Star Trek: 25 Greatest Next Generation Episodes

18. Gambit, Parts 1 & 2

The whole Picard being an amateur archaeologist subplot was a bit dry, but the conclusion to this arc in this two parter made all of the head scratching worth it.

When a midget mouse creature of some kind tells the crew that Picard had been vaporized in a bar fight, acting Captain Riker (who for some reason complains he never got a real shot at the center chair in "Generations") leads an investigation that leads to his subsequent kidnapping by a group of scavengers, including none other than the bald man himself who had apparently been faux vaporized with a special transporter by the baddies.

Undercover as a mercenary, Picard tells Riker that he had been tracking the group when he confronted them in the bar and asked too many questions. There is a certain ancient Vulcan artifact that the alien captain Baran is looking for and is using "Galen" as his guinea pig to scan for the item, one that if found could cause mass mayhem and destruction (of course).