Top 5 Next Generation Episodes

@nathwilson set me an interesting question the other day. When I say interesting, I am assuming the reader is a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation. If not, it’s less an interesting question, more a nerdy question. But hey, that’s still good! The question was what are my top 5 episodes of Next Generation? Ooh, that is an interesting question. 178 episodes made, and narrowing that down to the 5 very best? Well, that sounds like a blog post to me!

For the purposes of this list, we’re counting 2 part stories as one story. Redemption counts as 1 whole story, regardless of whether I would rank Part 1 as hugely better than Part 2. Or vice versa. Obviously this reduces the total of choices from 178 so it’s more like 168, but that’s still a large amount to choose 5 from. So I had to do some serious thinking. (Thinking, not drinking!)

On my first pass at this, I narrowed it down to ten episodes. That’s a good result for picking favourites out of one hundred but still twice what I need. So I know have to think about the best ones of this lot. Still, it means that I then have 5 more episodes for an ‘almost made it’ list.

The other thing to note is that when I pick my favourites of something, the results tend to vary on my mood. So it may well be that 3 months down the line I might have a different opinion on some episodes. With this in mind I’ve tried to think of episodes that I’ve been consistently able to watch over and over again as well as ones that have had a particular impact on me so hopefully this is the most consistent version of my list.

5: Conspiracy
I first got into Star Trek when BBC2 showed the first season of TNG. I instantly loved it, and at that young age didn’t have the same discerning nature as I do now. Looking back as an older man, I don’t enjoy that many of the first season episodes. But Conspiracy I always loved. It’s a proper high stakes kind of episode, with Starfleet being infiltrated and a starship destroyed early on. Then there’s an old admiral who can beat Worf up and it seems slowly that everyone is being taken over, even Riker! Then yay, Riker faked them out! Plus then they shoot a dude and he blows up! Brilliant!

4: Q Who
I knew I’d have a Q episode in here. Q is awesome. And of course, this episode introduces us to the Borg! I remember being properly freaked out by the Borg. Back in TNG days you see, the Borg where a really tough, damn near unbeatable villain. In later years they decided they were too tough and reduced themselves to a level that could be beaten often by Kathryn Janeway and an Intepid class starship. But don’t get me started there... This was the Borgs big debut and it was awesome. The scary cube ship, the way they just beamed onto Enterprise and ignored everyone, then became impervious to phasers, the casual dissection of a chunk of the saucer section, the self repairing ship, the Borg baby. Man, it was a hell of an episode and had a complete feeling of the Borg being unbeatable and there was no way out. And there wasn’t a way out. The crew weren’t able to pull a solution out at the last minute. Picard had to admit to Q he wasn’t ready for anything and Q pops them back to Federation space. And we all know then the Borg are coming... Brilliant!

3: The Pegasus
I always enjoy this episode. It starts nicely enough with the Captain Picard day bit, which is one of those little scenes I always enjoy because there’s no serious crisis yet, they’re just hanging out. Maybe that’s weird, but I do like those bits. Then the overall story is awesome. The idea of the secret experiments is cool, then the mutiny and the cover up make it all very mysterious and adds a layer to Starfleet that’s different to what we’ve seen before. And of course it gives Picard the opportunity to tell everyone off for breaking treaty’s and being underhanded, which is also brilliant as it involves Patrick Stewart talking. And it adds a very different layer to Riker, making him more than the guy who makes dramatic statements while putting his feet up on the furniture next to Data.

2: Chain of Command
Man, I can’t say enough good things about this episode. It has two of my favourite things about TNG in it. One is a good look at the way things work on a starship, in this case through the disruption that a new captain is causing when Jellico takes over. The other is Patrick Stewart talking! Seriously, the guy is brilliant. And not only that, he’s talking to David Warner! Two Shakespearean masters doing Star Trek scenes together? If that’s not a nerdgasm, you’re dead inside! Or not a nerd. And not just any talking, Picard’s being tortured. Actually tortured. This is a pretty dark and grim story. And it’s absolutely marvellous.

1: The Best of Both Worlds
Ah, the Borg again. Having spoken about Q Who I’ve kinda covered my feelings on the Borg, back when they were tough. This one differs slightly as this time the crew does have to solve the problem themselves. Oh, and the Borg got Picard and assimilated him. It’s an episode that’s just constantly exciting all the way through. It totally wins on ‘can watch over and over any time’ count. And when I was a kid and it was first on I had Borg based nightmares the whole week between part 1 and part 2.

For interest, the other 5 that didn't make it are, in no particular order:

Parallels
How can you not love Parellels? A Worf episode with a really good sci-fi concept, awesome humour, alternate visions of the Enterprise and crew and a regular character death? (Ok, an alternate regular character, but still)

Starship Mine
It's Die Hard on the Enterprise with Picard. Just so awesome. Sometimes Trek tries an episode that's a different style and this is one of those cases where it just pays off perfectly.

Gambit
The two parter where we find out at the start that Picard was killed off screen. No-one believes that, but we're not meant to! The fun is in the discovery of what has happened to him and this story is just that, fun! It's pretty much a romp, with space pirates, guys trying to infiltrate the pirates and always staying just the right side of ridiculous.

Relics
Scotty! It's just so awesome to see him! And such a awesome little tale of the engineer who's out of his time and can't keep up, but comes through in the end. Though it seems daft to send him off in a little shuttle at the end, he's surely going to get himself into trouble...

Tapestry
Q again, with a pretty deep tale about what happens if you did manage to undo the mistakes of your past. Marvellous for the concept and definitely for the Picard and Q exchanges.

I can't believe I didn't mention:
Well I only had so much room, but I did give thought to Unification, Yesterday's Enterprise, 11001001 and Captains Holiday. Also all excellent episodes but not quite in the ten.