Star Trek’s 10 Finest Jean-Luc Picard Episodes, Ranked

Each “Star Trek” fan has a favourite Captain, to various levels of precise rank. It is perhaps James T. Kirk, it is perhaps Benjamin Sisko. For lots of us, it is laborious to beat the legacy of Jean-Luc Picard, previously of the Enterprise-D. “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era” star Sir Patrick Stewart launched himself with chilly effectivity at first, a person seemingly so inflexible that having an empath round made sense. However Picard, like the remainder of his crew, was flawed and human. Behind the noble French-English veneer was a person with a lifetime of troubled relationships, and a soul scarred deep by the Borg.

Picard introduced with him quirks that turned fandom legend, just like the Picard Maneuver, which appears him snappily tugging at his tunic every time he will get out of his chair, or the barked phrases “Tea. Earl Gray. Sizzling,” at irregular intervals. He additionally introduced us the most effective actors within the franchise, who eagerly went for lusty archaeological adventures with the identical vigor as Shakespearean courtroom drama. It is an period that outlined Stewart’s profession, however by no means contained it — he is as beloved as Professor Charles Xavier (and several other others!) as he’s Picard. These are our ten greatest picks for Captain Picard’s greatest voyages on the starship Enterprise, although they’re all winners in our hearts.

Whereas “The Better of Each Worlds” was an epic two-part occasion that noticed the fandom perched on nails all through a full season break to find whether or not or not Captain Picard could be free of Locutus of Borg, the precise reply to that was sophisticated. “Household” picks up within the aftermath of Picard’s restoration from a Borg Dice and the top of an enormous, doubtlessly Starfleet-ending battle at Wolf 359. Because it begins, Picard returns to his household vineyards (of infamously doubtful high quality, as we would later uncover) on Earth to think about what’s subsequent for him.

It is an uneasy go to; Picard is not on the most effective of phrases together with his brother, Robert (Jeremy Kemp), and he is contemplating leaving Starfleet altogether. However because the brothers regress into their infantile, mud-slapping behaviors by means of dealing with their points, Picard’s stoic facade lastly cracks: he weeps, as any veteran may, for the violations he confronted and the horrors he dedicated whereas consumed by the Borg. Taken as a complete, the episode is usually a little heavy handed. However Stewart’s sudden collapse right into a scared youngster, if briefly, is a reminder that everybody breaks below sufficient stress. Even our heroes. Wolf 359 and Locutus could be with Picard for the remainder of his life, “Household” is the place one other a part of that journey begins.

Trying again, it is wild {that a} slapstick romance tangle-up between Picard, Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) and a Ferengi (Frank Corsentino as Daimon Tog) occurs simply two episodes earlier than the Borg seize Jean-Luc. But that is what occurs in “Menage a Troi,” when a Betazed shindig will get out of hand and Lwaxana is kidnapped by her erstwhile suitor. Lots occurs on this episode, however the meatiest little bit of it’s within the finale, when Picard, famously irritated by Lwaxana’s obsession with him, has to play a jealous lover with a view to rescue her from Ferengi paws.

It is a metaphorical Broadway showstopper at gunpoint for Picard. Stewart, a classically educated Shakespearean actor, busts out a number of sonnets and even somewhat little bit of Tennyson’s elegiac “In Memoriam” with a view to profess his willingness to offer all for love, barely hiding his interior glee at going full ham even whereas pretending he hates this. Ultimately, his Ferengi opponent is cowed, and Lwaxana goes straight for the throne (Picard’s lap) upon arrival, prompting our noble captain to all however blurt “I need to go, my planet wants me.” If you cannot get to a hammy park efficiency of “A Midsummer Night time’s Dream,” this episode will do in a pinch.

Sir Patrick Stewart by no means made his love of Shakespearean drama into an overbearing side of his profession as Picard. If something, he made the format extra approachable and human. “Tapestry” just isn’t itself impressed by the Bard, however Sir Stewart’s efficiency as he explores his personal lifetime with out one near-fatal incident may be very a lot according to “Hamlet” and its earthy questions on youth and demise. It is even balanced by the correct amount of humor as John de Lancie’s Q returns, this time as an ersatz archangel, completely gleeful about needling Picard in any respect the most effective moments.

As soon as upon a time, a younger Picard was, extra overtly anyway, a roughhouser not afraid of entering into just a few scraps right here and there. It resulted in a single hell of a life lesson, and Picard’s synthetic coronary heart often wants care. However Q provides him a satan’s dream whereas Picard’s ticker will get tinkered with: what would life had been like if he’d averted simply that one fateful bar battle? The reply lies in a downright philosophical acceptance of mortality, an understanding of the joyful dangers of life. Picard laughs as he embraces near-death. It is a hell of a visible metaphor, and Stewart makes it land with simply the proper contact of gravitas. Rattling good things.

