Episode:701
Descent (Part II)

Jack's Rating:

The Borg are being led by Lore. Data falls under his control by being fed negative emotions.

Features: The Borg
Stardate: 47025.4
Air Date: 09/20/93
Director: Alexander Singer

Jack's Review
A worthy conclusion to the two-part season finale. Great performances overall and some terrific dialog between Alex Datcher and James Horan leading up to a great moment for Beverly in command.

Episode:702
Liaisons

Jack's Rating:

Worf and Troi reluctantly play host to two Lyraan ambassadors, while Picard crashes in a shuttle with another Lyraan. He is rescued by a human female who exhibits strange behavior.

Features:
Stardate: Unknown
Air Date: 09/27/93
Director: Cliff Bole

Episode:703
Interface

Jack's Rating:

Geordi tries to rescue his mother's starship via a remotely controlled probe.

Features:
Stardate: 47215.5
Air Date: 10/04/93
Director: Robert Wiemer

Episode:704
Gambit (Part I)

Jack's Rating:

The Enterprise crew investigate the apparent murder of Captain Picard during an archaeological trip. Riker is kidnapped by mercenaries and finds Picard working as part of their crew.

Features:
Stardate: 47135.2
Air Date: 10/11/93
Director: Peter Lauritson

Episode:705
Gambit (Part II)

Jack's Rating:

Picard and Riker help mercenaries collect archaeological artifacts to prevent an ancient Vulcan weapon falling into the wrong hands.

Features:
Stardate: 47160.1
Air Date: 10/18/93
Director: Alexander Singer

Episode:706
Phantasms

Jack's Rating:

Data experiences strange dreams, while the Enterprise has issues with its new Warp-core. But all is not as it seems.

Features:
Stardate: 47225.7
Air Date: 10/25/93
Director: Patrick Stewart

Episode:707
Dark Page

Jack's Rating:

A psychic breakdown puts Lwaxana Troi in a coma, and Deanna works to save her life.

Features:
Stardate: 47254.1
Air Date: 11/01/93
Director: Les Landau

Episode:708
Attached

Jack's Rating:

Reclusive aliens imprison Picard and Dr. Crusher on charges of espionage, and experimental implants linking their minds telepathically cause them to face their latent feelings for each other.

Features:
Stardate: 47304.2
Air Date: 11/08/93
Director: Jonathan Frakes

Episode:709
Force of Nature

Jack's Rating:

A pair of scientists show that warp drives are harming the fabric of space.

Features: The Ferengi
Stardate: 47310.2
Air Date: 11/15/93
Director: Robert Lederman

Episode:710
Inheritance

Jack's Rating:

Data encounters a woman claiming to be his "mother".

Features:
Stardate: 47410.2
Air Date: 11/22/93
Director: Robert Scheerer

Episode:711
Parallels

Jack's Rating:

Worf finds himself randomly shifting between alternate realities.

Features: Time Travel
Stardate: 47391.2
Air Date: 11/29/93
Director: Robert Wiemer

Jack's Review
Yet another of TNG's finest episodes. The inclusion of a possible relationship between Worf and Deanna is very fun as well.

Episode:712
The Pegasus

Jack's Rating:

Riker's former Captain boards the Enterprise to retrieve the USS Pegasus. Picard investigates the circumstances of its loss and finds that there has been a cover-up.

Features: The Romulans
Stardate: 47457.1
Air Date: 01/10/94
Director: LeVar Burton

Jack's Review
One of the best TNG episodes without question. The plot elements are as deep as any Trek episode and Terry O'Quinn's performance as Admiral Pressman is just fantastic. However, we have yet another Starfleet admiral with a skewed moral compass. Perhaps Starfleet should rethink their flag officer training methods.

Episode:713
Homeward

Jack's Rating:

Worf's human stepbrother violates the Prime Directive to save a doomed primitive race.

Features: The Holodeck
Stardate: 47423.9
Air Date: 01/17/94
Director: Alexander Singer

Jack's Review
I recall not liking this one much when it first aired. I mean, season 7 has its share of stinkers (Sub Rosa, Dark Page, Masks, Emergence, Journey's End, etc.) but after several viewings, I really like this one. Paul Sorvino is wonderful and the care and compassion shown to the people they save is really well done. The only bad thing is that Nikolai Rozhenko feels like a throw-away character. He should have been Worf's uncle because of the age disparity too.

Episode:714
Sub Rosa

Jack's Rating:

Dr. Crusher attends her grandmother's funeral, and takes on an unusual family tradition.

Features:
Stardate: 47423.9
Air Date: 01/31/94
Director: Jonathan Frakes

Jack's Review
Oof. While the acting is the only thing that keeps this one afloat, the story just doesn't belong in Trek.

