Through the last five seasons of Trek I've seen, one thing I realized is that this show is not consistent at all. The same season that has greats like The Doomsday Machine and The Trouble With Tribbles can also have episodes like The Omega Glory. The Enterprise Incident, one of the best of its respective seasons, can come right in between two of the worst. And then we have this season, a massive shift in the quality of Star Trek as a whole. Not only is Season 3 of TNG consistent, it's consistently great!
Right from the very first episode of Season 3, you can tell that the show finally got its stuff together. Beverly Crusher is back, the production values and lighting are fantastic, and there's a sense of confidence unlike anything I've seen from a season of Trek so far. The show's new executive producer, Michael Pillar, had this writing philosophy that "Every episode is going to be about a characters growth. And every episode has to be about something", and I think it perfectly encapsulates why the season ended up so consistently strong. It meant that nearly every episode felt like it had a lot of depth, with characters constantly developing throughout the season and many deep themes being explored in interesting ways. Even the lighthearted Deja Q followed this rule, developing Q himself and exploring the human condition, and it was all the better for it. I was also impressed with just how willing this season was to get dark, and end its episodes on some really heartbreaking endings. The Survivors was especially shocking, with its ending twist being genuinely sickening, but there was also The Defector, The Offspring, and of course, the finale Best Of Both Worlds.
Speaking of which, Season 3 was pretty good on a plot level too. Outside of Q Who, Season 2 didn't do too much with the show's running plot threads and characters. This season, on the other hand, is a completely different story. The Romulans get multiple fantastic episodes to shine after being gone for most of Season 2, Guinan and her unknown powers also get a lot more screentime, and the Borg finally starts going after the Federation. Best of all, though, Season 3 shows a willingness to break outside of the episodic reset-button format we've known Trek for. Worf gets shunned by the Klingons and it sticks, and the season ends with the mother of all cliffhangers, a big shift from Trek's finales mostly feeling like standard episodes. Granted, this wasn't a perfect season. Despite the consistency, it still had some noticeably weak episodes, some of which reek of sexism, but otherwise, this season felt like a big step forward in quality not just for The Next Generation but for Trek as a whole.
This season had a lot of great episodes worth noting, but these were the highlights:
The Survivors: This episode absolutely stunned me when I first watched and out of all the episodes this season, it definitely stuck with me the most (aside from the finale but we'll get to that). For its first two thirds, The Survivors is a really solid horror episode with an eerie setting, a haunting Troi subplot, and just enough cute character interactions to prevent things from getting too dark. And then the ending happens, and we learn that "Kevin" committed instantaneous genocide on a race of 50 billion aliens. It's a shocking, heartbreaking twist that felt nearly sickening, but it's a twist so gutsy that I have a lot of respect to the writers for putting it in Trek.
The Enemy/The Defector: I like to group these two episodes together because they're both equally fantastic Romulan-related episodes that both give the species a lot more depth outside of just hating humans. The former partners Geordi up with a Romulan and forces them to get along, and their dynamic is just fascinating. The Defector is much darker and packs one of the most heartwrenching endings out of any Trek episode to date, at least rivaling The Survivors.
Deja Q: I'm surprised how much I've been enjoying Q's recent episodes given how much I despised him at the start of Season 1. It's probably because they made him more realistic. He's not a "goofy, mystical wizard" anymore. Q Who made Q a genuine threat, and this episode depowered him to actually give the character some interesting development. As a whole, it was a lot of fun to see Q deal with being human, but it wasn't just a comedy episode. I was impressed with Q's character arc here as well as the exploration of what it means to be human.
Yesterday's Enterprise: While I think "Mirror, Mirror" was a better Alternate Universe episode for its high stakes, Yesterday's Enterprise works more as a big farewell to Tasha Yar. Tasha finally gets an episode that explores her a bit, lets her go out on her own terms, and allows Denise Crosby to give her best performance in the series. I'll always advocate for Skin Of Evil for the sheer impact alone, but let's face it, this episode was a much better farewell to the character.
Sins Of The Father: I actually really liked the first third of the episode, a hilariously awkward sequel to Matter Of Honor that had the crew deal with having a Klingon first officer. However, once said officer is revealed to be Worf's brother, this episode becomes absolutely fantastic. We get a lot more worldbuilding for the Klingons, an exploration of Worf's past, and the shocking ending that had Worf shunned from the Klingons... and didn't get immediately reversed at the last second!
The Most Toys: Saul Rubinek's slimy performance as Fajo absolutely made this episode for me. He was absolutely fantastic here, and played off of Brent Spiner really well. The whole episode was yet another strong exploration of Data's humanity, or lack thereof, and the incredibly dark final act ended The Most Toys on a strong note.
Sarek: This was just a really well-done episode. I liked the mystery in the first third about why everyone is randomly starting fights, it was great to get to see Sarek again, and the core theme of declining health is heart-breaking, especially when you realize who this episode was really about (Gene Roddenberry's health was declining when this episode was being made). The highlight of the episode for me was Picard after mind-melding, revealing all of Sarek's buried emotions and regrets, and is quite possibly the most well-acted scene in the series to date thanks to Patrick Stewart.
The Best Of Both Worlds: It's not a secret that I adore season finales, and how they can juggle character development, payoff, crazy twists, and cliffhangers in equal measure. TBoBW is the start of season finales as we know them, it's one of the most influential episodes in TV history, and still packs in one of the greatest cliffhangers I've ever seen. It offers a great character arc for Riker finally exploring why he stays on the Enterprise, it offers a payoff to the setup in Q Who by having the crew face off against the Borg, it offers a crazy twist by having Picard be assimilated, and it offers a medium-defining cliffhanger where Riker orders Worf to fire on their own captain (not to mention the fact that at the time, no one knew if Stewart would be staying on the show). It doesn't even matter that this is the first half of a two-parter, it's a fantastic story where everything meshes perfectly together. The action, writing, acting, it's all nearly flawless. It's kinda funny how the worst season finale ever made could come right before one of the greatest and most influential.
While most of the episodes this season were at the very least good, there still was one pretty big weakpoint:
Menage A Troi: Look, I like Lwaxanna Troi. She's a funny character, and Majel Barrett plays her fantastically. And I liked some parts of this manic episode, like Picard reading Shakespeare. But overall, it felt like TNG at its worst. The Ferengi were annoying, Wesley got held back from Starfleet Academy again (poor kid), and this otherwise comedic episode takes an abrupt turn into seriousness when Lwaxanna almost gets sexually assaulted? I mean, this episode was already fairly sexist, but was that supposed to be a joke?! Attempted rape isn't funny!
Overall, Season 3 was a massive leap in quality for the Next Generation. It's confident, mature, and consistently great, and it really feels like the series has finally found its groove. Add in one of the most influential season finales of all time, and this is easily the best Trek season to date.
5/5 Stars
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