these are the voyages – Trekking with Dennis

Star Trek “Bottom Fives” – Arguing with IMDB Again!

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers are present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a piece here on the website in which I looked at the “top five” episodes from each of the first five series… at least, according to the randos who rate episodes over on IMDB! There were some predictable picks… and a few surprises. Seriously, who would’ve expected that Blink of an Eye would be everyone’s favourite Voyager episode? Not me, that’s for sure!

So today, we’re going to do something similar… but with the lowest-rated episodes from those first five Star Trek shows. I think it could be a lot of fun to look at some of the stories that other fans and viewers don’t like, and consider some of the reasons why. I’m bracing myself for a few surprises here, too!

If you missed it, please check out my earlier piece for a look at the “top fives.” You can find it by clicking or tapping here.

My usual caveat applies: everything we’re going to talk about is subjective, not objective. If I dump all over one of your favourite episodes, or talk positively about a story you hate… that’s okay! There’s enough room, and enough maturity, in the Trekkie community for differences of opinion and respectful disagreements that don’t descend into toxicity and argument.

This post, like my earlier one, will cover the first five live-action Star Trek shows: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. No Animated Series or films are included. I’ll start with TOS and move forward chronologically; the episodes will be ranked according to their IMDB ratings, from highest to lowest – i.e. beginning with the fifth-worst and finishing on the worst-rated episode for each of the five shows. The IMDB ratings are taken as of September 2025 (and might change over time!)

I’ll discuss what I don’t like (or do like) about each episode, and then I’ll answer a simple question: does it deserve the hate? Or, to put it another way: would I personally rate the episode as being among the worst in the franchise?

Now that all of that’s out of the way, let’s jump into the episodes.

The Original Series Episode #5:
The Omega Glory, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 6.1/10

Gene Roddenberry intended to hold up a mirror to society, using Star Trek episodes as “morality plays” to comment on or critique things out here in the real world. Many of these episodes are wonderful. The Omega Glory is arguably too on-the-nose, though, with its very literal depiction of the aftermath of a Cold War turned hot. Roddenberry himself wrote The Omega Glory, so it’s a bit of a shame to see it rated so lowly by viewers and fans.

There’s a lot of competition in TOS’s second season, and compared to stronger offerings like The Doomsday Machine, Journey To Babel, The Trouble With Tribbles, and The Ultimate Computer, I can see why The Omega Glory struggles to keep up. There’s also, by modern standards, somewhat uncomfortable racial stereotyping – which Roddenberry intended to flip on its head with The Omega Glory’s big revelation – but I’m not sure it works as well as he’d hoped.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Original Series Episode #4:
Spock’s Brain, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

No list of “the worst Star Trek episodes” would be complete without Spock’s Brain. And this is a trend we’re about to see a lot more of; Season 3 of The Original Series is generally considered to have a number of weaker offerings, in part due to the show’s reduced budget. But I’ll be honest: I’ve always found Spock’s Brain to be weirdly fun… in a “so bad it’s almost good” kinda way.

I also think the episode has become iconic, or at least symbolic of a particular moment in the history of Star Trek. This was the first episode of Season 3 – a season that wouldn’t have existed at all without a letter-writing campaign by fans. It’s also a story that showed how far Kirk (and Spock’s other friends) were willing to go to save him when he was in danger. Is it a ridiculously silly premise? Yes. Is it executed perfectly by all involved? No. But do I watch it anyway and smile? Yes!

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Original Series Episode #3:
The Alternative Factor, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

The Alternative Factor is the episode with Lazarus (and Anti-Lazarus, his counterpart from an alternate universe). To be honest, I’d pretty much forgotten about The Alternative Factor; nothing about it leaps out at me as being particularly memorable. “Forgettable” is not synonymous with “terrible,” but I think it’s at least noteworthy that The Alternative Factor just didn’t leave much of an impression on me. None of the special effects or locations stand out, Lazarus and Anti-Lazarus don’t have any unique makeup or prosthetics, and the whole look of the episode is just a bit bland.

In terms of story, The Alternative Factor is small and kind of silly – with Lazarus in particular being quite over-the top – while simultaneously trying to present its core conflict as a multiverse-ending threat. It’s worth noting that there were production issues with The Alternative Factor, including an extensive re-write to remove a romantic sub-plot and the original actor contracted to play Lazarus failing to show up for work when production had already commenced.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Original Series Episode #2:
The Way To Eden, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.4/10

I don’t think The Way To Eden is all that bad, to be honest – especially not for a Season 3 episode which was produced with a lower budget. Maybe there are some issues with the way Chekov is written, but on the whole I really don’t dislike this episode at all. It’s very much a product of its time – the followers of Sevrin are clearly based on the American countercultural movement, which was reaching its peak in 1969 – but so are many Star Trek episodes, and I don’t think that alone should count against it.

It’s also not the only Star Trek story to involve a cult-like group who are seeking paradise (or some other prophecy fulfilment). I actually quite like some of the details in the script – one of the members of the group is the son of an ambassador whose people are negotiating with the Federation, which I feel adds a lot to the broader lore of the Star Trek galaxy. Is The Way To Eden the strongest TOS episode, or a great way to introduce new fans to the franchise? Probably not. But I don’t think it’s atrocious, either.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Original Series Episode #1:
And The Children Shall Lead, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.2/10

As with The Alternative Factor above, this isn’t an especially memorable episode for me. The core premise of an alien entity manipulating a group of children isn’t necessarily bad, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The way the story was resolved, too, leaned on a pretty big cliché, and some less-than-spectacular acting performances.

There were interesting ideas in And The Children Shall Lead, like several members of the crew seeing visual manifestations of their fears. Gorgan’s powers, too, could have been tense and even frightening if handled better. There’s also something distinctly eerie about a child or group of children in this kind of story; that’s why films like The Exorcist work so well. But again, the execution rather than the premise is what lets the episode down.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Next Generation Episode #5:
Angel One, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

Angel One wanted to be a Roddenberry-style “morality play,” using Star Trek’s sci-fi setting to consider the real-world issues of sexism and a patriarchal society. It did that by turning the tables and depicting a civilisation where women, not men, were the dominant ones. That aim may have been worthwhile or even admirable – but the execution was clumsy, at best. The B-plot, depicting a virus spreading on the Enterprise while the away team was on the planet, wasn’t particularly strong, either – though I enjoy the visual of Data, alone, on the bridge!

