6. The Big Goodbye (The Next Generation)
Plot In Two Lines: Picard, Beverly, Data and the ship's historian get trapped in a Dixon Hill detective novel recreation that gets somewhat dangerous.
Why Your Trek Friend Says It's Good: Dude. How can you not say it's good? The holodeck goes wrong and the episode won a Peabody Award because it's just so awesome! What can't be liked about Picard and co dressing up for film noir and acting all Humphrey Bogart? It's one of the best things about the first season of The Next Generation, and showed the directions it could go in even when they were confined to the ship. We get to see more of the Picard and Beverley relationship out in the open plus Data suited for action.
Why It's Not Actually That Good: Overrated. This was the first and only time the holodeck malfunction held any credibility but by season two we were already waiting for it to go all Westworld on the crew. In the bigger picture it's an OK episode which highlights the wonders of the CGI world that could be created but it does make you wonder why these things didn't get banned for being stupidly dangerous. Sadly when it's watched back after you've seen the wonders of seasons four and five it's not a patch on later installments of the show.