He fails, and becomes a prisoner of war subject to torture at the hands of a brilliant interrogator played by the inestimable David Warner. Captain Picard is removed from command of the Enterprise to take on a covert, likely illegal mission to stop a Cardassian superweapon. One sentence says everything you need to know about this episode, Jean-Luc Picard, The Next Generation, and Star Trek in general: ' !' The plot of this two-parter is an extraordinary meditation on the horrors of war, and the contests of ego and will that underpin such conflicts. While Star Trek is indisputably the most influential sci-fi TV series ever, it's successor, Star Trek: The Next Generation, was almost certainly a better show - and we've got the top five NextGen episodes lined up to prove it.