Angel One might be best-remembered among Trekkies for some of its costumes! The costumes worn by the male inhabitants of Angel I, as well as by Riker later during the away mission, were typical Season 1 silliness, reminiscent of some of the costumes created twenty years earlier for TOS. And that’s Angel One in a nutshell, really – it’s one of several Season 1 episodes that plays out like an Original Series story.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Next Generation Episode #4:
Man of the People, Season 6
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

I’ve always felt that Man of the People had an interesting premise. And Star Trek stories have often posed deep moral questions to the audience; in this case, we’re considering whether “the greater good” can be served by a man who harms people around him. There’s a metaphor there, buried in the story, about bad people doing good things, and the age-old question of whether the ends can justify the means when significant harm is being caused.

However… Man of the People doesn’t execute its ideas flawlessly, and the focus on Troi “acting out” earlier in the episode is a bit much for me. Apparently, there were issues on the production side – which led to the script being rushed and the story being bumped up the filming schedule. I daresay that’s noticeable in the finished product.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Next Generation Episode #3:
Code of Honor, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 5.1/10

I might’ve ranked this one even lower! Code of Honor is a complete misfire; an episode featuring a civilisation of “African stereotypes in space” that’s so utterly awful it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve said before that the fact that this episode was produced for The Next Generation in the 1980s genuinely boggles my mind, and it’s an example of how, despite Star Trek’s lofty ambitions, the franchise hasn’t always gotten it right.

If I were to find any positive notes in this mess, it would be that Tasha Yar gets something to do, and that the episode is an early example of Captain Picard being willing to go out on a limb for a member of his crew. But those points, unfortunately, are completely lost in an episode swarming with awful production decisions. I can barely even re-watch Code of Honor as a result.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Next Generation Episode #2:
Sub Rosa, Season 7
IMDB Rating: 4.8/10

I… I’m sorry, everyone. I’m almost ashamed to admit this… but I actually kinda like Sub Rosa. And, if I may defend its honour for a moment, I’d suggest that the memes that the episode spawned are at least partially to blame for its low rating. Yes, Sub Rosa’s “sex with a ghost” storyline is silly. Got it. Message received! But there’s more to the story than that, and the episode treats Ronin as an alien entity, not as a “spirit.” I also really like the sets used for the Caldos Colony – the place feels very different to almost anywhere else in Star Trek, at least up to this point in the franchise.

Star Trek hasn’t always been great at depicting aliens that feel, well… alien. And if there’s one thing to say about Ronin, it’s that the idea of a non-corporeal parasitic entity is, if nothing else, very alien. Caldos Colony is a fun setting, we got to learn more about Dr Crusher’s early life, and there was a bit of silliness in the story, too. Plus, Star Trek got some great memes out of this one! Honestly, what’s not to love?

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Next Generation Episode #1:
Shades of Gray, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 3.3/10

I’m astonished to see Shades of Gray receiving any support whatsoever; this is a rare 1/10 or even a 0/10 episode for me – and for most Trekkies I’ve spoken with, too. It absolutely deserves its place as the worst-rated TNG episode… and I suspect the production team knew that when they put it together. If you’ve been a Trekkie for as long as I have, you know the story by now: production on TNG Season 2 overran both its schedule and budget, and a compromise had to be made late into production. Shades of Gray – a clip show – was the result.

Because television production has changed over the years, I doubt we’ll ever get another episode like Shades of Gray in the Star Trek franchise – and that’s for the best. It’s an especially weak episode, and its only original element – the frame narrative depicting Riker’s injury and illness – does nothing to hold its random assortment of clips together. It was a poor way to say goodbye to Dr Pulaski, too, and a serious disappointment as the show’s otherwise fantastic second season came to an end.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #5:
Profit and Lace, Season 6
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Profit and Lace is DS9′s “trans” episode… kind of. Star Trek has wrangled with questions of gender on many occasions, and even in the ’90s, when the topic of gender and being trans was usually treated just awfully on television, the franchise largely got it right. Quark’s temporary sex change, as it’s presented in this episode, though… I dunno. As an examination of attitudes toward gender, and how females are treated in a society which still sees them as second-class… there were interesting ideas. But the execution of all of it was just flawed.

There’s a tonal clash between the heavier themes, as interpreted by Alexander Siddig (who directed the episode), and the lighter way Profit and Lace was originally written. A different director might’ve taken the episode in much more of a comedic direction – which would’ve suited the way it was written, though it would’ve come at the expense of being just another late ’90s “trans comedy” story. I get what the episode was going for, and I think a more serious approach to the subject matter – both the gender division in Ferengi society and Quark’s “transition” – was the right call. But the script didn’t carry the themes, and what resulted was a bit of a mess.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #4:
Resurrection, Season 6
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

Oof, Season 6 is not doing well in these rankings so far! To be honest, though, I get it when it comes to Resurrection. If you know me, you’ll know I’m not really a fan of the Mirror Universe as a setting; it’s one-note, and has a tendency to trick even competent performers into putting out hammy, over-acted, one-dimensional performances – all of which are on display with Mirror Kira and Mirror Bariel, unfortunately. Prime Kira also seems to act out-of-character, falling so easily for Mirror Bariel so long after the original Bariel’s death.

