Episode 1: First Contact
Picard, Riker, Worf, Data, Crusher, Troi, Laforge, Ogawa, Doctor

We've spent a whole season away from TNG (except for pesky Worf, who can't stay away from Deep Space Nine), so it's fun to see them in action again. In what's easily the best TNG movie, the crew follows the Borg into Earth's past, where everyone's favorite assimilators (unless you're a Cyberman fan) attempt to keep Earth's first contact with Vulcans from taking place.


Episode 2: Scorpion
Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Kim, Kes, Torres, 7of9, Doctor, Paris, Neelix

What could possibly frighten The Borg? Why, a mostly terrible new alien race from another dimension who The Borg just can't seem to assimilate. This new enemy is such a threat that The Borg and the crew of Voyager must team up to stop them.


Episode 3: The Gift
7of9, Kes, Janeway, Doctor, Tuvok, Chakotay, Kim, Torres, Neelix

The newest member of Voyager is A Borg! And it's up to the rest of the crew to teach her how to be more human. It's somewhat Data-ey, but with more  potential murder than holodeck detective work.


Episode 4: Trials & Tribbilations
Sisko, O'Brien, Bashir, Worf, Dax, Odo, Kirk, Chekov, Scott, Kira, Uhuru, Spock

This may be my favorite episode in the whole franchise. Filmed like a TOS episode, the crew of Deep Space Nine goes back in time to keep the Klingon villain from "The Trouble With Tribbles" from changing history.  There are a few scenes from the original TOS episode spliced in, and a lot of fun non-interactions between the two casts.


Episode 5: Begotten
(Odo, Kira, O'Brien, Keiko, Bashir, Quark, Sisko, Worf)

Quark finds a baby changeling, and gives custody of it to Odo, causing him to rethink his relationship with the doctor who raised him. Alsowhile, Kira is having O'Brien and Keiko's baby and it is awwwwwwwwwwwwkward for everyone.


Episode 6: One
(7of9, Doctor, Janeway, Paris, Torres, Kim, Chakotay)

When radiation from a nebula threatens the lives of everyone else on the ship, 7of9 becomes the crew's favorite member as she and The Doctor team up to save the ship.


Episode 7: Drone
(7of9, Doctor, Janeway, Torres, Kim, Paris, Chakotay, Tuvok, Neelix)

Borg, Borg, Borg! There's a whole new Borg on the ship, and 7of9 wants to raise him. You'd think this would be too similar to "Begotten" to put in this season, but you'd be wrong, the story goes in a completely different direction. Until it goes exactly the same way.


Episode 8: In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light
(Sisko,  Garak, Kira, Bashir, Dax, Odo, Worf, Gul Dukat, O'Brien, Nog, Rom, Martok, Jake)

The standoff with The Dominion gets a whole lot tougher when Gul Dukat leads The Cardassians into an alliance with The Dominion to take on Starfleet. There's a changeling spy on Deep Space Nine, AND Worf and Garak get trapped in a Jem'Hadar prison. This is the episode that cemented Garak as my favorite Cardassian, and soured me on Gul Dukat.


Episode 9: Call To Arms
(Sisko, Gul Dukat, Odo, Kira, Rom, Ziyal, Quark, Jake, Garak, Worf, Martok)

Sisko comes up with a plan to blow up the wormhole and stop the seemingly inevitable war with the Cardassians and The Dominion. Spoiler Alert: It's not enough to prevent the war. Unrelated Spoiler Alert: This would have( been one of my favorite episodes, but there is a gigantic Deus Ex Machina moment that undercut the crux of the episode's tension.


Episode 10: Sacrifice Of Angels
(Sisko, Gul Dukat, Odo, Kira, Rom, Ziyal, Weyoun, Quark, Jake, Garak, Worf, Martok)

The Dominion War is truly underway, and it's about to go horribly awry for both sides.


