“Best of Both Worlds” called Star Trek: The Next Generation top episodes

When debating the idea of “best” the answer will always come down to personal preference. For instance, some people think the best kind of pizza is a pepperoni deep dish. Others may prefer a stuffed crust cheese pizza. Others may want a pineapple pizza. You can’t trust those people. So when it comes down to talking about the “best” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it’s wise to remember that each person has their own taste.

Yet, it’s not hard to see why Cinemablend named the epic-two parter “Best of Both Worlds” as the series best episode. It was, after all, the episode that gave Jean-Luc Picard arguably his biggest trait; his burning rage to commit genocide against cyborg space zombies.

As Cinemablend’s Jeremy Lacey writes;

"As if any other episode could land the top spot on a Star Trek: The Next Generation best episodes list. Sure, this is the Borg episode where Picard is assimilated and turned into the mouthpiece of the Alpha Quadrant’s greatest threat. The real secret to this episode, though, is that it’s actually all about Riker. It turns out, unbeknownst to Picard, Riker has turned down three promotions to Captain, and it’s beginning to hurt his career. Enter Commander Shelby, played by Brian Dennehy’s daughter, Elizabeth Dennehy, a rising star who is sent to help strategize about the Borg threat. A hot shot who constantly butts heads with Riker, her arrival starts to make the Commander question what he’s even still doing on the Enterprise."

A fair point, but not one that is as clear-cut as he writes. On sites like IMDB, it’s “The Inner Light” that walks away with the highest watermarks. This is baffling, as I personally can’t stand that episode.

Yet, a classic (which is admittedly choppy at points) like “Encounter at Farpoint” doesn’t crack the Top 25 on IMDB. So clearly it’s not a definitive list. Nor should anyone take IMDB or Cinemablend or even us at RedShirtsAlwaysDie as the final voice in what is or isn’t good Star Trek.

That’s up to you.

For what it’s worth, I do agree that my favorite episodes are the two-parter “Best of Both Worlds”. So much so that when they were combined into a mini-movie and shown around the country nearly a decade ago, I went and watched them in big-screen glory.

That’s the beauty of subjective opinions, we can all be right.