And so it begins.
You helped us pick the thirty-two worst Trek episodes of all time, and now…you’re going to help up pick the worst.
Here’s how we built the bracket, beyond my terrible GIMP skills: we start with two episodes of the same series against each other (with some exceptions in the corner). That way, we can whittle down the worst of each series, and start putting the worst of them against each other starting with the “Sweet” Sixteen. Each day, we’re going to ask you to vote in the comments and on Facebook for which episode is worse on a matchup. Voting will close the next day at 6pm.
And, of course, pick your overall win for the entire bracket. Why? Because you get a valuable prize.
OK, OK, you get the Nitpicker’s Guide for whichever series takes the bracket. But, hey, they’re hilarious, and it’s a twenty dollar value, yours free for deciding which episode is the worst.
That said, let’s look at our stinkers for today:
“Operation: Annihilate!” Vs. “The Omega Glory”
“Annihilate!” feature mind control crepes, and also a colon and an exclamation point, so you know it blows. Meanwhile, “The Omega Glory” is a pile of self-righteous tribe about how the Cold War is, like, bad, man, and we’ll, like, totally turn into, like, cavemen.
Tell us which is worse in the comments!
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/569/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/gammasquadtrekspoof-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/gammasquadstartrek31-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/starstrek-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/shatner1-150x150.gif)
Something occurred to me. If I haven’t seen some of these, do I really want to familiarize myself with them, or should I just avoid them altogether because, shit, they’re the worst episodes?
To be fair, often bad Star Trek is hysterical.
For this round, my pick is Operation: Annihilate! for this round because if you pit two TOS against each other, the one with the gratuitous punctuation always trumps.
For all time, this is a tough one, but I’m going to say “These Are the Voyages…”. My reasoning is because Berman and Braga (the producers whose names are pretty much curse words to most Trek fans now) basically told the fans to F— off for not liking their prequel. After what was actually a decent string of story arcs in the fourth season, the last episode no only killed off probably the most likeable character on the show who wasn’t a beagle, it also turned the series finale of Enterprise (and quite possibly the last Trek episode to be shown on television) into a TNG holodeck episode. The cast hate it, the fans hate it, and it pretty much caused Paramount to reboot the who franchise. Make no mistake, it’s essentially the “Batman and Robin” of Star Trek.
We already know that Threshold is going to win. How many other episodes have been totally disowned by the people that made them?
“Threshold” won the 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series, beating out Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “The Visitor.”
Not a justification of the crap, just an observation on the crap.
Holy shitsnacks, really? That’s like finding a diamond in a pile of shit ten feet high.
I heart brackets!
Operation: Annihilate!
Operation: Annihilate gets my vote.
A misguided attempt at patriotism and a statement against communism will always be better than an episode where the monster is, and I quote: “The neural parasites were made by covering individual novelty vomits with a clear, inflatable bladder.”
They’re both pretty terrible, but I have to go with The Omega Glory solely based on Kirks passionate (read horribly overacted) speech about the constitution.
For the winner of the whole thing, I’m gonna go with Profit and Lace. I know it’ll have its hands full with Masks, but I have to stick to my guns!
Omega Glory because analogies are for pussies.
Operation: Annihilate!
Threshold overall.
I liked them both actually, out of the series neither are worthy of these brackets – how did the fickle finger of fate miss out on choosing “The Galileo Seven” with the horrible Irwin Allen monster dressed in a Robot Monster like fur coat?
Operation: Annihilate! – Establised the death of Kirk’s brother while Omega Glory had Morgan Woodward over playing wonderfully the Captain Ronald Tracey & a what if scenario on a alternate earth.
If I *had* to choose one it would be Operation: Annihilate! for the poor effects of parasitic creatures flying but only for that.
Seriously guys you missed picking anything with Harcourt Fenton Mudd in it, he should have been fed to a Doomsday Machine his large aft would have taken it out faster than a starship’s warp drive on overload!
I’ll go with Omega Glory as well, because alternate earths that aren’t earth is pretty terrible story wise…
Omega Glory.
Omega Glory. Because – REALLY? They have the thing they walk in carrying around 36:20?! REALLY?
Omega Glory squeaks by… Morgan Woodward’s crazy eyes are an MVP performance off the bench; the scene when the Yangs bring in the tattered flag and all the Starfleet officers stand to attention as the Star Spangled Banner riff plays is the buzzer-beater.
Overall pick is tough – the left side’s awfully strong, and that Angel One/Code Of Honor matchup particularly makes me nervous… But I gotta go with Turnabout Intruder’s superbly over-the-top Shatner and crappy plot, as well as it’s placement on the grid – I can see it going all the way even against the few really strong competitors over there.
Omega glory for reasons already cited. Operation includes inane McCoy observations- always a plus. Overall, I really hated how heavy handed “Let that be your last”. Smacks of too much effort. Catspaw sux but too much competition in that bracket. Where’s Spectre of the Gun?
Just saw this thread and two quick things:
- Why is Warlord in this bracket? True, its not the best but at least we got to see Kes as something other than the Nurse Chapel/Troi/Wesley hybrid she was. At the very least you have to agree that Kes’s badass delivery against the bad guy was one of the few Crowning Moments of Awesome that didn’t include Janeway, Seven or the Doctor.
- I trust that this bracket is unseeded, because if “Threshold” is only a #4 seed I am calling for the tar and feathering of the Star Trek Episode Selection Committee!
But back to the matter at hand, my vote is for The Omega Glory. During reading the synopsis on Memory Alpha, it reminded me of Star Trek: Insurrection. *shudders* That and just imagining Kirk Shattnering the Pledge and Preamble is too much for me.
Who decided the bracket? Why is STV’s Endgame up there and not Caretaker? How many people never gave Janeway’s crew a chance because of that awful awful pilot?
The Omega Glory. Yangs and Kohms? Really?
As far as worst goes, I would have to go with Omega Glory on this one. There is allegory, and there is lunacy.