Five bonus episodes, if you like this season:

A Year Of Hell follows Voyager for a full year as they get caught between two warring alien factions, one of whom keeps using time travel to change history. It fits in really well with the time travel element of the season. I'd drop it between "The Gift" and "Trials And Tribble-ations". I would follow up "Trials And Tribble-ations" with Message In A Bottle, where Doctor gets sent through a wireless network back to The Alpha Quadrant where he and an updated version of him (played by Andy Dick, in my favorite role of his outside of Newsradio) must rescue their Federation ships from Romulans, which, sadly, does not help Voyager get any closer to home.  Personally, I can't stand Waltz, as I find the acting Way Over The Top, but it does make a nice coda to the events of "Sacrifice Of Angels", giving what probably should have been the ending to Gul Dukat's storyline. After "Drone", stick with Voyager for In The Flesh, where the lame villains from "Scorpion" have learned to shapeshift into human form, and have set up an exact replica of Starfleet Academy, right down to the grisled groundskeeper from way back in "First Duty". I would follow that up with Hope And Fear for another false sense of hope for Voyager.

To watch all of The Star Trek franchise, it would take you nearly a month of no-sleep-marathoning. Nearly 550 hours at this point. Twenty-four days. AND THEY'RE STILL MAKING MORE. You don't have that kind of time.

I've attempted to put together a much more condensed series of Star Trek. Dividing it into ten episode seasons. For the most part, these are My Favorite Episodes. I've left out some that are historically important episodes, in favor of things that I found fun to watch. If you're a Trekkie or Trekker, or just consider yourself a fan, I may have left off your favorite episode. Sorry. But this is more a list for people like me, who had seen an episode here and there, were interested in seeing more, but don't want to invest in the whole 530+ hours. I'm doing it, so others don't have to.

With the ending of TNG, we are left with two atypical Star Trek series: Deep Space Nine, which takes place mostly on a space station near a wormhole, and Voyager, which is your typical federation starship, but lost on the opposite side of space from the federation, and made up of a crew that is half federation, and half Maquis terrorist. These are both brilliant conceptual twists on Star Trek. Sadly, Voyager never delivers on its potential. I'm not saying that it's terrible, I'm saying that the Maquis/federation angle is never fleshed out as well as the space station angle of Deep Space Nine.

This season focuses on the show Deep Space Nine, but focuses on episodes that mostly revolve around one of their ships, The Defiant, which is the first cloakable federation vessel. The Defiant gets much use as the federation gets embroiled in a constantly shifting war this season, which introduces new villainous aliens, and upgrades some old school aliens to new adversarial heights.

Episode 1: Jem'Hadar
(Sisko, Jake, Quark, Nog, Odo, Kira, Dax, O'Brien, Bashir)

A father/son bonding trip between Sisko and Jake (as well as Quark and his nephew Nog) goes horribly awry when they are kidnapped by the new Big Bad of Deep Space Nine. Forget the Cardassians, the Jem'Hadar are nonfuckwithable warriors from the other side of the wormhole, and they're about to change the whole feel of the series.


Episode 2: The Search
(Sisko, Odo, Quark, Kira,  Bashir, Dax, O'Brien, Garak)

So, it turns out the Jem'Hadar are just soldiers who work for The Founders, and they are the unfuckwithable adversaries for the season. Starfleet uses their newest ship, The Defiant, to try and track them down. But the Jem'Hadar have other plans. Oh, and Odo ends up finally meeting aliens just like him. 


Episode 3: Improbable Cause/Die Is Cast
(Garak,Odo, Bashir, Sisko, O'Brien, Dax, Kira, Eddington)

It has been inferred since the beginning of Deep Space Nine, that Garak, a Cardassian tailor, is actually a high ranking spy. So when his shop is blown up under mysterious circumstances, Bashir and Odo delve into his past.


Episode 4: The Adversary
(Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, Eddington, Jake, Quark, Kira, Odo, Bashir)

Like Odo, The Founders are all changelings, so imagine the damage they could do if they infiltrated Starfleet and Deep Space Nine. Oh, shit, did that already happen?


