Great, Overlooked TNG Episodes

"Contagion"- Awesome prequel to DS9's "To The Death"!

 

Family. EVERYBODY knows this is a brilliant episode, but it just never gets talked about much. It lies in the shadow of BoBW
Half A Life. Probably the only episode I think Majel Barret is really good, & Ogden Stiers is magnificent
Future Imperfect. Also not talked about much, but a darned interesting episode
The Mind's Eye is terrific. It may be Geordi's best featured episode
Disaster. It has all the markings of being a weak & formulaic bottle episode, but that thing is just a very good show imho
The Nth Degree. Shultz really giving some of the best work I've ever seen from him
The Enemy. Geordi is effing miraculous in this episode, & Worf is giving us something they would almost never do again with him, unfortunately

 

"The Mind's Eye" was a tense, well directed episode. I liked the shots in Geordi's perspective.

 

It made him seem like The Predator. lol, because every time they did it, it felt very foreboding.

 

That's one of my favorite movies!

 

Yes it was a good speech and the best ever given from a transporter pad...

 

I disagree with this one. Some jerk scientist is doing experiments that could destroy the galaxy, they rescue him and then Picard is excited to take him back so he can start the experiments again?

 

Good thing you're not me then.

 

I think one of the reasons is that none of the cast is the main character. It is almost like it isn't even a TNG episode. Lower Decks is another one where the main cast are just secondary characters

 

Another vote for "Contagion" as well. I loved how "Contagion" kept the Iconians a mystery. You might say it's an "Iconic" trait.

(Yes, there is a nitpick in that software requires hardware it understands in order to run it. The software can't, of its own accord, determine what hardware is running it prior to running itself - otherwise that bootable disk for a Macintosh would work in any Windows clone PC without issue. (Which is where the initial probe came in handy; it 'read' the hardware architecture before delivering its payload now recompiled to run it. (It's a very fast probe too...) It probably read up on Romulan architecture from their databanks as well. There's no outright exposition, it's just a fortunate happenstance there's enough that's open-ended to plop in real life to fix the plot hole bug, so to speak... again, it's a fast probe... )

 

I love Contagion. One of my favorites but I always get annoyed when Picard orders Worf to destroy the tricorder. Short sighted and unnecessary.

 

I agree so much on this! Love the episode and well, I really like Lwaxana on the rare occasions when she drops the "Auntie Mame" act, shows her vulnerability and gets quiet and sincere, and Half a Life had a good deal of that. Another good moment like that is on DS9 when she's trapped with Odo in the Turbo Lift.

 

Violations and Lessons are underrated episodes to me.

 

"Masks" is severely underrated, and a really great episode.

"The Royale", "Night Terrors" and "Identity Crisis" are very creepy episodes, and are better than many people give them credit for.

"Dark Page" is quite underrated, too, because it gives us so much insight into why Lwaxana is the way she is, particularly regarding Deanna.

 

I think it is actually the best episode of TNG.

 

(Unless I'm out of the loop) Surprised to see The Survivors hasn't been mentioned yet John Anderson's performance when he confessing how his wife died & what he did to The Husnock is legendary and heartbreaking.
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Glad to see others enjoy this scene.
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Edits mine Bolded - Agree Underlined - Disagree
I also agree with Dark Page, Identity Crisis, Clues, Face of the Enemy and Remember Me being great and underrated. And Contagion is winning me over as I'm watching it.
ETA: Also forgot another S2 episode Time Squared I always thought this one excelled at creating a creepy atmosphere and combining the time loop concept, really deserves to be talked abt more.

 

Totally agreed about "The Survivors", and also because it shows just how good a detective Picard is. I always felt he earned his rank and position using this episode as an example.

 

Those are all excellent lesser acclaimed episodes. One that I would add to the list as one of my personal favorites from S1 is "Too Short a Season". Special FX aside, I really like the moral and ethical questions raised by the episode- about his use of the de-aging drug, his betrayal of his wife, his betrayal of Starfleet in lying about his earlier arms-for-hostages deal with Karnas *and* his rivals, and the tragedy of his death at the end, which ultimately leads to the final resolution between himself and Karnas and enables Karnas to finally end his grudge and return the hostages.

 

This is one of the first few episodes of TNG I remember seeing when I was younger and I loved it and I still enjoy it upon repeated viewings

 

I loved this one. I don't know if I think it's the best episode but it's definitely up there as one of the best.