Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Best of Both Worlds Part II
TV Flash files “The Best of Both Worlds Part II” as a desk essential hour — Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) on Syndication, season 4, episode 1, aired 1990-09-24, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E01: listed hour 75 of 178 in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide, first listed hour of season 4. It aired 1990-09-24 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Best of Both Worlds” (S03E26). Next is “Family” (S04E02).
Essential hour: “The Best of Both Worlds Part II”. The Best of Both Worlds Part II is the Borg scare as landmark: optimistic space opera with teeth, the hour later Trek still rents.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Riker is torn between saving Picard or humanity when the Borg plan to use the abducted captain in their scheme to destroy Earth and turn him into Locutus.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Best of Both Worlds Part II sit in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide?
S04E01 is listed hour 75 of 178 — first listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 1.
When did Star Trek: The Next Generation S04E01 air?
The Best of Both Worlds Part II aired 1990-09-24 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Should I skip season one?
You can sample it, then jump. The pilot and early hours wobble; fandom's own catechism is that the series finds its voice mid-run. Stewart's Picard is already the instrument.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth — Stewart's Picard is a master class in quiet authority, and Data, Worf, and the Borg made franchise television feel weekly and serious. First-run syndication revived Trek without Kirk. Start with mid-run classics if the pilot feels stiff; Make it so is still a management style.
First-run syndication is a window, not a shrine. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) regenerated Gene Roddenberry's universe without Kirk by putting Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard on a new Enterprise and selling **178 hours across seven seasons** outside a single network night. Rex can keep the original series in amber. This was franchise television learning to drop weekly at scale: idea-driven starship hours, a more ensemble bridge, prestige sci-fi as appointment TV that did not need a peacock to…
Open the Star Trek: The Next Generation package · Season 4 hub
Filed against
- Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Patrick Stewart’s Sejanus hissed through I, Claudius’s palace poison — BBC studio rooms that feel like power, Jacobi’s stammer as the sharpest weapon — then made Picard’s quiet authority the philosophical teeth of Star Trek: The Next…
- Jonathan Frakes as William Riker
Jonathan Frakes’s William Riker made Star Trek: The Next Generation a first officer with a beard and a lean — peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth, Stewart’s Picard as quiet authority, Data, Worf, and the Borg making…
- Brent Spiner as Data
Brent Spiner made Data the android with philosophical teeth on Star Trek: The Next Generation — gold skin, a curiosity that turned first-run syndication into weekly seriousness. Stewart's Picard owned quiet authority; Spiner owned the…
- LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge
LeVar Burton’s breakthrough as young Kunta Kinte on Roots made miniseries history — eight ABC nights, event television that forced a nation to watch and talk together. Later Star Trek: TNG and Reading Rainbow sealed educator-icon status.…
- Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi
Marina Sirtis read the room as Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation — peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth, Stewart’s Picard, Data, Worf, the Borg, first-run syndication reviving Trek without Kirk. Counselor as…
- Michael Dorn as Worf
Michael Dorn’s Worf gave Star Trek: The Next Generation its ridge-and-honor bass — 1980s first-run syndication, Stewart’s Picard as quiet authority, Data, the Borg, optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth. Franchise television…