I saw most or all of these when they came around on BBC repeats in 1999, but I was more fixated on the ongoing spin-offs by that point, making these autumnal Enterprise treks feel less cosy and familiar than any previous run. They're on the wind-down now, but there are still a few late classics to compete with brash upstart Deep Space Nine.
Key:
Klingon episode
Ferengi episode
Cardassian episode
Romulan episode
Borg episode
Q episode
Troi's done dirty once again, without a worthwhile plot to justify the sadistic reprise. These forgettable retreads are the kind of shit you worry about in a sixth season, which was shaping up poorly by this point. On the bright side, boobs.
Pretty dumb and irresponsible as time travel episodes go, and not special enough to merit two parts, which will likely be an ongoing complaint. Data's predestined decapitation and time-displaced reassembly is a good hook, but the rest ranges from passable camp to excruciating. Now read the rest of the list in a Sam Clemens voice.
Not much of a Star Trek story, but it gets points for its novel take on the sinking ship. Data and the starbase commander conversing entirely in small talk is funny until he's killed off for the sake of being bloodthirsty.
Not an interesting enough story to sustain one and a half episodes, especially when the personal angle to Worf's adventure concluded in the first part. Maybe the story resonates with people who've had their culture repressed, but it's one of the dullest of the season for me.
It was an uphill battle for such an offensively ridiculous premise, but once they stopped treating it with awkward seriousness and embraced the comedy, complete with Ferengi as fitting bumbling villains, it started to win me over. This is one versatile series.
I was hoping this largely-forgotten murder-mystery might be a rare Crusher classic, but they can do better. At least they spared her the romance and let her do a karate kick this time. I couldn't remember how it was going to be wrapped up, but 'Aquiel' had already primed me to suspect the most unconventional culprit.
One of the weaker Q episodes (the good news is, the remaining ones are much better), his protégé for the week is also too reminiscent of Wesley, which rubs in that he isn't going to show up this year. It's mainly notable for some memorable images, but it was good to see Q dabbling in villainy again too.
Technobabble, a non-mysterious mystery and goofy sock puppet creatures let down what could have been a fun sci-fi horror allegory for fear of flying, but it's basically just that Twilight Zone episode with Schultz subbing for Shatner. Finally getting to see first-person beaming is amazingly cool until it preposterously switches to third person.
Troi and Marina get to show their chops, but this is just the same overfamiliar Romulan stuff, without a B-story to lighten things up. We're into Cardassians now, granddad. It also seems to confirm through omission that we're done with Sela. Probably just died.
Data and Geordi's pet project puts their shipmates in avoidable deadly peril, which retrospectively gets Wesley off the hook somewhat. I was hoping this might prove a comedy classic, but it's mainly just mucking about on the holodeck again.
I didn't need another Klingon episode so soon, but this sci-fi exploration of the Second Coming was an interesting angle. Unfortunately, the pretense of actors in make-up and wigs slipped more than usual, which took me out of it. They didn't even sing this time.
A tidy little murder mystery with an unconventional culprit, even if you may be screaming at the oblivious fools before the end. Geordi finally gets some action and it's always quite comforting to see non-model officers.
One for the shippers, the bogstandard premise doesn't offer much for less romantic viewers, who may be left with more nitpicks than plaudits (why doesn't the other Riker also get the promotion he earned?!). There's some subversion at the end, at least, and it turns out I'd given Farscape a bit too much credit for doing the same thing.
No doubt like many Trekkie kids, I associate this with being the let-down two-parter. Data going dark is an interesting development, but chaotic Borg are less threatening than orderly Borg and the reveal that Lore's their mastermind just establishes a clear target for them to inevitably defeat again.
This flawed classic feels like an Enterprise-style exercise in pedantic dot-connecting, but the final message from the over-optimistic galactic parent to her squabbling children makes it work, even if the actress' later role would retrospectively make it extremely distracting. Making it the two-parter rather than 'Birthright' could have made it feel more profound.
A run-of-the-mill time puzzle to apologise for all the character-focused stories, this has some very memorable imagery (I found Picard's wacky delirium spine-chilling the first time), but it's mainly a bunch of expressive mime dioramas and characters saying "temporal" a million times to sound clever.
As soapy as they come, but an insightful examination of the perils of workplace relationships, especially when firestorms are involved. The music angle elevates it, and following up on the 'The Inner Light' is classy.
Cute little robots' lives matter. Another thought-provoking episode for the Data pack, this was where I first learned the definition of (biological) life before school got around to it. They seem to be resisting the filler B-plot template this season, which is refreshing, as I keep expecting the cerebral discussions to cut away to Alexander learning to jump over the pommel horse or something.
This highly strange episode sees the grand return of the unrelated B-plot in one of the best examples of it completely overshadowing the main plot, then tidily wrapping up when the two-parter's only half-way through. Why not? This is also noteworthy as the only substantial Deep Space Nine crossover on this side, though to the frustrating extent that you wonder where all that show's other characters are.
Like similar attempts to convince a character that the adventures we've been watching for years never really happened, this is more about testing their resilience than insulting our intelligence, and it thankfully turns out to be more complex than it first appears. I kept wondering whether leaning on the fourth wall would have made it more of a classic or been a terrible mistake.
This may be the only two-parter they ever did where the pay-off beats the build-up, but the laid-back Enterprise being reorganised into a stressful workplace is a compelling story in its own right. Picard, Crusher and Worf skulking around in caves, less so.
Too sadistic to ever be a favourite, and distinctly lacking on the ship side, but Patrick Stewart and David Warner's two-hander is deservedly iconic. I found the final revelation of Picard's mental breakdown especially chilling as a young 'un. What do we need Romulans for with Cardassians around?
This impressively creepy mystery breaks some cosy conventions (besides the technobabble, alas), which bodes well for the year's ambitions. A cynic could point out that it's just doing The X-Files, before noticing that it predated that show by a year. Holodeck forensics makes a welcome return, and when we finally see the aliens, they aren't a letdown. A repressed sleeper hit.
The vengeance of an early holodeck villain is the sort of concept that's normally reserved for books and comics, but this reprise cements the holographic Moriarty as one of the greats, until he's hoist by his own Picard. The reveal is potentially mind-blowing, if the title didn't give it away, and Picard's musing at the end still resonates. Computer...? Just checking.
An uncomfortable sermon for a 40-year-old who's rewatching loads of Star Trek when he could be being productive, but I respect the lesson all the same. If it misses out on the all-time top 10, it's for the ick age-gap face-eating. Realising that it might have all been a dream oddly improves it.
Easily the best of the old-timer guest spots (including Generations), though for me, Scotty's return has always been literally dwarfed by the presence of the Dyson Sphere, one of the series' most mind-blowing concepts executed with conventional implausibility. The two come together in an exciting finale that's fully comprehensible for a change.
