Favorite Star Trek Tng Episode

[heartwood]

My fav is in the fifth season, "The Inner Light". JohnLuke is zapped by some probe that makes him pass out for 20min on the bridge... During this 20 min he lives an entire life time on the planet where the probe is from. Its a great episode of an amazing series.

[Guest lilme]

My fav is in the fifth season, "The Inner Light". JohnLuke is zapped by some probe that makes him pass out for 20min on the bridge... During this 20 min he lives an entire life time on the planet where the probe is from. Its a great episode of an amazing series.

I'm not sure what episode or season it is, but the crew ends up finding Spock who is trying to re-unify Romulans and Vulcans. My fav scene is where Data has a conversation with Spock as their working. Was... fascinating

~lilme

[square_duck]

I am basically a Star Trek junkie I watched TOS when it first came out, and I enjoyed (most of) the movies and TNG was also awesome! "Deep space 9" was.....Meh....ok I guess but TNG had some great stories and the acting and production and writing was always top notch

Anyways, to the OP, there were so many great episodes they are hard to list, but one that stands out as memorable and a favorite was called "Darmok" Picard is taken to a planet with an alien Capitan from another ship, and he has to figure out how to communicate with him, since the other Capitan speaks only in metaphors..it was very excellent, and still stands as one of my favorite episodes

and if anyone needs a listing of all the TNG episodes, they are here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_episodes

"make it so number 1"

qwack

[spoonchicken]

I'm not sure what episode or season it is, but the crew ends up finding Spock who is trying to re-unify Romulans and Vulcans. My fav scene is where Data has a conversation with Spock as their working. Was... fascinating

~lilme

"ReUnification Part 1"...Season 4 cliff-hanger...."Reunification Pt2">>>>Season 5 season opener...

[spoonchicken]

I'll go with "The Best of Both Worlds/Part 1"....Death is irrelevant....Resistance is futile

[Crimson_Wolf]

Any Borg episode is my favorite on TNG and Voyager

[brighteyes]

I grew up more with Voyager, but I recall seeing a few really great TNG episodes.

"I, Borg" sticks out as my favourite. It's the one where they take a young Borg on board with the intention of using him against his hive, as though he's simply a drone with no sentience.. However, this is no normal Borg- he is unsure of the collective's ideas and morals, and becomes close friends with the crew, in particular Geordi, who names him "Hugh." Eventually Picard is convinced of Hugh's startling humanity, especially when Hugh says "I will not assist you," referring to himself in the first person.

It was years ago that I saw the episode, but I remember feeling quite moved by the actor's performance, and the message behind it all.

Other than that, watching Q's antics was always fun

[spoonchicken]

I own ALL Star Trek on DVD...all six series, and all 11 movies. I also possess a "collectors item" known as "Captains Log: Fan Favorites". It was compiled according to an on-line survey of the fans. We voted on it. Also, the actors who were the Captains also voted, and had their personal favorite episodes included. Here goes: TOS/Captains Pick (William Shatner):" The City on the Edge of Forever"....Fan Picks: "The Enterprise Incident" & "Balance of Terror"........TNG/Captains Pick (Patrick Stewart): "In Theory"....Fan Picks: "Chain of Command Pts 1 & 2" and "Darmok".....DS9/Captains Pick (Avery Brooks): "Far Beyond the Stars"...Fan Picks: "What You Leave Behind" & "In the Pale Moonlight".....Voyager/Captains Pick(Kate Mulgrew): "CounterPoint"....Fan Picks: "The Omega Directive" & "Flashback"....Ent/Captains Pick (Scott Bakula): "Judgement"....Fan Picks: " These Are the Voyages..." & "First Flight"....I guess the animated series doesn't rate, in spite of the fact that that is where we learn Kirks middle name for the very first time...

[spoonchicken]

My fav is in the fifth season, "The Inner Light". JohnLuke is zapped by some probe that makes him pass out for 20min on the bridge... During this 20 min he lives an entire life time on the planet where the probe is from. Its a great episode of an amazing series.

