10 Most Hated Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

The Enterprise is attempting to open diplomatic relations with the Ligonians, a patriarchal race that values adherence to honorable customs and who possess a vital vaccine. One of their rituals involves their leader, Lutan, proving his heroism by kidnapping the riskiest target, Lieutenant Yar.

Code of Honor moves at a glacial pace as Picard tries to figure out how to get her back without offending the Ligonians. We are fed loads of details about their culture through exposition without experiencing it for ourselves making learning about them as interesting as a school lecture, while the feeling out process between Lutan and the Picard seems to take forever. It is played as a battle of wills between two smart leaders but their supposed surprise moves are obvious making the characters instead look dumb for falling for them.

In addition, the guest characters are barely developed. Lutan never grows beyond over the top evil villain. His wife Yareena, who hisses her lines in an attempt at feistiness, plays a key role but we don't see what kind of life she is living under him making her motives a mystery.

There is a bevy of technical shortcomings as well like the staging of Yar’s kidnapping. When Lutan grabs her, the rest of the crew watch like statues until the two have teleported away before suddenly moving like mimes springing to life making it all look staged. The climactic fight to the death is even more egregious, as we can see the actors anticipating the next moves before they are made making it look obviously scripted.

With such glaring flaws, the most honorable thing to do is to skip Code of Honor.