Every collection has its set of winners and losers, especially Star Trek which had to endure all sorts of budget cuts, deadlines, and pressures which led to inconsistencies, bad dialog, rushed scripts, and lumps of coals in the diamond mine. Like this:

If I had to sit down for a quiet evening with a lady friend and show her why I enjoy Star Trek, this would be on the DO NOT SHOW list. It's the episode to tuck away into the cupboard in the deep, dark corner never to be seen, else risk embarrassment. The only endearing quality of "The Way To Eden" was the fact that they showed the Aurora. Parts of this episode turned into a Trek-hippie music video. I watch this episode once every century as a courtesy, then move onto more important things in life like doing laundry.

And then there are times when I'm choosing an episode through the DVD menu, I select this by accident:

"Mudd's Women" I could somewhat tolerate. "I, Mudd" on the other hand causes me to instinctively reach for an ice pick so I could stab myself in the eye. The scenes where the brave crew has to role-play some serious WTF scenes in order to confuse the androids makes me wish I could go back in time and back-hand the producers. At least the red shirt here is "dead." Good job, Scotty.

Speaking of really awkward role-playing:

Who in the world thought this was a good idea? I'm embarrassed to even watch this scene every time it graces the tube. Kirk being forced to play "horsy" by Platonians is just a low-point in Trek. This is where I look into my DVD collection and think, "Oh, here's Star Wars Episode I with Jar Jar Binks. Let's watch that instead." I can only imagine Shatner reading the script to this episode and wondering whether it's a good time to get out of the contract.

So now, if I said "glittering ghost" and "kids pounding their fists in the air," I presume most of you would go screaming into the night:

I'm not going to waste my breath commenting on "And The Children Shall Lead." And speaking of ghosts, here's another gem from the second season:

You never hear anyone talk about this Star Trek Halloween special. Why? Because it sucks, that's why. C'mon, everyone, let's change the channel to watch Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin. To have "Catspaw" follow-up after "The Doomsday Machine" is like having a lobster dinner one night and fermented beans the next. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Over in the next century, the gallant crew of the same ship comes across more odd situations. Unfortunately, I'm still having a hard time finding out what the point of "The Royale" was, except that if you go to Vegas, you want Data on your side. Always.

Star Trek writers I guess feel an obligatory need to occasionally produce episodes for the younger audience. You know, where the young characters are naturally going to save the day. Can someone explain to me how the clothes just happened to shrink down to the right size from this freakish transporter accident? Kinda convenient, don't you think?

Every time "Rascals" comes up in the DVD menu, I have this tendency to hit the eject button.

Speaking of rejects, the words "I couldn't help but notice your pain" comes to mind when discussing the subject of Trek movies:

Here we have Sybok. Sybok is Spock's half-brother. Sybok is emotional. Sybok is on a crusade to find God. And he found him in one of the worst Trek movies ever, complete with poor special effects. I'm sorry to report that I actually watched this film twice in the theaters and I'm clueless as to why. Granted, there were a few moments in the film that I actually enjoyed, but I only play this in my house when I'm contemplating ritual suicide. A little bit of Jar Jar would improve things considerably.

And let's not leave out the Next Gen favorite of everyone's: Insurrection. There were parts of this movie that I enjoyed, but then it was equally (if not more) offset by the negatives. For example, the space battle scenes between the Enterprise and Son'a ships were beautiful and I think the effects folks did a good job. The Enterprise isn't faring too well in this shot:

Then Riker brings up the "manual steering column."

Oh, you mean JOYSTICK? I didn't realize you could control ship maneuvers through a game controller. This just dampened the credibility of the scene right there. Look, this isn't a single-pilot space fighter like an X-Wing. This is akin to driving an aircraft carrier with a steering wheel and some pedals.

Fail.