Episode 5: Maneuvers
(Janeway, Chakotay, Torres, Kim, Seska, Tuvok, Neelix, Paris)

The closest Voyager comes to making the Maquis/federation conflict work is the character Seska, a Cardassian who was living as a Bajoran. She defects from Voyager before this episode and joins up with the Kazon, who are The Big Bads of the first three seasons of Voyager, but who pale in comparison to The Klingons, The Romulans, The Cardassians The Borg, The Jem'Hadar, The Founders, the spooky children of The Original Series, Tribbles, evil Kirk from the Mirror Universe, a stick of gum that gets caught in your sneaker treads. They're a lame adversary, and they're rarely a threat. Until they get combines with Seska. This also sets up a storyarc that will be in the 5 Bonus Episodes at the end of this post. But this is, by far, the best of the Seska episodes.


Episode 6: Way Of The Warrior
(Worf, Sisko, Odo, Kira, Dax, Garak, O'Brien, Gowran, Quark, Gul Dukat, Bashir)

The Klingons haven't been a big part of Deep Space Nine. Sure, Dax and some of her Klingon friends went on an adventure, and yea, the sisters of Duras were around for an early episode, but for the most part, they haven't been very present. But when Gowran decides The Klingon Empire should protect the wormhole from The Founders, he incites a war between The Klingons and The Cardassians, and it gets so intense that Deep Space Nine recruits Worf from Enterprise to join their crew.


Episode 7: Homefront
(Sisko, Odo, Jake, Nog)

What if The Founders reached Earth, which has been a paradise since the beginning of this series (apart from the whole Borg attack in Best Of Both Worlds a few seasons ago, and the whale problem from The Voyage Home)? Sisko, Odo, and Jake return to San Francisco (say that five times fast) to help prepare the planet, only to discover The Founders may already be there. This is a particularly good episode about fear mongering and the loss of freedom due to the fear of terrorism (and this was a pre 9/11 series). It's technically part one of a two-part arc, but the second half undoes the power of this episode, if it existed in a vacuum.


Episode 8: To The Death
(Sisko, Worf, Dax, Bashir, Kira, Odo, Quark)

After Deep Space Nine is attacked by a faction of the Jem'Hadar, the crew of The Defiant run into another faction of Jem'Hadar who were also attacked. The two crews work together to take down the first faction. There are some great moments of culture examination in this episode between The Jem'Hadar, humans, Klingons, and The Founders. Deep Space Nine was truly the best Star Trek series when it comes to examining how every side in a war is actually The Bad Side.


Episode 9: Broken Link
(Odo, Sisko, Worf, Dax, Garak, O'Brien, Bashir, Kira, Quark, Gowran)

When Odo falls ill, the crew of Deep Space Nine must take a ship other than The Defiant to The Dominion in hopes that The Founders will help him get better. 


Episode 10: Apocalypse Rising
(Sisko, Odo, Worf, Kira, Bashir, O'Brien, Gul Dukat, Gowran, Quark, Dax, Jake)

At the beginning of the season, it seemed like The Jem'Hadar were the all powerful enemies, but it turned out that they just serve The Founders. Then the Klingons got involved. Then we went to Earth and it looked like maybe The Founders had taken over Starfleet. But what if they actually took over the Klingons? They are Everywhere. And Sisko, Odo, O'Brien, and Worf have to go undercover to unmask Gowran (who, apart from Worf, has the longest ongoing storyline this season). And Sisko makes A Fantastic Klingon. It's a joy to watch.