...."Jean-Luc"...

[belinda_sue_fox]

Brothers.

[sdsddlr]

Yesterday's Enterprise. I have a thing for predestination paradoxes.

[timmyc]

I don't have a favorite, I like the show as a whole. I always wish my boss was more like Picard, he is smart enough to make the tough decisions but always treats his crew with the utmost trust and respect. I wish Dr. Crusher wasn't absent in season two, I never really like Dr Pulaski.

[spoonchicken]

here's one for you......the Season 5 episode "The First Duty" is an official training tool used at the U.S. Air Force Academy to help teach lessons of ethics to the incoming freshman class...not bad for a "silly spaceship TV show"...

[spoonchicken]

I don't have a favorite, I like the show as a whole. I always wish my boss was more like Picard, he is smart enough to make the tough decisions but always treats his crew with the utmost trust and respect. I wish Dr. Crusher wasn't absent in season two, I never really like Dr Pulaski.

Neither did any of the other fans, which is exactly why Paramount was "forced" to bring back Gates McFadden as Dr.Crusher. Everyone agreed that the actress did a fine job with the role, but it just didn't "fit".....and!..."they" wanted to have a new spin on the Captain / Doctor relationship. In TOS, it was two men. In TNG, it was man & woman, so that opened up all sorts of new interactions that could be explored...especially considering the fact that Dr.Crushers husband died on an away mission that Picard was in comand of...and Picard had a secret crush on Beverly Crusher ever since he met her...etc etc etc...

[curiositykilledthecat]

Any Borg and any episode with Q

[belinda_sue_fox]

Oh yea DS9 "Little Green Men" if we are also doing DS9, Voyager etc.

[drynot]

Yesterdays Enterprise is my all time favorite TNG episode....

I don't know how likely it is but I am hoping they bring out another Star Trek TV series soon. I haven't heard anything about developing one though....

[babyfett]

The credits at the end of each show.

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

Like Square_Duck, I'm admittedly a big Star Trek fan myself. I have every season of every series on DVD, as well as all 11 movies. I still need to pick up "The Animated Adventures," as well as the second and third seasons of TOS "Remastered," but I plan to do that very soon. Since we're talking about TNG here though, I'll avoid mentioning my favorites from the other series'.

This is really a tough question for me though, because I don't have one favorite episode; I have several that are on my "must watch" list, all of which I consider "favorites" for different reasons. I guess that you could say these are my top five TNG episodes, and constitute my "favorites."

1. Relics: I remember when this first aired. I was just discovering TOS at the time, so seeing Scotty (one of my favorite characters from TOS,) make a cameo in TNG was really exciting for me. I even have the novelization of this episode, which I first read when I was in elementary school. Looking back on Relics, I think that this episode was also excellent from a production standpoint; the attention to detail and effort put into recreating a portion of the original bridge (later expanded upon and reused for future productions,) was simply amazing.

2&3. Descent Parts 1 & 2: This may quite possibly be the most underrated TNG episode ever produced. Not only do we get a return of the Borg, but we get a return of another one of my favorite villians, Lore. To understand Descent Parts 1 & 2 though, you really need to see quite a few other TNG episodes. Datalore, The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 & 2, and I, Borg, the episode with "Hugh Borg" all tie into Descent Parts 1 & 2. For the first time ever we see Lore not simply as an antagonist, but as a character who genuinely seems to care about a cause, in this case it's the Borg. Similarly, this is also the first time that we see the Borg in a "vulnerable" state; Hugh's return to the collective has ruined them. Roll that together with the events in The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 & 2 and you have an excellent episode that doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves. I should also point out that the scenes that were filmed on location were quite good as well: fans of a certain children's TV series may recognize the building that Lore rallies his Borg inside of. (It's a rather recognizable structure.)

