Star Trek: 10 WORST Holodeck Episodes
7. Emergence - The Next Generation
As The Next Generation was rounding out its final season, one would assume that they would try to go out on a high. When it comes to both Preemptive Strike and All Good Things, there is no question that they succeeded. Sadly, the same cannot be said of Emergence.
As the third to last episode, was it truly necessary to see a story that suggested the Enterprise itself was becoming sentient? Or, that aside, spending the entire forty minutes moving from one train carriage to another on the holographic Orient Express?
While the train is certainly the derailment of the episode, the opening scene wherein Data plays Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest shows off Spiner's range, and comedy skill, at the same time. The biggest crime of the episode that follows is that it's a bit of a slog. While the train sets are quite pleasant, very little else about the episode is. There is an appearance by the Paramount Studios lot as well, one that would become only too familiar to viewers as the franchise went on.
Emergence isn't a terrible episode by any means. It's where it falls in the episode order for The Next Generation's victory lap that truly lets it down.