Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

Here are my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the best of the sequels to the original series.

Where No One Has Gone Before (Oct. 26, 1987)
An attempt to improve warp engine efficiency unexpectedly sends the Enterprise and her crew to a place far beyond anything experienced before.

Too Short a Season (Feb. 8, 1988)
A very elderly Starfleet admiral is brought in to handle a tense hostage situation—using a rather unconventional approach.

Home Soil (Feb. 22, 1988)
Checking on the progress of the terraforming of Velara III, Data and Geordi make a remarkable discovery.

Coming of Age (Mar. 14, 1988)
As Captain Picard is under investigation by Starfleet, Wesley Crusher takes his entrance examinations for Starfleet Academy.

Skin of Evil (Apr. 25, 1988)
A shuttlecraft crash lands on the planet Vagra II, but the rescue operation is complicated by a malevolent entity.

The Child (Nov. 21, 1988)
Counselor Troi is shocked to find out she is pregnant. What transpires afterwards is more amazing still.

The Measure of a Man (Feb. 13, 1989)
A Starfleet cyberneticist wishes to remove Lieutenant Commander Data from the Enterprise against his will for study and partial disassembly, considering him Starfleet property. But does he have rights as a sentient being?

The Dauphin (Feb. 20, 1989)
The Enterprise is ferrying intellectually curious and beautiful Salia and her guardian to the planet Daled IV where she is to become a reluctant young governess, but a chance meeting between the girl and Wesley Crusher leads to mutual love and difficult choices.

Q Who (May 8, 1989)
The Enterprise is hurled thousands of light years across the galaxy, bringing it and the Federation to the attention of a previously unknown species that represents a grave threat.

The Survivors (Oct. 9, 1989)
The Enterprise responds to a distress call from Rana IV, a Federation colony under attack from an unknown aggressor. They arrive to find the entire surface of the planet obliterated, save for a small patch of land with a single house and two occupants.

Who Watches the Watchers (Oct. 16, 1989)
A concealed anthropological field team observing a pre-industrial Vulcan-like civilization on Mintaka III experiences a power failure and explosion, which exposes them and members of the Enterprise crew helping them to the Mintakans, thus violating the prime directive.

The Bonding (Oct. 23, 1989)
During a routine archeological investigation on a planet once inhabited by the extinct Koinonians, a still active land mine kills a member of the crew. Captain Picard, Security Chief Worf, Counselor Troi, and Wesley Crusher must help her son, now parentless, deal with his loss.

The Enemy (Nov. 6, 1989)
A distress signal leads to the inhospitable world Galorndon Core, where Riker, Worf, and Geordi discover the remains of a crashed Romulan vessel.

The Defector (Jan. 1, 1990)
A Romulan scout ship enters the Neutral Zone whose sole occupant requests asylum with a Romulan warship in hot pursuit.

Yesterday's Enterprise (Feb. 19, 1990)
The U.S.S. Enterprise-C passes through a temporal rift and encounters the U.S.S. Enterprise-D twenty-two years in the future.

The Offspring (Mar. 12, 1990)
Lieutenant Commander Data creates a new android, Lal, which he considers to be his child, but the magnitude of his achievement quickly catches the unwanted attention of Starfleet.

Tin Man (Apr. 23, 1990)
An ancient organic spaceship with no remaining crew begins orbiting a planet whose parent star is about to go supernova, and the Enterprise and Betazoid prodigy Tam Elbrun are sent to make contact.

Sarek (May 14, 1990)
Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan, now 202 years old, beams aboard the Enterprise to establish the foundation for trade relations between the Federation and an alien race called the Legarans.

Transfigurations (Jun. 17, 1990)
Dr. Crusher, Riker, and Geordi La Forge rescue a critically injured humanoid from the wreckage of an escape pod on an uninhabited and unexplored planet.

Family (Oct. 1, 1990)
Captain Picard, Worf, and Wesley Crusher reunite with family members while the Enterprise is undergoing repairs after the Borg confrontation.

Remember Me (Oct. 22, 1990)
Dr. Beverly Crusher welcomes her old friend and mentor Dr. Dalen Quaice aboard the Enterprise, but then he turns up missing. Star Trek meets The Twilight Zone.

Reunion (Nov. 5, 1990)
Ambassador K'Ehleyr brings disturbing news that the Klingon leader K'mpec is dying, but the news she brings Worf is even more surprising.

Future Imperfect (Nov. 12, 1990)
On an away mission, Riker loses consciousness from a toxic gas, and when he awakens, he finds himself 16 years in the future.

Final Mission (Dec. 2, 1990)
Before leaving for Starfleet Academy, Wesley Crusher accompanies Captain Picard on a dangerous mission.

First Contact (Feb. 18, 1991)
During an away mission to observe the Malcorian civilization which is on the verge of warp-drive technology, Commander Riker is seriously injured and brought to a hospital where, despite being altered to look like a Malcorian, he immediately arouses suspicion that he may not be from their world.