4. Yesterday's Enterprise: Prior to this episode we really didn't know that much about the Enterprise-C. We knew that Captain Kirk commanded the first starship Enterprise as well as the Enterprise-A. We knew that Captain Picard commanded the Enterprise-D, that it was a new ship, and that he previously commanded a ship known as the Stargazer, but we really didn't know anything about either the Enterprise-B or the Enterprise-C.

Yesterday's Enterprise filled in quite a bit of backstory surrounding the Enterprise-D, as well as TNG itself. It established the fact that the Enterprise-C was indeed destroyed, (rather than decommissioned,) that its Captain was the first (and currently the only) Female Captain of a starship named "Enterprise," and that the Enterprise-C played a direct role in establishing peaceful relations with the Klingons. Likewise, the episode also laid the groundwork for Commander Sela to be born, and for Natasha Yar not to be killed. It's also interesting to see the slightly more militaristic Starfleet from the alternate timeline within this episode, which we'd later see in Starfleet proper during DS9's "Dominion War" arc.

At its most basic level, the plot itself is a simple story revolving around deontological ethics, but the level of backstory involved ensures that this episode remains both plot and character driven, which isn't an easy feat to pull off with this kind of episode. The "core" of the plot itself had been used before and would ultimately be used again in future Star Trek TV series', as well as in TNG itself. It's really the blend of plot and character driven storytelling that makes this episode one of my favorites; throw in some time travel and a predestination paradox and you have one of TNG's best episodes.

5. Disaster: Quite possibly one of the "darkest" episodes of TNG, and of Star Trek in general, were it not for the show's talented writing team, Disaster could have been just that: a disaster. Fortunately, the writers did a top-notch job with this episode, and just as Yesterday's Enterprise was equally plot and character-driven, so was Disaster. In one sense, this episode feels like a fast-paced action flick; there's a "ticking clock" plot, where the warp core could explode at any second, a plasma fire could tear through the ship, and the crew is cut off from one another. At the same time, there are also a series of very personal stories being told all at the same time: Troi is experiencing her first taste of command with a skeleton crew of rookies on the Bridge, Picard is bonding with children as they all attempt to escape a heavily damaged turbo-lift, Worf is helping Keiko O'Brien give birth to Molly, and Dr. Crusher is preventing the spread of a plasma fire. This delicate balance of plot and character driven story is what makes Disaster one of my favorite TNG episodes.

I also highly recommend The Battle, The First Duty, and The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 & 2, as well as pretty much any episode with "Q" in it, especially Q, Who. The only reason I didn't mention these episodes above is because most, if not all of them share some similarities with my top five picks. I could easily throw in "Datalore" as well, but it too directly ties into the second and third episodes that I mentioned. TNG was a very good series, and the list of episodes that I didn't like is admittedly much shorter than the list of episodes that I really enjoyed.

I don't know how likely it is but I am hoping they bring out another Star Trek TV series soon. I haven't heard anything about developing one though....

Drynot, a new Trek TV series is inevitable, but I think that CBS wants to avoid the mistake that they made with Enterprise, where they rushed out a series that was halfway through development and the end result was pretty much panned as total crap. There's a general consensus among fans that the next TV series should be set in the 25th Century, sometime after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis in order to allow enough room for plot development, but not so far into the 25th Century that characters from previous shows can't make a cameo of some sort without the use of time travel. Manny Coto, the man who pretty much saved Enterprise at the end of season three and gave us most of season four, had once stated that had Enterprise finished out its entire planned run, he wanted to immediately begin pre-production on a series that pretty much fit the above description. If you look at the episodes of Enterprise that people like, and that actually do well in reruns, almost all of them are from the fourth season and are directly influenced by Manny Coto. The reason these episodes did poorly in their initial run was because of the damage Rick Berman and Brannon Braga did during the first two seasons, as well as the fact that many UPN affiliates were going "dark," (off the air) while Enterprise was still airing. Throw in a lousy time slot and you have the reason why Manny Coto didn't "save" Enterprise for a fifth season, although he admittedly came very close given the odds that he was up against, and the two other Executive Producers not knowing when they needed to step back and let someone else run the show for awhile.

