What episodes of Star Trek: TNG should I watch?

Start with anything involving Q. Let that lead to the Borg story line. Then finish with the Q final episode.

Q and the Borg will roll into the Vagina series. Ooops sorry. I meant Voyager.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies So start with the first episide?

The Best of Both Worlds (parts 1 and 2) Picard gets turned into a borg. Whats not to like?

The Inner Light, in which a space probe creates a telepathic tether and causes Picard to experience, in 25 minutes Enterprise time, a lifetime as a married man on a world that was destroyed a millennium previously. This episode is widely considered by critics and fans as one of the best episodes of the entire Star Trek franchise, and it affected me greatly.

Check out the entire list of episodes, season by season, with short summaries here.

You won’t get as much out of the later episodes without having watched the first dozen. So start with them.

I’m a Next Gen baby, so of course I recommend watching every episode. But if you want to bounce around and get a feel, here are my recommendations:

“The Outcast” – Riker has feelings for a person from a gender-neutral alien species who feels they are actually female. You will cry.

As mentioned above, “The Inner Light”. Probably my favourite Next Gen episode.

“I, Borg” – LaForge brings home an orphaned Borg and teaches him to be an individual. It’s helpful to have some Borg background, like “Best of Both Worlds” before seeing this one.

For teh lulz, “Q-Pid” – Q sends the Enterprise crew into a live reenactment of the Robin Hood story.

“Measure of a Man” – a local JAG agent must determine whether Data – the android 2nd officer – is a sentient being, or property of Starfleet. You will cry.

“Darmok” – The Enterprise makes First Contact with a race of humanoids who speak entirely in metaphor.

“Masks” – one of the most visually appealing episodes, in my opinion. Masaka is waking…

Also for teh Lulz, “The Naked Now” – This is episode two (or three, if you count Encounter at Farpoint as two episodes). It’s directly stolen from “TOS: The Naked Time” – you’ll remember Sulu fencing half-naked in the corridors.

“The Offspring” – Data builds himself a daughter. You will cry.

I could go on… Half of the fun in Trek is the random episodes in which you find fairly big stars of today in tiny little roles, like Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives as random Ensign in a transporter in “Schisms”.

None, they’re all shite!!
Best to start at the beginning & work your way in, don’t want to lose the thread before you even start.

Any involving the Borg are terrific. Some others not mentioned yet are:

“Conspiracy”
“Sarek”
“Cause and Effect”

These episodes are not just good Star Trek, they are terrific Science Fiction.

We’re in the middle of marching through the whole STNG on netflix. Why not watch ‘em all if you have access to them? You could skip the holodeck fantasies since they are mostly irrelevant to the plot arch of the series.

You’ll want to see the first episode where Q is introduced, and in my opinion it’s one of the tightest first-episodes you’ll find on any series. (Most series seem to wobble around for a few episodes or even the first season then hit a stride).

It’s funny, but I hate the Q episodes when the Borg are not involved.

@Seek_Kolinahr cracks me up: ”... you will cry”.
Those were good episodes, though.

Start with Q who? And than the episodes with the Borg in them.

I agree wholeheartedly with @Seek_Kolinahr , especially the part about watching all of them. You do need to see a few of the first episodes, first, simply so you can figure out who all of the players are and their basic characteristics.

Then if you want to episode hop I would choose

Elementary, Dear Data, in which Data and LaForge go onto the holodeck for a Sherlock Holmes inspired adventure.

Naked Now, in which the entire crew (including Data) are infected with some type of chemical that makes them all act very drunk and or lusty. It is in this episode that we find out that Data (although he is a robot) is fully functional if you know what I mean, wink wink. Fantastic lusty scene between Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard, made me need to change me knickers.

The Big Goodbye, which is another fun holodeck adventure for the crew, it is set in the 1940’s so everybody’s dressed accordingly.

