My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.
#3 Lower Decks, season 7
One of the best episodes of the series; one of my personal favorites. It took some flack for being too aggressive as far as military operations go, but I think it was wonderfully done and these kinds of episodes helped to support DS9 which made it such a good series.
This script is heavy on dialogue and crew interaction and that's always a challenge since there usually needs to be a focal point of action to keep the story moving. Mostly, when they spend time on personal stories, it ends up being too much time and it either short changes the action, or it's too random and irrelevant to the franchise in general... In Theory, Qpid, Lessons, and Sub Rosa are good examples. But other times it's done right like Family, Data's Day, and this one. A lot of time is devoted to simply painting a broad picture of how the senior officers and junior officers view each other and react to each other with each group learning and growing from their interaction with each other. And they really nail it with a nice balance of characters to make the audience comfortable with so many new faces at one time. Ogawa is already a familiar face and so is Sito. And with Sito our interest is piqued after her part in The First Duty. It's wonderfully teased... not too much of her personal story is given away at first. Instead of following the main characters, the cameras stay on the ensigns and their points of view when the crux of the story is finally unveiled. The parallel poker games bond all of the characters of upper and lower decks and help to get the audience completely invested in these characters who would all be thrown away except Ogawa.
Then, with a few choice scenes, the writers cultivate the bittersweet story of Ensign Sito (and give her an even better ending than poor Wesley.) To further the DS9 foundation, Sito is chosen pose as a prisoner with a Cardassian spy for the Federation to help get him back into Cardassian territory. We're reminded that she's had a rough time since the incident at the academy. Worf and Picard must both prepare her mentally with tough love to give her the strength to carry out the mission, should she chose to accept it. And she does accept it because the Cardassian/Bajoran conflict is personal. It's a testament to how the main cast had grown by the seventh season that we didn't need to see whatever counseling Picard needed to saddle such a big responsibility onto such a young junior officer, nor how the rest of them especially Worf could be supportive of so obviously a dangerous mission. The tension amidst her colleges and her superiors as she flies unarmed and scared into a deadly game of espionage is thick enough to cut with a knife and our hearts are crushed when news of an anonymous, dead Bajoran prisoner is relayed to the crew.
I didn't want it to be the end. I half expected her to turn up in DS9 especially after Worf joined the cast, but they chose not to salvage the character again. Disappointing, but sill okay since this is one of the best written and acted episodes ever. Instead of being black and white it moves within the shades of gray where war and peace is concerned. This is Star Trek at it's fully matured state.

 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
Darmok, season 5
I don't want to actually complain about this episode. I really loved it, of course, but it's so wildly popular I feel like I have to explain why it didn't make it into my top 10 favorites list. It comes down to the fact with my analytical mind, I can only stand so many "feels", particularly when I feel like someone is trying to deliberately manipulate my feelings. The emotions produced by The Inner Light and Lower Decks felt more organic; authentic. The emotions brought about by this episode feel contrived or forced.
The Enterprise meets with a race that nobody has ever been able to communicate with and it doesn't look like they'll be able to any time soon. In desperation that race decides to trap the two captains on a planet with a dangerous creature to finally break down the language barrier that separates their cultures. Picard has every reason to assume the worst at first, but hardly had their first meeting on the planet gone by before the audience can see that Dathon's intent isn't evil. He arms them both but instead of attacking his body language indicates defeat and sadness when Picard refuses to fight. I think at this point Picard should've suspected that there was more to this than a challenge since he is supposed to be a great communicator. Dathon helps him through the night with his fire, doesn't make any moves to kill him in his sleep and still Picard thickly assumes that he wants a fight the next day.... until he notices there's a deadly beast on the planet. Sorry, I'm just not buying it from Picard. Riker, maybe, but not Picard. Picard was picked for obvious reasons. Once he realizes that their language is stories from their own mythologies, nobody but Picard could validate the actions of the Tamarian captain with such relief and enthusiasm. Nobody but Picard could tell the Sumarian tale of Gilgamesh and Enkidu with more credibility and charm while he comforts Dathon who was mortally wounded by the creature. And nobody but Picard could stay the Tamarian hostilities at the end when the Enterprise retrieves him from their cage with more graveness and and sincerity. There's not much dialogue in this episode, but as a Picard episode, it does its job of pulling at your heart.
They made this out to be a vital new alliance but offered no evidence that there would be any follow up which is another cheat of one's emotions. However, it's a heart-felt episode that showcases Picard at his best and the content offers points for reflection without pushing one ideology to indicate what people "should" think. That's why I love it even though I can't classify it as a favorite.