After the mess that was Enterprise, Paramount basically said that they didn't even want to think about another Star Trek TV show for "about eight to ten years," but that they'd consider doing a new movie "in about five years." A couple of things happened after that statement: First, J. Michael Strazynsky of Babylon 5 fame approached Paramount with a plan to "reboot" Star Trek on both the big and small screens. This was less than a year after Enterprise was canceled, and Paramount really didn't even want to hear Strazynsky's idea, but listened out of courtesy before refusing to green-light the project. This was probably for the best; Trek fans were livid at the idea of Strazynsky or anybody else "rebooting" Trek, and many of them were B5 fans who wanted Strazynsky to revive B5, which is ultimately what he's been trying to do with a series of direct-to-DVD stories set in the B5 universe.

Second, Viacom split into two different companies, CBS Broadcasting Inc. received the first ten Star Trek films, as well as the rights to the TV shows, and the overall rights to the franchise as a whole. At the same time, a second "new" Viacom was created, which received the Paramount Pictures brand and many of the "old" Viacom's cable networks among other properties. CBS and Viacom shared several assets during a transitional phase, including the "Paramount" name. In fact, it was only a few days after the most recent Trek movie was released that CBS/Paramount Television changed their name to CBS Television Studios after their deal to share the Paramount name expired.

Third, UPN "went dark" as did the WB, and the two networks merged to create the CW network. A little while later, Rupert Murdoch announced that he'd be starting another TV network, and that's how we got MyNetworkTV (branded to be associated with his recent purchase of MySpace, which Viacom almost bought,) in addition to the CW network. Both were intended to be aimed at minorities, similar to FOX in its early years.

After the Viacom restructuring, Paramount approached J.J. Abrams with the idea of reviving Star Trek on the big screen. Both Paramount and Abrams agreed that a reboot was the right idea, but that they couldn't do a "traditional" reboot, or the new movie would suffer the same fate as Enterprise. Abrams came up with his alternate timeline concept and made sure that it was tied into what he dubbed the "prime universe," to ensure that fans would actually see the film. His plan worked, and we all know the rest, the 2009 film was a box office hit, and it effectively revived Trek, at least on the big screen.

I personally don't see J.J. Abrams handling a Trek TV series; his last TV series was LOST, and he admittedly only intended to do one--maybe two seasons of that particular show. Abrams has always had more success with films than TV series', so it would make sense for him to stick to what he's good at, and to let someone else handle the Trek TV series. CBS was reportedly interested in a particular fan film, which they believed had the potential to become a professional production, but I don't know if they're seriously exploring that possibility, or if it's just talk at this point. I do believe that the next Trek TV series that we see will be shown on CBS rather than on the CW network, simply because Trek really doesn't fit with the style of programming that's generally shown on the CW.

If I had to guess, I'd say that CBS will probably begin winding down some of the shows that they've been airing for quite awhile such as CSI and possibly CSI: Miami, and that they'd replace one of those shows with a new Trek TV series. I think that CBS believes that they can still get another season or two out of CSI, and maybe a couple more seasons out of CSI: Miami, and that they'll attempt to do so before pulling the plug on either of those shows. Once CBS is seriously looking at not having CSI and/or CSI: Miami around anymore, I believe that they'll seriously begin to consider the possibility of a new Trek TV series to replace one of those two shows. Likewise, I believe that the other one of those two CSI shows will likely be replaced with a "CSI: Los Angles" or something similar, much the way "Stargate: Atlantis" ended only to have "Stargate: Universe" premiere shortly thereafter. TV Networks like to stick to ideas that work: the three CSI shows are part of the reason that CBS has the most-watched, and subsequently most profitable prime-time line-up, and that's admittedly something that they don't want to mess with until they absolutely have to. At the same time, CBS is getting to the point where their shows are aging, and that's when shows admittedly begin to lose viewers. If CBS wants to keep their #1 prime-time line-up, they're going to have to make some changes soon, and that's likely when we'll see a new Trek TV series. As I've noted before, I don't see it happening this year, but maybe in Fall 2011 or Fall 2012 we'll see a sixth Trek TV series, I do believe that if the next Trek film is even remotely as successful as the one that was released in 2009, CBS will look into returning Trek to the small screen. Likewise, I believe that they'll keep the TV series in the "prime universe," and keep the movies in the new alternate timeline.

