#Two worlds ii mac series#

For the first time in the series’ history, The Next Generation dedicated an entire episode to managing the fallout from the last one, and it hammers home exactly why The Best of Both Worlds and TNG as a whole have endured in the zeitgeist. (This is because Piller and Company came up with the cliffhanger without any idea of how they were going to resolve it after their spring break, a habit they maintained for all of TNG’s season finales.) However, the uneven The Best of Both Worlds Part II is redeemed by the following episode: its informal epilogue, Family. If the conclusion to The Best of Both Worlds was as killer as its setup, it might have very well jumped to the top of this list, but Part II is a bit of an anti-climax. At the end of Part I, stalwart first officer Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) has no choice but to open fire on the Borg ship, potentially killing his friend and mentor. Wired into the Borg’s hive mind, Picard gives the collective the benefit of his decades of experience as a Starfleet officer and every advantage they’ll need to run roughshod through Earth’s defenses. The Best of Both Worlds depicts the long-awaited return of the Borg, the unstoppable cybernetic zombies introduced in season 2’s Q Who? episode. As promised, they’ve come to conquer the Federation’s worlds and assimilate their technology, but there’s an even more sinister twist: they capture the Enterprise’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and force him to lead their invasion. The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I and II/Family (season 3, episode 26/season 4, episodes 1 and 2)Īfter building momentum with the public throughout its redemptive third season, Star Trek: The Next Generation hooked audiences for good with a shocking cliffhanger that had fans shaking with anticipation throughout the summer hiatus.

#Two worlds ii mac series#

Far more than an attempt to recapture the magic of the classic Star Trek, The Next Generation became one of the most iconic and influential science fiction series of all time, producing many of the franchise’s greatest episodes.ġ1-9. Moore ( Battlestar Galactica, For All Mankind), Brannon Braga ( The Orville), and Naren Shankar ( The Expanse) began their careers. This writers’ room was the incubator for the next wave of space sci-fi on television, where the likes of Ronald D.

Piller’s TNG would become the launchpad for the Star Trek franchise’s most prosperous and prolific period, with a string of spin-offs that continues to this day.

The show’s fortunes changed significantly with its third season and the addition of new head writer Michael Piller, who rapidly retooled The Next Generation into a more contemporary sci-fi drama that would not only live up to the legacy of Star Trek but define it for the next 30 years. The Measure of a Man (season 2, episode 9) All Good Things … (season 7, episodes 25 and 26) Who Watches the Watchers (season 3, episode 4) Chain of Command, Parts I and II (season 6, episodes 10 and 11) The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I and II/Family (season 3, episode 26/season 4, episodes 1 and 2)