The one where Riker and others are taken by aliens and have to describe a table and their mind raping.
Totally suckass episode. I hate it.
Maybe it’s all politics. As you can see when the TNG era was first starting, the Federation and Klingon empire were really going all out to make a show of detente—to the point where there were Federation insignia being displayed on the bridges of Klingon warships, if memory serves—so when the latest version of the UT was designed, it was required to give a lot of leeway towards spoken Klingon, in order to promote cross-cultural understanding, linguistic cross-pollination, and to avoid the appearance of marginalizing a major partner in galactic politics.
Of course, as with most politically mandated technical changes, this proved…problematic in practice. :smack:
Context is something you should consider. The first season was made during a writer’s strike.
I’ve seen something interesting regarding Wesley Crusher on that subject—
This, and other things I’ve seen from the writers’ strikes I’ve lived through leads me to one conclusion: WGA Strike = Nerds Get Screwed.
Satchel, the ball flung fast.
Baseball player or cartoon character?
Bogart, tugging his earlobe.
Bogart, not releasing the bong. 
That’s probably better than mine, but mine is from a Classical Education. 
I watched a DS9 episode tonight where Worf and Dax join Martok’s crew on a Bird of Prey. Martok gave the helmsman the coordinates and I said “engage.” He then said something in Klingon. A few minutes later, he gave coordinates and instead of a Klingon word, he said “engage.” My favorite UT episode is from Trials and Tribble-ations.
I think the worst TNG episodes have been worn out in this thread. Any Ferengi episode on their home world sucks, as far as DS9 episodes.
I’m sure we’ve all thought of this at some point. But it makes for good drama. In ‘300’ King Leonidas fights a bunch of Persians dressed up in Japanese Kabuke masks. Totally makes zero sense. But it looks so fucking cool…
And not to nitpick, but there were a few instances where other Alien species did that (I think I remember Leonard Nimoy speaking Hebr—er, “Vulcan”-- in one of the Star Trek movies). And in the episode where Dr. Bashir finds the other…em…er…space savants, they talked about verb tenses in Dominonese, and how it impacted what it was that Weyoun was saying. So…they at least concede on one occasion that there’s something to be lost in universal translation.
I loved the Ferengi episodes, home world or otherwise. Not only because my mum got in the habit of calling herself “moogie” (lol), but they were a nice sort of comic relief from the overall dark drama of the series.
And also remember that Geordi was merely an ensign that manned the conn originally, rather than the actual Chief Engineer. Heck, dude got promoted the fastest of anyone in all of Star Trek–the only person to jump two levels by the end.
I think they wanted to keep the focus on the bridge, and thought it was ridiculous how many times Scotty would wind up on the bridge when he’s supposed to be the chief engineer. Geordi, being both a pilot type and an engineer made more sense.
Amen, Brother.
He is damn cool in Friday’s Child. 
The baseball player. One of his “Rules for Staying Young” (which he himself often violated) was, “Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.”
Scotty makes a damn good acting CO. Kirk never had anything to worry about.
I liked the DS9 eps set on Ferenginar, too. Fun and funny.
Actually, from what I remember, they almost got through filming the pilot when Roddenberry realized they hadn’t seen the engine room, so they quickly built it and filmed some scenes in there. I don’t know if it’s because he had the idea of the lights and I don’t remember that in TOS or why he wanted it but the point is that by then, Geordi’s character had a role and they needed the CE.
My own bad ones have been mentioned, from many of first and second season, to Sub Rosa, Masks and others.
What I hated was the lack of consistency, because each episode had to stand alone, unless it was a two (more more) parter. What they figured out over here was completely forgotten when it would have fixed something else. And, of course, some piece of technology got too powerful (coughtransportercough) but is never used that way again.
They did get better with star date (4XYYY.ZZ with the X being season) but there are still issues with speed, size of the galaxy and other items. In the end, it comes down to whether or not I liked the drama of that episode because science was only used when it could be dramatic, which still irks me. The more I learn about science, the more I feel cheated with what they didn’t do at times.
One of the best Trek bits ever is Odo’s reaction to the existence of Section 31. Not only is he unsurprised at its existence, he’s bemused – or perhaps mildly amused–that Sisko and his Starfleet staff are.
DS9 is the one series in which the characters have not drunk the utopia kook-aid.
Holmes and Watson, at Baskerville Hall!
Moriarty in the machine.