Star Trek The Next Generation ”All Good Things”

All Good Things is the finale episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. It is noteworthy because, in it, Picard jumps forward through time into the future, around the time that the new Star Trek Picard will be set. Join me as I geek out over the 10 episodes and movies you should watch before Star Trek Picard.

----more----

Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars. And I am a nerd.

This is episode 5 of the podcast, and we’re now halfway through my list of 10 episodes and movies that you should check out before watching Star Trek: Picard.

Today, we’re looking at the finale episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. All Good Things.

The IMDB description for this episode reads

Capt. Picard finds himself shifting continually into the past, future and present and must use that to discover a threat to humanity’s existence.

And this episode first aired on the 23 May 1994

Make it so.

My first encounter with this episode was actually seeing the VHS for sale at a shop. It was a special numbered limited edition that came with a little book that covered the history of the show and that was the first I even knew the show was ending, so I bought that and I watched it, and then I watched most of the rest of season 7 on TV. It’s just how it goes down here.

So this episode begins with Worf and Deanna Troi finishing up a date on the holodeck. This relationship is something that they’d been building slowly over the course of season 7.
Personally, I was never quite able to buy into the idea of Worf and Troi as a couple. Worf and Dax seemed a much more natural pairing to me. But, it added some interesting drama to this episode, as we’ll see.

And just before the credits roll, Picard arrives, as close as we’ve seen him to panic, explaining that somehow, he’s moving back and forth through time.

Having a big grand 2-hour finale was a pretty rare thing in 1994. A lot of shows started off with a movie-length pilot, but most shows didn’t end with such a big bang. Star Trek the Next Generation had a planned end, because they wanted to start making movies with the TNG cast. This set a precedent that both Deep Space Nine and Voyager would follow.

So as Picard tells Troi about his time-travelling, he jumps forward as we get our first glimpse at the future. This is the year 2395. Star Trek: Picard will be set 4 years later in 2399. So we’re near the end of the 24th century. Picard is retired from Starfleet, having served as an ambassador. He’s now living on the Picard Estate tending the vineyard.
This is a very similar life situation that we’ll find him in the new show. But in Picard, he’d been an admiral before retirement and we get the impression there was a lot more tension to his departure from Starfleet. Either way, he’s ended up in the same situation.

It’s important to note here that what we’re seeing in this episode is an alternate future. We know things will proceed differently in the real future, that is Star Trek: Picard. The characters say this themselves in the show. And, the Enterprise D was destroyed in Star Trek Generations, so it won’t still be around at this point to have a third nacelle installed.

And we learn that Picard has irrumodic syndrome, a form of dementia. A lot of the drama in this episode comes from Picard trying to convince his crewmates that he’s not crazy. In the future, it’s because of his irrumodic syndrome. In the past, it’s because he can’t risk telling them the truth of what’s going on for fear of affecting the timeline. In the present, they come to believe him quickly, because Crusher is able to measure the fact that he’s accumulating days worth of memories in mere moments.

Crusher also finds a defect in Picard’s brain, in the present, that could lead to a condition like irrumodic syndrome. So it’s a very real possibility for his future. I wonder, what will they do with that in Picard? Will they acknowledge it? We’ve seen in the trailers, times when Picard is talking to Data when he clearly can’t be there for real. Are these dreams? My guess is that Picard is hallucinating Data because he’s developing irrumodic syndrome. What do you think?

Then Picard flashes back to the past, to season 1. We see a scene that occurs just before the pilot episode. The past sequences in this episode give a wonderful sense of nostalgia.
Star Trek: The Next Generation changed a great deal over its seven years. The uniforms changed, the tone and feel of the show changed. The sets changed. But most of all, I changed during that time.

When the show first started, I was a kid. When it ended I was well into my teens. Finishing up school and preparing to go to university. There was a lot I’d forgotten about the early days of the show. I’d almost forgotten that the character of Tasha Yar had ever existed. But this episode brought it all back. We even get to see a beardless Riker through the use of some old footage on the viewscreen. Very cleverly done.

Each time Picard shifts, he retains more knowledge of his experiences. He becomes completely away of all three time periods.