DS9′s executive producer, Ira Steven Behr, has suggested that Resurrection’s place in the season – coming after the intense opening phase of the Dominion War, Starfleet’s recapturing of the station, and then Worf and Dax’s wedding – contributed to fan dissatisfaction, feeling that “nothing” the show had done immediately after those intense stories would’ve been satisfying. I’m not convinced on that, I’m afraid. Season 6 has some of my favourite DS9 episodes. The likes of Who Mourns for Morn, The Magnificent Ferengi, and One Little Ship are all standalone stories that, had they taken this broadcast slot, wouldn’t have been as poorly-received as this uninspired Mirror Universe story.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #3:
The Muse, Season 4
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10

I feel a bit sorry for The Muse! Jake Sisko was too often overlooked in Deep Space Nine, so to rank one of the rare Jake-focused episodes so lowly wouldn’t have been my preference. However, if I may be so bold, it isn’t Jake that’s upset people (mostly). Rather, it’s The Muse’s Lwaxana Troi and Odo B-plot that, I would suggest, is the reason for such a low rating. Lwaxana wasn’t always well-received by Trekkies, despite her illustrious performer, and her relationship with Odo was, to the best of my recollection, never especially popular.

On Jake’s side of the story, I like the idea of a kind of parasitic entity latching onto his creativity. The Muse does a lot to establish Jake’s writing career, and it’s just an interesting idea to see Onaya taking advantage of his talent. There’s a great moment between Jake and Ben toward the end of the episode, something we’d see less and less of as DS9 continued its run. And while this side of the story was imperfect, it was at least a creative idea.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Deep Space Nine Episode #2:
Meridian, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10

It sounds like Meridian – whose story concept was based on a novel set in Scotland – had a bit of a troubled production. An expensive location shoot for the planet Meridian seems to have led to some scenes being rewritten or cut altogether, which may have affected the finished product. The main gripe folks seem to have, though, is the behaviour of Jadzia Dax. As with Kira in Resurrection, which we discussed above, Dax falls head-over-heels for someone she’s just met – and that leads to her wanting to give up her life on DS9, leave her friends behind, and move to this random planet which can’t exist in normal space.

I would suggest that everyone involved – the entire cast, guest stars, and director Jonathan Frakes – did the best they could with that concept, but it was just a fatally flawed premise to begin with. Meridian has some neat ideas, like the disappearing planet, which feels “very Star Trekky;” i.e. something you wouldn’t see in any other sci-fi universe! But the way it handled Dax was poor, and a B-plot about Quark selling perverted holosuite programmes does nothing to help the episode, either.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #1:
Let He Who Is Without Sin…, Season 5
IMDB Rating: 5.5/10

I gotta be honest: I’m surprised to see this as the “most-hated” DS9 episode. I knew Let He Who Is Without Sin wasn’t wildly popular, but I don’t think I expected it to be considered the absolute worst in the series! There are definitely some issues, though. I think it’s universally agreed nowadays that Leeta and Bashir didn’t work as a couple, so that’s part of it. But then there’s how the episode handles Worf – setting him up as the Star Trek equivalent of Mary Whitehouse, crusading against the supposed immorality of the Federation.

I think there was the kernel of an interesting idea here, if Let He Who Is Without Sin had taken it in a different direction. There are folks who live in tourist-focused places who feel the incursion of tourists is detrimental to their communities. And there was also a way to use the New Essentialists to comment on the growing Christian purity movement in the United States, for example. But for a variety of reasons, this isn’t Deep Space Nine’s strongest episode. I don’t think I’d personally say it was the very bottom of the barrel, but I get where much of the dissatisfaction is coming from.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Voyager Episode #5:
Favorite Son, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10

I genuinely had a hard time remembering Favorite Son at first. But it’s the episode where Harry is transformed into a Taresian – a Delta Quadrant species dominated by murderous females. An episode about a female-dominated society ending up as one of the worst-rated in its series? Huh… I’m starting to see a pattern emerging!

I actually quite like both of the core concepts here. An alien race that reproduces by forcibly converting members of other species could make for a genuinely interesting antagonist, and a kind of “praying mantis” alien that murders its mate after intercourse could also be a dangerous threat. Maybe Favorite Son didn’t execute these ideas perfectly, but I’m not sure it warrants a place on this list for that reason alone.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Voyager Episode #4:
Sacred Ground, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Sacred Ground does something Star Trek has always done – used a sci-fi lens to examine things out here in the real world. The topic in question this time is faith: can the scientifically-minded Captain Janeway be persuaded to take a “leap of faith” in order to save someone she cares about? I really like that idea, and I think Sacred Ground does interesting things with it. Where it was arguably let down was its focus on the Spirits themselves, perhaps, as well as some of Janeway’s tribulations not being visually spectacular.

However, I think the episode works well. It’s coherent, well-directed, and while we can argue whether or not it’s in character for Janeway or whether a Star Trek story should come down on one side or the other of the “science-versus-faith” question, I didn’t feel the way it was handled in the episode was in any way poor. It’s slow-paced, esoteric, and “weird,” for want of a better word – but so is a lot of Star Trek, and that’s why we like it!

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Voyager Episode #3:
Elogium, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Elogium is a Neelix-Kes relationship story about Kes going through Ocampan “puberty” and deciding whether or not to conceive a child with Neelix. Should I go on, or have I already explained enough about why it absolutely deserves to be ranked so low?! Joking aside, I think I’m not alone in saying that Neelix’s infatuation with Kes was one of the absolute worst elements of Voyager’s first couple of seasons, and if it had been in focus in the way it is in Elogium more often, it would genuinely have ruined his character.

Elogium takes that icky foundation and somehow manages to make it even worse, by suggesting that, prior to this story, Kes wasn’t even fully-developed as an adult! I really struggle to find any redeeming features in this episode – or the wider Neelix and Kes relationship.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Voyager Episode #2:
Threshold, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 5.3/10

Threshold has basically become a meme in the Star Trek fandom at this point, so I’m not surprised to see it on this list. It’s an undeniably silly idea, even within the confines of Star Trek’s universe – accelerating past Warp 10 causes Paris and Janeway to “hyper-evolve” into a kind of salamander-like lifeform. They then proceed to… mate.

