What was your favorite episode of Star Trek: TNG?
 

Okay okay okay... quit calling me late to the party. I do this with every popular show out there-- I start watching after it's been off the air for at least a few years. I did it with Frasier, Red Dwarf (although there are new episodes being made) and now I'm doing it with the Star Trek franchise. Back off. I know there are Star Trek fans on this forum, and if you've noticed my posting style (although I have no idea why you would) a lot of my posts are Star Trek-centric. This is why:

My job in the past few months had late hours, so I'd get home and be able to watch one episode per day at 1 in the morning. But man, it was great. I just turned it on one day and started watching and never stopped. Anyway, the series has run its cycle now. I've seen all seven seasons plus the movies (except for Insurrection, which I'll get around to eventually). I've also seen the new one by JJ Abrams. At the moment I'm slowly progressing through DS9 and a handful of the original series.

But until I get through it all, I know TNG is pretty much the only series beloved by ALL Trek fans, not just some.

Here are my personal top 5 episodes in no particular order. I couldn't rank them accurately.

1. "The Most Toys" (S3E22)- There's nothing incredibly powerful or ground-breaking about the plot or the way it was written. But it's very dramatic and quite colorful, which I think is what Star Trek is all about. I kind of have a weakness for Data-centered episodes, and this one is particularly good. It's odd, esoteric, and particularly intense considering he's being held captive as an object in a collection of toys, when really he's the being with the highest code of ethics on the entire rogue ship

2. "The Silicon Avatar" (S5E4)- Perhaps the most tragic of all the TNG episodes. I mean, TNG does this all the time where something bad happens but it ends on a hopeful note- Tasha Yar's death, Worf's vengeance against Duras, etc. Not in this one. It ends on a tragic note, with the doctor now only left to her own madness and questioning of her actions for the rest of her life.

3. "Yesterday's Enterprise" (S3E15)- This episode is on most peoples' lists. I normally hate causality/time travel shit in sci-fi movies/stories. It almost never works out. Here it DOES work out and it's absolutely brilliant. People claim that Picard's decision-making is totally irrational and not at all what a starfleet officer would even consider. Well guess what? He's Picard, and when his back is to the wall he often makes decisions that violate starfleet regulation/the prime directive. And it's not THAT unrealistic. He knows what Guinan is capable of and he also knows that the Federation is going to lose the war. May as well send Tasha Yar back, right?

4. "The Chase" (S6E20)- This is one of those episodes that years from now will be considered genius in a Jules Verne kind of way. This is exactly what science fiction is all about- create a universe and try to explain it. If/when humans discover life elsewhere in the universe we're going to have to answer some real tough biological questions. In the Star Trek universe, this one does a brilliant job of it. I was totally blown away. That takes some real creative-ass minds to think of that kind of shit.

5. "I, Borg" (S5E23)- I chose this borg episode instead of The Best of Both Worlds mainly because it exposes a different side to the story instead of just "We need to find a way to kill the borg nao!" And that different story is: "When we DO find a way to eradicate the borg, are we going to have the balls to do it?" Picard's actions in this episode come up time and time again later in the series/movies (especially First Contact, obviously) and here is one of the most questionable decisions he makes in his entire career as captain of the Enterprise. And yet it's so well-written that viewers of this episode more often than not finding themselves siding with Picard, even though they face a fictional race/character who is more violent, hated, and ire-raising than Nazis.

These are just some episodes I brought up. I'm not bringing up more incase this thread dies quickly. I've already wasted enough time typing this out as it is.

Best of Both Worlds part 1 and 2.

I also liked the one where Picard lives an entire lifetime in just a few minutes.

This works for me. The most action of the series.

Definitely.

Although there are a ton of episodes I used to like (been years since I watched any...).

I'm actually recording both parts of Best of Both Worlds in the next couple of days on BBC America.

(I, Borg was just on a couple of days ago. Taped that one as well).

All Good Things...

One of the best series finales ever.

And pretty much any episode with Q is baller.

