Star Trek: 10 Episodes That Are UNWATCHABLE Now
Do all franchises see themselves become the villain after enough time has passed?
How do we decide which episodes of any show are unwatchable? Surely, we must look beyond whether they were ‘good’ or ‘bad, as taste is subjective. There may well be episodes on this list that have their fierce defenders, so let us be clear: we will make our arguments, but this is a list of episodes deemed unwatchable by us. If these are your favourite episodes, we can only beg forgiveness.
Having said that, no franchise is perfect, nor is there any show in existence that offers only perfect episodes. With a franchise like Star Trek, featuring sixty years of choice, there were always bound to be a few episodes that simply didn’t age well, alongside those that stumbled right out of the gate. This is a universe that offers episodes like The Inner Light, In The Pale Moonlight, and The City On The Edge Of Forever. This is also a series that offers episodes like Spock’s Brain, Move Along Home, and Stardust City Rag.
Peaks and troughs.
There are those episodes that started out fro a positive place with the best of intentions, though sadly somewhere along the way, they lost track of themselves. Sometimes, certain people involved in those episodes have been revealed as far from ideal, affecting rewatches as the time passes. Sometimes, one can separate the art from the artist. Sometimes, it’s that little bit harder.
Here, we’re focusing on those episodes that, for one reason or another, go straight into the skip list on any rewatch of their respective series. Brace for impact, for these are the hours of television that will leave a serious dent in your good will.
10. Code Of Honor
We’re beginning with the episode that everyone knew would be here on this list. There is simply no defending it, regardless of the fact it’s one of the very few Tasha Yar-centric episodes available to the audience. If you don’t know the story, the Enterprise-D arrives in orbit above Ligon II, where the Ligonians possess a vaccine desperately needed by Starfleet. The Liogonians are race of people depicted as tribal people of colour. The outfits are stereotypical, the misogyny is on full display, and Tasha is quickly kidnapped by Lutan, their leader.
Cue a ritualistic fight to the death between Tasha and Yareena - Lutan’s ‘woman’.
The original filming script didn’t specifically call for the Ligonians to be played by black people. What resulted was an episode that was described by Jonathan Frakes as a "racist piece of shit."
It’s uncomfortably stereotypical, leaning heavily on western notions of African tribalism, offering little to no nuance, and the resolution, while offering some catharsis in Lutan’s deposition, feels a bit too tacked on to really work. This, being the third episode of The Next Generation, came at a time when the show hadn’t earned any good will from the audience yet. Neither Encounter At Farpoint or The Naked Now had done much in that respect either, offering a rocky start for the first live-action Star Trek spin-off.