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Review: Star Trek: Picard 310 “The Last Generation” — As one trial ends, another begins

Congratulations, folks. We just lived through an epoch of Star Trek history together. The end of Star Trek: Picard – but in reality, “The Last Generation” – is a bombastic, poignant, and unforgettable rollercoaster that is the bow the TNG cast deserved but never got.

Saving the World Once Again

After embarking on their old home to head for the Sol System, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and his crew are on their way to Earth when they discover a threat lurking beneath the gasses of Jupiter: a Borg Cube. They realize this Cube is where Jack Crusher ( Ed Speleers ) is, and he is directing the carnage wrought in Earth orbit by the assimilated Starfleet armada. So, it’s up to our seven heroes to, once again, save the world.

Picard, Captain William Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ), and Worf ( Michael Dorn ) beam aboard the Cube with two goals: destroy the beacon that is transmitting instructions to other Borg, and save Jack. Picard tackles the latter himself, leaving his friends with a fond farewell for the likely scenario the older man doesn’t make it from whatever trap the Borg are likely laying for him.

“What began over 35 years ago ends tonight.” – Jean-Luc, upon discovering the Cube in Jupiter. This line is also clearly reflective of this being The Next Generation ’s final adventure.

Finding his assimilated son, Picard also finds the main baddy who has been pulling the strings all along: the Borg Queen (voiced by Alice Krige and played by Jane Edwina Seymour ). It’s a terrifying realization for the man, knowing there is a Queen who is haunting him and his family again. Picard has no choice but to hear the Queen’s monologue about how and why she exists as this decrepit, vile, and mere shadow of a proper Borg Queen. Apparently, this Queen, the last of the Borg, has been living on the fringes of space and biding her time, even absorbing drones within her Cube to sustain her last vestiges of life – until she sensed Jack and decided it was time to strike back. All this waiting has paid off for her, though, as now her plans have come to fruition and she holds Jack, Picard, Starfleet (especially its younger members), and perhaps the galaxy in her grasp, while inviting Picard to witness his “future’s end.”

What the Queen wasn’t counting on, however, was Jean-Luc’s newfound dedication to his son, and in a moment of self-sacrifice, he plugs himself into the Borg Collective to try and save Jack. Returning to the Collective is no easy feat for Jean-Luc, as his time as Locutus weighs heavily on his mind, perhaps more so now than at any other point since First Contact . The two men share a tender moment in the Borg consciousness, as Picard asserts to Jack that the younger man was the element Jean-Luc was missing ever since leaving Starfleet. In a welcome reference to the all-but-forgotten previous seasons of this show, Picard tells his boy that all that time just “waiting to die” back on the chateau wouldn’t have happened if Picard knew about Jack. Jack, for his part, is grateful to feel the connection for once in his life by being in the Borg Collective and struggles to free himself from the cage the Queen has built for him.

The emotion emanating from the father has a profound effect on the assimilated son, especially when Jean-Luc offers to stay with his son in the Collective since the younger man doesn’t want to leave. But this show of affection and connection makes Jack return to reality and rip himself from his Borg garments, thereby eschewing himself from the Queen. The two men are far from safe, as Riker and Worf have successfully shut down the beacon and the Cube now has mere moments before its destruction. It seems like the landing party and Jack will have to be sacrificed for the greater good, if not for a last-minute save from the Enterprise-D , which, thanks to Data’s skillful flying and insight from Troi’s boundless connection with Riker, pulled a Millennium Falcon -like run through the Cube to reach our heroes.

“I joined Starfleet to find a family I didn’t have. And I found it. I let them in. But, there was always a barrier. I, too, thought there was something wrong with me. And I waited, waited in that vineyard waiting to die, alone. But now, Jack, I realize you were the part of me that I never knew was missing.” – Jean-Luc to his son.

Let’s take a moment and appreciate what sheer ass-kicking the Enterprise gets to do here. Who would have ever thought we would see this ship tear across the surface of a Cube, phasers, and photons flying, and then dive into the belly of the beast to twist its way through the (surprisingly spacious) arteries of the monster? Yeah, it’s awesome, and the scenes of the Enterprise flying through the Cube will live in our heads rent-free for quite a while. (Although the D sure is in great shape for being a museum piece with basically no crew, yeah?). Seeing the ship’s abilities realized via modern effects is certainly one of the most striking parts of this episode.

Anyway, with the day saved over Jupiter, the Starfleet armada that destroyed Spacedock and was turning its sights on Earth shuts down, its young crewmembers returned to normal. And not a moment too soon, as Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ) and Raffi Musiker ( Michelle Hurd ), who had just taken back the Titan and were trying to distract the large Starfleet armada with hit-and-run attacks, reached the end of the line and were all but doomed. Seeing the Titan strafe the Starfleet armada is also incredibly exciting, and the visa of the flotilla raining an ungodly hell storm of phasers and photon torpedoes on Spacedock is a majestic sight. That station sure did take a lot of heat, huh?

With our heroes safe and Earth saved, it’s a chance for everybody to take a breather. We are most appreciative of “The Last Generation” allowing time for the TNG folks to have their (ostensibly) final moments; Nemesis is often criticized for being way too short a goodbye for these legendary characters, and rest assured director and writer (and showrunner) Terry Matalas is not apt to make that same mistake.

We Don’t Want the Game to End

20 minutes of scenes string together to form the grand goodbye this episode offers. Beverly, now head of Starfleet Medical, devises a solution to beaming the Borg essence out of all younger members of Starfleet; and better yet, those who were assimilated bear no side effects from their ordeal. We’re not quite sure how that works, but okay. Also luckily, the Changelings never killed the people they replaced. It seems like a happy ending all around.

As we expected, Raffi gets some vindication, as she makes amends with her family after her heroic actions. It’s a fairly quick resolution, as we were hoping, but it’s also the happy ending we always thought Raffi deserves. Better yet, Worf seems to have formed a bond with the woman – and it’s heavily hinted Worf was the one responsible for letting Raffi’s family know about her exploits as soon as possible, even the ones previously classified. It’s a sweet action from the Klingon, and we would definitely be down for seeing more of this surprisingly poignant platonic relationship.

We get a scene with Data and Troi, where Data is absorbing the emotions he felt during their adventure, and realizes being human is extraordinarily more complex than he assumed. Troi, for her part, once again offers some poor counseling and ultimately is distracted from Data’s admittedly long session and opts to research vacation destinations for her and Will instead. In any case, seeing Data deal with the real, honest-to-God human condition is a rewarding scene that Brent Spiner plays with heartfelt emotion.

“If ever there was better evidence that the past mattered, it’s right here.” “How many times has she managed to save the world?” “No doubt more than the years will allow three old men to remember.” – Picard, Geordi, and Riker upon saying goodbye to the Enterprise again.

One year later, Riker, Picard, and Geordi give the Enterprise ’s bridge one last lookover before turning the lights off and offering some tender parting words to their home. Why they waited a year to do this, we don’t know, but it’s a fond farewell to a legendary ship. This scene is emotionally punctuated with snippets of “To Live Forever” from the Star Trek: Generations soundtrack, the same track that played when Picard and Riker said goodbye to the Enterprise-D the first time.

We also see what happens to Jack after his ordeal with the Borg. The man has decided to enlist in Starfleet, and we see his parents escorting him to his first assignment. After a clever conversation about the importance of names and legacy, Picard realizes where Jack is posted when they reach their destination: the U.S.S. Titan – or rather, the ship formerly known as the Titan . It’s now the U.S.S. Enterprise-G , rechristened in honor of Picard and his crew. As Jack retorts to his father’s previous statement, “Names mean almost everything.” Don’t worry, Jean-Luc, we are also tearing up at seeing another Picard serve on another Enterprise.

Taking his station on the bridge next to Captain Seven of Nine and First Officer Raffi Musiker – with Ensign Sidney La Forge ( Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut ) at the helm – Jack seems to be off on a whole new adventure. Considering this scene and the post-credits section we’ll get to in a moment, there’s no way Terry hasn’t set up the Enterprise-G crew for their own show, right? No way .

Seeing Seven of Nine as captain will surely be thrilling to many fans. It’s a long-awaited resolution to her character and one she wouldn’t have gotten if it weren’t for the reveal – from the real Tuvok ( Tim Russ ), no less – than the late Captain Liam Shaw ( Todd Shashwick ) actually recommended Seven for a promotion before the Titan embarked on its journey in the season premiere. Seems like the curmudgeon had a soft spot for her, after all, and it’s a sweet scene when Seven tearfully realizes her former captain’s respect for her.

“She’s brave. And loyal. And the book that she writes is going to be great. And the rules she breaks… maybe they were broken to begin with.” – The late Captain Shaw about Seven of Nine.

At Seven’s side on the Enterprise-G is Raffi, and this pairing of ex-lovers seems rife for exploration in a future series. They seemed to be getting along great in the couple minutes we saw them on the bridge together, and it’s refreshing to see a relationship with ex-lovers that isn’t awkward, strained, or laden with drama. It isn’t clear how exactly Raffi secured the XO posting on the Enterprise-G , but at this point, we suppose it doesn’t really matter.

Finally, the seven TNG crewmembers share a scene in Ten Forward, where drinks and laughs are in no short supply. To toast their adventure, Picard offers a heartfelt and entirely appropriate passage from William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” It’s simultaneously quintessential Picard and Patrick Stewart. But the real celebration comes as the admiral, of all people, suggests rejoicing in a far more appropriate way: a game of poker. This is the perfect icing on the cake, and the episode’s credits play over a lingering shot of the crew playing poker and having a grand time. This, our friends, is the big goodbye.

“My father told me all about you.  I thought you were dead?” “Oh… and here I was hoping the next generation wouldn’t think so linearly.” – Jack and Q.

Of course, there’s one more thing worth watching – an end credit sequence where Jack is setting up his new quarters on the Enterprise-G when he is greeted by a surprise guest: Q ( John de Lancie ). That’s right, Q is back, and apparently not dead given the events of Picard season two. Jack voices the audience’s question and asks Q why he isn’t dead, but Q responds with a perfectly Q-esque retort about humanity always thinking so linearly. Q is in fact there to begin Jack’s trial, in the same way, Q began Jean-Luc’s trial in The Next Generation series premiere. What an intriguing way to leave viewers!

A Generation’s Final Journey

Thus, we are at the end, and what a remarkable ride it was. In the lead-up to this season, one would see numerous Tweets and comments from both cast and crew of this show who espoused how great this season was going to be, and it got to the point where we thought it would be nearly impossible for Picard to attain the level of entertainment fans were expecting. But boy did it. The last two episodes alone were hard-charging, emotional, and well-paced rides that adroitly navigated the needs of these characters and offered fans some long-awaited payoffs. Indeed, the season itself was pretty spectacular when taken as a whole.

This season’s thesis was examining how the passage of time changed our beloved characters, and showrunner Terry Matalas and his people explored new facets of these people while still having them retain familiar characteristics and personalities. From Riker’s depression and apathy after losing his son and his following marital problems, to Geordi’s maturation as a father and trying to balance his loyalty between Picard and his daughters, to Data rising from the dead again but being remarkably different thanks to his brother’s polarizing influence. These are all sensible, intriguing ways our characters returned to TV. Oh, and let’s not forget Beverly Crusher actually having a key role in a Star Trek plot, something she was desperately lacking in the TNG movies, and Worf’s new holistic perspective on life. These attitudes all combined to help form a season that serves as a great template for how to explore legacy characters and not just offer fan service, although don’t get us wrong – there was plenty of that in this season. Case in point: the platter of red meat Matalas served up to fans in “ The Bounty .”

Quite a few characters and threads from The Next Generation were picked up in Picard season three. The return of Ro Laren in “ Imposters ,” with all the emotional turmoil that entailed for Jean-Luc, was an unexpected but welcome plotline, and a template for how to bring back a legacy character for more than just fan service. Seeing Elizabeth Shelby again, this time in command of the Enterprise-F in “ Vox ,” was also a surprising pleasure, and her fate is ironic considering her Borg-fighting role in “The Best of Both Worlds.”

Having Data return to the cast in the form of a human hybrid golem was a smart way to bring back the twice-dead character, but this time with fascinating baggage. Seeing his drawn-out fight against Lore in “ Surrender ” was a confrontation we’d waited years to see, and it’s neat to think there’s still a bit of Lore, and Soong’s other creations, in the person we now know as Data. Finally, having Alice Krige offer her sultry voice to the revived Borg Queen, even if it wasn’t her likeness, was a neat touch that plays to the idea that the Borg are everlasting and ever-connected. Clearly, this show’s producers saw The Next Generation ’s body of work and lovingly picked which elements they’d like to see back, even if for a fleeting moment, such as was the case with Moriarty’s brief but logical reappearance in “The Bounty.”

We were also thrilled with how each member of the TNG cast had an important role to play in this final confrontation with the Cube. Worf, Riker, and Picard formed the landing party that ultimately destroyed the Cube and rescued Jack. Geordi assumed command of his labor of love; Data, acting on his gut – something he was never able to do before – flew like a pro; Beverly got some serious ass-kicking screentime as the Enterprise ’s de facto tactical officer; and Deanna ultimately saved the landing party by telepathically geo-locating the landing team. Considering the TNG movies are often criticized for not utilizing the entire cast properly, “The Last Generation” definitely doesn’t follow in those footsteps.

Taken together, we were thrilled with “The Last Generation,” as Terry Matalas and crew have delivered a send-off worthy of this legendary cast. The finale is a generally high-speed affair that knows when to slow down and appreciate the beauty these characters and this universe can bring to the screen. We won’t soon forget the Enterprise-D facing off against a Cube above Jupiter, the downright nauseatingly grotesque design of the Borg Queen and her environment, the Titan strafing Starfleet as Spacedock crumbles before our eyes, or the crew gathered around a poker table one more time. It’s all lovingly written and directed by Matalas, who has proven himself not only a showrunner with a keen respect for Star Trek but a superb director to boot.

Paramount, give this man and his team all the money they need to continue their voyages through 25 th -century Star Trek . Based on Picard ’s reception, it’s what the fans want. And perhaps more importantly, it’s what Star Trek ’s legacy characters deserve. Other beloved characters should get the same treatment the TNG cast received in this amazing season.

