Recently I decided to watch some of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I watched a lot of Voyager in middle school, and have seen a few Original Series episodes with a friend, but while I like Picard and his crew, I’d never seen NextGen. But I didn’t want to watch all seven seasons straight through, so I looked around online for which the best NextGen episodes are.
There are many lists! Because I like fiddling with such things, I aggregated the recommendations, to see which episodes were widely agreed to be among the best. Below you will find my results! These are the ones appearing on two or more of the lists. I’ve watched a few already. So far my favorites have been The Inner Light and Darmok.
- The Measure of a Man (11) Wired, WC, Ent, WMIF, TVT, Today, TR, GFR, DOG, SFTV, TV
- Chain of Command (10) WC, Ent, WMIF, TVT, Today, TR, GFR, DOG, SFTV, TV (“There are four lights!”)
- The Best of Both Worlds (10) WC, Ent, WMIF, TVT, Today, TR, GFR, DOG, SFTV, TV (“I am Locutus of Borg.”)
- The Inner Light (10) WC, Ent, WMIF, TVT, Today, TR, GFR, DOG, SFTV, TV
- Yesterday’s Enterprise (9) WC, Ent, WMIF, TVT, Today, TR, GFR, SFTV, TV
- All Good Things (7) WC, Ent, WMIF, TVT, Today, SFTV, TV (Series finale)
- Darmok (7) Wired, TVT, Forbes, GFR, DOG, SFTV, TV (“Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra!”)
- Relics (6) Wired, WC, TVT, GFR, SFTV, TV
- Tapestry (5) Ent, WMIF, TVT, SFTV, TV
- Cause & Effect (4) TVT, DOG, SFTV, TV
- Parallels (4) Wired, WC, SFTV, TV
- Q Who? (4) WC, GFR, SFTV, TV (First appearance of the Borg)
- Remember Me (4) Wired, WMIF, TVT, Forbes
- Time’s Arrow (4) Wired, TVT, SFTV, TV
- Clues (3) Wired, TVT, TV
- Encounter at Farpoint (3) GFR, DOG, SFTV (Series premiere)
- Family (3) WMIF, TVT, Forbes
- I, Borg (3) WC, SFTV, TV
- Lower Decks (3) Wired, TVT, DOG
- Phantasms (3) WC, Today, TV
- Ship in a Bottle (3) Wired, WC, SFTV
- The Naked Now (3) Wired, SFTV, TV
- The Next Phase (3) Wired, SFTV, TV
- Brothers (2) WC, SFTV
- Datalore (2) WC, SFTV
- Data’s Day (2) GFR, SFTV
- Deja Q (2) WMIF, Forbes
- Disaster (2) Forbes, TV
- First Contact (2) Ent, TV
- Frame of Mind (2) TVT, TV
- Gambit (2) WC, SFTV
- Identity Crisis (2) Wired, Forbes
- Redemption (2) Forbes, TV
- Schisms (2) WC, TV
- Sins of the Father (2) Ent, TV
- Skin of Evil (2) GFR, DOG
- The Chase (2) SFTV, TV
- The Drumhead (2) Wired, TV
- The First Duty (2) Ent, SFTV
Wired = http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/10/star-trek-tng-readers-best-worst/?pid=8412&viewall=true
WC = http://whatculture.com/tv/star-trek-top-25-next-generation-episodes.php/
Ent = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20661787_20057754_10,00.html
WMIF = http://weminoredinfilm.com/2013/05/15/top-10-episodes-of-star-trek-the-next-generation/
TVT = http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/BestEpisode/StarTrekTheNextGeneration
Today = http://www.today.com/entertainment/7-best-star-trek-next-generation-episodes-celebrate-25th-anniversary-6162973
TR = http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/the-five-best-star-trek-the-next-generation-episodes-of-all-time/
Forbes = http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/09/28/the-other-top-10-best-star-trek-next-generation-episodes-and-none-are-the-inner-light/
GFR = http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/10-star-trek-generation-episodes.html
DOG = http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/10-groundbreaking-episodes-of-star-trek-the-next-generation/22575/10-groundbreaking-episodes-of-star-trek-the-next-generation
SFTV = http://www.sftv.com.au/news/2012/09/which-is-the-best-star-trek-the-next-generation-episode-ever/
TV = http://www.tv.com/shows/star-trek-the-next-generation/forums/top-5-star-trek-tng-episodes-247-484362/
For the TV.com list, the link is to a forum where many individuals listed their 5 favorite episodes. I included in this summary all of the episodes receiving two or more votes from that list.