Wednesday January 28, 2009 12:03 PM

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The Top 10 Episodes

'Star Trek: The Next Generation': 

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Picard crew's first voyage, we boldly go forth and pick the series' finest hours.

 10. CHAIN OF COMMAND

LOG ENTRY Captured by the Cardassians while on a covert Federation mission (depicted in ''Chain of Command, Part I''), Picard is turned over to Gul Madred (David Warner), an imperious interrogator. Our dear captain is stripped, dangled from the ceiling overnight, and implanted with a device that causes immense pain in any part of the body that suits Madred. Back on the Enterprise, Picard's caustic replacement, Captain Jellico (the superb Ronny Cox), engages in high-stakes diplomacy that eventually secures Picard's release.

CRITIQUE Cutting between scenes on an anxious, unhappy Enterprise and of an abused and demoralized Picard, this is one of the darkest — and most resonant — episodes in the series' history.

TRIVIA Warner is no stranger to the final frontier, having appeared as a human in Star Trek V and, more famously, as the far-thinking and quite doomed Klingon chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI. — Adam B. Vary

9. THE FIRST DUTY

LOG ENTRY Picard is on his way to Starfleet  Academy on Earth to deliver the commencement address when he gets word that cadet Wesley Crusher — his surrogate son and onetime ensign — was involved in an in-flight training accident with his Nova Squadron teammates that left another cadet dead. During the inquiry that follows, the leader of Nova Squadron, Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), blames the accident on the dead cadet...a claim that doesn't sit well with Wesley. Picard launches his own investigation on the Enterprise, hoping to shed some light on the accident, and in the process discovers that Nova Squadron was rehearsing a formation flight maneuver so dangerous it was outlawed by the Academy. Locarno wanted the glory that a successful flight during commencement would've brought him, and he persuaded his pilots to help him cover it up. Racked with guilt, Wesley finally comes clean on the stand, clearing his dead friend's name and owning up to the squadron's culpability in his death.

CRITIQUE This somber meditation on the virtues of responsibility also happens to be one of the few good Wesley Crusher episodes. That character has been excoriated by Trek fans for years, but not only is he the catalyst for the events in ''First Duty,'' Wil Wheaton's mature performance finally gives the character some grown-up heft.

TRIVIA Wesley was Gene Roddenberry's middle name. — Marc Bernardin

8. FIRST CONTACT

LOG ENTRY Riker has gone undercover as a denizen of Malcor III in order to evaluate whether the pre-warp-drive planet is ready to interact with the Federation for the first time. But when he's hospitalized for an injury, doctors suspect his extra-Malcorian origins and grow hostile. The Enterprise crew attempts to defuse the situation by informing a few select government officials about the existence of advanced civilizations on other worlds, but ultimately they must rescue Riker and retreat — with one open-minded Malcor native in tow.

CRITIQUE The Malcorians, though technologically primitive by Trek standards, offer intriguing parallels to modern-day audiences. While some welcome their interstellar visitors with a sense of wonder, many fear and reject them. The result is one of the series' most illuminating parables of xenophobia.

TRIVIA The Malcorian nurse who seduces Riker once his true identity is uncovered is played by Bebe Neuwirth. — Simon Vozick-Levinson

7. SINS OF THE FATHER

LOG ENTRY A hard-ass Klingon commander (Tony Todd) visits the Enterprise as part of a cultural exchange program, alienating the crew with his warrior-race ways. No surprise there. But then the officer drops a couple of bombs. First, he's actually Worf's long-lost younger brother. Oh, and their dad? The Klingon High Council has posthumously ruled him to be a traitor, in cahoots with — oh, no, they didn't! — the Romulans, the very people responsible for his death. With Picard steadfastly at his side, Worf returns to the Klingon homeworld to defend his old man's rep and face certain death (such are the rules if you lose an appeal). At the eleventh hour, Picard comes in for the save by locating a witness to not only clear Dad's name but help implicate a powerful Klingon clan in a cover-up. With the Council unwilling to rat out the true culprit, Worf excommunicates himself from the tribe — effectively accepting his father's guilt — to save the life of his brother.

CRITIQUE ''Sins” plays out with the confidence and restraint of a piece of thinky theater — punctuated, no less, by Stewart's Shakespearean inflections. Just as the Bard often sourced Greco-Roman mythology, so too does this weighty TNG episode embrace timeless, classical themes — the meaning of honor, familial sacrifice, ethical conundrums. Amid a fictional universe teeming with colorful aliens and made-up technobabble, such restraint in storytelling is all the more noble.

TRIVIA Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Gilgamesh have all been published in the Klingon language. — Nisha Gopalan

6. THE MEASURE OF A MAN

LOG ENTRY When the Enterprise docks at a starbase, its crew members encounter two old adversaries. Comdr. Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy), a coldhearted cybernetics expert who once opposed Data's entrance into Starfleet Academy, seeks to dismantle the android, which he believes to be Starfleet property. And Capt. Phillipa Louvois (Amanda McBroom), who long ago prosecuted Captain Picard in a court-martial, presides over the trial that results when Data refuses to comply with Maddox. Data's rights as a sentient being are recognized in the end, but not before a tense courtroom showdown between Picard (who defends Data) and Riker (whom Louvois forces to reluctantly prosecute his comrade).

CRITIQUE Is Data man or machine? Patrick Stewart's background in classical theater was never more evident than in the fiery oratory Picard summons to answer that thorny question. (Jonathan Frakes' tortured turn as Riker is pretty impressive too.) With its poignant details and its far-reaching ethical considerations, ''Measure'' was the first time audiences saw what The Next Generation was truly capable of.

