# The Single WORST Episode Of Your Favourite TV Series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717 "2009-11-16T01:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/81 "2009-11-17T15:44:08Z")
> [@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) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/82 "2009-11-17T15:52:39Z")
South Park was my favorite show. Then came Lemmiwinks. [shudder] I haven’t watched it since. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/83 "2009-11-17T17:04:02Z")
> [@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) ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/84 "2009-11-17T17:13:36Z")
Wesley Crusher and the Indians. Oh lordy lordy. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/85 "2009-11-17T17:41:19Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/86 "2009-11-17T17:49:01Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/87 "2009-11-17T17:54:38Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![ads95](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5daacb/32.png) [@ads95](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ads95)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/88 "2009-11-17T17:57:07Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/89 "2009-11-17T18:05:30Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/90 "2009-11-17T18:21:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/91 "2009-11-17T18:29:36Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/92 "2009-11-17T19:30:52Z")
> [@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 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/93 "2009-11-17T20:15:30Z")
> [@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,](http://www.jammersreviews.com/st-ent/s2/sickbay.php)but [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWz9onFebHA)promo gets close. [TWOP has 14 pages to try to explain it all.](http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/enterprise/a_night_in_sickbay.php) Or, as the [Agony Booth recap](http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/Enterprise/A_Night_in_Sickbay.aspx) 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… ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/94 "2009-11-17T23:58:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/95 "2009-11-18T01:14:36Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/96 "2009-11-18T02:30:46Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/97 "2009-11-18T03:12:06Z")
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](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/The%20Game) 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. > [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/98 "2009-11-18T03:19:20Z")
Sorry, **Promethea** , I balled up your quote in my reply. ---
**Author:** ![Pulp\_Friction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@Pulp\_Friction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pulp_Friction)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/99 "2009-11-18T03:26:20Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717/100 "2009-11-18T03:35:04Z")
**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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-single-worst-episode-of-your-favourite-tv-series/517717.md?page=6)