#7 Best of Both Worlds, Season 3 finale
Some say that Measure Of A Man was the first really good episode of the series. I mean, I don't know... maybe. It's on my Honorable Mentions list. But I think Both Worlds may be the first real home-run of the show. There were a lot of good episodes in season 3, including Yesterday's Enterprise. But most of the good episodes in that year were improvements on concepts from the first 2 seasons. That's great and they needed to happen, don't get me wrong. However, this episode was a demonstration of their ability to further develop a concept without reaching over-saturation (which is kind of what had been happening with Data at this point, except his popularity made it okay.) As the first fruits of Q Who from the previous season, they begin to slowly build up their primary nemesis and it continued to break ground giving us the viral phrase, "Resistance is futile." The hopelessness of their first appearance was observable and the helplessness of the crew is measurable in this appearance as Picard is abducted and assimilated into the Borg collective.The character of Picard was always written the best even in the weakest episodes and he was very beloved and respected by now. So giving him over completely to the enemy's side to the point where the crew had to make the choice to possibly kill him was a bold move on the part of Star Trek and made a magnificent cliffhanger. There was actually a question as to whether or not Stewart would come back for the fourth season if you can imagine that ... it's almost as horrifying as the cliffhanger. But he did return and it enabled the writers to evolve the Borg a little more as we learned that Picard's personality wasn't completely gone, but only suppressed. Even though the weekly previews spoiled all of this, it was still a terrible shock when Picard was taken and a huge relief when they were able to communicate with him again and get him back. That's what makes this such a powerful episode. And even though it's a happy ending they don't have Picard playing it off as "all in a day's work" but rather with the dark weariness of someone who has been heinously traumatized. Very real; very relatable. It gave it a lot of depth.
I love this episode because, although the writers had been trending away from mercilessly beating up on humanity in general during this season, this is the first episode in which the human race, and Picard specifically, are unmistakably the good guys of the universe. They're special and able to overcome an overwhelming adversary such as the Borg. In fact, humans are so resilient that a liaison was needed to help take us out. It was very refreshing and just aided in giving the show purpose and direction. It opened up a lot of avenues and cemented for TNG an original antagonist all of its own so that they could grow beyond the political tensions of TOS as Roddenberry envisioned. TNG would never end another season without a two part cliffhanger again and this set the bar almost impassably high. It's a great episode.
I also have 10 honorable mentions to match my top ten favorites, so I'll throw one in every day that I post a top ten episode. These aren't ranked.
Starship Mine, season 6
Picard as a badass, rogue action hero? Uh... yes, please! It was pitched as "Die Hard on the Enterprise" and that about sums it up I guess. It seems like an idea that somebody would've had in the first season, but if it had been done in the first season it would've been awful. The Enterprise is in for a routine maintenance procedure which is lethal to organic life so they all must evacuate and most of the senior staff is forced to attend a reception they're not interested in. Picard finds a way out of it when he discovers that he can ride the nearby horse trails and returns to the ship to get his saddle before all the systems are shut down. He discovers a small group of people on the ship stealing valuable material from the engine core and can't escape in time to warn anyone, so he spends the episode trying to hinder their progress while cut off from everyone else and unable to use the advanced technologies on board the ship. He's resourceful and quick witted and shows a remarkable capacity for cunning and stealth. Stealth on both ends, because for the theft to work, there needs to be accomplices on the surface of the planet so the rest of the crew at the reception become hostages and they have to work while impeded as well to regain control of the situation. It reaches a nail biting climax as Picard and his crew overcome their enemies and find a way to communicate with only seconds to spare before Picard is killed by the maintenance procedure.
This episode is just wall to wall action. Even the comic relief is fast paced and precise. It showcases Picard at his coolest. I don't have a bad thing to say about it. It doesn't make the favorite's cut because it's a one-off episode, I guess that has no further impact on the characters within. Five stars for fun though. It's one of my personal favorite Picard episodes.
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