By season 5, it was clear that Captain Picard was one hell of a hobbyist historian. “Darmok” lets him convey these expertise right into a most uncommon and abrupt diplomatic mission, one the place failure will get each him and a fellow captain killed. That captain is a Tamarian named Dathon (Paul Winfield), and he is put them each on this scenario for causes that are not instantly clear.

The Tamarians are immediately fascinating; their language is allegorical, that means they communicate in phrases that, to at the moment’s ears, may sound like Tumblr memes. “Darmok and Jalad, at Tanagra” has a particular that means to Dathon’s folks, and till Picard understands what it’s (two males, aspect by aspect, eagerly dealing with hazard collectively), they’re all caught. The important thing lies within the Epic of Gilgamesh. Picard’s loving, gusto-laden efficiency of a simplified model of our historic hero’s journey does not simply pull delight from the now-dying Captain Dathon. It is a reproduction of what it needed to have been like way back, when storytellers shared legends round campfires. Picard’s love of historical past helps him click on with a stranger, and as bittersweet as it’s, it makes for a terrific episode that might lastly get a follow-up in “Decrease Decks,” the place a Tamarian has efficiently joined Starfleet. Allegories and all.

It is deliberate that the most effective episodes of “Picard” goes out of its approach to not evoke the unique no-win state of affairs, the Kobayashi Maru. The Maru, which was a Starfleet state of affairs for studying how to deal with failure, is as an alternative a hammy tribute to all the time making it out. In “No Win State of affairs,” Picard, the reluctant Shaw (Todd Stashwick), and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) go head on in studying to simply accept the worst and darkest components of their lives. Surviving the mess they’re in is an afterthought.

It is a talky episode (with some surprisingly blue language), however it’s by no means gradual. Matched with flashbacks that present a gregarious Picard pleased to carry forth about his years in Starfleet to a younger crowd hanging off each phrase, a lonely holodeck bar brings out years of missed alternatives between Picard and his estranged, unknown son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers). It is misplaced time finally interrupted by Shaw, who’s been at dagger’s edge with Picard and Riker since they got here on board. The explanation: Wolf 359, the place Shaw was one of many final survivors on his ship in opposition to the Borg and their figurehead, Locutus.

Stewart takes a quieter position in opposition to each males’s frustrations, reflecting again to them his regrets and nightmares. Simply as these seemingly jovial flashbacks reveal that Picard has all the time had just one household, Starfleet, to his son’s sorrow, it additionally reveals that, with out Starfleet, nightmares and all, Picard shall be misplaced. It is Picard at his most open, laying out the subtext of a personality all of us knew for merciless however crucial examine.

“The Inside Gentle” is a beautiful, bittersweet episode that reveals up on each best-of-“Trek” listing, maybe to a brand new fan’s annoyance. However it’s a go-to choice for good cause, as Picard spends the majority of the episode dwelling a full life as one other individual, together with his personal humanity and character coming by means of at each flip. Kamin is the final reminiscence of a useless world, an envoy to a society that ended over a millennia in the past. It is a small factor, maybe, to a galaxy that may pace throughout quadrants and settle new worlds. However to those misplaced folks, it is the whole lot they’ve to offer.

Picard wakes as Kamin after a probe zaps him on the bridge of the Enterprise. Picard is aware of rattling properly who he’s as he confronts a spouse he does not acknowledge, however this “Twilight Zone” nightmare settles right into a dream because the phantasm by no means wavers. He settles into life as Kamin, regularly conscious that their world is doomed, however doing what he can to let his household take pleasure in their final generations in consolation. However this society closes the circle by bringing Kamin, in his previous age, to the launching of a really particular rocket.

The second brings Picard again to himself, realizing what’s really occurred, and why his long-dreamed life issues. When he awakens, solely a half hour after the probe zapped him, there’s one reward left to offer him: the little flute he’d discovered to play. For those who do not choke up when Picard performs it softly, now alone with these recollections solely he can curate, you are made from sterner stuff than us. For Patrick Stewart, that is nonetheless his greatest second.

“Star Trek” is commonly at its highest when it tackles large concepts head on, throwing us at actual life points and forcing us to consider them in new methods. “The Subsequent Era” had its first grand second of this with “The Measure of a Man.” Nominally about Lt. Cmdr Knowledge’s (Brent Spiner) risk of departure, it is really a hardcore authorized drama concerning the worth and id of the human soul. At both finish of the battlefield stands Picard for Knowledge’s protection as a full and authorized sentient being, and Riker, unwillingly pressured to be the Satan’s Advocate on behalf of Dr. Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy), who needs Knowledge turned over to his lab as a analysis topic.

