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Star Trek: Picard is just around the corner, so we're breaking down which episodes and movies featuring the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast are crucial for understanding the new series. It's been 18 years since audiences last saw Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise in their final film, Star Trek: Nemesis. Now, Patrick Stewart is putting his uniform back on for another go round as a much older, more sorrowful version of the legendary captain.
We don't know exactly what Star Trek: Picard will be about, as the producers have been incredibly secretive about the show's plot. What we do know comes from the trailers and interviews that suggest the series will grapple with the fallout from two tragedies - the destruction of Romulus, and the death of Lieutenant Commander Data in Nemesis. The latter has apparently haunted Picard for most of his twilight years, though it seems he's not yet finished guarding the legacy of his fallen friend.
We're breaking down the handful of essential episodes and films that serve as a necessary primer for what's to come in Star Trek: Picard.
The Measure Of A Man
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Generally considered the first great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Measure Of A Man" finds Data's rights put on trial. When Starfleet researcher Bruce Maddox plans to use Data as the template for an entire race of androids, Data protests, as the project could potentially damage him irreparably. Shockingly, Data is assumed to be Starfleet property rather than a living entity, and a hearing to determine his rights is undertaken. Captain Picard comes to his robotic second officer's defense, and it's eventually determined that Data is a sentient life form, and he declines to undergo Maddox's tests.
"The Measure Of A Man" was perhaps the first time The Next Generation truly grappled with the ramifications of advanced artificial life and how it would be handled in the future. The trailers for Picard have showcased some very Data-looking androids with numbers stamped into their heads, which look quite a bit like what Maddox had in mind. Was he somehow able to achieve his goal after Data's death, or did someone else take up his work? Whatever the answer, "The Measure Of A Man" is essential viewing.
The Defector
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Star Trek: Picard has promised to reinvigorate the Romulans, one of the oldest - and dullest - of Star Trek antagonists. While they were always around in The Next Generation, they were overshadowed by more interesting villains like Q and the Borg. The one exception is "The Defector," which sees Admiral Jarok, an influential Romulan officer, defect to Starfleet in an effort to prevent all out war. Jarok still hangs on to some of the Romulans' more cartoonishly evil traits; he's incredibly arrogant, a liar, and slow to trust, but he's the first Romulan who feels like a fully realized person, trying to prevent a war with the Federation for the sake of his children.
It would eventually be revealed Jarok was a pawn in a conventionally dastardly Romulan plot to take out the Enterprise, and his realization of his utter failure is a genuinely pitiable moment. If Picard can give us more Romulans like Jarok, it'll go a long way toward humanizing one of Star Trek's most underutilized races.
The Offspring
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The first episode of Star Trek directed by cast member Jonathan Frakes, "The Offspring" is a poignant vignette of an unconventional family. After attending a cybernetic seminar, Data decides he has the capability of creating another android like himself, a daughter he names Lal. Lal suffers through many of the same growing pains Data endured over the series' first few seasons, and his desire to be a good father is both kind of hilarious and genuinely heartfelt.
Tragically, Lal's positronic brain would eventually collapse, and she would die in Data's arms. She so enriched his life that he reintegrated her memories and experiences into his own programming - the closest thing the emotionless android could conjure to an expression of love. Lal was meant to be Data's legacy, to live on past him, but he seems to have inherited a much darker legacy in Picard that his former captain will have to grapple with.
The Best Of Both Worlds
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One of the most popular episodes in all of Star Trek, "The Best of Both Worlds" showcases the Borg in all their unstoppable horror. Picard and the Enterprise fail in their effort to stop the Borg on their way to Earth, and Picard is captured and assimilated into the collective as Locutus, the Borg's spokesperson for the assimilation of humanity. Newly promoted Captain Riker is able to rescue Picard and take out the Borg cube just before it assimilates Earth, but the scars of that incident would be worn by both the Federation and Picard himself for years to come.
"The Best of Both Worlds" establishes the Borg as the one threat that Picard cannot engage with intellectually, that forces him into a fear and hatred he constantly has to push away. The Borg will have a major presence in Picard, and they figure to still be a personal weak spot for Jean-Luc.