Star Trek The Next Generation Feature Length Episodes: Ranked

10. Encounter At Farpoint

The opening episodes of The Next Generation were a mix of positive and negative. The new series debuted with excellent visuals and effects, a wonderful cameo from DeForrest Kelly and the introduction of the new cast. It is now well recorded that the cast hadn't believed the show would last. If each episode remained at the quality of this one (referring specifically to the general level of acting) then it would be quite understandable to believe that too.

But Encounter at Farpoint is not all bad. Q is introduced and while he is more menacing than he would later appear, he is an excellent addition and the plot thread of the trial would of course run through the series. Not much else works to be fair and many lessons were learned.

Season 1 of The Next Generation was shaky but as an opener, it was far from the worst episode of the season (Code of Honour will have that...honour...for the foreseeable future) but it is certainly the weakest of the two-part stories.