I think maybe my favorite ever is Reunification, parts 1 and 2. Picard and Data being badass spies, Nimoy doing a bunch of cool shit, and other than Picard's borg transformation it probably has the best cliffhanger ending to the first part of a two-parter in series history. I positively SQUEALED when Nimoy came out of the shadows and said "It seems you have found him, Captain Picard" the first time I saw this episode.

Honorable mention: Descent parts 1 and 2. The first episode is amazing. The second is a bit of a let down.

Any episode with Q
The Tribbles
Yesterdays Enterprise

And the worst episodes? Anything featuring Wesley Crusher.

Biggest blue balls episode? Conspiracy, from near the end of season 1. I remember (at the time!) thinking how awesome it was to have Starfleet infiltrated by mind control aliens. And then....nothing ever happened with them ever again.

(I think they were originally supposed to be the 'big bad' that the Borg were)

Ill probably get flamed, but i never really got into the Next Generation much nor any of the series after.

Im an Original Series guy all the way as cheesy as it is. Nothing will ever top the Kirk/Spock/McCoy Bromance.

First time I saw the end of part 1 I had chills for like... 10 minutes. I imagined myself watching this episode when it came out and having to wait until NEXT season to find out the conclusion. That would have driven me nuts.

Not that we all haven't seen this 1000 times, but here it is just to enjoy it again:

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There are actually some good episodes with Wesley.

I like the one where he and Picard hole up in a cave.

It was freaking torture.

The X-files used to do shit like that, too.

And Battlestar Galactica's season one cliffhanger, maybe the harshest ever. It's like "oh shit" and then "see you again in a year!"

Ditto on the Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger.

I remember watching it...I was about 10...and I was thinking "no way do they let it end like this."

And Picard delivers his line...and I'm in shock...and Riker says "Mr. Worf....fire."

And I'm thinking "**** this is going to own."

TO BE CONTINUED

And I screamed out loud. I was so ****ing infuriated. ROFL

Writers strike didn't help on bringing them back...

Yesterday's Enterprise will always be my favorite.

Other top episodes:
Best of Both Worlds (best cliffhanger in television history)
Reunion
Inner Light
The Measure of a Man
The Wounded
Deja Q
Redemption
Silicon Avatar
Sins of the Father

I really liked the arc about Worf losing and then regaining his honor and the Klingon-centric stories in general. Gawron and K'Ehleyr are probably my two favorite recurring characters.

Plus K'Ehleyr was hotter than a ruptured plasma conduit. :drool:

Worst thing about that cliffhanger...they fired the composer who composed that music. ROFL

Idiots!

I was watching that with one of my best friends. We both screamed at the TV, and then turned and screamed at each other. That was brutal. So was the wait to see how it would be resolved.

Anything with the Klingons in TNG was awesome.

A Matter of Honor was great, too. The one where Riker was put on a Klingon ship. Season 2 I think.

Gowron was great. A full-blown, wild-eyed lunatic who didn't give a crap about anything, but almost always did the right thing. At least until his DS9 meltdown.

Anybody remember when TNG and DS9 were on the air at the same time. That was like the golden age for Star Trek. Then TNG went off the air, and suddenly DS9 just kept getting better and better.

Reunification Parts I and II

I did not like the episode where Riker fell for that bi sexual tranny alien or whatever that was, he was a mans man. Always getting the ladies.

DS9 was generally pretty lame until Worf joined the cast. Then they got dark and bloody and it rocked pretty much constantly until the end. Sisko had a mean streak that sort of set him apart from the other series leads. I liked it.

You know what it also is? It's the music score. There's something about the crescendo after Riker delivers that line (very well, might I add, considering Frakes is a method-acting whore) and the fade to black and the font and text of "TO BE CONTINUED..." I can't quite put my finger on it, but I do know that if Ron Jones didn't write the music the way he did it wouldn't be as hair-raising as it is.

That's why it's my belief that if Hell is the way Dante describes it, there's going to be a particular section (probably in Circle 7- Violence Against Art) for Rick Berman. He pretty much fired Ron Jones for being too good at his job. I can't fathom why anybody would do that. **** his idea of filmscore aesthetics. If you've got a product like the one Ron Jones made, you're an asshole for getting rid of him.

heh, yea....that was around 1990 or so right? Pre internet era....you know, before spoilers, when you actually had to wait until something was broadcast or shown in theaters to know all the secrets. It was painful.