What’s worse, though, and where I’d really take issue with Threshold, is that Chakotay, Tuvok, and the rest of the crew basically infested a random Delta Quadrant planetoid with Paris and Janeway’s mutant offspring. Rather than collecting the salamander babies, they just left them there, presumably contaminating that planet’s entire ecosystem! I don’t like the idea of Warp 10 as this kind of impenetrable barrier, either, and I think Star Trek works best when these things aren’t overexposed in the way warp drive was here.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Voyager Episode #1:
The Fight, Season 5
IMBD Rating: 5.0/10

Although I’d never try to argue that The Fight is a shining example of the best of Star Trek, I will defend it to a point. It’s weird, esoteric, and probably a little too confusing, feeling like a fever dream in places. But that’s kind of the point; it’s a story that wants to show a very different kind of alien species and their attempts to communicate. As a concept, these aliens – and their “chaotic space” realm – were not inherently bad, and Star Trek has never shied away from seeking out very different forms of life.

I liked Boothby’s return here, and his connection to Chakotay, which had been explored earlier in the season. I get why this episode feels confusing, and I gotta admit, I can feel that way too when watching it! But I’m not sure it deserves to be called Voyager’s worst, either. Not when the likes of Threshold and Elogium exist!

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Enterprise Episode #5:
Fortunate Son, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10

I think Fortunate Son introduced some genuinely interesting lore about pre-Starfleet human spaceflight, and I found that side of the episode to be fascinating. Travis Mayweather comes from a family of spacers – spacefaring humans who transport cargo to and from Earth and human colonies in this pre-Federation era – and getting to meet some of these spacers was a ton of fun. I liked the conflict that Ryan and Mayweather had; Mayweather’s decision to leave his ship and join Starfleet being a sore spot for the spacer.

The Nausicaans made for fun antagonists, too. As a relatively unexplored alien race, I think they were much better here than, say, the Klingons might’ve been. The episode presented a moral conundrum for both Archer and Mayweather, too, and ended on what I felt was the right note. It’s the kind of story that Star Trek productions in the 23rd or 24th Centuries would have struggled with – the ECS Fortunate is explicitly shown to be outside Archer and Enterprise’s jurisdiction.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Enterprise Episode #4:
Precious Cargo, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 6.4/10

I’ll be honest: I’d forgotten all about Precious Cargo! In theory, the idea of an episode with a strong connection to The Next Generation is not a bad idea, and that premise could have been made to work. However, I think it’s pretty well agreed that there were issues with the story, which probably weren’t helped by last-minute re-writes.

There are worse Star Trek episodes, and worse Enterprise episodes, at least in my opinion. But I will concede that Precious Cargo isn’t a particularly strong – or memorable – instalment, as indicated by the fact that I’d forgotten all about it. There are some things I like, like seeing Archer willing to help out a random ship in distress, but overall, I can see why it’s not held in higher regard.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Enterprise Episode #3:
Daedalus, Season 4
IMDB Rating: 6.2/10

I did not expect to see Daedalus anywhere near this list, to be blunt about it. I genuinely enjoy this episode in its entirety, and I’m honestly struggling to see what it is that folks don’t like. We get to meet the inventor of the transporter, which is one of the really cool things that only a prequel like Enterprise could’ve done, and we get a genuinely interesting character piece that looks at the “burden of genius,” and how an inventor struggled with the idea that he’d peaked too young.

You may have seen me refer to some Star Trek episodes as “the transporter done goofed,” which has become a stock narrative concept in the franchise. But Daedalus takes that idea and really runs with it, digging into the history of the transporter, how it works, how it was originally tested, and how badly wrong it went. The episode has great guest stars, an unnerving “entity” in the form of the corrupted transporter signal, and a fun story for Archer, too. I don’t really get why it’s so disliked.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Enterprise Episode #2:
Extinction, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10

Extinction feels like a cross between TNG’s Genesis and Voyager’s Favorite Son – the latter of which is also on this list! I suspect its biggest problem is its place in the series – coming just three episodes into the season-long “stop the Xindi” storyline. It’s a bit of a diversion, stepping away from that story just as it had begun, really. In that sense, I can understand some of the disappointment fans might’ve had at the time.

Perhaps that sense of repetition from those other Star Trek stories doesn’t help, but I’d argue that Extinction doesn’t really do as well with the core idea as either of those other episodes. There are some creative designs and prosthetics in the story, and it’s fun to see Mayweather taking the captain’s chair. But all in all, it’s just not a very strong or engaging episode.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Enterprise Episode #1:
These Are The Voyages…, Season 4
IMDB Rating: 5.3/10

I doubt any of us are surprised to see that These Are The Voyages is considered Enterprise’s worst episode. Originally conceived as a “love letter” to Star Trek fans, the episode just doesn’t work as a series finale, unfortunately. Relegating the entire main cast to the status of holograms aboard the Enterprise-D was such a weak way for fans to part ways with these wonderful characters. Even though the intentions were good… the end result wasn’t.

This episode also caused a lot of controversy for killing off Trip Tucker. There were some interesting elements in the mix: seeing Archer at the founding ceremony of the Federation was creative, and not inherently a bad idea. I like crossovers, and I think a story like These Are The Voyages – putting Enterprise’s crew on the holodeck with this kind of frame narrative – could have worked. Just not as a way to end the entire show – and, for a time, the entire Star Trek franchise.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

So that’s it!

We’ve looked at the top five lowest-rated episodes (or the bottom five, if you prefer) for the first five Star Trek shows. There were a few surprises along the way, but by and large, I think I expected to see most of these episodes rated quite lowly – even if I don’t necessarily agree with all of the criticisms Trekkies have of them!

This piece complements my earlier “top fives” piece, which you can find by clicking or tapping here. I hope you’ll take a look at that one if you missed it earlier in the year; it’s basically the same format, just with the five highest-rated episodes from the first five Star Trek shows.

A render of the NX-01 as seen in *Strange New Worlds*.

I don’t think any of the modern Star Trek shows have enough episodes to really justify doing the same thing, but in the months ahead I might do something like a top and bottom three episodes from some of the recent productions as a kind of follow-up to this. So if that’s the kind of thing you’re interested in… stay tuned, I guess!

