Planes,Trains and Automobiles

Commander William Riker 1996 Star Tek the Next Generation Hallmark Keepsake Ornament

"Time's Arrow" seems to exist in a continuum entirely of its own making. It ranks as one of the best TNG cliffhangers, and treats fans to canon-changing story lines and tons of in-jokes. There's just too much to absorb in one viewing! This satisfying conclusion answers many questions left hanging at the end of Part I--the least of which is exactly what happens when Picard and his bridge officers go undercover as a bad Shakespearean theatre company. Female fans will appreciate the fine acting of Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) and Marina Sirtis (Troi), who clutch at their corseted sides and look downright pained in Victorian garb. Jerry Hardin returns as the irrepressible Samuel Clemens who sticks his nose into everybody's business and has a whole lot of fun doing it. Not only does Hardin resemble the author physically, but he also gets the old man's mix of crankiness and charm just right. Everybody ignores the fact that the real 1890s San Francisco was anything but IDIC and has a good old time kicking temporal alien butt. And then there's that whole thing with Data's head going on... Sharp viewers will catch a major blooper regarding precisely when Guinan met Jean-Luc Picard. In "The Child," Guinan told Wesley Crusher that she'd never met the captain before she came aboard the Enterprise-D, and yet in "Time's Arrow," this is definitely not the case. It's all left rather mysterious--much like the origins of the ophidian-toting aliens. --Kayla Riggney

Okay, blame it on Geordi La Forge. It's his slip of the tongue that causes all the mayhem in this episode. After Data ruins a perfectly good holographic adventure by jumping to the end of a Sherlock Holmes mystery, the frustrated chief engineer asks the computer to create an adversary worthy of defeating the android. What Geordi meant to say was an adversary worthy of Holmes, but never mind. The computer obliges and Moriarty is born. Literally. He comes equipped with superintelligence approaching consciousness and a direct line to the main computer. Somehow, Dr. Pulaski gets thrown into the mix--as a crumpet-eating hostage, of all things--and Moriarty starts messing with the Star Trek universe as we know it and turns reality on its ear. TNG is at its best when it doesn't take itself too seriously. "Elementary, Dear Data" is an utterly charming outing into high-tech Victorian wacky land. In fact, this episode proved to be so popular that the story was continued three years later in "Ship in a Bottle." The writing is excellent and Daniel Davis is sublime as Moriarty, the hologram who's sentient and knows it. This makes many best of Trek episode lists, and is simply a must-own for all TNG fans. --Kayla Riggney

Star Trek: The Next Generation really hit its stride in its third season, with Sins of the Father showcasing some of the show's best qualities: swift narrative, precommercial shock revelations, and a hankering after Shakespearean line delivery (that's the kind once described by critic James Agee as "intoning down a length of sewer pipe"). The space-operatic doings begin when Klingon Kurn becomes first officer of the Enterprise as part of an exchange program. It turns out, however, that his real purpose for accepting the post is to persuade his brother Worf to challenge before the Klingon High Council recent allegations that their father, Mogh, was a traitor. He might have helped in the Romulan assault on the Khitomer Outpost that killed thousands of Klingons. Defending the family name plunges Worf, his brother, and Captain Picard into the labyrinthine world of Klingon politics. While the whole first act serves to introduce novices to the cultural differences between Klingons and Federation people, its several revelations could have been accomplished with a phone call. Klingons have communicators, don't they? And all the friction caused by Kurn's severe methods is abandoned once we remove to the Klingon High Council. Despite the early narrative waste, and the absence of any real sense of danger, this one does offer up a tasty smattering of culture clash and alien strangeness, with the native nobility of the Klingons, those gnarly-headed nabobs, providing most of the excitement. --Jim Gay

Captain Picard, along with Captain Kirk, must stop a madman intent on entering a space matrix; Picard and his crew travel back in time to stop the Bor

Captain Picard, along with Captain Kirk, must stop a madman intent on entering a space matrix; Picard and his crew travel back in time to stop the Bor

Star Trek: The Next Generation's third year was an important development in syndicated television. After two shaky years, Paramount nonetheless decided the franchise still had plenty to do. Their confidence was bolstered by two significant factors. First, cast uncertainties were finally settled: Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) was back for good; Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) regretted her first-year departure, and so contrived a return in the Emmy Award-winning "Yesterday's Enterprise"; and Whoopi Goldberg happily continued her actor's-scale contributions. Second, after the show had survived the previous year's writers' strike, new writing blood revitalized both characters and ideas: Data experienced fatherhood ("The Offspring"), Worf's Klingon heritage kick-started a huge story arc ("Sins of the Father"), and Picard got a saucy vacation ("Captain's Holiday"). There were memorable star cameos: John de Lancie played more mischief alongside Corbin Bernsen ("Déjà Q"); Dwight Schultz played truant in a gentle warning about addiction ("Hollow Pursuits"); and pleasing fans even more was Mark Lenard as Spock's dad ("Sarek"). The strongest evidence that TNG would continue for some time was the trend-setting cliffhanger finale. Fans and critics still agree that "The Best of Both Worlds" (properly introducing the Borg) was one of the greatest tricks ever pulled on TV to make audiences come back for more. --Paul Tonks

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