This is one I remember not liking when it first aired and again in reruns, but I suppose it has grown on me. The Bynars are an interesting species, even if they are overly simplified for an hour of scifi television. The real story was with the holosuit lady, Minuet and how it’s possible that a hologram could be real.

Angel One is what you would find in the dictionary if you looked up Star Trek: a society where the women are the dominant sex and the men are subservient to the women. Not the worst episode ever, but it doesn’t really deal with issues of inequality and there’s a whole subplot designed only to keep the away team on the planet. The 1980’s square shoulder pads and hairspray hair aesthetic is in full force in this episode, too.

Datalore was a good episode, even if it had Wesley saving the day again. Brent Spiner is such a fantastic actor and does, by far, the best job of portraying an android than any actor before or since.

More plot issues than I could count. This might be one of the worst episodes of any Star Trek series. The one bright spot was Lawrence Tierney who always plays a fantastic tough-guy mobster. But Wesley saving the day yet again is getting really thin.

Haven just didn’t focus enough on the interesting plot of the plague ship because it was too caught up with Troi’s wedding. Still, I’ve always liked the Lwaxana Troi character – Majel did a great job with that character.

Silly but fun. Q was always a great character and he makes a great foil for Picard. Seeing Wesley get impaled by a 19th century French bayonet was an added bonus, too.

Close to being very good, it was only held back by the Ferrengi being so dumb and the fact that the what was happening to Picard was not a mystery. Also, Wesley is annoying

Starts off like it will be super cringey with the silly Eden planet full of nearly naked athletic white people, but it takes a real turn and becomes what Trek is best at: using reason and struggling with ethical issues (even religion) to find a peaceful solution. Good episode and another leap forward in acting and actor chemistry.

Lonely Among Us was … meh. It had two of the stupidest and cheapest looking alien designs and a subplot that went nowhere. The main story of a captured energy being was a good idea but didn’t really go anywhere either. Still, this was a good episode for the whole main cast to work together and you can see they already have some good chemistry.

I think is the first truly good episode with an interesting story and good acting. It also seems to have a grounding in Bergson’s debate with Einstein regarding the nature of the human experience as it relates to “reality”. Of course there was some annoying Wesley, but he at least earns his commission.

This started off strong but I honestly couldn’t tell you how this actually got resolved because it made no sense. Also, it’s funny that the Ferrengi were going to be TNG’s original main bad guys, but they were too comical so later the writers came up with the Borg, which was a major improvement.

I can’t get over how close to the original Trek this show looks, and that’s not a compliment- early TNG just looks so low budget.

This was surprisingly… racist. An entire planet of black people portrayed as kind of savage and incapable of nuance. The strange thing is this episode was probably considered progressive 30 years ago because it shows women as being the sole landowners, but it sure hasn’t aged well in any other respect. Also, another annoying Wesley sighting, but at least he barely spoke this time.

One of the many Wesley saves the ship episodes that are so annoying. I knew the first season was rough, but these early episodes are cringey.

The very first Next Generation episode is so primitive and stiff that I’m surprised the show wasn’t canceled soon after. I remember watching this live and even then thinking it was underwhelming, but the love of Star Trek was strong and this show got much, much better.