Terrible episodes of great shows.

[RocknRollMartia]

Just about every long-running or critically acclaimed show has at least one major stinker in its run. It's just inevitable when you have so many episodes, some of them are gonna be duds. Sometimes, these episodes can be just as well-known as the great episodes.

I'll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.

[Anonymouswizard]

Talons of Weng-Chan from Doctor Who (the entire serial).

It should be just mediocre, but it's talked about for a reason.It's not just boring, with terrible special effect, and rather poorly written, but it also features racial slurs directed at the Asian extras and a white man in yellowface as a villain.

Although at the same time I will viciously defend It Ain't Half Hot Mum, so I guess I can't talk.

[tomandtish]

Babylon 5: Grey 17 is Missing

Buffy: Doublemeat palace

Angel: She

Dexter AND Game of Thrones: Their series finales

[JadedDM]

Remember Stargate SG-1's episode, 'Hathor?' Even the writers later pretended it never happened.

[RocknRollMartia]

Remember Stargate SG-1's episode, 'Hathor?' Even the writers later pretended it never happened.

Speaking of Stargate SG-1, the writer of Code of Honor also wrote Emancipation, and guess what? That episode also has racist undertones.

[Dienekes]

Dexter AND Game of Thrones: Their series finales

I think that’s their entire last seasons.

Anyway, while there are a few bad Trek episodes I can think of, the one with the Han Solo rip-off in TNG and a few of more annoying episodes where everyone’s an idiot to make the plot happen, most of the Firengi stuff in DS9. I can’t really just pick one. Trek’s episodic nature let it have a bunch of terrible episodes without it effecting much.

The one I can think of that was a good show throughout with only one episode I didn’t like was:

Firefly: that episode with the pregnant prostitute. Forced love triangle, mediocre acting, annoying anvil of a message, stupid looking space laser, villain I couldn’t take seriously, and Inara acting like a jealous moron. Only episode I really thought the show would be better without.

[Rynjin]

Talons of Weng-Chan from Doctor Who (the entire serial).

It should be just mediocre, but it's talked about for a reason.It's not just boring, with terrible special effect, and rather poorly written, but it also features racial slurs directed at the Asian extras and a white man in yellowface as a villain.

Although at the same time I will viciously defend It Ain't Half Hot Mum, so I guess I can't talk.

?

I thought the general consensus for Weng-Chiang was that it was actually pretty good, despite its now-despicable (but then-acceptable) use of yellowface.

[Vinyadan]

We've gone from an army of bots to one of clones... immensely superior to droids!

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/...f_great_shows/

[Anonymouswizard]

?

I thought the general consensus for Weng-Chiang was that it was actually pretty good, despite its now-despicable (but then-acceptable) use of yellowface.

Maybe I just have a differing opinion to other people. It's pretty much the one serial I've never liked.

[Lemmy]

"Threshold" for Voyager... Or all of Star Trek in general, really.

While Voyager is not nearly as good as TNG and DS9, I actually enjoy it and never got the hate and hyperbolic criticism it gets... But by all gods, is "Threshold" bad! I don't think I've ever watched a worse ST episode (maybe there's one hiding in Enterprise, since I only watched 2~3 episodes of that show).

[Rynjin]

I think pretty much every episode mentioned so far has been one of SFDebris' Christmas episodes, which is fun.

[Zevox]

Avatar: The Last Airbender infamously has "The Great Divide" in season 1. Personally, I'm even less of a fan of "Nightmares and Daydreams" in season 3 though.

Also, I'm pretty sure this goes for most shows: any clip show episodes. About the only exception that comes to mind is The Legend of Korra's, because having the characters look back on the awful love triangle from season 1 and make fun of it, then having Varrick make up a complete nonsense version of their second season was legitimately entertaining in its own right.

[Peelee]

Also, I'm pretty sure this goes for most shows: any clip show episodes. About the only exception that comes to mind is The Legend of Korra's

Clerks TAS had far and away the best clip show episode of any series.

[Dienekes]

Clerks TAS had far and away the best clip show episode of any series.

I’d give my recommendation for Community for that title. Though it might be cheating that the clip show episode only showed clips of stuff that was never in any episode, of all the half baked ideas they had that were never developed into full episodes.

[Peelee]

I’d give my recommendation for Community for that title. Though it might be cheating that the clip show episode only showed clips of stuff that was never in any episode, of all the half baked ideas they had that were never developed into full episodes.

