Star Trek TNG: Best of Both Worlds Part 1 Cliffhanger 

VampiraJen Lucky freakin Brits lol

Chris Goodie not really lucky when we had to wait 2 years lmao, granted I was still in my dad's ballsack so it makes no difference to me but the point still stands lol

Yes...too damn long!

@@JennyScott1716 Lucky...

Soul crushingly so. :P

His problem is he really DOES have a sense of honor, he really DOES care about trust and loyalty. Don't blame Locutus for knowing him so well.

It's such a shame Klingons eat folk singers for breakfast.

He almost sounded like a kid about to cry.

Yeah, I just noticed that for the first time. Really something else.

I actually felt that! 😐

This and Who shot JR from Dallas are considered the best cliffhangers in TV history.

@@brav0wing Also, Who Shot Mr Burns?

@@xyz.ijk. The show never asks us to care about Shelby

@@LukeLovesRose It kind of does -- she's the oppo-Jellico of that season, but it doesn't work -- especially when you find out that she later gets control of the Enterprise and Riker doesn't. It wasn't her strategy that won back Picard, it was Riker's ... and I wasn't a big fan of his character either until that episode. But it was one of the 2 or 3 best cliffhangers in my lifetime, and part 2 was worth waiting for -- and that may have been the best answer to a cliffhanger of any that I've known about.

Victor I agree with you. The music, the acting in those final seconds ( I really like how the woman turns to see what Riker does before he orders to fire)....it all comes together to make this one of the best tv moments ever.

Jack Kitchen and the epic deliberate slow panning around to Rikers face. So goddamn amazing

“...but someone tried to. It was STEWIE”

@@jackkitchen737 Commander Shelby, played by Elizabeth Dennehy.

Star Trek TOS or TNG didn’t have cliffhangers . . . that is, until the end of Season 3.

It was like his way of saying goodbye Captain Picard

He knows Jean Luc would prefer death than to be a Borg, and that removing him from the Collective by any means necessary was essential. Thank goodness it didn’t come down to destroying him after all, but the willingness and understanding was 100% there.

@@MrSoopSA That was only their second encounter with the Borg, and at the time they had no understanding of the true extent of what Borg assimilation meant. They weren't prepared for just how rapidly the Collective had absorbed Picard's knowledge and experience, which says nothing about all the classified information that Picard, as a ship's captain in the UFP Navy (it's Starfleet, yes, but I use that for emphasis of the dire nature of what happened), was privy to. The Enterprise crew, and indeed the Federation itself, was totally unprepared for the extreme damage that had potentially occurred to UFP national security. Riker's eyes weren't dead, there was so much conflicting emotion put aside with the need to take immediate action as well as with the knowledge of the consequences and results of his actions. There was sorrow, there was anger at the Borg, and there was terrible purpose, but there was also duty. Riker had no choice but to reconcile what he felt with what needed to be done then and there.

Right? That's what makes this cliffhanger so great

Same here. Even though I've seen the ending numerous times since it first aired, I still get goosebumps.

A shame that Berman couldn’r see the value in music like this, and fired Ron Jones the following year (he also told McCarthy to stop using his Picard Theme in Season 3)

They didn't telegraph their punch by sticking "Part 1" after the title. At the time, there was a rumor going around (probably started by Paramount) that Stewart was considering leaving the show, so that gave this an extra punch. Many spent 3 months wondering if the next episode would be his last.

I dont know if its just urban legend, but there were also rumors that, due to contract negotiations with Stewart, he may not return. There was so much speculation about Riker being the new captain with Shelby first officer for the series.

Good point. And this one had me hanging, all summer. And I was barely a fan of the show at the time. That changed with this episode.

+Jacob Snyder meh, typical "hero in trouble." Not that exciting, you know he's gonna be alright.

+hannu eskola Actually, when it first came out people weren't sure what would happen. Audiences thought they might kill off Picard, make him a recurring villain, or bring him back. Even the writers didn't know what the plot of the next episode was going to be since Patrick Stewart was questioning whether to leave the show or not.

