The fans have voted, spoken, and decided that “Move Along Home” is the worst episode oin the history of Star Trek: Deeps Space Nine.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is generally regarded as the most complete Star Trek series from start to finish. This is largely due to the inclusion of Star Trek: The Next Generation characters Miles O’Brien and Worf, along with the shift from the “planet of the week” format to a longer, season-long type of storytelling as the series went on. The inclusion of the Dominion War certainly was a plot point that fans were eager to see, as intergalactic war, with legitimate consequences wasn’t that widely seen in Trek up until that point. That doesn’t mean that DS9 was without its fair share of bad episodes, namely the first seasons “Move Along Home“.
So when fans were given the opportunity to vote on if they thought Move Along Home was the worst DS9 episode ever, it was rather overwhelming ‘yes’. The final poll showed that over 60% of the fans voted it the worst episode of the series.
"Yes – 62.79%No – 37.21%"
The episode featured hopscotch, awful sing-a-long, nonsensical rules that the characters had to follow and ultimately no real consequences. Essentially making the episode irrelevant.
While “Move Along Home” got fans pretty united, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the only bad episode mentioned. Several commentators on our Facebook page brought up other awful episodes. Season one had “Merdian”, and the best way to describe that episode is Star Trek’s The Lake House. The Orville did this premise better with their season one finale “Mad Idolatry”.
Another bad season one episode suggested by fans is “The Storyteller” which elicits a Charleston Heston/Ten Commandments vibe. Not unsurprising considering religion and faith is a huge part of the series.
The other two are from season five and six respectively. Firstly there’s Let He Who Is Without Sin, a crazy cult attack a pleasure resort and Worf decides to go full Cardassian in his disdain for fun. Finally, there’s “Profit and Lace”, Trek’s take on Juwanna Mann. If that sounds horrible, believe us, it’s worse than you think.
Do you think these are the worst episodes in Star Trek: DS9 history? Sound off in the comments.