Having seen Community and obviously fallen in love with it, as any rational person would, I still gotta give it to Clerks. For them, it was the second episode, so the clip show consisted of constant flashbacks to the first episode, with a couple of flashbacks to events that happened previously in the same episode. That show is the only matched by Firefly in the "best shows ever that weren't given a fair shake by the network" category.

[Dire_Flumph]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Not gonna pick on the first season, but why anyone thought "Hamlet" was a good pick for riffing in season 10 is beyond me. I can always sit down and watch just about any random episode, but not that one.

Deep Space Nine: Still the best Trek show, but whoever kept taking scripts for Ferengi episodes should have been stopped early in the run. I can't imagine how desperate they must have been to green light "Profit and Lace".


I'd actually like to suggest something harder. Are there any great episodes of shows you don't like? In that vein:


Not a fan of Big Bang Theory in general, but I used to watch it with my family and I will admit, the James Earl Jones episode "The Convention Conundrum" was just hilarious.

Star Wars: Resistance. Very disappointing series after Rebels, but there were hints of a better show there, and "No Escape" (The Season 1 finale) was one of them. Well paced, some much improved character work, and it actually made the destruction of the Hosnian system in "The Force Awakens" mean something.

[Dienekes]

Having seen Community and obviously fallen in love with it, as any rational person would, I still gotta give it to Clerks. For them, it was the second episode, so the clip show consisted of constant flashbacks to the first episode, with a couple of flashbacks to events that happened previously in the same episode. That show is the only matched by Firefly in the "best shows ever that weren't given a fair shake by the network" category.

Hmm, I remember watching that show years ago. But for the life of me I don't remember that episode. I'll have to watch it again if I can find it. I definitely have the time.

[Olinser]

Babylon 5 - TKO. A ludicrously stupid and pointless episode about BOXING IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

How I Met Your Mother - final episode. May as well have been titled, "How I Met Your Mother, And Then She Died So I Could Try To Bang Robin Again"

Dexter - final episode. I mean the last couple seasons weren't exactly award-winning writing. But the last episode was one of the worst non-endings in the history of TV. So all of the angst about dealing with being a serial killer was pointless, he could have just abandoned his family and run off to be a lumberjack at any point in the series.

Star Trek TNG - Shades of Grey. It's not even an actual freaking episode. It's a collection of flashback clips.

Also Star Trek TNG - Justice. Where once again they make a laughable joke of exactly WTF the Prime Directive actually is supposed to mean. Because apparently it's not a violation of the Prime Directive to beam down to the surface, interact with a pre-warp civilization, and contaminate the natives gene pool by banging their brains out, but when Wesley breaks a greenhouse and is sentenced to death you can't just take him and leave because MUH PRIME DURECTIVE. Not to mention another random Godlike Alien Race that was never seen or heard from again.

Star Trek TOS - Spock's Brain. It hurts MY brain.

[KatsOfLoathing]

Speaking of Community, I'll nominate Season 4's "Basic Human Anatomy". Season four is the show's weakest season in general, but this one was especially bad. None of the jokes land for me, and it all adds up to a cheap excuse to break up Britta and Troy. If nothing else, this episode seems like definitive proof that a subplot can have too much Dean Pelton in it.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Futurama had a couple of standout terrible episodes to me for a very particular reason, both from the last (I think) season. Proposition Infinity and The Mutants Are Revolting.

Both episodes came off to me as efforts to "fix" the setting, as if the writers wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving the setting alone without "solving" some of the depicted society's cruel, arbitrary rules. It's a much better use of a setting to depict a broken society's impact on people rather than to have society fix itself completely on a whim.

Leela's Homeworld, for example.

Although I will say also that Futurama doesn't seem to have aged very well in my view, so that may just be my reaction from being exposed to things with a more "modern" writing style.

[Yora]

most of the Firengi stuff in DS9. I can’t really just pick one.

Deep Space Nine: Still the best Trek show, but whoever kept taking scripts for Ferengi episodes should have been stopped early in the run. I can't imagine how desperate they must have been to green light "Profit and Lace".

I watched and rated all episodes again last year, and I found the Ferengi episodes in season 1 and 2 to be surprisingly good. And then they turn very bad very quickly, and consistently remain though.

