My dear friends, it has been a shitty year. Rather than indulge myself with an overwrought novella concerning all of the bad things that happened in the last 365 days (as I used to do), I’ll engage in something completely different. Here is that entry about Star Trek: The Next Generation that I promised earlier. Specifically, without fanfare or excessive prelude, here are my top 10 favorite episodes of TNG. All two of you may find this entry trivial or inconsequential, but I have to say that, ever since I lost my dad six months ago, Star Trek (TNG in particular) has been a tremendous source of comfort to me.
SPOILER ALERT!!! Yes, the Locutus episode is number one. Duh!!! Any self-respecting TNG fan who doesn’t name the Locutus episode as their favorite is full of gagh.
Note: This was a much more difficult task than it was compiling my TOS list. There are only 80 TOS episodes, but there are 178 TNG stories to choose from. Outside of the obvious choices, this proved to be pretty tough. It actually took me a few months to whittle down the bottom five. Also, I am treating two-part episodes as one entry because…reasons.
10. “The Enemy”:
This is one of those rare episodes in which the blind guy gets to carry a major portion of the story. More to the point, it’s a story in which he actually functions as a blind character, rather than as a sighted guy with a thing on his face.
When Geordi is trapped on a storm-ravaged planet with an injured Romulan, his visor starts to fail, leaving him blind. Geordi has to use the Romulan as a reader in order to modify his visor to emit a beacon so that the Enterprise can locate him. But can he do it before the Romulan’s mother ship shows up and fires on the Enterprise?
This episode is also notable because we learn that Worf is unapologetically prejudiced against Romulans. Humans may have evolved by the 24th century, but Klingons have not.
This was an early episode from the show’s third season and, in my view, provided the first solid evidence that the quality of the series had consistently improved under the stewardship of Michael Piller.
9. “All Good Things…”:
When the series finale of TNG finally aired in 1994, I was underwhelmed by it. I wanted Borg, Romulans, Klingons, battles, and for Riker to nut up and propose to Troi. That’s not what we got.
Captain Picard finds himself flitting back and forth through time. Is he going mad, is he caught in a temporal phenomenon, or…is Q screwing with him? Gee, I wonder.
Three decades later, I love this farewell to the crew of the Enterprise D. Maybe it’s because we’ve gotten so much drek passing for Trek in the interim, but this really was the best possible send-off for Picard, Riker, Data, Worf, Crusher, Geordi and Troi. It really is the perfect bookend to the series premier and it illustrates how the show evolved for the better over the intervening seven seasons.
8. “Reunion”:
This episode contains so much TNG gold, it’s tough to know where to begin. It continues the story of Worf’s discommendation from the Klingon Empire, first started in season three, we see his girlfriend K’Ehleyr again and Worf learns that he’s a daddy. We also get to meet Gowron, High Chancellor of the Klingon Empire, who will play a major role in future episodes of TNG and DS9. On top of all of that, we get to see Worf murder his hated enemy at the climax in a bloody sword battle. What’s not to love?
This episode continues several plot threads begun in earlier installments. This was almost unheard of in Star Trek up to this point. It showed that consequences were not unknown in the Trek universe.
7. “The Offspring”:
Data was probably the most popular character on TNG. This episode showcases him at his peak as he follows in his father’s footsteps by creating his own android child, Lal. Everything is going along swimmingly, until Starfleet shows up and claims that Data doesn’t have the right to raise his own kid. I think a few blind parents can sympathize here.
The episode has everything from overt sentimentality, comedy, conflict and ultimately, heartbreak. I never fail to choke up at the end. If you don’t get a little misty, you have no soul.
You’ll notice that “The Measure of a Man,” did not make my top 10. It’s a good episode, but I’ve written about its flaws elsewhere. In short, if you want to convince my brain that Data is sentient by staging a courtroom drama, you will fail. If you want to convince my heart that he is sentient, give him a child, then kill her off. *sniffles*
6. “Darmok”:
Star Trek is at its finest when the Enterprise encounters new alien species out there in space. This episode is probably the best example. The crew encounters an alien race who can only speak in metaphor. How do you communicate when you have no common frame of reference? Things get extra hairy when Picard is kidnapped by the alien captain with unknown intentions.
The Tamarian captain is played by Paul Winfield, who played another captain who fell victim to Khan’s evil brain worms in The Wrath of Khan.
