Star Trek: TNG—Best Episodes

Star Trek: The Next Generation aired from 1987 to 1994. 7 seasons. 176 episodes. This summer holidays I binge-watched the whole lot.

ST:TNG remains one of the best science fiction tv shows ever created, but it’s a product of its time. Progressive as it may have been 30 years ago, many episodes are cringe-worthy and occasionally characters like La Forge and Riker are downright creepy. Nevertheless, it’s a great show (particularly the 5th season) and I love it.

Below are my favourite episodes. Instead of another ‘Top 10’ or ‘Top 25’ list, I’m listing my favourite episodes for each character…

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Jean-Luc Picard

Inner Light – s05 e25
Picard awakens to find himself in a village where he is a well-known member of the community suffering from a delusion of being a starship captain.

Darmok – s5 e02
Capt. Picard must learn to communicate with a race who speaks in a language that is not compatible with the universal translator.

The Drumhead – s4 e21
A retired admiral boards the Enterprise to investigate a possible act of sabotage and puts Capt. Picard in an uncomfortable position.

The Future is Bright

Have you seen those memes that mock modern life and technology? You know, the caricatures of people herding like cattle as they stare dead at their mobiles…the illustrations of onlookers using their smartphones to record a drowning man instead of helping…that sort of thing. Many of them are thought-provoking, especially when you consider the bleak irony of appreciating these dark parodies on the very devices they lampoon.

If this dissonance interests you, you absolutely have to watch Black Mirror on Netflix — a Twilight Zone-esque, techno-paranoia TV show for the social media age. Charlie Brooker, the show’s creator and principal writer, said of the title:

If technology is a drug — and it does feel like a drug — then what, precisely, are the side effects? This area — between delight and discomfort — is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The ‘black mirror’ of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.

Every episode presents a new cast and premise, and while it’s not ‘easy watching’ — it practically spits on the corpse of sentimentality — each story is brilliant, and terrifying, and totally worth your time.