Attached, the episode in which Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard are implanted with devices that make them able to read each other’s mind, which leads them to finally understand that they are in love with each other. Wept like an ultra romantic baby during this episode.

Any episode in which Captain Picard is shirtless.

All of the movies with the cast of STNG.

A lot of my favourites were already mentioned, but I’ll add these:

Timescape which includes the scene I laughed the hardest at in all of Star Trek. It still makes me giggle to think of it.

Ensign Ro which is our first encounter with the Bajorans, and so the lead-in to Deep Space 9, which I hope you will watch, because it is brilliant.

The Host for… similar reasons. I’ll say no more.

Lessons Picard + romance = always good. But only watch after seeing The Inner Light

All the two-part shows…

My nephew is visiting and he brought Star Trek 2009 with him. He fell asleep earlier than excpected as it is his last day of first grade. We shall be re-watching it tomorrow night. Young Spock is better than fresh strawberries and cream. I am so proud that the young-un is a trekkie!

The first episode was kind of boring. I’m sure it get’s better.

The next two were much better.

Also can someone tell some episodes that feature Data’s cat, Spot.

The above mentioned, “Schisms” – the opener shows Data at a poetry jam, in which he presents “an Ode to Spot”.

There is also a great episode, I believe it’s called “Species”, but I could be wrong… Spot saves the day.

Genesis. It’s called “Genesis”, not “Species”

“I can’t dance, I can’t talk, the only thing about me is the way that I walk…”

@Seek_Kolinahr Love the Spot poem, but that episode is probably the most irritating to watch as a biologist! The idea of giving Data a cat was brilliant – and I always found it wonderful that he understood cat behaviour so much better than any of his crewmates… who would cringe to be asked to cat-sit. ;)

@simone54 You’re completely right; the first episode is pretty boring (and almost painful to watch in terms of acting and dialogue). But a lot of background is provided there, so it’s impossible to skip. The series as a whole really becomes genius around the beginning of season 3. Until then, it’s kind of hit-and-miss.

Also, note that TNG was conceived as a remake of the original series. For that reason, a lot of the first season episodes are pretty much rip-offs of the classic TOS episodes. It’s not accidental or a failure of the writers. They really didn’t know how hungry people were for new Star Trek stories.

@simone54

This Wikipedia Page(Star_Trek) lists some (not sure if all) epesodes with Spot.

I agree that the very first episode of STNG was pretty boring, but you need it to get the background, the next episodes after that were pretty good, and it gets better and better as it goes along.

Note: I could not stand the fill-in Doctor (Dr. Pulaski) who replaced Gates McFadden as the ship’s doctor for a season. The worst thing about her was that she pronounced Data’s name with the other pronunciation. Instead of the long “a” she used the short “a”. It would be similar to mispronouncing anyone else’s name and it just about drove me mad. I was so happy when Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) returned, mostly because she and Captain Picard have an intense, under the radar, romance smoldering for the rest of the time.

Oh, and don’t forget about the smoldering romance between Deanna Troi and Commander Riker. No wonder I love this show so much. It’s like soft core porn.

Make sure you watch some of the episodes featuring Wesley Crusher too. It will make watching current episodes of The Big Bang Theory more enjoyable.

@Kardamom I detested Dr. Pulaski when the show first aired, but I’ve found on repeat viewing (maybe I’m just getting old, ha!) that I really appreciate her story. She is one of the strongest female characters on the show, and she’s kind of a nod to Dr. McCoy of old. Dr. Crusher, by contrast, seems increasingly weak and one-dimensional to me. I think they should have developed her character better.

@glacial Her voice grated on me, which is kind of ironic, because although I thought I would also dislike Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway from Voyager) for the same reason, but I loved Kate! The actress herself, the one who played Dr. Pulaski, kind of looked like this awful woman that I used to work with (that woman was also very brusque and bossy) and when she wouldn’t say Data’s name properly, it just made my hackles rise.

