Worst of Star Trek: TNG Season 2
The Five Weakest Episodes of the Next Generation's Second Year
Dec 18, 2008
On the surface, the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation doesn't look to have an auspicious start. Gates McFadden chose not to return as Dr. Crusher, the second original cast member to leave, the people who were to write the series were on strike and even when the strike ended, it cut into the production schedule so badly that only twenty full episodes could be created.
The actual run of the second season was twenty-two episodes. The extra episodes came in the form of the season finale clip show and the adaptation of a script originally written for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II. Both of these are among the worst episodes in the show's history.
There were a some brilliant season 2 episodes, but like the two extra episodes, there were some truly lamentable moments.
The Child
The season premiere was a hastily adapted script, recycled from Star Trek: Phase II and it showed. Aside from Marina Sirtis weeping her way through the episode, the story itself felt like the cast off subplot of a science fiction soap opera.
The Dauphin
Star Trek meets Degrassi Jr. High. Wesley Crusher develops a crush on a young woman who happens to be fated to bring peace to her planet. Throw in a shapeshifting nanny, some awful special effects, mix with two terrible child actors and stir. What results is virtually unwatchable.
The Royale
The Next Generation attempts its own version of the classic Star Trek episode, A Piece of the Action, placing crew members amid a badly rendered Twentieth Century setting and hoping for science fiction lightning to strike twice. Unfortunately the result was feeble, the humour even more so.
The Icarus Factor
Riker is about to be promoted and Starfleet, in its infinite wisdom, sends his father to brief him on his new assignment. The estranged father and son eventually decide to work out their differences in a novel fashion, they duke it out in a match of something called "Anbou-Jitsu". For some reason, Anbou-Jitsu involves both combatants fighting blindfolded.
John Tesh, of Entertainment Tonight fame, also makes a guest appearance as a Klingon. Fortunately, he does not play any music.
Shades of Gray
In what is widely agreed to be the worst episode in the entire seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in order to cure a dying Riker, Pulaski must stimulate his emotions. What follows is a clip show and little more. The entire script couldn't have taken more than twenty minutes to cobble together.
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