Stray Thoughts:

• This episode marks the first ending of a new-era Star Trek show.
• This episode has a special Star Trek splash logo , with the Enterprise-D replacing the Titan .
• It’d be hard for us to say no to any Star Trek cameo, but we really thought the Walter Koenig voice cameo as Federation President Anton Chekov, son of the famous crew member of Kirk’s Enterprise , was quite shoe-horned. Although we do really appreciate Chekov’s son being named Anton, no doubt in honor of the late Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the most recent Star Trek movies.
• We’ve seen the Enterprise-D in orbit around countless planets, but to see it so small compared to Jupiter is quite striking. Likewise, seeing the sheer size of the Cube against the Galaxy -class is strikingly different from, say, “Q Who.” Thanks, modern visual effects!
• Terry Matalas is a pro when it comes to knowing when to insert comic relief in an otherwise serious story. Case in point in this episode: Riker’s discovery that Worf’s sword is way heavier than he thought, Beverly’s surprising adroitness at wreaking havoc with the D ’s weapons – and saying simply “A lot has happened in the last 20 years” – and Data’s enjoyment at diving into the Borg Cube. Hilarious.
• The Fleet Formation mode and the attack on Spacedock both seem like elements from this show that could easily make the transition to Star Trek Online as an ability and playable event, respectively.
• This is nitpicky, but Worf asserts the term “farewell” is one no Klingon ever admits to knowing, but why not? Seems like “farewell” could be used honorably in the Klingon lexicon, like when heading into battle.
• If we were Geordi, we would have at least offered to replace Beverly at tactical when it came time to fire on the beacon, thus destroying the Cube and everyone on it, including her son. Asking her to pull the trigger that kills her son seems a bit harsh.
• Why didn’t Seven and Raffi start immediately firing on the younger assimilated crew members when they entered the bridge, and vice versa?
• Why would Seven, Raffi, and the two La Forge children appear on the Enterprise ’s viewscreen, and then nobody says a word?
• Our thought last week about the Borg takeover of Starfleet being a landmark event in this universe seems to be correct, as Riker points out in his final captain’s log that it might as well be stardate 1, as it’s the dawn of a new era.
• Tuvok claims the Enterprise crew is receiving a full pardon for hijacking the Titan , but it was really only Picard and Riker who need the pardon; the other Enterprise crew had nothing to do with it.
• The vacation destinations Troi reviews during her session with Data include Kaphar Prime (previously mentioned in this season), Bajor, Trill, Malibu, California, Orlando, Florida, and Zadar IV (mentioned in TNG ’s “When the Bough Breaks”).
• While it serves as a dramatic reveal, we don’t believe for a moment that Jack wouldn’t mention to his father where he was posted as soon as he learned, or that Picard wouldn’t pry about where his son was heading.
• Likewise, we think Jack would definitely have received his posting around the Enterprise before making it to the bridge and having to ask Captain Seven of Nine where he should be stationed.
• Data wanting to finish the limerick that begins with “There once was a lady from Venus” is a callback to the third TNG episode, “The Naked Now,” where Data begins that limerick but then is cut off.
• It felt fairly awkward for Geordi to mention Guinan in Ten Forward but we never see her. They couldn’t get Whoopi Goldberg one last time?
• Jack appears to have a real-life photo of Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden as a keepsake on the Enterprise-G.
• Q has the distinction of being one of two people who has uttered phrasing reflective of the franchise’s name. In “All Good Things,” he says, “It’s time to put an end to your trek through the stars.” (Only Zefram Cochrane in First Contact says the words “star trek,” specifically when he says to some Enterprise crew members, “And you people, you’re all astronauts on… some kind of star trek.”) It’s appropriate, then, that Q gets to utter the words “the next generation” in this episode.
• Hat’s off to Stephen Barton, the composer for this season and this episode specifically, who has included numerous familiar refrains from Star Trek ’s past into a score that is perfectly touching and memorable. We’ll be listening to this soundtrack on Spotify, that’s for sure.

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Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

April 20, 2023 at 10:52 am

The episode is called “The Last Generation”, not “The Next Generation”.

April 29, 2023 at 11:23 pm

What a wonderful way to see these characters off. I loved it.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Series Finale Recap: Saying Farewell

In the end, the final season of “Picard” was a worthy send-off for the “Next Generation” crew.

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By Sopan Deb

Season 3, Episode 10: ‘The Last Generation’

“What began over 35 years ago ends tonight,” Jean-Luc Picard says, standing on his favorite bridge and glaring at his most distasteful enemy. It recalled his “The line must be drawn here!” from “First Contact.”

This was ostensibly a reference to the Federation’s longstanding battle with the Borg, but it also applies to “The Next Generation” franchise. (The show began airing in 1987 and 35 years ago would be 1988.) And if this is the last time we see these characters, that’s OK. Not because this season of “Picard” wasn’t a strong one. Quite the opposite, in fact: It was quite good and recaptured everything that made “Next Generation” what it was.

The characters all used special skills to work together and save humankind. Some of the dialogue was campy. There were plot holes. And there were classic “Star Trek” tropes, like Jean-Luc nonsensically going to the Borg cube, when he was likely the least physically capable of the old crew in fighting off the Borg.

But overall, this season was a worthy send-off for the crew. It wasn’t perfect, but neither were the show or any of the movies. But it was worth doing. The story justified its existence, advancing each of the main characters and filling in some gaps.

And it confirmed one last time that “The Next Generation” was greater than the sum of its parts. That might have been why the first two seasons of “Picard” didn’t work as well. Jean-Luc wasn’t the best character he could be without his old friends. The chemistry wasn’t as fluid, and the story wasn’t as deep.

In the finale, we learn a bit about what the Borg have been up to, though I remain baffled that no one brings up Jurati or the whole Good Borg thing from last season . (Maybe it was for the best.) There was no collective left — only the Borg Queen remained, she claimed, though we know from last season’s events that this isn’t exactly true.

It was Jack who found the Borg Queen, at least in her telling. She speaks in a way that is contrary to what we’ve known about the Borg: She says she was lonely and that the Borg were left to starve. (This kind of undercuts the Borg’s whole message of being the perfect beings.) But now, the Borg want to evolve rather than assimilate, and Jack is the perfect partner to do that. (In order to survive, the Borg Queen, I think, resorted to Borg cannibalism. Yikes! Hope those drones won Employee of the Month or something.)

The Borg and the changelings came to an agreement in which the changelings would be the Borg’s vehicle to carry out some villainous plan to help them procreate. Aside from an ill-fated revenge that they didn’t really need the Borg for, I don’t know what the changelings really got out of this alliance.

Elsewhere, classic Star Trekking happens. Worf and Riker fight off some baddies on the cube. Beverly uses her now finely honed combat skills to fire weapons. (It’s somewhat amusing that Geordi refurbished the Enterprise D for display at the fleet museum and also included a loaded torpedo system. Thank goodness he went above and beyond!) Data shows off his lightning fast piloting skills, assisted by his newly acquired gut instinct.

Beverly is faced with an impossible decision: Blow up her son and save the galaxy, or, uh, don’t. I loved that Geordi is the one who asks her permission, because he now understands a parent’s love for a child. And when it comes time to fire on the beacon, Geordi really, really doesn’t want to do it.

Jean-Luc finds another solution. He assimilates himself so he can get in contact with Jack in the Borg collective. Jean-Luc isn’t human, of course. He is an android — apparently, he can just plug himself in to the network like a flash drive. Jean-Luc tells Jack that he is the missing part of Jean-Luc’s life. (Patrick Stewart plays this perfectly.)

Jean-Luc is finally able to admit to himself how lonely he was outside of Starfleet, and that Starfleet merely covered up that loneliness rather than filling it entirely. Jean-Luc gives his son something he’s craved his whole life: approval and unconditional love. And Jean-Luc also won’t let his son go. He offers to stay in the hole with him so they can climb out together, and Jean-Luc gets to be the father he never knew he wanted to be.

Eventually, Jean-Luc pushes Jack to unassimilate himself and turn against the Queen. And that’s that: The universe is saved again. Our thanks to the crew of the Enterprise for the umpteenth time.

The episode ends in the only appropriate way for the “Next Generation” crew: They sit around and toast one another. Jean-Luc quotes Shakespeare, and then they whoop and play cards just like at the end of “All Good Things…,” the series finale of the original “Next Generation.”

The end wasn’t perfect, but it was proper. And that’s about all you can ask from a season like this. I don’t need any more — I want the Enterprise D crew to Costanza it and leave on a high note. They’ve earned it.

Odds and ends

Somewhat amusingly, Jean-Luc does not express any concern for or otherwise mention Laris throughout this season , another example of the team behind “Picard” trying to erase the first two seasons of the show from existence. But Laris, for her part, actually appeared in the season premiere and, one could argue, help put the events of the reunion in motion.

I keep thinking about that scene early this season with Riker and Jean-Luc at the bar, when Riker has to defend the honor of the Enterprise D. We didn't know it then, but that foreshadowed the whole season.

I would have liked to hear more about what Worf has been up to since the events of “Nemesis.” At the end of “Deep Space Nine,” Worf was named an ambassador to Qo’noS. In “Nemesis,” Worf somehow just becomes a member of the Enterprise crew again with little explanation. In this season, it is implied that Worf helped destroy the Enterprise E — more detail would have been nice.

The “Worf as comic relief” thing, as when he fell asleep on the bridge immediately after he helps to save civilization, also wore thin. But there is a fun callback in the last scene of the episode: Beverly saying Worf should have another glass of prune juice. A warrior’s drink!

Pavel Chekov’s son, Anton, being president of the Federation was a nice touch. Anton is likely a reference to Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the rebooted feature films beginning in 2009. He died in 2016 as a result of a car accident .

When Seven and Raffi figure out a way to transport assimilated crew members off the bridge using phaser rifles, it’s quite the deus ex machina. That technology would’ve been helpful all season!

That was a funny moment when the cook is ordered to pilot the Titan. He didn’t even finish flight training, why is Seven making him take the wheel? Have Raffi do it! (Within minutes, the cook executes complicated evasive maneuvers, so that must have been some training.)

At first, I found New Data to be jarring but after a couple episodes, this version grew on me. When he says he hates the Borg, you can see the Lore side of him burst through. It’s a fresh take on Data and Brent Spiner pulls it off.

That was a nice bit of wordless acting from Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis when Riker heads down to the cube for yet another mission with Jean-Luc. The swashbuckling Riker gives the slightest of smiles, as if to say, “You know who you married. You know why I have to do this.” And Troi reluctantly agrees. Later, when Troi tells Riker he will only have a minute or so to save Jean-Luc once the Enterprise fires on the Cube, he responds again with cool confidence in a near death situation.

There will certainly be some disappointment among fans that Kate Mulgrew did not reprise her role as Admiral Janeway this season. The events in “Voyager” presumably are the reason the Borg cube was in such terrible shape when Jean-Luc beams aboard. Given the multiple references to Janeway and what was happening on Earth, it would have been nice to have gotten a glimpse of her. (And man, how gnarly does the Borg Queen look now?)

Ah, there’s Tuvok, offering Seven her own ship. As Vulcan as ever.

In the grand scheme of things, this is still only the second most successful attack by the Borg on Earth. Sure, they get to Earth, bring down the planetary defense systems and attack cities directly, all while using Starfleet ships. But in “First Contact,” they actually went back in time and assimilated all of Earth before the pesky Enterprise crew initiated a do-over. And honestly, if Jean-Luc and his merry band hasn’t been able to rescue Earth from Evil Jack, they could have just done what they did last season or in “First Contact”: Go back in time. It’s easy!

Troi gets to drive the Enterprise D again. It went better than it did last time, when she crashed it.

Beverly is an admiral now? What a promotion, considering the decades she spent out of Starfleet running a rogue operation. I wonder if Riker, Geordi or any of the others were like, “Hey, what about us?”

Ed Speleers did an admirable job as Jack Crusher. It’s not easy to go toe-to-toe with Patrick Stewart, but Speleers fits in seamlessly as Beverly and Jean-Luc’s son. (While we’re here, what’s up with Jack’s brother, Wesley?)

I hope all of you stuck around for the post-credits scene. Q is still alive! Of course he is. We don’t acknowledge last season around these parts.

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the Culture section. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign for CBS News. More about Sopan Deb

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 10 Review – The Last Generation

The Star Trek: Picard series finale sticks the landing in every way that matters.

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This Star Trek: Picard review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 10

All good things must come to an end. Even the things we might wish wouldn’t. Such is the case with Star Trek: Picard , a series that, to put it mildly, struggled to find a coherent identity and purpose during its first two seasons, but which blossomed in its third and did so by finally embracing the very legacy it at first tried so hard to run away from. I’m as surprised as anyone to find myself wishing this story could last just a little bit longer, that we could somehow spend a little bit more time with these people, that we didn’t have to say goodbye to this piece of Star Trek: The Next Generation , grown older alongside us in rich and fascinating ways. 

Look: If you, as a viewer, haven’t been enjoying the purposeful fan service of Picard season 3, you probably aren’t going to like this finale all that much, which aims itself like a laser directly at the heart of anyone who loved The Next Generation and its characters. Yes, there are some narrative hiccups and shortcuts, but if you ask me,  “The Last Generation” sticks the landing in nearly every way that matters. 

The final confrontation with the Borg and the assimilated Starfleet armada is pure spectacle, dotted with the sort of ’90s-style action movie hero moments that exist for no other purpose than simply to delight viewers. (Seven’s captain’s speech to her ragtag new Titan crew! Beverly Crusher’s surprising tactical skill with photon torpedoes! Worf refusing to fight with phasers because swords are just more fun!) Yet, as has been the case for most of the season, the hour’s best moments are its most emotional ones, each grounded in the decades-long relationships between the Enterprise’s legacy crew.

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From Picard’s choked-up inability to express what his Number One has meant to him over the course of their lives together, to Riker’s wordless telepathic goodbye to Deanna and Geordi’s wonder at Data’s enthusiastic embrace of the new emotions he’s only now finally experiencing, these are all moments that carry extra weight simply because these are relationships we’ve spent literal years watching grow. We love these people as much as they love each other, and the result is a climax that feels both utterly earned and deeply satisfying. 

Picard , of course, knows that the specifics of its conclusion aren’t all that important in light of these facts, but it does manage to (mostly) tie up its larger story in a generally solid way. (Certainly, it does a better job here than in either of its previous season finales.) Picard’s willingness to risk becoming Locutus again in order to save his son is the thematically rich stuff that Patrick Stewart lives to play, and seeing him face off with the Borg Queen one last time is probably where this series was always destined to end. Do the specifics of Jack Crusher’s assimilation and rescue—including his sudden ability to throw off Borg control—really work? Not entirely. But Picard leans fully into the cheesy heart of the moment, and Stewart and Ed Speleers sell the heck out of Jean-Luc’s decision to finally choose his son over everything he’s always put before things like family in the past. 

To the episode’s credit, “The Last Generation” also features some remarkably tense moments, despite all of us essentially knowing going into this that there was no way anything irrevocably awful would happen to any of our The Next Generation faves. Yet, at various moments I was genuinely nervous about the fates of several characters, particularly when both Riker and Picard got the whole “tell your loved one how much they mean to you just in case” treatment on the Borg cube. (Riker did it more than once!!) But, thankfully, this isn’t a bleak and gritty sci-fi drama, it’s a warm fuzzy affirmation that love is still humanity’s greatest achievement. (And a story in which its central romance just happens to share a telepathic bond that conveniently allows one to somehow emotionally track the other in a moment of great distress. We love love!) 

