12. Riker Dines With Klingons
Episode: A Matter of Honor (2.08)
This episode was probably the best in the series for the development of Riker’s character, which is a shame, since it was all the way back in season two. He does a brilliant job as first officer aboard the Klingon vessel. He researched the hell out of the position and put aside all of his humility to own it. My favorite part is mealtime, where he manages to impress the hell out of everyone in the room, both in humor and philosophy.
11. Twenty Minutes On Self-Destruct
Episode: Where Silence Has Lease (2.02)
The crew comes to terms that it needs to destroy the ship, and Picard is fully ready to embrace his final twenty minutes. I love the speech he gives to Data about the afterlife. And when auto-destruct is aborted, Riker gives one of my favorite one-liners of the series.
Death By Troggles 
I’m not a huge fan of Picard’s after-life speech. The show seems to present the majority of Star Fleet as atheistic, but even they weren’t, I wouldn’t expect someone as prudent as Picard to romanticize like that.
I dunno. The guy has seen Q, a seemingly omnipotent being who can make people dead and alive at will. I might start believing there’s more than just nothingness, too.