UNCUT - TNG Season 4 Top 10 Episodes

Night Court a court Drama? It was a very silly comedy. And it was before Star Trek

I think when people generally rate Best of Both Worlds so highly, they're probably thinking of the Season 3 finale, which really is a Perfect 10. The S4 premiere is still great, but doesn't QUITE hit that high.

"This season has set a new bar" S5: Hold my beer.

Since this happened to me and I don’t believe I am so out of sorts, it is interesting this season the top 10 had a lot of episodes all over the place compared to the 3 lists, justa testament of how good this season is right? 🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽

My head cannon for Troi tossing Worf with the wrist lock is the alien possessing her can give her super strength due to making her release adrenaline. The same as the bugs in conspiracy did to give the 70+ Admiral Gregory Quinn (great name by the way) the strength to rag doll Wolf, Geordi and Riker so easy (that was actually in the Conspiracy episode).

Is Josh a John Irving reader?

Brent Spiner was a recurring character in the comedy series "Night Court". He reprised that role last year in the revival of that series.

you can never have too many Brent Spiners.

Your talk about Trek not putting itself in a box, I think you might be disappointed at a point with Mid-late Voyager and Enterprise. Won't say anymore till you get there though.

Less than a week until Season 5 blows your minds, I've got Sickbay ready. ;)

Regarding the comments Josh makes at the end about Star Trek raising the bar and ruining other TV shows generally… completely agree, with one exception… and that would be Doctor Who. I was a Trek fan before I discovered Doctor Who and all I can say is that it’s out there and is this massive behemoth waiting for you guys whenever you are ready… it predates Trek by 3+ years and similarly should be first experienced in release order.

In summary Alex Patrons Josh 1 - Clues/Night Terrors 1 - Family 1 - Remember Me 2 - Remember Me 2 - Reunion 2 - The Drumhead 3 - Family 3 - Redemption 3 - The Mind's Eye 4 - The Drumhead 4/5 - The Drumhead 4 - The Wounded 5 - The Nth Degree 4/5 - The Wounded 5 - Future Imperfect 6 - The Wounded 6 - BOBW Pt. 2 6 - Reunion 7 - Half a Life 7 - Data's Day 7 - Night Terrors 8 - Brothers 8 - Brothers 8 - Clues 9 - Reunion 9 - Remember Me 9 - The Host 10 - Data's Day 10 - The Mind's Eye 10 - Brothers

I wanted to say that I think you nailed it at the end when you both talked about what you thought Star Trek was back in the day versus what you know it to be now. It's so good, and so versatile, and that versatility is one of the things I've always loved the most about it. Its core premise is great, but it's exceptional how they figured out how to basically tell any kind of story they wanted while still keeping the 'Star Trek'-ness of it all intact. And as you come to learn with the other shows, you can even take familiar concepts but bring in new characters, new actors, new writers and put different spins on previous ideas as well. There's just the sense of almost unlimited potential with the Trek universe after what the TNG-ENT era did with it.

Where did Alex rate remember me?

Coming from Horror and Mystery makes your number 1 picks understandable. Nothing against that. Although I am sure some SciFi nerds among us will shake their heads in disbelief. Me indcluded. LOL

Alex's moment of "my favourite episode of season 4 is... season 3's emotional banger" just felt like the Bonding busting in with Leo's "I'm not f'ckin leaving!" Meme from Wolf of Wall Street. Perfect.

When Josh said Remember Me was his favorite episode after the first watch, I wondered if Clues or Night Terrors would top it for either of you. Interesting result. And even among fans, I think there is a clear difference between what our favorite episodes are, and which episodes are the objectively best ones. Sometimes our favorite ones are the guilty pleasures, or more often, the middle tier ones that just hit right for us.

I just rewatched the Man Trap reaction for fun since you mentioned it. What a shift in perspective since then lol

I just wanted to comment that Voyager season's 6 and 7 run with nothing else on as well. Enterprise is alone as you said. DS9 ends then season 6 of Voyager continued a few months later.

