Star Trek: The Next Generation/Tear Jerker

• "The Inner Light" has been known to reduce grown men to tears.

Eline: Now we live in you. Tell them of us... my darling.

• Both the episode "Sarek" and Mark Lenard's last scene as Sarek in "Unification I" are beautifully sad in their portrayal of the tragic degeneration that comes with age to even the greatest men.
  • Sarek's battle with Bendii Syndrome is essentially the Vulcan equivalent of Alzheimer's. But instead of his memory, he is losing his emotional control, the cornerstone of Vulcan society and civilization.
  • Captain Picard struggling with Sarek's emotions after their mind meld in "Sarek" allows us to see Sarek's despair over the death of Amanda, his first wife, made even worse since Sarek feels that he never truly revealed the depth of his love for her.
  • Sarek's plea to Picard in "Unification I" after Picard has come to find out why Spock is on Romulus.

Picard: Sarek, we're a part of each other. I know that [Spock] has caused you pain. But I also know that you love him.
Sarek: Tell him, Picard.

• • And then there's the Reality Subtext about it - Sarek's decline and eventual death mirror the timing of Gene Roddenberry's own. "Unification I" is also dedicated to Gene Roddenberry.
• Kevin Uxbridge's confession at the end of "The Survivors".
• O'Brien talking his former captain out of his crusade in "The Wounded".

Maxwell: I'm not going to win this one, am I, Chief?
O'Brien: No, sir.

• • During that scene, the two of them taking turns singing the oh-so-appropriate "The Minstrel Boy".
  • Before that, O'Brien's reveal that his animosity towards Cardassians is because they made him have to kill during the war.

O'Brien: I don't hate you, Cardassian. I hate what I became, because of you.

• The last fifteen minutes of "Dark Page".
  • To specify, Lwaxanna reliving the death of her first child, Kestra, while Deanna was still an infant.

Deanna: (last line) Tell me about her. I want to know everything.

• • • Even before that there's spoiler: Deanna meeting the memory of her father who all but begs her for them to be able to talk this one last time, and Deanna's tearful response. There's a reason they call the trope Good Troi Episode.

Deanna: Goodbye, daddy.

• Then there's "Darmok", in particular the scene where Picard recounts The Epic of Gilgamesh to the dying Captain Dathon, and with it they finally understand each other.
• Data deactivating Lore in "Descent, Part II", even though Lore is a Complete Monster.

Lore: I...love you...brother.

• The death of Lal, Data's daughter, in "The Offspring"

Lal: I feel...
Data: What do you feel, Lal?
Lal: I love you, father.
Data: I wish I could feel it with you.
Lal: I will feel it for both of us... thank you for my life.

• • Admiral Haftel, who had been sent to take Lal away, standing in the corridor on the edge of tears talking about how Data had worked so hard and so fast (beyond Haftel's ability to even see what he was doing) to try and save her. He may have been a Jerkass to Picard and Data, but he wasn't all bad.
• The closing speech of "Tapestry".

Picard: There are many parts of my youth that I'm not proud of... there were loose threads... untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads... it had unraveled the tapestry of my life.

• • If that weren't enough, Riker then muses about a daring, headstrong, foolish Picard, which opens up Picard to telling stories of his youth.
• "Family", whose Fan Nickname is "The Best of Both Worlds Part III", has a few:
  • Jean-Luc's breakdown after a fight with his brother Robert.

Jean-Luc: You don't know, Robert, you don't know. They took everything I was. They used me to kill and to destroy, and I couldn't stop them! I should have been able to stop them! I tried. I tried so hard. But I wasn't strong enough! I wasn't good enough! I should have been able to stop them. I should, I should.
Robert: So, my brother is a human being after all. This is going to be with you a long time, Jean-Luc. A long time.

• • Jack Crusher's message to Wesley.
  • Worf's parents concern for his recent discommendation.
• The ending of "Brothers".

Crusher: They're brothers, Data. Brothers forgive.

• K'Ehleyr being murdered in "Reunion," with Worf and Alexander arriving just in time to watch her die.

Worf: You have never seen death. (Alexander shakes his head) Then look... and always remember.

• The ending of Lower Decks".
• The end of "Silicon Avatar": Dr. Marr has just killed the Crystalline Entity in order to avenge her son Rennie, who was killed by it several years prior. Data, who has many of his journal entries, tells Dr. Marr that Rennie was proud of his mother's career and would have been sad that she'd thrown it away for revenge. This situation plus her expression of remorse... tear-inducing.
• The end of "The Defector," in which the eponymous character commits suicide after a serious Kick the Dog moment, realizing that he can never see his wife or daughter again, and it was all for nothing.
• The end of The Outcast when Riker arrives to late to save Soren from the operation that wipes out her gender identity (her species is androgynous, and views gender identification as a perversion).
• "Here's to ye, lads." Hell, whenever Scotty isn't being epic or funny, he's bringing up the Manly Tears in the episode Relics.
• Ro Laren talking about her childhood in Rascals.
• The Heroic Sacrifice of the third Exocomp in The Quality of Life.
• Tasha's funeral, as she gives a series of goodbyes to all of her friends.
• The early scene in the Ready Room in The Most Toys: The Enterprise crew believe Data to be dead, the victim of a shuttle explosion; this scene is filled with Geordi, and even Riker and Picard, trying to fight against the notion that Data is dead. But the clincher, the line that starts the waterworks for me, is from Hamlet, which after Riker has left, Picard reads from his gift to Data, the collected works of Shakespeare: "He was a man, take him for all in all; I shall not look upon his like again."