

Although actually my vote for worst TNG episode is that god-awful one where Troi gives birth to the star baby.

The Child?

I believe this episode was written for the defunct Star Trek Phase II series that was cancelled when they decided to make ST TMP. They simply crossed out Ilia's name and put Troi in it's place.

[Intergalactic Gladiator]

Originally Posted by Icerigger

The Child?

I believe this episode was written for the defunct Star Trek Phase II series that was cancelled when they decided to make ST TMP. They simply crossed out Ilia's name and put Troi in it's place.

And by the time it was used in TNG, the idea of a mysterious prenancy for a character became a cliche.

[ads95]

Originally Posted by Kolga

I am a completely indiscriminate lover of The West Wing, even the seasons after Aaron Sorkin left, and I actually do not mind the episode you mentioned.

But I cannot, will not, absolutely refuse to ever watch again the episode "Han," the 4th episode from the 5th season. I will not watch it for any reason, for any amount of money. It OFFENDS ME, it's so ridiculous horrifically unrealistic in the context of the already-established characters. NONE of those people would allow that to happen, or be complicit in it. It's egregiously WRONG.

I would actually go with the entire 5th Season of TWW. So much character assasination happens that season that its hard to stomach. It has a few bright spots, such as "The Supremes", but not much else.

[DSYoungEsq]

Originally Posted by Icerigger

Trek Geek nitpick. Eden was last broadcast, Intruder was last filmed.

Incorrect, sort of.

Turnabout Intruder was shown roughly two months after it was originally scheduled to air. It aired in June of 1969, the last of the episodes to get its original airing.

It may be that The Way to Eden was actually the last broadcast episode during the summer's re-runs, but I haven't been able to confirm that or disprove it.

[BrotherCadfael]

The third season of TOS makes me kind of glad that Firefly and Dead Like Me only lasted as long as they did.

The second season of Joan of Arcadia kind of does that for me too, except for the Zombie Musical episode, which was awesome.

[not_alice]

Not saying this is my favorite show, but it might be someone's!

Last night I was watching, with my gf who was not in the US at the time of the original airing, a DVD I picked up at the 99 cent store - a collection of episodes of Chico and the Man starring the late Freddy Prinze.

In the last episode of 6 on the DVD, Prinze was noticeably spaced out, and missing lines, ad-libbing others, and even seemingly ad-libbed a knife to his throat gesture for comedic effect.

Since I didn't recall the details of his death, I looked it up this morning so I could share with my gf.

Turns out, he killed himself hours after taping that show.

While it may not be the worst show in the series, killing yourself surely raises the bar of self-critiquing to an entirely new level!

[Kolga]

Originally Posted by ads95

I would actually go with the entire 5th Season of TWW. So much character assasination happens that season that its hard to stomach. It has a few bright spots, such as "The Supremes", but not much else.

It's the worst season, true, although I can still watch most of the episodes on DVD. It improves after that (although never again to the Sorkin level). That particular episode of the 5th season just fills me with GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[Steve MB]

Originally Posted by Annie

I don't know if I'd call it my favorite show, but the one where there is a huge nexus between 'like the show' and 'find the producer and burn the master tape of the episode!':

A Night in Sickbay, Enterprise. I honestly wonder if Scott Bakula was screwing around with a writer's wife and/or teenage son and this was inflicted upon him in retaliation. This review doesn't convey the full horror, but this promo gets close. TWOP has 14 pages to try to explain it all.

Or, as the Agony Booth recap sums it up:

Can we all agree that, if this is not the worst dialogue ever written for a Star Trek character, it's certainly way down there? There have been times when I've disagreed with a character's choices. There have been times I've disliked a character. There have been times when I think the writers ruined a character, or undid a lot of a character's development, purely out of laziness. But this... this is all-out character destruction the likes of which I have never seen before. It takes active, aggressive hatred for your own creations to annihilate them to this degree.

