What is the best episode of Star Trek The Next Generation?

[tay666]

I think one of the better ones was the one where Riker was put onboard a Klingon ship.
Some kind of exchange program thing.

This was before a lot was known about the Kingons and seeing him interacting with the crew was interesting and entertaining.


The other one that stands out in my memory was where they were tracking down ancient civilizations to piece together some puzzle. Something about info in the DNA strands or something like that. Of course they were under the gun, because someone else was also doing the same, and they were trying to beat them to the punch.

[captact]

The Inner Light,...a very touching episode
and the one that Data builds a daughter,..once she learns to love,....she dies,..AWESOME!

[Paul Evans]

I always loved the lighthearted "Fistful of Datas" with Data, Worf and Alexander in the Western town on the Holodeck.

Pretty harmless fun with my 2 favorite characters. It was a hoot.

The 2 part time travel episode with Tasha's half Romulan daughter returning was pretty cool too! (Sorry, don't know the episode names)

[Nostalgiabuff]

there were a lot of great episodes really. a lot of stinkers too, but you always get good with the bad.
I actually can't sit through episodes of TNG anymore. the effects are somehow more dated than the original series. I mean Kirks enterprise moving through space looked more realistic than what they did on TNG. how is that?

[HardyGirl]

The Inner Light,...a very touching episode
and the one that Data builds a daughter,..once she learns to love,....she dies,..AWESOME!

Yeah, that was a really good one!

[samurainoir]

Is this a trick question?

SC

"How many lights do you see Human?"

[Mikey]

For episodes I hate ..... any with Troi's mother

Troi's mother was the worst character ever created for a Star Trek series.

I even like Wesley better than her

[david_b]

Please don't say they were all good. Most of the first season is impossible to watch.

Oh, yes and no.. It definitely had it's own 'wonky' style to it. I find about half the episodes fairly enjoyable on that type of charm alone. "Farpoint" was definitely good.

2nd Year..? Definitely "Measure of a Man".. The ending chokes me up every so often, when Data compliments Riker on helping him become a wise man.

3rd/4th Years..? Nearly every episode ROCKS. NG at their best..! "Drumhead", Frakes directoral debut was excellent.

5th Year forward..? Pretty much 'autopilot' with most of the creative juices then on DS9, but a few memorable ones, none the less.

Yes, 'Best of Both Worlds' and Unification (with Spock) stand out..

david_b

[bobws]

Yesterday's Enterprise with the Enterprise C and Tasha brought back to die again.

DS9 was pretty good.

Voyager was Trek as "Lost in Space"

Enterprise was the beginning of the end that culminated in Trek's death at the hands of JJ Abrams!

[johnmiic]

I would say more than 1/2 of the series is paint-by-numbers TV scriptwriting/ production. Another disease, another evil twin, another crew person gets drunk/goes crazy, misunderstood alien attacks, etc. are all foisted on the public in cycles each season because they didn't know what to write about. The ones that are good are often really good. I also find that the fans tend to like stuff that is total keee-rap! Any episode with Data's brother Lore is just garbage but the fans love it. Then they hate the good episodes in TNG because an episode tries something different or tries to challenge them. Interesting to note:

Skin of Evil - Tasha dies realistically and suddenly at the hands of a blob-like alien creature. Fans hate this episode and so does the writer, Joseph Stefano, ( respected writer of Psycho and The Outer Limits), because it was likely re-written by Rodenberry's lawyer at the time. This story allowed Denise Crosby to leave the show because she felt there was nothing for her to do. It was also specifically written to contrast with Spock's death in Star Trek II.

Fans also tend to hate these:

Hollow Pursuits & The Most Toys

Other good eps I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Yesterday's Enterprise - An alternate Trek reality from a different P.O.V.

Who Watches the Watchers - Picard is mistaken as God to a primitive people.

The Defector - A lone Romlan tries to convince the Federation that a war is going to break out between the Federation and the Romulans. DS9 did a better version of this a few years later with the Dominion as the threat.

Déjà Q - Q is kicked out of the continuum with no powers.

Season 4, Episode 15: First Contact - The UFO phenomena turned into a Trek story.

Captain's Holiday - Picard does a little Indiana Jones.

[jds1911a1]

Please don't say they were all good. Most of the first season is impossible to watch.

that's cuase it's almost entirely remakes of classic trek stories

[jds1911a1]

The wounded ... becuase it is all about Chief O'brian. it's also an allegory on the cold war how dinosaurs like me had to learn to trust the russians

[UnderdogDJLSW]

I do not know the name of it, but I like the ep where Q zaps the Enterprise into the Delta quadrant and they encounter the Borg for the first time. The only way they survive is because Picard admits to Q that humans can't do everything they want, yet.

[wyldpny]

I get a kick out of you guys when you say you don't know or remember the name of an episode.
One word..."Google" LOL J/K

Aah yes, TNG. The relaunch of live action Star Trek on TV. A lot of really good episodes surrounded by many so so and some not so good and a few real eggs.
I agree that if I see TNG on and it is an episode with Laxwanna Troi I groan and quickly turn the channel. But there are many fans out there who love that character. Go figure.

One of my favorites was "Darmok".
"Darmok, and Jalad... at Tanagra!" - "Shaka, when the walls fell." - "That's how you communicate, isn't it? By citing example... by metaphor! Uzani's army... with fists open..." "Sokath, his eyes uncovered!"
This is what TNG and Star Trek in general could have and should have been about in so many episodes.
If I have one major complaint about Trek it is the fact that just about every alien race any of the Trek ships and crew encountered "seem" to talk English. I know I know, the universal translator. To that I say, Chinese martial arts movies. You know, the lips move but the voice in English doesn't match up. That could have been an amazing and challenging acting experience on top of all of the make up I bet.
Even though Darmok and his race also speak in English, thanks once again I guess to the universal translator, it is still presented as a unique challenge for Picard and crew to actually "understand" and comprehend their language and what they are trying to communicate. The episode was very well done. I used this episode to teach my wifes high school French class for two days on the idea of better understanding different cultures and languages and they really loved it and I think it helped open my wifes eyes to Trek as more than just a sci-fi TV show a little more as well.
The fact that Gene Roddenberry created the show and pitched it to the studio as being a somewhat cost effective show to make with the universal translator premise being one of the ways they would do it, but still... Just travel to 20 different countries right here on planet Earth and you will quickly discover just how many different and unique languages have independently developed over just hundreds of years right on this one planet, let alone the many possibilities on the hundreds and hundreds of planets that could support life that were spread out throughout the Trek-universe.

[Hector]

Anything WITHOUT Wesley Crusher...

I did love TNG...great show.

Deep Space 9 was great too.

Voyager was ok.

Enterprise was mediocre at best...but mostly a dud.

But the original series is KING of course.