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.
#4 The First Duty, season 5
I'm a self professed Wesley-hater, but I want to clarify. Wil Wheaton was not the problem. Even the character of Wesley Crusher that was the main problem. I blame the writers and directors entirely. I understand that they wanted him to be a "good boy" and a proper role model but they went too far by giving him no viable teenage flaws. He always knew what the right thing to do was and he always did it with little or no prodding. He had no bad attitude or mischievous tendencies whatsoever. He was at genius level intelligence and even though his outlook was too innocent for his age, he was also somehow mature for his age and never conflicted with the other characters. The episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" set him up to be a unique character. And what a build up. He's going to be something amazing. He's going to be a "chosen one." He's going to be... going to be... ... ... A straight "A" student? A sci-fi Hardy Boy? There was great material all around him and he was always solid when paired with Picard, but nobody noticed until the end after he'd become a recurring character with precious little time for development.
This episode is another one of my personal favorites and, in my opinion, the best "Wesley" episode ever. There's an accident at the Academy in Wesley's flight team and one of the members is killed. When the team leader, Nick, interrupts his comfort time with his mother and Picard you see that the team is responsible for the accident and they're trying to cover it up. Where was all this great peer pressure when Wesley was growing up and being perfect from sun up to sun down? This is a much bigger deal than setting Nanites loose on the ship by accident. He'd never had any real challenges to his character development up until now and then it's like going from one extreme to the other. But this "other" is far more interesting. Picard confronting Wesley is a fantastic scene as it always is when Wesley and Picard are paired together. The ethics are solid and it's great character development for a character that wasn't even on the show regularly any more. Very gripping. This episode is so powerful that they show it at the Air Force Academy as a part of teaching about duty and ethics. If only Wesley had still been a regular on the show, some follow up could've been done. But they wasted his time on the show by making him the perfect little hero all the time. It still drives me crazy. This is such a cool episode. An episode that spawns other stories is the most impressive kind. The actor that played Nick went on to be a main character in Voayager... nearly as this character but for legal complications. And Sito would be brought back for another five star episode that's also in my list. Love it. Love it.

 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
To Thine Own Self, season 7
I liked this episode an awful lot and it's actually the B story that I liked over the A story. I liked Data's adventure too as long as one doesn't think about it too hard about it because even though amnesia stories work well, the fact that Data is the one with the amnesia makes it more difficult to pull off. You know - he doesn't remember that radioactive materials are dangerous but he's somehow retained enough scientific knowledge to understand that fire isn't an element as well as the skill to build a microscope and create a cure for radiation poisoning. It's one of those 7th season stretches that is forgivable because the show and characters are so beloved at this point they can almost do no wrong. Still... it's a story that begs to have holes knocked into it.
But the Bridge Officer test angle for Troi is what makes me stand up and cheer every time I see this episode. It only takes up about three scenes in the whole show, but it's the better story. Seeing Beverly taking a command watch on the bridge gets Troi thinking about her own career and she decides she would like to get a promotion. But it's not that easy. She passes all of the technical requirements, however it concludes with a test of character that has her stumped as she repeatedly destroys the Enterprise in a holodeck simulation. She doesn't know what she's doing wrong and Riker says that he can't tell her which only frustrates her more. She even asks if it's a no-win scenario, but that's not it either and Riker is ready to fail her for the good of the ship which gives Troi the epiphany needed to pass the holodeck simulation. She has to order poor holo-Geordi to his death in order to save the ship. Ah, my heart! So, not only did it reference the Kobayashi Maru from Khan, but it built on the concept. Spock volunteered to do what Kirk couldn't or wouldn't have asked him to do and now it's a requirement that commanding officers have the fortitude necessary to order someone to die to save the ship. The Kobayashi Maru is probably still there in the 24th century as a test of character, but now there's also a more grown up test of character to go with it. Because the show has grown up too. I love it so much!
I can see there was't enough there to fill an entire episode so it had to be a side story, but this little bit goes a long way. It was another great example of the reach and impact that The Wrath of Khan had on the franchise, furthering my opinion that Star Trek wouldn't have survived without it.

