Star Trek: The Next Generation – the last episode “All Good Things…”
Original Airdate: May 23, 1994

Story:

I have to admit, it was kind of a struggle to make it through this. I found the whole episode rather boring, which is somewhat surprising to me, because I really love TNG. I’m pretty alone on my distaste for this episode. It won a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation and Entertainment Weekly listed it at #5 of the top 10 episodes. I don’t know what my problem is: too many mentions of anomalies and tachyon pulses in a two-hour block? I wasn’t invested enough in the characters to care enough about their relationships or what happened to them? Or maybe the fact that nothing really seemed to happen anyway, except for in the mind of Picard? Don’t get me started on temporal paradoxes. I used to find them fascinating and amusing. Too much Star Trek, however, and now they just give me a headache. My point is, if this isn’t exactly what happened, I hope you’ll forgive me, because I’m going with what I could ascertain between the many times I mentally dozed off.

In this episode Picard finds himself in three different time periods, the present (2370, following the continuity of the series), the past (2364, “Encounter at Farpoint”), and the future (circa 2395). In the present he’s ordered on a mission to go hang out at the border of the Neutral Zone in the Devron System, which he does. In the future he’s an Ambassador who’s retired at home in France and is getting a visit from Geordi (who’s now married and has some kids). In the past, he’s meeting everyone the way he did the first time around, except for this time the orders are changed. Instead of going to Farpoint Station, the Enterprise is supposed to go to the edge of the Neutral Zone in the Devron System. Sound Familiar? It should, but this time it’s because a spatial anomaly’s been detected.

In the future and the present Picard tells his friends about his time-jumping and they attempt to problem solve. An anomaly is being seen in two of the time periods (although it’s much larger in the past) so all three ships (the Enterprise in the past and present, and the Pasteur, a medical ship under the command of Beverly Picard–that’s right–in the future) shoot it with a tachyon pulse to scan it.

As this is happening, Picard gets a visit from Q, who he suspected might be behind all this. He finds himself once again as the representative of humanity which is still on trial for being barbaric. Q acknowledges that he’s behind Picard’s time-jumping, and he time-jumps with Picard back to the beginning of life on earth as the first Amino Acids form together to create the beginnings of life. Picard notices the same anomaly that’s being seen by the ships in the past and present, only here it’s HUGE. Q draws Picard’s attention to the Amino Acids and points out that this time, they don’t join. Picard has done something to prevent life from existing!?!

Picard brainstorms with his crews again, and we get to see more of the future crew. Troi is dead and Worf and Riker hate each other because Troi was kind of with Worf, but apparently he didn’t really want to do anything because he knew of Troi’s history with Riker. Why Worf hates Riker I don’t know, but they’re all catty towards each other. Picard and Beverly are divorced. Data, on the other hand, seems happy. He’s the dean of Cambridge and has a bunch of cats that keep him company. He’s also added a white streak to his hair which he thinks makes him look more dignified but which everyone else (viewers included) finds ridiculous.

The brainstorming is successful, and they determine that they may have caused the anomaly that they’re now seeing. They realize the anomaly is anti-time, which is analogous to anti-matter as it relates to matter (if that means something to you I’m happy, it means nothing to me). Think of it as the opposite of time, I guess…

Anyway, they realize they’re causing the anomaly by scanning it, so when Picard jumps into the different time periods he tells the ships to turn off the tachyon pulse. Then, for some reason I don’t fully comprehend, the three ships need to fly into the anomaly. They all meet on the inside of the anomaly where they’re creating warp shield bubbles (or some other technobabble). While inside, the ships don’t have enough stability to hold position with the warp shield and one by one the ships explode.

Picard then meets with Q and learns humanity has passed the test yet again, but humans will always be on trial, according to Q.

Back in the present time, Picard runs into the hall in his jammies (the same thing he did in the beginning of the episode) and discovers that all is well.

The last scene is a cute little closer that I enjoyed far more than the rest of the episode. The entire crew (minus the captain) are hanging out and playing a game of poker (as they do often throughout the series). They’re wondering why Picard told them everything that happened in the future he saw considering it’s totally against the temporal prime directive. Data points out that the timeline they’re in is already different, so he wasn’t breaking any rules. Then one of them suggests Picard may have told them what happened so they can make sure it doesn’t happen this time around. Just as they’re about to begin dealing, the captain walks in. The crew is confused. Is something wrong? Picard assures them everything is fine, but he wonders if he could join them. “I should have done this a long time ago,” Picard says as he begins to deal, “Five Card Stud. Nothing wild. And the sky’s the limit.”

