Culture

Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes, According to You

We dutifully unpacked our most and least memorable episodes of the stellar sci-fi show -- and then so did you.
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When Star Trek: The Next Generation turned 25 recently, we voyaged back to where no one has gone since the show went off the air. We dutifully unpacked our most and least memorable episodes of the stellar sci-fi show — and then so did you. The subsequent outpouring of reader testimonials, collectively anchored by the optimism of the Star Trek franchise's longest-running television series, ran both deep and wide in the comments section of that original post. See also: The Best and Worst of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Sci-Fi Optimism World According to Worf: Earth Could Use More Star Trek Right Now Warping Through Star Trek: The Next Generation's 25 Years With Ronald Moore Star Trek: The Next Generation tried "to envision a future better than the present that we live in," said reader MikkiTii, one of two winners of our Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One Blu-ray giveaway. "Few ever really tried that before, and no one I can think of has tried since. Instead we have only endless visions of dystopia, killer robots, post-apocalyptic suffering or terror descended from the stars." "I watched the very first episode in 1987 with my father," added reader oldskul68, who also won. "My father's gone now, but watching The Next Generation with my son reminds me of those times, 25 years ago, when me and my dad would step out of reality for an hour and dream of a world where humankind was united, and the problems we face today no longer exist." While most commenters on Wired.com shared our winners' love of the singular series' utopian appeal, like true sci-fi geeks they also favored and hated quite different episodes. Celebrate their diehard Star Trek fandom by clicking through Wired readers' coolest rants and raves in the gallery above. Above:

'Thine Own Self'

"I will never forget 'Thine Own Self,' the episode when Data wakes up on a strange planet and can't remember who he is, or why he is carrying around a suitcase. He walks from house to house trying to recall his past but everyone he meets starts to get sick and dies. It turns out he's walking around with radioactive material. D'oh!" —pumpkinpatch81