But I think a list if greatest stinkers in DS9 can consist almost entirely of Single Episode Romances, where a character of the main cast falls in love with a character who has never appeared before or since.
Meridian (Dax) is often called the worst episode of the show, and I think it's entirely justified, but Second Sight (Sisko) comes really close. The Muse (Jake) is also really awful, but to my surprise Melora (Bashir) is just ordinarily bad. I am sure there are more.

What is really puzzling though is that the Single Ferengi Episode Romances are really good.

i am going through Babylon 5 right now and will be getting to Grey 17 in a week or so. Somehow I don't remember it being bad, but it will be entertaining to see how it feels to me now.
In the first half of the show, the worst episode for me is unambiguously Infection from season 1. It absolutely feels like they just filmed at discarded Star Trek script from the 60s written for Captain Kirk. It's really amazing to behold.

[Razade]

The first half of the last season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Season two was so rock solid and great all around but Season 3 really felt off. Especially the beach episode. I'd say all of Season two of Korra as well and most of Season 4. One was ok as an opening season and three was really quite fun even if it suffered from Nickelodeon kicking it down a flight of stairs

[Yora]

Season 3 does feel different. (But so did season 1. They are all different.)

But I see what you mean. For the stakes having been raised this high, there's a good amount of aimlessly mucking around.
I personally like The Beach and Nightmares and Daydreams, though. I only think The Painted Lady is really weak, though I am not a huge fan of The Headband.

Though I have always watched the show mostly for Zuko, and he has pretty good material in early third season. Maybe that affects the perception.

[DeadMech]

Wolf's Rain was a pretty decent anime though part way through production an earthquake occured that supposedly forced the crew to put together four back to back clip show episodes. Each one from the perspective of one of the four main characters so there was a fair bit of overlap in the events depicted as well if I recall.

I suspect many people would disagree with calling it a great show but it's one of my guilty pleasures, Miraculous Ladybug. Your tolerance for shipping bait and love polygons will probably be a major factor in if you can enjoy it. It has had a few episodes that come to my mind. Mostly surrounding the discarded character development of Chloe. In the early show she exists to make everyone around her miserable and stir conflict but later on seemed to be growing into a more tolerable person. The writers seem to have forgotten this in the latest season as she's reverted to allot of her old habits ending with a face heel turn late in season 3. By that point her character had already been pretty well assassinated for me but it seems allot of the fan base was still giving her the benefit of the doubt. Also every episode with a heavy focus on Lucas rubs me the wrong way. Can't stand him. He exists to complicate an already complex love polygon will they wont they thing between the main characters. But he's such a boring flawless character that I can't help but hate him since his introduction.

The endless eight from the Harumi series is infamous. In season two eight episodes showed a character stuck in a groundhogs day timeloop. In the defense of the show makers they accomplished what they set out to do. Unfortunately what they set out to do was make the audience feel the same confusion, frustration and helplessness of the character stuck in the situation. For obvious reasons this didn't go over well with the audience.

[Seppl]

Season 3 does feel different. (But so did season 1. They are all different.)

But I see what you mean. For the stakes having been raised this high, there's a good amount of aimlessly mucking around.
I personally like The Beach and Nightmares and Daydreams, though. I only think The Painted Lady is really weak, though I am not a huge fan of The Headband.

Though I have always watched the show mostly for Zuko, and he has pretty good material in early third season. Maybe that affects the perception.

I feel like none of the ATLA episodes or seasons are actually terrible. There are certainly sub-par episodes and arcs and those have already been mentioned. But those would be perfectly serviceable parts of an average show, they are just weak compared to the rest of ATLA. Compare to things like Code of Honor from the opening post that is actively cringe-inducing, no matter how you look at it.

[RocknRollMartia]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Not gonna pick on the first season, but why anyone thought "Hamlet" was a good pick for riffing in season 10 is beyond me. I can always sit down and watch just about any random episode, but not that one.

MST3K is my all-time favorite show.

[DarthArminius]

I'll second TNG's Code Of Honor, but there was also that episode where there were a lot of Irish back wood's people that still lived in the 19th century, and had to mate with another colony to keep it alive.

[Yora]

I don't actually remember any halfway decent episode from the first two seasons of TNG.

[Peelee]

I choose to count Webtrek as an episode of TNG.

[Seppl]

I don't actually remember any halfway decent episode from the first two seasons of TNG.

I am sure, you can find some 5-10 watchable episodes. Stuff like "Contagion", "Q Who", or "Where Silence Has Lease" that are just about the ship in danger, instead of smug moralizing. Also you are forgetting The Measure of a Man, which is moralizing done right.