The 5 Best Captain Jean-Luc Picard-Centered Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation
ComingSoon.net is counting down the 5 best Captain Jean-Luc Picard-centered episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which you can check out in the gallery below!
Star Trek has had an interesting and unique journey from humble beginnings to a veritable institution of television—and to a lesser extent, film. It began as a television series conceived of by Gene Roddenberry. The idiosyncrasies of a show that imagined a utopian future in space were apparently not suitably enjoyed by audiences as it only lasted three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. An attempted revamp of the show, an animated version, found little more in terms of fandom when it hit audiences in 1973. It only lasted two seasons. But not long after, George Lucas’s Star Wars became a huge hit with audiences, shattering box office records. In some ways, this event gave Star Trek second life by showing the studios that the geeky fare offered by these franchises could be profitable for them. In 1979, Star Trek got its first taste of the silver screen with a story written by Alan Dean Foster—who also wrote the first Star Wars spinoff novel, The Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. The original crew of the famous U.S.S. Enterprise would see five more entries hit theaters.
At the same time, Star Trek returned to television for the first time in more than a decade with Star Trek: The Next Generation. The beloved show was set some time after the events of the original series and its subsequent films. This new series saw an entirely new crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise but none more important or beloved than Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, who is also known for his turn as Professor Xavier in the X-Men franchise. After seven seasons, Star Trek: The Next Generation came to an end and inspired four movies of its own. The world of Star Trek moved on, spawning four more shows and three new alternate timeline movies. But fans could not get Picard out of their mind, and the powers that be finally decided to listen. A show simply titled Picard is set to premiere later this year. Before that time, we saw fit to look back at some of the best Picard-centric episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Check out our slideshow below! Do you agree with our list? Be sure to let us know your opinion in the comments!
best picard episodes
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5. “Family” (Season 4, Episode 2)
It is difficult to discuss "Family" without discussing the trauma Captain Picard experienced before it. Suffice it to say, he takes a well-deserved leave of absence from his captaining duties to return home to his family's French vineyard to reconnect with his estranged brother. The emotionally guarded Picard is deeply honest here, written pitch-perfectly by future-Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore.
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4. “Captain’s Holiday” (Season 3, Episode 19)
The setup for "Captain's Holiday" is exactly what it sounds like. Picard takes a vacation on a pleasure planet but finds himself nearly-immediately thrown amidst intrigue largely due to a beautiful woman named Vash. Together the two embark on an archeological adventure with time travelers abound.
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3. “All Good Things…” (Season 7, Episodes 25 and 26)
A series finale is a tricky thing, but Star Trek: The Next Generation manages to satisfy a great deal of the fanbase with theirs. It does so by playing with time jumps. Picard is forced to reckon with his past, his present and his future, the last of which fans may expect to return to with the upcoming sequel series.
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2. “Tapestry” (Season 6, Episode 15)
Star Trek: The Next Generation was often at its best when it got metaphysical. Also written by Ronald D. Moore, "Tapestry" sees Picard die and be given a sort of A Christmas Carol treatment. He is shown to see how his life would have been had he made a different decision at a critical turning point of his life.
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1. “The Best of Both Worlds” (Season 3, Episode 26 and Season 4, Episode 1)
In a stunning season-ending cliffhanger, Captain Picard finds himself a victim of the Borg, a hive mind of organisms with bionic implants. As a result of this assimilation, he is party to atrocities that haunt him throughout the rest of the show and in large part make Picard the compelling character he is.
