Before Star Trek: Picard launches, it’s perfectly natural to want to remind yourself what Jean-Luc Picard was up to last time we saw him. Sadly, we don’t have anywhere near enough time to binge all 172 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, let alone the four additional movies.

But don’t worry, we’re here to help, with a manageable(ish) list of Picard’s highlights throughout the series, giving you the backstory you need for the plots we think are going to turn up, as well as just the highlights of Jean-Luc Picard himself.

Before we begin, a note on spoilers: We’ve only seen the trailers, so we’re guessing at which of these episodes will turn out to be super important to the new series, but if you want to go into the new series completely clean then proceed with caution.

1. “Encounter at Farpoint” ( Season 1, Episode 1)

How essential? 1/5