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Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Review

The fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation continues a very strong streak of seasons with some weaker installments, but a couple of truly classic episodes.

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“For somebody like me,

losing that sense of individuality is almost worse than dying“

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Redemption, Part II finally finishes off this overly action-oriented, uninteresting story to me. Darmok actually is very interesting in concept and in execution, but it still remains very intriguing and actually quite relatable thematically to many similar ideas with the lack of communication and understanding. It’s one of the best episodes of this season for sure. Ensign Ro is forgettable in its every sequence whereas Silicon Avatar has a good use of Data, but is otherwise not all that memorable.

Disaster is quite different for the show with an emphasis on charm, humor and action, but it worked quite a bit with a solid use of Picard who’s otherwise rather underutilized in this season. The Game gives us the return of Wesley and is a reminder of how much I didn’t miss him at all and how he has always been an annoying brat. Unification is actually very good in both Part 1 and Part 2 with a great guest turn from Leonard Nimoy and a very fun conspiracy, spy sort of political storyline.

A Matter of Time is the most predictable and obvious story of the bunch here with the “twist” being easy to detect from the very first scene. New Ground is all about Alexander, Worf’s annoying brat son. I don’t understand why the show continues to plague us with these family dramas when science fiction is at its best when it’s more epic and sophisticated instead of familial. These two are dull to me.

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Hero Worship is pretty solid, but far from great. Violations has a good premise with a fine exploration of the subject of rape. The Masterpiece Society is pretty good and with a strong, thought-provoking storyline. Power Play is rather forgettable and uninspired. Ethics actually has a better, more emotional use of Worf who’s quite good here. This surely is a heavy-Worf emphasized season for better and for worse.

The Outcast is awesome, there is no denying that. Yes, it’s ultimately a cheat and it should have gone even further in its depiction of transgenderism, but this is the nineties and this was truly revolutionary and highly progressive for its time. I loved Riker here who’s at his best when he’s sweetly romantic and flirtatious. The story presents a thought-provoking, very well explored issue and it’s a fantastic metaphor for trans people in every way.

Cause and Effect is solid, but too similar to many other TNG episodes of this type. The First Duty is so forgettable and again featuring annoying Wesley. Cost of Living is absolutely ludicrous and increasingly crazy. Worf and his son are again annoying whereas Lwaxana is both ridiculous and positively crazy here with that ending being downright weird.

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The Perfect Mate is yet another, not all that great take on Picard being cold and restrained around women. Imaginary Friend has a solid, if unoriginal premise. It’s well executed and well acted. I, Borg is one of those classic episodes which examine what it means to be human in all the right, emotional, clever ways.

The Next Phase is a breath of fresh air and a rarely great use of Geordi himself. It’s a phenomenal concept well mined for some solid action and great emotion. It’s an original, highly entertaining and moving episode. The Inner Light is overly cloying and not earned in its emotion whereas Time’s Arrow Part 1 is yet another first part and cliffhanger to end the season and this one is too weird and not substantial or intriguing one for me.

In the end, I liked this season quite a bit despite a couple of clunkers here and there. Picard is underused again, but at least others get a lot to do and some episodes here are downright amazing in sophistication, emotion and originality.

Worst Episodes: The Game and The Perfect Mate.

Best Episodes: I, Borg and The Next Phase.