I hope this has been a bit of fun, at any rate. I’d genuinely forgotten all about a couple of these episodes, so it was fun to step back into these shows and watch them for what must be the first time in years. And even when Star Trek’s at its worst… I think we can agree that there are still things to enjoy or view in a positive light. That’s my takeaway from this thought experiment, at any rate!

There’s more Star Trek content on the way here on the website, so I hope you’ll join me again sometime soon. Until then… Live Long and Prosper!

All five Star Trek series discussed above can be streamed on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The Star Trek shows are available to purchase on DVD; The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Enterprise are also on Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including all shows, films, and other properties mentioned above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. Credit to IMDB for the episode ratings, which were accurate at time of publication in September 2025. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

The End of an Era

Sat 17.05.25Dennis

A Star Trek-themed spoiler warning graphic

Spoiler Warning: Beware of minor spoilers for Star Trek: Enterprise.

I’m a few days late (my cat needed an emergency trip to the vet; she’s fine now, don’t worry!) but the 13th of May was the twentieth anniversary of Enterprise’s final episode. These Are The Voyages saw the controversial series end in similarly controversial fashion, with what many fans continue to believe is one of the least-impressive finales in the franchise’s history. But this piece isn’t about These Are The Voyages. Instead, I thought it would be interesting to step back in time to those dark days in 2005 and think about how far Star Trek had fallen – and the franchise’s seemingly-impossible resurrection barely four years later.

I’ll let you in on a little secret – a secret which, for someone who runs a website partly themed around Star Trek, might seem shocking! I wasn’t a regular Enterprise viewer during the show’s original run. Here in the UK, Enterprise was broadcast on Channel 4 in the first half of the 2000s, and while I still considered myself a Trekkie at the time, I just found myself less interested in the show and what it was trying to do. It coincided with a busy period in my life, too, which probably didn’t help!

A sketch of the NX-01 Enterprise from Star Trek: Enterprise (originally a downloadable desktop wallpaper from the official Star Trek website). — A sketch of the NX-01 Enterprise.

It wasn’t until years later, after Enterprise had gone off the air, that I bought the DVD box sets and watched the series in full. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I misjudged Enterprise when it was in production, and I regret not watching the show and doing more to support it during its original run. For me, Enterprise has become a great counter-argument to an expression one hears all the time in online fan communities and the wider discourse around media in general: “no one asked for this/who’s asking for this?” In 2001, I don’t think many Trekkies were asking for a prequel series like Enterprise. But twenty years later the series’ reputation has been rehabilitated for a lot of those folks, with Enterprise routinely being held up alongside the shows of The Next Generation era and included in Star Trek’s “golden age.”

I first came to hear of Enterprise’s announcement on the radio sometime around the turn of the millennium, and I can vividly remember thinking that I didn’t want a Star Trek prequel. The franchise had always been about looking ahead to the future, so stepping back in time for a kind of navel-gazing series about its own fictional history – which would have to be heavily constrained by the weight of hundreds of episodes dictating what could and couldn’t be introduced – just seemed wrong for Star Trek. And all of this was happening at a time when another infamous prequel – The Phantom Menace over in the Star Wars franchise – had been received incredibly poorly. I tuned in for Enterprise’s premiere in late 2001, but after that I only watched the series sporadically until I picked up those DVDs.

The main cast of Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3. — The main cast in a publicity photo for Season 3.

But as I said: this isn’t meant to be all about Enterprise!

In 2005, although I hadn’t been a regular viewer of Enterprise, I was still bitterly disappointed to learn that no more Star Trek was being made. Ever since I’d first found my way into the fan community almost fifteen years earlier, Star Trek had been a mainstay on our TV screens. I’d bought most of the films and a few episodes on VHS, I was starting to collect The Original Series and The Next Generation on DVD (remember those big chunky plastic boxes the first sets of DVDs came in?) and I had action figures, video games, and other merch, too. Star Trek’s apparent cancellation felt… personal. It felt like I was losing a part of myself – and a connection to my childhood/adolescence.

By 2005, I was done with school and university and I was working full-time. When we’re in our late teens and early twenties, life can feel like it’s changing fast, and that was the case for me, too. I’d moved out, first to a shared flat at university, then all the way across the Atlantic for a year-long exchange programme, and then again to a large city for work. I was in what I thought was my “forever” relationship and was working toward an engagement, and juggling all of these changes while balancing my fragile mental health. One of the few consistent things in my life was Star Trek, and even though I wasn’t particularly bothered about Enterprise at the time, I just expected the franchise would continue indefinitely. I guess you could say I was taking Star Trek for granted, unable to conceive of the idea that there’d be no new films or episodes being produced.

Photo of the chunky plastic boxes used for Star Trek: The Original Series DVDs in the mid-2000s. — Remember when Star Trek DVD box sets looked like this?

I was also far less aware of behind-the-scenes events in those days – or perhaps I just didn’t do the legwork to find out! I was dimly aware of the fact that Enterprise and Nemesis hadn’t been well-received in some quarters of the fan community and hadn’t been financially successful, but what that really meant for Star Trek was kind of over my head. The idea that the franchise might disappear entirely due to this lack of support – and an inability to turn enough of a profit – was something that didn’t really click for me until it happened.

If you’d asked me in the days after Nemesis but before Enterprise’s cancellation what I thought the future held for Star Trek, I’d have said that I’d expect Enterprise to run to the “standard” seven seasons, and toward the end of its run there’d be at least one new series announced. On the Star Trek forums and fansites of the time, rumours abounded of pitches for new shows! Two that we know were actively worked on included one set on the USS Titan with Troi and Riker, and another titled Star Trek: Federation, which would’ve been set hundreds of years after The Next Generation era. Ironically, both of these ideas would be seen on screen – albeit in very different ways from how they were originally pitched – in the rebooted Star Trek franchise after 2017!

Still frame from Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 showing Riker. — We did eventually get to see Riker’s time in command of the Titan!

