Dr. Paul Stubbs, an eminent scientist, has come aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise to study the explosion of a star in the Kavis Alpha Sector, which occurs only once every 196 years. As the crew prepares to launch Stubbs' research unit, the ship is suddenly drawn into the fiery path of the stellar matter. The U.S.S. Enterprise computers initially fail to respond to commands to stabilize, yet even after the ship is restored to normal, the computer reports no malfunction. Faced with the potential breakdown of the ship's main computer, Picard warns Stubbs that the mission may have to be aborted. Stubbs, who has devoted his career to studying the once-in-a-lifetime event, is insistent that his project be completed at any cost. Meanwhile, Wesley is shaken by the realization that an experiment he had been working on may be at the root of the ship's trouble.
Seizoen 3
The U.S.S. Enterprise receives a message from the Sheliak, who order the crew to remove all humans from the planet Tau Cygna V. According to a Federation treaty, the planet belongs to the alien race, who want to take control of their property and have given the crew four days to evacuate the men and women now living there. If the U.S.S. Enterprise does not complete the task, the Sheliak will kill all of the humans, whom they consider 'vermin.' Due to the high level of radiation on Tau Cygna V, which the colonists have adapted to over several generations, Data is the only crew member capable of surviving the mission. After Riker speculates that there should be about a dozen humans there, Picard sends the android down to the planet to commence evacuation procedures. But the matter is complicated by Data's reports that 15,000 colonists are living on Tau Cygna V and Worf's estimate that transporting them off the planet will take several weeks, far longer than the Sheliak ultimatum. What's worse, Data meets resistance to the evacuation plan from Gosheven, the leader of the colony, who refuses to abandon the planet. While Data tries to change Gosheven's mind, Picard's pleas for additional time from the Sheliak, who stick to every word of their 500,000 word treaty, are flatly refused.
The Enterprise is sent to investigate an emergency distress call from the Delta Rana system. Upon arrival, the crew discover that all of the inhabitants have been killed except for one couple. An away team beams down to retrieve the survivors in case the aliens that destroyed the planet returned. The survivors refuse to leave the planet stating they can care for themselves. The away team returns to the Enterprise to discuss the situation and are attacked by an alien ship. Meanwhile, Troi is suffering due to some strange music she keeps hearing in her mind.
A new race, currently at the Bronze Age level are being watched by Federation scientists hidden away in a cavern. The Enterprise is sent to fix their reactor but, unfortunately, does not arrive in time to prevent the reactor from exploding and killing most of the scientists. As the Enterprise team begins to tend to the injured and replace the reactor, two of the natives discover the existence of the Federation. Startled, one of them falls and is injured. Dr. Crusher takes him to the Enterprise where he accidentally sees Picard and hears him order the search for a missing scientist continued. Picard also orders Dr. Crusher to erase the short-term memory of the native to preserve the Prime Directive. After he is recovered, Liko is returned to his people where he tells them of his journey and of 'the Picard', a god from their old legends. The natives find the missing scientist and hold him captive in order to force 'The Picard' to make an appearance. Riker and Troi are beamed down to recover the scientist, but Troi is captured while Riker makes his escape with him. Picard now must decide between Troi's life and maintaining the Prime Directive.
An Away Team, led by Worf, investigates a barren planet once inhabited by the Koinonians, a race which destroyed themselves in a lengthy war. While exploring an underground tunnel, archeologist Marla Aster is killed by a bomb buried years earlier beneath the surface. Worf rages about the senseless nature of the women's death and plans to offer the Klingon bonding rite to her remaining son, Jeremy. Meanwhile, an energy field is discovered on the planet and Troi senses an alien presence rising upward from it toward the ship. Almost immediately, Jeremy sees his mother who has come, seemingly from the dead, to take him down to the planet.
After discovering a derelict ship in an asteroid belt, the Enterprise is trapped in an energy field that prevents them from leaving. Furthermore, they begin to lose energy reserves and discover that their shields will not keep out the radiation for long. Geordi races against time, with the assistance of an holographic version of one of the ship's designers, to discover a way to escape the deadly trap.
