# Worst epsisode of star trek **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964 "2016-02-12T20:27:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/141 "2016-02-17T20:15:47Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > I am probably not the first one to think of this, but how about blaming a Universal Translator implant? He’s actually speaking French all of the time, but the UT is set to “English(UK)”. His whole family spoke perfect RP English (except maybe his nephew; I don’t remember). ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/142 "2016-02-17T21:49:47Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > I seem to recall a writer’s strike that may have been going on around that time. I love that ep just for the weirdness ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/143 "2016-02-17T22:55:48Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > His whole family spoke perfect RP English (except maybe his nephew; I don’t remember). Well, ok. His family may not have received any UT implants. Just thinking out loud anyway. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/144 "2016-02-20T17:03:58Z")
Nobody’s even mentioned ST TOS’s “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Why? Is it too horrible to be named? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/145 "2016-02-20T17:06:20Z")
Nah. The episode itself wasn’t that bad, and it had Kirk snog Uhura on network TV. The pathetic part was that they never followed up on the “instant telekinesis” McCoy developed. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/146 "2016-02-20T17:59:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Nah. The episode itself wasn’t that bad, and it had Kirk snog Uhura on network TV. The pathetic part was that they never followed up on the “instant telekinesis” McCoy developed. And Alexander was a memorable character - "You think that’s what I want, become one of them, become my own enemy, just lie around like a big blob of nothing and have things done for me? I want to move around for myself! If I’m going to laugh or cry, I want to do it for myself! You can keep your precious power! All I ask is one thing. If you do make it out of here, take me with you! " ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/147 "2016-02-20T19:30:52Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Nobody’s even mentioned ST TOS’s “Plato’s Stepchildren.” > Why? Is it too horrible to be named? See (_ahem!_) Post #35. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/148 "2016-02-20T19:33:01Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Nobody’s even mentioned ST TOS’s “Plato’s Stepchildren.” > Why? Is it too horrible to be named? And yes, it was beyond horrible. Sucky, shitty, awful, horrid, yeccch, bleah! :smack: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/149 "2016-02-20T22:12:00Z")
I liked that episode. The drama, and the underlying moral issue, were both compelling. Michael Dunn’s acting was (always!) of a strong and engaging nature. (Who can help but love him as Dr. Loveless?) If Star Trek can have modern/ancient Romans, why not Greeks? And who better than Greeks to make us wrestle with questions of “The right, which justifies the good?” Also the kiss/rape scene. Magnificently creepy. I took it as a statement about rape in general, emphasizing the evil of forced intimacy. That isn’t a lesson TV often dared to teach. ETA: Also the quiet little song about “When Pan sounds his horn, keeping time to the rhyme with his hoof, with his hoof…” That was softly elegant. It was a nice bit of allusion to the way Greek “songs” actually were, not songs as we know them today, but more intoned poem/chants. It’s a very nice one. Euripides would have smiled. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/150 "2016-02-21T01:00:38Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Euripides would have smiled. I’m sure he would have loved the “I’m Tweedle-Dum, he’s Tweedle-Dee” segment too. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/151 "2016-02-21T02:38:57Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m sure he would have loved the “I’m Tweedle-Dum, he’s Tweedle-Dee” segment too. :rolleyes: The singing, dancing, Kirk acts like a horse scenes were the ones that made it a bad one for me, although I do agree that Dunn as Alexander was great. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/152 "2016-02-21T21:49:51Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Granted, the premise makes no sense. (Neither was it explained how the Gideons were able to build such a precise replica of the _Enterprise_ on their crowded little planet.) > > However, abortion was never mentioned; birth control and sterilization were. No reference was made to religion, nor was there any need to. Religion was not directly alluded to but the whole issue was that nobody would be willing to use birth control because of their belief that all life was sacred. Abortion wasn’t mentioned because NBC would never have allowed it. They were already pushing the limits of the day talking about contraception and sterilization. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/153 "2016-02-21T22:06:49Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I don’t remember- was Bones not aware that Vulcans had that second eyelid (?). You’d think the ship’s surgeon would by familiar with Vulcan physiology. In his defense it seems that the Vulcans kept quite a bit from the federation. Pon Far anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/154 "2016-03-08T19:27:56Z")
Working our way thru S7 TNG. Last night watched Dark Page - which my wife and I agree is the worst we’ve seen by far. Wait - let me hear that whirring noise again when the guy telecommunicates. And while hearing it, slowly pan in on Troi’s face again. Even a cute young Kirsten Dunst can’t save that swill. Man, they loved putting Troi in peril on that show… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/155 "2016-03-08T19:55:35Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > There were a few like “The Game” Do you mean Move Along Home? Checking an episode guide, there doesn’t seem to be an episode titled The Game. (I like MAH, though I need to apply Bellisario’s Maxim to the premise.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/156 "2016-03-08T19:59:22Z")
[The Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29) Season 5 of **ST: TNG** has a lot to answer for. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/157 "2016-03-08T20:04:40Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Plus they did a sequel [to The Trouble With Tribbles] in ST:TAS and of course the DS9 crew went back in time to the episode. Which was also an excellent episode. Which I used to have an original script from, but it got lost in a move. ;\_; > [@silenus](#): > > [The Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29) But that’s TNG, and it was DS9 episodes under discussion. (Probably my fault for not quoting more context.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964/158 "2016-03-08T20:49:22Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Which was also an excellent episode. Which I used to have an original script from, but it got lost in a move. ;\_; Ugh, I’m just doing terrible on keeping references consistent in this thread. I mean the DS9 episode, specifically. Though ISTR liking the TAS episode, too, I don’t think I’d call it ‘excellent’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-epsisode-of-star-trek/745964.md?page=7)