Star Trek: 10 Episodes You Must Watch Before Picard Season 3

6. Nepenthe - Star Trek: Picard, S1EP7

Lore Star Trek TNG Picard
CBS

If you're in need of more Riker/Troi turn immediately to Picard's first season breather moment. With some of the series' best character-driven scenes and real heart, Nepenthe is an emotional rollercoaster that lays out events from the Rikers' time aboard the USS Titan and the reasons for their resettlement on this relatively unknown backwater of a planet.

Nepenthe is much more than the simple reappearance of Will and Deanna. It works to mature the characters beyond their wedding in Nemesis and deepen their backstory. Maybe it's not got the jazz hook of No Small Parts but it does reveal Riker to be an adept pizza chef, proving popular enough to have him turn up aboard the copy and paste fleet from Et in Arcadia Ego in the captain's chair of the USS Zheng He.

As an episode, it's one that may well be drawn on for season three as the Rikers return. Their family story and choice to move to this world were some of the episode - and season's - most poignant moments. It would be a mistake to skip a revisit to this story.

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A Star Trek fan from birth, I love to dive into every aspect of the franchise in front and behind the screen. There's something here that's kept me interested for the best part of four decades! Now I'm getting back into writing and using Star Trek as my first line of literary attack. If I'm not here on WhatCulture then you're more than welcome to come and take a look at my blog, Some Kind of Star Trek at http://SKoST.co.uk or maybe follow me on Twitter as @TheWarpCore. Sometimes I force myself not to talk about Star Trek.