TRIVIA The lines of poetry that Maddox comes across while rifling through Data's book — ''When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes/I all alone beweep my outcast state'' — are from Shakespeare's ''Sonnet 29.'' — Simon Vozick-Levinson

5. ALL GOOD THINGS...

LOG ENTRY Picard is unstuck in time. He finds himself, alternately, on his first mission as the captain of the Enterprise, on his ship as he currently knows it, and 25 years in the future, as a retired Federation ambassador. In all three time periods, Picard must convince his shipmates that he's not insane while solving the mystery of the spatial anomaly that unites all three eras — and may threaten the existence of humanity. Romances are kindled, old friends return, Q stirs up trouble, and Riker (Admiral Riker) finally gets to call the Enterprise his own.

CRITIQUE There's no way to end a series like this and please everyone. But this two-hour finale comes close. Despite all the scientific mumbo jumbo, it delivers a satisfying, fittingly emotional resolution.

TRIVIA In the timeline of the show, and the Next Generation films, Picard is the only main character who's never received a promotion. He began his voyages as a captain, and ended them as a captain. — Marc Bernardin

4. TAPESTRY

LOG ENTRY While on an away mission, Picard catches a weapons blast in the chest that fries his artificial heart. As he lies on the operating table, he gets a visit from the puckish ''Q,'' who shows us how he lost his heart in the first place. Now we're back with young, dashing, womanizing Ensign Picard, just before his first assignment. But Jean-Luc plays his cards differently this time, avoiding the risks he courted in his youth — and keeping his real heart. Only when Q shows him the life such safety would bring — an aging science officer who would never have a shot at a command — does Picard realize that he's the result of his mistakes.

CRITIQUE The all-powerful Q has been almost as big a crutch for TNG storytelling as the holodeck (and you'll notice no holodeck episodes here). But ''Tapestry'' allowed Q to show us Picard's wonderful life. It's as Twilight Zone-y as the show got — and that's a high compliment indeed.

TRIVIA John de Lancie owned a company that produced dramatic adaptations of classic sci-fi texts. His partner: Leonard Nimoy. — Marc Bernardin

3. THE INNER LIGHT

LOG ENTRY A mysterious probe — is there any other kind? — shoots some sort of beam into the captain's brain, and whammo: A knocked-out Picard is suddenly a man named ''Kamin,'' a married metal weaver on the planet of Kataan. While the Enterprise crew quickly assesses the situation, years pass for Picard as he begins to accept, and then embrace, his new existence as a father, grandfather, struggling flautist, and armchair scientist horrified to discover Kataan is a dying planet. At a ripe old age, Kamin witnesses the launching of a probe — the very one, in fact, that started this journey — and with all of Kamin's loved ones around him, Picard awakes on the Enterprise having lived a third of a lifetime in less than an hour.

CRITIQUE Using a sci-fi conceit to tap into a surprisingly deep well of subtle emotional storytelling, this was TNG at its most moving. Patrick Stewart should have won an Emmy for the final scene alone: Picard, in his quarters, silently and ardently clutching Kamin's flute, his only tangible reminder of the full family life he himself could never have.

TRIVIA Stewart's real-life son, Daniel, played Kamin's son, the first time the two had worked together on camera. — Adam B. Vary

2. THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, PARTS I AND II

LOG ENTRY The Borg are coming. A brazen young Borg expert, Commander Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy), joins Picard's crew to help get them up to speed, but they've little time before the Enterprise makes contact. In the ensuing battle, the Enterprise discovers a weakness, but before they can exploit it, a Borg boarding party beams onto the bridge and kidnaps Picard. They transform him into Locutus of Borg, and he leads the Borg toward Earth. Riker and Shelby coordinate a rescue mission to retrieve Picard, and he clues them in on how to stop the Borg attack.

CRITIQUE This all-action-all-the-time two-parter is how you build a cliff-hanger and then pay it off. And Picard's indoctrination into the Borg Collective hangs over the balance of TNG's story line.

TRIVIA As TNG's head writer, the late Michael Piller instituted an open submission policy. Anyone could write an episode and send it in for consideration. No TV show before or since has done so. — Marc Bernardin

1. YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE

LOG ENTRY As happens every so often, the Enterprise is observing a temporal rift in deep space when another Federation starship comes through the rift. In a flash, we're thrown into an alternate universe. The Enterprise is suddenly a ship of war. The bridge crew is armed with phasers. Deanna Troi isn't in the ship's complement, and neither is Worf. And, most amazingly, the deceased Tasha Yar is back at her post. The mystery ship turns out to be the barely functional, battle-scarred Enterprise C, which history records as having been lost 22 years ago. Its appearance in the present has twisted the timeline. Now the Federation is in a losing war with the Klingon empire — and the temporally sensitive Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) intuits that the Enterprise C's disappearance from its own timeline may be responsible. The only solution: Picard must send the ship back through the rift, back to the firefight it barely escaped from, to certain destruction.

CRITIQUE This episode takes one simple premise — that every action, like a pebble thrown in a pond, has a rippling effect — and exploits the heck out of it. Offering massive space battles, hardcore Trek continuity revelations, and a poignant story line, in which Tasha falls for a doomed crewman and chooses to join him on a suicide run, this hour of Trek is the gold standard. As Picard says, before committing his own ship to destruction, ''Let's make sure that history never forgets the name Enterprise.'' Mission accomplished.

TRIVIA This was the first time Denise Crosby returned to the show after her character was killed in the first season. She would later be seen as a Romulan in the fifth season. — Marc Bernardin

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