+CaptainJZH Kill off/recurring villain...that's what they ended up doing with Denise Crosby. Killed off Tasha (WAY before this episode), then had her cameo one episode to explain the alternate timeline and aftermath, then brought her back as Sela.

It would have been interesting to keep Picard as Locutus for a few more episodes and show Starfleet rebuilding after Wolf 359. Maybe that's why I like Babylon 5 so much.

@@jreegdss6878 We didn't. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knew what was going to happen next. There were no internet spoilers back then, and all we knew was that Patrick Stewart might not be coming back to the show.

Yeah. If the weapon had worked... we'd have seen their devastation... For Wesley and Will, that was killing a father figure. Deanna would've been overloaded by the crew's grief...

RedLetterMedia said: This two parter is a thriller. I completely agree.

The funny thing is that this was Star Trek's first cliffhanger, but it defined all television cliffhangers since then. Every single TV show in history has wanted its own "Mr. Worf, fire" moment.

TRUTH, SON!

This is arguably the best cliffhanger in TV history

YES!!!!!

Agreed. Too bad he wasn't given his own command until the final scene of 'Nemesis.'

I use to judge him kinda harshly. Called him Kirk-Lite. But rewatching the series now I'm older I think I appreciate him more.

@@Adino1 To me Kirk is Riker-Lite.

@@LGranthamsHeir If you reexamine the episode, you'll notice the real reason why Riker kept passing up every command that was offered -- he wanted the Enterprise.

People commonly do undervalue Riker. It's a shame. Hes not Spock. Hes not as intriguing as Data. But the man is awesome

She had enough respect for the chain of command to know that that order wasn't hers to give. It had to be Riker. No heavier or lonelier burden to bear than that of top command.

Shelby was such a pain in the a**

@@LukeLovesRose agreed.

Great catch. Its tv at its peak.

Oh, there was an internet back then. But social media was mostly Usenet, and the Star Trek newsgroup was buzzing with lots of theories from dedicated fans.

@@gedias1 was no public internet. Back then. No wifi. But there was usernet....

Now discovery has killed the franchise and well from what i hear the new Picard series is another Discovery mess but with picard in it who is not the Picard we now which royaly pisses me off that and it seems Stewart is going woke with his charachter following that trend that seems to be hitting Hollywood.

Deep space nine is the best

+Locktwiste72 meh, typical "hero in trouble." Not that exciting, you know he's gonna be alright.

@@jreegdss6878 Wrong! Remember, this was back in 1990ish, there was no social media, no smartphones, no 'real' internet...I remember watching this with my family, I was 7! It was a total open mouthed NOOOO??! moment! Superb!

@@drawwithdan5821 and dont forget Patrick Stewart was thinking of leaving the show

@@trashbot5675 Apparently so.

​@@trashbot5675which was probably why the episode was written the way it was.

YUP. Almost through a book through my TV screen.

and what may I ask were the sound(s) made for part 2, when ur patience was to be rewarded?

Are you just gonna completely ignore all the crying scenes in classic TNG?

Troi cried the most.

Still think Picard's crying to his brother on the loss of his control to the Borg was one of the best.

@@gedias1 Picard when he melded with Sarek.

"I watch one damn show and its a season ending episode that's to be continued in three months! " Your wife would never say this sentence if she did not follow the series.

Did she become a fan at that point?

@Codenameace I believe you!! I happened to be watching this episode years ago on VHS with my teenage nephew, who had never seen the show. After the climactic cliffhanger he quickly turned to me and asked, “You have part 2, RIGHT?!?!?!” This story was brilliantly written..

I hope she was patient enough to give TNG a chance. Fans of TOS really had to wait until the third season before it became a show where people sat up and took notice to watch, which I started doing on a regular basis Saturday nights at 6pm.

i remember when seasons 1 & 2 were airing the show cheers would next. ooh the good ol' days. what happened to them? they were nice. oh wait we grew up. thats what happened. :(

Battlestar Galactia: Hold my beer.

