Nepenthe was my clear favourite from the first season, so there's no way that I'd vote against it. Rememberence was a rollercoaster reintroduction to Jean-Luc Picard and deserves a high finishing spot. I still get excited when I rewatch it. Nepenthe is a different beast altogether though, with heartfelt appearances from Riker and Troi, in a truly bittersweet episode. I don't quite remember Deanna having quite the emotional impact on me before throughout TNG, but her story about poor Kestra really was heartbreaking. Seeing the Rikers again also repurposed Picard and Soji going into the last episodes. Remembrance - 2 Nepenthe - 1
@Seven of Five: Your post is wrong. You need to take the ones before it into account which you didn't do so I am voting for Nepenthe as I think Remembrance is stronger. Remembrance - 2 Nepenthe - 3
@oldtrekkie I think I posted before old messages had actually loaded on my phone. For some reason WiFi in our bedroom is shocking.
Remembrance is out because it's not Nepenthe aka the BEST episode. Edit: Nooo, I didn't see Farscape One's post. I also had written a post voting for Remembrance yesterday but forgot to send it. Nepenthe would have won if I did.
Ah well! I was rooting hard for "Nepenthe", but even I can't defend the stuff on the cube, which is terrible both in conception and execution. But that episode as a whole does still satisfy me waaaaaaaaaay more than "Remembrance", which on rewatch just feels like watching smug fraudsters write a stack of bad checks and then slide them over to you with a smirk. After "Nepenthe" aired for the first time, I was thinking "Picard" was probably the greatest Trek show ever. Then... that ending. Forget just Trek, I wonder if I have ever seen a single season of any other serialized show derail as completely and calamitously in the end stretch as "Picard" season 1 did.
Can't say I entirely agree when the finale gave me that delicious Picard/Data scene. Quite simply, it redeemed the two-parter for me.
Just finished a rewatch of season 1. That Data/Picard scene did get me this time, I got emotional -- completely in isolation, the rest of the episode still made me want to scream. I wish I could be swept away by it more. Ah well. Fingers crossed for season 2...
In my view, all of the endings of new trek have stunk. They have not come close to sticking the landing yet. DISCO S1 was probably the least disappointing. Then end of DISCO S2 was shockingly bad in my view, and S3 disappointing. As silly as the magic device thingy in PIC S1 was, at least we got the genuine high notes of Data & Picard's final scene, and a legit fitting sendoff for Data. And Riker kicking but one more time like in All Good Things. Yes, there were serious issues, but it still felt GOOD. The thing about serialized shows is that besides the finale, you rarely get a sense of completion or fulfillment after an episode, as they are intentionally leaving things hanging to reel you in to next week. I find that some of my favorite episodes in new trek are the more stand alone ones or ones that at least feel like they complete a chapter, if not the whole story. For DISCO: Choose Your Pain, Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad, Into the Forest I Go, New Eden, If Memory Serves, etc).
I think Stardust City Rag is the best episode of the series so far and I wish it would be more like this. More episodic and more ridiculously pulpy. So...not that.