I guess I’m a little sensitive about mispronunciations of names, because my last name, even though it’s spelled exactly how it’s pronounced has been mispronounced in ugly ways since the day I was born

It would be like Spock being called Spook.

I would have really appreciated if they had truly explored the love relationship between Picard and Dr. Crusher. All that un-requited angst, I eat that stuff up.

@Kardamom Tell me you read the novels. Please.

If NOTHING else, read Imzadi, by Peter David.

@Seek_Kolinahr No, I haven’t, but I do know that in one of them, I will be delightfully satisfied. My Mom reads them and she told me.

But I just really wanted to see some onscreen Captain/Doctor action : P

This is one of my favorite fan made Star Trek fiction clips.

@Kardamom Ah, but her mispronunciation of Data’s name was symbolic of her not accepting that he was a person! She changed her ways eventually. :)

Also, her appearance reminds me of a Star Trek character from the original series… hey, wait a minute.

@glacial Hee Hee! You are clever! You are right that she did change, but by then it was too late for me.

I also never really liked Q (maybe it was just something about that particular actor) although I appreciated the whole concept of Q. Although I definitely enjoyed This Scene although I cannot recall the reason why they were both, ahem, there.

Relevant…ish :)

Let’s play a game, I think Seek will probably win this though. Name the episode in which these photos appear.

Picard

Kirk

Kirk

Spock

Spock

Sulu

Dr. McCoy

Dr. McCoy

Tuvok

Tuvok

Worf

@ucme Thanks ; – }

@Kardamom Too easy to cheat on this! But the following I know from memory:

Picard: The “there are four lights!” episode – darned if I can remember the title.
Sulu: The Naked Now
Worf: The “the higher, the fewer!” episode – can’t remember the title on that one, either.

… hmm, Tuvok has really filled out since his Voyager days…

@glacial But my game was a lot more fun than Pictionary, don’t you agree?

@Kardamom Well. I certainly can’t argue with that.

OK, Haven’t cheated, let’s see what I can do:
Picard – Chain of Command – It’s a two-parter, not sure which part. There are four lights.
Kirk – I have no clue. How often is The Shat shirtless? Like all the time?
Kirk – That’s from the new movie, Into Darkness.
Spock – 99% sure this isn’t from an episode. Is it bad that I’ve never pictured Vulcans with body hair?
Spock – sigh Why do all the good ones have to be gay?
Sulu – TOS: The Naked Time
Dr. McCoy – Can’t name it… or place it.
Dr. McCoy – Me-fucking-ow. And that’s from Pathfinder. Love that movie.
Tuvok – See, there’s the bald-chested Vulcan I expect. Never was big on Voyager, can’t name the episode.
Tuvok – You’re too funny. ^_^
Worf – Ohshiz… that’s a Lwaxana Troi episode, where she buddies up with Alexander. Can’t name it… Uhm…. “The Higher… The Fewer!”…..Frak! OK, cheated. Cost of Living.

@Seek_Kolinahr And this is why I love you!!!

If I had been smarter, I would have actually figured out where the stuff came from before posting the pictures. I don’t have an answer key.

You will be happy to know that the lovely picture of Spock came from an episode called Patterns of Force enjoy!

I’m totally saving your phrase, Shat Shirtless!

Dang, wish I had found this one of McCoy earlier.

You can see more of the same, Here

But wait There’s More.

Oh. My.

^^ Oh My, indeed!

Where is @simone54 ? She’s missing this awesome Trek party.

Sulu singing cheeky little number on British telly.

@ucme I’m unable to access the clip. Is it the one where he’s in Australia or George Takei’s Greatest moments? I’ll have to go to youtube directly to see it.

@Kardamom Yep, the one in the Aussie jungle…
Olly, Olly, Olly
Tits in the trolley
Balls in a biscuit tin
Sitting on the grass
With your finger up your ass
Playing with your ding a ling ling

Crossroads!