Picard Just Changed Star Trek Forever: Terry Matalas on Legacy and a Post-Credit Surprise

Picard Season 3 Finally Reveals the Future of a Beloved Original Series Character

Perhaps the most unexpected part of the Picard finale is how quickly the episode wraps up the threat of Borg invasion . “The Last Generation” clocks in at over an hour’s runtime, but the last quarter of the episode is basically devoted to giving us a last few moments of our faves together and determining what’s next for all of them. (And maybe setting up an unexpected spinoff in the process.) Geordi returns the Enterprise -D to the Fleet Museum, where she’s given pride of place among the other classic Starfleet ships and a proper goodbye from the three men who loved her best. (Which includes a callback to The Next Generation ’s very first episode.) Data’s talking out all his new Big Feelings extremely extensively during sessions with Deanna. The Troi-Rikers are planning what’s likely their first vacation together since their son’s illness forced them to retire to a planet it turns out they both actively hate. And, of course, everyone’s getting totally bombed together at 10 Forward, playing poker and quoting Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar just like the good old days and reminding us all that these are the sort of relationships that, once again, will keep going on long after the series’ final credits roll.

In many ways, Picard’s finale doesn’t feel as much like a definitive ending as it does a “to be continued,” the conclusion of one adventure in the lives of these characters and the start of many others, whether we ultimately see them play out onscreen or not. It’s incredibly heartfelt and lovely, and maybe the best thing any of us could have asked for from this series’ conclusion. If that is, in fact, what it is. Star Trek: Picard may be over, but if the finale’s credits sequence is anything to go by, there’s plenty of story to tell in this corner of the Star Trek universe. 

Jack Crusher, as we all likely expected, ends up in Starfleet, and is assigned to the newly rechristened Titan —now the Enterprise -G, in honor of Picard—under her new captain, Seven of Nine. (Sorry, Enterprise-F, at least that one shot of you last week was a banger!) Raffi’s her First Officer and while there’s no direct confirmation that the two are back together, if hope springs eternal anywhere, it’s probably going to be on this show. But what will inevitably leave everyone talking is the incredibly welcome reappearance of John de Lancie as Q (with predictably incredible outerwear), a twist that not only wipes out his season 2 death but appears to have extended his original obsession with Picard to his son. And I…surprisingly don’t hate it. 

Yes, the one-year time jump to what appears to be happy families between Jean-Luc, Jack, and Beverly speeds us past all the difficult and necessary emotional work it surely must have taken the group to reach this point. (And, personally, I’m taking the utter lack of any mention of Laris as a hopeful sign on the Picard/Crusher romance front, do not judge me.) But it’s such a natural extension of the Picard universe that I’m eager to see where it all might go next. 

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Fandom’s clamoring for a Star Trek: Legacy series, after all. And even if I’d personally rather see Jonathan Frakes get his shot at the captain’s chair—No, Star Trek: Lower Decks doesn’t count—I’m definitely not averse to the idea of a series in which Jack’s established relationships with his father’s former crewmates and BFFs are part of the larger world of his story either. After all, Picard Season 3 has taught me nothing so much that sometimes, impossible things can happen if you want them bad enough. But if this is the true end of an era, and our time with The Next Generation crew is over, I’m grateful this is how they got to go out, and that we all got the chance to be part of it.

Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…

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Star Trek: Picard Series-Finale Recap: Captain’s Log, Final Entry

Star trek: picard.

Star Trek: Picard  began as a series partly dedicated to giving Jean-Luc Picard, the aged but unbowed former captain of the  Enterprise , a late-in-life shot at returning to the stars and partly as a torch-passing exercise that surrounded Picard with new characters (a kind of next generation, you could say). Across three seasons, that mission didn’t so much drift as grow in scale. This third and final season has extended the autumnal adventures to almost all of the original cast of  Star Trek: The Next Generation  (while keeping Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd around from the preceding  Picard  seasons) and making the torch-passing theme even more explicit by bringing in Picard’s previously unknown son, Jack Crusher, and a pair of Geordi LaForge daughters to boot.

That’s a lot to ask of any series, much less one that has to give the beloved  TNG  characters the proper send-off (maybe?) they were denied by the less-than-beloved  Star Trek: Nemesis.  And, by and large, the season has shouldered that burden well. The  TNG  characters have all had their moments in the spotlight as the show reassembled the team, Ryan’s Seven of Nine and Hurd’s Raffi have had plenty to do (as did Todd Stashwick’s Captain Shaw, RIP), and Jack has proven to be a charismatic addition when he could have felt like an interloper shoehorned in to bring down the cast’s median age.

But does this final episode stick the landing? Pretty much, yeah. “The Last Generation” both brings the season-long story — which began as a confrontation with the Dominion before that dread foe essentially handed over villain duties to the Borg — to an exciting conclusion and gives the original cast a nostalgic valedictory moment while also leaving the door open for future adventures.

As it opens, however, any possibility of a happy ending seems unlikely. Federation President Chekov (not that one but his son) issues a dire warning that the Federation’s younger generation has been assimilated, and there’s little to be done about it, but in the words of his father, “There are always possibilities.” Picard and the crew are not an easily dissuaded bunch, and recognizing, as Data puts it, they “are the cavalry,” they come up with a plan.

Sure, it’s a desperate plan, but a plan nonetheless: Head to Jupiter, board the Borg vessel, and shut down the beacon that allows the Borg to do what they do. (And hopefully rescue Jack in the process.) For Picard, it’s personal. The Borg have his son (whom he’s come to like quite a bit despite a messy start), and he’s been plagued by their threat for over 35 years. For everyone else, it’s, well, also pretty personal. If this is truly a last stand, it’s a last stand against an enemy with whom they have a long, nasty history. The newly emotional Data sums it up as they approach: “I hate them.”

No one knows that better than Seven, of course, who leads a party to reclaim the  Titan.  She and Raffi will play a crucial role in the confrontation that follows, but it’s the newly reunited  TNG  crew that drives the action. And, in classic  Trek  faction, that means breaking into smaller groups. Picard, Will, and Worf head into the cube. (“And I will make it a threesome,” Worf says, by way of announcing his intentions.) Their farewell is one of the episode’s first heart-tugging moments. Could this be the last time these characters see each other? The look on Deanna’s face as Will walks away says it all.

On the cube, they find a lot of rotting Borg drones but little action. Then it’s time to split up after another wrenching farewell scene in which Picard can’t bring himself to tell Will how much he means to him. “You know that I know. Always,” Will says, letting him off the hook while making the scene that much more intense, with Worf’s own final words about Klingon’s not knowing the words “defeat” and “farewell” providing poignant punctuation.

When Picard reaches Jack, it’s worse than he feared. His son appears fully Borgified and the Borg Queen (voiced by Alice Krige and looking more like a nightmarish H.R. Giger creation than ever) looms over him. She’s mostly interested in mocking “Locutus,” calling his arrival a homecoming. The Borg Queen also announces that assimilation is old news. The new Borg goal is evolution. And it looks like that plan is working out for them. Thanks, unwittingly, to Jack, Starfleet is now filled with unwitting hybrids walking around with Borg DNA just waiting to be told what to do.

But despite the odds stacked against them, our heroes prevail via a series of pretty good fight scenes that mix aerial combat, a hand-to-hand battle with Borg drones, some fancy flying from Data, and a battle for Jack’s soul. The latter involves Picard plugging himself into the Borg network and selling Jack on the pleasures of life outside the Borg cube, despite the possibility of loneliness and fear. Picard’s pitch includes freely expressing his emotions (never an easy thing for the captain), including his feelings for his son. “You are the part of me that I never knew was missing,” he says. Later, they hug. (This episode just does not let up on big emotional moments. Will’s farewell to Deanna, if anything, hits even harder: “I’ll be waiting. Me and our boy.”)

Star Trek  is a franchise dedicated to following intriguing science fiction concepts wherever they lead, but it’s also one in which occasionally love saves the day, and the Borg Queen’s dying shout of “No!!!” shortly before her cube explodes signals that this is one of those  Star Trek  installments. (Even Seven’s in a hugging mood when the Borg control lifts from the  Titan  crew.) It’s a happy ending for all, and the tableau of everyone posing on the  Enterprise  bridge (an image that includes Will and Deanna embracing and Worf asleep) could be a fitting end to the series.

But there’s more to be done. That includes giving the  TNG  crew some more time together and setting up future adventures. Will’s log reveals that Beverly has developed a method to eliminate Borg DNA and scan for Dominion holdouts. Tuvok, the real Tuvok, is still alive, it’s revealed. Seven learns that Captain Shaw actually liked and respected her, even recommending she be promoted to the rank of captain. Data is still sorting through his new emotions with a lot of help from Deanna, who’s a little distracted planning a vacation during the latest of their marathon sessions. But, essentially, all is well.

One year later, the long good-bye continues as Will, Picard, and Geordi put the  Enterprise  D to bed. A bit later, Picard and Beverly escort their son to his first Starfleet assignment aboard … the  Enterprise ? Rechristened in honor of Starfleet’s fabled flagship, the  Enterprise  is now under Seven’s command, with Raffi and Jack by her side. That looks like a setup for a whole new series featuring this crew. (I would watch.)

We’re not done: Over drinks and a stirring recitation of one of Brutus’s speeches in  Julius Caesar  from Picard (“There is a tide in the affairs of men”), the  TNG  crew spends the evening in each other’s company, reflecting on their time together before, in a nod to “All Good Things …,” the original  TNG  finale, a game of poker breaks out with Picard enthusiastically participating. It’s an indulgent moment that calls on decades of accumulated affection for these characters, and boy does it work. It feels like a fitting farewell, albeit one that suggests all good things, or at least all good shows, don’t always come to an end. They just kind of lay around waiting for someone to pick them up again.

Captain’s Log

• Hello! No, I am not your regular  Picard  recapper (though I did cover the first season). I’m just filling in for the excellent Swapna Krishna, who was unexpectedly unable to cover this episode.

• This episode pretty clearly sets up a Seven/Raffi/Jack–focused series and that’s a pretty exciting prospect. Ryan is, of course, already a  Trek  legend and her reprise of Seven has broadened the character and confirmed she has a range we never saw on  Voyager . Hurd was always a  Picard  highlight and Ed Speleers has fit right in when Jack could easily have been the series’ Poochie.

• If there is a series, please, please find room for the “Ma’am, I’m just a cook!” guy. He’s great.

• Over the end credits, there’s one last surprise: Q is back and ready to put Jack to the test. Nothing really ends or dies with this franchise, does it? (Okay, except for Ro Laren, Capt. Shaw, etc., etc.) After a first season partly dedicated to putting Data down, he’s back and the Data who wanted to die got hand-waved away. Now Q’s mortality, a big part of the second season, is out the window. It’s inconsistent, but is any going to complain, particularly after a season this strong?

• That said, the sudden transition to a mostly different supporting cast hasn’t been without some awkwardness. Whither Laris?

• Is this the last time we’ll see the  TNG  characters all in one place together again? Another reunion seems unlikely, but then  this  reunion seemed pretty unlikely. If it is the end, it’s a warm, affectionate send-off. If not, let’s hope the next reunion strikes as deft a balance between nostalgia and adventure.

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Preview “The Last Generation” With New Images And Clip From The ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Series Finale

| April 17, 2023 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 208 comments so far

The end of the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard arrives this week. We have details along with new images, plus a clip, so SPOILERS . We also have an update on the soundtrack and video of a cool new promo from Times Square.

“The Last Generation”

Episode 10 of Picard’s third season is called “The Last Generation.” The episode was written and directed by showrunner Terry Matalas . It debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, April 20.

In a desperate last stand, Jean-Luc Picard and generations of crews both old and new fight together to save the galaxy from the greatest threat they’ve ever faced as the saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation comes to a thrilling, epic conclusion.

NEW images from episode 10:

LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Brent Spiner as Data, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, Michael Dorn as Worf, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Patrick Stewart as Picard

LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Patrick Stewart as Picard

Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker, Patrick Stewart as Picard, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi and Michael Dorn as Worf

Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker, Patrick Stewart as Picard and Michael Dorn as Worf .

A clip was shown at the end of The Ready Room featuring the TNG crew on the Enterprise-D discovering where the Borg are hiding (starts at 32:43).

UPDATE: Trailer available

A trailer for the final episode is now available on StarTrek.com

Click to watch on StarTrek.com

Times Square promotion

On Saturday Paramount+ unveiled a new Picard promotion in New York City’s Times Square. Every evening at 8 PM a 90-second animation featuring the USS Enterprise-D runs on the 3D electronic billboard in from of the Marriot Marquis Hotel. Showrunner Terry Matalas shared a video of the promo…

Video! Times Square “Oh, yes. She’ll fly.” pic.twitter.com/Rm6XlyASIP — Terry Matalas (@TerryMatalas) April 16, 2023

Soundtrack coming this week

The digital version of the season 3 soundtrack will be released on Wednesday, April 19. You can pre-order it now at Amazon . To preview the release Lakeshore Records has released the full “Leaving Spacedock” track on YouTube. You can learn more about the score and soundtrack in TrekMovie’s interview with composers Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann.

The third and final season of  Picard premiered on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, exclusively on  Paramount+ in the U.S., and Latin America, and on February 17 Paramount+ in Europe and elsewhere, with new episodes of the 10-episode-long season available to stream weekly. It also debuted on Friday, Feb. 17 internationally on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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Star Trek: Picard

‘Picard’ Season 2 Was Rewritten After Paramount Deemed It “Too Star Trek,” Says EP

What are we gonna do, Will? We got one ship, and no crew? We’re gonna do what we always do, Captain. We’re gonna pull a technobabble solution out of our collective asses! (Cue some Bwastie Boys music)

lol. I can actually here Chris Pine and Zach Quinto in my head reading that.

Free pass though for Picard/Matalas on this though, whereas JJA would’ve been raked over the coals by the fans for a similar solution.

Trust me — if that comes to pass, he won’t get a freebie from me.

🎵”Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish…” 🎵

Sounds like a trick pool shot from THE COLOR OF MONEY.

I wish more people knew the Voltraire songs!

“cuz if we find, we’re in a bind, we’ll just make some s*it up”

A barrel roll?

I’m pretty convinced there is a statue of the Beastie Boys somewhere on Kelvin Earth. ;D

Scotty done it also with the Enterprise while of the search of Spock.. so they have experience in that :)

Picard looks a little too happy in that last photo.

‘Happy’ in and of itself is okay … this looks ‘happy and doddering,’ not so good (not saying I’d fare any better if I lasted another 19 or 20 years.)

