While scouting a system for colonisation, the Enterprise here’s a distress call. Upon answering, they find a lone surviving Borg, Third of Five. Against protests, Crusher insists on trying to help him, eventually bringing him on board the Enterprise. Troi thinks Picard may experience trauma with a Borg on board but he insists that he’s fine, but decides to use the Borg to send a virus into the collective and wipe them out for good. However, while studying him, Geordi bonds with him, even naming him Hugh, and he begins to show signs of becoming an individual and understanding life beyond being a Borg. Even established Borg hater Guinan starts to think he’s a fairly decent dude. Can they really send him back to his demise? Or even worse, to return in a disappointing season six episode? 

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The Enterprise is exploring a nebula when it runs into a plot from an 80s children’s show.

Starfleet brat Clara has trouble making friends as her father moves around so much so she mostly plays with her imaginary friend Isabella. But when a glowy ball from the nebula comes on board, Isabella suddenly becomes real and makes Clara go to places she doesn’t want to go and starts harassing anyone who gets in her way. Troi’s hot chocolate gets horribly spilled, so she has some chocolate cake as comfort and contemplates her depth of character. Anyway, the nebula starts to damage the Enterprise and the creatures suck the energy from it because they see them as a threat or something, until Picard has a heartfelt conversation with the child and sorts out the misunderstanding.

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The Enterprise is transporting a Kriosian ambassador and his cargo to negotiate peace with their distant relatives, the Valtians. But before they can get there, they have to answer a distress call from a Ferengi shuttle, to remind viewers that they exist before Deep Space Nine premieres next season. Their accident was a ruse and they were really interested in the precious cargo – a woman! It is revealed Kamala is a metamorph who empathically senses what men around her want and becomes their perfect partner. She’s been promised to the Valtian ambassador and her personality will become fixed as she matures. Following an accident, the ambassador is seriously injured leaving Picard to carry out negotiations but he must work closely with Kamala to learn the traditions and rituals vital to the negotiation, but can he resist her charms? If only Troi was around to help with all this empath stuff.

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A wedding episode? A wedding episode featuring Lwaxana Troi? And Worf’s son Alexander? Stop Star Trek, you are spoiling us. If they go to the holodeck and meet some out of work circus performers, then this might be the best episode ever.  There’s also a B plot which seems like it was leftover from season three of The Original Series which sees some weird space parasite turns computer circuits to goo. Then it all ends with Worf making a joke in the bath. Somewhere, Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy are laughing while Spock raises an eyebrow, 

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The Enterprise heads to Earth so Picard can deliver the commencement address to Starfleet Academy, but before they arrive, they receive news that Wesley has been involved in an accident during flight training which means we get to have one of those trial episodes Star Trek does so well. While Wesley is injured, his friend Joshua Albert is killed. During the enquiry, the visual evidence doesn’t stack up against Nova Squadron’s testimony with their leader Nick Locarno claiming it was all the fault of their dead teammate. But after consulting his old mentor, Boothby, Picard works out that they were trying to perform a dangerous and banned stunt. Picard tells Wesley what he knows and threatens to submit the evidence if he won’t own up. But will Wesley do the right thing in the end?

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So what is it? ‘Cause and Effect’ is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation all about a time loop. A time loop? Yes, a time loop. It is perhaps, the greatest time loop episode of all time with the Enterprise trapped in a cycle which sees the ship being destroyed after a collision, and no one even gets the chance to exchange insurance details. But everyone is getting a bit of a sense of deja vu, including Beverly who hears the death screams of the whole crew as she downs her evening liquer. Can Data use a weird time loop messaging service to save the day? Or will we never get to that great cameo? Find out all that and more in First Contact.

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The Enterprise is called in to render assistance to the J’naii after one of their shuttles disappears down a weird space hole. Riker works closely with a member of their species, Soren, and they become close. The J’naii are gender neutral and regard other species as more primitive, however Soren confides in Riker that they identify as female, but it is forbidden on her planet and regarded as a sickness and if anyone finds out, they will be sent to conversion therapy. There are many discussions about gender roles, makeup and Riker’s genitals, which probably made this a fun watch with the family at teatime. When Riker and Soren kiss in the gardens, their relationship is discovered and Soren is taken away. Riker attempts to intervene, and considers breaking the prime directive to do so. Following a rescue attempt, he is rejected as it’s too late and returns to the Enterprise, a little sadder than he was before.

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While playing a game of find the plastic melting radiation, some barrels fall on Worf, leaving him paralysed. Crusher invites a neurological specialist, Doctor Toby Russell, to assess his condition and she offers a miracle cure with low odds of survival which involves growing a new spine. Meanwhile, Worf asks Riker to help him commit ritual suicide which he is not thrilled about, but Picard tells him that other cultures are different so it’s okay and encourages him to help his friend. To give other people something to do,  the Enterprise responds to a medical emergency and Crusher asks for help from Russell, but she uses some experimental treatments which result in death. Riker lectures Worf and Alexander gets sad so Worf decides to live and gets the experimental treatment. He almost dies but then doesn’t because Klingons have double organs for everything or something. But we all learned some important lessons along the way.

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The Enterprise answers a centuries old distress call solving the mystery of an early Federation starship that disappeared. But Troi senses life so an away team take a shuttle down to investigate as space rays or something make transporting impossible. So Chief O’Brien beams down with a pattern enhancer but before they can return, some glowing lights possess the bodies of Troi, Data and O’Brien, leaving Riker’s alone because… well, they knew where it had been.They claim to be the dead crew but act extremely sketchy, taking hostages and shooting everyone. Picard tries to negotiate with them and they finally confess that they are all prisoners forced to live on a moon as energy, unable to escape. Picard tells them about willing to die for a cause, and fearing a long monologue, they decide to give the bodies back and then everything is fine.

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The crew of the Enterprise have lost their memories but still remember how to push all the buttons. Using the ship’s systems, they find their personnel files and their mission. The Federation is at war and they’re on their way to attack a big space station and they can’t communicate with Starfleet or risk giving away their position, which is mighty inconvenient. Upon scanning their enemy, it appears that they are nowhere near as advanced as the Enterprise. Picard starts to have doubts about blowing them up with a photon torpedo but first officer Kieran McDuff encourages him to fight on. Meanwhile, Riker, Troi and Ro get involved in a 1970s sex comedy.

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