BEST STAR TREK TNG EPISODES




 
YESTERDAYS ENTERPRISE
Season 3: Episode 15 (1990)


Considered one of the greatest sci-fi stories ever told on television, this episode grew from The Next Generation's unusual policy of allowing the submission of unsolicited story lines. Writer Trent Ganino pitched the story and ultimately shared credit with Eric Stillwell, then a production assistant on TNG. This episode explores what would happen had a key historical event not kept the peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. As it turns out, Captain Picard would be in charge of a militarized version of the Enterprise, and Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) would still be alive. The Enterprise-D teams up with the Enterprise-C, whose crew ultimately decides to return to their own time to sacrifice their lives to defend a Klingon outpost, thus restoring the universe to its proper timeline. This episode brought back the actress Denise Crosby to revive the role of Yar, a previous fan favorite. 


What I like best about this episode is the human factor that is shown; the results of the war and how it had changed so many of the regular characters in the TNG universe, as well as the budding romance between Yar and Castile, which really humanized the whole thing for me. As for Denise Crosby, she has come a long way as an actress: she was a really lousy actor in the first few seasons of TNG but this episode showed that she really has earned her chops. Overall, the acting was excellent and extremely believable. Picards' quote about losing the war against the Klingons is also seminal moment in Star Trek, words that are extremely memorable for a Trekkie. Finally, the the first battle of the episode and the final battle were just outstanding and really sealed the deal for me! Seeing a militarized Starfleet was quite unusual too, and I liked it a lot, since it's usually a weak/pansy organization, haha. In my opinion this TNG episode is in my Top 5 Best Start Trek of all time, I personally rank it #2.


BEST EPISODE QUOTES
"Forty billion people have already died! This war is not supposed to be happening! You've got to send those people back to correct this!" Guinan

"But if you go back, it could be a great deal more helpful.....the war is going very badly for the Federation, far worse than than is generally known. Starfleet Command believes defeat is inevitable. Within six months, we may have no choice but to surrender." Picard






 
DATA'S DAY
Season 4: Episode 11 (1991)



An episode in which Data attempts to learn more about what it means to be human, some of which are the most interesting and thoughtful of the whole TNG TV series. That’s why ‘Data’s Day’ is one of our top episodes, in which Data records a day in his life on the Enterprise for Bruce Maddox – who he, rather surprisingly, stays in touch with after Maddox’s threat to disassemble him. Data narrates this episode, talking Maddox through his day, and it includes the marriage of two of his friends and dealing with the complicated mess of human emotions that accompanies it. This is also the episode which introduces Data’s pet cat – Spot (which makes a surprising return in one of the later episodes of Picard).



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T'Pel was the identity of a Romulan spy posing as a female Vulcan ambassador during the late 24th century. In 2366 AD, the Romulan Empire requested T'Pel as an intermediary in peace negotiations between the Romulans and the United Federation of Planets. She was transferred from USS Zhukov to the USS Enterprise-D on their way to the Romulan Neutral Zone. During her stay on the Enterprise she attempted to steal additional information about the ships defenses. Later, the ambassador apparently died during transport from the Enterprise to the warbird Devoras. Finding out that the transporter accident was staged, the Starfleet crew assumed that T'Pel was actually alive and being held hostage by the Romulans. It was later discovered that T'Pel was in fact Sub-Commander Selok, a Romulan agent assigned to infiltrate the Federation diplomatic corps - the peace overtures and transporter malfunction carefully planned in order to facilitate her extraction, allowing the Romulans to steal much information from the UFP and Starfleet. This crisis deeply soured relations between the Federation and the Romulan Empire.




 
THE OFFSPRING
Season 3: Episode 16 (1990)


If Data's creator Noonian Soong could create an android — why couldn't Data do the same? The surprisingly funny and touching episode showed Data dealing with loss after he creates — and loses — a daughter. The episode marked the directorial debut of Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), who would go on to be among the most prolific actor-turned-directors in Trek history. "They were always capable, but you saw the progression of them becoming not just good directors — but becoming really good directors," Michael Dorn (Worf) says of working with costars Frakes and LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) as directors. 

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SAREK
Season 3: Episode 23 (1990)


In a rare reference to the original series, Spock’s father Sarek (Mark Lenard) boards the Enterprise for one last mission at 202 years of age. He’s suffering from a Vulcan form of Alzheimer’s, which forces him to lose control of his emotions, something totally repellent to his species. Picard steps in to mind meld with him and give him his fortitude (temporarily), and the scene where he has to unleash two centuries of buried emotions — love, regret, sadness, anger — is a powerhouse moment for Stewart.





 
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Season 3: Episode 26/Season 4: Episode 1 (1990)





 
DARMOK
Season 5: Episode 2 (1991)





 
I, BORG
Season 5: Episode 2 (1992)





 
THE LOWER DECKS
Season 7: Episode 15 (1994)





 
CAUSE AND EFFECT
Season 5: Episode 18 (1992)





 
FIRST CONTACT
Season 4: Episode 15 (1991)