Love all of Star Trek, why so dark

They probably tried it because so many love all of Star Trek and therefore will be accepting of such differences, regardless of how silly it looks.

It wouldn’t be an episode of TNG if the option of direct confrontation using weapons wasn’t immediately taken off the table.

All that’s really missing is telling Worf “No!”

Agreed. I’m really hoping there’s more to the climactic “solution” than just a space battle against a massive fleet of ships. Fingers crossed.

There pretty much has to be. The Enterprise wouldn’t stand a chance in a direct confrontation with the entire fleet.

I was thinking the same thing. And then I just head Data saying, “Geordi, I can use my wireless access node to hack into the fleet’s mainframe. With an advanced trio-kinetic reverse matrix connection through the planimetric wave-form diodes, I may be able to commandeer half the fleet, or free them from the Borg’s control!”

Why do you assume they are going to take on the whole fleet? Wouldn’t it be much easier to go after the Borg cube that’s controlling them ;)

I’m sure the fleet would come to the Borg cube’s defense. Besides, the D isn’t a match for a Borg cube anyway.

I hope that this climatic solution does not involve Q’s return. I fear that he might return as he was the one that introduced the crew to The Borg.

He’s dead.

So were Spock, Neelix, and Data (twice). And there were not even gods.

I don’t know if I mentioned it in another thread here already or not, but a couple days back I saw one of those sculptures of Atlas or whoever with head bowed, holding the Earth up on his shoulders. I looked at it for awhile, and realized it would have been a great basis for a PICARD season 2 teaser. You start with this image against a starfield, and then you hear a cracking sound, and realize slowly the figure is not weighed down or troubled by the weight of the planet, and that he is using the Earth to crack his back and neck bones loudly. Then he looks up into camera and grins and you see it is Q.

Just tell me its their final goodbye. Enough is enough.

Lol. Not according to the rest of the world. This is zeitgeist culture the rest of the franchise can’t ignite. The impact of this season is… wow.

Nah, it’s fun, but it ain’t all that — and everyone can see how old Stewart and a couple other of the cast look.

I’m OK with a couple characters returning for a follow on series, but this needs to be the final next generation send off.

The episode where Picard was walking through the ship with a phaser, he looked so doddering that I thought enemies would just laugh. It’s time to hang it up!

It’s boring ‘jump the shark’ nostalgia.

I’m starting to feel the same way.

You were a big cheerleader for it earlier in the season and criticized me for critical comments. I was a “troll”,etc.,etc. Fess up and take the ‘D’.

It won’t be for sure they will make another season with the TNG crew once they figure out who gets paid what! They are not the problem its the writing is awful too much fan service that’s literally all it is a fan service wish list made for TV as a movie would be too pricey….!

Don’t worry. All of you that are so tired of this will get the final season of your “crying in the hallways” Discovery Trek soon enough.

No one‘s tired, we’re just not drinking the Kool-Aid that this is great Star Trek —enjoyable, yes, great, no.

Well, for your sake, I hope you and the rest of the negative nancys aren’t as dismissive, whiny, and negative about the other things you find “enjoyable” in your life.

lol I think it’s funny that you call him a negative nancy. You should see some of the complaints earlier in the season. There were people here complaining that the VFX ruined it, or the addition of a single sentence destroyed the plot lol

So, in life, you’ve never enjoyed a double cheeseburger and fries even though you can go down the list of why it’s bad for your health…and you never had a one-night stand that you both enjoyed and regretted at the same time? ;-) lol

It’s not a question of tired. At this writing, the entirety of Starfleet has either been assimilated, or is being phasered by the assimilated. With less than sixty minutes of broadcast time left, our merry geriatric band of six (The G-Team?), a beat to hell starship, and likely some Cameo Commandos is going to pull off a rescue of techo-biblical proportions. How does The G-Team follow that up that won’t be boring as hell?

I dunno, go ask Nicholas Meyer how he pulled it off in 1991?

That was probably as good a shot of the -D as we’re going to get, though it looked like I saw somebody in the windows, which can’t be right as they have no crew. Also … do we assume Scotty taught Geordi how to automate the whole ship, because, as I said, no crew?

Am honestly figuring that if this were happening ‘for real’ that they’d be doing this from the battle bridge, or splitting the crew between this bridge and that one (would love to see them sep the ship with the dish pulling away while the rest warp-rams a cube, but clearly this is not in the cards.)

Obviously thinking about this for more than 30 seconds is just going to bring the ‘irate’ in me to the fore, so I’d better quit now.

I’d mentioned a few threads back that if this goes down the way it seems to be going down, it’s really going to be stretching the limits of suspension of disbelief.

Prepare to be stretched…

Dude, you’re cracking me up given the way you always give a free pass to all the suspension of disbelief issues on lower decks. So suddenly on this series that concerns you?

In fairness, suspension of disbelief is a different animal on lower decks, a series where comedy antics are the main focus.

And…it’s a CARTOON!

Agree with both of you — but CBS insists it’s canon, so therefore everything we see in LDS “happens” in Trek’s future history…so we can’t write it off as a cartoon parody, unfortunately.,

I for one don’t want to write it off as a parody. Prodigy and TAS sit as less outlandish animated outings, with the latter suffering IMO from being too serious as much as from being low budget. LD is a heightened reality because it’s a cartoon with a comedic focus. At the same time, there are always plenty of elements in an episode which wouldn’t be out of place in a live action series. As has been commented here, DS9 did probably the most outlandish comedy in Trek in between the serious stories. LD sits fairly comfortably alongside those episodes, with some exceptions.

I’m perfectly comfortable with being able to reconcile different tones and exaggerated content between series and mediums.

And a great one at that! 😎

I’ve actually wondered how a live-action version of FAMILY GUY’s Peter vs. the Rooster might look. If you had tardigrade-level VFX (the only Kurtzverse VFX I have been impressed with), it might actually work, though obviously the speed at which action happens in animation is distorted from real-time.

The drive-section / engineering hull warp ramming a cube is a fantastic idea! There’s no one in that part of the ship so why not?

I’m sure people will just say it is a riff on one of those recent SW flicks where somebody went to lightspeed against the imperials, but for me the idea goes back to a TNG spec script I wrote where they get trapped inside a hypermass (black hole) and are figuring the only way out is to discard the secondary hull and nacelles, because there is this thing at equilibrium in a black hole where you gain escape velocity if you throw away at least half your mass. They don’t end up having to do that in my story, because Riker is on another ship that flies in and they use its mass as their throwaway ‘ballast.’

It got rejected when I submitted it, and then when I did get into pitch, I brought it up again (because I loved it THAT much) but Jeri Taylor killed it with, ‘we don’t do fantasy .’ (this was a year or two before hard science fiction writer Greg Benford apparently won awards dealing with the idea of a conscious black hole, which was my big idea to balance out all the DOOMSDAY MACHINE excitement.)

Actually, come to think of it, I believe Riker decides to ram the ship into the cube at the end of BOBW2, right before the ‘sleep’ thing happens. Give Piller credit where due.

Damn, that’s a helluva thing, even to have gotten the chance to pitch. Too bad about Taylor, who I rather respected as a writer and creative force on the show.

I’m experiencing sticker shock over something I heard yesterday on the radio about writer’s guild rates for screenwriting. A screenwriter was talking about the likelihood of strike and explaining the difference between streaming and network when it came to residual payments. (both shows were good experiences for him creatively, so this is just about the money – or rather, money and lack thereof, because producers and production companies took advantage of contract loopholes to essentially not have to pay creatives for residuals. Specifically:

He said that for the NBC show he wrote, he’d get another 25 grand for the first residual payment.

He then said he might get five bucks ($5.00) for the episode he wrote for a streaming service.

Now however ridiculous the latter number is (and it is beyond insulting), I gotta say I couldn’t believe residual payments for network could be that high, unless your residual rate for first re-airing is now like 100% of what you got for writing the show in the first place. At any rate, I really wish I had kept at the screenwriting, not out of any sense of ‘this is what I was destined to do,’ but more along the lines of ‘my family wouldn’t have been financially depth-charged by having me as head of household,’ because I have always been a terrible earner, even with F/T work plus the freelance writing.

Guess I better keep trying to finish that ‘formation of ILM’ script and get it to market … at least an option taken on that might offset for my burial expenses!

Because it wouldn’t look as cool for our heroes. Matalas is the JJA of TV Trek — with all the questionable plot devices, cool stuff for the sake of being cool and sentimental BS stuff happening that goes with that — with the only difference being he sucked up to the next generation fans — that’s why he is beloved and JJA is shit on.

Kirk’s head is in a jar, asking to get beamed out. Geordi is cross circuiting to B. Stay tuned….(cue dramatic music).

might just happen! very limited set of photos this time

cat was out of the bag after ST III; automation of a ship that required manual loading of torpedoes in the preceding film.

I think there’s a counter theory on TWOK, that it was due to the damage from first attack that they HAD to load them manually. But nothing canonical of course.

Makes sense, though that doesn’t explain why even the turbolifts were de-technologized in that film (don’t get me started.

(Of course, there was also the case of the 1940s tech on display in “Balance of Terror,” where phasers couldn’t be fired from the bridge. Which doesn’t make it any less of a great show, but I still wish they’d taken a few seconds to justify it, since that had already happened previously.)

I remember Kirk having to push a button in the lift in TSFS, but was that true in TWOK as well?

Amusing only in retrospect side note: I tried holding a Kaiser-Permanente elevator open with my arm a la Kirk and almost had it chopped off a few years back.

Wouldn’t it be funny if they were all assimilated and… that was it?

Red, or blue pill?

See.. now… that’s the idea.

You know…. i’d be OK with that. At least it would be different.

Each member of Picard’s crew should have taken a different Starship from the Fleet Museum.

Riker and Troi should have taken the NX-01 Enterprise and Worf the Defiant.

It’s already a stretch to have 7 people controlling a Starship, one person?

I’m sure it’s been done before using automated systems. If need be, they could create their own network using Data to control most systems.

They have that — it’s called The Borg. :-)

This wouldn’t be that, though, since Data is not Borg, he’s all android.

You are correct — I was half-joking.

The EMH controlled Voyager all by his lonesome during the Workforce 2-parter in Season 7. He and Seven also controlled Voyager in the episode One, when the rest of the crew were in stasis while the ship traveled through a radioactive nebula.

It has been done. It can be done. We’ve got sufficient automation in the 21st Century. I’d be damned if the 25th Century didn’t have better automation than us.

Indeed. Phlox managed on his own, more or less, on Enterprise too.

Yeah but to be fair none of them were facing the Borg either. This is a species that will beam aboard your ship and assimilate you in seconds. It’s hard to believe you can fight them off both in and out of the ship as one person guiding a ship.

If the ship is big enough, maybe try hiding from the boarding party ;-)

They’ll jumpstart the M-5 unit that was preserved in the Museum.

Or use the Genesis device.

All or nothing, eh? I mean, when I first saw episode 6, a month before the premiere, that was honestly where I thought it was going: a clone of Kirk captains the A, Picard the D, Seven on Voyager, and Worf on the Defiant.

All-Star Armada! I was ready to groan heavily.

It makes more sense than an old jalopy defeating the Borg, though.

Presumably, they’re not defeating the Borg in a FIREFIGHT. Maybe Jack is VOICE enough to tell all the Borg to go to sleep, or maybe Data will pull a rabbit out of his positronic hat.

Something will happen for sure.

Well boys, it’s been a great ride!

Wow… some real Negative Nancys around here.

The amount of complaining about this freaking awesomeness (not perfection but freaking awesomeness) is truly astounding.

It really is crazy. There is so much positivity about this season across the internet, and you come here and you find these bitter, negative reactions that are so dismissive. I think the REPEATED naysaying from many who reduce and diminish season 3 of Picard’s success as just nostalgia and fanservice betrays a certain insecurity and defensiveness about fans cheering and being moved to tears over a version of Star Trek that they feel undermines a series of choices that fans have complained about for years and vindicates those criticisms.

I think when people reduce this show just to being nostalgia and fanservice (a term I don’t even think should apply since fanservice is just unnecessary nods and gratuitous insertions and that’s not what this is), it cheapens the performances from these actors. I don’t think people are just crying and excited about this show because “Hey! That’s Worf,” they’re into it because these characters seem familiar in ways they didn’t in season 1, there’s genuine character growth from characters like Riker, Troi, Data, etc., and the nostalgic elements are central themes of the plot.

People can argue about all of that. But people who reduce all of it to: “Oh people are just going nuts seeing the Enterprise-D,” it’s just so dismissive and wrong.

The humorous thing to me is how it’s flipped. The first handful of episodes most fans here were negative nancy’s while I was overwhelmingly praising it, to the point where I was called a Paramount employee.

Then they introduce the old Enterprise and suddenly it’s literally the nest Trek in the history of the franchise, while I’m able to see it’s not perfect.

And then there are the defensive whiners who take any critiques like it’s a personal affront, and who will provide a defensive answer for everything, no matter how ridiculous or counterintuitive.

I am enjoying the season, but I am discussing the issues I have with it on a Star Trek website. What’s the problem with that? Why are you taking this so personally and getting so defensive about it? And yes there’s been critical stuff on the internet, including a major article on Collider yesterday, so you’re claiming that the Internet is uniformly positive is BS.

And all of your posts I’m noticing that never once you’ve said to anyone, “hey you have a point with that critique.” I guess everyone who has any critique is wrong on every point they bring up, and you’re here to correct all of us on every point, right?

It’s exhausting. Judging by the reactions, it’s either the second coming of Star Trek and Matalas is the new Gene Roddenberry or it’s an abomination and anyone enjoying is betraying Trek and/or a shill. It’s either one extreme or the next. Naturally both sides are defensive as hell and just shout at you about how this is the most universally beloved thing ever or, again, trash.

Guess there couldn’t possibly people who are really enjoying the season for the most part, think there’s a lot of good stuff here, but also have some legit complaints. Guess I imagined all that and all the comments I’m seeing here and elsewhere. Didn’t know we had to be 100% or 0%.

Also, I find the “go enjoy Discovery and SNW” retort from people when you bring up complaints to be weak. I guess I’m easily pleased because thanks I will enjoy them when they air. I usually enjoy most Star Trek or at least find something in a season to enjoy. That’s why I’m here and elsewhere talking about Star Trek and watching it every week.

Agreed. First, there’s nothing wrong with SNW or DSC. I love SNW above all, and while I don’t love DSC, it has legions of and it’s childish thinking at best to say “well if you don’t like this, you will like the other.”

Over all, it just screams his own insecurity, so I don’t get my pants in a twist over it.

I’m not saying that anyone who likes it is betraying Trek. Trek is a big franchise and not all fans have to like and dislike the same things. If people like it, that’s okay, it’s their right and I’m glad for them. I personally don’t and that’s okay too. Like I said elsewhere I just felt used to get viewers when I was here for the DS9 connections and then those turned out to be either shit all or discarded with no hints of returning.