I think the reason most people had that reaction to Best of Both Worlds is Patrick Stewart.

People were emotionally attached to the character of Picard.

What a great actor...

This scene has always stayed with me:

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Actually, pretty much any episode that involved the Romulans.

The intrigue on that show was great, and then the war. Totally badass series.

I remember watching that and Babylon 5 every week in college. Nothing quite that cool on right now. We need a good space blow-em-up show.

That is a classic moment. Damn Cardassians.

Heh. I was too late

The Inner Light?

The one where he plays the flute. Some of the best tv ever done.

Picard clutching that flute to his chest at the end of the episode and starting to play it, was very powerful TV. His acting chops certaintly helped.

If this episode was broadcast in todays age, we all would have known about what happens 3 or 4 months in advance.

Indeed.

As for DS9, Dukat announcing that the Cardassians were voluntarily joining the Dominion is one of the greatest "Oh Shit" moments in TV history.

"The Sons of Soong have joined together...and together, we will destroy the Federation."

Another great cliffhanger line.

Hell, there probably would have been a production copy on torrent sites months before it aired. It's made television very hard to watch these days. You always know what's coming.

Though I think at the same time that's what makes the really good shows these days stand out.

That was one of the best sequences in any TV or movie, ever. The camera panning slowly around towards Riker, Shelby whipping around waiting for his order.... and then the single word command, perfectly delivered. damn. Doesn't get any better than that.

Rare flashback for me this thread is sparking (I don't remember a whole lot, generally - brain like swiss cheese...). But I was such a nerd back then. I used to have a book with blueprints of the Enterprise D.

I LOVE this scene in Best of Both Worlds. Riker's probably my favorite human character

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He was another one of my favorite recurring characters. It really bummed me out when he went 100% dark side. But it did make for some great drama.

Too bad DS9 isn't broadcast regularly the way Next Generation is. I don't think I've seen the later episodes of DS9 more than a couple of times each. My favorite episodes of NG I've watched... hell, dozens of times.

I always liked him because he played a trombone. This was back in my own trombone playing days. I haven't touched the thing in almost 15 years now.

Did anybody like Voyager? I think thats when Star Trek "jumped the shark"

Heh. I have the blueprints and technical manuals from both the original series and NG.

**** Voyager. Do Gooders Lost in Space. 4321

Not much.

I really liked Enterprise at the end. They fixed that series just in time to get it cancelled. The last season was not far behind some of the best of TNG and DS9.

The key factor, I think, in all their best runs being conflict.

But there's one other factor that I think killed Enterprise, and that was the lame-ass theme song. I don't think series with lame-ass theme songs ever survive. I still think Firefly would have made it without the country theme (although I like the song).

Good shows always seem to have good music. Or maybe I'm just biased. Or maybe I just forget the bad music.

It's really too bad that Shelby wasn't in any more episodes. IIRC Elizabeth Dennehy had no interest in doing anything else.

That's awesome because Riker is usually so happy and jovial most of the time. Always smiling.

And then...

http://img.kyon.pl/static/img/remiq.net_18473.jpg

I also love Worf's line after they fail to rescue Picard from the Borg.

"No sir, he appears to have to gone over to the Borg."

"He IS a Borg!" :(

This! :thumb:

Also, I agree DS9 sucked until Worf joined the show. After that it rocked.

I had high hopes for Enterprise, but it sucked out of the gate and I'd lost interest by the time it got better. I sure did like the Vulcan, though. :drool:

A friend of mine is seriously into movie/TV collectibles - he has some stuff that's so amazing I probably shouldn't even talk about it. But he had several uniforms from NG (including one of Stewart's uniforms) and one of Jolene Blalock's orange one piece suits that he actually had displayed on a mannequin. Sadly, he lost his job about a year ago and has had to sell off parts of his collection to pay the bills, and that was one of the things he liquidated.

And yes, I did feel up the tits, just to say I did it. :thumb:

Voyager should have been over in the first episode. They kill Janeway and use that damn device to get back home.

