Key:
Klingon episode
Bajoran episode
Romulan episode
Borg episode
Just what we needed, another Sesame Street episode. When they're ranking even lower than Lwaxana Troi's creepy mud bath with a child, this season's reputation as the pinnacle of TNG needs serious scrutiny.
There are some episodes I wasn't able to appreciate as a child, but which have become belated favourites through the lens of age and experience. This is not one of them.
One of the least memorable episodes of the series, I can't remember whether I'd actually seen it before, and my life isn't any richer for it. The arrival of Worf's troubled son (for how long?) threatens to spell the end of the golden age, and even the techy B-plot's boring and fails to be a clumsy analogy for parenting in any way.
A more worthwhile episode than some of the stupider ones, but also more like a hospital drama than Star Trek. Character conflict improved the series, but it's not enough to sustain an episode on its own.
The return of a weird monster from season 1 is justified through its connection with Data, but it only amounts to a repetitive lesson about revenge through the medium of technobabble. Of course, the Crystalline Entity isn't the real villain of the piece... oh no, wait, it killed all those colonists, didn't it? Don't know what I was thinking, sorry.
Bogstandard possession/hostage story. The actors might have had fun playing baddies for a change, but it's telling that this is mainly notable for introducing the transporter pattern enhancers. Those three metal posts were more interesting than the villains.
A perfect society of eugenicists who've isolated themselves from useful breakthroughs are begrudgingly saved by a disabled man. Stubborn colonists facing planetary crises isn't one of my favourite sub-genres, but it's nice to see Picard being consistently tolerant of idiots.
A disappointingly swift resolution to the Klingon crisis after all the build-up, with no extra episode for consequences like last year, we're just left with a new arch-nemesis who'll prove less destructive than the Duras sisters in the long term. I mainly associate this instalment with the ludicrous laser (sorry, tachyon) grid in space, but Data gets a decent short story in there.
Another traumatised boy, another anomaly threatening to tear the ship apart, but at least the plots strands tie together, which isn't always a given. You could isolate the scenes where the kid cosplays as Data and throw on a laugh track to make a very different experience, but the overbearing sadness prevents it from really being an enjoyable episode.
The diminishing cliffhangers continue with a historical romp that might as well be on the holodeck. The tease of Data's predetermined historical decapitation is nicely ghoulish, and the aliens are creepy, but the episode's awash in technobabble that doesn't bode well for the future.
A suspicious time traveller livens up what would have been a dull episode. His larger-than-life performance threatens to annoy, but I can't help but admire his cheek. The crew are still optimists, though more cautious now after run-ins with other fraudsters. Troi's bloody useless though.
Wesley's back to save the Enterprise from the adults who are all addicted to a dumb video game when they should be doing their studies. I'd call it prescient, but Sonic was out by this point. It's also an allegory for drugs, in case... oh, you got it. Silly, but fun as a commemorative throwback by this point.
You know you're not in for a good time from the title, but it's a dark episode done well that you can try to stomach every couple of decades. There's some nice bonus continuity with the flashback to Jack Crusher's death, and I was astounded by the acknowledgement of 'Shades of Gray.'
Not quite mandatory viewing after the earlier Borg classics, it was a good idea for a low-key return, but the crew are reduced to caricatures and forced extremes to serve the ethical dilemma, with no question about where it's going to end up. Got to love Hugh's cool lenticular eyepiece though.
So that's why the discourse around detransitioning sounds so familiar. The sci-fi wrapping isn't the strongest, especially the forgettable anomaly plot, but I think they pull off a trans rights episode well for 1992, with the meaty speech going to the guest star this time.
'Arena' co-op mode. It doesn't get more pure 'Trek than this, but the culture that communicates only in memes is more interesting in concept than execution. Especially tedious is the part where Deanna has to teach Data how to google related keywords, but it was 1990. Introducing Ashley Judd as an unnecessarily distracting background ensign.
A conventionally lesser conclusion, but one I found more interesting than I used to. Spock interacting with the next generation is the main event, and still feels like a big deal, but there's a lot of nice world building too, from sympathetic Romulans to the space dive bar. Sela's abrupt failure is disappointing though, especially for being her last appearance, but her use of deepfake disinformation was prescient.
The last major stepping stone to Deep Space Nine, the simultaneously Jewish and Palestinian Bajora [sic] are one of the less subtle but most pertinent allegories of the series. Their inconvenient suffering won't be so easily ignored thanks to the eponymous ensign with attitood sticking around. A shame she didn't become a regular.
One of their better deliberately uncomfortable fables, what starts out feeling more like an original series throwback (or copying Red Dwarf again) becomes more complex and interesting through the dense veil of ambiguity. Seeing the regulars flustered is also fun, especially the over-the-kids'-heads gag with Riker needing some holodeck therapy.
Sure, it's mostly nonsense with space ghosts (how do they not go through the floor?!), but it's also a substantial follow-up for Ro and gets to play with emotional farewells without the cost. Must have been a fun one to film too.
As prestigious as episodes get, though never a favourite. Teasing Spock's appearance for as long as possible always felt gratuitous, and Romulus is unnecessarily drab, but they make up for it elsewhere with Sarek's tragic swan song, Picard and Data's roommate sitcom and a seemingly wild goose chase that sees the Enterprise playing dead in a junkyard.
While Worf tried to be the star, Data always tended bar. I was looking forward to this amnesiac shake-up most of all, but it doesn't have all the fun it could, like when Buffy did it. Still, we get a few revealing insights into the regulars, and it's heartwarming when their innate goodness saves the day. I also enjoyed the new character inserted seamlessly from out of nowhere, like when Buffy did it.
Picard gets abducted again, but this time they gaslight him into thinking he has a family before taking them away, so that's alright, then. Sombre and sentimental Twilight Zone strangeness, spoiled by the insistence on cutting back to the ship and breaking the immersion.
Bloody quantum filaments, no consideration for fellow space travellers. The most rudimentary of bottle-show premises makes the most of its potential by having randomly mixed groups deal with various sub-crises that force them to act uncomfortably out of character. I don't think I'd seen since I was the age of those kids, but I enjoyed it as much on both sides.
Some may call it character assassination, but the bursting of the perfect boy genius' bubble was long overdue and makes an extremely satisfying pop. Wesley comes out of the experience damaged and more interesting, it's a shame he had to leave the show for that to happen.
If there was any episode I didn't need to see again, it's the one that repeats itself multiple times. But even after so many goes around, the nerds' Groundhog Day is still riveting, from the most iconic cold open of the series to the eerie premonitions and creative efforts to escape the loop of doom. Despite the repeated viewings, I hadn't remembered it was a semi-Beverley episode too.
