Like its 1960s predecessor, TNG follows the adventures of the intrepid crew of the exploration and science vessel Enterprise, run by the utopian Federation in an intergalactic space traveling future. Most episodes are completely self-contained and explore some sort of moral or intellectual question related to a science fiction concept. In a departure from the original series, the captain is not a brash and headstrong ladies' man, but a diplomatic peacemaker whose most powerful weapon is his intellect. In a brilliant casting decision, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is played by Royal Shakespeare Company alum and future knight Patrick Stewart, whose subtle and powerful performance consistently outshines every other aspect of production and lends the show more emotional depth and legitimacy than it probably really deserves. Accordingly, most of my Key Ep choices are Picard-centric.
Key Episodes
5.2 "Darmok" - Everyone I talked to agreed this should be on the list; several people independently suggested this episode as a good introduction to TNG when I described the idea of the Key Episodes blog. The Enterprise crew runs up against a metaphorical brick wall trying to communicate with the Tamarians. Universal translator technology is advanced in the Star Trek universe, and indeed individual words are correctly literally translated, but the sentences and thoughts don't seem to make sense. "Darmok and Jelad at Tenagra," the Tamarian captain urgently tells Picard as they struggle to survive on the surface of a nearby planet. Mistrust turns to genuine friendship as Picard makes inroads to understanding. This is a fantastic episode for giving Patrick Stewart a showcase for acting talent (as all the best TNG episodes are), the idea is cool to think about, and the moral lesson about finding common ground with an alien culture is central to the whole mission of Star Trek. Also, I love using the phrase "Darmok and Jelad at Tenagra" as a conversational shorthand to describe a situation where it's hard to understand someone because they use references I don't know; it's like an Ourobouros of meta-meta-metaphor.
5.23 "I, Borg" - The Enterprise ambiguously imprisons/rescues an injured member of the Borg, that fantastically terrifying TNG all-star enemy dedicated to erasing individuality and subsuming all cultures in its monolithic collective. Against Dr. Crusher's Hippocratic objections, Geordi LaForge volunteers to reprogram this Borg (what's the singular of Borg?) with a virus and release him as a Trojan horse. But as he examines the prisoner to understand his tech specs, he's gradually won over. "Hugh" (as Geordi names him) is full of guileless curiosity about his captors, the concept of friendship, and what being an individual even means. Even Picard is eventually convinced, leading to a tough decision: go ahead with the genocidal plan with the new knowledge that Hugh is a lovable exception (and therefore that other Borg individuals may be "rehabilitated"?) Or offer Hugh asylum, knowing that this will only paint a target on the Enterprise for their most vicious and powerful enemy? Even though there's not a huge amount of Picard in this episode (though he does have a few good scenes), and even though the emotional arc relies on selling us on the relationship between Geordi and a half-machine one-off character, this is a moving episode that's a far superior exploration of the Borg, and of the contradictions of wartime morality, than the big-budget "Best of Both Worlds" (see bonus episodes). Hugh is pretty cute, too.
5.25 "The Inner Light" - A strange probe sends a beam that locks onto Picard, rendering him apparently catatonic to the crew. Cut to: Picard waking up in a small, comfortable home in a sunny, Grecian-inspired village on a planet long ago and far away. In a series of cuts, we watch Picard grow and age, becoming a member of the community, having a family, living an entire lifetime (including an appearance by Patrick Stewart's actual son). It's another Picard ep, of course, so his acting does a lot of heavy lifting (in spite of truly terrible and unnecessary age makeup). But the writing is also top notch here, tapping into those bone-deep feelings we humans have about aging, the continuity of generations, memory, love, and music to tell a story about the mortality of an entire planet.
Star Trek, particularly in TNG, but maybe all of them, at its heart, has three goals: it wants to tell thought-provoking stories about cool speculative and science fiction concepts; it wants to tell emotional stories that touch your heart and make you feel something; and it wants to tell character stories that explore the psyches of its intrepid heroes. (The movies also want to be action blockbusters with lots of explosions, but we'll leave those aside.) The best episodes hit one or two these marks really well. "The Inner Light" is a rare one that hits all three, amazingly well.
Bonus Episodes
1.02 "Encounter at Farpoint, Part 2" - Augh, Season One of TNG. It's so cheesy. Everything is goofy and over-the-top, and even Patrick Stewart hadn't yet decided what he was going to do with the character of Picard. I'm not recommending this episode because it's good, but because it's important and iconic. The first part is dead boring, so you can feel free to skip that. Jump in when Q arrives.
2.9 "Measure of a Man" - A scientist wants to disassemble the Enterprise's android second officer, Data, to find out how he works, and hopefully, to build more like him. Data is skeptical of the research and refuses, but Starfleet refuses his refusal, classifying him as property. The question of Data's personhood all comes down to a courtroom battle with Picard mounting a passionate defense. This is a good introductory episode, focusing on the essential conflict of the fan-favorite and often plot-central character of Data, and featuring TNG's best hallmarks: the exploration of weighty moral and metaphysical questions, and a climactic Picard speech.
3.15 "Yesterday's Enterprise" - An extremely solid alternate-timeline story that just throws you right in. Everything comes together in an "ah-ha!" moment in the second act, and it's all very tight and nicely done, a good example of Star Trek doing cool things with time. Note that this episode is something of a Tasha Yar rehabilitation, so if you haven't seen any of the first season episodes with her character (including her lame final episode, "Skin of Evil") you might not enjoy this one as much.