Five bonus episodes, if you like this season:

The Defiant is not a great episode. But it does feature Riker, sort of, and it's a somewhat interesting diversion from the heaviness of this season. It would go after "The Search" in this continuity.  After "Maneuvers", I would check out Hippocratic Oath, where Bashir and O'Brien have to help some Jem'Hadar who are trying to break their addiction to the drug that The Founders use to keep them loyal. I would follow that up with Meld, which is a Voyager episode that shows the danger of the Vulcan mind meld when, in order to solve the motive of a murder, Tuvok melds with a sociopathic Betazoid. It almost made the actual list for this season, but like many Voyager episodes, the ending where they dumbed it all down in conversation annoyed me enough to wish I hadn't been so invested in it.  After "Homefront, there's a Voyager episode called The Basics that ties together the fallout from "Meld" and "Maneuvers" in a mostly satisfying way. If it tied things up a little less neatly, the whole storyarc might have been the crux of this season. If you are willing to endure some sloppy writing and terrible acting in order to get a glimpse of the TNG and TOS casts this season, I would follow up "The Basics" with Generations where, at the very least, you get to see Kirk and Picard interact for the only time, and say goodbye to Scott and Chekov.

To watch all of The Star Trek franchise, it would take you nearly a month of no-sleep-marathoning. Nearly 550 hours at this point. Twenty-four days. AND THEY'RE STILL MAKING MORE. You don't have that kind of time.

I've attempted to put together a much more condensed series of Star Trek. Dividing it into ten episode seasons. For the most part, these are My Favorite Episodes. I've left out some that are historically important episodes, in favor of things that I found fun to watch. If you're a Trekkie or Trekker, or just consider yourself a fan, I may have left off your favorite episode. Sorry. But this is more a list for people like me, who had seen an episode here and there, were interested in seeing more, but don't want to invest in the whole 530+ hours. I'm doing it, so others don't have to.

Irumodic Syndrome was a degenerative neurological disorder that caused deterioration of the synaptic pathways. The condition caused confusion, delusions, and eventually death.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation it causes Picard to keep shifting between various parts of his life. In this season, we are going to shift all over the place, too. 

Episode 1: The Caretaker
(Janeway, Kim, Paris, Chakotay, Torres, Tuvok, Neelix, Doctor, Kes, Quark)

At the end of last season, Ro joined a terrorist cell called the Maquis. Captain Janeway of Voyager is sent to track down a missing Maquis ship. But during the mission both Voyager and the Maquis ship are transferred to the other side of the galaxy where they must work together to try and return to charted space. This was a really cool concept for a show that, sadly, didn't live up to the conceit. But this first episode shows really cool potential.


Episode 2: Affliction
(Archer, T'Pol,  Phlox, Trip, Sato, Reed, Mayweather)

We've just welcomed Voyager to this chronology, and now it's time to say goodbye to the original crew of Enterprise. Klingons, Starfleet bullshit, and a character leaving the ship. It's the beginning of a two part story, but the second part is a huge disappointment, so we leave this version of The Enterprise forever on a cliffhanger. But we get a theory as to why Klingons in TNG have head ridges, and why they didn't in TOS.


Episode 3: Blood Oath
(Dax, Kang, Odo, Quark, Kira)

Kang is a Klingon who first showed up in TOS. He wasn't a part of our chronology, sadly, but he was around. So was Dax, the Krill who shifts from host to host over time. A previous Dax had a pact with Kang and a couple of other Klingons that if they ever found The Albino, a Klingon who killed their firstborn children, they would have their revenge.  It's a fun adventure story where Dax is finally front and center in this chronology.


Episode 4: Descent
(Data, Picard, Crusher, Troi, Lore, Laforge, Riker, Worf, Hugh)

Chickens. Roosting. Several major TNG storylines converge as the rogue Borg that Enterprise encountered in I, Borg is part of an evolution of Borg that's being taken advantage of by Data's "brother", Lore.


Episode 5: Lower Decks
(Picard, Worf, Crusher, Riker, Laforge, Troi, Data)

Did you know there are other people on the Enterprise besides the usual crew? In this episode we watch a bunch of ensigns vying for promotion on the ship. It's a cool way to explore the relationship between the senior staff, and how they've grown over the duration of the show.


