Picard: His greatest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Image: Paramount Pictures

4 – Yesterday’s Enterprise

It was fairly early in the run of The Next Generation that fans saw that Jean-Luc Picard and James Kirk had vastly different styles of running a starship. While Kirk barreled in and dealt with the consequences later, Picard took his time, gathered information and looked for advice from his bridge crew. While it was definitely a more evolved way to run the Enterprise, sometimes it made Picard look like he was running the ship by committee.

And that can be a bit boring if we’re being honest.

Which is why “Yesterday’s Enterprise” was so much fun to watch. In this third season episode, the Enterprise-C travels back in time and the the result is a altered timeline. In this new reality the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at war and Picard is the captain of a warship, not on an mission of exploration.

In what can only be called some amazing acting, Stewart changed his portrayal of Picard to reflect this new situation. Throughout the episode there is no question who is in charge and at times he shuts down his command crew with less than a look.

It made for a whole different version of Picard, one that many fans wish we could have seen more of. Whenever talk of “Yesterday’s Enterprise” comes up, fans always talk about how awesome Picard was and how he just kicked ass and took names. I mean, if you don’t get chills when you see Picard try to fight off the Klingons as flames consume his bridge, then there’s something very wrong with you.

Is that a very evolved way to run a starship? Probably not. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch even if it was for just a single episode.