Your Personal Top 20 TNG Ep's List

[M-Red]

or 25....if you have to.


***Note: not a ranking....but a chronological ordering of TNG's best episodes....beginning with the start of Season 1 and ending with "All Good Things..."***


okay...recently one of my good friends (a big Star Wars fan) saw the new movie and has gotten hooked on Trek. We talked a lot and he bought the blue-ray set and started to watch all the old movies.


but before he saw TWOK, I told him to watch "Spaceseed" online....he did, and liked the old episode better than the movie. The same pattern was repeated with "Amok Time" before he viewed TSFS. So....he decided (on his own) that he'd missed so much backstory to just start watching all the TOS episodes he could before going on. Now he's hooked on Trek and loves TOS. I gave him a "must see" list for TOS but he's going to try and watch all 3 seasons.


And its cool for me because I get to "teach" Trek to someone who can really get into it and enjoy it


but, of course, TNG isn't like TOS -- for one thing, it has more than twice as many episodes. So I wanted to give him a condensed version of TNG --from Season 1 to Season 7-- in under 30 episodes. He wanted 15 and I told him that was impossible. He didn't understand but he will later. After that, he can cruise back through at his own pace and even go on to DS9 (which I think he'll really enjoy).


So I've composed a Top ~30 list for him (organized chronologically -- beginning with "EAF" and ending with "AGT..." --for TNG's seven seasons and am about to pass it along to him.


But...before I do, I'm wondering what many of the real TNG Trekkies on this board would choose as their Top 20-25 (organized chronologically)for someone who hasn't seen TNG but wants a condensed version while still getting a pretty good picture of the entire story.


What would be the 20-25 episodes you'd recommend a newbie to watch??


And remember, I'm not ranking episodes...I'm compiling the most important episodes of TNG into a sequential list so he can follow the development of the characters and the series chronologically.

 

[M-Red]

oh...and I'm considering all 2-part episodes as just one story.


So, for instance, "Redemption" or "Unification" would just be considered one episode each...like EAF and AGT


makes it easier to squeeze in more episodes

 

[BillJ]

1. Where No One Has Gone Before
2. The Battle
3. Hide and Q
4. The Big Goodbye
5. 11001001
6. Too Short a Season
7. Heart of Glory
8. Skin of Evil
9. Conspiracy
10. The Neutral Zone
11. Where Silence Has Lease
12. Contagion
13. The Royale
14. A Matter of Honor
15. Q, Who?
16. Who Watches the Watchers?
17. The Drumhead
18. The Wounded
19. Future Imperfect
20. Half a Life

I tend to like the earlier seasons a lot more, but the later ones have some gems too.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I think 20 is too many to list. The longer the list, the more impersonal. I'd rather stick with a top 10. I just made up my mind about one recently after re-watching the seasons of the series in order (skipping episodes I really disliked) for the first time since they were originally broadcast.

1. The Best of Both Worlds (Season 3, Episode 26)
2. Yesterday's Enterprise (Season 3, Episode 15)
3. Deja Q (Season 3, Episode 13)
4. The Hunted (Season 3, Episode 11)
5. The Measure of a Man (Season 2, Episode 9)
6. Time Squared (Season 2, Episode 13)
7. Lower Decks (Season 7, Episode 15)
8. The Offspring (Season 3, Episode 16)
9. The Inner Light (Season 5, Episode 25)
10. Cause and Effect (Season 5, Episode 18)

Gotta give an 'honourable mention' to "Attached" which was a lot more exciting, funny, entertaining, and emotionally powerful/resonant than I expected. And since I'm a sucker for all Picard love stories, I also adored "Qpid" and "Lessons". I know most of my favourites are common choices with fans, but I think #3, #4, and #6 are way underrated.

"Time Squared" is kind of a more basic, less ambitious version of "Cause and Effect", but I consider it superior mostly just because I love the surreal visuals of the two Picards together and Patrick Stewart's hilarious performance of how disgusted he is with the shellshock of his future self.

"The Hunted" has one of most fascinating and exciting guest stars I've ever seen on a Star Trek show (who I never see any one talk about), and "Deja Q" just shows how Q can inspire some of the most memorably delightful lines and scenes of the regular cast (particularly Data, Worf, and Guinan in that episode) through his interaction with them.

P.S. Even though I didn't have a place for any of its episodes in the top 10, I want to emphasize how much I love season 4.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I tried to cut the list down to 20, but I couldn't, so I have a list of 25. Some of my favorites still didn't make the list.

1. Encounter at Farpoint (I think it's a poor episode, but since it's the pilot, it's important.)
2. The Measure of a Man (This is quite probably the finest episode of any Star Trek series.)
3. The Ensigns of Command
4. Who Watches the Watchers? (This provides a good explanation/justification for the Prime Directive.)
5. The High Ground
6. Yesterday's Enterprise
7. Sarek
8. The Best of Both Worlds
9. Remember Me
10. Data's Day
11. The Wounded
12. The Drumhead
13. Ensign Ro
14. Unification
15. The First Duty
16. The Inner Light
17. The Chain of Command
18. Face of the Enemy
19. Birthright
20. Lessons
21. The Chase
22. Lower Decks
23. Thine Own Self
24. Journey's End (This is a good follow-up to Wesley's character development, and it also gives good background to the Federation/Cardassian treaty and the situation that will lead up to the formation of the Maquis.)
25. All Good Things

 

[arasam22]

i'll make a list (prolly later, i gotta go to a graduation rehearsal soon blech), but i'm going to say start off with conundrum (s5), becuase that would be cool to watch when you have no idea who the characters are lol.