The Enterprise investiages a distress call on a Federation planet with a particularly harsh surface and winds. The away team finds the remains of a Romulan ship and one Romulan, barely alive. The away team beams aboard the Enterprise with the Romulan, accidentally stranding Geordi on the planet where he, moments before beam-out time, stumbled into a pit. The crew of the Enterprise struggles to keep the Romulan alive and to locate Geordi on the surface. Meanwhile, on the surface, as Geordi moves closer to the beacon the Enterprise left to guide him, he is taken prisoner by a second Romulan, Bokra. Geordi attempts to convince Bokra that they must work together to stay alive and be rescued while a Romulan Warbird closes in on the Enterprise determined to retrieve their lost comrades from the grip of the Federation.
A race of beings known as the Barzan have discovered the only known stable wormhole and are willing to sell it to the highest bidder. The Enterprise carries several delegates to the site of the wormhole including a hired representative of the Chrysalian people who takes an interest in Troi. Geordi and Data enter the wormhole and discover that it is not truly stable. Meanwhile, Troi discovers that the representative of the Chrysalians, Ral, is part Betazoid and empathic and has been using his ability to gain unfair advantage in the negotiations.
A science outpost is attacked by the Gatherers, a band of Acamarian renegades. Picard talks with Marook, the Sovereign of Acamar Three, who wants to hunt the Gatherers down and destroy them. Picard convinces her to attempt to negotiate first and she and her cook board the Enterprise to travel to a Gatherer outpost to open talks. While there, the leader of the group is killed by a mysterious assassin.
A Romulan scoutship, with a Romulan Warbird in pursuit, hails the Enterprise and requests asylum. After the Enterprise easily chases off the Warbird, they beam aboard the occupant of the scoutship, Setal, who has information about a new Romulan offensive. The Enterprise crew, skeptical about the defector's claims and motives and attempting to get at the truth, travels to Nelvana 3 where there is supposed to be a Romulan base at which a large Romulan fleet will gather to launch an offensive against the Federation.
The U.S.S. Enterprise visits the planet Angosia, which recently emerged victorious from a lengthy war and is now seeking membership in the Federation. During the visit, a violent prisoner in Angosia's penal colony escapes and is later captured with the help of the crew. The escapee, Roga Danar, is detained aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise while repairs to the damaged prison can be completed. Picard finds out that he is extremely dangerous and not all that Narok has claimed him to be.
While delivering medical supplies to a planet involved in a lengthy civil war, Dr. Crusher is taken hostage by Finn, the leader of a radical separatist organization. Although at first fearful for her life, Beverly soon learns that she has been kidnapped to provide expert medical care for terrorists dying from the effects of an interdimensional transporter. Although the nuclear-powered device allows the rebels to move at high speeds and to escape detection by Rutian sensors, its end result is fatal internal damage. Certain that Finn and his followers will use Beverly as a bargaining chip for their cause, Picard asks Riker to rescue Dr. Crusher with the help of Alexana Devos, the leader of the Rutian police. Alexana, determined not to compromise her hard-line position with the terrorists, is furious when Riker tells one of Finn's men that the Federation is willing to negotiate for Beverly's release.
While orbiting Bre'el IV to investigate a descending asteroidal moon which could cause landquakes and tidal waves on the planet, the crew is surprised by the unexpected arrival of 'Q'. Although Picard immediately suspects that the mischievous 'Q' is responsible for the moon's deteriorating orbit, 'Q' admits that his superiors in the Continuum have stripped him of his magical powers and made him human, thus unable to indulge in such chicanery. Fearful that 'Q' is lying, Picard assigns Data to keep an eye on 'Q' while the crew deals with the perilous situation on Bre'el IV. But 'Q's' presence on board the ship becomes problematic when the Calamarain, a gas-like life form with a grievance against 'Q', begins attacking him. Picard soon realizes that 'Q' came aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise to receive protection from the Calamarain. But a short time later, the life form attacks 'Q' again and in an attempt to save him, Data sustains serious electrical damage to his android body.
Following a routine mission at the Tanuga IV science station, Riker beams back to the U.S.S. Enterprise moments before Dr. Apgar, the director of the Starfleet research facility, is killed in an explosion. A short time later, Chief Investigator Krag of the Tanugan security force arrives to take Riker into custody after Apgar's widow, Manua, and his assistant Tanya accuse the first officer of threatening Apgar. Picard, however, refuses to release Riker until reasonable evidence is offered to warrant his arrest. Programmed with the testimonies of Riker, Manua, Tanya and the information in Apgar's personal journal, the holodeck recreates the events leading up to the fatal explosion, according to each person's perspective. Contrary to Riker's claims, the accounts of the other witnesses indicate that he had tried to seduce Manua and intimidate Apgar. Although Picard does not believe the accounts, he admits that the corroborating testimonies provide Krag with enough evidence for Riker's extradition.
