Worst of Star Trek: TNG Season 7
The Five Weakest Episodes of the Next Generation's Seventh Year
Jan 5, 2009
While the writers and producers managed to create a satisfying ending to the series, one that tied the finale to the series premiere episode, the seventh season suffered from a great deal of uneven writing and some generally terrible episodes. In hindsight, the show was running out of gas and had already had its best season. Despite a weariness in the show, there were still some bright spots along the final journey.
Interface
Geordi tests out a new interface that allows him to see through the eyes of a remote probe. Using the probe, Geordi finds his mother aboard a ship that he tries to rescue. Madge Sinclair and Ben Vereen (who played Levar Burton's character's parents in Roots) play Geordi's parents, but even their esteemed presence isn't enough to salvage the episode.
Dark Page
Lwaxana Troi experiences a series of flashbacks that cause her to collapse. Deanna's probing of her mother's mind lead her to discover a repressed memory of a daughter who died when Deanna was just a baby. Not only is the episode poorly written and acted, but it commits the ultimate sin of any television episode: It's boring.
Force of Nature
The Enterprise investigates a region of space where a number of ships have disappeared. The brother and sister team responsible for the ships disappearing turn out to be scientists trying to save their region of space which is being damaged by the passage of warp vessels. Too much sci-fi jargon, a silly premise and a lack of action make for a dull episode.
Sub Rosa
Call it a bodice-ripper in space. When her grandmother dies, Dr. Crusher attends her funeral, only to discover that her grandmother had been carrying on a romantic relationship with a much younger man. Within a day or so, Dr. Crusher finds herself swept up in a similar relationship with the same man who turns out to be an alien that has attached himself to the women in Dr. Crusher's family for centuries. All of the worst elements of melodramatic romance rear their heads in this episode.
Bloodlines
Picard learns that he has a son he never new about and that the young man is in danger from one of the Captain's old enemies, the Ferengi Daimon Bok. In the end, it turns out that Bok altered the boy's genes in a convoluted and silly plot to get back at Picard. Probably the weakest episode to center around Captain Picard in the entire run of the show.
Honourary mention should go to the episode Homeward as Worf and his adopted brother lead a tribe of refugees on a trek through the holodeck.
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