10 Worst Star Trek: Next Generation Episodes
7. Man Of The People (Season 6 Episode 3)
After rescuing Ambassador Ves Alkar from an attack, the crew take him and his elderly mother aboard The Enterprise. Here, the elderly woman falls mysteriously ill and dies but her spirit is absorbed by Deanna Troi who falls in love with The Ambassador and starts to age at a disturbing rate.
Why It Sucks: The writers really screwed Troi's character in this one and made some terrible choices for her. Here you have a great premise: a witch passing on her life force to another vessel, and what emotion breaks through above all others? Will it be her anger? Resentment? Fear of the afterlife? No. It's her horniness. This episode had so much promise but instead, they decided to scrap it all to portray Troi as a sex object.
What Doesn't Suck: What's really sad about the direction of this episode is that although we finally got to see a bit of diversity from Troi's character, unfortunately, it's of a sex-starved space nympho. Although Marina Sirtis does brilliantly well to portray a spirit trapped in Troi's body, it's overshadowed by the awful writing.