I feel you. It’s not my favorite but certainly not the worst either, at least for me. I’m just kind of in the middle on it. I just wish there was less shouting from both extremes. Not everybody has to be enamored with it and think it’s the greatest either. Same with the people mad that people are enjoying it. Not every Trek is for every person like you said.

Not defensive at all, actually. Not my cup of chai, but more power to those who are enjoying it, life these days being fraught enough as it is. At the end of the day, it’s just a TV/movie franchise that even at its best happens to be (much as I love it) about 1/1000th as brilliant as, say, HBO’s “Succession.”

Yeah, the thing is I think this season is fun, and I am enjoying it. But I have issues with is, and I like to discuss that with other fans here — because I find doing that is fun!

I mean, we are all having fan discussions here, so of course we are all going to analyze everything to death…like, duh? If you want a 24/7 “atta-boy” positive party, you are on the wrong site.

If there was a critique that had a point I’d give some credit to it. But whining about “excessive nostalgia” and the mechanics of the Borg/Changeling conspiracy plot (which is effectively no different than what you could expect from the average TNG/DS9 episode) misses the point of what this season is about.

This entire season is about this crew rediscovering each other and the themes are based on it. That was what they told us this season would be about going into it. The fact some people want to put their own expectations on it is on them. But it’s not like they weren’t told what this season was.

The position of the people complaining about nostalgia is the equivalent of being invited into a bar, complaining that the only reason people are there and happy is because of the alcohol, and being upset that they don’t have a salad on the menu for you to eat.

Given how incredibly brilliant and insightful as you so clearly are, I find it odd that you haven’t noticed many of the problems with character and story. But hey, I defer to you, you obviously know it all. Thanks for setting us straight!

Nah, I’ll let you and everyone else who want to tell us that we’re liking something too much to do it for me.

No one is telling you that you like anything too much. I can only speak for myself when I state that my aim is only to explain, in the face of all of this adulation, my reasons for not liking it. The technical term for this is “having a discussion.”

There you go — overly defensive whining again. Sheesh!

“The crew rediscovering each other” (and their mothballed starship) may indeed be what this season is about. That does not in any way constitute a theme, alas. Which is at least part of the problem.

OK, Michael Hall replied to you best here, so I will repeat his reply, as I agree with it fully (thanks, Michael):

I can even agree with you, at least in part, about the treatment of the characters (esp. Picard’s line about only needing Starfleet as his family, which in its heartbreak is one of the best moments in the history of the franchise imo), and still believe that in terms of the storytelling and expression of Trek’s values that it’s a lousy show. Sorry.

“ And yes there’s been critical stuff on the internet, including a major article on Collider yesterday, so you’re claiming that the Internet is uniformly positive is BS.”

Collider: The Problem With ‘Star Trek: Picard’s ‘The Next Generation’ Reunion: There are too many characters, and they’re all great. https://collider.com/star-trek-picard-tng-reunion/

You obviously didn’t read the article article — they outlined a problem with the second half of the season with the storylines given the amount of characters, and how it’s making the second half of the season weaker than the first half.

That’s called a critique.

If people were reacting more honestly to it, I’d feel a lot better. I actually think the season is just fine. Not great, but fine. My frustration is with the fandom, who are over the top in their gushing just because the Enterprise D is back.

Amazing because the best episodes of this season received a hearty “meh” from a lot of fans.

If people were reacting more honestly to it, I’d feel a lot better. […] My frustration is with the fandom, who are over the top in their gushing just because the Enterprise D is back.

Why? Because a portion of the audience doesn’t share our opinion of it?

Look, I’m appreciating the 1701-D stuff on a technical level; some incredible work by the folks who built the set. It looks great. And the scene with the TNG cast was a real treat. But I accept it for what it is: over the top fan wank in a finale that’s intended to celebrate and say farewell to a particular era of Trek.

By those metrics, it’s doing it’s job just fine . Personally, I never mentally ‘left’ the TNG era, so the novelty of the modern age cast on the bridge of the 1701-D again is mostly lost on me. This is hardly the culture shock of, say, the DS9 gang carefully composited into and interacting with the rebuilt 1960s 1701 sets.

HOWEVER, I happen to know quite a few people who were absolutely over the moon by this scene and were freaking the hell out. Why on earth would I want to diminish that?! “ Oh, you think you’re happy? Why are you being so dishonest about this??”

C’mon, man. It’s absolutely fine to dunk on what we don’t like. That’s just as valid. But I can recommend being, at least , relieved that there’s people out there who can sift through the wreckage of what you and I might consider “junk” to find bits of joy they can hang onto.

I envy them.

I’m speaking for my reaction only here. People can absolutely dunk on whatever or fangasm over anything. I’m not trying to “diminish” their reaction, nor am I poo-pooing the sucess of the show. Without a doubt it’s wildly popular.

But I AM rolling my eyes at how hypocritical it all is. And genuinely, I do fear what Paramount and Team Trek will learn from its success. Because I doubt it will be “well-written stories are key to success!”

No argument from me there at all. As a fan since ‘72, I wish I could share their joy, and don’t begrudge it at all. Seeing that bright, cheery, open bridge should have been a special moment for me as well, but (and I’m being honest with you here) I actually found it rather depressing, since given the contrast with everything else this season it only serves to show what has been lost. I hope that at least makes some sense, and thus you can understand.

Yeah I’m really sorry this season didn’t hit for you Michael. I’m actually shocked I’m enjoying it so much, but I’m sure you been reading my posts to know I still have issues with it, but am really loving it.

Oh and BTW, I read your review on Vox on Tor. I didn’t see your response to me until a few days ago and why I never responded back. Comment #26! ;) And yeah you are very down on this season lol. But I really agreed with your part about Jack’s monologue about how bad humanity still is. Yeah I thought that was weird too and not seen many people comment about it. I guess people are assuming he’s talking about the galaxy as a whole, especially given what he and his mother does. But yeah it strikes me as odd as well. And it’s not the first time with the new shows. A similar thing was said on SNW to Pike which I thought was weird but not a huge deal.

BTW, I have never been on that site until I read your review. I have no idea how I never heard of it until now but it looks to be a big site for all things science fiction and especially Star Trek. I’m going to have a big look around it when I’m less busy after Wednesday.

Hey Tiger 2,

Thanks for your response, and for taking the time to check out what I had to say. Believe it or not, I did look at that now-huge thread several times to see if you had, both out of curiosity and because in addition to your unflagging Trek-enthusiasm (the mods here ought to pay you for your boosterism), of everyone here, myself included, you’re the one person who’s generally unfailingly polite and willing to engage with all comers, whatever their Trek preferences. Which I do very much respect, even when we disagree.

To elaborate a little on my feelings about “Picard’s” retreat from TNG’s sunny optimism — ironically, it was by far the most utopian of all the Trek series — I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing when this franchise takes a trip to the dark side of the human condition, and I have little desire to see the Federation, even with its replicators and creature comforts, to be portrayed as a perfect society, because what’s to be learned from that? TNG only became watchable after Roddenberry’s “no-conflict” rule was shoved out the airlock, and its best episodes deftly walk the tightrope between our fondest hopes about what we could be and the reality of who we are. DS9 doubled-down (and more) on that, showing how even the best intentions can lead us down roads where we have to make hard choices (trust me, there’s no bigger fan of “In the Pale Moonlight” than I am). But there’s a huge difference between that and the lack of vision and creativity it took to show a planet run by human, Ferengi, and Vulcan (!!!) gangsters, or a sadistic war criminal employed by the Daystrom Institute, or the revelation that Vulcan, a planet supposedly run by vegetarian pacifists, in reality hosts black sites where (political?) prisoners are mind-raped on a daily basis.

I’ll also note that at least when DS9 subverted Trek’s optimistic take on the future, it did so in service of asking important questions of its characters and audience that didn’t lend themselves to easy answers. “Picard” has given us lots of dark stuff to chew on, to be sure, but what purpose did it ultimately serve? There’s been no real effort made to go into any detail about what exactly Beverly and Jack were trying to accomplish with their interstellar Mercy Corps, or why Starfleet would choose to have a recruitment center located on a cesspool of a planet run by gangsters. And once Vadic had filled us in on her backstory, there has not been a single word from any of the characters about what that revelation might mean about their society. Because the point was not to raise awareness about the cruelties visited upon prisoners of war, but to provide “motivation” for an irredeemably bad villain before offing her. Pardon me for being critical, but I find that pretty cynical, even for a Marvel tentpole. In the case of Trek, it’s infuriating.

Finally, I’m guessing that the critical take on Federation culture you’re referring to on SNW was expressed in the episode “Lift Us to Where Suffering Cannot Reach.” Just FYI, I had no problems with that at all. The episode is, as you may know, very loosely inspired by an idea at the heart of the Ursula Le Guin short story about a Utopia where everyone gets to be happy at the expense of one suffering child. The defense of that society is that of Utilitarianism, made famous to fans by THE WRATH KHAN’s “needs of the many,” contrasted with the uneven distribution of wealth and unnecessary suffering that exist even within the Federation. I think those are questions well worth pondering, even at the expense of brushing some of the gloss from Trek’s once-rosy future.

First of all, yeah I’m sorry I didn’t see it until just a few days. And just by weird chance I even saw it because I was looking for a link someone posted somewhere and I couldn’t remember where (still never found it lol) and that’s when I saw your response. And thanks for calling me ‘polite’, but I’m sure 1 or 2 people here will highly disagree with you lol. I have exploded a few times lately to certain people. But I do feel bad about it later.

Annnyway, getting to your point, the crazy thing is I don’t really disagree with your view all that much. And this is where even for me, who is generally loving it, this season feels conflicting because you’re right it, it IS a dark season (and from this point on, anyone reading this I’m referring to the story and tone, not the cinematography).

But for me, I’m OK with that, but I want to make this clear. Like everyone else, I love Star Trek for it’s optimistic and Utopia directed values. That’s always been a huge highlight for me, but I have NEVER watched the show for any of that. Again, I want to stress, I LOVE that’s what Star Trek is, but its really other things that drew me into the show, especially with TOS. And what’s funny is, there is a guy here (another one I get veeeery frustrated with including lately lol) is that he seems to think I’m a huge TNG gusher and because I love it’s portrayal of the 24th century and so on. I don’t have any real issues with it, but as I have made clear TNG is not my favorite show about 30 times now, DS9 is for those same reasons you cited, mostly because it’s just more realistic than TNG is in that portrayal. Because I just don’t believe a Utopia is realistic at all.

And even if it was, it’s only for a tiny slice of any given population because as humans (or humanoids in Star Trek) I just don’t believe most people can even live under those kinds of conditions without leaving a large group of the society behind. I guess this is just the cynical, negative side of me but I don’t believe it much at all. Yeah, maybe something close to a Utopia could exist, but a large group of people could never really exist inside it as it’s portrayed in TNG or Star Trek…which I don’t even consider a utopia in the first place…but close enough.

But ironically that’s why I love DS9. You probably heard me defend the idea of Section 31 many times. I’ve also said it more than enough times it makes no sense there is no military. I think I even said that to you once in a post. It’s a huge reason why I loved the Maquis story line, because that would be reality for most people. In a ‘Utopia’ you have to compromise like hell just to keep society running and I’m sorry even in the 24th century I’m sure people would just disagree and eventually rise up if they feel they are being screwed to keep ‘paradise’ running. Again, THIS is the Star Trek I love and why DS9 is closer to my heart because we saw more of these portrayals once the Dominion war started.

OMG, I have went on a tangent lol. OK, I’m going to make another post but I’ll get to the point now. ;)

OK, I’ll get to it now. What confuses me is that you’re right, this is a very dark season and yet , there is so much praise over it lol. It’s really strange for even me.

All the goobly gloop I wrote up there was me trying to say that I always liked when Star Trek showed it’s hand and that there was a ‘price’ for Utopia. And we saw that in Picard season one, which MANY hated because they kept saying because Synths were banned and the Federation didn’t help the Romulans in evacuating was proving that the Federation had become ‘dystopic’ which I fully pushed back on! And you know I did not love season one in the end but it had nothing to do with those issues. It’s one of the things I liked in fact because even in a ‘Utopia’ you have to weigh the bad stuff with the good. But dude, sooooo many people whined about how the show had become too ‘dark’ and not TNG enough. Even now, people say that.

But here we are in season 3, which seems ten times darker and not very Utopia in its portrayal and people are praising it lol. So I’m honestly just as confused about it as you are? I don’t really get it. This season is daaaark. They had a crazy lady torturing Changelings. Everyone we met NOT Starfleet are some of the loathsome people we have ever met. Even Shaw feels more in line with someone you find on DS9 (probably why I like him ;)).

So you’re absolutely right! But as I explained, it doesn’t bother me personally that it’s dark, but it’s still shocking how much of a pass other people have given it knowing all the crap they gave season one over it. Even Matalas said this was going to be the ‘optimistic’ season and more in the way of TNG. And I will say in terms of the main TNG characters themselves, yeah, they are basically who they were, just older. But everything outside them just feels a bit slimy lol.

So I get your issue and yeah I’m a little surprised it’s not more people’s issue considering how much push back they gave season one for feeling too dark and gloomy.

But I guess just having the characters back and being on a starship again is enough for those people.

Harlan Ellison often said that the only thing really worth writing about was the human heart in conflict with itself. He gave us what was often considered (at least until last week, ugh) the greatest Trek story ever told, where the lead must choose between the fate of the love of his life and that of the entire universe. But Ellison’s original script featured a corrupt, drug-dealing Enterprise officer (as opposed to a drug-crazed Chief Medical Officer) as the catalyst for the story’s events and was deemed too dark by the show’s creator, who altered it considerably before filming. When I read that script when it was first published in 1976, even then I could see that Ellison’s version was much more powerful dramatically than the version we got, but agreed that it had to be changed to fit with the Star Trek I knew and loved.

Context is everything, but then, so is execution. Again — I could possibly live with the darker elements of this season of “Picard” (just as I often did with DS9) if they amounted to anything like a theme that could make us rethink the way we see the world, rather than just serve as a backdrop to what’s mostly an exercise in Trekkie nostalgia. “Picard” season 1 takes a lot of flack from many, myself included, , and overall must be deemed a failure. But at least it used its darker elements in service to some genuine themes: the perils of AI; our tendency in the wake of tragedy to give ourselves over to moral panics; the plight of refugees. Those things meant something. What does “Picard” Season 3 mean, exactly?

As to utopia, I agree that it’s an unrealistic concept, mainly because it would require that all of us agree on what’s good, which immediately invalidates itself. One of my favorite treatments of the subject is the Kim Stanley Robinson novel “Pacific Edge,” which redefines the word somewhat to mean a world where even with all of life’s inevitable tragedy, conflict and heartbreak, we’re at least free to follow our hearts, and where ALL of our lives matter. That’s not so far removed from the Trek I’ve always loved, for all the silliness, and strikes me as a worthy goal for our species to move towards. Else, what are we here for?