While on a routine mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers a bizarre rift in space, which reveals an unidentified vessel. Both ships are now on an alternate time line where the Federation is in the midst of a bloody war with the Klingons. The crew identifies the mysterious vessel as their ships' immediate predecessor, the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-C, believed to have been destroyed in battle over 20 years ago. Their own crew now includes Tasha Yar, the ex-security chief who was killed in the line of duty. Meeting with the captain of that vessel, Picard learns that it was responding to a distress signal on a Klingon outpost when it was attacked by four Romulan Warbirds. But in the middle of the assault, the ship broke through the space rift, thus saving it from the destruction recorded in the history books. Although Picard and his crew are baffled by the strange appearance of the U.S.S. Enterprise-C, Guinan's alien instincts lead her to believe that the Federation's current war with the Klingons is the result of the U.S.S. Enterprise-C's presence in their future.
Hoping to further his creator's work and perpetuate his species, Data creates an android named Lal, who receives Data's programming through neural transfers. Although Picard is apprehensive about Starfleet's reaction to the unauthorized experiment, he allows Data to continue his research. Allowed to select its own appearance, Lal chooses the form of a human female. As she becomes increasingly capable of perception and feeling, Data enrolls Lal in school so that she can assimilate human behavior. When the android has difficulty fitting in with the children, Guinan agrees to let her work in Ten Forward, where she can supervise Lal's socialization process, and where Lal can study many different kinds of people. Meanwhile, Starfleet Admiral Haftel learns of Data's creation and informs Picard that he wants to transfer Lal to a research station where he can more closely monitor her progress. When Picard refuses, citing Lal and Data's mutual need to remain together for full developmental growth, Haftel gets permission to come aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise to observe Lal and is empowered to remove her from the ship if he is dissatisfied by what he sees. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Haftel is convinced that a bar is an unacceptable environment for Lal and orders her removed from Ten Forward.
As part of an exchange program, a Klingon officer named Kurn arrives on board the U.S.S. Enterprise. He soon informs Worf that they are brothers, having been separated shortly before their parents were killed in a Romulan attack on the Khitomer Outpost. Kurn tells Worf that new evidence has surfaced which indicates that their late father, Mogh, aided and abetted the Romulans in the Khitomer assault which resulted in the deaths of 4000 Klingons. To defend his family's honor, Worf goes before the Klingon High Council to challenge the treasonous accusations. Accompanied by Kurn, who serves as his brother's cha'Dlch (a second who will defend him during the trial), Worf faces the high council. During a recess, the council leader, K'mpec, asks Worf to drop his challenge, but he refuses. Elsewhere, Kurn is seriously wounded by two Klingon assassins after Duras, another council member, requests that he betray Worf and Kurn refuses.
While in his quarters, Picard is taken from the ship by an alien energy beam and held in a room with three other hostages: Tholl, a peace-loving Mizarian; Haro, an Algolian and Starfleet Academy cadet; and Esoqq, a beast-like member of the Chalnoth race. The situation in the cell becomes increasingly tense when the prisoners discover that their food supply is poisonous to Esoqq, who eyes his fellow captives hungrily. Picard, Esoqq and Haro attempt to rewire the circuitry in a wall panel to open the door to the room, but they're struck by a bolt of energy. The frustrated quartet begins to suspect each other, believing that one of the others may actually be their captor.
At the crew's insistence, Picard reluctantly agrees to take a week-long vacation to Risa, a tropical resort. However, following his arrival, the captain's peace is disturbed by Sovak, a Ferengi who accuses Picard of conspiring with Vash, a woman in possession of a mysterious optical disc. Although Picard knows nothing about the disc, Vash implicates him by slipping it into his pocket without the captain's knowledge. Returning to his room, Picard is also confronted by two Vorgons, Boratus and Ajur, who have been shadowing him. The duo reveals that they're a security team from the 27th century in search of the Tox Uthat, a powerful secret weapon.
