This is a bit late. My Spiderman 3 post (here) took a while to write, so I have a good foothold in Season 6 of Star Trek: TNG now. But anyway, I’m still doing these. There are 26 episodes in Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so 16 episodes will be left out.
10. The Game
Wesley Crusher returns from Starfleet academy on leave, and finds everyone on the Enterprise obsessed with a new game, that seems to be taking over the crew. Without Wesley, this episode would be nothing. It really showed me just how awesome of a character he was, and, hey! He got a girlfriend too. Sorry, Geordi. (Ep. 6 out 26)
9. Darmok
Captain Picard is “kidnapped” by an alien captain who’s species speaks only in metaphor. Picard and the rest of the Enterprise crew must decipher the alien language and save the lives of both captains. This was a pretty average episode, all around, but it did have an interesting concept, and I liked the alien species featured. (Ep. 2 of 26)
8. Unification: Part I
Captain Picard and Data go undercover on Romulus, surgically altered to appear like Romulans, on a mission to find Ambassador Spock, who has dropped off of the grid and into enemy space. This episode was kind of cool, and it did have the return of a few Klingons, but mostly, I’m in it for Leonard Nimoy. (Ep. 7 of 26)
7. The Next Phase
Caught in a transporter malfunction, both Geordi and Ensign Ro transcend matter, and are led to believe that they are dead, and in some sort of purgatory. This was one of the cool, mindbending episodes, and I especially liked the part when Ro walked around causally shooting people. You had to be there. (Ep. 24 of 26)
6. The Inner Light
Captain Picard falls unconscious on the bridge of the Enteprise-D, then proceeds to wake up on a strange planet, suffering from the delusion of being a Starfleet captain. Again, this was one of the tricky ones, and if you read between the lines, it was pretty touching. (Ep. 25 of 26)
5. Ethics
Worf, injured in an accident aboard ship, looses the use of his legs. In the sickbay, he asks Riker to help him commit suicide. Ethics didn’t get this spot because of action, or intrigue. No, certainly not action. It was the touching moments between Worf and his son, or Worf and Riker. Worf, blinded by honor, immediately thinks to kill himself. He asks Riker to help him, but Riker refuses, saying that he isn’t thinking about how much the other crew members, and his son, need him. It’s the moments like this that really make Ethics shine. (Ep. 16 of 26)
4. Conundrum
An approaching alien ship comes too close to the Enterprise, and wipes the short term memory of all the crew but Data. Afterwards, Picard and the crew attempts to piece back what happened. I know that there are a lot of tricky ones on the list this time around, but this is one of the best the series has to offer so far. (Ep. 14 of 26)
3. Cause and Effect
Caught in a disastrous time loop, the crew of the Enterprise must stop the ship from being destroyed. Again. I know! Another tricky one! This list is getting repetitive. (Ep. 18 of 26)
2. Disaster
When the Enterprise breaks down, the crew is trapped off in different sections of the ship, attempting to undo the damage. This was a very interesting episode. Data and Riker attempted to make their way to engineering, Troi was acting captain, Worf acted as a mid-wife for Keiko, and Picard confronted his worst nightmare. He was stuck in an elevator with four small children. (Ep. 5 of 26)
1. I, Borg
The crew of the USS Enterprise-D finds a lone Borg Drone, lost and separated from the collective, and take him aboard the ship, ready to use him as a weapon against the collective. But, soon, members of the crew befriend the Borg Drone, and see it as more than the faceless enemy they once knew. It takes good writers to take one of their best villains, and then victimize them, and make the viewer feel sorry for them. The writers of Star Trek: TNG did just that with the Borg. (Ep. 23 of 26)
The Fortress of Helixity 