When Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987, most Trekkers turned up their noses at it. A new Enterprise crew, trying to fill the boots of Kirk, Spock, and the rest? Blasphemy. However, TNG eventually became iconic in its own right and lasted for seven seasons and 178 episodes. Today, it stands as perhaps the most beloved of all the Star Trek series. But of all seven seasons, which one stands out as the greatest? Let’s rank all seven seasons of Gene Roddenberry’s second Star Trek series, from the worst to the very best.
7. Season 1 (1987-1988)
Based on the quality of TNG’s first season, it’s a minor miracle that six other seasons exist to make up the rest of this list. Despite an excellent cast and amazing production value, the first season of TNG was a behind-the-scenes nightmare. Creator Gene Roddenberry constantly fought with writers over the show’s direction. As a result, there was a ton of writer’s room turnover and many unhappy cast members. One cast member, Denise Crosby, quit before the season’s end, while another, Gates McFadden, was unceremoniously fired after clashes with production.
Most of the worst episodes of TNG as a whole appear in season one. These include the wildly racist “Code of Honor,” the cheesy “sexy planet” episode “Justice,” and more. Still, some diamonds in the rough hinted at the show’s potential. One of those was the trippy “Where No One Has Gone Before,” and the prototype holodeck mystery “The Big Goodbye.” If this show wasn’t ratings gold from the get-go, they might have never received a second season. We’re sure glad they did keep going.
Best Episodes: “Where No One Has Gone Before,” “The Big Goodbye,” “Heart of Glory,” “The Neutral Zone.”
6. Season 7 (1993-1994)
Season seven was the final season with the cast preparing for the big screen. It was also the only season of TNG ever nominated for an Emmy for Best Dramatic Series. So why is this season so close to the bottom? It’s not that the episodes are that bad. Well, except for the “Beverly has sex with a ghost” episode, “Sub Rosa.” However, it just feels as though both the writers and actors were running out of steam by this point.
What ultimately elevates this season is the excellent series finale “All Good Things.” This episode still stands as one of the best series finales of any series ever. Unfortunately, there are a lot of “just ok” episodes leading up to it. There are some standouts, of course, like the exploration of Will Riker’s problematic past in “Pegasus.” This season also has “Attached,” where Jean Luc and Beverly finally reveal their feelings for each other, thanks to a psychic link.
Best Episodes: “Dark Page,” “Attached,” “Parallels,” “The Pegasus,” “Lower Decks,” “All Good Things”
5. Season 2 (1988-1989)
The second season of TNG should have the subtitle of another ‘80s show, Growing Pains. This season was hit with a writer’s strike right before production, forcing the creative team to scramble for scripts and leading to fewer episodes overall. On top of that, they had a new doctor on board, Diana Muldaur as Dr. Pulaski, creating a new dynamic. On the plus side, we also had a new location for the series, the bar Ten-Forward, and its charismatic bartender, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). And giving Geordi (Levar Burton) the Chief Engineer position and making Worf (Michael Dorn) head of security, also did wonders.
There are some episodes this season that are quite awful, like the Wesley Crusher teen romance “The Dauphin,” and the embarrassing “clip show” season finale “Shades of Gray.” Yet season two also gave us excellent offerings like the Klingon-centric “A Matter of Honor,” the introduction of the Borg in “Q Who,” and possibly the best episode of the whole series, the thoughtful Data courtroom drama “The Measure of a Man.” These standout stellar episodes help cancel out some of the other embarrassing ones.
Best Episodes: “Elementary, Dear Data,” “A Matter of Honor,” “The Measure of a Man,” “Q Who,” “The Emissary”
4. Season 4 (1990-1991)
The fourth season of TNG is special, because it did what TOS‘ season four never could do, which is exist. After the Borg cliffhanger finds resolution (satisfactorily enough), we get the excellent “Family,” where Picard goes home to Earth to unpack his trauma and have a fistfight with his shitty older brother. “Reunion” kicked the Klingon Empire political drama into high gear, and “Remember Me” put Dr. Crusher in a classic sci-fi dilemma, giving us an all-timer meme decades later.