The U.S.S. Enterprise is ordered to transport Tam Elbrun, a Federation emissary, to a distant star system. Tam, a Betazoid who specializes in first contact with new life-forms, is assigned to establish mind contact with Tin Man, an alien intelligence resembling an organic spaceship, which is orbiting a star that's about to explode. The crew's mission: to reach Tin Man before two Romulan Warbirds, which are also trying to make contact with it.
When the U.S.S. Enterprise experiences problems with an anti-gravity unit, Geordi orders one of his engineers, Lt. Barclay, to investigate the malfunction. But when Barclay later claims that he's unable to find a problem, the anti-gravity field fails, causing a canister of alien tissue samples transported from a nearby planet to fall, break open and expose its contents. After Geordi complains to the captain about Barclay, Picard advises Geordi to find a way to motivate him. Unfortunately, Barclay's attendance at an officers' meeting does little to inspire confidence in him and Barclay retreats to the Holodeck where he programs a session in which Counselor Troi seduces him. Later, when Picard mistakenly calls Barclay 'Broccoli', a nickname used by the crew, Geordi finds him back in the Holodeck, engaged in a fantasy sword fight in which he defeats Picard, Data and Geordi.
The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leaves Data for dead when his shuttlecraft explodes during a dangerous transport mission. Finding no apparent signs of foul play, the Starship proceeds on its mission to transport rare hytritium to neutralize a sudden water contamination at a Federation colony. En route, Geordi is tormented by his inability to account for the shuffle explosion and the subsequent death of his friend. Meanwhile, Kivas Fajo, the trader who supplied the hytritium, holds Data captive on his ship, adding the android to his collection of one of a kind items. Unable to escape, Data uses passive resistance to defy Fajo until his captor threatens to kill his own assistant, Varria, with a disrupter gun that slowly tortures its victims.
Sarek, the renowned Vulcan Ambassador, is on a mission to establish relations between the Federation and a race of beings known as the Legaran. His arrival on the starship is preceded by his human Chief of Staff, Mendrossen, who explains to Captain Picard that Sarek's age has recently caused him to tire easily, and asks him to dispense with the official ceremonies that would normally be accorded a visitor of Sarek's rank, so that he may rest. Picard later extends a personal invitation to attend the concert to Sarek's wife, Perrin, who thanks him and says that she will extend the invitation to her husband. Later in the evening, Sarek and his entourage attend the concert, where Picard is surprised to see the Ambassador, who is normally emotionally detached, moved to tears by the music.
Commander Riker and Troi take shore leave on Betazed, while the U.S.S. Enterprise sets out on a routine mission. Shortly after Troi's mother, Lwaxana, interrupts a tender moment between her daughter and Riker, the trio is unexpectedly joined by two Ferengi who had served as delegates at the conference. One of the Ferengi, Daimon Tog, proclaims that he has come for Lwaxana, who had previously rebuked his amorous advances. As the Ferengi transports out with Lwaxana and Troi. When the captives awaken aboard a Ferengi ship, Troi and Lwaxana are transported into the lab of Farek, a Ferengi doctor who hopes to study Lwaxana's telepathy through mind probes.
When the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers a severely injured humanoid in the wreckage of an escape pod, Geordi volunteers to have his nervous system hooked up to the stranger's, in order to stabilize him. During the process, a wave of visible energy is transmitted from the humanoid to Geordi. Dr. Crusher holds little hope for the recovery of the patient she has dubbed 'John Doe', but he soon begins to exhibit amazing recuperative powers. While his damaged tissue is repairing itself at a remarkable rate, 'John's' undamaged cells are mutating in a manner incomprehensible to the doctor.
Suspecting that the powerful Borg are responsible for the disappearance of an entire federation colony, Starfleet sends Lt. Commander Shelby, an ambitious young woman who specializes in Borg matters, to assist the U.S.S. Enterprise crew in their investigation. It is quickly apparent that she is interested in more than just the Borg; Riker has been offered command of his own starship and Shelby would like to replace him on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Enterprise is sent to investigate the disappearance of another starship after an encounter with the Borg. En route, the Borg intercept the U.S.S. Enterprise and threaten to destroy it unless Picard transports over to their ship.