My choice would be Best of Both Worlds. All Good Things would be a close second. What say you? I don't think Birthright needed to be a two parter. The two parts had nothing to do with each other. There was no DS9, or Bashir, or Data/Dr Soong stuff in part 2. They should have just condensed that into one episode, and condensed the Worf stuff into its own episode.
Chain of Command was a great episode. It was nice to see Jellico upset the status quo, and Picard and Madred's exchanges were powerful stuff.
It's been much too long since I've seen AGT, but I remember it as being completely perfect and wonderful. BOBW is great, sure, but the Shelby character doesn't really pay off as well as she should, given her screen time in Part One, and there's nothing in the eps quite so poetic as Q showing Picard the start of life on Earth. "Chain of Command" is excellent apart from Bev's massaging the Ferengi's ears scene, and, Q aside, the best thing about "Enounter at Farpoint" is its rather evocative title.
While I think AGT is a fantastic episode, it's not my favorite since it basically treated Picard as the only thing in TNG that matters and that he's the only character to actually develop. I like two parter/feature length episodes better when the other characters have more stakes in the story rather than simply serving to further only Picard's story. Plus episodes like BOBW and COC helped bring long term changes to Star Trek in ways both subtle and huge. Starfleet would be more militarized due to the Borg invasion and Troi would now have to look professional by wearing a uniform. And while I wholeheartedly agree that Shelby's character didn't really pay off well, she wasn't put down as the typical rival character who is always wrong because she's not the main character. Hearing Jonathan Frakes say that they didn't use enough of her was nailed right on the head because even in TNG's later seasons, the female characters didn't really amount to much. Plus I thought her quick dismissal from the Enterprise in the end was a bit too happy. I will forever curse Ron D. Moore for making the comment that he never work with her character again.
Honestly, I'd say as a whole, Voyager and Enterprise had superior 2-and-multi-part episodes than TNG, at least as far as ones I enjoy. For me, #1 definitely goes to Best of Both Worlds, with Encounter at Farpoint in second and All Good Things in third. Beyond that, they are either okay (Unification, Redemption, Gambit) or ones I don't really enjoy like Chain of Command and Time's Arrow.
I went with All Good Things with BOBW a close second. AGT was the perfect TNG episode for. BOBW had some slow parts and questionable battle scenes (a lot of sitting right in front of the cube when they should have hauled butt). Chain of Command was really good. Time's Arrow was the worst by far of the bunch.
Wholeheartedly agree. Completely disagree Time's Arrow isn't the best two-parter, but it's my personal favorite of the series. Every Trek series has done an episode where they travel back to modern times on Earth, and this was the best of those.
I'm rather partial to Chain of Command. It did things that no other Star Trek episode had ever been willing to do. It's truly compelling & in an entirely character driven way. Some of the best acting of the entire series. It gave everybody something interesting to do, whether you liked how the people came off or not It was straight out of left field, it never loses my attention for a second, & looking back analytically, it holds up exceptionally well Birthright is easily the worst. Decent 1st act that bottoms out in the 2nd like a submarine with a screen door
Voted AGT. BOBW is still the best "two parter" in the series, but it is brought down a bit by its ending, while AGT didn't have that problem. AGT masterfully told a story taking place in the past, present, and future eras and never felt confusing. Quite an accomplishment. Generations was a real let down next to AGT.
Besides the obvious ones BoBW, AGT, and CoC, I think Redemption is extremely underrated. So is Gambit, the only ones I don't think are good episodes are Birthright and Descent.
I agree with you on that. It was a great character piece for Worf and established a host of continuity and recurring characters in Gowron, Kurn and the Duras sisters. I could've done without the Sela nonsense though.
All Good Things is my obvious choice, but if I were to rank them based on both episodes instead of individually: All Good Things Best of Both Worlds Chain of Command Gambit (I really liked this episode, and I'm surprised it might not be as well liked as I thought it was) Redemption Unification Times Arrow Descent Encounter at Farpoint Birthright (Part 1 is so much better because of the Data story)
All Good Things... and its not even close. Best of Both Worlds suffers from a weak second half, Time's Arrow is goofy fun and Unification is a total letdown (but watchable) based on the hype. The rest are garbage.