Yeah, I recently rewatched that episode and was really annoyed by it. The story only works because every crewmember behaves like a completely naive idiot.

So it kind of depends on how strictly you define “important.”

You’re right. Your list makes it quite clear that when the bar for importance is too low, 90% of all episodes end up being important. From season 1 I’d include 5 episodes in the list of important episodes: Encounter at Farpoint (setting up Q and everything), Where No One Has Gone Before (introduces the Traveller), Datalore (introduces Lore), Skin of Evil (kills of Tasha), The Neutral Zone (Romulans and Borg implied). Those episodes are a good example of what I was going for: none of them is above average but they’re still important. “Where No One Has Gone Before” maybe comes the closest to being good.

Sidenote: I recently rewatched TNG season 1 and found it oddly charming. There are a lot of bad episodes but almost every episode had something going for it. You could see what they were aiming for but often couldn’t stick the landing. And the music was really great, unlike in the rest of the Berman era.

I’ve also frequented Jammer’s Reviews for years because most of the time I agree with him. I also used it for the watchlist for my GF but building that list purely on good episodes gave me the idea to ask what the important episodes actually were.

I didn’t know about Kethinov. Thanks for that.

I see your point. What I tried to assess is: which episodes enhance the viewing experience by rewarding the viewer for sticking around. For example, watching “Datalore” before “Brothers” is definitely not required. But it gives you some good backstory on Lore. Similarly, watching the various Maquis episodes on TNG and DS9 is not necessary to understand the Maquis characters on VOY but it’s a nice slow buildup that contextualizes a few things. Or TNG’s “The Price” and VOY’s “False Profits” – neither of them are really good episodes but it’s a “oh hey, they picked up that storyline from years ago” moment that I feel is very rewarding.

And of course my all-time favorite joke when Worf hears that Keiko is having another baby and he reacts with “Now!?!?”. It only really works when you’ve seen “Disaster” before.

Well, at least they recognize Worf as one of the greats. {{:-)

But I find that “Duty! Honor! Service!” shouting really repulsive. I find it rather undignified. I can’t for one second imagine Picard, Riker or any of the other classic characters doing that in their academy years.

Wow, that looks great! I’m a bit envious. I need to learn how to do that to PRINT ALL THE SHIPS. 😄

Thanks for sharing.

You can’t just talk about your 3D-printed Akira Class and not show it. 🙃

Did they swap La’an’s and Erica’s characters? Now Erica has Gorn PTSD and La’an is the easygoing one? At least the latter seemed like a very abrupt character development.

And can the SNW costume designers finally get an Emmy Award please? Or all the awards for that matter? The costumes in this series have been amazing since day 1, and the second episode (particularly the wedding scene) is no exception.

Also, that cameo at the end was chef’s kiss.

“This is irregular. A complaint outside the response period.” - those aliens are Germans. 😄

Great episode. Just the right amount of whackiness to not make it too ludicrous. And it wasn’t just comedy, at its core this episode had a human heart - no pun intended - with Spock connecting to his mother’s burden.

One thing that I realized, once again, is that I don’t really know what Una’s job on the Enterprise really is. She’s barely doing anything. You’d expect her to accompany the away team at the end of the episode (or did they steal the shuttle, now that they know how to steal the Enterprise). For an XO she’s barely noticeable. This isn’t a complaint about this episode, it’s a thread that runs throughout the series.

To end on a positive note: can those costume designers finally get an award please? The outfits on this show are always so stunning.

Edit: I just realized that the episode was written by Kathryn Lyn who also wrote one of Lower Decks’ funniest episodes, “wej Duj”. She seems to become Star Trek’s go-to gal for comedy.