All Good Things
Considered by many to be one of the best Trek episodes ever, "All Good Things …" provided a perfect bookend to the series, incorporating characters long lost (Tasha Yar) and ones long loved/loathed (Q). Never mind that Picard had to make a universe-saving-decision, perhaps the greatest aspect of the episode was the Q-induced temporal conundrum that gave us a somewhat poignant look at the possible futures of the crew, with Worf and Riker both bitter over the death of the woman neither married, Deanna Troi, Dr. Crusher now the ex-wife of Picard, Geordi married to Leah Brahms and Data as the holder of the Lucasian Chair for physics at Cambridge.

Attached
With a plot device that links Picard and Dr. Crusher's inner thoughts, this episode offered insight to a relationship that had long intrigued fans of the series. Just how did these two friends really feel about each other and was Picard at one time in love Beverly, or vice versa? The answers are sensitively handled and the spark between the two actors is genuine. The future of their relationship, however, is left up in the air and one possible result is suggested in "All Good Things …"

Dark Page
Throughout the run of The Next Generation, Deanna's effusive, man-eating mother would make an occasional appearance aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-D and generally wreak havoc amongst the male members of the crew. However, in this episode we see Lwaxana Troi in a different light — one of complete sympathy — when it is revealed that she had another daughter, previous to Deanna, named Kestra. The tragedy of the Troi family is then revealed — Kestra drowned at a young age and Lwaxana's guilt forced her to suppress the memory for years until an encounter with the Cairn species, a telepathic race.

Firstborn
The seventh season story arc for Worf, and much of his family, is multi-faceted. On a personal front, he and Deanna seem to be moving towards a relationship, and the fate of his brother, Nikolai Rozhenko, is wrapped up in the episode "Homeward." But the father-son dynamic between Worf and his son Alexander, not to mention the youngster's transition from boy-to-man, is emphasized here in a tale that incorporates time travel (Alexander as a 50-year old man confronting his younger self) and old villains Lursa and B'Etor.

Inheritance
For an android, Data sure has his fair share of family issues. Fleshing out Data's background, this episode reveals that his "mother," Dr. Juliana O'Donnell Soong Tainer, is still living, although Data has no prior knowledge of her as his memory banks were erased when the Crystalline Entity attacked his homeworld. The revelation here is that this Juliana is actually the most sophisticated of the Soong-type androids. The real one died on Omicron Theta and Dr. Soong's replacement is so advanced, she is not even aware of her own true nature. Yet another fascinating look at the potential of artificial intelligence.

Interface
Another regular crewmember, Geordi La Forge, gets some back story on his family. La Forge is working with a new virtual reality plug in to his VISOR when word comes down that his mother, Captain Silva La Forge of the U.S.S. Hera, has perished during a routine courier mission. In spite of this, Geordi presses on with his current mission, trying to retrieve a lost starship trapped in the atmosphere of a gas giant, and begins to see images of his mother. Not convinced his mother is dead, the chief engineer learns that these illusions of his mother are actually caused by the fire-based lifeforms trapped on the lost starship. Geordi's father, Dr. Edward M. La Forge, also makes an appearance via subspace communication with his son. A powerful episode, one that deals with the loss of a parent, and a commitment to duty.

Journey's End
Wesley Crusher's up and down Starfleet career finally reaches its climax when he decides to set out and explore the galaxy with his old friend, the mysterious Traveler. This confirms Wesley's supposed special abilities that were hinted at in previous episodes featuring the Traveler ("Where No One Has Gone Before" and "Remember Me"). The flipside of this episode is part of the setup for the whole Maquis/UFP/Cardassian storyline that would run for most of Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Lower Decks
A starship is run by hundreds of crewmen, but on a Star Trek show we normally deal just with the main cast, not the people in the background who always manage to look busy. What makes this episode a treat for long-time fans is that we get to see those in the titular "lower decks" and the fact that yes, they have lives too. Focusing on promotions, working relationships, duty and love lives, we get an intriguing glimpse into the world of the "other" crewmen.

Parallels
Worf returns to the Enterprise-D from a bat'leth competition and suddenly things get very, very strange. What's great about this extremely enjoyable episode is that the sci-fi twist — a quantum level fissure that creates many different universes — allows Worf to see a possible future where he and Deanna Troi are married, only to remove all the variables when the quantum level flux is restored and the universe is back to normal. Worf, however, is the only one to retain the memories of the different realities, thus giving some foreshadowing to his relationship with Deanna in "All Good Things …"

The Pegasus
We know certain things about Commander Riker, but one secret has been hidden for years — his loyalty to his first captain, Erik Pressman, and participation in the illegal testing of a phased-cloaking device aboard the U.S.S. Pegasus early in his Starfleet career. But Riker's loyalty goes only so far, and when Pressman, now an admiral, tries to salvage the once damaged Pegasus, that loyalty begins to fade. This episode also finally spells out some details of the Federation's ban on cloaking devices and the development of the Treaty of Algeron, following the Tomed Incident.

Preemptive Strike
The penultimate TNG episode, this installment lays further the groundwork for the growing Maquis problem. After taking time off the Enterprise for some Advanced Tactical Training, Ensign Ro Laren returns to head a dangerous mission of infiltration in the rebel colonies. But the headstrong Bajoran can't find it in her heart to betray the colonists, who she feels are fighting a just fight against the Cardassians in this territorial dispute. She turns the tables on her Starfleet comrades and winds up on the other side. Regret, betrayal, trust and the definition of what duty means are just some of the themes in this episode.

Did we leave out your favorite episode? Go to the message boards and tell the world what you think.