Episode:715
Lower Decks

Jack's Rating:

Junior officers buck for promotion as one of them is assigned the dangerous task of helping a Cardassian spy.

Features:
Stardate: 47566.7
Air Date: 02/07/94
Director: Gabrielle Beaumont

Jack's Review
Without question, one of the top ten episodes of TNG...Heck, top 25 in all of Trek, easily! A terrific look at some of the rank and filers aboard the Enterprise - bringing back Sito Jaxa from The First Duty. There was a plan to bring her back on DS9....I wish they had followed through with that.

Episode:716
Thine Own Self

Jack's Rating:

Data loses his memory after retrieving radioactive fragments on a planet's surface and endangers the primitive natives he encounters, while Deanna studies to become a bridge officer.

Features:
Stardate: 47611.2
Air Date: 02/14/94
Director: Winrich Kolbe

Jack's Review
This is one of the best Data-centric episodes in the series. The interplay between Data and Ronnie Claire Edwards' Talur is just fantastic and the story is something that would have worked in TOS with Spock - with some modifications to the story, of course. The promotion of Troi to Commander is very fun but it feels a tad too late this deep into the last season. If they had done it a season or two prior it could have led to some interesting and fun episodes with her in command of the ship.

Episode:717
Masks

Jack's Rating:

The Enterprise finds an ancient library that recreates its civilization by taking possession of Data and transforming the ship.

Features:
Stardate: 47615.2
Air Date: 02/21/94
Director: Robert Wiemer

Jack's Review
The story is absurd in the extreme. Easily one of the worst episodes of the series - Brent Spiner's acting prowess notwithstanding.

Episode:718
Eye of the Beholder

Jack's Rating:

Deanna investigates the suicide of a crewman and uncovers a murder that took place during construction of the Enterprise.

Features:
Stardate: 47622.1
Air Date: 02/28/94
Director: Cliff Bole

Jack's Review
Two things never happened again after that. The Sisters never laid a finger on Andy again... and Bogs never walked again. They transferred him to a minimum security hospital upstate. To my knowledge, he lived out the rest of his days drinking his food through a straw. I can't see Mark Rolston without thinking about Shawshank Redemption. Anyway....an interesting if off-putting episode.

Episode:719
Genesis

Jack's Rating:

A routine medical treatment inadvertently creates a virus that begins to de-evolve the Enterprise crew while Picard and Data are on an away mission.

Features:
Stardate: 47653.2
Air Date: 03/21/94
Director: Gates McFadden

Jack's Review
Just plain goofy fun. I know this one gets picked on a lot and it certainly is a filler episode....but it is just so much fun.

Episode:720
Journey

Jack's Rating:

Wesley considers his future, as the Enterprise is ordered to remove Native American colonists from a planet that is about to fall under Cardassian jurisdiction.

Features:
Stardate: 47751.2
Air Date: 03/28/94
Director: Corey Allen

Jack's Review
Words cannot express the anger I feel while watching this episode. They ruined the character they created seven years prior on a preachy and formulaic episode.

Episode:721
Firstborn

Jack's Rating:

Worf attempts to convince his son Alexander to embrace his warrior heritage.

Features: The Klingons Time Travel
Stardate: 47779.4
Air Date: 04/25/94
Director: Jonathan West

Jack's Review
A terrific fun episode once again showcasing why James Sloyan is the king of Trek guest stars.

Episode:722
Bloodlines

Jack's Rating:

DaiMon Bok returns to exact revenge on Picard, by trying to kill the son Picard never knew he had.

Features:
Stardate: 47829.1
Air Date: 05/02/94
Director: Les Landau

Jack's Review
Not a bad episode but totally just another filler trying to get us to the end of the season.

Episode:723
Emergence

Jack's Rating:

The Enterprise becomes an emergent intelligence.

Features: The Holodeck
Stardate: 47869.2
Air Date: 05/09/94
Director: Cliff Bole

Jack's Review
Terrific acting keeps this one from sinking to the bottom of the pond. It's just so strange. In honesty, the good writers had all moved on to DS9 by this point, so they can't all be "The Inner Light".

Episode:724
Preemptive Strike

Jack's Rating:

Ensign Ro graduates from advanced tactical training, and is sent by Picard to lure Maquis terrorists into a trap.

Features:
Stardate: 47941.7
Air Date: 05/16/94
Director: Patrick Stewart

Episode:725 & 726
All Good Things...

Jack's Rating:

Picard finds himself alternating between three time periods thanks to Q, with a spacetime distortion that threatens to destroy humanity growing larger in the past, and smaller in the future.

Features: Time Travel The Q Entity
Stardate: 47988.1
Air Date: 05/23/94
Director: Winrich Kolbe