I actually never knew much about Ellison’s version of COTEOF until just two years ago and that was through a fantastic YouTube video discussing it. But yes, I was surprised how different it was. I heard about the officer originally selling drugs in the original draft but didn’t know more than that.

And that’s the thing about TOS, it wasn’t ‘dark’ per se, but it still had less of a glow of how the world was viewed then. I know people have debated endlessly between the 23rd and 24th century versions of how humanity was presented and of course it was also because they were made at different times. And different political times as well. But again I had no issues that things could be a little darker on that show. The drug dealing officer feels out of place now, but I wouldn’t have had any problems if it stayed. As we been discussing I think it’s still OK to just see people do bad or flawed things once in awhile. And on TOS people actually did plenty lol, it was just never from our heroes.

But I understand your main point, it’s not just being darker, there is no narrative or thematic reason why it is, it just is. I do think that is the problem now that you pointed it out because no one is really reacting to it EXCEPT ironically Jack. So OK, I have to agree. I haven’t thought about it that much, but I always lose myself in Beverly’s eyes I guess lol.

And again, it is strange it’s not bothering more people. Why, I can’t tell you obviously. The only thing I can suggest, and yeah it’s a cop out, it’s simply a better written season overall. Season 2 was just so awful for me, I nearly wanted to stop watching it halfway through it. And maybe season 1 did a better job showing why everyone was so depressed and gloomy and the show made a point about it; but it’s still not a lot of fun to sit through after you did it once. But season 3, at least things are moving and yeah we’re watching iconic characters throw banter at each other for the first time in 20 years. For some, it’s enough even if you have to endure some pretty harsh stuff between it.

I understand your frustration. I don’t have it mostly because I admit I am more focused on the mystery stuff and as said I’m fine things are darker. But I don’t really think anyone can call it TNG season 8 as people were describing it outside of the characters and connecting all the canon stuff. There isn’t a lot of cheerfulness and optimism as you got on the show.

Ironically a big reason I love LDS and SNW because you DO feel that with those shows.

I think with season 1 people thought it felt darker because it was trying to also be super edgy like DIS tried in it’s first season with the incest Romulan siblings, the super graphic violence of Icheb’s death or slicing off heads, everyone swearing up a storm and sounded like people now, Hot Mess Raffi drug addiction problem, etc.

It felt too much like a Rated R movie but with Star Trek in the title and it put people off who wanted something more TNG again and not just a lot of screwed up people in space.

Season 3 isn’t perfect and it’s definitely dark lol, but when those characters are together it at least feels like TNG again and probably why fans have an easier time with it.

And I love DS9 too. It’s my second favorite show after TNG.

Yeah I can’t disagree with this either. The show did feel like it was trying to be edgy for edgy sake and fit the tone of what most of TV is now. I think it lost a lot of people after that Icheb torture scene. I still can’t watch it today.

The show has definitely calm down on that stuff even if it still feels a bit more violent and mature than TNG did.

I don’t think anyone of us are calling folks out for being dishonest about their emotional responses.

It’s clear that many people had them. We don’t discount them, or their genuineness.

My spouse and I are shaking our heads and trying to understand the ‘I bawled like a baby the first 30 times I watched that scene’ posts and tweets we’ve seen elsewhere.

Where I take exception is when it becomes impossible to have a discussion about the weak points of the episode. Worse when that overwhelming emotional reaction leads to the kinds of remarks that try to marginalize loyal and long term fans who have been giving every season of every new show a series try.

IKR. It’s not perfect, but Picard season 3 is still the best Trek since DS9 season 6 IMHO. I’m not a fan of the Kurtzman-schlock (the red door, etc.), but this is still good Trek.

I’m really enjoying it.

lol this is good Trek but “best since DS9” is hardly true. SNW is leagues better.

Um — see, that’s just plain not fair. If you like this season then Terry Matalas as showrunner gets all the credit. What you don’t like, you lay at the feet of Alex Kurtzman. Unless you have some inside knowledge of who was responsible for what, you are contributing nothing to the conversation but your own biases.

Well said, Michael Hall.

Kurtzman shouldn’t be the punching bag for any and all elements a particular fan or critic dislikes.

For that matter, there’s the question of ‘must haves’ and notes from Paramount execs too.

On the red stuff – doors, vines etc. — Terry Matalas took ownership of those, as it happened, on Twitter early in the season. We saw similar imagery in 12 Monkeys. Matalas seems to be saying it’s the visuycode of his own nightmares for what it’s worth.

Exactly. It’s sad what a fan has to manufacture bullshit in the guise of facts just because they don’t like Kurtzman.

Epic fail, VZX

Where on earth did you get the information that Kurtzman was responsible for those creative aspects?

I’m calling BS on that as I think you’re just making that up.

I’m willing to acknowledge that many are enjoying it and that it’s bringing back many casual 90s fans and disgruntled TNG fans too.

What I find utterly exasperating is the number of folks who complained vociferously and relentlessly about the kinds of deficiencies in the JJ movies, Discovery and the earlier seasons of Picard that they are giving a complete pass on EXACTLY THE SAME ISSUES in Picard season three.

I’ve been here saying what I would like improved and what I am enjoying for five years.

As one of the long timers here was saying when I came on board, it won’t get better if we don’t say what we think is working and not.

For me, the nostalgia isn’t enough to overcome poor pacing and warping things to make everyone look incompetent to get people where the writers want everyone to be. I liked seeing competent Starfleet officers working together to anticipate problems and find solutions in 90s Trek. That’s what I’m nostalgic for.

This seson is catering only to nostalgia. And in a ‘jump the shark’ way.

I can forgive a lot of nostalgia. I can even forgive THIS nostalgia. But it doesn’t paper over the very real plot flaws.

Those flaw don’t ruin the season for me, but they are a real disappointment after such a strong start. At the moment it’s firmly in the “good not great” territory” and what’s bugging me most is how the anti-DSC crowd hems and haws over how great it is, when it suffers from a lot of the same problems as that show.

Yes! The nostalgia is dismantling a lot of fan’s brains. And that’s fine, if they enjoy it. But they seem to be insisting that anyone who wanted more than nostalgia is evil. It’s both strange and unTrekkian.

After all, “The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity, and the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.” — Miranda Jones and Spock in “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”

If someone is to say “the story has issues, but I can overlook them because I’m just so happy to see the old Enterprise again!” I’d be fine with that because at least it’s self aware.

Like episode 6, I found a weak entry, and overly nostalgic, but I thought the nostalgia itself was forgivable because it was well done and contributed to character.

You know I don’t think that way Corylea! 😎

I’m absolutely loving this season, but I’m totally cool if people are not loving it and think it’s trash. That’s how I felt about it’s first two seasons and I was personally ready to give up on Picard like I have with Discovery. But for me at least this season finally gave me the Star Trek I been wanting since 2001.

But if people think it’s sucks they should totally have the right to feel that way and say it. I just don’t understand some people on the Internet? If you get triggered because people say bad things about TV shows or characters you like, then how on Earth do you get through life when things that are actually important to your life gets criticize.

They are just TV shows and movies. Relax! ✌️

And instead of people just being mature and maybe debate why they disagree with someone they want to bully you or try to censor you into silence. Those are weak minded and insecure people, but don’t let them try to silence you. That’s why certain people on that other site are blocked. 😉

Unfortunately this place and others don’t have the same feature. But don’t feel like you can’t give your honest thoughts about this show! If someone is trying to bully you over it, let me know! You know I always got your back!

(But I will try and destroy anyone’s life if they say anything negative about Tendi online. Even for me that’s just going too bleeping far.)

Agreed! I just don’t understand people at all sometimes? I understand it can suck when you really really like something and people are being very negative about it. Yeah it’s not fun to read lol. But newsflash people, you didn’t make the fucking show , so get a grip already!

A lot of us come to message boards because believe it or not, we want to be part of a debate and not a circle jerk. Of course, it’s always great when you see fans genuinely like something and most people are on board. Yes it’s great, especially when you have a fan base as fickle as Star Trek fans. But if you been a fan longer than a year, then you also know the score and that’s a tall order, especially from the last 20 years lol. Certainly the people making it knows that lol.

Just how it goes. And if you can’t stand to listen to people trash Discovery, Lower Decks, the Kelvin movies, TOS, Voyager, DS9 and yes, even Picard season 3 which I am thoroughly loving even with its flaws, then you should not be here , period.

And you’re right, usually these are just insecure and very thin skinned people. But what’s funny is 99.9% of the has nothing to do with them personally. As long as someone is not attacking you for liking it, then you have to show them the respect and tolerance to not like it. Sorry, but that’s how it goes kids.

If you want to debate someone you disagree with, please do. Defend your show with all the might that you can. I been doing that with Voyager for 25 years now lol. But if you just want to insult or bully them because you disagree with them, then please go away!!!! You’re not welcomed here.

I been in the trenches defending Voyager for 2O years now and I will die on that hill! 😁

These days most people don’t even argue about it anymore. I think thanks to JJ verse and then Kurtzman Trek, people found bigger fish to fry. 😂

But it’s cool for people to hate what they hate. We still love Trek regardless.

Well, that has been the default response to people’s negativity since the second season of Discovery; counter their hatred of what they did in the previous season by packing the latest one with stuff they like.

Yeah DIS was packed full of nostalgia in season 2 as well and shockingly why so many loved it and we got SNW out of it lol. People keep saying they don’t want member berries and old characters but yet all the biggest praise and best reviewed episodes or seasons seem to be those for some reason. The huge cries for SNW itself really does prove the opposite.

Unfortunately, in both instances it came at the cost of what made each series, DIS and PIC, unique. It would be as if their second seasons DS9 had changed from being set on a station to being set on a Starship, if VOY had returned to the Alpha Quadrant, and if ENT had moved forward in time 200 years.

Well, DS9 did in fact add a starship to its toolbox, as well as a certain Klingon, in an effort to goose viewership. These shows (as Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry would be the first to tell you) exist primarily to sell soap, with being good entertainment, let alone inspiring art, very much a secondary concern. It’s to the producers’ credit that DS9 nevertheless never lost track of the kind of show it wanted to be.

Post credits scene leak: Archer and Tpal shout “Computer, end program”. Smile, and walk out the holodeck.

That’d be fair play. I like it!

I think we can all agree that this season, with a healthy influx of TOS movie era type action-adventure, is way WAY (WAY!!!!) better than Picard Seasons 1 and 2?

It’s better, but not as much as people think. It actually suffers from a lot of the same problems, but because it has the crew back together on the Enterprise, they’re happy to pretend it doesn’t.

Well I’m more surprised TNG fans aren’t mad that Crusher did not trust Picard enough to allow him into David Marcus’s life probably because she felt he was compromised by the Borg while Picard was compromised by the Borg, that the ENT-E is toast and that the ENT-G got owned by the Borg. I personally think all of the above are awesome, so cheers to that. I mean really what are they going to do, set a new Trek series on the TNG bridge? I figure that maybe would work for a live action comedy version of Lower Decks especially if they do a scene where the carpet lights on fire. A powerful lesson that just because you grew up with something as a kid when there were like 13 TV channels doesn’t make it smart nor viable.

I actually think they did a fairly reasonable job making Crusher’s reasoning believable. Does it strain the character a bit? Maybe. But it works, generally.

I absolutely understand her reasoning but then I’m a trans man, I can put myself in her shoes fairly easily.

And she is 100% right on, Picard WAS compromised by the Borg.

That’s not what I’m talking about but okay Mr Edgy Trek

I am upset the Enterprise -E was done dirty for no apparent reason other than maximizing the nostalgia…but I’ve watched the E-D reveal like 20 times now, so I can’t be THAT upset.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t LOVE the scene, that it didn’t elicit emotion, and that I didn’t rewatch it quite a few times.

I just wish the rest of the episode had made me want to rewatch it the same way episode 4 did. I rewatched that one quite a few times, it was so good, start to finish.

That we’re all JUST rewatching the final few minutes says quite a lot.

Meanwhile, I’ve watched the fan-created titles for Star Trek: Titan/Legacy about that many times.

There’s some great work in those.

Can you link one TG47? I would love to see those.

You think we *all* can agree? More than half of the comments before yours heartily DISAGREE! This season has mostly been ‘jump the shark’ nostalgia with a boring guest character (Jack) and a hideously bad acting performance (from Amanda Plummer).

Maybe here, that’s consensus, Idk. You’d have to take a poll to see. But broadly speaking it would seem everyone is over the moon about this. It’s currently the HIGHEST RATED TREK EPISODE OF ALL TIME on IMDb.

Actually Vox is not only the most highly rated episode ever, the entire season is the highest rated of all time as well lol. The lowest rated episode of the season is Dominion with 8.1. That’s insane.

Just to give people an idea of how crazy that is, here are some ratings for the other modern shows last seasons. The lowest rated episode of LDS season 3 is 6.9. The lowest rated episode of SNW is 6.1. The lowest rated episode of Prodigy is 7.1 (actually that’s pretty good for a 20 episode season). And finally the lowest rated episode of Discovery season 4 is, drumroll please, 5.1. OUCH! In fact Discovery season 4 is the lowest rated season of all time lol. Poor Discovery. :(

And if you look at all the classic shows, TOS-ENT, every season of all those shows have episodes fall into the 7s and 6s. And yes some into the 5s as well obviously. I think Shades of Grey is the lowest rated episode in all of Trek with a 3.3 lol. That’s nuclear option bad. Even TATV is a 5.3. Threshold is 5.2. Spock’s Brain is 5.6. I just went where no man should ever go! ;)

But the fact that Picard season 3 doesn’t have a single episode below an 8 is c-r-a-z-y. That’s early GOT and Breaking Bad type of ratings.

Wait Discovery season 4 is the lowest rated Trek season EVER on IMDB? Yeah that sounds about right! 😂😂😂😂

No one is probably watching this turd except the most hardcore fans like people here and I’m guessing many of them dropped off halfway through the season. No wonder this show got cancelled.

And Picard season 3 is the highest season of all time proves how much Matalas could turn lemons into lemonade. He’s the true miracle worker of this franchise.

It’s nuts given both the high ratings the show is getting in both views and fan reaction that they are not begging this man on their knees to come back. 🤪

Give us the spinoff already Paramount!

Well I didn’t check TAS, so maybe that’s lower? But on RT, the audience score for that show is like 80% or something which I also think is crazy liol. So yeah, I’m going to guess even TAS seasons is way higher than DIS season 4. More proof that Michelle Paradise should be fired for producing an awful show, but I guess that’s not longer an issue. ;)

And yeah PIC season 3 being the highest of all time is just nuts. There is now about 40 seasons of Star Trek today and the fact this season has already beaten all of them is mind boggling. Now these scores will curve and bend in time, so some of them will probably drop later, but at the moment it’s WAY ahead of all the new shows at least.