Episode 6: The Wire
(Bashir, Garak, Dax, Quark, Sisko, Kira, O'Brien)

In Lower Decks, we met a Cardassian going against stereotype and assisting the federation. On Deep Space Nine, we've seen a Cardassian named Garak who is either a spy, or someone going against stereotype to assist the federation. It's always been unclear which side he's on, but, unlike Gul Dukat, there seems to be no menace to him. But when Doctor Bashir discovers a malfunctioning chip in Garak's head, he decides to go further into his investigation of Garak's motives.


Episode 7: Flashback
(Tuvok, Janeway, Sulu, Rand, Neelix, Kes, Doctor, Chakotay, Kim, Kang)

Garak had a chip in his head last episode. On Voyager, Tuvok seems to be having similar problems, only instead of just physical pain, he's having an emotional response to a memory. In order to determine the cause, he mind melds with Janeway and they go back to his most important memory, when he served under Captain Sulu, during the plot of The Undiscovered Country, way back in season three of this continuity. I think this would have been a solid episode, even if it didn't feature cast members from TOS, but seeing Sulu and Rand again is an absolute blast. Plus, Kang from Blood Oath is back again ((and yes, he is the basis for the Treehouse Of Horror alien from The Simpsons)).


Episode 8: Whispers
(O'Brien, Keiko, Sisko, Bashir, Odo, Jake, Quark)

Oh man, now O'Brien is having memory problems? Or is he just fine, and the entire crew of Deep Space Nine, including his wife, has turned evil? This is a fun twist on the alternate universe trope in Star Trek. 


Episode 9: Parallels
(Worf, Troi, Riker, Data, Crusher, Laforge, Picard, Wesley)

And now Worf is having memory issues? This is becoming a huge problem. Is he married to Troi now? Is this going to end up being an alternate universe episode or is this whole season just a mess of red herrings?


Episode 10: All Good Things
(Picard, Crusher, Troi, Laforge, Worf, Data, Riker, Q, Yar, O'Brien)

Well, it's gone all the way to the top. In this, the final episode of TNG, Picard is having memory problems. This is a fun way to say goodbye to the series using character continuity, but very little plot continuity from previous episodes. Unlike Descent, which pulled from previous storylines, this would have been an interesting episode/movie even if we hadn't met any of these characters before. That we do know them, and that some of them haven't been seen for a while, makes this a fulfilling ending to this part of the Star Trek universe.


5 bonus episodes, if you like this season:
 
The only Star Trek series missing from this season are TOS and Discovery (which is only a few weeks in as I write this), but if you want to get to know Kang before he pops up in this season, why not go all the way back to TOS and check out Day Of The Dove as the second episode of the season. It's very hokey but it's been so long since we've had a TOS episode that it might be a fun change of pace. I would follow it up with Firstborn which focuses on Klingon traditions as Worf tries to make sure his son, Alexander, doesn't neglect his heritage. From there, I'd segue back into the continuity with "Affliction". I deliberately left off its follow-up episode since I didn't think it lived up to the promise of part one, but you might want to check out Divergence, so that you have some sense of closure to your Enterprise experience, as I don't think I'll be including any more episodes down the line.As we progressed toward the dimension/time hopping portion of the season, we got more time to investigate the Cardassian/Bajoran conflict. If that appeals to you, I would watch The Collaborator between "Lower Decks" and "The Wire" (the episode from this season, not the HBO series, which is great, but not really part of the Star Trek canon), and after "The Wire", I'd move on to Crossover, which plops us back into The Mirror Universe for the first time since Season Three. 

Episode 1: Cause & Effect
(Crusher, Riker, Laforge, Data, Picard, Worf, Ro)

It's Groundhog Day in space! as the crew of The Enterprise keeps living the explosion of their ship over and over again. Will they ever figure out how to escape from this loop, or will we be forced to leave the entire crew behind and find a whole new crew of protagonists?