 

[M-Red]

thank you all!


Its very interesting to see the episodes people would employ to convey "their" TNG to someone who hasn't seen it. Because it's such a broad series in scope, there are many possible avenues....fun to see the different ways people choose.


I'm trying to shave off 5 episodes (at least) and trim it down from 30 to 25. I'll post my (tentative) list in a little while and see what you think....


I knew I'd receive some good input on here....many thanks!

 

[VDCNI]

Had to do 25 - didn't realise how much it would be dominated by the later seasons!

The Big Goodbye
The Measure Of A Man
Yesterdays Enterprise
The Best Of Both Worlds
Remember Me
The Loss
First Contact
The Drumhead
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Conundrum
Cause & Effect
I Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Chain Of Command
Face Of The Enemy
Lessons
Second Chances
Timescape
Attached
Parallels
The Pegasus
Lower Decks
All Good Things

 

[arasam22]

^interestingly enough, that is almost exactly the list that i had made up... the only difference is that i replaced the big goodbye with encounter at farpoint.. not my favorite ep, but you really need to watch it to understand the finale.

crazy! o.O

 

[Similitude]

1. Chain Of Command I&II
2. Yesterdays Enterprise
3. All Good Things...I&II
4. The Measure Of A Man
5. The Inner Light
6. Lower Decks
7. The Best Of Both Worlds I&II
8. The Wounded
9. A Matter Of Honor
10. Parallels
11. Cause And Effect
12. Tapestry
13. Genesis
14. Relics
15. The Defector
16. Timescape
17. Face Of The Enemy
18. Unification I&II
19. Peak Performance
20. I, Borg

 

[GalaxyX]

Everytime I go thru the list of all TNG episodes, I end up with about 10 good ones per Season.

But for my totally complet list of cannot-miss favorites, maybe I can pick at least 5. Let me think:


1. Where no one has gone before
2. Remember Me
3. We'll always have Paris
4. Q Who
5. BOBW
6. Tapestry
7. AGT.

I'm sure there's other good ones but those are my top favorites.

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

1. Conspiracy
2. The Measure of a Man
3. Q Who?
4. The Defector
5. Yesterday's Enterprise
6. The Offspring
7. Sins of the Father
8. The Best of Both Worlds
9. Family
10. Reunion
11. Qpid
12. The Drumhead
13. Cause and Effect
14. The First Duty
15. The Inner Light
16. Chain of Command
17. Tapestry
18. Attached
19. The Pegasus
20. All Good Things...

 

[arasam22]

allright... revised my list a little bit... and i couldn't get it below 25. i didn't put skin of evil in there, but you should prolly tell him that tasha dies in season 1 so he doesn't get confused.

Conundrum lol
Encounter at Farpoint
Measure of Man
Q Who
Yesterday's Enterprise
The Best of both Worlds+Family
(Data's day)
First Contact
The Drumhead
Ensign Ro
Disaster
Cause and Effect
I, Borg
The Next Phase
The Inner Light
Chain of Command
Face of the Enemy
Second Chances
Tapestry
Frame of Mind
(Gambit)
Parallels
The Pegasus
Lower Decks
All Good Things

 

[Too Much Fun]

13. Genesis

Nice to see Genesis getting some love. I thought I was the only one here who liked it. I wouldn't call it an excellent episode or anything, but it was lots of silly fun and the last season 7 episode that I really dug until the finale.

 

[Similitude]

I certainly would call it excellent.

 

[VDCNI]

13. Genesis

Nice to see Genesis getting some love. I thought I was the only one here who liked it. I wouldn't call it an excellent episode or anything, but it was lots of silly fun and the last season 7 episode that I really dug until the finale.

I like Genesis too - the science may be a bit iffy but I've always liked it and was surprised how many people on here seem to compare it to Threshold. I always felt there was a big difference between the two - Genesis is a enjoyable story to watch after all!

 

[Starbreaker]

Ooh... fun.

Yesterday's Enterprise
Parallels
Best of Both Worlds
Conspiracy
Family
Sarek
Unification
The Offspring
I, Borg
Chain of Command
Tapestry
Cause and Effect
The Inner Light
All Good Things
Birthright
Darmok
The Measure of a Man
All Good Things

 

[Too Much Fun]

I tried to cut the list down to 20, but I couldn't, so I have a list of 25. Some of my favorites still didn't make the list.

1. Encounter at Farpoint (I think it's a poor episode, but since it's the pilot, it's important.)

This seems like a weird choice and explanatory comment. I thought the point of this thread is to list your personal favourite episodes. You call this a poor episode. If you'd justified listing it by saying you like it even though you think it's poor objectively, it being in your list would make more sense, but putting it at number one because it's important seems to be missing the point if we're ranking episodes according to personal preference rather than significance.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

M-Red asked for a chronological listing, not a ranking. Encounter at Farpoint is listed in the number 1 spot on my list because it's the first episode that made the list. As far as the comment about some of my favorites not making the list, what I meant was that I have more than 25 favorite episodes.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Ah, I see...I think some people not going in order by season confused me. Looks like I'll need to re-do mine, then.