5. “Q Who”:
This is the episode where Q introduces Picard and crew to the Borg. He does so to teach them a lesson in humility because they have gotten a bit too high on the smell of their own Federation farts. Ultimately, Picard has to beg Q for help, because the Borg have them completely outmatched at every turn. We also discover that Q and Guinan don’t like each other. It may be the only time that we see Guinan get pissed.
“If you can’t take a bloody nose, maybe you should go home and hide under your bed.”
4. “Chain of Command”:
Some of the best episodes happen when the status quo is shaken up, like Captain Picard handing over command of the Enterprise to another, much more hard-ass captain. Picard, Crusher and Worf go off on a mission to spy on the Cardassians, while Riker clashes with Captain Jellico. SPOILER!!! Picard is captured and tortured, while Riker gets relieved of duty for insubordination.
The Cardassians were almost an afterthought on TNG, but they would go on to play a critical role on Deep Space 9. Also, “There are four lights!” became the ‘90’s version of Orwell’s, “How many fingers, Winston?”
3. “The Inner Light”:
The Enterprise encounters a mysterious probe that zaps Picard, knocking him unconscious. In real time, he’s out of it for only 25 minutes. In his head, he lives an entire lifetime on a dying alien world where he gets married, has children, plants a tree and learns to play the flute.
I honestly can’t explain it better than that. The story is so, so much richer than the synopsis I’m writing here. It was so good, in fact, that Patrick Stewart named it as his favorite episode.
2. “Yesterday’s Enterprise”:
At this point, you should just be nodding along going, “uh huh.”
To fully appreciate this episode, you have to understand that Tasha Yar was a regular character who was killed off in season one by a giant lake of chocolate pudding.
At the start of this episode, Worf is having his first glass of prune juice in 10-Forward with Guinan, when suddenly, everything changes. The Enterprise is radically different, Worf is gone, Tasha is back and the Federation is at war with the Klingons. Things get even weirder when they encounter the Enterprise NCC-1701-C in a temporal rift.
… And that’s just the first five minutes. Ultimately, Tasha falls for Shooter McGavin, but she has to go back with the Enterprise C. crew to sacrifice herself in battle in order to restore the correct timeline.
God, what an episode!
And finally, 1. “The Best of Both Worlds”:
It’s my considered opinion that, not only is this the best episode from the series, but it is the best episode from all of Trekdom.
Q gave the Federation ample warning, but they were still unprepared for the Borg threat. This is what happens when you put a civilian government in charge of war prep. So, the Borg show up, kidnap Picard, turn him into a Borg named Locutus, and [proceed to take no prisoners at Wolf 359. Riker has to assume command and give the order to kill his erstwhile captain before the Borg can assimilate Earth. Oh yeah, and there’s a pushy, ambitious, ‘90’s-era professional female type hovering over Riker’s shoulder who can’t wait to get his job.
I tried really hard to hate TNG when it first came out, and they made it oh so easy for me. That’s why no episodes from season one made this list. But when I saw part one of this cliffhanger in June of 1990, sitting in the living room of my grandparents’ house in Beatrice, NE, (the home town of Gene L. Coon), I realized that Star Trek: The Next Generation was the real deal.
It’s worth mentioning that the episode that follows this, “Family,” is also excellent, as it deals with the fall-out from the Borg invasion. Patrick Stewart should’ve won an Emmy for his performance.
Honorable mentions:
You can watch the lion’s share of episodes from seasons three through six and experience TNG at its peak. Exceptional episodes include “Data’s Day,” “Cause and Effect,” “Clues,” “Tapestry,” “Relics,” “Sins of the Father,” “The Measure of a Man,” “Unification,” “Sarek,” “Ethics,” “Half a Life,” “Face of the Enemy,” “Who Watches the Watchers,” “The Game,” “Legacy,” “Deja Q,” and “Ensign Ro.” And these barely scratch the surface.
As far as the top five worst episodes, just watch most any episode from season one. There are a lot of clunkers from season seven as well, when everyone was focused on the big movie coming out or DS9. The material felt phoned in, which makes the finale such a treat. I’ll just list “Code of Honor,” “Shades of Gray,” “Cost of Living,” “Up the Long Ladder,” “Justice,” “Sub Rosa,” “The Naked Now,” and “Emergence,” as particularly, laughably bad.
Should I have mentioned Wesley Crusher? How about Dr. Pulaski? For the record, I liked Pulaski as a departure from Crusher.
Anyway, that’s it, folks. Let’s all give 2025 over to the wind and boldly go forth into the new frontier. Live long and prosper, and merry Christmas.