Voyager had the potential to be the greatest series. It would have been if Janeway wasn't such a pussy and if the ship gradually fell apart throughout the series.

Should have bought some of that stuff off his hands, man. You probably could have gotten a deal for it if you offered to let him buy it back when he was employed and in good financial shape again

Heh, they were never shy about her role on the show...

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Also, Enterprise would have been a lot better if the entire crew had questionable ethics. They were only a generation or two separated from an apocalyptic nuclear war, there needed to be a transition between World War III and Paradise.

This shit goes for serious cash. I don't have that kind of money laying around. Even the communicator pins (I think he has two of them, or at least did) go for several hundred a piece.

Anything with Q.

The episode where Picard lived a whole lifetime.

The time loop where the Enterprise kept exploding.

The two-parter where they thought Picard was dead but he was pretending to be an archaeological thief.

The one where the Enterprise was docked to get cleaned and everyone left the ship but Picard and thieves came on board to steal the deadly emissions and sell them to terrorists.

The two-parter where they go back to San Fran because of Data's head in a cave, and meet Guinan in the 1800s.

The one where Troi's mother goes comatose and Troi has to go into her mind and finds out she had a dead little sister.

The one where Data has nightmares and tries to stab Troi and it turns out interdimensional parasites are snacking on people.

The one where the away team on a shuttle comes back to find the Enterprise frozen in time in apparent battle with another ship (a Romulan IIRC).

The one where the older ship comes back through time and changes history so that the Federation is at war with the Klingons and Tasha Yar is still alive.

The one where Riker finds his double trapped on a planet because when he tried to beam out it bounced back and made two of him.

The one where Geordi and Ro Laren are presumed dead but are actually out of phase and still on the ship.

The one where Ro, Guinan, Picard, and the Asian chick are turned into kids.

(Those are the ones off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.)

Also, the one where O'Brien, Data, and Troi were possessed by imprisoned energy beings.

Time's Arrow.

This one is very underrated. I think people are turned off because they decided to throw in some historical actors which made it kinda cheesy. Maybe so.

But we're still dealing with the question of intelligent life out there in the universe. And I'm sure we've all had the thought that if there is intelligent life, has any of it ever visited earth? And if it has, when? This feeds into that side of Star Trek's viewership, which I think it should have done more often-- connecting the dots between where we the human race are now to where we supposedly get to in the Star Trek world.

Also, Data is a badass in this episode. He doesn't need an emotion chip to function in 19th century America. Hell, he does it much better than any of the Enterprise crew, and he's not even human

As for the other series... I enjoyed DS9 for a while but actually enjoyed it less near the end where it was all about war. But I do admit that Sisko's character improved greatly once they let him shave the testicle-fuzz off his head. As soon as he was bald again, he started working his Hawk character from "Spenser" into his attitude.

Voyager wasn't bad. Wasn't great, wasn't bad. Just sorta "was".

Enterprise, I watched the first few and gave up on it.

While we're on the Star Trek subject: the order of the movies, in order of "goodness", goes: 2 (Khan), 4 (whales), 6 (Klingon assassination), 1 (first film), 3 (Search For Spock), 5 (the reeruned one about the Godlike something or other that was so bad the only thing I remember is Uhura doing a fan dance, which was pathetic). I don't include the TNG films in the group, but for those I didn't mind Generations (Captain Kirk, Malcolm McDowell, and the Nexus) and the one where they went back in time to help Zefram Cochran launch his ship. The last one, about the young Picard clone, I don't even remember what happened it was so bad. I think Data croaked in it IIRC.

My list is:
1. Star Trek VI
2. Star Trek IV
3. Star Trek II
4. Star Trek III
5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
6. First Contact
7. Generations
8. Insurrection
9. Nemesis
10. Star Trek V

Just read the OP. Amazing that you just now got around to watching it.

If you haven't seen DS9 start on it now. It's better than TNG and gets really episodic and dramatic in the last 3 seasons. It's Michael Dorn's best work.

I've done this too. Did it with Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond. I plan to do it with the X-Files (I've seen one season, have them all on DVD) and I should probably do it with Babylon 5 and Stargate Atlantis.

