TNG S3 AWARDS - TA’s Worst Take

Torn between Captain's Holiday and Deja Q. There are 26 episodes a season. There's room for "just for fun" episodes.

Honorable mention: Best of Both Worlds is absolutely not about Riker being "overly cautious". In fact, it shows a grown adult ready to take command, to the point that he doesn't need to prove it to anyone by moving on. He's happy. Troi tells him as much.

You gotte have technobabble in any show or movie that is set in the future. They wont be using a 9-iron, pipe wrench or duct tape when dealing with matter/anti-matter reactors, different layers of space or quantum stuff 😅 The new tools and jargon need to look and sound like something we don't have or know yet.

Captain's Holiday is most definitely not the worst TNG episode. Skin of Evil. Shades of Gray, and Code of Honor are all so much worse. It's a dumb fun episode where Picard gets laid. It's a comedy episode.

Booby trap had so much development for Geordie that I can’t agree with it being a loss of an episode There was a lot of quality in that episode. The episode I’m shocked you didn’t choose for a bad episode and I consider a lost cause you did not was the price. I just wanted to burn the episode when the Ferengi show up In fact, I’m happy that those for Angie were left 70,000 light years away

This is a really fun category. Kudos to you guys for opening the forum. Honestly you guys pretty much have nothing but good takes in my opinion. Only one I really push back again is Saul Rubinek cuz he's my boy.

So hard to choose.

If you understand the technobabble then there can never be too much.

3 out of 5 of these are among my favorites from season three (although, I consider more than half from this season my favorites). Am I voting for the one I agree was not great or for the one I agree with the criticism? I did the latter... I agree some of the things Q doesn't seem to know about don't make sense (eating, sleeping), but I still like that episode. The Data/Q storyline makes it great for me (important character moments for both of them). Of the five, I like Evolution the least, but Stubbs is not the reason, so I didn't vote for that one.

The only "bordering on bad" take is the techno-babble one. There wouldn't even be the term "techno-babble" without Star Trek.

Completely agree with you on "The Most Toys" - Great potential that ended up annoying and silly. And I alternate between loving and hating "Captain's Holiday" every time I watch it so can't blame you there either. But "Deja Q" is both thought-provoking and really funny, and it's an A-tier episode for me.

I think your Captain's Holiday take is what caught me most off-guard. I had predicted you wouldn't enjoy it much, but the hatred demonstrated was way out of left field. In retrospect, it makes sense, because you really didn't like the character of Vaush, or the actress, and it's ironic given Picard was dating her at the time. Maybe that whole actor's myth, that if two people are dating irl, they'll have no chemistry on-screen, is true.

Captain’s Hols. - no where near that bad when borderline racist Irish stereotype episode exists…

Honestly, the Q thing is just…kinda stupid. Of course he would know what eating IS, but how or why would he POSSIBLY know what it feels like to NEED to, and when and why would he have paid enough attention to know how much would be reasonable at any time?

i happen to really enjoy The Most Toys, in large part because Data is my fav - i voted for captain's holiday, but i actually enjoy that too

Wow - I would have put The Most Toys into a Best Of list. If the guys had watched the comparison videos of Saul Rubinek with the original actor, David Rappaport as Fajo, I feel it would have changed their view.

Tough call. I'd say you guys didn't quite appreciate Fajo enough. Saul Rubinek is a fantastic character actor, and he gives the character so many little layers and personality quirks that would otherwise not have been there. On the other hand, I went with Booby Trap, because I feel that you guys have no idea what technobabble actually is. It isn't "tech talk" because all of the "tech talk" in Booby Trap is actually coherent and easy to follow once you know what Geordi is talking about. Technobabble is literal nonsense. When we get into later seasons of TNG, and then Voyager, you'll *really* start to hear the technobabble come out, and it gets stupit.

Captain’s Holiday is an enjoyable romp for me in the context of a season that albeit great had a lot of tough concepts and storylines like bereavements (several times), sexual manipulation, terrorism, genocide, dementia and extinction.

Honorable mention to Captain's Holiday

Deja Q was a fantastic episode. No single premise is better for exploring the Human Condition than taking a godlike being, stripping him of his powers, and humbling him by having him walk in our shoes for a while.

Honorable mention goes to poor Dr. Stubbs, for caring too much about baseball and being "just another terrible Starfleet person."

Of the list, I was most shocked you didn't get into a Q episode as light as Deja Q, especially with the Data pairing and some of the comedic overtones. But, I wouldn't call it a "bad take" per se.

I think the most toys is the right story told in the wrong order.

I picked The Most Toys. I love the actor, love the character, loved the premise and loved the episode just in general, personally. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Geez. I like you guys but I had to go update my notifications settings. 10 emails in a morning was a bit much.

Dude, I guess I’m in the minority, but The Most Toys was a great episode featuring Data, with his interactions with Fatjo. Not perfect, but to me, one of the tops. Saul Rubinek was fantastic. Underrated to me.

I thought "which take did they get most wrong?" I have my own take on that one.

Honorable mention: Labeling Riker a 'bully' for how he treated Barclay.