At less than eight minutes into the episode, I'm actually angry enough to just stop the recap here. I rarely get pissed off when I recap stuff, because deep down, I really love the awful stuff that I recap. But this episode is something quite different. It's not terrible in the way most of the movies featured on this website are terrible, in that the filmmakers didn't know what they were doing, and just stumbled into making a horrible movie as a result of their own incompetence. It's terrible in that Epic Movie kind of way, where it seems everybody knew better, but the writers just hated the characters, hated themselves, hated their jobs, and most of all hated you for wanting to watch the shit they write.

Unfortunately though, I have to keep going. After building up anticipation for five years, there's no way I can bail on this episode now....

[Morbo]

C'mon - any discussion about the worst TNG episode has to begin and end with the "Riker gets stabbed by a thorn" episode. It wasn't even an episode - it was a clip show with more clips than any clip show I can recall. I'd say it was about 95% previous footage, with about two minutes of Riker, Troi and Pulaski. Complete waste of time.

Going back a ways, there was an episode of Nothern Exposure where Shelly couldn't stop singing. She would sing instead of talk, while everyone else just talked. Unwatchable.

[Drain Bead]

Originally Posted by HPL

Well, "Black Market" might give it a run for it's money in the "Useless episode" department.

But "The Woman King" was pretty bad. It might have been otherwise if they had actually set up the premise and then followed through. Instead, we just got an episode that doesn't really go anywhere and seemingly comes out of nowhere.

At least Black Market, as bad as it was, fit in with the plot somewhat later. The Woman King was useless, preachy, and awful.

[Ruby Sees]

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

The West Wing, "Isaac and Ishmael," aka "A Very Special Episode About the September 11 Attacks." It was preachy and lame and happened outside the "reality" of the regular series. At the time I only found it mildly cringe-worthy, but in retrospect it was just completely awful.

At the time it pissed me off because I got what they were trying to do, but it was too preachy and condescending to me even then. It's the only episodes I will not watch in reruns.

I liked the episode Han and just watched it a couple weeks ago. The actor playing the pianist had such heart-breaking expressions on his face, like noble resignation.

I had forgotten about South Park's Lemmiwinks. That was pretty bad. The musical Joseph Smith/Mormon one was excruciating. So was the lice one. I think Lemmiwinks though is the worst.

[Annie]

Man, Trek sure dropped some plutonium-laced turds in its time(s) didn't it?

My dear gawd almighty ick! vote from TNG:http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Game_%28episode%29 The Game (format impaired, sorry) Orgasmatron video game. 'nuff said

My own Heroes pick is Episode 3.04 "I Am Become Death" in which Peter travels to the future in the company of his saturnine future incarnation. And from there, the show decides to not only piss all over every bit of characterisation of every character, it also decides to throw out such things as narratives that make any sense. Plus, they introduced a bunch of plotpoints which were never heard of every again, which, as they all stunk was probably no bad thing but did mean they were a massive waste of time.
[/quote]
Redeemed only slightly by waffle Sylar (but that hair! Ugh) and a nuclear detonation.

Close runner up: The 'Villains' flashback episode for adding nothing worthwhile .........(Is this in fact the episode you are talking about, Annie?)

Bingo. Some slap ass retconning contrivance to get Sylar and Elle together, and rehabilitating Meredith into a competent agent-just so she could become a cheating, blackmailing ditz when Claire meets her a few (weeks, months) later? Then becomes cool agent chick again when she tries to waterboard Claire? Did not compute.

Originally Posted by cerberus

The Enterprise finale sucked - come on, take the prequel and spend huge amounts of time on a stupid, dead end Riker B plot that not even TNG really cared about. And end the series in a holodeck in Enterprise D? And close the series using TNG stock shots?

That episode never existed and you can't make me believe it did.

[Annie]

Sorry, Promethea, I balled up your quote in my reply.

[Pulp Friction]

The Office. I don't know the episode - or even the season - but I speak of the one where there is a dinner party at Michael and Jan's new condo. The entire episode was full of awkward anger. It was painful to watch.

[madmonk28]

Arrested Development is by far my favorite show, but the six episodes with Charlize Theron were dreadful. The series was falling apart because the network kept messing with it, so I understand what happened, but it was like watching a different show.