Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season Ranked

By the time the show entered its sixth season, the characters were well established and the show had delivered some of its finest entries. The sixth year is arguably the Next Generation's darkest, featuring stories like Chain of Command, Face of the Enemy, Schisms and Frame of Mind. For a series that was primarily interested in showing the lighter side of the future, it offered the underside of this bright sheen.

However, that is not to say that the quality of the show dropped. Episodes like Ship in a Bottle, Relics and Tapestry rank among the finest hours of the Next Generation overall. That the sixth season falls here is not that it is a bad season. Rather, it is a happy complaint - the show, from its third year on, had rocketed upward in terms of output.

The series offered many character studies in the sixth season. Relics is as much about Geordi as it is about Scotty. Tapestry and Chain of Command are both stellar outings for Picard and the rest of the cast all receive opportunities to show off what they've learned. There is a cameo from Bashir and DS9, along with the return of two of Data's nemeses - Professor John Moriarty and Lore, Data's (at that point) only other sibling. It may not be the best season, but it contains some of the all time greats.