[Yvhuce]

The one where Barkley gets super-intelligence and hijacks the ship form the holodeck.

Though probly my favorite moment was when they beamed the torpedo into the Borg ship and blew it up from within.

[baby-dandan]

I like the episodes of Star Trek "The Next Generation" with the character "Q" in them. I remember one episode where Q appears on the ship and asks "Is there a Jon Luck Pikerd here." That one got me laughing!

[square_duck]

I have always been on the fence about Lore. As a character, and having Brent Spinner play his own "double"....something always bothered me. Lore is essentially the 'antithesis' of Data, who is essentially "Pinocchio' in his innocence and naivete,'and lore is just angry (as a 'robot can be angry) and negative, and somewhat predictable....*shrug*

"Q" on the other hand as a 'bad guy or 'villain" is more just a spoiled brat out looking for some fun. He's a bored child with to much time and power on his hands. He's more a pain in the ass, but not out to actually hurt anyone, and it is this reason episodes with him are fun to watch and memorable to many fans.

I guess the question with Lore was can he possibly be reprogrammed (redeemed) sometime, and be more positive like data....where there isn't a question about "Q", who simply doesn't care

But over all, as a fan from childhood, I do like the work and efforts put into TNG. I watched DS9 occasionally, and it was...amusing, I guess and never got into voyager or the other 'enterprise' show with Scott Bakula, evidently I didn't miss anything

At it's core, Star trek was always a modern Morality play, reflecting and projecting current events (TOS mostly) and their out comes. Good vs. evil, impact of advanced societies on developing societies (prime directive of non-interference) destruction of indigenous animals / creatures before learning of their real nature or intent etc. Basically learning how to cope and deal with non human species and 'human' situations' and stepping back from the "shoot first and ask questions later" method of solving issues.

TNG got away from some of that, but the core of 'teaching' still remained. Picard was different in his approach with situations and managing to resolve them with little or (usually no) blood shed / destruction, or thinking before shooting.

As a tool to reflect society and 'the human condition' I think all the shows worked well, sure they can get a bit 'preachy' occasionally, but what teacher didn't? I think thats why the whole franchise remains so popular today 40 some years later, which has to be some kind of record unto itself! You have great (classic) stories, great characters, great acting, great SPFX and it is all very believable.

I loved the new movie and (for those who read my review when it came out) I sat and cried as I saw some of my favorite characters (hero) brought back to life. DeForrest Kelley (McCoy) Jam,es Doohan (Scotty) are both gone, but the characters they created will live on....then there was Spock, my personal hero, and a great character....when he showed up in the cave that Kirk ran into, and turned around it took my breath away, and I just muttered a shocked and awed "SPOCK" under my breath for he too one day will be gone.

I started watching TOS back when I was 5-6 years old....and I really have to say it is an odd odd thing seeing characters age and grow old and then hearing of their passing, then seeing a "new film" with new actors bringing back the characters in almost perfect recreations. yeah I had tears running down my face as I realized what was happening and saw my favorites come back to life for new adventures, it is bitter sweet, but sweeter than bitter. I look forward to future films and TV series that may come out, how can I not??

I am a star trek Junkie after all

Live long and prosper _\\//

qwack

[redneck diaper boy]

"The Changeling" It aired in 1967

My fav is in the fifth season, "The Inner Light". JohnLuke is zapped by some probe that makes him pass out for 20min on the bridge... During this 20 min he lives an entire life time on the planet where the probe is from. Its a great episode of an amazing series.

[Guest eli o]

Any TNG or Voyager episode with the borg. Or Shore leave from the original series. They met alice in wonderland