Star Trek: 25 Greatest Next Generation Episodes

8. Chain Of Command, Parts 1 & 2

In arguably the darkest hour in TNG's seven year run, even darker than The Best of Both Worlds, Picard is relieved as Captain of the Enterprise and placed on special assignment with Worf and Dr. Crusher to infiltrate Cardassian space and search for and destroy any metagenic weapons, essentially a prototype for a Cardassian bioweapon, on the planet Celtris III.

Meanwhile, the draconian new Captain Edward Jellico makes life difficult for everybody aboard the Enterprise, especially Riker and Geordi. He also fails miserably at negotiating with the Cardassians and sees war as inevitable anyway. When Picard is kidnapped on Celtris III, the metagenic weapon threat apparently a total hoax to lure him there, he is tortured for information regarding Federation strategy in the event of a Cardassian invasion.

Picard's torture scenes are particularly gut-wrenching and difficult to watch and include sensory deprivation, starvation, physical torture and stress positions among others. The sensory deprivation involved tricking Picard into thinking there were five bright lights instead of four, and the torture will continue unless Picard acknowledges that there are five lights.

Jellico, the Federation's negotiator during this crisis for some reason, disavows any knowledge of Captain Picard's mission, leading to veins popping out of Riker's head before he's relieved of duty, but the two of them must resolve their differences when Jellico asks Riker to take a shuttle and construct a minefield as a last ploy to get Picard out. When he is released, the last thing Picard does is defiantly yell to his Cardassian captors, "there are four lights!"