Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Published on April 29, 2012 By Draginol In Movies & TV & Books

We just finished a Star Trek TNG marathon.  Let me first say that a lot of TNG episodes don’t hold up well. Burrrr. Some of them are really bad.

But in general, TNG still delivers and there are some truly amazing episodes in there.  Below are my top 5. Please comment below what your favorite ones are.

  1. Inner Light
  2. Yesterday’s Enterprise
  3. The Best of Both Worlds (I and II)
  4. Darmok
  5. Chain of Command

Ironically, had I put this together back in say 2000, when the show was still somewhat “Fresh” I would have rated episodes like Parallels and Tapestry and All Good things way up there.  But this is what I mean by episodes not holding up when looking back on them (imo of course).


Comments (Page 2)
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on Apr 30, 2012

seanw3
Voyager was terrible in the first 3 seasons. The characters had no depth or anything really interesting about them. "
So you completely missed the Hologram Dr on Voyager then ?

on Apr 30, 2012

Arguing that a hologram had depth?

 

The Doctor was great, so was Janeway, Tuvok, and in some episodes Belana. But they could not make up for Nelix, Kim, Paris, Kes, and Chekotay. The writing was pretty bad in the first few seasons as well. 

I can forgive any show for starting off a little awkward, but Voyager took forever to get its legs and by then the characters had nothing left to give. That is probably why they brought in a hot Borg to keep the show alive. Honestly DS9 had much the same problem in the first 2 seasons, but then it got progressively better.

The problems they had with poor character constructs seemed to prevent the show from reaching the myriad of possibilities on such a voyage. There are so many aspects of the prime directive that could have clashed with their need for survival. Too many episodes were all about longshot travel opportunities or some poorly devised character driven plot. It's odd, I loved the show when I was younger, but now that I have a more developed mind, I find little replayability in most episodes. 

There were of course some shining moments in the series, but they were always centered on the few good characters. I would have appreciated a not so subtle assassination of Kim and Nelix in the first season. I always imagine that black ooze that killed Tasha Yar was the pure embodiment of fanboy vitriol. I just wish it could have killed Wesley, Kim, and Nelix at some point.

on Apr 30, 2012

Below are my top 5. Please comment below what your favorite ones are.

Inner Light
Yesterday’s Enterprise
The Best of Both Worlds (I and II)
Darmok
Chain of Command

Your top 6?

The Best of Both Worlds (I and II) counts as 2

on Apr 30, 2012

For me the first season was the pits. IMO I thought Wesley Crusher was a mistake. The episodes without him and the 'coming of age' for Data slowly improved the series but it wasn't until after Worf took over as security boss that it really got off the ground. Plus the best of both worlds brought out the 'human' in Picard.

on Apr 30, 2012

TNG remains my favorite Star Trek series, with DS9 coming in a very close second.  (TOS is a distant third; VOY and ENT barely even register for me.) 

I agree a lot of the TNG episodes (particularly from the 1st, 2nd, and 7th seasons) don't hold up very well...but then I thought most of the episodes from those three seasons weren't very good in the first place.  I'd still rate "Tapestry" and "All Good Things" as being among my top episodes, along with the usual favorites ("The Inner Light", "Best of Both Worlds", "Chain of Command", etc.). 

Other episodes that at least have to receive an honorable mention from me include (but are not limited to) "Sarek", "The Defector", "The Wounded", "Relics", "Ensign Ro", and "Family". 

 

on May 01, 2012

Patrick Steward: "That damned flute..."   

I couldn't name a top 5 but good lists here. 

on May 02, 2012

I would agree on 4 of your 5.  I was never too crazy about Chain of Command.  Probably the worst episode was Far point Station - I almost wrote the series off after that!  But it turned out to be pretty good.

I grew up with Star Trek TOS, and then followed the other series as they came on.  You can tell when Roddenberry dies.  The year after he died, DS9 went to war with the Dominion.  Roddenberry never bought into interstellar wars. In fact, Errand of Mercy from the original is close to Roddenberry's concept of how man would outlive his war like nature.

on May 02, 2012

I did notice that the Organians were nowhere to be seen when the Dominion came. Bet he rolled over in his grave on that one.

on May 02, 2012

there... are... four... lights!

heh heh

on Jun 21, 2012

I have all STAR TREK series except the animated one on DVD or blu ray.

They all have have some good stuff(except enterprise that I blame for killing of the fanchise)

 

Why go back in time, you had 21 seasons of TNG universe, so much to build on, the end of dominion war, sneaky romulans ect. THE RETURN OF THE SISKO!!

While TOS have some good episodes, they are reather silly by modern standards TNG, DS9, Voy has held up much better.  TNG introduced tuch screen and flat screen we now use.

 

Voy ended like 15 years after TNG, yet TNG fit perfectly into voy, sure the effects are better, but they still used the same tech.

 

My favorite episodes of TNG are 

1. The inner ligher,
2. To the Nh degree(no huge episode, just a standard sci fi riddel to solve, to me this is what made TNG so great, just lots of good Sci fi riddles.
3. All good things
4. Who watches the watchers
5. Chase

 

DS9 was ok, but for some odd reason, the suporting characters(like Garak, Nog ect) were more intersting then the main characters(never liked Sisko)

I used to really not like this series, I watched it on tv many years ago, but after I bought the series and watched the enite series in 2-3 weeks, I got a much better view of it.

 

Enterprise is just bad, bad acting, bad stories, boring stories, boring setting.

 

DS9 is ofcourse the series to watch if you want to get into the mood of Sins of the solar empire, with it's huge battles.

on Jun 21, 2012


Wow. Putting this list together was difficult. For me, it was:

Top Three:
1) The Inner Light
2) Yesterday's Enterprise
3) Skin of Evil

The Others in No particular Order:
4) The Nth Degree
5) Future Imperfect
6) Time's Arrow
7) Power Play
8) Cause and Effect
9) The Chase
10) Second Chances

 

on Jun 21, 2012

seanw3

The problems they had with poor character constructs seemed to prevent the show from reaching the myriad of possibilities on such a voyage. There are so many aspects of the prime directive that could have clashed with their need for survival.
I think the problem is that they got teleported in Borgland, and shouldn't have survived more than a dozen miles there.

 

Only one thing could ever kill the Borg: the writers for Voyager.

on Jun 21, 2012

Comparing epeens via the size of your disc (collections) ? hehe. Parallels, Second Chance, Future imperfect, the Chase, cause and effect..you guys got them all..I like Time Arrow too..one fo the better Data episodes..(Redemption was another one) and when I envision Mark Twain that actor is now who I think of heh. Wish we could have seen more of him.

Something tells me we like stories with time travel/alternate dimensions ect..no wonder Quantum leap was so popular..

on Jun 22, 2012

A lot of the good ones have been listed, I just have to add "Deja Q" in there. Q discovering what it means to be human was great fun.

on Jun 22, 2012

jackswift85
A lot of the good ones have been listed, I just have to add "Deja Q" in there. Q discovering what it means to be human was great fun.

My favorite Q episode.

Q: "What must I prove for you to believe that I am mortal??"

Warf: "Die"

LOLZ!!

 

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