Best of Star Trek: TNG Season 6
The Five Strongest Episodes of the Next Generation's Sixth Year
Jan 5, 2009
While season 5 was the most uneven season of the series, season 6 is considered to be the most uniform and strong season of the show's run. With only a few minor exceptions, season 6 featured excellent writing, directing and production.
Time's Arrow (2)
The conclusion to the cliffhanger that ended season 5, the second half is widely seen to outstrip the first part, with a memorable turn by character actor Jerry Hardin as Samuel Clemens, better known as author Mark Twain. The character of the industrious bellhop is also of note, as he turns out to be none other than author Jack London.
The very idea of Samuel Clemens on a starship makes this episode a stand out.
Relics
The Enterprise finds a "Dyson Sphere" (a metallic sphere that encloses an entire star at the approximate diameter of Earth's orbit) and a crashed Federation vessel on its outer surface. When the crew investigates, they find that the transporter system is still running some 75 years after the crash and that a person's transporter pattern is still viable inside the machine.
The rescued soul is none other than the late James Doohan in his second last appearance as Montgomery Scott, once the Chief Engineer on the original U.S.S. Enterprise. As expected, Scotty finds a way to engineer up a miracle and save the crew of the new Enterprise, with a little help from her Chief Engineer, Geordi Laforge.
The episode has several sly tips of the cap to various episodes of the original series, making it a fan favourite.
Chain of Command
Another rare mid-season two part episode, the first episode of the two sets up one of the most intense episodes in Star Trek history. Captain Picard winds up in the hands of the Cardassians after a failed mission to destroy what appears to be a biological weapon. It is revealed that the entire scenario was engineered to maneuver the Federation into precipitating a war.
The torture scenes between Patrick Stewart's Picard and British actor David Warner's Gul Madred are simply riveting. Amnesty International participated in the production of the episode and later praised its accuracy. The writers lifted a famous device from George Orwell's 1984, in which a character is tortured into seeing five fingers when only four are held up. In the Star Trek version, fingers are replaced with lights.
"There. Are. Four. Lights." is perhaps the most powerful line of dialog in Star Trek history.
Starship Mine
Jean Luc Picard channels John McLean (Die Hard) as terrorists take over the Enterprise while it is left deserted during routine maintenance. With only his wits, a crossbow and a saddle, Picard must stop the terrorists from escaping with a highly volatile substance that is a byproduct of the ship's propulsion system.
Timescape
Picard, Laforge, Troi and Data return to the Enterprise to find it frozen in time and locked in a phaser battle with a Romulan warbird. Excellent storytelling and a brilliant premise add up to one of the best episodes of the season.
So much of season 6 is superior that an "Honourable Mention" list would include virtually every episode of the season with the exception of the few episodes on the "Worst of" list.
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