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The Best Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5

Every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5!

Binge this in 19h 10m•Peaking at 8.6/10

Follow the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his loyal crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, as they explore new worlds.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 1 - Redemption (2)
    7.7/10(4047 votes)

    #1 - Redemption (2)

    S5:E1

    Stardate: 45020.4. Picard suspects a Romulan influence in the recent Klingon civil war, and must force the Federation to intervene before the Empire collapses.

    Director:David Carson
    Writer:Ronald D. Moore

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  2. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 2 - Darmok
    8.1/10(5915 votes)

    #2 - Darmok

    S5:E2

    Stardate: 45047.2. Picard must find a way to communicate with the newly discovered Tamarians, who speak entirely in metaphors, when a Tamarian Captain is brutally killed.

    Director:Winrich Kolbe
    Writers:Joe Menosky, Philip LaZebnik

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  3. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 3 - Ensign Ro
    7.5/10(3972 votes)

    #3 - Ensign Ro

    S5:E3

    Stardate: 45076.3. Picard exposes a planned genocidal attack on the Bajorans with the help of a new officer, Ensign Ro Laren.

    Director:Les Landau
    Writers:Rick Berman, Michael Piller

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  4. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 4 - Silicon Avatar
    7.0/10(3669 votes)

    #4 - Silicon Avatar

    S5:E4

    Stardate: 45122.3. Picard attempts communications with the Crystalline Entity - a life form responsible for hundreds of deaths throughout the Alpha Quadrant. However, a scientist on board the Enterprise has plans of revenge over the death of her only son at the hands of the Entity.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writer:Jeri Taylor

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  5. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 5 - Disaster
    7.4/10(4197 votes)

    #5 - Disaster

    S5:E5

    Stardate: 45156.1. A natural disaster leaves Troi in command of the Enterprise, Picard stuck in a turbo lift with three small children and Keiko O'Brien stuck in Ten-Forward giving birth with an anxious Worf.

    Director:Gabrielle Beaumont
    Writers:Ronald D. Moore, R. G. Jarvis

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  6. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 6 - The Game
    6.8/10(4122 votes)

    #6 - The Game

    S5:E6

    Stardate: 45208.2. An addictive game is distributed among the crew of the Enterprise, however, it appears that this game interferes with a person's logic and reason, which leaves the crew open to manipulation. Only a young Ensign and a vacationing Wesley Crusher are able to think for themselves, and must find a way to reverse the damage before the ship falls into the wrong hands.

    Director:Corey Allen
    Writers:Fred Bronson, Brannon Braga, Susan Sackett

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  7. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 7 - Unification (1)
    7.6/10(4140 votes)

    #7 - Unification (1)

    S5:E7

    Stardate: 45233.1. Ambassador Spock has disappeared and intelligence finds him on Romulus. Captain Picard is sent to Romulus to find Spock. Meanwhile Riker and the rest of the crew investigate the fragments of a Vulcan ship discovered in the wreck of a Ferengi vessel.

    Directors:Cliff Bole, Les Landau
    Writers:Rick Berman, Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller

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  8. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 8 - Unification (2)
    7.6/10(4103 votes)

    #8 - Unification (2)

    S5:E8

    Stardate: 45245.8. Picard and Data find Spock and discover the reason behind the secret meetings. However, a darker scheme planned by the Romulans is also uncovered in the process.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writers:Rick Berman, Michael Piller

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  9. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 9 - A Matter of Time
    7.0/10(3660 votes)

    #9 - A Matter of Time

    S5:E9

    Stardate: 45349.1. While on a mission to help a planet recently struck by an asteroid, the Enterprise is paid a visit by a man who claims to be from the future.

    Director:Paul Lynch
    Writer:Rick Berman

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  10. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 10 - New Ground
    6.3/10(3327 votes)

    #10 - New Ground

    S5:E10

    Stardate: 45376.3. Worf's son, Alexander, unexpectedly arrives on the Enterprise to stay with his father. However, Alexander wants to stay permanently.

    Director:Robert Scheerer
    Writers:Stuart Charno, Grant Rosenberg, Sara B. Cooper

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  11. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 11 - Hero Worship
    6.2/10(3497 votes)

    #11 - Hero Worship

    S5:E11

    Stardate: 45397.3. The Enterprise investigates the cause of an explosion that destroyed a small ship and its entire crew, except for a small boy.

    Director:Patrick Stewart
    Writer:Joe Menosky

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  12. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 12 - Violations
    5.9/10(3328 votes)

    #12 - Violations

    S5:E12

    Stardate: 45429.3. While escorting a group of telepaths, crew members on board the Enterprise suddenly start to slip into comas.

    Director:Robert Wiemer
    Writers:Jeri Taylor, Pamela Gray

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  13. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 13 - The Masterpiece Society
    6.5/10(3414 votes)

    #13 - The Masterpiece Society

    S5:E13

    Stardate: 45470.1. A natural disaster in the core of a system's sun threatens to destroy a colony of genetically engineered people on an otherwise desolate planet. However, the crew's intervention may cause more harm than good.