All of this is to say that Enterprise’s cancellation, and the fact that Viacom/Paramount weren’t interested in commissioning a new series, came as a huge shock in 2005 – and a bitter personal blow. Star Trek had been a big part of my life, especially in the 1990s as I navigated school, social life, adolescence, and all of the drama and nonsense that comes with that! It had been an escape from the real world sometimes, a chance to feel like I was part of a better world, and even a way to connect with people around me – especially at university. It took a while for the idea of Star Trek’s cancellation to sink in – and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a depressing idea and something I struggled with.

I was far from the only person to have been left disappointed by a television show being cancelled, of course. And I’m sure we all have our examples of single-season shows that didn’t get the love and attention we feel they deserved! Two of mine, by the way, would be Space Precinct and Terra Nova – but those are stories for another time, I guess! To get back on track, Enterprise’s cancellation was – as I say in the title of this piece – the “end of an era.” The series had come to an end, but so had Star Trek itself. That was difficult for me to really wrap my head around, and I spent several days in a bit of a tailspin, frequenting Star Trek forums and fansites, desperate for any news of a new show or some kind of last-second reprieve. Obviously nothing was forthcoming.

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise 4x26 showing Troi on a holographic replica of the NX-01 operating a scanner. — Scanning for signs of life…

Taking stock of Star Trek as a whole felt incredibly bittersweet. There had been some fantastic adventures with all of the different crews of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the various Starships Enterprise – but I still wanted more. After feeling lonely and isolated as the only Trekkie in the small rural area where I grew up, I’d gone on a journey with the franchise as it grew in popularity, finding new friends who shared at least some of my passion for Star Trek. I’d even tried to introduce my then-girlfriend to the franchise – though she wasn’t particularly interested, despite my best efforts!

I could appreciate the good times I’d had with Star Trek: classic stories like The Best of Both Worlds, the intrigue of tales like In The Pale Moonlight, and Voyager’s epic seven-year journey home. With the franchise being converted to DVD, and re-runs still happening on television, I didn’t feel like I was in danger of never seeing Star Trek again… but I still wanted more. This property that had been so big in the ’90s, so omnipresent on our television screens, and just so damn good couldn’t possibly be over. I was left feeling dejected.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 (The Royale) showing the Enterprise-D orbiting a green planet. — I’d been a massive fan of Star Trek through the 1990s.

For the franchise to have fallen so far in such a short span of time was stunning. The second half of the ’90s saw three Star Trek shows on the air pretty much continuously here in the UK: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager were on television three nights a week, and when new seasons weren’t airing re-runs of older episodes would take their place. Star Trek books, action figures, and other products were in shops, even in the small towns around where I grew up. Star Trek versus Star Wars was the nerdiest argument you could have… and it just seemed as if the franchise was on top of the world. Star Trek had made it – so how did it all go so wrong so quickly?

In 1996 and 1998, there’d been three Star Trek projects in the span of a single calendar year: seasons of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and the films First Contact and Insurrection. It seemed like you couldn’t move for Star Trek, and as the Trekkie in my friend group, I was finding myself being asked more and more often about the franchise and which episodes were best. Star Trek’s growth just seemed… unassailable.

Still frame from Star Trek: Insurrection showing Data wielding a phaser pistol. — In 1998, there’d been three Star Trek projects on our screens at the same time.

By early 2005, rumours of Enterprise’s struggles were all over fansites and forums. But even so, I genuinely expected a reprieve for the franchise as a whole. Enterprise could be written off as an unsuccessful experiment, and Star Trek could get back to producing another show like The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. That was how I felt, and even when I saw people discussing cancellation and talking about the failures of Nemesis and Enterprise together, I guess I was just in denial about the severity of the problem.

When the news broke, it was a shock. And it really felt like the end of an era; we’d soon come to see Star Trek as this complete package – ten films, five shows, and that’s it. The recent arrival of the DVD box set meant that Star Trek would never be too far away, and I planned to finish my collection and acquire every single episode! But when it seemed as if Star Trek was really over… I was upset.

Still frame from Star Trek: Enterprise 4x26 showing holo-Archer in a damaged section of his ship. — Captain Archer (or rather, a hologram of him) in *These Are The Voyages*.

It wouldn’t be too long, though, before a new rumour hit the internet! A Star Trek revival was being planned, helmed by the incredibly successful J J Abrams – creator of Alias and Lost and the director of Mission: Impossible III. To go from the dejection of Enterprise’s cancellation and Star Trek’s apparent end to this reboot within a year or so was wild; the mid-2000s were a strange time to be a Trekkie, that’s for sure! This film would ultimately turn out to be Star Trek ’09, the reboot that kicked off the Kelvin timeline trilogy.

So what’s the point of revisiting 2005 twenty years later? Why drag up those old feelings and memories now that Star Trek is back on our screens in a new streaming landscape?

Promotional poster for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 showing Pike and the crew. — Star Trek’s back… right?

The truth is… I feel echoes of 2005 right now. If you’re a regular reader, you might remember my essay 2022: A Great and Terrible Year for Star Trek, in which I took Paramount and the franchise’s producers to task for the many missteps and mistakes they’d been making. The worst problem, at least as far as I see it, is franchise fatigue. Star Trek has quickly become oversaturated in the first half of the 2020s, and it’s genuinely difficult to keep up with everything, even as a big fan and as someone who literally runs a Star Trek website.

Moreover, Star Trek’s fan community doesn’t seem to be adding a lot of new members, despite some valiant attempts by writers and creative folks. Projects like Prodidy, Strange New Worlds, and Section 31 should’ve been rolling out the welcome mat to untold numbers of new viewers and fans, but mismanagement by Paramount has squandered many of those opportunities. At time of writing, I think Star Trek is maybe a year away, two at the most, from another 2005.

Still frame from Star Trek: Prodigy 1x01 showing the discovery of the USS Protostar. — The wreck of the USS Protostar…

And I don’t want that to happen. There are still lessons that Paramount hasn’t learned from 2005 that need to be applied. And there are new challenges that the franchise faces in a transformed media landscape that Paramount has utterly failed to get to grips with. As I’ve said before: 20th Century thinking is desperately failing to keep Paramount afloat in the 21st Century.

