I thought I’d give out my favorite ST:TNG episodes that I’d grown to love since I was young, all of which probably influenced the direction of my novel in some way. It’s hard to believe that this series ended seventeen years ago, yet I still see blogs today highlighting favorite TNG episodes. Today, I will do the same.
I’ve compiled my list of my ten favorite episodes for TNG, and I will do DS9 next week. I can’t compile a list for VOY or Enterprise yet because I simply haven’t watched enough episodes of either series to give it a fair assessment.
Here we go:
10. “Measure of a Man” – This episode was probably the first of the series to really explore the rights that an android should or shouldn’t have, and does so without getting too high and mighty about it. Here, Data and Picard fight for Data’s right not to be dismantled, and go against very compelling arguments made by Riker. I think one day in the distant future when there really are androids walking amongst us, we will refer back to this episode for guidance. Still, I think the slavery of artificial beings is inevitable, given human nature.
9. “Tapestry” – In this episode, Q helps Picard realize that a tragic event in his past played an integral part in Picard’s future. Q was always one of my favorite characters, and I always thought that he made for a better ‘prankster/life-teacher’ (is there a word that describes both?) than he did a villain. Here, Q was Picard’s savior, which I thought was a surprising and unbecoming gesture on his part. This episode teaches us that no matter what comes our way, even if it is something very bad, it becomes a part of us in ways that can’t easily be undone.
8. “The Naked Now” – This one is rarely on people’s list of favorites, but how often do you get to see the entire crew of the Enterprise drunk off their asses? The crew deals with an affliction that causes everyone to become intoxicated, and with dangerous consequences. The way the crew of the Tsiolkovsky freezes itself to death was especially creepy (by 1980′s standards). And come on, only one episode into the first season, and Data gets laid!
7. “Datalore” – Here’s another treasure from the first season where Data first meets (and constructs) his evil twin brother. I’ve always liked the idea of another ‘evil’ self somewhere out there in the universe. I love how as sophisticated as both of them really are, they are seemingly just made up of parts of mannequins from the window of a clothing store (Just snap the freakin’ head on!). I also think that this was Brent Spiner’s best performance of Lore, and his poorest of Data. As the seasons went on, the quality of his performances of these two characters reversed.
6. “Disaster” – The Enterprise gets rocked by a quantum filament and disaster ensues, but it does so differently for each group of characters. What appeals to me (as a scientist, probably) is how each was pitted with a problem that they must solve, making the Enterprise a kind of jigsaw puzzle with a time-bomb. Sometimes a problem would be interconnected with another group’s problem, which made it even more interesting. And they weren’t just limited to technical difficulties on the ship; they included problems like: how am I as Captain Picard going to deal with these children?
5. “Cause and Effect” – I am especially a big fan of the idea of causation and correlation, in part because we as human beings are so incredibly poor at it. We see one day of blistering cold and we think, wow, global warming must not be happening. I thought it was really neat to have the crew stuck in an endless loop that they couldn’t get out of, and die every time it went through a cycle. This episode was probably meant to be a budget-saver, but ended up being a very neat episode worth watching, er, again and again.
4. “I, Borg” – Here is an episode that made you question if you would still kill your enemy if he looked like a puppy. I think for many of us, we let our feelings of adoration towards the ‘young’ and ‘cute’ (i.e. fuzzy animals) blind us to objective reasoning. Many species on our planet need our attention and help, for instance, besides the cute and fuzzy ones. The real reason for sympathy towards the Borg drone eventually turns out to be individualism, but even if that wasn’t the case, I think the crew’s innateness to ‘protect and nurture’ the young would have gotten the better of them.
3. “The Inner Light” – This is a top among many lists. Picard becomes the victim of an alien probe that has him live the life of one of the aliens, all in the span of about twenty-five minutes. This episode was so well done, I have a difficult time describing why it was so good (or at least, what hasn’t already be mentioned before). It’s just an overall good story and invokes a deep sympathy for the dying race, which helps you get past the fact that a society who has the technology to play with people’s heads oddly can’t fix their own soil. Nevertheless, I think what appeals to many of us about it is that it reminds us that one day we may face our own demise – and we can’t help but ask, will there be anybody left to remember us?
2. “The Best of Both Worlds” – Big Borg Cube on a course for Earth to enslave the human race and Picard becomes their leader. Need I say more? This one is the top of everyone’s list, so there’s nothing too surprising here. In some ways, even Star Trek: First Contact never quite reached the same level as this blockbuster episode. I always thought it was funny how the Borg gave Picard a six-pack.
1. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” – This episode is probably my absolute favorite of all TNG episodes, where the crew meets its predecessor, the Enterprise-C. A lot of the way I designed the bridge of the Aegis-class starship was inspired by the look of the Enterprise-D in this episode. I’ve never actually been a huge fan of time travel stories, but this one warrants an exception. It was probably the first episode in the series that put a Federation ship in a situation of a hopeless war, and there was something very fresh about that at the time. It was great to see Tasha Yar after such a long time, and to see her hook up with Shooter McGavin. Believe me, after this episode, I never forgot the name Enterprise.
NEXT: My top picks for ST:DS9!