It would be 2, 1/6, 3, 4, 5 for me. First contact and the new one would both fall somewhere behind 2 and ahead of 1/6. The other TNG movies just sucked.

I think you'll probably love the X-Files through about season 7. In the middle, seasons 4-6 or so (if memory serves), was some of the best stuff on TV, but the alien arc episodes running throughout the series (starting with the pilot) are all pretty awesome.

That's a show where you really see how the episodic nature works in a way completely different from the serial nature of shows like BSG. Wheras with BSG, it's better to just sit and watch them all, part of what made the X-files great was waiting for cliffhangers to resolve. And you just can't get that, not with reruns or DVD. So it may not be as magical now as it was then.

Atlantis is pretty good. It ends horribly.

Babylon 5 was also pretty good. It hasn't aged well, though. I never thought the CGI looked very good at the time, and it looks horrible now. But if you can get past that, the story of it's pretty intriguing.

To me its 2,4,3,6,1,5
2 and 4 are by far the best for me, 3, 6, and 1 are pretty good, the one I did not like was 5. For TNG First Contact is by far the best, then Generations. Insurrection and Nemisis were meh.

I think I'm the only person who didn't like the save the whales movie.

Unfortunately, the one that is ALWAYS on whenever I happen to catch it on tv is the one where Wesley has to save the Enterprise because of everyone getting addicted to a videogame where they shoot discs into blue funnels or something. It also has Ashley Judd.

My favorite was when they found Scotty trapped in a signal or some anomaly, and they manage to unscramble him in the teleporter. He and Geordi spend a bit shooting the shit about the advancements that had been made since he was trapped. Scotty scolding the waiter about his Scotch tasting like crap because they used fake alcohol by that time is one of my favorite memories of the series.

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It had the best humor. I always loved it when Scotty tries to tell the Apple computer to give him information, then a 20th century guy comes up and tells him to use the mouse. Without missing a beat, he clears his throat, picks up the mouse and speaks into the bottom of it. "Hellooooooo computer!"

No, you're not. I mean, I don't hate it or anything, but it's just.... there. IV was like Star Trek for people who don't care about Star Trek. I want raging villains and phaser battles - who gives a shit about whales?

Star Trek is about the characters. In that light IV is wonderful and dear to me.

Double dumbass on you. ROFL

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I love TNG and have seen every episode multiple times... but I sure as shit don't remember the episode names.

the only episode that I watched all the way through (I dont remember the name of it) was about a crew member that was addicted to the holodeck. I dont remember all the details but the gist of it was that the guy would spend all of his time in the holodeck talking to women. Eventually the crew noticed the guy was never around and was neglecting his duties. So Riker shuts down the holodeck and gives the guy a talking to. then the holobater guy lost it and started crying.

it was so unintentionally funny.

Beyond that, I couldn't stand TNG. I've seen all of the original series and loved those. TNG didn't have the same appeal because the Captain Picard character doesn't have any swagger. Kirk was the shit. He wasnt afraid to slap a bitch if he had to, and if that didn't work, he would seduce a green skinned ho.

And nobody on TNG looks as good as Uhura did in her prime.

Uh...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PVK6FRB79_...heprice158.jpg

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both of those chicks have big noses

Ahh so you're a Guinan kind of guy. That's cool. Whoopi is pretty sexy in that tender loving space mother kind of way

How about big ****ing tits?

http://www.trekunited.com/community/..._82_221923.jpg

You're out of your mind. Troi blows her doors off.

That's got one of the funniest Picard moments, man

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I could care less about the tits. (and those are decent but not large) Uhura had some really nice legs and thunder thighs

Uhura is not hotter than Denise Crosby:

http://i51.tinypic.com/5zhauu.jpg

Something I didn't realize- she's the daughter of Bing Crosby and did nude modeling before she did Star Trek. :drool:

she also did some background vocals for Black Sabbath on one of the post-Dio-era albums.
she's okay looking, too skinny for my tastes. and that haircut would kill my boner.

I always had the hots for Dr. Crusher. Never was a big Troi fan.