I was thirteen. I remember staring at the TV with my mouth agape, not quite sure of what I'd seen. My mind had barely wrapped around the notion that Picard had been assimilated when Riker said "Mr. Worf.....fire." That and Unicron transforming were the biggest mind blowing experiences of my young life.

And she’s the one hesitating. She wants to go back, ask Command, etc. I don’t think there’s ever been a bigger decision made in Trek than the one here, and you’re right, Riker doesn’t so much as blink. What a great couple of episodes.

@@amipadme3985 I must admit...I loved Lt. CMDR Shelby...the look she gives Riker at 2:58 is pure OMG.

@@jameshar9592 I wished they had adapted the New Frontier books. She was the first officer for that series

No hesitation at all.

And Data holding Crusher back from following him in. She was always tough and fearless & rarely got to show it. Worf is a Klingon warrior - there’s no way he’s NOT going in. But Data is the only other one here with superhuman strength, and the one here they can’t really assimilate. I like Data trying to protect Crusher from taking on more than she bargained for.

what was his reason other than being a power hungry sociopath?

@@enshk79 Late to this- the reason given was that the score got in the way, which is BS.

@@EMSpdx the score was one of the most memorable parts of this two-parter. They put it on a CD and sold it FFS.

They wanted a lame low-key vibe to the music unfortunately.

+Robert Nielsen Longer for some. I was in boot camp when the conclusion aired.

+Ovrkyl UGH! Thank you for your service, and I hope somebody taped (or recorded ) it somehow, for you! That would've driven me _CRAZY_, being stuck in boot camp when the new season started! :)

Didn't even know that it was the last episode of the season. Tuned in next week.... rerun... the next week rerun... I was in such denial.

spencell I was not an avid fan as of yet, so I had no idea it was the end of a season, until I did the same thing lol.....and there was no internet for me to look up when the next episode was. I had to ask my brother a couple weeks later and he told me. LOL what a long summer.

BWEEEL-DAAAA-DA-DA-DAAAA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAA

lulz

She accused him of being unable to take the big decisions but found herself unable to do so. In the end, she looked to him to take the decision she couldn't (to leave Picard behind) Fantastic writing!

@@chondrinenigmaExactly…she gave him the speech about not being able to make the big call…he snapped her back like a first-year cadet..

Would've been a good time to arrange a downbeat version of the theme song to run instead, huh?

@@TerrenceNowicki They just played the standard ending theme, there wasn't time or any direction to make / play anything else.

I think this is actually one of his best acting moments. Everyone else on the bridge reacted emotionally as you'd expect, but Frakes as Riker became the captain the ship NEEDED him to be in that very moment. I can rewatch just his "Mr Worf, fire" line endlessly.

From what I hear, that wasn't even planned. Patrick Stewart just happened to look towards the camera at such an angle that lazer pointer just happened to shine into it.

So lucky

On the couch?

We would have squashed you in anger ....

Not only had to wait for Pt 2, but that summer had the first teaser trailer of Terminator 2! Had to wait a whole year for that one!

ROFL!

Shaka, when the walls fell!!

Underrated comment!

She was an interesting character, though, and it was disappointing she never showed up again. She probably would've fit in to the Dominion arc well, for instance.

if you show this to any kid who never watched star trek before they would just be like okay next episode please.

✊🏾

I can imagine, because I was one of them. My brother and I took it fine, but his wife screamed "SHITTTT!" when "To be continued" appeared.

my history with this episode was well i watched it as a kid but i think the show was in syndication so i porbably had to wait a week for the next episode maybe i actually do not recall if i watched this episode as a rerun or as it aired lol i was born 1988 for reference(deep space nine episodes were porbably more when i started watching it as aired sort off?) i know voyager i watched relgiously for 7 years.