"All Good Things…" (season seven, episodes twenty-five & twenty-six; 23 May 1994): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: A week ago, 24 May, I watched "All Good Things…" on the thirtieth anniversary of The Next Generation's finale. Thirty years! That was a seminal moment in Star Trek's golden age, & I remember watching it live with my brother & father. This was the first time I'd watched a complete episode of T.N.G. since enduring the first & third seasons of Picard, a show that has altered my perception of & dampened my enthusiasm for T.N.G.
"All Good Things…" is the same great episode it has always been, a deliberate & fitting bookend with the series pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint." Captain Picard is once again put on trial by Q & bounced between three different time periods: seven years in the past, the time of "Encounter at Farpoint;" the present; & twenty-five years into a potential future. Picard is initially disoriented by the time switches, but grows in confidence as he gets his bearings, eventually orchestrating concerted action between all three time periods. In the past, Picard must convince a brand-new crew who don't yet know him to trust him & follow him, even though he cannot fully explain what it happening; in the present, the crew are a well-oiled machine operating at peak proficiency; in the future, the crew must reunite & learn to trust each other again after growing apart throughout the previous quarter century. The "anti-time" anomaly is a clever conundrum for Picard & company to solve & there are some good moments between Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) & Q (played by John de Lancie). "All Good Things…" is an altogether satisfying series-finale-but-not-farewell to The Next Generation, which was to continue on the big screen, beginning with Star Trek Generations six months later (18 November 1994).
What's striking is the number of parallels between the future presented in "All Good Things…" & the future presented, alas, in Picard. Picard (2399-2401) is actually set later than "All Good Things…" (2395); so, some of these parallels might be explained away as the natural consequences of time passing, but others strike your humble narrator as purposeful. In both futures, Picard is a sad old man who is dismissed as past his prime & suffering possible dementia; in both futures, Picard & Doctor Crusher both married & divorced off-screen, which is cheap emotional manipulation; in both futures, La Forge is married, wife unseen, with an adult daughter named Sydney; & in both futures, Admiral Riker initially refuses to aid Picard's quest, but eventually arrives with the cavalry in the nick of time.
Yet the poisonous legacy of Picard remains. Patrick Stewart had considerable creative input into Picard, not just as a highly skilled actor, but in the writing process & in setting the show's themes. The show is a hate letter to Trekkies, denouncing us all as rubes & deplorables. Watching "All Good Things…," especially the early going, I didn't see Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Starship Enterprise, but Patrick Stewart, an actor who made his fortune off T.N.G. & who hates me, hates my brother, & hates my brother's kids, who are being raised to appreciate Star Trek. Picard has ruined The Next Generation for me, at least for the nonce.
No comments:
Post a Comment