Episode 2: Emissary
(Sisko, Picard, O'Brien, Kira, Odo, Jake, Quark, Dax, Bashir, Nog, Gul Dukat)

Way back in Season Five of this continuity, Capt. Picard became a borg named Locutus who blew up a bunch of Federation ships on his course to destroy Earth (which he failed to do). One of the ships he blew up contained Benjamin Sisko who is now traveling with Picard to an abandoned Cardassian space station called Deep Space Nine. Picard totally killed this guy's wife, so he is Not Pleased with him or the assignment, but he and his son decide to join the crew of Deep Space Nine, anyway, and are joined by Enterprise transporter engineer O'Brien, and his wife, Enterprise botanist Keiko. Plus a ragtag crew of Bajorans, Ferenghi, Trill, and whatever the hell Odo is.


Episode 3: Past Prologue
(Kira, Sisko, Bashir, Garak, Odo, O'Brien, Dax)

Much of this season focuses on Cardassian and Bajoran war criminals, and how to keep the peace after all the terrible things they did to one another during the war. Deep Space Nine's first officer, Kira, was once a member of a Bajoran underground movement that the Cardassians consider terrorists. When one of her old cohorts shows up, the newly assembled crew needs to figure out how much they can trust each other, and how much they can trust The Cardassians. And what the hell are the sisters of Duras from Redemption doing on Deep Space Nine?


Episode 4: Man Alone
(Odo, Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, Keiko, Bashir, Nog, Jake, Quark)

Deep Space Nine's security officer, Odo, has held the post since the station was run by Cardassians, and while some of the Bajorans trust him, everyone is put on edge when a criminal he sent to prison shows up on board and is swiftly murdered.


Episode 5: Babel
(O'Brien, Sisko, Quark, Odo, Bashir, Kira, Jake, Dax)

More a companion to Darmok than Journey To Babel or Babel One, the episode focuses on the effects of a Cardassian engineered virus that causes aphasia in its victims. And then they die, of course, unable to express what they're going through.


Episode 6: Timescape
(Picard, Data, Troi, Laforge, Crusher, Riker, Worf)

Oh man, is the crew of The Enterprise STILL stuck in that time loop? No that wouldn't make any sense, we saw Picard interacting with the Deep Space Nine crew in Emissary. While several key officers are on an away mission, The Enterprise attempts to rescue some Romulans and everything goes wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey. The away team thinks they've figured out a way to overcome the time problems, but can they fix The Enterprise or the Romulan vessel before either or both of them explode?


Episode 7: Duet
(Kira, Sisko, Bashir, Odo, Gul Dukat, Dax, Quark)

Someone who appears to be a Cardassian war criminal with ties to Kira's past shows up on Deep Space Nine. Kira wants him tried on Bajor, Gul Dukat wants him returned to the Cardassians.  Despite a moderately weak and predictable ending, most of this episode is a very interesting look at the guilt of not-necessarily-innocent bystanders during acts of war.


Episode 8: Cardassians
(Bashir, Sisko, O'Brien, Garak, Gul Dukat, Keiko, Odo)

A Cardassian orphaned child raised by Bajorans ends up in the middle of a custody dispute. I really enjoy the writing on Deep Space Nine, but like most Star Trek shows, the episodes are usually pretty well telegraphed. This one doesn't have any M Night Shyamalan twists, it just doesn't take the easiest way out.


Episode 9: Rules Of Acquisition
(Quark, Kira, Dax, Nagus, Sisko, Rom, Odo)

Staying with The Deep Space Nine crew, but taking a break from all the Cardassian/Bajoran problems, we focus on the Ferengi bartender of the ship as he attempts to expand Ferengi business contacts to the other side of the Wormhole. Most of the focus of this episode is on gender politics in Ferengi culture, which is wildly misogynist, even for a Star Trek species. Also, his brother is a moron. And his even more misogynist mentor thinks intelligent Ferengi females are inconceivable, though he may not know what that word means.


