The third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation may be what convinced all of us that Star Trek can be this good.
Without rehashing everything that I wrote about the first two seasons, I can sincerely tell you that the first two seasons were mediocre at best. You can tell the series was trying to find its footing and emerge out of the shadow of the original Star Trek. There were a few good episodes, sure. I even agree with most publications that include the second season's “The Measure of a Man” in their lists of top 10 best episodes of Next Gen.1 By the time we reach the middle of the third season, however, the show finally starts firing on all cylinders and the cliffhanger at the end of the season will genuinely leave your jaw on the floor.
Before I go any further, this is quite obviously the latest review in a series I'm doing for my full, epic Star Trek rewatch. If you're interested in what I've said about the original series, its cast's films, or the first two seasons of Next Generation, head over to the “Complete Collection” page that I've set up. You can also follow me on Bluesky , where I often post commentary as I'm watching and on many other going-ons in my life, and you can find my personal site at jiggyflyjoe.com!
If you have never seen the show, or haven't read my second season review, you may be puzzled yet again. During Next Gen's first season, we're introduced to Dr. Beverly Crusher as the Chief Medical Officer to the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. Between the first and second seasons of the show, however, lead writer and one-time showrunner Maurice Hurley had McFadden fired as she was often at times with him over her character and her relationship with her son, Wesley. During the second season, actress Diana Muldaur brought in a new CMO, Dr. Katherine Pulaski. Pulaski is, in my ever-changing opinion, over-hated by a lot of Trek fans, but she was admittedly a very sharp contrast for viewers who were used to Beverly. When Hurley departed at the end of the second season, Muldaur left the series as well, and McFadden was invited to return. Dr. Beverly Crusher was finally back on board the Enterprise where she belonged! And fortunately enough, she stays with us throughout this cast's run.
There's an even bigger shakeup ahead of this season behind the scenes. After the departure of Hurley and several other prominent writers on the show, a few new writers joined the staff. Including Michael Piller and Ronald D. Moore, two names that will strike familiarity in the hearts of any Trekkie. Piller became showrunner shortly after Michael Wagner briefly took over from Hurley and then left three weeks later. He also helped to write and create the next two Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Moore also wrote and produced these additional spinoffs, but is perhaps most widely known today as executive producer and showrunner of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica from 2004-2009, and is the creator of Apple TV+'s sci-fi series For All Mankind. Just in case anyone is uncertain where the sudden surge of excellent writing talent came from in the Star Trek franchise!
While much of the first half of season three seems like pretty standard fare to what we've seen before, I think Next Gen really starts to hit its stride around the 15th episode of the season. Titled “Yesterday's Enterprise,” we are presented with the Enterprise-D encountering a rift in spacetime from which a battered Enterprise-C, under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett, emerges. This previous iteration of the Enterprise legacy was thought long destroyed, and its appearance in the present day immediately ripples through the Enterprise-D. It's transformed into a warship, which is apparently now at war with the Klingon Empire, rather than the peaceful age that we had seen ushered in before. Due to this change in events, Worf is nowhere to be found, but shockingly, the tactical station is being manned by none other than Lt. Tasha Yar.2 Guinan is the only character in the episode who seems to have any previous knowledge what the timeline was like prior to the Enterprise-C's reappearance, and she makes her concerns known to Picard. She insists that they were not at war with the Klingons in the previous reality and that they have to do whatever they can to get back there. Picard struggles to do so based only on Guinan's suggestion, however, since the Enterprise-C's return to the past also means sending them to their deaths. When Picard discusses the situation with Garrett, she agrees to return in order to prevent the current war. After Guinan fills her in on her senseless death in the other reality, Yar decides to transfer to the Enterprise-C before it returns to the past as well.3 Though Klingons eventually start pressing an attack, and the Enterprise-D is nearly destroyed in the process, the Enterprise-C finally returns through the rift and our band of heroes return to their normal timeline. In a nice little coda at the end, Guinan asks Geordi to tell her about Yar, as she had never known her in their actual reality.
