The Exciting Finale of the Top 17 Episodes of Star Trek: Tng

Previously:
17.  Encounter at Farpoint
16.  The Royale
15.  Data's Day
14.  The Masterpiece Society
13.  Chain of Command
12.  The Offspring
11.  The Wounded
10.  Parallels
 9.  Redemption
 8.  The Game
 7.  Tapestry
 6.  The Inner Light

Star Trek: The Next Generation is my favorite television series of all-time. It had everything. It had action, adventure, taught moral lessons, explored humanity, was a social conscious at times and almost always told a story. Here is my top seventeen list of the greatest episodes of the series. As a side note, episodes that were two-parters, I lumped together.

5.  I, Borg
The crew finds a downed Borg ship that has one survivor.  Dr. Crusher brings the Borg back to the Enterprise to take care of him.  It is not a decision that Picard is happy with but he agrees to it.  Guinan thinks Picard is a fool for allowing the Borg onto the ship.  She points out, rightly so, that the other Borg in the area will come looking for him.  La Forge and Data come up with a plan to plant a virus into the Collective via this Borg (Third of Five and later takes on the name Hugh).  As Geordi works with Third of Five, he sees more than just a Borg drone.  He sees a young boy who is afraid and Geordi makes a connection with him.  This is when he and Dr. Crusher decide to rename Third of Five, Hugh.  Hugh grows and starts to take on individuality.  Guinan talks to him and even feels compassion for him.  She talks Picard into talking to Hugh.  When with Picard, Hugh refers to himself as I for the first time.  This leads Picard to decide that it is not right to use this drone as an instrument of genocide.  The senior staff agrees that allowing Hugh to go back might introduce individuality into the Collective.  It does and we find out the unintended consequences of that later on in the series. This is an excellent episode for a post 9/11 world where we look at people as groups and rarely consider the individual.

4.  Time's Arrow
This episode begins with the Enterprise coming back to Earth due to a find in a cavern below San Francisco.  The crew learns that what appears to be Data's head was found in the cavern.  It is about 500 years old.  Through a series of events (the type that tell us we cannot fight our own destiny), Data is sent back to 19th century San Francisco.  He finds Guinan who is posing as a debutant and hosts parties with such figures as Samuel Clemens.  Data believes that somehow Guinan has come back in time with him.  In fact, she has not come back in time, this is her from 500 years earlier.  Others from the crew end up going back into time to search for Data and to stop an alien race from destroying humanity in the past.  We find out why Guinan and Picard have the relationship that they have from this episode.

3.  All Good Things
The final episode of the television series and it was a good one.  We get to revisit Encounter at Farpoint.  We also get to see the future of the crew.  Q comes back and lets Picard know that the trial never ended.  Picard, one final time, has to save humanity.  This is a great episode because we get to see Lt. Yar one more time and we get a glimpse into the future.  Of course that future is always changing and based just on the first movie (Generations) that future will be at least somewhat different than what Picard saw as jumped between time periods. 

2.  Yesterday's Enterprise
At the time this episode aired, it became the best episode of the series.  An Enterprise from the past (NCC-1701-C) comes through a rift in space/time and history is changed.  The Federation and Klingon Empire have been in a bloody 20 year war.  Lt. Yar is still alive and Worf is not a member of the Enterprise. The crew is not all chummy with each other.  In fact, you get the distinct feeling that Riker and Picard hate one another.  Guinan has a feeling that things are not right but cannot put her finger on it.  She only knows that the Federation should not be at war and that she should not know Yar.  Picard is faced with a dilemma, does he send the Enterprise C back to the fight with the Romulans in the past?  He knows they do not stand a chance to survive but if a Starfleet ship fights to defend a Klingon outpost against the Romulans then the war could be avoided. Does he convince them to stay in the 24th Century and join the fight against the Klingon Empire?  If they stay in the 24th century, they have a chance to survive.  He even makes the point to Guinan that he does not have the right to ask them to go back and to die.  She points out that 40 billion have already died in the war.  He knows keeping them in his time period will do nothing to change the fact that the Federation is close to surrender.  Once Yar finds out from Guinan that she dies a needless death, she wants to go back in the past with the Enterprise C crew.  The ship does go back to it's correct time period and the timeline is restored.  Nobody but Guinan knows it has changed.  The sending of Yar back to the past will still have effects in this time period.  She is captured by the Romulans and is sent back to Romulus where she marries a Romulan and has a child.  That child will grow up to be an important figure in the Romulan military and we find out about her in Redemption. 

1.  Best of Both Worlds
This is the season three finale and season four premier.  The Borg have decided to make their move and to assimilate humanity along with the other races in the Federation.  The Enterprise engages them and plays some hide and seek in a nebula.  On the eve of one of the battles, Picard and Guinan have a discussion about what the Borg did to her people and she reminds Picard that humanity will survive even if it is only a remnant.  Once the battle begins, the Borg win.  They capture Picard.  The Enterprise catches up to the Borg ship and an away team goes back to rescue Picard.  They come back with the news via Worf (in his saddest voice ever), "He is a Borg."  Locutus (Picard as a Borg) tells them that resistance is futile and they will be assimilated.  Riker is ready to use the deflector dish as a weapon that will destroy the Borg ship.  The season three finale ends with Riker saying the fateful words, "Mr. Worf, fire."  I would go the entire summer thinking that Picard was dead (I was 11 years old. I did not know the magic of television writers knowing how to get out of jams.).  In the season four premier, we find out that the plan did not work.  The Borg knew the plan and was prepared because they had all of Picard's knowledge and he knew about the deflector dish plan.  The Borg ship escapes and heads for sector 001 (Earth). Riker is promoted to captain. The Borg ship engages Starfleet at Wolf 359.  They decimate the fleet.  This is the battle where Captain Ben Sisko loses his wife when he was a Lt. Commander.  The Enterprise shows up in the aftermath due to not being able to go anywhere because of their use of the deflector dish.  The crew does get to the Borg ship while it is in sector 001. They are able to capture Locutus.  Once back on the Enterprise, Data accesses the cybernetics and figures out from Picard to give the Borg ship the command of sleep.  This shuts the ship down and then Data gives it an autodestruct command.  The rest is history.  The season three finale half was ranked in the top 100 television episodes of all-time by TV Guide.  It was a turning point for the series and that is when it really took off as a cultural icon.