I like how Geordi is willing to just go with Picard to visit Data. He doesn’t entirely believe Picard, but he’s a friend, so he’s willing to accompany him.

The exterior shot of Data’s house in Cambridge is cool. I love the mix of the old and the new, well, futuristic.
I also love his tea lady. It’s great when he asks for Tea, Earl grey hot. And she says “Of course it’s ‘ot. What do you want in it?”
Interesting note, Data says that she makes him laugh, which suggests to me that in this timeline, just like in ours, Data eventually installed the emotion chip.
At this point in his life, Data has fully integrated his emotions into his being. And that’s kind of how he comes across.

It’s great to see O’Brien back appearing in the red uniform just as he did in the pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint. Of course, at that point, the character didn’t have a name. He was just the conn officer.

Picard calls for a red alert in the shuttle bay, because he keeps seeing visions of people, which we’ll learn are from Q’s fantasy based on the post-atomic horror.
The crew all look stunned and refuse to move.

This is actually kind of believable. When I did training to be a fire warden at work, I learned a little about people’s behaviour. Their natural inclination in a situation like this is to wait and see what everyone else does. The captain is acting very oddly, so I’ll just stay still and look uncomfortable.
But Yar’s training kicks in. The captain ordered a red alert. It doesn’t matter if I don’t understand his reasoning. He’s the captain so his orders are to be obeyed. She makes the others move, which is kind of what a fire warden needs to do when the evacuation alarm goes off.

I appreciate the trouble they went to in order to modify the sets to look as they did in season 1. The wall of the conference room is different in later seasons. There are also some panels on the bridge that change.

Picard’s slip up when he gives Worf an order that should be given to the security chief is a nice touch.

In both the past and the present, Romulans are entering the neutral zone to investigate an anomaly, which of course is a dangerous situation.

I also really like how Data’s dialogue and performance are different between the time periods. It shows just how much Data has changed over the years.

Crusher is really struggling with Picard’s irrumodic syndrome. She’s convinced it will happen just as Picard has seen in the future. He’s not as worried. The future is not set in stone, he says.

I like that this episode lets us really see the human side of Crusher. I don’t think the show always did her justice.
It’s a nice little reminder that Crusher has very deep feelings for Picard, as was recently revealed in the episode attached.

Interesting little tidbit. Future Geordi has the blue ocular implants like we’ll see him get later in the TNG movies.

I love that Crusher is now captain of a medical ship. The USS Pasteur is a cool looking vessel. And the future Starfleet uniforms also look really cool. We know that they’re choosing not to use these uniforms in Picard, which is a shame. Especially since DS9 and Voyager both consistently used these uniforms whenever they portrayed this time period. Still, people like to put their own marks on things. I do like that they’ve taken some inspiration from this uniform, such as the rank pips on the chest.

I like that Picard and Crusher married in the future, but it always disappointed me that they were divorced. Whenever I hear about a divorce, it always makes me sad. Even a fictional one. I just, I can’t comprehend divorce. I can’t fathom it. I guess that shows how lucky I’ve been with my marriage.
The fact that Crusher kept the name Picard shows that she still cares for him. I guess there could be other more practical reasons she kept it, but the way she interacts with him also shows how much she cares. So, I’m left wondering…what went wrong?

I hope they acknowledge the relationship between Picard and Crusher in the new show.

The nostalgia kicks into high gear when Picard finds himself standing in the 21st-century courthouse and Q appears in his ridiculous judge outfit.
I remember thinking how awesome it was that they were tying this story directly back into the first episode.

So Q makes the argument that Picard and his crew have squandered the last seven years. In Picard’s mind, they have expanded their understanding of the universe, but from Q’s point of view it has been a very limited amount of progress, compared to what they still have to achieve, and from a Q point of view, I can understand that.

Here’s an interesting question. Why are the Q so interested in the human race. The crew of the Enterprise and Picard in particular? Why are they not judging the Klingons, or the Vulcans, or the Pakled, or the Ferengi?

My theory is that they see something special in the human race. A potential for greatness.
And in their own, rather inappropriate way, I think they’re trying to encourage us to reach that potential.

And then Q drops a bombshell. The destruction of the human race will be Picard’s fault. He will cause their extinction.