The gritty particulars about legislation below Starfleet are minor asides; the meat of the matter is whether or not or not Knowledge can legally be thought of an individual, or is he property? Not solely does Picard get a few of the most interesting courtroom monologues in any sequence, however we additionally really feel his crucial discomfort when he goes to talk to Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who factors out the elephant within the room: the questions on Knowledge’s personhood drift unpleasantly near America’s historical past of slavery, and to make him into property could properly create a brand new slave class below Starfleet. Now much more conscious of the stakes, Picard pushes in the direction of triumph on Knowledge’s behalf, all whereas leaving the most important query open for us all to ponder: what will we actually contemplate a soul, if we will not even delineate consciousness? Stewart navigates all of it thoughtfully, and his righteousness as captain and buddy makes this episode an all time banger.

The Borg’s abduction would not be the one time Captain Jean-Luc Picard would discover himself stripped all the way down to bone and soul. The Cardassians have been launched in season 4 of “The Subsequent Era” to create a extra relatable and interactive risk to the Federation, regularly revealing themselves as imperialistic fascists, pleased to subjugate planets. By season 6, Picard started to face their threats head on, finally discovering himself captured and positioned within the palms of torturer Gul Madred (David Warner).

“Chain of Command” does not maintain again on its intense and correct depictions of each psychological and bodily torment, and we spend these two episodes watching Picard being damaged down, piece by piece, by one of many coldest characters within the franchise to this point. It is a beautiful episode that ends in triumph of the bleakest kind, as Picard admits how shut he was to giving in. 

Stewart’s efficiency brings forth agony of essentially the most uncooked sort, and Warner, who as soon as shared a stage with Stewart again within the ’60s, is greater than up for the problem of reflecting that agony again at him with the precise chill wanted to horrify us. Is it a enjoyable storyline? God, no. However it’s an impressive showcase for each actors, and an unmissable a part of the “Subsequent Era” period.

Gene Roddenberry needed “The Subsequent Era” to be weighed down by the unique sequence as little as potential, considerably to the sorrow of long-time followers wanting to know what the Vulcans had been as much as for the reason that ’60s. On the entire, it wasn’t a nasty directive; it pushed the sequence to create new and fascinating worlds to discover. However when the door to the previous did lastly open, it used one of many most interesting episodes of “Trek” to this point to take action. “Sarek” brings again the daddy of Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, Sarek (Mark Lenard), with a somber, painful exploration of ageing and loss.

Easy with its central battle — Sarek is stricken with a type of Vulcan emotional dementia, and it is bleeding off on the crew — the true story is a couple of man dedicated to serving his legacy to the close to exclusion of all else. Can we imply Sarek, or Picard? The reply is moot, as these two statesmen develop equal to 1 one other. And in one of many biggest sacrifices and kindnesses a human might provide a Vulcan, Picard ensures Sarek can full his work by carrying all of his emotional weight. It is vulnerability at its hardest.

As Sarek is free, for a time, to complete his diplomatic mission, we see by means of Picard the sheer weight of all that Sarek has carried. Weeping, screaming, angered, and stuffed with a long time of loss and ache, from his estranged relationship to his son, to his lack of ability to inform the human girls he is beloved simply how a lot they’ve meant to him. It is horrible however stunning stuff, and Stewart’s efficiency makes it genuine, by no means hammy.

“All Good Issues…” helps convey “The Subsequent Era” to a spectacular conclusion; bringing Q again in one other chapter of his ongoing trial of humanity is an ideal bookend to the sequence pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint.” His newest trial state of affairs (however not a last one, as “Picard” would go to point out) calls for that Picard show a price of humanity poorly understood by even ourselves: instinct. His life is cut up into a number of timelines, all of which present some side we would have questioned about post-series, however in all of them there is a lethal riddle to be solved. A temporal anomaly in contrast to something Starfleet’s ever encountered, able to ending human life. Even whether it is simply one other of Q’s little tips.

It is a trial that, after we look carefully at it, reveals delicate clues about Q’s fondness for his greatest buddy — even when Picard would name Q his greatest fiend. Certain, Picard reveals off how vital our human quirks are, however extra importantly, it is all about being human. Mortal. Flawed. Able to change. Q’s by no means had any of that and but, he is studying about it by way of his trials and tips. From Picard. And solely now, on the finish, does Picard, somewhat bit like Stewart at his first conference, find out how a lot he means to everybody else. It is that understanding that brings him residence to his associates, to hitch that pleasant sport of playing cards for the primary time.

It is richly human stuff, and Sir Stewart makes shrugging off the previous ego to easily be a part of his associates into one thing like taking off a coat and getting cozy finally. “Picard” would go on to underline what we already discovered right here: Jean-Luc Picard has all the time had a household of his personal, and he would do something for them. Perpetually.