Never Seen Star Trek? Start With These Eight Picard Episodes
CrossBinge · 4 min read
Seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation add up to a lot of television, and plenty of it is about a malfunctioning holodeck. Nobody grieving Patrick Stewart this week should have to wade through those. These eight are the ones where Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and the actor playing him, are the whole point. Watch them in this order and you will understand why a generation of viewers wanted him as their captain, their teacher and, frankly, their dad.
One honest warning first: the show takes most of its first two seasons to find its feet. Stewart later admitted he was so anxious to be taken seriously that he once told his castmates, in effect, that they were not there to have fun. They loosened him up. You can watch it happen.
Starfleet wants to take Data apart, and Picard has to argue in court that his android officer is a person with rights. It is the episode where the show realises what it can be.
2
"The Best of Both Worlds" (seasons 3 and 4)
The Borg take Picard. The season three cliffhanger that kept viewers waiting all summer in 1990, and the reason the collective became TV's most feared villain. Also sold as a single feature-length cut.
3
"Family" (season 4, episode 2)
There are no space battles at all. Picard goes home to France after the Borg, and Stewart gets to play a man falling apart in a vineyard. Watch it straight after part two.
4
"Darmok" (season 5, episode 2)
Stranded with an alien who speaks only in metaphor, Picard has to learn a language built from stories. The scene where Stewart tells the tale of Gilgamesh by firelight is one of the best things he ever did.
5
"The Inner Light" (season 5, episode 25)
A probe knocks Picard unconscious and he lives an entire life on a dying planet. If you watch one episode of anything he made, make it this one.
6
"Chain of Command" (season 6, episodes 10 and 11)
Captured and tortured by a Cardassian interrogator, Picard is asked how many lights he sees. A two-hander so fierce it plays like a stage play.
7
"Tapestry" (season 6, episode 15)
Q gives Picard the chance to undo the reckless mistake of his youth. A funny, rueful episode about the price of being the person you became.
8
"All Good Things..." (the two-part finale, season 7)
Aired on May 23, 1994, the finale sends Picard skipping between past, present and future. It ends at a poker table, and it will get you.
“
Like me, Jean-Luc has lived an unusual life that has taken him far beyond the bounds of normal human experience.
Patrick Stewart, in his 2023 memoir Making It So, shared by his family after his death
Then the films, and the comeback
Of the four films, Star Trek: First Contact is the one to watch: the Borg return, and Stewart plays Picard's buried trauma as something close to Captain Ahab, a part he went on to play outright in the 1998 TV film Moby Dick. Generations is worth it for the handover from the original crew. Insurrection and Nemesis are for completists.
Finally, go to Star Trek: Picard, which picks him up two decades later as a retired admiral tending vines in France. Its third season brings the old crew back together, and after the eight episodes above you will feel the reunion in your chest. Watch the list, then First Contact, then that last season. The rest can wait until you want more of him.
