Like my parents, I am an avid trekkie. And like many people, I think Star Trek: the Next Generation is the best one of the genre. In fact I liked it so much, it really is hard to choose just one favorite episode (which I know is an odd thing to say in a thread entitled, Pick your favorite).
I like the hope it offers for the future. So for this reason, I like episodes where their techology and its benefits are the feature (esp. in relations to someone who doesn’t have it). Examples of this are The Neutral Zone (where they bring back 3 cryonically preserved humans) and Who Watches the Watchers? where they are forced to reveal themselves to some proto-vulcan humanoids, on a primitive planet.
Tied with this, would have to be episodes where there is a mystery. Future Imperfect, Clues, Conundrum, Cause and Effect and Schisms would all be examples of this. (You got to figure the fans liked ones with mysteries. They made so many of them.) I like rewatching these episodes all the time (which is ironic, because I already know the answer to the mystery).
In second place for me would have to be ones were there is a guest star from the original series. Dr. McCoy’s guest starring in Encounter at Farpoint was kind of lame. So I don’t usually include that one. But there is Relics (with James Doohan as “Scotty”) and Sarek (played by Mark Lenard) and Unification I & II with Leonard Nimoy as Spock.
Well, those are my favorites. What are yours:)?
(BTW, as long as I’m at it, I actually have another question, making this thread a two-parter. Does anybody know what satellite/cable station/s carries TNG regularly? So far I can only find it on BBC-America on the weekend.)
Or I’ll summarize and save you the reading time: 1. Inner Light, 2. All Good Things, 3.-4.Best of Both Worlds, 5. Darmok, 6. Everything that’s not Farpoint or Shades of Grey.
Nearly all the 3rd and 4th season episodes are really good.
Two of my favorites are The Wounded its really the first time we see O’Brien as a major part of the story. His scenes with his former Captain are really good.
Redemption with Picard choosing the new Klingon ruler.
Also I have to agree with aceplace57 that The Wounded was really good. I actually downloaded the song O’Brien sings (it’s called Minstrel Boy) and I love it.
I’m kind of fond of Family, the episode where Picard, wounded in body and spirit, returns to his family’s vineyards to recuperate after being Borgified. Quiet, low-key, and sweet without cloying.
It makes perfect sense to me. The solution to the mystery is usually pretty stupid. The good part is the mystery itself, which usually establishes a nicely creepy atmosphere.
The Klingon and Romulan episodes are all good. One that I like to watch it Starship Mine. It’s fun to bring up that one when people gripe about Picard being an action hero in the movies.
A bunch of great ones have been mentioned (Clues, Schisms, Darmok…) but I like the whole Klingon Civil war thing, starting with Worf’s dishonor and Key’lehr’s first appearance.
I don’t remember the title, but the one where Data creates Lol, his daughter.
Speaking of Data, I really liked Masks. I know most folks don’t, but I think Brent Spiner did a good job with multiple characters.
So many more to choose from. BOBW I & II are excellent. The one where Geordi and Ro became out of phase.
I liked that episode, but I have a hard time getting past the fact that the out of phase characters stand around, and even run, in the Enterprise. Apparently they are only out of phase with walls, but not floors. :smack:
Picard’s final line of that episode is one of the finest Crowning Moments of Awesome in Star Trek:
With warp core breach imminent, the bridge in flames, and most of the crew dead or dying, the Klingon commander demands that Enterprise surrender and prepare to be boarded. Picard’s response? “That will be the day.” And with that, he leaps to the tactical station and dies fighting his ship.
Agreed. Any time a writer says “Okay, now we’re going to have Patrick Stewart bust out some nuanced, character-driven acting,” you’ve just come up with a win. See: The Inner Light. I also quite liked “The Perfect Mate”, for the same reason: it could have been a very silly episode, but Stewart manages to sell Picard as a guy who’s genuinely wrestling with it.
The Inner Light had me in tears. I don’t know how anyone could survive such a mind-fuck. If I suddenly woke up now and discovered my wife, my children, my life were a dream, I’d be ready for a padded cell.
Conspiracy, Q Who, Best of Both Worlds, Qpid, Inner Light, Time’s Arrow, Fistfull of Datas, Genesis because Riker gives the finger when he slides down the wall, All Good Things.