I appreciate that a solid paragraph is about how Worf and Picard are hot. Some retrospectives on TNG are so focused on the high-minded, cerebral elements that y

I appreciate that a solid paragraph is about how Worf and Picard are hot. Some retrospectives on TNG are so focused on the high-minded, cerebral elements that you'd think each episode was a symposium on different aspects of the human condition. One of the remarkable things about the show is that it managed to include some of these lofty themes while also having a strong populist appeal -- weird aliens, starship battles, interpersonal drama, and sex (to the degree permitted on early '90s broadcast TV). For every "The Inner Light", there was a "Captain's Holiday", the episode where Picard goes on vacation to the sex planet Risa and has an Indiana Jones adventure involving a mysterious ancient artifact, an attractive and unscrupulous archeologist, and time travelers. TNG wouldn't be so great if it had just been one or the other.