I love Star Trek. I loved it in 2005 and I love it today. I want to see Star Trek continue because I want as many people as possible to fall in love with this incredible universe and the wonderful characters who inhabit it. But as Paramount is caught up in a complicated buyout/merger, and as its streaming platform continues to struggle, I don’t see a bright future for Star Trek. I hope that I’m wrong, and I hope the franchise’s name still has the power to bring in curious viewers. But as I look around at cancellations, mismanaged projects, franchise fatigue, and more… I definitely feel echoes of 2005 all over again. I hope the next couple of years won’t also turn out to be the end of an era.

Star Trek: Enterprise and most other Star Trek films and shows discussed above can be streamed on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available, and may also be available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including all properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Ten of the worst Star Trek episodes!

Sun 07.05.23Sun 07.05.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the episodes on this list.

Today I thought that we could have a little bit of (mostly) tongue-in-cheek fun at Star Trek’s expense! See, if a franchise has been running for more than five decades and has broadcast well over 800 episodes and 13 films… there’s bound to be a few crap ones in the mix. I’m not one of those Trekkies who says that “Star Trek is always flawless,” and if you’ve read some of my episode reviews here on the website, you’ll know that!

That being said, this list is intended to be taken in the spirit of light-hearted summertime fun. Even Star Trek at its worst is better than no Star Trek at all, and even in episodes and films that I generally didn’t enjoy, there are almost always fun and engaging elements. And it should go without saying that I’m a huge Star Trek fan – the franchise has too many enjoyable episodes and stories to count.

A few caveats before we go any further: firstly, all of this is, of course, entirely subjective! I’m not trying to claim that these episodes should be considered awful by everyone, simply that I don’t personally enjoy them or find them particularly entertaining. Secondly, this article isn’t meant to be an attack on any actor, director, writer, or anyone else involved in the creative process. I’m an independent critic, so criticism is the name of the game – but it’s never okay to get personal! Finally, if you hate everything I have to say today – or I exclude an episode that you think seems patently obvious for a list like this – that’s totally okay! There should be enough maturity in the Star Trek fan community for a bit of polite disagreement and gentle poking of fun.

All that being said, if you don’t want to read critical (and occasionally downright scathing) opinions about Star Trek, now’s your last chance to nope out!

So without any further ado, let’s jump into the list – which is in no particular order!

Episode #1:
Shades of Gray
The Next Generation Season 2

A couple of years ago I jokingly said that Shades of Gray was the best, most underrated episode of The Next Generation – but that was just an April Fool’s Day gag here on the website! Star Trek’s first (and thankfully only) clip show is a bit of a mess, and a disappointing way to end The Next Generation’s otherwise strong second season. It was also the final appearance of Dr Pulaski – who didn’t get any kind of send-off before being dumped from the series.

Television production has changed a lot over the past thirty-five years, but in 1989, The Next Generation was obligated to produce 22 episodes on a fixed budget. A couple of episodes earlier in the season had been more expensive and taken longer to produce than expected – most notably Q Who, which introduced the Borg for the first time – so cuts had to be made. A clip show was a relatively inexpensive way to produce an episode, so Shades of Gray was born. It has to be one of the worst pieces of television in the entire franchise – and a comparatively weak premise/frame narrative couldn’t hold it together. Luckily, clip shows are now a thing of the past – so we’re not going to see another Star Trek episode like this!

Episode #2:
The Red Angel
Discovery Season 2

For me, The Red Angel was a total misfire toward the end of Discovery’s second season. Season 2 had been an improvement on Season 1 – thanks in no small part to the inclusions of Captain Pike and Spock – but The Red Angel knocks it down a rung or two. In short, it suffers from two major problems: the mischaracterisation of Georgiou, who began behaving like her Prime Timeline counterpart out of the blue, and its convoluted time travel story.

Time travel is very difficult to get right in fiction, and The Red Angel presents one of the worst and most irritating time travel tropes: the paradox. It made no sense for the rest of the crew to let Burnham know what their plan was, as they were operating under the assumption that the titular Red Angel was Burnham from the future. It was just a disappointment all around – albeit one that led to better things in the remaining part of the season.

Episode #3:
These Are The Voyages…
Enterprise Season 4

Enterprise’s finale, regrettably, has to be one of the weakest endings to a series in the franchise. And I think it’s this episode’s status as a finale that compounds the disappointment – though it wouldn’t have been a great offering on its own merit, admittedly. To make matters worse, These Are The Voyages was conceived as an attempt to really celebrate all things Star Trek and to bring together two different, disconnected parts of the franchise. It’s such a shame that it wasn’t a stronger story.

By 2004, Enterprise’s cancellation was clearly imminent. And to its credit, These Are The Voyages jumps forward in time to wrap up Enterprise’s story of Captain Archer and the crew and the role they played in the creation of the United Federation of Planets. But the decision to use a frame narrative set during The Next Generation, reducing all of Enterprise’s main stars to holograms, wasn’t great for a series finale. There were also issues with the visual presentation of The Next Generation sequences – issues that, for the most part, were unavoidable. Had the same concept been applied to a mid-season episode, it might’ve worked better.

Episode #4:
Envoys
Lower Decks Season 1

My criticism of Envoys largely focuses on one sequence – but it’s a sequence so bad and so antithetical to everything that Star Trek stands for that I feel it warrants a place on this list. Where Lower Decks has succeeded is in finding ways to make the wacky goings-on in Starfleet comical. Where it failed, in my view, was in its early attempts to set up Ensign Mariner as Star Trek’s answer to Rick and Morty’s Rick Sanchez – something that’s on full display in the opening sequence of Envoys.

In this sequence, Mariner captures (or kidnaps) a sentient energy-based life form because she thinks it’ll be funny, and then forces the creature to grant her a wish. I know that this is a comedy series and the sequence is meant to be a gag – partly, at least, at Mariner’s expense. But I can’t forgive how selfish and inherently un-Starfleet she acts. Lower Decks has told some incredible stories across its first three seasons, but this sequence at the beginning of Envoys is not among them.

