With Red Letter Media sharing their top 5 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which 5 episodes are the best for you? (You can count two-parters as one episode!)
Mine are:
5 Conspiracy
4 Elementary, Dear Data
3 The Inner Light
2 Yesterday's Enterprise
1 The Best of Both Worlds Parts I & II
Best of Both Worlds wins for me, with Picard becoming Locutus and leaving the viewer on the edge of their seats for a season ending cliff-hanger! Unforgettable stuff!
They carried on and made another show about it and included Yesterday's Enterprise this time, but once again left out the The Inner Light, I don't really agree with their choices but it's interesting to watch.
I have only finished season 3. I have seen some later episodes, too, but I haven't seen those in years so most of the TNG I am watching feels new. I could not find a single episode from the first two seasons I even liked.
5. The Enemy - reminds me of Enemy Mine, nice effects
4. Deja Q - Q is one of the more interesting 'alien' creatures who turns up from time to time and this is my favorite episode featuring him so far, developed an interesting 'friendship' with Data
3. The Offspring - the most genuinely surprising episode, when it started out I kinda groaned but really grew on me, special mention to Hallie Todd as Lal, Data's 'daughter', who gives a really wonderful performance
2. Best of Both Worlds I and II - not quite as great as I hoped, it's still one of the better episodes, it doesn't help when I know Picard is never in any real danger but I have to wonder why he was so quick to kill his own men in First Contact since he was saved from the Borg, so it can be done
1. Yesterday's Enterprise -a thrilling, interesting, and atypically dark episode, one of the few TNG episodes I didn't want to end, Patrick Stewart at his very best
You’re in for some good TNG if you're still watching, seasons 1 and 2 were the worst, as the show was finding it's feet. There’s still boring episodes to come but a lot of the better episodes are in store for you too.
Yeah, I just watched the second episode of S4, taking place right after Best of Both Worlds, and it's kind of a yawner, Picard goes back home, Worf's parents are introduced and Wesley gets a message from his father. I guess they had to take it down a few notches. But I have to say the blu ray editions of TNG are top notch. A little more expensive than I'd like but I think they are worth it.
If you're still watching TNG, I would be very curious to see what you think of the series finale, All Good Things. To date, I still consider it the finest television finale I've ever seen and the best episode of the show, just above Yesterday's Enterprise.
1. All Good Things
2. Yesterday's Enterprise
3. Timescape
4. Parallels
5. Q Who?
6. Clues
7. The Survivors
8. Lower Decks
9. The Inner Light
10. First Contact
I'm one of the few who though the Borg were creepier and more intriguing in Q Who? than anywhere else in Star Trek. The interior sets of the Borg cube looked so creepy in Q Who?, like a really twisted mix of machine and wet, dripping organic material (which reminded a lot of the alien nest in Aliens). It was a little disappointing to see them drop the organic stuff in the set design and go strictly with the machine elements in future episodes and on Star Trek: Voyager.