All 7 Seasons Of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ranked

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" is very close to the top on our ranking of every "Star Trek" series. It also boasts one of the finest "Star Trek" series finale episodes ever, and the fact that its seven-season tenure helped bring a slew of other "Star Trek" shows about makes "The Next Generation" the most influential series in the franchise since "Star Trek: The Original Series" itself. At its best, the show is one of the most thoughtful and eloquent science fiction series out there, and its reputation as a  genre gem is well deserved.

That being said, it's not a perfect show by any stretch of imagination. As prestigious as "The Next Generation" is as a whole, it's also a wildly uneven production. The show's quality fluctuates from season to season, and there's an unfortunate abundance of lows to go with its many high points. Today, we'll take a look at each and every one of the seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and see how they stack up against each other. 

Would a non-"Star Trek" show have survived the faceplant entrance that was "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 1? The slow, long drag of "Encounter at Farpoint" is one of the worst "Star Trek" pilot episodes, and it doesn't get a whole lot better from there. Many of the worst episodes of "The Next Generation" hail from this early era — including the wildly racist Episode 3, "Code of Honor," which William Riker actor Jonathan Frakes has called an embarrassment (among other things that we can't repeat here). All in all, things aren't very good, and the characters were still largely trying to find their groove. To see the difference, any Trekkie can watch the stern, gruff Season 1 Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and compare him with the wise diplomat of the later seasons.

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" persevered long after its 1987 debut, of course. Though the first season is often stuffy and awkward, the allure of the new characters and USS Enterprise-D is already here, and many of the building blocks of the show's future greatness are clearly visible. Still, compared to the other seasons of "The Next Generation," it's plain to see that the show deserved a much better start than this.

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" got noticeably better with its sophomore season. While the show still hadn't gotten all the ingredients of its secret sauce right, at this point it was largely tweaking with the measurements. Apart from the season-long absence of Gates McFadden's Dr. Beverly Crusher, the classic characters were all present and slowly finding themselves.

As for the stories the season tells, the quality still isn't quite there. In fact, Season 2 features some of the most controversial "The Next Generation" scenes nobody likes to talk about, from the uncomfortable handling of Deanna Troi's energy orb pregnancy in the season opener ("The Child") to the awkward and borderline random way Dr. Crusher's temporary replacement, Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), exits the show. Not all the problems were the show's own fault, though. The 1988 writer's strike impacted "The Next Generation," leading to a shorter Season 2 and its infamous clip show finale, "Shades of Gray." 

Still, there are already clear signs of what the show would eventually become, and even a handful of classic episodes. "The Measure of A Man" is a brilliant exploration of the android Data's (Brent Spiner) status as a sentient being, and "Q Who" is a nail-biter where Q (John de Lancie) machinates the Enterprise's first meeting with the deadly Borg. 

In hindsight, it's easy to see that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 7 was running on fumes, throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. As is so often the case, this approach worked in some episodes and belly-flopped hard on others – the less said about the Dr. Crusher-centric sex possession episode "Sub Rosa," the better. The fact that the actors are in full command of their characters and admirably willing to throw themselves into some of the clunkier storylines of late-game "The Next Generation" keeps the season's nose above the proverbial water, though.  

In all fairness, when Season 7 gets things right, it gets them extremely right. The time-hopping series finale "All Good Things..." is an amazing way to end the show, and the brilliant ensign side quest of "Lower Decks" ended up serving as an inspiration for the excellent animated series "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 4 is tasked with the unenviable mission of following up on the Picard Borg conversion cliffhanger of the Season 2 finale, "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I." Fortunately, this is an era of "The Next Generation" where the series is fully capable of delivering stellar sci-fi stories whenever it puts its heart to it, so the ball remains undropped. "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II" offers an eloquent, emotional closure to the shocking storyline. Season 4 proceeds to offer a series of memorable episodes that fit right in among the show's finest, and ends with a neat cliffhanger about the Klingon civil war. 

From this point on, most of the rankings are pretty much interchangeable — the order of the four truly good seasons of "The Next Generation" really is a matter of preference. For the purposes of this particular list, Season 4 simply lacks the highest heights of the top three seasons, thanks to the occasional underwhelming episode such as the Robin Hood-themed "QPid."

The magnificent communication-themed mystery of "Darmok." The two-part "Unification," notable for featuring none other than Leonard Nimoy's "The Original Series" stalwart Spock. The "Groundhog Day"-style "Star Trek" time travel episode classic "Cause and Effect." The exploration of Borg individuality through Three of Five, aka Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), in "I, Borg." There's even "Inner Light," the single best Picard episode of "The Next Generation," which causes the good captain to experience a loving lifetime on the planet Kataan within the span of 25 minutes. 

Yeah, Season 5 of the show brings the goods. Between wrapping up the Klingon civil war arc and concluding with the high-stakes, time-travel-slash-shapechanger "Time's Arrow, Part I," the season has a lot to say, and for the majority of its episodes, it says it well. There's an excellent chance that a lot of any given fan's favorite "The Next Generation" episodes hail from this particular season, and the only reason it doesn't score higher is that two other seasons simply did it slightly better. 

You'll no doubt find plenty of fans out there who happily rank "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 3 their absolute favorite season of the show. Honestly, that's not a bad take at all. After all, when it comes to sheer quality, the season corrected the show's course so hard that it's a wonder everyone aboard the Enterprise-D didn't end up with whiplash. Episodes like Worf's (Michael Dorn) spotlight hour "Sins of the Father" and the time travel tale "Yesterday's Enterprise" showed what the series can really do. The season's magnificent finale, "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I," delivered arguably the greatest "Star Trek" cliffhanger ever by converting Picard into the Borg drone Locutus. 

Following an underwhelming two-season run, "The Next Generation" Season 3 finally realized the show's full potential with a mighty batch of episodes that developed the characters further than ever before. "The Next Generation" Season 3 boldly took the show where it hadn't gone before, and every subsequent season benefitted from the heavy lifting it did. 

Honestly, a season that can bring the tense, torture-themed two-part episode "Chain of Command" to the table deserves to be in the discussion for the top spot for that merit alone. But "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season 6 has far more than that in its pocket.

The stellar sixth season is a treasure trove of delights, through and through. Pick a random episode and you might land on "Relics," which brings back "The Original Series" character Scotty (James Doohan) to solve a big engineering-themed mystery with Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) — or perhaps "Tapestry," in which Picard apparently dies and Q helps him to change a key moment from his youth.

"The Next Generation" Season 6 has a clear sense of purpose and an apparent ability to spin every plot thread into gold. At its best, the "Star Trek" franchise can be extremely immersive, and rarely has it been more so than during this season.