PICARD
Beginner’s Guide: The Top Five Episodes
One Last Mission
Picard premiered in January 2020 and ran for three seasons, ending in April 2023. It brought Patrick Stewart back to the role of Jean-Luc Picard, now retired from Starfleet and living on his family vineyard in the year 2399, still haunted by the loss of Data and by the destruction of Romulus. The first season follows an old man's quest to protect a new form of synthetic life, the second sends the crew through time, and the third reunites the entire cast of The Next Generation for a final adventure.
This is a more serialized and more adult series than The Next Generation, and it leans heavily on the history of the older show. If you have not seen The Next Generation, you will still follow the story, but you will get far more out of the episodes below if you know who these people are. If you do, the third season in particular is a love letter to everything you remember.
Crew advisory: Bring tissues. The Next Generation cast has not aged. They have matured. There is a difference.
1. Võx
In the penultimate episode of the series, the secret behind the season's mystery is revealed: Jack Crusher, Picard's son, carries the Borg in his blood. The Borg Queen names him Võx, the voice of the Collective, and the Federation fleet starts to fall to the Borg, so Picard and his old crewmates must use an older ship that is not connected to the network. It is the moment the whole season has been building toward, and it is packed with emotional reunions and nostalgic payoffs. It ranks first because it is where the show's love for its characters and its sense of an epic story come together.
2. The Bounty
After a daring raid on a secret research station, the Titan limps to a fleet museum, where Picard has to turn to the one old friend who might be able to help: Geordi La Forge, now a commodore who is reluctant to risk what he has built. It is an old-fashioned heist, a reunion and a character piece all in one, and it is often cited as the best episode of the series up to that point. It earns its place because it shows how good this show can be when it simply lets these characters talk to each other.
3. Dominion
The villain Vadic makes a move to take over the Titan, and for the first time the season starts to give real answers about the Changelings, the Dominion War and the dark chapters in Starfleet's own past. It also provides the long-awaited face-off between Picard and Vadic. Fans are divided about it, but it is the episode where the season's moral stakes become clear, and it makes a good companion to Deep Space Nine for anyone who wants to see where the Dominion story went.
4. The Last Generation
<
In the series finale, the Enterprise-D, restored and unlinked from Starfleet's network, returns to Earth to confront a fleet of assimilated ships. Picard finds his son at the center of the Borg Collective and has to bring him back. The episode gives every member of the cast a moment to shine, and it is a satisfying, emotional farewell to the characters. It is on the list because it is the end of an era, and the most fitting way possible to close out the franchise's longest-running crew.
5. Stardust City Rag
Picard and his ragtag crew travel to a lawless casino planet to find the scientist Bruce Maddox, and they run into a very different Seven of Nine than the one they remember. She is now a vigilante driven by a desire for justice after the murder of a friend, and the episode is violent, stylish and surprisingly moving. It makes the list because it is the high point of Season 1 and marks the debut of the new Seven, which gave Jeri Ryan her best material in years.
More of the beginner’s guide: The Original Series • The Animated Series • The Next Generation • Deep Space Nine • Voyager • Enterprise • Discovery • Lower Decks • Prodigy • Strange New Worlds • Short Treks • Starfleet Academy.
Not sure what order to watch in? Try our chronological watch order or the Star Trek timeline. Want people to talk Trek with? Enlist and join the crew at one of our Star Trek events around Atlanta.
