Star Trek: 10 Plot Twists Everyone Saw Coming

6. Fool's Mate

The opening gambit of Gambit, Part I was the demise of Captain Picard. Countermove, surprise reversal, and soon a smack in the face for Commander Riker, Jean-Luc's not dead, because of course he's not. They weren't going to kill off the star of the show, except for all those times they technically did.

As cold-open death fake-outs go, it was still rather effective. None of us, nor the characters, had heard of the energy weapon-transporter combo at that point. Crusher's scans, and Troi's "he's telling the truth [about Picard's vaporisation]," was all we, all they, had to go on, aside from the knowledge that the seventh season had barely just begun.

Despite years of practice, Riker sure needed to work on his poker face, shocked as he was to see Picard back from being a cloud without a micro-crystalline scratch on him. The twist for the viewer aboard the mercenary ship was more in the chair, as alias 'Galen' (an odd, but apt homage to a former professor) swivelled around. What on unearthed Vulcan artefacts was he doing in that outfit?