Season six feels like a year where the writers were willing to take chances. And while there are some failures (*Aquiel*, anyone?), when it works it really works.
Another trend of this year was a move away from ensemble episodes and more towards single-character focused episodes. So we have episodes like *Frame of Mind* or *Birthright, Part II* that barely have any of the other crew members outside of the focus character. That’s probably an artefact of the contract negotiations for people on a show as long-lived and popular as this one, but it makes for a nice change of pace.
Overall it’s the strongest year of TNG so far, and hence the strongest year of any of the series. Out of the 26 episodes I had 14 down as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’, and only 1 as ‘very bad’. Even Season 3, the previous best, only had 7 in the top half, although it did manage to avoid the ‘very bad’ category.
That brings the rankings so far to:
– TNG Season 6
– TNG Season 3
– TNG Season 5
– TOS Season 2
– TNG Season 4
– TOS Season 1
– DS9 Season 1
– TNG Season 2
– TAS Season 1
– TOS Season 3
– TAS Season 2
– TNG Season 1
That’s 280 watched, 12,609 minutes down, 38.67% complete. 45,665 words written. And 457 to go. Next, the final year of TNG, and the sophomore year for DS9.