The Next Generation Season, Ranked

Premiering in 1987, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reinvigorated the “Star Trek” franchise on television and arguably surpassed its predecessor in terms of quality. Set approximately a century after the events of “Star Trek: The Original Series,” the show followed the Enterprise-D, commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) as it explored the cosmos. In between the science fiction wonder and bouts of action and intrigue, the series featured philosophically probing episodes with existential and moral themes. Running for seven seasons, the show concluded in 1994, with its main cast returning to continue the series’ story in four feature films.

“The Next Generation” is one of the best TV shows streaming on Paramount+, but not all of its seasons are created equal. In fact, looking at the series objectively, it’s fair to say that some seasons might even be considered lackluster in retrospect. With that in mind, we’re ranking the series accordingly, looking at which sets of episodes hold up noticeably better than others. Here is every “Star Trek: The Next Generation” season ranked from worst to best across the series’ seven-season run.

It’s safe to say that the first season of “The Next Generation” featured the series still trying to find its creative voice compared to the “The Original Series.” The show doesn’t quite know what to do with its ensemble cast just yet, to the point where it kills one of the main characters off before the season’s done. Picard is frequently portrayed as a rigid disciplinarian while Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) is a wunderkind who often saves the day with his boy genius insight. Most of the villains introduced in the season don’t quite click either, most notoriously the capitalistic Ferengi, who appear in two Season 1 episodes.

On top of this, there are just so many episodes that have aged poorly across Season 1, from the shockingly racist “Code of Honor” to the sexist “Angel One.” There are highlights, to be sure, usually when the omnipotent Q (John de Lancie), as well as the gruesome paranoia-fueled episode “Conspiracy.” But between the awkward storytelling and uncertainty how much the show should revisit prior concepts, “The Next Generation” Season 1 can be a slog to get through. Most “Star Trek” fans would place the inaugural “TNG” season at the bottom of the barrel and rightfully so.

“The Next Generation” was a show with a bad first season, but it did improve noticeably in its second outing. The returning main cast have settled visibly more comfortably into their respective roles, particularly Stewart’s Picard and Jonathan Frakes’ Will Riker, with the latter finally sporting his familiar beard. The show is more willing to incorporate familiar elements from the “Star Trek” franchise while introducing new concepts like the terrifying Borg Collective. The second season also marks the only one in the show without Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), with the Enterprise featuring a new chief medical officer in Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur).

Outside of a few hiccups, “The Next Generation” Season 2 is really when the show that fans know and love starts to gradually coalesce. Episodes like “Q Who” and “The Measure of a Man” highlight sci-fi stakes and existentialist themes, respectively, that the show became known for. At the same time, there were still absolutely mediocre episodes peppered throughout the season, including “Up the Long Ladder” and the Season 2 finale “Shades of Gray.” Season 2 of “TNG” was a big step in the right direction, but those growing pains were still visibly evident overall.

Though the main cast was still much in fine form, the seventh and final season of “The Next Generation” felt like the show had finally run its course on television. For every good episode, like “Lower Decks” or “Genesis,” there are clunkers like “Journey’s End” or “Sub Rosa.” Many episodes throughout the season that feel like they’re competently assembled also come off as retreads to similar plots from previous seasons. Simply put, though “TNG” could still weave a fun or thought-provoking episode, its best days were noticeably behind it.

Fortunately, not all of the season’s episodes feel uninspired or overly derivative of more successfully received past stories. A prime example is the two-parter “All Good Things…,” one of the best series finales of all time. While the seventh season stands uneven overall, the series thankfully stuck the landing beautifully as it wrapped in 1994. “TNG” Season 7 never gets as abysmal as the show’s earliest seasons but compared to the series at its peak, it just doesn’t measure up.

After coming off one of the best TV show cliffhangers of all time with the Season 3 finale, “The Next Generation” Season 4 is quickly back to business as usual. Picard is rescued from his assimilation by the Borg Collective, but is a changed man from the experience, at least in his quiet moments. In the Borg’s place comes a new threat in the form of the antagonistic Cardassian Union, who would become a larger villainous presence in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” Plenty of familiar faces resurface to visit the Enterprise, while more about the crew’s personal lives are explored in between their tour of the galaxy.

To be sure, Season 4 delivers some stellar highs but also a fair amount of more forgettable episodes through its run. Episodes like “The Drumhead” and “The Wounded” easily rank among the best stories that the series ever produced. However, the season also provides weaker tales like “Identity Crisis” and “Suddenly Human,” which never quite live up to their respective premises. A strong season, with its overall quality right down in the middle compared to other sets of episodes, Season 4 gets the job done.

A marked improvement over an already impressive fourth season, Season 5 delivered a number of must-watch “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episodes. This is evident right from the season premiere, concluding the Klingon Civil War, and it only gets better from there with classics like “Cause and Effect” and “The Inner Light.” The season also adds recurring character Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) a Bajoran officer whose fiery personality clashes with Riker on multiple occasions. By its fifth season, the crew feels like a fully functional ensemble, with the cast comfortably settling into their roles and balancing their complex web of interpersonal dynamics.

This isn’t to say that Season 5 is a perfect season of “TNG,” after all, it’s not at the top of our rankings. The two-part guest appearance of Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock stands as something of an overall understated disappointment. “The Game,” an episode with the crew getting addicted to a video game, feels like an out-of-place cautionary tale that’s awkwardly of its era. But it’s with Season 5 that “TNG” comfortably expands its intriguing stories beyond its main cast to its recurring players, giving them interesting directions to explore.

By the series’ sixth season, “The Next Generation” was unequivocally firing on all cylinders creatively from top to bottom. For all the usual cosmic intrigue, Season 6 leans into the personal arcs of its ensemble, with Picard revisiting a pivotal mistake from his youth in a noteworthy example. The conflict with the Cardassian Union also escalates across the season, coming to a head in the two-parter “Chain of Command.” The season even features separate crossovers of sorts with other “Star Trek” shows, one with “The Original Series” and the other with “Deep Space Nine.”

In terms of consistency, Season 6 stands as a uniformly solid season all around, with its hiccups only ever minor ones. That kind of storytelling confidence and the depth it goes into with its characters reflects that the series had come a long way over its run. Similarly, the cast had noticeably grown into their respective roles, portraying their characters on an intuitive level. A top-down fantastic season, there’s only one other set of episodes that barely surpasses the show’s penultimate season.

Coming off two lackluster seasons, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” needed to turn things around creatively and, fortunately, the third season delivered. Beverly Crusher returned to the Enterprise while her son Wesley had his once-prominent role quietly decreased as the show focused more on its adult characters. Worf (Michael Dorn) would have his contentious connection to the Klingon Empire explored while Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) played a more important role on the starship. And in one of the most memorable character introductions, an assimilated Picard would become the greatest threat Starfleet had known at that time.

What puts Season 3 over Season 6 is that the highs that it took the series exceed the sixth’s pound-for-pound. This was informed by the series adding Ronald D. Moore to the writers’ room and Ira Steven Behr as a producer, both becoming creative powerhouses for the franchise. Similarly, the season also marked the beginning of Jonathan Frakes’ directorial career, starting with the acclaimed episode “The Offspring.” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” marks a creative triumph for the once middling series, kickstarting the momentum in storytelling quality that galvanized the entire franchise.