As much as I like this season, I don’t even think it’s my top season of the new shows. For me, as crazy as it might sound to some, Prodigy season 1 is still at the top of my list (only due to Janeway though…I’m kidding). I would say for now, Picard season 3 is second though, but I won’t really know until we see the finale. But if it’s at the level of Vox for me, it probably will stand. My third favorite season of modern Trek, again, probably sound nuts to some is LDS season 2. Really loved that season. But I have to stress, I’m only discussing the Kurtzman shows specifically. I have no idea where any of these would fall with the older ones, but I don’t think Picard season 3 would even be in my top 10. Maybe, but doubtful.

But I’m really happy this season is at least a vast improvement. Seasons 1 and 2 of that show is at the bottom of the barrel for me and I’m talking ALL the shows, not just the new ones.

OK, I got curious and checked TAS ratings on IMDB. Not great either but both seasons are still slightly ahead of DIS S4. But I think TAS S2 is probably the second worst rated season of the franchise? And it’s only six episodes so not a huge deal either way.

Anyway, DIS currently holds that dubious honor and not hard to see why. ;)

Hilarious! When a low budget cartoon from the seventies that was cancelled after just 20 episodes still has better ratings than Discovery, you know you got problems! 😂

I’m going to miss picking on this awful show!

I haven’t seen PIC season 2, and given the general reaction don’t figure that I ever will. As for season 1, well, I don’t know if it’s at all so clear a call, at least so far as I’m concerned. See my comments upstream if you care to, but for all its issues (I was horrendously disappointed with the back half, particularly the finale), at least that first year was about *something* other than nostalgic callbacks to an era where Trek actually had something of a voice in the wider culture. There’s a lot to be said for swinging for the fences and falling short, as opposed to getting walked to home plate.

Why not use omicron radiation like Phlox did? Just do whatever he did to kill the nanoprobes in his system.

I betcha that they have another secret weapon or two in Engineering: Janeway and O’Brien.

I’m still hoping, no praying, for a Janeway appearance! :)

Let’s get Neelix in there too!

Oh yeah I absolutely love Neelix but I don’t know how realistic it would be if he was in the Alpha Quadrant? But I guess after Prodigy, I can buy more people from the Delta Quadrant have made their way over there.

I’m still hoping we get a Janeway/Neelix reunion in season 2 of Prodigy at least. :)

That flyby of Jupiter is lovely, easily the best VFX shot of the season.

awe-inspiring and horrifying all at once, and we don’t even see the borg. masterful score

How bout a Captain Worf on the Enterprise-E novel?

I’m kind of wondering why they didn’t take Voyager instead of the Enterprise. Voyager has all those anti-Borg weapons that future-Janeway installed.

In S3x09, Geordi states that the Enterprise D is the last “function ship in the fleet that is not tied into the system”.

The museum ships aren’t part of the network.

But from Geordi’s dialogue, it sounds like they’re not functional. As for why, it’s clearly a plot contrivance so they’d be forced to take the Enterprise-D, because there’s absolutely no reason the other museum ships would be non-functional, but the ENT-D would.

That said, I’m not fussed by it.

LaForge served as the Chief Engineer of The USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D – the flagship of the Federation. Even the boldly outspoken Captain Shaw was a stuttering mess in LaForge’s presence. It is entirely plausible that Commodore LaForge would use his influence (possibly bending some rules along the way) to restore Enterprise D to its former glory – a privilege not extended to other decommissioned museum vessels, especially post Dominion War.

I’m not either, though I’m much more inclined to give inconsistencies or even absurdities a pass when they’re in service to much better narratives than this one. And in truth, the notion that La Forge could divert the resources necessary to rebuild such a massive vessel to functional status, all in secret and to no apparent purpose, is just absurd.

Because someone else is gonna take Voyager, plus those weapons were likely removed.

Which new crew though, do they free the Titan

I’m hoping that when Shaw transferred the con to ‘Seven of Nine’ that he was hoping that she could link into the ship and make it her own collective as she did briefly with the isolated cube in season one.

She’s been a Borg queen briefly and stood down.

Let’s see if she can turn Titan into a Trojan horse…

“generations of crews both old and new”

So that basically confirms that stars from DS9 and VOY will be joining in on the fun. We see the Defiant , Voyager , and what LOOKS to be the Enterprise -A and Excelsior (NCC-2000) circling Probert Station in the closing credits, and Tim Russ has already said on Twitter that he was contracted to do two episodes.

So that begs the question, who else shows up? Janeway has been namedropped twice, so she seems like a likely candidate (especially considering her own Borg experience), I have to wonder who else they would’ve been able to get.

No I don’t think it’s them. If anything it’s a new Trek crew, so the Titan A gets freed or Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome show up. People are gonna come running to be negative about the latter part but I don’t care and it’s also a 0% percent chance of it. It won’t happen, chill out. If Tuvok does show up, he’ll be part of the old crew.

In the Ready Room clip shown last week, it was said that the orbital weapons platforms were destroyed but Spacedock’s defenses were holding. I get the feeling that we’re going to see Admiral Janeway in command of Spacedock. I also think that part of this episode could involve finding the real officers that were replaced by Changelings (like Tuvok), and they’ll join in the fight. Maybe Seven finds a way to transfer Voyager ‘s EMH over to the Titan to help develop a countermeasure for this new assimilation technique and (maybe) revive Shaw.

Shaw seems to be dead-dead (as much as that counts in Trek). Pity, that.

He definitely does, but Matalas and others keep talking as if Shaw is going to be in the hopeful Star Trek: Legacy spinoff. There are plenty of ways to still accomplish this if the character is dead, but it makes me wonder if they might save him. Shaw being revived by Borg nanoprobes (like Neelix was in that episode where that technique was never discussed again, like the shortcut to Itchy and Scratchy Land) would be another fun layer of trauma to drop on him, so I’m in favor of it being done.

It sounds like the natural path for his arc, having to live with being a ‘former X-Borg’ himself.

Having his body been used against his will, practically raped, he should insist everyone now call him Eight of Nine and no one should think he should want to be called Shaw again.

They teased Janeway SO hard this season, I will feel a bit let down if we don’t see her. Again, it’s OK if we DON’T, not trying to be a Negative Nancy lol, but I just really really hope we do. :)

And we are definitely getting Tuvok, so that’s a huge plus for me at least.

I’m thinking CGI Shatner, Kirk, and DeForest Kelley are GUARANTEED to appear, based on that episode description.

I’m no fan of deep fakes, but I am game for Chris Pine and Karl Urban appearances.

Wrong universe. ;)

A reviewer of the finale used the phrase “return of the king” to describe it. KIRK RETURN CONFIRMED!

I should get my screener this morning. I won’t be able to give spoilers but now i’m super excited because SHATNER IS COMING BACK!

Spoiler free review:

It’s… ok. Still a lot to digest. A lot of good character stuff, some really cringe plot stuff.

It does end very well, so I’m sure everyone will cream their pants, and once again Worf gets the best lines. That’s all I’ll say until Thursday.

Chris Pine was one of the bright spots of the JJVerse. Although I admit that I liked ST11 and ST13. Beyond particularly channeled some moments that were reminiscent of Shatner/Nimoy/McCoy on screen. I would not mind if Pine, Quinto, and Urban were given the opportunity to portray the prime version of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

But we already have a new prime Kirk and Spock now.

PIC S3: the villains are the Changelings Me: whaaaaattt – okay on second thought, I can buy that some didn’t accept defeat and wanted things to remain the same. So you’re gonna develop the Dominion or just the Changelings more, right? PIC S3: Vadic is a changeling. Me: okay cool, so we’re gonna get some world building? Some Changeling lore? PIC S3: Vadic’s dead. Me: okay okay but that isn’t the end of the changelings in this season, right? We still have a chance for the Changelings to get some development as a species? PIC S3: the villains are the Borg. Me: oh bleeping beep.

Yes. I would have preferred more Changeling/Dominion development rather than more Borg. We may still get something in ep 10 but it’s all too rushed. It’s like most of the episodes are diluted and nothing much happens, then at the end they shove everything in our faces… Something else too: The entire season takes place on 7 or 8 sets. This and the ubiquitous darkness… I feel like I need to get out for some air!

Yes also agreed. I’m fine with having the Borg back but I was completely happy with the Changelings being the big bad since we haven’t seen them at all since the war ended.

And as much as I like this season, yeah it could’ve been 7-8 episodes easily. There was a lot of stalling in places. While I think this season blows the other two away by a huge margin it was still very very far from being perfect.

I wish I could use my discord emoji here. Pretend I added a faceplant emoji in this spot. It’s like damn if they wanted to stretch it out so much, they actually could have had some scenes where someone said something about the Dominion as they are now in the gamma quadrant. Like how they’d rather see a group of Jem’Hadar soldiers right now but Odo started having their genetic engineering changed and now they’re learning how to be peaceful and pursue other careers. (My brain: I want to see a Jem’Hadar musician now. Why do I do this to myself.) It wouldn’t be that much of worldbuilding but it would be something .

Maybe someday we’ll get something like that. Maybe someday I will see my dream come true and we’ll see a Vorta starfleet officer.

Yeah another thing I was disappointed about, we didn’t really get any back story about what is happening with the Dominion now . Other than knowing Odo is still part of the Great Link, that was it lol.

Again, as fans, we probably over think things too much at times and disappoint ourselves in the process but I was hoping we just hear about Cardassia and what it’s like today twenty years later? Or if Bajor is part of the Federation now (it’s very weird how everyone seems to go out their way NOT to answer that one lol). Or if the Federation is now back in the Gamma Quadrant exploring or creating new colonies there? I mean, that’s how the entire war even started, the Dominion felt the Federation was invading their space. So how is that relationship today? I didn’t expect to see any of this, but just a few lines of dialogue would’ve been nice.

I guess they don’t want to just spell everything out and leave mysteries they can probably explore in future stories. But I think many people expected at least an overview where things are after the war the way Matalas kept talking it up. So yeah, definitely add me to that disappointment as well.

Yeah. Yeah exactly. And I do get that maybe that’s being left for future stories but that doesn’t mean I don’t want hints now.

That’s also why I keep talking about the gamma quadrant based show that I want to see. Half (jokingly) wish I could pitch that for real. I’ve been thinking about my concept of it and determined that what I want is for it to be based on a starship with Julian Bashir as their CMO. And as they start their journey through the gamma, Odo says that they have to take a representative of the Dominion with them and sends them a Vorta who could also serve as a sorta guide to the quadrant. And the show could be about how both the Federation and the Dominion feel bad about what happened in the lead up to the war and during it so it’s them working with each other and the quadrant to improve things and how they both pay reparations to the cultures and planets that were conquered and effected by the war (on both sides of the wormhole) if this makes sense.

Dude, I would totally watch that show (but I’m still watching Discovery for some reason so I guess that’s not saying much lol).

In fact I had a similar idea of a show but this one dealing with the Romulus supernova fallout and there could be a Starfleet ship both exploring post Romulus territory for the first time but also helping to prop up new territories in the region for abandoned Romulan refugees, etc. This was something I thought of long long ago right after the first Kelvin movie came out and wanted to see once they finally made another TV show.

It would be a crew of brand new characters a few years after the planet was wiped out. And a Romulan would’ve been part of the ship too as both a guide and a representative and of course no one trust him lol. But it would begin to break down barriers between both

It’s really funny how we have the same idea, just in different regions and a different (former) adversary.

I’d watch yours too tbh. Romulans also need more development.

In fairness, I think if you’re really going to do a story about the Dominion, that should be part of a DS9 reunion, so maybe we have that to look forward to. No matter how good or bad it is, we know fans will call it the best show ever as long as they rebuild the DS9 set!

tbh if my gamma quadrant show the way I see it got made (lmao I know it wouldn’t), we’d actually not visit the station.

I didn’t say a story, just reference some things since the Dominion War is part of the season. It’s what people wanted to know for literally 20 years now.

But that said, my guess is the spin off show probably will touch on these things more if and when it comes.

That’s fair. I think, if I had to put money on it, Matalas didn’t even give it a mention because it leaves the story to be explored by another writer, so no need to force them into a corner.

I’m on record as not liking the Borg, but IF you’re going to do them, and do them justice, they shouldn’t be a throw-in at the last second. That’s not just a cheap fake-out, it’s not just kind of insulting to the changelings as villains — not just insulting to audiences — it’s giving the Borg themselves the short shrift.

I had a chance to preview the OST a couple of days ago, the next episode will be a doozy. Out of 45 tracks 13 are from the last episode, many of which co-credited to Courage and Goldsmith (and one to McCarthy) – you know what that means!

“Jean Luc, wherever you go, we go!”

Indeed. This season has been a lot of fun. And I don’t just mean watching it, but seeing the fan base so united over it. You look at YouTube, it’s a completely different community right now. Not a lot of division and infighting, but mostly fans celebrating and excited. It’s good to see, even if it’s probably temporary. ;)

But of course there is still people who don’t like it, think it’s awful, too much nostalgia, etc and I completely understand that too, including people here; many who I very much respect. That’s how this works. And I’m not an apologist, I have stated my issues with this season too. But overall I think we can all agree it is nice to see more people just enjoying Star Trek again on a level some may not have for decades now. I really hope the finale sticks to landing but it’s been a great ride regardless. :)

And Picard is no longer my least favorite show anymore, so that alone makes it worth it lol.

I just enjoy to see Enterprise-D back in action!

The trailer for the finale looks awesome!

love what they’re setting up! beverly, likely thinking of wesley sitting at the helm and pondering the loss of jack. *captain* picard now fully back to form

Just great television. There will always be complainers, but this has just been a fun ride! Far better than any of the movies!

Just dropping in to say that I loved, Loved, LOVED it!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

The Borg thing was OK if this means that we can finally put this villain to rest (I howled with joy at Deanna’s Troi Maneuver, bringing the D to a screeching halt right above the Queen’s throne room), but the last 20 minutes? THAT’s how you go out!!! 👏😃

“Star Trek: Legacy” is next! ✊️😊 And it’s gonna be on the G! ☝️😄👍 But Terry, please do the name justice, and sprinkle it with a few character appearances from some Niners as well from time to time!!! 🙏😉

That was FUN! 🌟

‘Star Trek: Picard’ Series Finale Sets the Stage for a Big Spinoff

• By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

This post contains spoilers for the Picard series finale, “The Last Generation.”

When this third and final season of Picard debuted earlier this year, I wrote that while on the one hand it was shameless fan service , on the other this was exactly what Star Trek fans wanted and needed after the show’s first two years were so disappointing. Simply bringing back the entire crew of The Next Generation — and giving most of them much better and richer material than what they got to play back in the Eighties and Nineties — felt like more than enough, even if the season’s conspiracy plot was largely gibberish.