What Made Me Happy:

Captain Beverly Picard! If there’s anyone in TNG that could make an awesome captain, it’s Beverly Crusher, so while I know the future where she is a captain never really happens anywhere other than in Picard’s head (kinda), it’s still cool to see her in command of her own ship.

Also, it was nice to see the return of Tasha Yar. The actress who portrayed her left the show after the first season because she felt her character was never expanded on as the other characters were. While the show attempted to even out the gender ranks by including recurring women characters throughout the remainder of the series, the main cast remained very lopsided (3:1 or 5:2 male to female, depending on whether Wesley’s around). It was nice to see her back and being important.

What Irked Me:

I hate Troi’s purple uniform thing, but that’s more a matter of taste (and the fact that the show was made 15 years ago).

It also annoys me a little that Crusher changed her name to Picard and kept it that way even after they broke up. It doesn’t make me furious or anything, but after her long and successful career, to change her name in the first place seems antiquated and unnecessary, unless she was hoping the Picard thing would help bolster her professionally, but you’d think serving aboard his ship for 7+ years would serve that purpose. Then again, maybe she was married to Picard for longer. I mean, the future we see might be a future from a different timeline. It’s hard to say what’s changed. Regardless, Crusher should stay Crusher.

Score: 5

While it’s a tad unfair the way I’m doing this–only reviewing two episodes in a sort of leaky vacuum–this episode just isn’t that great. Sure there are a lot of women around, and three in particular play a large role, each in their own way even willing to call out men for being irrational or wrong, but at the end of the day it’s a man’s story. Picard is really the only one that matters in the long run. He was the one initiating things, he was the one who was able to orchestrate events in the way necessary, and he was the one that saved the day. Q also played a huge role (he was the one that started it, after all) and Data and Geordi and Worf were the ones that furthered along the plot, developing new understanding of what was going on. The women were in many respects nagging housewives asking the men to think and act rationally and responsibly before apprehensively following directions.

Improvement Score: -3. Not good.

Additional Comments:

I could say this irked me, because it does, but it’s more because of story reasons than any sort of feminist ideals. Therefore, I’m putting it here.

In the first episode I pointed out that they suggested possible relationships between Picard and Crusher and between Troi and Riker. Very little developed in regard to either relationship, but here in the future timeline of the finale Picard and Crusher are divorced and Riker’s very snotty to Worf for kinda maybe almost having a thing with Troi. The men really come across as the more obnoxious halves of their respective couplings for various reasons, and everyone was paired off (with the exception of Data who isn’t even human), making it hard to make any judgments based on gender. Nevertheless, Troi died embroiled in a love triangle and Crusher married off which could easily annoy some people.

I don’t like it because I don’t care so much about the Worf/Troi/Riker drama and because it seems a tad out of character and forced. I just find it silly. The same can be said of the Picard/Crusher relationship. I love them flirting and being cutesy, but being divorced just doesn’t jive with me. I’m 90% positive that both were done in an attempt to appeal to fans. Picard/Crusher was a very popular pairing, and the Riker/Troi/Worf drama I’m sure had some fans in tizzies of various sorts, so alluding to both in an alternate reality is a way of appeasing those fans without having to actually commit to anything. Additionally, when the present crew all agree to make their future better than the one we saw, fans can imagine that all their favorite pairings (Riker/Troi, Crusher/Picard) but without all the unnecessary drama they now know to avoid. It’s a way to give a shout-out to fans, give them hope, but also not having to deal with any of the consequences. Because I was not a fan of any of those particular ships, however, I just got bored.

On a similar note, it’s awkward to review this episode apart from the series (which I just did anyway) because the entire premise is really to reward fans of the show. The look back at where they came from as a nostalgic “remember when…,” and the look forward to where all the characters might end up to appease some fans and whip others into writing more fic thus furthering the love. When ending a show like this (and by “like this” I mean any long-running show with a giant, committed fan base) it needs to be done in a way that rewards the fans for going on this journey and being involved with the show. More than offering closure to the characters in the story, the show needs to bring closure to the viewers, closing a chapter in their TV lives. That can be done by having all the characters go their separate ways, thus defining an end of an era (think of the finale of Friends) or by doing what The Next Generation did. No one’s leaving the Enterprise (they needed to stay together for the subsequent movies, the first of which was going to start shooting 10 days after the finale wrapped), so instead they took a look back and tied up the only real story arc TNG had (Q) and offered a look at a slightly dystopian future that is now guaranteed not to happen.

The episode may have bored me to near tears, but I fully recognize that it did what it needed to do and it did it well. I just still don’t care. Apparently I’m just not as big a fan as I thought I was.