Episode #5:
Move Along Home
Deep Space Nine Season 1

I adore Deep Space Nine on the whole… but Move Along Home might just be its worst individual episode. The premise is utterly ridiculous, as Sisko, Kira, Dax, and Dr Bashir are transported into an alien board game. Star Trek has had lots of fun with similarly wacky story concepts over the years, but Move Along Home is poorly executed, and the rug-pull at the end – that there was never any real danger – just adds to the disappointment.

The set design used for parts of Move Along Home is pretty poor, leading to an underwhelming visual presentation. Star Trek in the ’90s often reused sets and props to save money, but in Move Along Home it just doesn’t feel as if much effort was put into the episode’s visual style. There’s a reason why the alien race featured in this episode, the Wadi, haven’t been revisited!

Episode #6:
Monsters
Picard Season 2

We could’ve made up nine-tenths of this list with Picard Season 2 episodes, but if I had to pick one out of that thoroughly disappointing season that encapsulates its issues, it would have to be Monsters. This navel-gazing story abandoned most of the season’s semi-interesting plotlines, including Q, Picard’s ancestor Renée, and the Borg in order to stage a ridiculous coma-dream populated by the most uninspired and amateurish B-movie monsters that I’ve seen in the franchise this side of The Original Series.

Moreover, Monsters is a waste of time. It fails to move the story along at a reasonable pace, and that led to serious problems in the remaining part of the season. Despite learning a theoretically interesting fact about Jean-Luc Picard’s early life, the revelation isn’t as big as the story wishes it to be – and it does nothing to reframe Picard’s characterisation, personality, or outlook on life, nor show them in a new light.

Episode #7:
Infinite Regress
Voyager Season 5

Seven of Nine was a fascinating addition to Voyager when she joined the crew – though I confess that I was sad at the time to lose Kes. But as I’ve said before here on the website, I never felt that the writers of Voyager did justice to Seven of Nine, and Infinite Regress is just one example among many of samey, repetitive, and just plain boring over-uses of this character.

Seven’s appearance in Infinite Regress is a riff on the same idea used in Season 4’s The Raven, to such an extent that I sometimes get the two stories muddled up. It was one of the first solid indications that Seven’s original premise was played out, and things only went downhill from here. Seven was thrust into the spotlight often across the back half of Voyager’s run – and that wasn’t always to the show’s benefit. There are some decent stories in the mix, sure, but there are also more than a few repetitive and uninspired ones. It wasn’t until Seven re-emerged in Picard that she was given the chance to develop and grow as a character – and I can’t tell you how cathartic that process has been to see!

Episode #8:
Spock’s Brain
The Original Series Season 3

No list of bad Star Trek episodes would be complete without Spock’s Brain! Widely considered to be the worst that The Original Series has to offer, this ridiculous story was a pretty poor start to the show’s third and final season. The Original Series Season 3 was greenlit after a letter-writing campaign from fans, but television network NBC only agreed to renew the show in exchange for cuts to its budget. Episodes like Spock’s Brain were the result of trying to keep costs down.

There’s a certain charm to Spock’s Brain in some ways… but in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way rather than for anything the story does on its own merit! A combination of the utterly bonkers premise and some less-than-stellar special effects make this a no-brainer for this list – pun very much intended!

Episode #9:
Code of Honor
The Next Generation Season 1

Code of Honor is incredibly outdated and racist in its depiction of Africans – and it boggles my mind that it was ever made, let alone that it was made for The Next Generation as late as 1987! Surely someone must’ve realised, while the episode was in production, that a story about a black planetary leader (with a noticeable accent) kidnapping a white female crew member would be problematic.

Unlike other episodes on this list, it’s hard to find any redeeming features in Code of Honor, and it’s one that I have to say I can’t enjoy in any way. It was a mistake to make it and to bring it to screen – but it serves as a reminder that Star Trek, despite its lofty ambitions and attempts to depict a better, more enlightened future, can still get it wrong.

Episode #10:
Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1
Picard Season 1

After the preceding eight episodes had slowly built up an intriguing mystery, Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 derailed Picard’s first season. The episode tried to dump whole new factions, characters, and storylines into the season but didn’t have anywhere near enough time to do justice to any of them. The truly disappointing thing isn’t that these ideas were bad, but that the poorly-paced episode and season ran out of road, making the entire season feel worse in retrospect.

Some scenes in Et in Arcadia Ego are so short that they’re barely even clips, with characters seeming to speak to no one. Special effects weren’t great, either, with a copy-and-paste Romulan fleet comprised of identical starships. And that gold makeup used for the Coppelius synths is just awful. Despite a solid performance across the rest of the season as Soji, Isa Briones was unconvincing as the rogue synth leader Sutra, too. All in all, a misfire – and one that, sadly, damages the integrity of the entire ten-episode story.

So that’s it!

I hope your favourite episode wasn’t on the list! But if it was, please try to keep in mind that we don’t all like the same things, and even as Trekkies there are going to be disagreements about which stories work and which don’t within the Star Trek franchise. This was meant to be a bit of fun, not something to be taken too seriously or to get worked up over!

Although there are a handful of Star Trek episodes that I generally don’t enjoy, every series, and practically every season of every series, has wonderful moments of action, adventure, sci-fi, and more. I’m a huge Star Trek fan – even if I don’t enjoy everything that the franchise has put out over the last fifty-six years!

You’ll note that Prodigy and Strange New Worlds didn’t feature on the list above – and that’s because the first seasons of both shows were pretty darn good. I couldn’t pick a single episode from either show that I could genuinely say I disliked, and I think that’s testament to the quality of modern Star Trek. Picard’s third season was good, too, and though Discovery has made mistakes, Season 4 was a vast improvement and ended in spectacular fashion. So there are plenty of reasons to be positive as we look ahead to upcoming productions!

So I hope you enjoyed this look at a few of Star Trek’s less-than-great stories. I actually had fun revisiting some of these episodes, several of which I hadn’t watched in years. Although the stories themselves aren’t great, it’s still nice to go back and watch them sometimes!

The Star Trek franchise – including all series, films, and episodes mentioned above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.