I'm still going to pick only three episodes for this season because I feel like I would just be forcing myself to try and pick more. But I really love my top 3 picks too so I'm excited to devote this post to them. (I wasn't as enamored with my top 3 of the first season.)
And just FYI, still can't stand Q. I read that his episode this season ("Q Who?") was highly regarded but even though the Borg is a great concept, I could have done with 100% less smarmy, self-congratulatory alien. At least I was glad that Guinan is maybe kinda a match for him. I want to see her take some action sometime though instead of always letting the crew solve their own problems.
3. Peak Performance
As an attempt to prepare themselves for the eventual coming of the Borg, the Enterprise is ordered to engage in a mock battle pitting Picard against Riker's small ragtag crew. While engaged, the Ferengi happen by and decide to pillage, and plunder, and rifle, and loot (drink up me hearties, yo ho!) While I'm not sure how useful this exercise was in preparing against what is going to be a vastly superior foe in the Borg, it was great to see that Riker would attempt to use cleverness to win. I love to see that in any story - it's more fun than brute force and fighting skills winning the day. And I think Riker could have done it if those darn Ferengi didn't turn up. (Again another annoying alien.) It was also so satisfying to see Data "defeat"the Zakdorn strategist who was also... annoyingly condescending, but his skills did give him some right to his behavior. Captain Picard showed his own bit of cunning in tricking the Ferengi as well which was a fantastic scene.
2. Time Squared
With just the first scenes of this episode, I knew it would be a favorite of mine. The Enterprise happens upon a lone shuttle and takes it on board, only to discover the pilot is ... Captain Picard! A future version who is injured and confused. And the crew has to figure out what happened to him and prevent it from happening again. Actually if the ending was different (I thought it was a bit confusing) this would probably be my top favorite episode of the season. But I do still love it a whole lot. The time travel element was really well done - the doubles trope does seem to be done a lot in Star Trek, but I think the way they worked it in as sort of a countdown to their immediate future was brilliant and created so much tension. What a situation to find yourself in, and Captain Picard handled it with such strength and resolve. I'm really appreciating how Patrick Stewart plays the Captain. It's very different to Kirk, but perfect for this show. Again the ending was a bit confusing for me, but it must have been a difficult scenario to resolve completely - it was such a perfect paradox. At least the journey through it had me on the edge and completely invested.
1. The Measure of a Man
A Starfleet Cyberneticist - Maddox - is intent on building more androids like Data and requests to take Data apart to better understand how he was made. Data refuses because he doesn't believe Maddox would be able to assemble him properly again, so Maddox demands access to Data based on the idea that he is not a person but Starfleet property. This was such an elegant and straightforward story told with intelligence and compassion. The episode looked at who deserves to be treated with humanity and individual respect and it was really such a profound discussion. Especially if in the future humans are faced with extraterrestrial life forms very different from our own. It's a message that persists throughout the Trek universe, and was perfectly embodied in this episode. And Data was so poignant in this episode, I think Brent Spiner put forth an amazing performance. This episode must and deserves to be one of the best episodes of any Star Trek series.
