Star Trek: The Next Generation episode review — 7.25 — All Good Things…
Original air date: May 23, 1994
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Writers: Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga
Rating: 9/10
I’ve heard a lot of great things about this episode, and a lot of people consider it to be essentially the perfect finale. And I don’t know if it’s that, but it comes close. It’s an interesting story, with Picard living in three different time periods, and it even does something quite interesting by going back to the somewhat mediocre pilot.
In that episode, Q put Picard and thus all of humanity on trial. And the show returns to that idea, as Q says that the trial never ended, and that humanity is ultimately destroyed by Picard.
In the present, Picard and Riker try to figure out how this could be, and they explore the idea that inaction could lead to destruction.
In the past, Picard asks his crew to trust him far more than they’re capable of doing, considering they still don’t know him.
And in the future, Picard comes out of retirement and we learn that he had been married to Dr. Crusher, though they’re now divorced. Riker is an admiral, but he’s unwilling to go through with Picard’s dangerous plan as they must approach the Neutral Zone. Though they’re able to, with the help of Ambassador Worf.
It’s all pretty interesting, and I like all the cutaways to Q speaking with Picard. While Q was originally a malicious figure, over the series’s run, he’s become more benevolent, and here we’re left wondering which of the two iterations is the real Q.
It’s certainly an excellent conclusion for the Picard character, who finally joins his crewmembers for a game of poker. It seems so fitting and it is a very joyous way to end the series, but the story itself is entertaining as well.