Can’t you just feel Picard’s frustration when the anomaly fails to appear in the future. It just confirms to everyone else that all of this is in his mind.
Of course, it makes perfect sense why the anomaly isn’t here, once we know what is causing it, but it doesn’t help Picard’s credibility.

Given the evidence, it’s actually extremely loyal of Picard’s friends to still be doing this with him. As Crusher says, “If it were anyone else but you, we wouldn’t even be here.”

At this point, Picard starts taking advantage of his time-shifting, using knowledge he gains in the future to help him in the present and the past.

The anomaly is having strange effects on the crew of the Enterprise. Their bodies are reverting to previous states. This is causing old injuries to be healed, but it’s not so good for Nurse Ogawa who loses her baby. This phenomenon is a key to what’s going on with the destruction of humanity.

The anomaly is fascinating. The earlier in history, the larger it is. When Q takes Picard back to prehistoric times, the anomaly fills the entire Alpha Quadrant.
It prevents life from arising on earth.

Q Goes out of his way to give Picard hints to help him figure this all out. There’s no malevolence on his part. He wants Picard to succeed and save his people.

So the anomaly prevents humanity from coming into existence, and Picard is responsible for the anomaly.
He still doesn’t understand how he caused it though.

We learn that Troi died at some point in the past. Worf and Troi never got together. Worf saw Riker as the reason. This has caused a rift between these two friends.
The scene where Riker discusses this with Crusher, Geordi and Data is really good.

When Picard sees the three tachyon pulses, from three different time periods, all converging, he realises what caused the anomaly. They caused it with the pulses. In effect, they created the anomaly they were looking for, but because it travels back through time, it didn’t exist in the future.
Unfortunately, now that he knows, he has the challenge of trying to convince his shipmates, who are by now convinced he is crazy.
How frustrating it must be to have the answer, but struggle to articulate it. And worse, people won’t listen to you, to give you a chance to explain yourself.
Luckily, Data catches on and allows him to speak.

Unfortunately, at this point, there’s a whopping big plot hole.

You see, it makes no sense for them to see the initial formation of the anomaly when they return to the Devron system.
The anomaly existing reversed in time. It grows as it travels back through time.

And, if it exists now, then it should retroactively be at the earlier point when they were on the Pasteur.
It doesn’t work.

It’s a difficult hole to plug, and I can’t think of how they could have written it differently off the top of my head.
Don’t get me wrong, this is an awesome episode, but this plot hole does bother me. It’s bothered me for 26 years.
Anyway, we’ll put that aside.

The climactic scene where the three versions of the Enterprise enter the anomaly and collapse it with a static warp shell is fantastic.

Q was ordered by the continuum to put Picard though this, but helping him out was Q’s own idea.
Through all of this, Q has shown Picard a new level of exploration. He expanded his mind to think outside of the normal constraints of space and time, considering options he’d normally never consider.

See why I have that theory about the Q seeing potential in humanity and wanting to push them along a bit to see how far they can go.

Q’s final words to Picard almost suggest a promise from the writers, that there are amazing things to come, where Picard will be further stretched.
The movies never really paid off on this promise. I understand why. They had to stand alone for a wider audience.
But I wonder if they’ll come back to this idea in Star Trek: Picard?
I won’t hold my breath, but it could be interesting.

The episode rounds out with a touching scene as the whole senior crew get together as a family. Picard joins them for their poker game, for the first time.
And the Enterprise sails off into the unknown.

This really was a fantastic episode. It worked on multiple levels.
It was a great character piece. It had a really interesting sci-fi concept. And, it not only called back to the past but closed off the present and hinted at the promise of the future as well.

You might say it was the perfect finale episode for The Next Generation.
It doesn’t have the sense of finality and closure that you might expect in a finale, but this isn’t really the end of the story. They were jumping straight into movies after this.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the world of Star Trek Picard differs from the future portrayed in this episode, as well as the similarities it may have.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at All Good Things.

Next time, we’re looking at the movie Star Trek First Contact, which continues the development of the Borg, and adds a whole lot of new lore to the star trek universe.
I’ll see you then.

Live long and prosper.

Make it so.