Under an Officers Exchange Program, Riker serves aboard a Klingon ship, whose aging captain seeks an unwarranted bloody retaliation for suspected Enterprise treachery.
When Data resigns his commission rather than be dismantled for examination by an inadequately skilled scientist, a formal hearing is convened to determine whether Data is considered property without rights or is a sentient being.
Encountering the superior technology of a very ancient race creates system malfunctions for a doomed Federation starship, for the Enterprise, and for an eavesdropping Romulan warbird.
Riker's delight at being offered a command of the USS Ares turns to frustration when the man sent to prepare him for his mission is his estranged father; Worf's behavior leads Wesley to delve into Klingon tradition.
Q tries to prove that Picard needs him as part of their crew by hurling the Enterprise 7,000 light years away where they encounter the Borg for the first time.
An antiquated distress signal leads to two lost 22nd century Earth colonies, each facing doom in different ways, one by fire, the other by prolonged cloning.
The Enterprise addresses the emergency of an old Klingon ship coming out of stasis and ready to fight the Federation. A half-Human/half Klingon emissary arrives to help, who once knew Worf intimately.
The Enterprise responds to a distress call from Rana IV, a Federation colony that is under attack from an unknown alien ship. When they arrive, they find the entire surface of the planet destroyed, save for a single house and two occupants.
While the Enterprise hosts negotiations for control of a stable wormhole, Troi forms a personal relationship with an opposing negotiator, unaware of his true being.