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TNG season six is in the bag! Where does it stand in the pantheon of TNG seasons? Which character had the best year, and who should have quit after season 5? In this episode, Wes sums up his season six experience, hands out awards, and lists his top 5 and bottom 5 episodes!
The TNG season six recap from Memory Alpha:
The season begins with the successful rescue of Data from the nineteenth century, and we learn just how long Guinan has actually known Picard.
The crew also took part in a variety of shady operations, the first of what would be many departures from Gene Roddenberry‘s more Utopian vision of the future. Picard is temporarily assigned away from the Enterprise for a dangerous espionage mission against the Cardassians, but is captured and subjected to torture, nearly succumbing before being released. Deanna Troi engaged in a similarly risky mission of espionage against the Romulans. The Enterprise also nearly became a victim of space pirates.
Picard also underwent significant personal development during this season. He formed an intense and troubled romantic relationship with the Enterprise‘s head of stellar cartography, Nella Daren. After his artificial heart is nearly destroyed, Q helps Picard experience a vision of the unremarkable life he could have led, giving him a better understanding of his mortality and his reasons for living.
Riker also experiences a deeply personal conflict, making a gripping personal battle with his own sanity, and later discovers an accidental transporter-copy of himself that had been abandoned on a desolate planet for nearly a decade.
Several well-known recurring characters make appearances this season, the most famous among them being Montgomery Scott. The TOS Enterprise engineer is discovered alive, and after an awkward period adjusting to the twenty-fourth century, sets out to explore the galaxy on his own. The sentient hologram Professor Moriarty returns, holding the ship captive in a complex game that he hopes will grant him freedom to live outside the holodeck. Reginald Barclay continues to develop, overcoming his fear of transporters. Q, in addition to his appearance in Picard’s counterfactual vision, returns earlier in the season.
We are left with the rediscovery of Lore, leading a group of rogue Borg, who with the influence of an emotional stimulant for androids, successfully seduced Data to become a willing participant in his violent plans in the cliffhanger that ends the season.
That is it for TNG season six! You can find every episode of the show at ThePenskyPodcast.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @ThatPenskyFile!