Unfortunately, it is not forgotten in the age of streaming, where it's gonna become the one of the most watched episodes of all time in the long run simply because it's one of the first.

Harry Lime said:

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JJxvi said:

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Wesley ran off with the alien that made the engines shoot them across the galaxy in season 1

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And then that storyline was just completely forgotten.

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Southlake said:

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Was never the same after I saw the video of Troi farting...

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Googled this and immediately sent it to my fiance, who has been on a big TNG kick the past few months. She was pissed when I told her that "Texags said this ruined the show" after she watched the video.

I was wondering why my attempts at watch-throughs always went off the rails despite regularly watching it growing up and enjoying it when it comes on TV. I guess I never thought about how most of the terrible episodes are at the beginning. I'd get mired in the first few seasons and blow it off for a few years until I tried again.

The worst scifi episodes are the ones usually right before the season finale. they have 5 mins of new content and 40 mins of flashbacks because a character has a medical coniditon and might die. TNG did it at least once with Riker.

Shai-Hulud said:

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The worst scifi episodes are the ones usually right before the season finale. they have 5 mins of new content and 40 mins of flashbacks because a character has a medical coniditon and might die. TNG did it at least once with Riker.

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I think this is true of almost any series. There's always that flashback episode each season. Some do it better than others.

The run of the legendary show Full House ended on just such an episode. Michelle fell off her horse and hit her head. The family spent the final episode reminding her of all of her memories until the amnesia suddenly went away. It was a rough ending to one of the greatest television shows of all time.

https://medium.com/maxistentialism-blog/star-trek-the-next-generation-in-40-hours-c4a6762cbd3

just watch those episodes

07ag said:

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https://medium.com/maxistentialism-blog/star-trek-the-next-generation-in-40-hours-c4a6762cbd3

just watch those episodes

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Interesting list although there are a few I can name that I would add for sure.

Maybe 50 episodes for my own list of must see.


In Season 7 which I think is better than it gets credit for, I would add:

Ep. 24 Preemptive Strike - this is the culmination of the Ensign (now Lt.) Ro Saga perhaps the best non main character arc in the series. Since the other primary Ro episodes are included (Ensign Ro and the Next Phase) I feel like it is necessary. It is also just a really good episode about the effect of the Cardassian wars and the Federations treaties.

Ep. 16 Thine Own Self - Data loses his memory on a planet and nearly kills everyone through radiation poisoning. This is a great little exploration of the prime directive - and they completely failed to keep their presence secret but had to in order to save these people they adversely affected. But the other treat in this is Deanna TRoi studying for and testing for promotion to full Commander. It puts her in a great little test of a difficult decision and she keeps failing until she finally realizes what she has to do and what Command means.

Ep. 12 The Pegasus - this is essential really. Rikers former ship and captain are a big mystery in a tense episode about loyalty and following orders, etc...Really a big test of Riker and Picards relationship.

Ep. 21 Firstborn - Worf attempts to convince his son Alexander to embrace his warrior heritage. A lot of revelation about Worf's family, etc.

Ep. 13 Homeward - another prime directive F up as they try to relocate some people from a dying planet, thanks to Worf's half brother (played by a guy most recognize as a mobster character in Goodfellas and The Firm among others Paul Sorvino).



5 Others that I think are pretty good and important:

S3 Ep 23 Sarek - the return of Spocks father who is ailing and on a diplomatic mission

S4 Ep. 15 First Contact - another Prime Directive episode with a species on the verge of warp technology. Riker is captured as an imposter and it unravels the Federations spying on this species which makes it difficult for them to gain trust. In the end they choose not to divulge the existence of other worlds and species and to leave this culture and planet alone.

S5 Ep 7 and 8 - Unification I and II - the culmination of the Sarek storyline and lots of Spock. Must see.

S6 Ep. 14 Face of the Enemy - Troi is captured and altered to be a Romulan and then has a complex role of deceit and mystery and she does it well. Also the unexpected cold open is just great shock value.




That's 50.



I also don't think you are complete without every Q episode - so if you are 50 episodes in now and hooked then these complete the Q arc. But honestly they are not imperitive.

S1 Ep. 10 Hide and Q - this is where he splits them up and tests them and gives Riker his powers and Q makes a bet with Picard about how he will react and what everyone would do. It is an important test of Riker and Picards faith in him is tested but proven.

S4 Ep. 20 Qpid - sure it is farcical with a Q developed scene in Nottingham and with the cast as various Robin Hood characters. but I rather enjoyed this little diversion. It was clever.

S6. Ep. 6 True Q - Q investigates a human appearing girl who might be a Q with the help of the Enterprise crew.

Good post.

That was great, but what's really sad is that despite not watching that show in 10 or 20 years, I remembered pretty much all of those episodes, and was nostalgic with most of them.