My Top Ten Favorite Star Trek TNG episodes, ranked

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.
#5 All Good Things, season 7 finale
This is an example of a series finale done right. It draws from the history of the show to bring closure to the characters while imagining a future that is tainted with sadness, but with the reassurance that it isn't set in stone. It brought a touch of class to the first season and validated its part in the growth of the show. It also facilitates continuing plot lines in DS9 and the three TNG movies, building the strong foundation that enabled the Star Trek franchise to continue through the 1990's and early millennium. All three of the other series used characters from this series in different capacities; they couldn't have done it without this show. It's one of the most perfect episodes constructed for the series because there was a sadness that the series had to end, but it was an ending that was left opened to all the new possibilities.
As a long two-hour episode, the first part is a lot of dialogue without as much action. But it's meaningful conversation which helps set the table for the climax along with the slow and deliberate introduction of the other two timelines that will play a significant role. Like the pilot episode, Encounter At Farpoint, the story is a simple one so a lot of time can be devoted to the characters, in this case developing a possible future for them and bringing a sense of completion to this chapter of the franchise. It's slow, but it's also very busy with Picard's time shifting to shape the episode which is an example of how the writing had improved over the years.
It wasn't entirely perfect... I thought the word "paradox" was too generic; the animus between Worf and Riker was left undeveloped do to lack of time and it kind of short changed Deanna from the future; and there's actually a fairly big goof regarding the tachyon pulses at the end, but we also forgive things like this since it's fiction. Still, I have no real complaints. It's all of the little details displaying the evolution of the characters and how they've bonded that the episode is really about. The rest is just backdrop. I have only love and admiration for a brilliant episode that killed everyone off and gave everyone a happy ending at the same time. So much love for this 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
Parallels, season 7
I love this episode. It's a different kind of Worf episode that's creative, technically good writing about a time anomaly since nobody around Worf remembers what went on in the end... not as good as Yesterday's Enterprise, but probably my second favorite time anomaly. And it was one of the best ways of teasing a Worf/Troi romance which I was completely in favor of at the time. But that's not what made it a great episode. It was fun with a serious problem that needed to be fixed and the solution foreshadowed the series finale. The pacing is wonderful, the situations are believable, and the twist at the end just adds to the story demonstrating that his first shift occurred when he entered the fissure and not again until Geordi was with him at the birthday party. I loved the shifting between parallel universes. It's a chance to mix up the characters, put them in different uniforms, and explore different plot twists like the possibility of the Borg taking over the quadrant or the Bajorans as the enemies. Poor Geordi has to be hypothetically sacrificed again, lol! He's always taking one for the team. It's a great example of how they could've better utilized Wesley even though he didn't have many lines. It was an all around great exercise in creative writing.
I can relate to Worf on a lot of levels and it was all the more special because they used him for it when, I think, they would've normally used Picard for an episode about jumping between alternate universes. Worf, who can't handle losing control over any aspect of his life, being forced into strange situations where he can't operate his control panel, where events are changing around him without his knowledge, where his family life is different, and there's nothing he can do about any of it. You can really feel his exasperation and helplessness and you can't help but admire him for handling it so gracefully in most situations. It's probably not relatable to everyone, so it didn't make the top ten cut, but it's one of my personal favorites and I love to watch it over and over.