Episode 10: Preemptive Strike
(Ro, Picard, Riker, Troi, Crusher, Worf, Data)

Back to the Bajoran/Cardassian storyline we go, but now we focus on the crew of The Enterprise, who send newly promoted Lieutenant Ro to go undercover in a Maquis terrorist cell. But will she go rogue and leave the Federation to help her Bajoran brethren battle the Cardassians? Nah, this is a Star Trek episode. I'm sure everything will go back to status quo by the end.


Five bonus episodes if you like this season: 

I really enjoy the crew of Deep Space Nine, and we've spent a great deal of time with Enterprise, so all five of these episodes are DS9 focused. Between "Man Alone" and "Timescape", I would check out Nagus to  get your first glimpse at Ferengi culture, and be introduced to Nagus, who will come into play again later in the season. After "Timescape", there's a trilogy of DS9 episodes: Homecoming, The Circle, and Seige that focus on the changing Bajoran government. I almost used it to close out this season, as it has a really good arc about building political myths for the benefit of a nation, but it's not quite as awesome as it could have been if they'd edited it down to two episodes. And after "Rules Of Acquisition", I would watch The Maquis, which introduces the terrorist cell that Ro goes undercover in during "Preemptive Strike". Similar to the trilogy above, it would have made the list if it were shorter. The first part of The Maquis is all set-up, and the second part fails to be an explosive follow up to it.

To watch all of The Star Trek franchise, it would take you nearly a month of no-sleep-marathoning. Nearly 550 hours at this point. Twenty-four days. AND THEY'RE STILL MAKING MORE. You don't have that kind of time.

I've attempted to put together a much more condensed series of Star Trek. Dividing it into ten episode seasons. For the most part, these are My Favorite Episodes. I've left out some that are historically important episodes, in favor of things that I found fun to watch. If you're a Trekkie or Trekker, or just consider yourself a fan, I may have left off your favorite episode. Sorry. But this is more a list for people like me, who had seen an episode here and there, were interested in seeing more, but don't want to invest in the whole 530+ hours. I'm doing it, so others don't have to.

Unlike the previous unstructured season, we return to an arc based season. From aging to death & the afterlife to the mistakes of our youth coming back to haunt us. My favorite part of this season is the use of Laforge. Laforge centered episodes largely show him as an awkward nerd who really wants a girlfriend but doesn't know how to communicate with women. It's supremely annoying. But in this season we focus on his interaction with his peers in non-romantic situations, and some of his awkwardness starts to ebb away. Slowly, mind you. He's still awkward, just not insufferably so. 

​

Episode 1: Unification
(Picard, Spock, Data, Sarek, Riker, Yar, Worf, Troi, Crusher, Laforge)

We're back to the classics in this season, as we start off with Vulcans and Romulans. And not just any Vulcans and Romulans but Sarek and Spock from The Original Series, and Tasha Yar's evil daughter from Redemption. It's one of the best political strategy episodes so far. 


Episode 2: Conundrum
(Picard, Crusher, Riker, Ro, Troi, Worf, Data, Laforge)

Another Star Trek trope. Everyone loses their memory. How will they get it back? Is this crewman we've never seen before somehow the culprit? Of course he is. But the way they discover the solution makes for a fun watch.


Episode 3: I Borg
(Picard, Crusher, Laforge, Guinan, Data, Riker, Troi, Worf)

The Borg are interesting villain in that they don't care to kill or acknowledge individuals, they are only interested in assimilating entire species at once. So when the crew of The Enterprise rescues a single Borg, against the wishes of Picard, Guinan, and most of the crew, everyone has to reevaluate their position on TNG's biggest bad. This episode gave me one the most positive visceral reactions to a Star Trek episode I've ever had.


Episode 4: Chain Of Command
(Picard, Crusher, Worf, Riker, Troi, Data, Laforge)

When Picard is sent on an undercover mission in Cardassian territory, a new Starfleet Asshole takes over The Enterprise, and following the trope of every TOS and TNG episode, the new captain is an incompetent jackass. If only we could hope that everything would be returned to normal before the next episode. Ahhhhhh, formula.