3.21 "Holo Pursuits" - In an amusing departure, this episode is told from the point of view of the shy and bumbling Lt. Barclay, with the main bridge crew seen as intimidating bosses and assorted jerks. It gets uncomfortable when we learn that Barclay's virtual reality retreat on the ship's holodeck takes the form of casting his co-workers as sex kittens and fools in a vaguely Robin Hood flavored adventure, but this is overall a fun and memorable episode.
3.23 "Sarek" - The Enterprise is visited by the illustrious Vulcan diplomat Sarek (he's Spock's dad, but that's not relevant in this episode). Sarek's been brought out of retirement to mediate a tense and important negotiation, but the mission is threatened when Picard discovers he's suffering from a form of Vulcan emotional dementia. This is a fairly interesting exploration of the Vulcan condition, but mostly, it's setup for one of the all-time great Picard scenes.
3.26 "The Best of Both Worlds Part 1" & 4.1 "The Best of Both Worlds Part 2" - In a fan-favorite two-parter, Picard is captured by the Borg (see "I, Borg" in Key Episodes). This is the first introduction of the Borg, who represent not only a cool sci-fi idea but a metaphor that totally works to make the Federation look awfully good for its lip service to cultural variety. Picard gets to wear cool make-up and everything here but all this excitement doesn't, to my mind, end up advancing plot or character or interesting moral quandaries that much, so I don't count it as a key episode, although it's fairly entertaining.
4.2 "Family" - This slow, introspective, character-based episode has Picard dealing with the emotional fallout of his Borg experience by visiting his family on Earth. I love it, but it really has nothing to do with anything.
4.9 "Final Mission" - Boy genius Wesley Crusher's final mission before he leaves for Starfleet Academy turns into a disaster when the shuttle crashes, Picard is hurt, and Wesley needs to gather all the leadership capability he can muster to control the roguish shuttle captain and find a way to survive. While a lot of people aren't Wesley fans, I like him, and he has good mentor/mentee chemistry with Picard in this episode, which conveys a sense of grit and real danger more effectively than some of the more sanitized and cerebral eps.
4.25 "In Theory" - Data is hit on by a coworker (not Geordi), and after delightfully seeking the advice of every crewmember, Data decides to try dating. At first, his girlfriend thinks it's sweet that he's devoted subroutines to becoming the perfect lover for her, but she begins to feel it's not enough, raising questions about the nature of romantic relationships: if your boyfriend is good to you, does it matter that he can't, technically, feel love? If you've never been in a relationship, what does it mean to "just be yourself" in a relationship? As long as Star Trek is going to raise questions, I prefer that they be about the nature of romantic relationships.
6.10 "Chain of Command Part 2" - Picard spends the whole episode in captivity being tortured by a Cardassian general after a secret mission goes badly. (Part 1 explains this, but it's a remarkably boring and phoned-in episode, probably because they really didn't have enough material; they should have just jumped into Part 2 in media res, we would have gotten it.) I recently rewatched this after complaining about how I can't stomach watching the torture on Game of Thrones, which gave me special insight into what makes this episode, by contrast, so enjoyable. It rides the line, high-stakes and stressful enough to grip you, but it never feels brutal or pointless. The torture is more psychological than physical, and Picard gets in a few moral wins here and there, too. Both Picard and his captor, played by David Warner (who will forever be Bob Cratchit to me), are amazing actors, extremely charismatic and full of gravitas. It's a master class to watch them play off each other, even if Warner is covered in Cardassian makeup.
6.15 "Tapestry" - Q sends Picard back in time into his own past to set right what once went wrong. Just like Quantum Leap, we see Picard as his regular Patrick Stewarty self, while the other characters react to him as if he's a young cadet, which makes for some awkward/great scenes of him attempting to use mature diplomatic tactics on his brash young friends and flirting with a young lady in a strangely avuncular way. Notable for featuring that scene from a hundred fanvids where Picard and Q wake up in bed together. I like the thoughtful and interesting moral of this story, and a fantastic Patrick Stewart performance, as usual, rises this episode above the level of its writing.
6.19 "Lessons" - This is by no accounts a key episode. It's probably one of the least key ever. But it's my faaaaaavorite. An episode with shockingly little science, plot, or danger, 90% of it (all except about 5 minutes near the end, and even that is iffy) is just a chronicle of Picard's nice relationship with a scientist on board. It's delightful getting music-swell episode breaks on things like Picard smiling after playing a duet with his girlfriend. Between the stately pace, focus on characterization to the exclusion of all else, and Patrick Stewart's tender and nuanced performance, this is a charming, moving, bittersweet exploration of love, emotional vulnerability, duty, and why Picard never seems to date.
7.25 & 7.26, "All Good Things..." - I'll get the bad part of the final episode out of the way first: the solution to the mystery seems dumb at first and just seems dumber the longer you think about it. There is at least one major plot hole to which the only possible explanation is, "I guess the writers got confused about that." Now here's the good: it's suspenseful, gripping, and completely succeeds in drawing you into the mystery; it's technically cinematic with tight, effective editing and superior special effects; it's Picard-centric as well as team-centric, giving a little storyline to almost everyone while allowing Patrick Stewart plenty of time to chew the scenery; it's deliciously sentimental, and uses multiple timelines to give a simultaneous sense of epilogue, retrospective, and continuing mission. A big Picard speech even saves the world one last time. This episode gives good closure and is most effective if you've watched a lot of episodes, and especially if you've seen the opener "Encounter at Farpoint." Save it for last.
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