After “Yesterday's Enterprise,” we're immediately treated to an episode titled “The Offspring,”4 in which Data creates another android. The episode opens with Data inviting Wesley, Deanna, and Geordi to meet his child, an android he has named Lal. Initially built without any sort of defining physical features, Data encourages Lal to choose these for themself. Considering many different options in the ship's database, Lal eventually chooses the appearance of a human female. Data programs Lal with several algorithms and encourages her to be social and get to know other people aboard the ship. She eventually ends up bartending alongside Guinan, which leads to a few humorous interactions, specifically when Lal pulls Commander Riker across the bar to kiss him. After hearing about Data's new daughter, he is compelled to report the development to Starfleet, which results in an Admiral coming to visit the ship in order to determine if Lal should be transferred to a Starfleet science facility, where they could potentially learn more about her construction and design. After being interviewed by said Admiral, Lal is distraught and visits Counselor Troi, who realizes that Lal is feeling the actual emotion of fear, which Data has never been able to achieve on his own. After the Admiral orders Data to turn Lal over to him, Picard intervenes and states that Data has already been found as a “sentient lifeform,”5 and therefore should not have to comply with Starfleet orders to turn over his child. Before the Admiral is able to debate further, Troi calls them to have them report to Data's lab, where Lal's emotions have resulted in a cascade failure in her brain. Despite their best efforts to save her, Data and the Admiral both admit that Lal will not survive. In Lal's final moments with Data, she thanks him for her life and states that she loves him. Though the crew of the Enterprise pass their condolences to Data in the end, he informs them that he has incorporated Lal's memories into his own programming and therefore she is sustained forever.
There are so many other incredible episodes that follow these two, including “Sins of the Father,” which introduces Worf's brother Kurn; “Captain's Holiday,” which introduces the character of Vash to Picard; “Hollow Pursuits,” the first episode featuring Lt. Reginald Barclay, who often makes use of the holodeck to the detriment of his duties aboard the Enterprise, but who also becomes a valued member of the crew; “Sarek,” in which Mark Lenard returns to the role of Ambassador Sarek, Spock's father from the original series6; and “Ménage à Troi,” in which we see the return of Deanna's always magnificent mother Lwaxana. And that's not even mentioning that there are many fantastic episodes in this season prior to “Yesterday's Enterprise.” That episode just happens to be where I personally stopped watching one episode at a time and started consuming episodes in a little bit bigger chunks when I can. Because they started getting just that good!
Season three comes to a close with the finale, “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I.” Answering a distress call from a Federation colony, the Enterprise-D arrives to discover that the colony is gone and there's nothing more than a crater in the ground. Recognizing their handiwork, Starfleet immediately suspects the Borg7 are responsible. Enter Admiral Hanson who brings along with him Lt. Commander Shelby, an expert on the Borg. Hanson also informs Picard that Riker has once again been offered his own command with the U.S.S. Melbourne, but he's frustrated that Riker keeps turning them down to continue serving aboard the Enterprise. Shelby also reveals to Riker, who is becoming increasingly frustrated by her eagerness and take-charge attitude, that he is in her way and that she's angling for his position as Picard's second-in-command after Riker moves on to the Melbourne.
Despite the tension within the ranks, Shelby does confirm that the colony was destroyed by the Borg. Hanson also reports that another Starfleet ship had encountered a cube-shaped ship briefly before their distress call was cut off. Picard orders the Enterprise to confront the Borg cube and, upon doing so, they demand that Picard surrender only himself. He understandably refuses, which causes a bit of a skirmish and results in the Enterprise hiding within a nearby nebula. After the Borg manage to get them out of the nebula, they forcibly board the Enterprise bridge, kidnap Picard from his post, and then start making their way toward Earth at an incredibly high speed of warp. Under Riker's command, the Enterprise pursues the cube in an effort to rescue Picard and to stop them from destroying Earth. A small away team, led by Shelby, beams to the Borg cube and attempts to find and rescue Picard, but ultimately fail. When they beam back, the Borg cube hails the Enterprise and, speaking through Picard who has now been fully assimilated into a Borg drone, informs them that he is now Locutus of Borg, and that “Resistance is futile.”
Riker then orders Worf to fire on the Borg cube, the screen cuts to black, with the words “To be continued...” emblazoned on the screen for the first time in Star Trek history.
And there are definitely repercussions from this that reverberate not only into the fourth season, but in the franchise overall. The capture and assimilation of Picard into Locutus of Borg showed gentle viewers everywhere that nothing was safe or off-limits with our new writing staff. During the hiatus between seasons three and four, the shocked audience wondered if Patrick Stewart would even return to the show. Could Picard be recovered or would Stewart simply step away from the show completely after this? The reality of the matter was that Michael Piller wanted the show to start taking more risks and decided to end the season with a cliffhanger. He wasn't even sure of how the story arc would resolve the following season. Michael D. Moore told The Hollywood Reporter last year: “‘Part II,’ we did break the story together in the writer's room, but when Michael did ‘Part I,’ he said, ‘I have no idea how this thing ends. We're going to end on this cliffhanger of ‘fire’ and we're going to figure it out next season.’ We all gather in the room, and it was essentially a new writing staff. I was the only holdover from season three. We sat down, and Michael was like, ‘All right, I don't know where we're going. Let's just try to figure out something.’”
The episode also raised the threat level of the Borg considerably. If they were capable of making off with a Starfleet captain or razing an entire colony without too much effort, what hope do any of our heroes have, now or in the future? Fortunately, the Enterprise crew has four more seasons and beyond to figure it out.
Stay tuned for season four! 🖖