Identity Crisis (Mar. 25, 1991)
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge and his friend and former shipmate Lt. Commander Susanna Leijten are the last crew members remaining from an Away Team sent to investigate the mysterious disappearance of several people on the planet Tarchannen III—each of whom has subsequently disappeared under similarly mysterious circumstances.

The Nth Degree (Apr. 1, 1991)
The Enterprise discovers an alien probe near the malfunctioning Argus Array telescope, and during the investigations a crew member is mysteriously endowed with superhuman intelligence.

The Game (Oct. 28, 1991)
Wesley Crusher visits the Enterprise on vacation from Starfleet Academy, and falls in love with the intelligent and beautiful Ensign Robin Lefler. The two of them work together to try to understand a mysterious addictive alien game that is spreading throughout the crew.

Unification (Nov. 4 & 11, 1991)
In this two-part episode, the Federation is surprised to learn that Ambassador Spock has traveled to Romulus. Fearing the worst, they send Captain Picard and one of his officers on a covert mission to determine why.

Conundrum (Feb. 17, 1992)
After being scanned by an unidentified alien ship, the entire crew, even Data, sustains complete memory loss. Though they have forgotten who they are and what they do, they still possess the skills needed to enable them to operate the ship.

Ethics (Mar. 2, 1992)
Worf is rendered a paraplegic in a freak accident in a cargo bay when a support beam breaks, causing a heavy container to fall upon him.

The Outcast (Mar. 16, 1992)
Soren, a member of an androgynous race known as the J'naii, has unusual female tendencies and becomes attracted to Riker.

Cause and Effect (Mar. 23, 1992)
The Enterprise gets trapped in a temporal causality loop, leading the crew to experience the destruction of the ship over and over again.

The First Duty (Mar. 30, 1992)
A training accident at Starfleet Academy results in the death of a cadet (Joshua Albert) and many unanswered questions for the surviving squadron members Nicholas Locarno, Wesley Crusher, Jean Hajar, and Sito Jaxa.

The Next Phase (May 18, 1992)
The Enterprise renders assistance to a crippled Romulan science vessel, but a transporter accident leads to the disappearance of Geordi La Forge and Ro Laren, who are presumed dead.

The Inner Light (Jun. 1, 1992)
An energy beam from an alien probe penetrates the shields of the Enterprise and strikes Captain Picard on the bridge, rendering him unconscious. The Beatles song by George Harrison of the same name was an inspiration for this remarkable story that is one of Star Trek's finest hours.

Time's Arrow (Jun. 15 & Sep. 21, 1992)
In this two-part episode, the Enterprise is recalled to Earth after work crews find underground evidence in San Francisco that aliens visited there during the late 19th century. Even more surprising: that evidence includes incontrovertible proof that Lt. Commander Data was there at that time.

Relics (Oct. 12, 1992)
The Enterprise discovers a ship that crashed on a Dyson sphere more than seventy-five years prior with a single survivor suspended in the transporter buffer: Captain Montgomery Scott.

The Chase (Apr. 26, 1993)
Captain Picard is visited by his old Academy archaeology professor, Dr. Richard Galen, who has been made a profound discovery of galactic importance.

Suspicions (May 9, 1993)
Dr. Beverly Crusher convenes a group of scientists to observe a demonstration by Dr. Reyga, a Ferengi scientist, showing how a metaphasic shield he invented could protect a shuttle and its occupants from the destructive forces inside a star's corona.

Timescape (Jun. 14, 1993)
Captain Picard and Lieutenant Commanders Data, La Forge, and Counselor Troi are heading back to the Enterprise from a Federation conference aboard a runabout when they begin experiencing strange temporal disturbances where time runs much slower or much faster than normal.

The Pegasus (Jan. 10, 1994)
When Riker's first commanding officer, Admiral Pressman, comes aboard to aid in the search for the vessel they served on, Riker is forced to rethink the actions he took at that time.

Homeward (Jan. 17, 1994)
Worf's foster brother, Dr. Nikolai Rozhenko, violates the Prime Directive in an attempt to save a group of Boraalan villagers from their dying planet, putting Captain Picard and his crew in a difficult position.

Lower Decks (Feb. 7, 1994)
Life aboard the Enterprise as seen from the vantage point of junior officers eager to earn a promotion leads one of them (Sito Jaxa, who we last saw in The First Duty) to accept a very dangerous mission.

Journey's End (Mar. 28, 1994)
Under the terms of a treaty between the Federation and the Cardassians, Captain Picard has been given the unenviable task of implementing a forced relocation of a colony of Native Americans to another planet, and Wesley Crusher makes his final appearance in the series.

Firstborn (Apr. 25, 1994)
With Worf's son Alexander fast approaching the age for the Klingon Rite of Ascension, Worf is troubled that Alexander shows little interest in his traditional Klingon heritage.

All Good Things (May 23, 1994)
Captain Jean-Luc Picard inexplicably cycles between the past, present, and future in this outstanding movie-length series finale that won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.