Season four of TNG dealt with issues like euthanasia in “Half a Life,” one of the only non-annoying episodes featuring Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi. The political fear-mongering in the excellent “The Drumhead” creates an episode that takes on special resonance in our current era. The Q episode this season, “Q-pid,” evokes TOS era silliness, which ultimately makes this season just a tad weaker than the previous. But overall, season four is still TNG firing on all thrusters.
Best Episodes: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II,” “Family,” “Remember,” “Reunion,” “Data’s Day,” “Half a Life,” “In Theory,” “Redemption”
3. Season 6 (1992-1993)
The sixth season of TNG was the first one where the Trek production offices were making more than one series, as Deep Space Nine was also starting at the time. And yet TNG thrived in this era. Season six had the excellent two-parter “Chain of Command,” which dealt with the horrors of torture via Picard’s eyes. This was happening while also having an Enterprise work drama play out with the Enterprise’s micro-managing new Captain. We still can’t believe Patrick Stewart wasn’t nominated for an Emmy for this one.
“The Chase” finally explained why most Star Trek aliens look humanoid very creatively, and the It’s a Wonderful Life of Trek-esque episode, “Tapestry,” gave new layers to Jean Luc Picard as his past as an unruly youth plays out. Unfortunately, there are a tad more throwaway episodes this season than in seasons four or five, like the holodeck western “A Fistful of Datas,” which drops this season down a notch. But this season still rolls out some real bangers.
Best Episodes: “Relics,” “Chain of Command, Parts I and II,” “Face of the Enemy,” “Tapestry,” “Lessons,” “The Chase,” “Second Chances”
2. Season 5 (1991-1992)
By season five, TNG was running like a well-oiled machine. Even the lesser episodes are still pretty good. But season five gave us one of the show’s finest hours, with the Picard-centric “The Inner Light,” which features Jean Luc living an entirely different life for decades on an alien world. There’s also the excellent “I, Borg,” which forces the audience (and Picard) to look at their deadly cybernetic enemy as something other than mindless drones. And Trek finally tackled LGBTQ+ rights (metaphorically, anyway) in “The Outcast.”
The episode “Darmok,” which is about two alien cultures trying to communicate, is everything great about Trek. Even Wesley Crusher gets a fantastic episode, when he covers up an accident at Starfleet Academy in “The First Duty.” Of course, this season also finally brought Leonard Nimoy on board as Spock, for the fan-favorite two-parter, “Unification.” And Michelle Forbest is an excellent cast addition as Bajoran officer Ro Laren. If there is anything that keeps this season squarely in second place and not higher, it is that Worf’s annoying son, Alexander, came on board. There were way too many episodes with him running around.
Best Episodes: “Darmok,” “Ensign Ro,” “Unification I and II,” “Ethics,” “The Outcast,” “I, Borg,” “Cause and Effect,” “The First Duty,” “The Inner Light”
1. Season 3 (1989-1990)
After a shaky first two seasons, TNG blossomed into a beautiful flower at last in season three. We can thank Michael Piller for that. As the new showrunner, he came in and got this ship in Starfleet shape. From the start, things were different in year three. There were new opening credits, new uniforms, and a new dedication to character over plot. This led to 26 episodes that varied from good to great to excellent. But among the best were the time-travel epic “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” the Worf-centric “Sins of the Father,” and the tragic story of Data’s daughter in “The Offspring.”
Season three also brought the first TOS cast member to the Enterprise-D with Mark Lenard as Spock’s father in “Sarek.” This episode deftly handled the ravages of dementia on a brilliant mind. This great season was capped off brilliantly with Trek’s first season-ending cliffhanger, “The Best of Both Worlds,” when the Borg capture Picard and turn him into one of them. This one episode catapulted TNG out of the shadow of Kirk and Spock for good, and into four more seasons and over 100 more episodes than they ever had. It’s not only the most important season of TNG, but on a quality level, it remains the best of the bunch.
Best Episodes: “The Survivors,” “Who Watches the Watchers,” “The Bonding,” “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” “Sins of the Father,” “The Offspring,” “Sarek,” “Tin Man,” “The Best of Both Worlds Part I”
All seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation are currently available to stream on Paramount+.
The post All 7 Seasons of STAR TREK: TNG, Ranked appeared first on Nerdist.
Source: Kiat Media
0 Comments