Surprised I didn't post my entries before - either "Phantasms" for surreal visuals and Data being a stabby stabby assaulter, "Datalore" for Lore's sadism, "Cause and Effect" for a novel take on a time loop story and how they get around their destruction (great wind-ups despite knowing what will happen), "Conspiracy" for the bodysnatcher trope that's used well (even the cliché mealworm eatin' scene), but...
..."Genesis" wins the trophy here. It just nails the tone and style
perfectly and sends it to the next level. Roll with the treknobabble and or one or two lines of dialogue/motivations behind it, and it's
presented in such a terrific way, elevating the story well above the mere sum of its parts. The reveals, the attacks, the spinning ship, you name it, the direction is nothing less than first rate. Even the music has some soul that's been long-missing since a lot of season 5. I'll be rewatching it again today. The direction is magnificent, and I wish McFadden had done some of the previous aforementioned stories.
Indeed:
(Good grief, I'd seen this clip maybe 2 months ago and it still jumpscares me -- every freakin' time. It's that great.)
(a good reminder as to why they need a large crew; one circuit goes out and you have to compensate. Then something else goes out and the cascade effect quickly becomes monumental, a computer can't always re-stabilize on its own.)
etc.
It's a gem from season 7, heck yeah!