Episode 5: Relics
(Scott, Laforge, Picard, Riker, Crusher, Worf, Data)

One of the best episodes of the series, the crew of The Enterprise finds Commander Scott from TOS trapped in a transporter loop. Not only is this the best episode featuring Scott of the series, it's one of the best Laforge episodes, too. That's three "best"s in one paragraph. It seems as though I enjoyed this treatise on how quickly technology makes the old seem obsolete.


Episode 6: Next Phase
(Ro, Laforge, Picard, Crusher, Riker, Data, Worf)

From aging to death. And, once again, a transporter is at the center of it, as Ro and Laforge are believed dead, but have actually been phased in such a way that they can observe the crew but can not be observed, except by each other. 


Episode 7: Tapestry
(Picard, Q, Crusher, Riker, Worf)

Continuing the theme of  probable death and afterlife, Picard is on the brink of death and is confronted with his god, Q. Yeup, scampy jerkface is back and guiding Picard through an afterlife with the possibility of returning to life. It's an interesting on how one's choices in life rarely affect the people we become.


Episode 8: First Duty
(Wesley, Picard, Crusher, Riker, Troi)

Wesley is back. And he has Fucked Up. In Tapestry, we saw how Picard fucked up when he was in Starfleet Academy. Now he gets to go back there and help Wesley from ruining his life.


Episode 9: Pegasus
(Riker, Picard, Worf, Data, Troi, Laforge)

Riker went to Starfleet once, too! And after he graduated, he served on a ship called Pegasus where Bad Shit Went Down. He and the Captain, another tropey incompetent Starfleet Asshole (a younger John Locke from Lost!) were the only two who escaped. But what did they escape from, and why are the Romulans interested? DUN DUN-DUNNNNN.

Episode 10: The Are The Voyages
(Riker, Archer, T'Pol, Trip, Shran, Soto, Troi, Mayweather, Reed, Phlox, Data)

This is one of the most hated episodes of Star Trek. But more for its context than its content. It was aired as the final episode of Enterprise, which was a slap in the face to the cast of Enterprise, because it's actually a TNG episode. During the events of Pegasus, Riker goes to the holodeck to examine his problem from multiple angles. To do so, he recreates The Enterprise from Enterprise (I know, I know), and acts as cook, talking with each crew member about different decisions they've made during their Starfleet Career. It would have probably been liked or loved if it had been in the middle of the season instead of the end. I like it as a non-canon chance for Enterprise and TNG to crossover. Because we're going to come back to Enterprise at least once more, and nothing that happens in this episode will have ever happened to them, but it has helped Riker make a difficult decision during Pegasus.

Five bonus episodes, if you like this season:

I really enjoyed the journey from aging to death to the mistakes of our youth, and it can be explored more fully, if you're in the mood. After Chain Of Command, you can take a break and check out how Data perceives life on The Enterprise in Data's Day, and then follow it up with Time's Arrow, where Data has to face mortality AND Samuel Clemens when his deceased head is discovered as having been planted on earth in the 1800s. If you want more of Picard's past coming into play, you can check out The Chase, Rascals, and Inner Light between Tapestry and First Duty. I enjoyed most of The Chase but found the end annoyingly over-the-top, and it undid the cool premise of The Enterprise, The Klingons, The Cardassians, and The Romulans being involved in a scavenger hunt. I would follow up The Chase with Rascals, if for no other reason than to spend time with the unlikely crew of Picard, Ro, Guinan, and Keiko O'Brien. It's very silly but the kids playing the young versions of the characters seem to have a very good time. Guinan and Ro, in particular, are awesome. Young Picard, not so much. Inner Light is a typical What Would Happen If Picard Weren't Captain Of The Enterprise, but it's more human than most of the other episodes of the trope, and thus, more enjoyable.