Shai-Hulud said:

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The worst scifi episodes are the ones usually right before the season finale. they have 5 mins of new content and 40 mins of flashbacks because a character has a medical coniditon and might die. TNG did it at least once with Riker.

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Yes, but how many try that in only season 2?

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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07ag said:

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https://medium.com/maxistentialism-blog/star-trek-the-next-generation-in-40-hours-c4a6762cbd3

just watch those episodes

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Interesting list although there are a few I can name that I would add for sure.

Maybe 50 episodes for my own list of must see.


In Season 7 which I think is better than it gets credit for, I would add:

Ep. 24 Preemptive Strike - this is the culmination of the Ensign (now Lt.) Ro Saga perhaps the best non main character arc in the series. Since the other primary Ro episodes are included (Ensign Ro and the Next Phase) I feel like it is necessary. It is also just a really good episode about the effect of the Cardassian wars and the Federations treaties.

Ep. 16 Thine Own Self - Data loses his memory on a planet and nearly kills everyone through radiation poisoning. This is a great little exploration of the prime directive - and they completely failed to keep their presence secret but had to in order to save these people they adversely affected. But the other treat in this is Deanna TRoi studying for and testing for promotion to full Commander. It puts her in a great little test of a difficult decision and she keeps failing until she finally realizes what she has to do and what Command means.

Ep. 12 The Pegasus - this is essential really. Rikers former ship and captain are a big mystery in a tense episode about loyalty and following orders, etc...Really a big test of Riker and Picards relationship.

Ep. 21 Firstborn - Worf attempts to convince his son Alexander to embrace his warrior heritage. A lot of revelation about Worf's family, etc.

Ep. 13 Homeward - another prime directive F up as they try to relocate some people from a dying planet, thanks to Worf's half brother (played by a guy most recognize as a mobster character in Goodfellas and The Firm among others Paul Sorvino).



5 Others that I think are pretty good and important:

S3 Ep 23 Sarek - the return of Spocks father who is ailing and on a diplomatic mission

S4 Ep. 15 First Contact - another Prime Directive episode with a species on the verge of warp technology. Riker is captured as an imposter and it unravels the Federations spying on this species which makes it difficult for them to gain trust. In the end they choose not to divulge the existence of other worlds and species and to leave this culture and planet alone.

S5 Ep 7 and 8 - Unification I and II - the culmination of the Sarek storyline and lots of Spock. Must see.

S6 Ep. 14 Face of the Enemy - Troi is captured and altered to be a Romulan and then has a complex role of deceit and mystery and she does it well. Also the unexpected cold open is just great shock value.




That's 50.



I also don't think you are complete without every Q episode - so if you are 50 episodes in now and hooked then these complete the Q arc. But honestly they are not imperitive.

S1 Ep. 10 Hide and Q - this is where he splits them up and tests them and gives Riker his powers and Q makes a bet with Picard about how he will react and what everyone would do. It is an important test of Riker and Picards faith in him is tested but proven.

S4 Ep. 20 Qpid - sure it is farcical with a Q developed scene in Nottingham and with the cast as various Robin Hood characters. but I rather enjoyed this little diversion. It was clever.

S6. Ep. 6 True Q - Q investigates a human appearing girl who might be a Q with the help of the Enterprise crew.

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How in the hell do you and others remember stuff like this? I'm not making fun of it. I'm amazed by it.

I could not tell you the descriptive name of an episode of any show I've ever seen. Never paid any attention to that nor episode numbers much less recall the details of any particular episodes of any show I've ever seen.

I recall certain lines or maybe the framework of an episode of some shows. Even with those that might be in season 1 or season 9 for all I know.

It's incredible to me!

Well I just recently did a rewatch of Season 7 so those were fresh in my mind.

and nowadays I think episode numbers and titles are more apparent because if you are streaming them they are listed by season and episode number. Also they have the descriptions in the menu. But I did go back to look those up on a Wiki list of titles for S7 so I got the episode number.

For the others I listed - I did do a search on some ranked TNG episode lists and picked the ones that I did recall from the title and/or description. I certainly would not have known season and episode without the list too.

I don't know them all off the top of my head - certainly not episode numbers - but there are 20 or standout episodes really to me and I have done rewatches of my favorites from time to time. Like I did all Borg episodes and all Q episodes. And most of the two part ones were more memorable to me and he pilot and finale of course. Others are sort of famous like Tasha Yar episodes like Yesterday's Enterprise, or some where Data played soemone other than Data or a emotional Data.

It's different now rather than simply watching repeat episodes on TV when they might be on and you flip by. You don't get all that info with that you just watch.

Just watched Season 3, ep 7 The Enemy because of this thread. I chose it randomly. I really enjoyed it. I'll check out some of the highest ranked episodes.

