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“Star Trek: TNG” at #3 is ridiculous. A Walking Mood Ring (Troi), a 1980’s version of Will Robinson in the form of Wesley Crusher, knowing more tech than anyone else on the ship, a retooled version of Logan’s Run (TV series) Rem in the form of Data, and PC run amok. And that’s just off the top of my head.

OK, that was the cast but what they did with it is a LOT BETTER than many of the other TV Shows here. The Ferengi were fun but when they got to the Borg, that was great! However my fave for that series was "The Inner Light" S5_N25 where Picard is mentally hijacked to be the link to a doomed people and planet. It won the 1993 Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation.

The Ferengi were fun

They were Liberal Writers characterization of Capitalists. Every Ferengi was intended to represent us Profit Driven Conservative Republicans who wanted to keep their women naked.

Seriously, think about it. They projected onto the Ferengi everything they thought disgusting about us.

Oh, and Modern PC coupled with "Google" are the "Borg." That's not what the writers meant to say, but I'm saying it now. Google and the Tech Industry coupled with Politically Correct, have become the "Borg."

Resistance is Futile. You will be Assimilated. (or destroyed.)

The Ferengi were fun but when they got to the Borg, that was great!

For better or worse, TNG has to maintain continuity with TOS. When I watched the first episode, Q comes on, accusing Picard and the ship as a proxy for all manner of historical crimes. Bad enough he blames the Cold War on an intolerance of "differing economic systems", but then he brings up capital punishment. Picard responds that "we had gotten rid of that long ago" or some such. Pardon me? Mr. Spock was up for a CODE 4 violation in "The Cage", a kind of central all time Star Trek episode. The penalty if found guilty was death. That's a pretty big slip up in Episode 1, and needlessly so.

They could have redeemed themselves a few episodes later when Wesley didn't keep off the grass and was to be executed on the hedonistic planet a few episodes later, by letting it play out. That would have shown Ricard's respect for different civilizations. But no, he has to do the Kirk thing and work his way around ... no, ignore ... the Prime Directive.

And bringing the shrink up to the bridge right next to the captain ... sheesh!

I didn't see the two episodes you mentioned, in part because I couldn't connect with the characters in the stories. Great science fiction stories begins with great stories, but most (except the most dystopian, which TNG is NOT) needs characters you can root for and identify with, or at least like. TOS was full of these characters. TNG, not so much in my opinion.