Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Season 6 resumes with Picard stranded in 1893 San Francisco, where he helps Guinan and Mark Twain confront alien beings feeding on human life. During the struggle, Data’s old head is knocked free; the crew later reattaches it to his body aboard the Enterprise and finds Picard’s binary warning inside. It guides them to modify torpedoes for a strike on the Devidians’ cavern on Devidia II. Clemens returns to the nineteenth century through the portal, allowing Picard to travel back to his own time; Picard is aboard before the Enterprise destroys the alien habitat.
Later, Picard leads a covert mission on Celtris III and is captured by the Cardassians. On the Enterprise, Captain Jellico takes command, relieves Riker, and temporarily makes Data first officer. Jellico and the crew trace a hidden Cardassian fleet to a nebula; Riker pilots the shuttle that deploys mines and helps force the Cardassians to release Picard. Picard returns to the Enterprise after Gul Madred’s torture, then admits to Troi that he nearly gave in to the demand to say there were five lights.
After Professor Galen dies pursuing a genetic code scattered across worlds, Picard follows his clues with Klingon and Cardassian rivals, each trying to reach the answer first. The Enterprise crew assembles the fragments and learns that an ancient humanoid civilization planted its DNA on many planets, leaving a message for later species. The season then ends with a Borg attack that gives Data his first emotion; Picard finds him working with Lore, whose control of his brother carries the story into Season 7.