Star Trek: The Next Generation
Masks
TV Flash files “Masks” as hour 169 of 178 in the TV Flash guide — Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) on Syndication, season 7, episode 17, aired 1994-02-21, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E17: listed hour 169 of 178 in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide, hour 17 of 26 in season 7. It aired 1994-02-21 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Thine Own Self” (S07E16). Next is “Eye of the Beholder” (S07E18).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Picard discovers that an 87-million-years-old comet has been housing alien beings, which attack both Data and the Enterprise' computer systems.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Masks sit in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide?
S07E17 is listed hour 169 of 178 — hour 17 of 26 in season 7, season 7 episode 17.
When did Star Trek: The Next Generation S07E17 air?
Masks aired 1994-02-21 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 7 hub
Filed against
- Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
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- 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
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- LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge
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- 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…