Best Episode of Star Trek: TNG: Season 5 nominations

[Lord Jubjub]

The following post will contain the list of the episodes in season 5. Peruse that list and count the number of episodes you think are good--not great episodes, but episodes that don't find you flipping the channel after a few minutes. Count them up and give me the results in the poll.

Now for the round 1.5:

Give me nominations for the best of this season. The more nominations an episode receives, the more likely it will be in the next round.

If you have selected all or nearly all the episodes as good, please nominate the ones you would leave OFF the final list (and tell me which is which).

[Lord Jubjub]

From Trek Nation
#501 Redemption, Part Two | While Worf fights the Romulan conspiracy within the Klingon empire, Picard intervenes in the Klingon civil war and discovers Tasha Yar's daughter is a leader of the Romulans.
#502 Darmok | Picard is exiled with the leader of an alien race which speaks in metaphors.
#503 Ensign Ro | A courtmartialed Starfleet officer from war-torn Bajor is sent to help locate a terrorist leader.
#504 Silicon Avatar | When the Crystalline Entity attacks, a scientist devoted to hunting down the alien comes on board and discovers that Data's positronic brain contains the memories of her son.
#505 Disaster | Troi must take command of the ship, while Picard struggles to work with three children and Worf delivers Keiko's baby, when crucial energy systems fail.
#506 The Game | When an interactive game worn over the eyes and ears becomes addictive to the crew, priming them for invasion, Wesley and his new girlfriend must save the day with Data's help.
#507 Unification, Part One | Shocked to learn that Ambassador Spock has apparently defected to the Romulans, Picard and Data travel to the Romulan homeworld to meet with an underground peace movement.
#508 Unification, Part Two | Picard tells Spock of the death of his father and learns the reason for Spock's visit to Romulus: an attempted reunification of the long-separated Vulcan and Romulan races.
#509 A Matter of Time | When a visitor from a future era arrives on the ship, Picard violates the noninterference directive to ask for assistance about how to save a dying planet.
#510 New Ground | After Worf's human mother brings his son Alexander on board, insisting that she can no longer raise the boy, Worf seeks Troi's help in helping him fit in.
#511 Hero Worship | A young boy who is the sole survivor of a disaster that killed his parents chooses to emulate Data's nonemotional strength rather than face the facts of the accident.
#512 Violations | When a race of telepathic aliens comes on board, Troi, Riker, and Crusher fall into inexplicable comas after having their memories probed and distorted.
#513 The Masterpiece Society | A genetically planned, engineered society threatened by a disaster refuses to relocate and resists contact with the imperfect humans and aliens of Starfleet.
#514 Conundrum | Suffering from inexplicable amnesia about their names and roles, the crew struggles to understand their place in the war they're fighting.
#515 Power Play | Troi, Data, and O'Brien are possessed by evil aliens who demand assistance freeing fellow entities who were stripped of their bodies as an alien form of imprisonment.
#516 Ethics | When an accident leaves Worf paralyzed, he asks Riker and Alexander to assist him in committing suicide rather than live paralyzed.
#517 The Outcast | An androgynous race asks for Federation help in locating a missing shuttle, but the situation is complicated when one of the androgynes begins to fall in love with Riker.
#518 Cause and Effect | The ship is caught in a time loop after an explosion, causing the crew to experience increased deja vu as they relive the events leading up to the disaster.
#519 The First Duty | Wesley gets involved in a cover-up to protect his friends at the Academy when a stunt leads to a deadly collision.
#520 The Cost of Living | Lwaxana Troi arrives to wed a man she's never met, prepared to forego the traditional nude Betazoid ceremony, but unwilling to stop exposing Alexander to free thinking and mud baths.
#521 The Perfect Mate | A beautiful, empathic woman sent as a peace offering to marry an alien leader begins to bond with Picard instead of her intended mate.
#522 Imaginary Friend | The "imaginary friend" of a little girl begins to appear to crewmembers, threatening the Enterprise.
#523 I, Borg | When the crew rescues a lone Borg, Picard must decide whether to treat him like an individual or use him to disable the entire Borg collective.
#524 The Next Phase | Though the crew believes them dead, LaForge and Ro are trapped out of phase by a Romulan cloaking device.
#525 The Inner Light | After being trapped in a probe's energy beam, Picard awakens in the midst of living a life as a scientist and husband on a distant planet.
#526 Time's Arrow, Part One | When archaeologists discover Data's head buried under San Francisco, an investigation traps data in the very era where he apparently lost his life centuries earlier.

[Jim]

505 Disaster - Puts the characters in very uncomfortable situations.
517 The Outcast - Puts the audience in a very uncomfortable situation.
523 I, Borg - An interesting ethical dilemma.
525 The Inner Light - The bittersweet feel of this story lingers long after. Fine acting by Stewart.

[Jason]

Best Episode: The Inner Light.
Honorable Mentions: Darmok, Silicon Avatar, Conundrum, Cause and Effect, The First Duty (the best Wesley story), I, Borg.

[Damburger]

Best episode: Darmok

Although Cause and Effect, Conundrum and I, Borg are also good

[Trantor]

My three favorites from season 5 were:

#525 - The Inner Light

#518 - Cause and Effect

#523 - I Borg

I consider "The Inner Light" to be STNG's best episode. A beautiful story and probably Patrick Stewart's finest performance.

[NGCHunter]

I still get chills every time I hear the Inner Light theme. Jay Chattaway's masterpiece, imho. Combined with the story it was truly moving in a way no other single episode of TV has moved me.

[redshifter]

#502 Darmok
#507 Unification 1
#508 Unification 2
#518 Cause and effect
#525 Inner light

[Lord Jubjub]

I sense a theme here. I put my votes to Cause and Effect, Inner Light, I Borg, Conundrum as the best of the season. Darmok and Disaster as second tier.

The First Duty is definitely the best Wesley story--notice that it is the first story where he isn't a gifted brat.

[Click Ticker]

Never understood "The Next Phase". Why could they pass through walls but stand on the floor?

[Jason]

Never understood "The Next Phase". Why could they pass through walls but stand on the floor?

And how did they breathe?

[Lord Jubjub]

Quite a few suggestions from this season. Definitely have a list of 4-5 episodes, but I welcome more suggestions and more votes for the episodes already mentioned.

[vonmazur]

Inner Light, Darmok....

Inner Light, if no other reason than watching Picard play the "Skye Boat Song"

Darmok, for the time it takes the Enterprise Crew to figure out the metaphors.

Dale

[Nick Theodorakis]

Am I the only one who didn't like Darmok?

Nick

[Damburger]

Am I the only one who didn't like Darmok?

Nick

So far, yes. Care to share the reasons why? I thought it was a well written, well acted story about trying to communicate with a truly alien culture (such plots are, IMHO, when Star Trek is at its best)

[parallaxicality]

I didn't either. I kept asking myself, if these people talk in metaphors, how did their language ever evolve? I mean, presumably they had to learn words like "food", "sleep", "mother" etc before they had enough cultural sophistication to speak in metaphors in the first place. Enough things would have had to happen to them before they could have accumulated enough metaphors to communicate.

[Lord Jubjub]

I always assumed that the Universal Translator could not tease out verbs and other basic parts of speech.

[Tinaa]

Loved Darmok.
Inner Light, Times Arrow, The Outcast and Cause and Effect are also favorites.