Just finished re-watching Season 3, and this was where they really showed what they could do. "The Survivors," "Defector," "Deja Q," "Yesterday's Enterprise," "Sins of the Father," "Hollow Pursuits," "Sarek," and then of course, "The Best of Both Worlds Part 1," The first ST season finale cliffhanger and one of the most incredible cliffhangers of all time.
Nowadays I really think cliffhangers should be abolished - too much uncertainty about whether a show will be renewed, and too much online info to really shock a lot of people nowadays. TV isn't like it used to be where you had a handful of channels and had little else to talk about entertainment wise. But back then, being fairly rare, and since there were questions over whether Patrick Steward would return, it was huge.
A few dud episodes, and a lot of episodes that were okay but nothing special; someone mentioned "The Bonding" which is cool for the Worf stuff, but I could never get over how this poor kid has no parents left and they keep leaving him alone in his quarters.
Great guest stars through the season, such as John de Lancie, Elizabeth Dennehy, George Murdock, John Anderson, Harry Groener, Saul Rubinek, Ethan Phillips, Mark Lenard, and the amazing Tony Todd. This season got into the Crusher/Picard dynamic and introduced Barclay, Kurn, Vash, and really started the whole Worf/Klingon thing that continued through the rest of TNG and then DS9.
Unfortunately, it also started Geordi's creepy behaviour, and a terrible Lwazana episode only salvaged by Picard reciting Shakespeare to "win her back."
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