Loved Josh trying to explain away his bad taste with Family! lol. That is probably my number 1. The only thing I will say regarding the Jack Crusher performance. The character was not supposed to know he was dead. It was a random video message from a father to his son. It should hit hard that neither of them got to truly know the other.

Some great picks here and I totally agree with the number ones, I'm glad you guys like those episodes as much I do. It is so nice when a show has such a high bar of quality that it's actually difficult to narrow down your favourites to merely a Top Ten. Truly outstanding, especially when you consider the quantity of episodes per season; it would be very easy to have many more misses than hits, but that's definitely not the case here. Thanks to you both of you guys for the fun ride so far, and excitedly looking forward to season five and beyond.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. For much of the fandom episodes are rated by their high points and story arc importance, often ignoring the negative aspects of a given episode unless they are particularly egregious. So with you needing to evaluate with out that full arc knowledge and knowing you need to rank the episodes so paying more attention to the flaws, the gap in the rankings makes perfect sense.

Glad you enjoyed the season, the good news is that in my view they keep on at a similar level and sometimes exceed it. You need a poll very soon to check if you are going to watch the original or directors cut of Star Trek VI.

I love the Drumhead and want to rate it as high as everyone else does. But I just can’t get past the easy corny portrayals the writers used. Everyone is a hero in their own head, so they shouldn’t have made Admiral Sartre’s reasoning so paranoid and shallow. We shouldn’t have been impressed by Worf’s useless interrogation of the Klingon smuggler, the entire second half was just over hammed up and unrealistic (except Picard speech of course, and his one on one meeting with the part Romulan ensign). This episode had such a beautiful setup with the Admiral discussing her upbringing with Picard, stories of her family’s debates at the dinner table where she honed her mind and impressed her father. I think the second half of the episode squandered the potential the first half set up.

I heard your comments about how disappointing Levar Burton’s subplots had been for most of the prior trek. But tying together with your mixed comments about Dwight Schultz consider this: Both Barclay episodes so far have given Levar Burton a chance to explore some interesting acting territory. In Barclay’s introduction you had Geordi’s unwillingness to deal with a bumbling imperfect subordinate. And in the second episode exploring his friendship overall in a key role.

I knew you should have done Top 20 or at least a Top 15.

Killing K'Ehleyr in Reunion. It takes brass balls for the writers and show runners to kill a beloved central recurring character. We could feel Worf's response deep in our own bones because we felt a little of the same way. And now our merry crew isn't just romping through adventures but we know out here in the galaxy there is real risk and real stakes, and anyone could fail at any time if they make the wrong move or even if they don't. I can understand people being upset about her death but if anything it should add to our respect for the episode not subtract from it.

Meet the new set... same as the old set...

This is reprehensible. I can forgive you for not putting most of these in the top 3, but I can't really forgive you for not putting them in the top 5. My ideal list would have about 10 episodes in the top 3, and another 5 episodes filling out the 4th and 5th places here. And now on to season 5 --- can't be any good after this peak can it?

It’s okay Josh. I liked Nth Degree but did not love it. I think I rated it a B.

I think for Episodes like "Best of Both Worlds" and "Redemption", a lot of us don't think of them as single Episode anymore since we've seen them multiple times before, but as one story, so we kinda conflate the single Story with the Episodes being great, even if one or the other is weaker, the Single through story is great, which is why they rank so high normally.

So, what was the Patron's #1 pick...?

I love the variety, too. That was definitely one of the favorite parts of the cast and most of us viewers.

Today’s my birthday, and getting to wake up and watch this recap, and relive how excited and impacted you were about so many of the episodes in front of a big Sunday breakfast feels like a great extra present. Thanks for doing this, gents!

I think Star Trek is one of the crowning achievements of humankind, in exploring the depths of a universe we cannot physically go to ourselves yet. In exploring our own souls, our minds, our emotions, & what it means to be sentient in a beautiful yet cruelly brutal reality. To be able to relive it yet again with two invested, intelligent dudes, even if we don't always agree (hell that makes it more engaging) is the highlight of my day, every time I see the notification. Engage!

Data does not have emotions, but that does not mean he is incapable of "mourning in his own way" or missing someone he has friendship with.