OK here is my definitive 50 episode list of the best of ST:TNG.

I realized he cheated I thought he had 40 episodes but he said 40 hours and used the runtimes to get to 40 hours in 44 episodes.

So in order to get a definitive list of 50 I removed Unification I and II and Homeward and Firstborn from my suggestions.

I put a pretty highly regarded Top 10 in Bold with double episodes counted as 1.


S01E01: Encounter at Farpoint
S01E23: Skin of Evil
S01E26: The Neutral Zone

S02E08: A Matter of Honor
S02E09: Measure of a Man
S02E16: Q Who

S03E10: The Defector
S03E13: Deja Q
S03E15: Yesterday's Enterprise
S03E16: The Offspring
S03E17: Sins of the Father
S03E18: Allegiance
S03E23: Sarek
S03E26: The Best of Both Worlds

S04E01: The Best of Both Worlds II
S04E02: Family
S04E11: Data's Day
S04E12: The Wounded
S04E15: First Contact
S04E21: The Drumhead
S04E26: Redemption I

S05E01: Redemption II
S05E02: Darmok
S05E03: Ensign Ro
S05E05: Disaster
S05E06: The Game
S05E18: Cause and Effect
S05E19: The First Duty
S05E23: I, Borg
S05E24: The Next Phase
S05E25: The Inner Light
S05E26: Time's Arrow, Part I

S06E01: Time's Arrow, Part II
S06E07: Rascals
S06E10: Chain of Command, Part I
S06E11: Chain of Command, Part II
S06E12: Ship in a Bottle
S06E14: Face of the Enemy
S06E15: Tapestry
S06E20: The Chase
S06E21: Frame of Mind
S06E25: Timescape
S06E26: Descent, Part 1

S07E01: Descent, Part II
S07E11: Parallels
S07E12: The Pegasus
S07E15: Lower Decks
S07E16: Thine Own Self
S07E24: Preemptive Strike
S07E25: All Good Things

Good list, but isn't All Good Things a two-parter?

All Good Things... is a feature length series finale.

I imagine its two parts in syndication to fit in a time slot.

Ulrich said:

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Good list, but isn't All Good Things a two-parter?

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In a way it is yes... it was actually listed as two separate episodes in the production and part of that was to get to the contractual 26 episodes and in order for it to be aired in syndication as 2 parts.

But the difference between it and the other 2 part ones listed is All Good Things aired consecutively on one night. all the other 2 part episodes aired over 2 nights and in the case of season ending ones it was several months between the episodes.

Technicality maybe but I've never thought of it as a 2 parter because it wasn't a cliffhanger type break between episodes.

And for the streaming world which has no time constraints like syndication All Good Things is a single episode unlike say the midseason double episodes of Unification I and II. Which is why S7 has 25 episodes and all the others have 26 on Hulu or wherever.


See below on Hulu for example:


All Good Things



Unification I and II

In no particular order:
Best of Both Worlds
Yesterdays Enterprise
Measure of a Man
Chain of Command
Darmok
The Inner Light
Conundrum
Cause and Effect
Tapestry

Tanya 93 said:

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Great list!

But you left off The Game

Yes, I know it is Wesley centric, but I think it is really good

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It's on there. S05E06.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Tanya 93 said:

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Great list!

But you left off The Game

Yes, I know it is Wesley centric, but I think it is really good

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It's on there. S05E06.

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My bad
sorry

Last night I watched Yesterday's Enterprise thanks to the wisdom of the EB. It was my second episode to ever watch. I'm so happy I've discovered this show. Where has it been?

The truth is this show started abut the same time my teen boy hormones were ramping up and at the same time I discovered the electric guitar with three power chords. My brain didn't have room for another run through Star Trek after having been fascinated by the original as a pre-teen.

I put this guide in my notes.

Will rewatch (albeit slowly) based on these recommendations.

Thanks!

Is Picard worth watching?

I haven't seen it or Discovery.

Both are fine. Picard is a nostalgia fest. Discovery is the "wokest" of all Star Trek, but it doe have the best production value of any Star Trek ever. Also Rebecca Romijn plays number one from TOS, and Anson Mount is great as Captain pike. So great that they're getting their own TOS era pre-Kirk Enterprise show.

Loved Picard because I'm a huge TNG fan... so many callbacks and even plot elements that relate to things. They were original though with the concept and it was kind of neat seeing it in a not Starfleet world for the most part. they were retired mostly and had to barter and scheme.

I love discovery. Sometimes it gets a little over the top with liberal ideas but it really is a well written amazing show.

bearamedic99 said:

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Is Picard worth watching?

I haven't seen it or Discovery.

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I liked season 2 of Discovery for the Enterprise crew and then the shorts between season 2 and 3. Season 3 his been good but I rolled my eyes when Paul had to be explained preferred pronouns in this last episode.