We all know about the classics like BOBW and All Good Things, but what are your favorite TNG episodes that are maybe more obscure than the well known ones?
I watched "The Defector" when it came on the other day. I don't think I had seen it since I was a kid (or perhaps at all) but I really enjoyed the hell out of it. I really liked the scenes that gave characters a bit more depth, like the Romulan admiral lamenting the loss of everything he had, as well as Picard brooding about the possible massive ramifications of the Enterprise's next moves. I wasn't really surprised at the credits when Ron Moore's name popped up as the writer.
- Where Silence Has Lease. I think I like it mostly because it's the first episode of TNG I ever saw the whole way through and it scared me shitless. Not as good on repeat viewings but I think it still holds up, especially the ending.
- Booby Trap. It starts as a very creepy ghost ship story ("they died at their posts"), then becomes a pretty standard ship-is-trapped episode that's still entertaining.
- Remember Me. It's a Crusher episode so if you can't stand her it's an hour of misery, and I suppose the big reveal is done way too soon, but it still works.
- Tin Man. It's one of the underrated gems of the series IMO.
- The Perfect Mate may seem like a dull filler episode but if you look at it less as an SF story and more as a tragic love affair it really works. Mostly because Stewart is acting his ass off.
Q, Who and Best of Both Worlds - episodes when the Borg were actually a threat. I actually really liked Where No One Has Gone Before - Wesley was still annoying, but the whole scope of it, travelling to another galaxy and then to who knows where, and the hint of someday opening up the series to the possibilty of exploring an entire universe rather than just one small galaxy (even though that never came about).
Bounty wrote:- Remember Me. It's a Crusher episode so if you can't stand her it's an hour of misery, and I suppose the big reveal is done way too soon, but it still works.
"The universe is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter."
Majel Barrett Roddencomputer's voice has only ever been used in such a disturbing way in this episode and VOY's The Haunting of Deck Twelve.
The Hunted. Yeah it was a ham fisted attempt a Vietnam vet analogy but it sure was fun to watch Roga Danar run around the ship, making asses out of everyone and kick Riker, O'Brien and Worf's asses in one go. It was a nice touch that he only killed three people in the episode (the prison guards in his escape), rather then slaughter his way through the E-D as well.
M1891/30: A bad day on the range is better then a good day at work.
Skin of Evil, because it was one of the first episodes I ever saw, and I like how Armus is portrayed.
EDIT: Also, Conspiracy is one of my favorites because it was an interesting concept to me when I first watched it, and I stil get a bit excited when I catch it on SciFi
Last edited by Darth Paxis on 2009-05-20 07:45pm, edited 1 time in total.
I like a lot of the ones people have said here. My favorite will probably always be Yesterday's Enterprise though.
"I spit on metaphysics, sir."
"I pity the woman you marry." -Liberty
This is the guy they want to use to win over "young people?" Are they completely daft? I'd rather vote for a pile of shit than a Jesus freak social regressive.
Here's hoping that his political career goes down in flames and, hopefully, a hilarious gay sex scandal. -Tanasinn
You can't expect sodomy to ruin every conservative politician in this country. -Battlehymn Republic
"Q Who" was probably the first very good episode that they did. It worked and it worked well. We are introduced to an enemy that they cannot defeat. Q does a perfect job in the episode mocking and educating the Federation. Picard's reaction towards the end clinched it.
"Yesterday's Enterprise" was a fun alternate reality episode. Showing a darker side to Trek that surfaced in DS9. Some fun moral dilemmas and a very entertaining battle.
"Best of Both Worlds" Enough said.
"All Good Things" One of the best time travel episodes I've seen. The seamless integration and stories worked so well together. Easily the best series finale Trek has ever had. All the more surprising that it turned out so well considering that its writers were also double timing with Generations at the same time.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
Hapan Battle Dragons Rule!
When you want peace prepare for war! --Confusious
That was disapointing ..Should we show this Federation how to build a ship so we may have worthy foes? Typhonis 1
The Prince of The Writer's Guild|HAB Spacewolf Tank General| God Bless America!
The Neutral Zone Here we get the first glimpse of the Borg...though we don't find out till season two.
There's a bunch more....but that's the ones off the top of my head.
XBL: Darek Silver | Wii Friend: 5602 6414 0598 0225 LibriumArcana - Roleplaying, Fiction, Irreverence Trekker (TOS, TNG/DS9-Era) | Warsie (semi-movie purist) | B5'er | TransFan Cult of Vin Diesel: While it is well known that James Earl Jones performed the voice of Darth Vader, it is less appreciated that Vin Diesel performs the voice of James Earl Jones.
Hrm, for me... Not counting biggies like BOBW or Unification....
Face of the Enemy - Troi wakes up and realizes someone's made her look like a Romulan. Cue forty+ minutes of intrigue and suspense.
Time Squared - While somewhat nutty with the time-freezing aliens or what have you, I like the idea that they had everyone thinking the Romulans had begun boarding the ship in a hostile takeover and it turns out to be much different.
Preemptive Strike - The penultimate episode of TNG follows up on what was then DS9's recent debut of the Maquis and gives us Ro Laren's final appearance in the show.
Relics - Scotty. 'nuff said.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
Time Squared - While somewhat nutty with the time-freezing aliens or what have you, I like the idea that they had everyone thinking the Romulans had begun boarding the ship in a hostile takeover and it turns out to be much different.
You're thinking of Timescape. Time Squared is an early episode where a time-displaced Picard is found adrift in space.
Deja Q wrote:Picard: "Q the misanthrope. Q the liar."
Q: "Q the powerless. Q the desperate. What must I do to convince you people?"
Worf: "Die."
Q: "Oh, very clever, Worf. Eat any good books lately?"
I'm going to have to echo-in for Unification once more. One of the best episodes of the series that didn't have some stupid reset button but had plenty of conflict-driven character development. I also liked Booby Trap, except for the rather anti-climactic ending.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
"Measure of a Man" is one of my favorites, as Chewie said. I also like "Family."
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
Time Squared - While somewhat nutty with the time-freezing aliens or what have you, I like the idea that they had everyone thinking the Romulans had begun boarding the ship in a hostile takeover and it turns out to be much different.
You're thinking of Timescape. Time Squared is an early episode where a time-displaced Picard is found adrift in space.
.....ooops?
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia
American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.
DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
I'm not great for titles, and perhaps someone can name these episodes later-
- The one where Riker keeps switch from the Enterprise to a mental health facility.
- The two-parter with Mark Twain
- The episode arch with Hugh, even though it was promptly forgotten.
PRFYNAFBTFCP
Captain of the MFS Frigate of Pizazz +2 vs. Douchebags - Est vicis pro nonnullus suscito vir
"Are you an idiot? What demand do you think there is for aircraft carriers that aren't government?" - Captain Chewbacca
"I keep my eighteen wives in wonderfully appointed villas by bringing the underwear of god to the heathens. They will come to know God through well protected goodies." - Gandalf
"There is no such thing as being too righteous to understand." - Darth Wong
I quite liked Cause and Effect. I think that was the title, the one with the USS Bozeman.
Don't Move you're surrounded by Armed Bastards - Gene Hunt's attempt at Diplomacy
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own - Number 6
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
