The Alternative Factor. The Dauphin. Fair Haven.

Sometimes the B plot is the worst thing aired in an otherwise stellar episode.

Example: "Endgame" Voyager's Finale. Great episode except for the whole Chakotay/Seven romance subplot.

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It kind of relates to how Ta'Pol loses her mind by the end of Star Trek Enterprise

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- Or literally the last three minutes of Trip's story.
  
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Also that I heard some story ages ago that they did that romance based on a dare or a joke or something?

At least even before Picard came out they had already been broken up in the novel that followed right after.

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And sometimes the B plot is lightyears better than the main plot.

Example: "Fusion"

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Or the B plot in Darmok. I wish it would have been all Picard and Dathon.

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- There was a B plot?
  
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Guy, Guy, Guy... Fairhaven and not Threshold?

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I'd still prefer those over Tattoo, where they scrambled to shoehorn in an alien explanation for Chakotay's odd Native beliefs after it was discovered that the consultant on Native beliefs they hired was a complete fraud.

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- Uuh, do you have a link to that story? I always found that episode so weird
  
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- Oh is that why that episode was created? I had no idea.
  
  I'll give them credit on hushing it up. I watched Voyager as it aired and I didn't find out about the fraud "Native American" they hired until years later.
  
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- I understand why they did it though. They had to do something and they couldn't just say "well, Chakotay was a fake indigenous American all this time."
  
  They should have been more up-front about the whole thing, but I can see why they did it.
  
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- Fucked part is Tattoo's explanation has a basis in some tribes mythology.
  
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I feel like you are overselling "Alliances," but to be fair, this shot was pretty cool

They definitely blew the effects budget for the season, though. They put it in the commercial and I swear, it was every other commercial on UPN that week.

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Lizard sex ghost sex it's all fappable.

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- Thanks, I hate it. And I nearly spat out my coffee.
  
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- [Fur Affinity and Pixiv Intensifies]
  
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That’s Award-Winning Threshold!

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- To be fair, the makeup department won that award and absolutely deserved it.
  
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https://i.imgur.com/lwW7Zxk.gif

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May I present to you, SUB ROSA!

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May I present to you, SUB ROSA!

Followed shortly after by All Good Things.

The worst and best TNG episodes were only 12 episodes apart.

Edit: got an episode name wrong.

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I still say 'doctor fucks candle ghost' is better than 'captain and pilot turn into amphibians, have babies, then get turned back into people but the babies stay on the planet.'

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- ‘captain and pilot turn into amphibians, have babies, then get turned back into people but the babies stay on the planet.’
  
  "And despite The Doctor knowing how to reverse this side-effect, Voyager doesn't ever use the tech again." Don't forget that part.
  
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- As someone who is only trek-curious, the problem I often have in this sub is finding fucking amazing shit like this but not knowing which episode it is! How the fuck do I even massage that animorph broken family story into a search query?
  
  And I am certainly not going to put 'Doctor fucks candle ghost' into Google.
  
  Update: I guess I lied, because I certainly did put it into Google. Should I buy this scented candle? https://files.catbox.moe/fpq4i8.png
  
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- Isn't that Voyager though? I was just talking about TNG. I haven't made it that far in Voyager yet. I'm currently watching it. So far I'm not impressed, but I'm going to wait until at least season 3 to pass judgement since even TNG and DS9 don't really pick up until later seasons.
  
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How do you need up the name of All Good Things...?

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- What?
  
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Sub Rosa is awful, but I'm not even sure if it makes the top 5 worst episodes of TNG. Code of Honor, Justice, The Neutral Zone, and Shades of Grey definitely have it beat. And there's several others I'd probably rank as being sub Sub Rosa, but which I would have to rewatch to be certain.

Maybe it's just that Sub Rosa has a distinct "so bad it's good" quality. The superstitious groundskeeper, the fog taking over the enterprise, zombie grandma, it's all so ridiculous in just the right ways, so I can't help but get a few laughs out of it. That's a lot more than I can say about those other episodes.

The one no one ever seems to mention is Transfigurations. It comes right before The Best of Both Worlds (another arguably best episode) and is so incompetently written that it doesn't feel like a real episode. It legitimately feels like they didn't have a real script, just a jumble of notes from a brainstorming session in the writing room where they couldn't decide what they wanted the episode to be about. It just meanders from one cliche premise to the next, with vestigial remnants of subplots still dangling off of it. And for the icing on the cake, the climax it builds up to is a guy in a morph suit pretending to be an energy being, an effect that might have been barely passable in standard definition, but which looks like something that would get laughed off of a power rangers set when watching in HD.

It's probably not the worst episode since it isn't painful or offensive, but it's still a dumpster fire that would fit in better among bad fanfics than actual episodes. I swear, they must have kept it out of the episode rotation too, because I didn't even know it existed until fairly recently.

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- Transfigurations at least has a consistent main theme and message, and bad as the final special effect is (my dude I can see the texture on the zentai suit you're wearing) the resolution and the way it unfolds are very Trek, especially the semi-hopeful note of "they're jerks but only because they're ignorant and they might change once they know better." It's easier to forgive a lot of the awkward stuff in the middle when the end is on brand.
  
  Meanwhile, Sub Rosa's only message seems to be "ain't no fuckin' like ghost fuckin'."
  
  Also, I maintain that Code of Honor is the worst episode of TNG by far. Even discounting the uncomfortably possibly racist undertones throughout, the whole thing is full of incredibly regressive and outdated stereotypes of gender even for the time. Also it's just kinda boring.
  
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- Code of Honor is a terrible one. I guess I usually exclude pre-beard TNG from my lists since they're all pretty bad. But the bad ones after it gets good really stand out since it's such a stark contrast in writing quality. Another very bad one is Masks, where Data becomes the mouthpiece for an Aztech god, but I don't usually call it bad because it's such a treat to watch Spiner going all out with his performance. He seems to be having a legitimately fun time with that role.
  
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- People don't like Shades of Grey?
  
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What ghostfuckery is this

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May I present to you, SUB ROSA!

sabrosa? the spanish word for delicious?

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- Do you think that's why they named it that? I've always wondered why it has that title and I think you're on to something!
  
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