The Worst of Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Worst of Star Trek

The Next Generation

Code of Honor

The poster child for the issues in TNG season 1.  Poor casting decisions and a bad story resulted in this racist and sexist episode.  The aliens of the week being Hollywood stereotypical, tribal African caricatures all played by African American actors and the sexism throughout the episode ("a woman? Your chief of security?") make this episode nearly unwatchable.  When asked about TNGs worst episode at a convention, Jonathan Frakes famously once said "One of our worst, and the one even Gene [Roddenberry] was ashamed of, was that horrible, racist piece of shit from the first season "Code of Honor". Oh my god in heaven!"

Shades of Grey

The clip show.  A boring, skippable episode.  I'll give this one a slight break, seeing that the 88-89 season was shortened by a writers strike, and the writers on TNG were exhausted by end of the season despite only producing 22 episodes down from 26.  That does not however excuse laziness.  The framing story of Riker being infected by a plant on an away mission and experiencing memories as part of his treatment (hence all the clips): yawn.

The Outcast

Star Trek's first ever attempt to tackle the topic of sexual preference and gender identity.  A laudable and progressive idea ruined by poor, weak execution.  Unfortunately a real exploration of these topics was never going to happen on Star Trek in the 90s mainly because of a certain Executive Producer in charge of the franchise.  Additionally, the end of the episode, the attempt at an allegory of sexual preference/identity vs societal norms and "gender affirming therapy" makes Riker look like shit for trying to do the morally right thing.  

Honorable Mention: Sub Rosa

The "Beverly Crusher has sex with a ghost episode".  So many things about this episode simply make no sense.  All of Beverly Crushers female ancestors for 800 years kept the name Howard?  No one bothers to check the computer for any information on Ronan?  Troi tells Picard about Beverly's relationship?  Beverly is completely out of character in this episode, falling head over heals for her grandmothers lover and leaving Starfleet and the Enterprise without even telling Picard?  The stereotypes in this episode are beyond cringeworthy: ghosts, the haunted candle, Ned Quint's "Scottish" accent, the gothic romance tone of Beverly/Ronin's relationship.