    Director:Winrich Kolbe
    Writers:Adam Belanoff, James Kahn, James Caan, Michael Piller

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  14. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 14 - Conundrum
    7.7/10(4187 votes)

    #14 - Conundrum

    S5:E14

    Stardate: 45494.2. The Enterprise crew unknowingly receives a new first officer who claims that the Federation is at war with another species.

    Director:Les Landau
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 15 - Power Play
    6.8/10(3551 votes)

    #15 - Power Play

    S5:E15

    Stardate: 45571.2. While en route to the source of a subspace distress signal coming from a desolate moon, Data, Troi and O'Brien take over the bridge and force the ship to change course.

    Director:David Livingston
    Writers:Herbert Wright, Brannon Braga

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  16. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 16 - Ethics
    6.6/10(3598 votes)

    #16 - Ethics

    S5:E16

    Stardate: 45587.3. When Worf is paralysed in an accident he must undergo drastic back surgery. However, this experimental technique may cost him his life.

    Director:Chip Chalmers
    Writers:Stuart Charno, Ronald D. Moore, Sara B. Cooper

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  17. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 17 - The Outcast
    6.2/10(3951 votes)

    #17 - The Outcast

    S5:E17

    Stardate: 45614.6. While investigating the disappearance of a J'naii shuttlecraft, the crew finds reason to believe the missing ship is stranded in an abnormal pocket called "null space." Riker and Soren, a member of the J'naii race, begin preparing to rescue the craft, and the two strike up a friendship. Their relationship develops quickly as the pair question each other about mating habits, since the J'naii are androgynous and do not identify themselves as either male or female. Despite this difference, sparks begin to fly between them.

    Director:Robert Scheerer
    Writer:Jeri Taylor

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  18. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 18 - Cause and Effect
    8.3/10(5533 votes)

    #18 - Cause and Effect

    S5:E18

    Stardate: 45652.1. While exploring the Typhon Expanse, the Enterprise is caught in a time warp in which they are repeatedly destroyed while colliding with another starship.

    Director:Jonathan Frakes
    Writer:Brannon Braga

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  19. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 19 - The First Duty
    7.0/10(3916 votes)

    #19 - The First Duty

    S5:E19

    Stardate: 45703.9. Wesley is involved in a cover-up at Starfleet Academy when a cadet is killed and five shuttles are destroyed during a forbidden maneuver performed by Starfleet Academy's best cadets.

    Directors:Naren Shankar, Paul Lynch
    Writers:Naren Shankar, Ronald D. Moore

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  20. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 20 - Cost of Living
    5.6/10(3367 votes)

    #20 - Cost of Living

    S5:E20

    Stardate: 45733.6. Deanna's mother pays a surprise visit to the Enterprise with even more surprising news: she plans to marry a man she has never met. After destroying an asteroid, the ship becomes infected with parasites that eat away at the ship's hull.

    Director:Winrich Kolbe
    Writer:Peter Allan Fields

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  21. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 21 - The Perfect Mate
    6.8/10(3895 votes)

    #21 - The Perfect Mate

    S5:E21

    Stardate: 45761.3. The Ferengi try to abduct an empathic Metamorph who could bring peace between two warring worlds.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writers:René Echevarria, Reuben Leder, Michael Piller

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  22. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 22 - Imaginary Friend
    6.0/10(3354 votes)

    #22 - Imaginary Friend

    S5:E22

    Stardate: 45832.1. While exploring a strange form of energy in a region of space, a little girl's imaginary friend becomes real and places the Enterprise in great danger.

    Director:Gabrielle Beaumont
    Writers:Brannon Braga, Edithe Swensen

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  23. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 23 - I, Borg
    8.4/10(5014 votes)

    #23 - I, Borg

    S5:E23

    Stardate: 45854.2. An injured Borg is discovered and brought back to the Enterprise where he is 'repaired' by Dr. Crusher and befriended by Geordi, who names him 'Hugh.' Soon, Hugh starts showing signs of individuality while Picard must choose between destroying him or returning him to the collective.

    Director:Robert Lederman
    Writer:René Echevarria

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  24. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 24 - The Next Phase
    7.8/10(4051 votes)

    #24 - The Next Phase

    S5:E24

    Stardate: 45092.4. While the Enterprise helps a Romulan science vessel, an accident occurs which forces Geordi LaForge and Ro Laren slightly out of 'phase', causing them to become undetectable to everyone but each other. As a result, the crew thinks they are dead and make arrangements for their funerals, even though they are closer than the crew realise.

    Directors:David Carson, Robert Lederman
    Writer:Ronald D. Moore

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  25. Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 Episode 25 - The Inner Light
    8.6/10(9480 votes)

    #25 - The Inner Light

    S5:E25

    Stardate: 45944.1. Picard awakes to find himself living in a small village where he is a well-known member of the community who is suffering from a delusion of being a starship captain.

    Director:Peter Lauritson
    Writers:Peter Allan Fields, Morgan Gendel

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Season 5 Ratings Summary

"Redemption (2)" is the best rated episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" season 5. It scored 7.7/10 based on 4047 votes. Directed by David Carson and written by Ronald D. Moore, it aired on 9/23/1991. This episode is rated 0.4 points higher than the second-best, "Darmok".