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On the whole, though, this is exactly what most Trekkies would have wanted from this season, and from Picard as a whole: one last chance to see these characters at their best, and to let the actors dig deeper into roles that were often much thinner than they should have been in the Eighties and Nineties.

Some more thoughts on the finale, and the season:

• The season used the Changelings from Deep Space Nine as red herring villains, finally roping the Borg back in for the last couple of episodes. This was a mixed bag, not only because it conflicted with what had happened previously on this very show, but because it feels like it is somehow always going to be the Borg with Jean-Luc. The Changelings were at least surprising, and also a small way for this season to pay homage to the wildly underrated Deep Space Nine , when otherwise it was made up of pieces of TNG and Voyager . (Heck, there was even an original series cameo of sorts, as Walter Koenig provided the voice of Pavel Chekov’s son, Anton — not a nod to playwright Anton Chekhov, but to the late Anton Yelchin , who played Pavel in the Chris Pine films.) Réne Auberjonois (whose Odo was the cleanest connection to the Changelings) has passed away, and Avery Brooks’ Ben Sisko is trapped in the wormhole, but couldn’t Nana Visitor have stopped by? (Colm Meaney who, like Michael Dorn, appeared on both TNG and DS9 , but was much more integral to the latter?) Plus, the nature of the Borg takeover of Starfleet made everyone — particularly Borg expert Elizabeth Shelby from the classic “Best of Both Worlds” two-parter — look very, very stupid.
• The relentless nostalgia did go over the line a bit at the end of the season’s penultimate episode, when Geordi brought his friends onto a rebuilt version of their old ship. Exciting as it was to see them back on the familiar Enterprise-D bridge, it didn’t feel like a time for gawking while the Borg had taken complete control of Starfleet and were preparing to destroy Earth.
• Boy, were Stewart and Michelle Forbes great together in the episode where Jean-Luc’s rebellious Bajoran protege Ro Laren returned. Ro was one of the better TNG recurring characters, and was meant to be the female lead on Deep Space Nine , but Forbes wasn’t crazy about committing years of her life to Star Trek . But she was very invested in the character here, and her argument with Jean-Luc about their former relationship was among the more complex pieces of old business the season did.
• Finally, before we see the Enterprise-D crew play one last round of cards together, we get set-up for a potential spinoff, where Seven of Nine is the captain of the newly-rechristened Enterprise-G, Raffi is her first officer, Geordi’s daughter Sidney remains at the helm, and the multi-talented but reckless Jack is, for now, the ship’s counselor. And later, he’s visited by his father’s old nemesis Q. (Q died at the end of Season Two, but Matalas picked and chose which aspects of the first two seasons he wanted to use and which he wanted to ignore.) On the whole, this feels like a mixed bag. Jeri Ryan can certainly carry a new series as the lead, and Ed Speelers had his moments as Jack, but Raffi has been a dud for three seasons now. If we do get a Seven-centric show, though, the good news is that it would keep pushing the timeline forward, where the otherwise-excellent Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks take place in the franchise’s past. 

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REVIEW: Star Trek: Picard: “The Last Generation”

The Third and Final Season of Star Trek: Picard has come to a close. Episode Ten, titled “The Last Generation”, closes out not only the Star Trek: Picard series but also the legacy of Star Trek: The Next Generation . This is the final adventure of the crew and their last big goodbye when you think about it. This story has been 35 years in the making. However, as we review the final episode, we ask has it hit the mark and actually done a good job? It is a tough one to call at the end of the day. 

Star Trek: Picard: Season 3 is “The Rise of Skywalker” of Star Trek show seasons. It is a bunch of cool enjoyable ideas strung together into a story, with villains returning from the past. Your name and bloodline define you. This is all to seemingly right a wrong in the series without saying anything at all. It is a return to the status quo, in more ways than one.

RED ALERT – SPOILER WARNING , this is our full in-depth review of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 10!

President Anton Chekov

Before we jump into the main part of this review, we’ve got to commend one great easter egg. It sort of counts as an easter egg. While the U.S.S Enterprise-D is en route to Earth, we can hear Earth’s distress call after leaving the Fleet Museum. 

The Federation President can be heard on the distress signal. His name is Anton Chekov, which makes him a descendant of Pavel Chekov ( Walter Koenig ), who originally served with Captain James T. Kirk. It’s a nice little detail and a rather touching moment. The name also references the much-missed Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the Kelvin Timeline films. 

The Battle of Earth

The Borg’s addiction to attacking Earth is back again for what feels like the 100th time in Star Trek . They’ll never really win this, will they? However, the Star Trek VFX department has outdone itself. The visual effects of the ships targeting Spacedock are great. This is definitely where all the phasers went which we expected in previous episodes.

Spacedock being able to hold against that many ships is impressive, so I guess Earth is really safe from invasion. It also seems to be centrally tied to the planetary shield system of Earth, but if it takes that many ships firing on Spacedock to destroy it, I suppose Earth is mostly safe.

The Borg cube jutting out of Jupiter is a great visual, so I will give the visual effects teams and studios massive props once again. I am intrigued if it is a cube or not, though. In the last episode, it looked to have more structures alongside it, but at least in this, we can see all its transmitter towers around its hull.

I will say the Borg Cube sequence with the Enterprise flying inside it was really cool. It does somewhat equate the Borg Cube with a Death Star from Star Wars, flying inside to take out the big central system, which causes a chain reaction.

Queen-Emperor Borgatine

The concept of the Borg Queen actually cannibalizing the Borg drones aboard the cube to stay alive all these years after Janeway and the neurolytic pathogen impacted the collective is really intriguing.

The design for the Borg Queen is really cool, having half her face somewhat melted and melded with technology, and only being a torso among so many wires. However, it does also give massive comparisons to Emperor Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker. A villain returned for a final new series, as a half-dead villain of the past.

Both were strapped to machines, clinging to life, and basically half-dead torsos continuing to haunt their respective galaxies.

Locutus and Vox

Jack is wearing the exact same Borg Armour as Locutus was, which is a little too on the nose. I would have hoped he would either not be in Borg Armour, or just have something new. Did the Borg Queen really have enough time to give Jack that outfit? All she needed was his brain for the signal to go out, so why craft him a Locutus suit?

Picard actually assimilating himself, something he has been running from for so long, is a strong move. He has a very impressive connection with Jack in the collective minds. The acting by Sir Patrick Stewart and Ed Speleers has always been exceptional in this season, but this scene is especially great. Picard talks about running away to Starfleet and trying to find a family. And has changed because of his connection with Jack.

That is powerful, and having Jack go through all the memories he and Picard have had throughout this season is great. The editing and acting here go hand in hand to really create a powerful scene.

Baiting Death

There are numerous emotional farewells in this episode, which could have resulted in character deaths. Picard and Riker are the main culprits. Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) saying farewell to Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) and saying he’ll be waiting for her with his dead son, is gut-wrenching.

I am glad these go nowhere, to be honest. Fans would be up in arms if Riker died. If Picard died again, this would be a repeat of season one. I will say I enjoyed Riker saying farewell to Troi, his imzadi, helped the emotion. We have Troi taking the helm and piloting the ship to save her family. Troi has always been a great pilot, but people think she is bad because she dropped the D’s Saucer in Generations. However she made sure no one died, therefore she is a great pilot, and seeing it on full display here is beautiful.

Seven’s Fight

Retaking the U.S.S Titan-A was a bit of a rush, if this had happened an episode previously, or we had more time in this final episode, it would have been nice seeing more conflict between Seven ( Jeri Ryan ) and her squad taking back the Titan. It makes this venture seem easy, rather than difficult, and Seven still winning.

I wish they had explained where she suddenly got the portable transport-away phaser rifle from, instead of just saying it got made randomly on the spot, but it is nice that instead of everyone using conventional stuns seven is using these newly made transporter rifles.

A good example of Seven being Captain was convincing the cook of the ship to be the pilot of the Titan, and for her new crew to fight against the entire fleet. She said near the beginning of the season that she wants to be able to inspire people like Picard, and this episode showed it!

Admiral Beverly Crusher – Head of Starfleet Medical

When the dust has settled, Beverly ( Gates McFadden ) gets promoted to Admiral and head of Starfleet Medical pretty quickly. It is cool that she is getting this, but also quite rushed. She hasn’t been in Starfleet for 20 years, so to just come straight back and be promoted to Admiral, plus head of Starfleet Medical, doesn’t sit right with me.

Obviously, she was Head of Starfleet Medical during Season 2, and perhaps the previous head was a changeling in disguise who killed the original, leaving a vacancy. She does implement a new transporter system to not only remove the Borg DNA in everyone’s brains but also route out any remaining changelings. A previous episode already set up how to find the remaining Changelings. Thelomium-847 was present in the bodies of all the enhanced changelings and was traceable.

Also, the idea that transporters can so easily change our biologies is a horrifying thought. I have no doubt that many young people in Starfleet after this event will have a phobia of transporters.

Raffi & Worf

A duo that I have really loved throughout this season is Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ) & Worf ( Michael Dorn ). We get a scene between the two of them in the final epilogue montage sequence and it is great. Raffi finally has some connection with her former family and her granddaughter.

This is all thanks to Worf leaking documents of her and somehow sharing them with the Musiker household. Though thinking on this, with Raffi being a spy I wonder why her son and former husband aren’t suspicious she did it herself.

The two share some kind words together, and I do hope if we get a spin-off show, we get some of them together again.

When we got our first cameo of Tuvok he turned out to be a Changeling. He did hint that Tuvok was still alive, and we get the actual Tuvok in this episode. It is great to see Tim Russ as Tuvok again, though Tim Russ playing a changeling double was also fun.

Tuvok talks to Seven and shows her the final officer review by Captain Liam Shaw ( Todd Stashwick ) before they left in episode one. Shaw actually was commending Seven and recommending her for captaincy. He talks about how he is a very by-the-book Captain. Whilst Seven writes her own book, but does so from a place of loyalty and honor. Tuvok being the one to promote Seven is great, because of their connection in Voyager. Though I wonder if they could have gotten Kate Mulgrew it might have been her promoting Seven as Admiral Janeway.

It’s Another Enterprise!

I’m going to be brutally honest here, and some of you may disagree with me, and that is fine. I do not like the idea of the U.S.S Enterprise-G. I’m a big fan of going forward in the Star Trek Universe . And while we can enjoy the past and, of course, respect it, such as we have done with parts of Star Trek: Picard ’s third season, we should not stay in the past.  

We have the U.S.S. Enterprise-G being a Constitution III Class, which was an okay choice for the U.S.S. Titan-A, but somewhat replaces Riker’s legacy with Picard’s. Going from the Galaxy Class, the Sovereign Class, and the Odyssey class for choices of the flagship, sees a clear narrative design throughput, and then reverting to a nostalgic ship design is regressive in my opinion.

I somewhat feel like the Enterprise-F has been pushed out the door, just so the creatives can leave the third season with a new Enterprise as a doorway to start something new.

Even before this season, it was made clear that the Enterprise-F was being decommissioned. Here in this third and final season, we barely see that ship before it is shoved out the door. Sure, it’s not the focus of this season. However, this situation comes across as someone not wanting to play with someone else toys. It’s a shame, as it comes across as not respecting the legacy of other things in the Star Trek Universe . 

Not only is its design backward thinking, but the ship itself is too. Sure, we have a new captain and XO, and I love that for both of them. Seven deserves a command, definitely, after this season, showing she is a capable captain. But having another Enterprise have an Ensign Crusher and a La Forge ( Ashlei Sharpe-Chestnut ) at the helm feels like we have returned to a past 35 years ago rather than pushing forward the final frontier.

The Trouble with Q

Q’s return also undermines the second-season storyline. They were not the best storylines in the world, but they still worked well in their respective areas. For example, the second season storyline of Q’s eventual “death” was incredibly touching and connected with many Star Trek fans. It’s a nice little cameo at the end to have John De Lancie back and taunt Jack Crusher, basically suggesting that he takes on his father’s legacy of being humanity’s representative to the Q. Still, I feel like it does dampen season two’s ending.

So now we also have a Picard on the new Enterprise that is going to be taunted by Q. I think this would have worked better if this was Q Jr, taking up the mantle of his father. It would still be very cyclical and repetitive of the previous Trek , but it wouldn’t be the exact same.

The lack of a conclusion to Laris and Picard’s relationship has become one of this season’s biggest letdowns. It is another example of what appears to be the third season wanting to forget the past two seasons. For a season so hell-bent on speaking about legacy and the past, it amazes me that Star Trek: Picard cannot respect its own.

This would be somewhat fine if Picard or Laris had moved on after Season 2. However, Laris is in the first episode of this season. So to not have any conclusion or mention of their relationship is extremely weird. You could easily have Picard saying he is back off to Chaltok IV after seeing his Son off on his first posting.

The composer for this episode has done an amazing job, not only mixing the old but adding the new. Most of the emotional scenes are enhanced massively by the score crafted by the composer.

A lot of this season relied heavily on musical cues and scores of the past. That is not a bad thing and can serve to enhance a show and scenes. However, some episodes did this without deserving it. Some episodes relied on previous music rather than forging a new identity for themselves.

This was episode 10 of season 3, the final episode of Star Trek: Picard , titled “The Last Generation”, written & Directed by showrunner Terry Matalas, and if you thought “The Last Generation” was an apt name for this finale, you are right.

Overall, this has been an enjoyable season of Star Trek: Picard . We’ve finally had more starship action and a return to some classic details. Things like the sound effects, the visuals, the starship designs, and just some basic story points have all been done extremely well. You can certainly tell there has been a lot of love and passion put into this season.

I think what lets this season down is some of the writing. Parts of it do come across as fan fiction. Which can both be positive and negative for its storytelling. In this case, some of it is just bad.

That’s not to say this season is terrible, it’s certainly not that. It is however a lot of cool Trek set-pieces from the past strung together into a story. A battle in a nebula, stealing a ship, contending with Changelings and Borg. But what does the show have to say for itself? What pushes it forward into exploring the final frontier, the human condition, and everything in between?

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 and this finale honors the legacy of previous Trek, but so desperately wants to be that previous Trek that it wallows in the past, returns to the status quo, and has little interesting to say in its own right.

Hopefully, if we do have a spin-off with the U.S.S. Enterprise-G and Captain Seven, it focuses on the new, instead of continuing the old. If it is Star Trek: Legacy , I hope they begin to learn the difference between Legacy and Nepotism.

Our next series is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 which airs on Paramount+ in June. For coverage of all things Star Trek , follow Trek Central!

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Recap / Star Trek: Picard S3E10 "The Last Generation"

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"This is President Anton Chekov of the United Federation of Planets broadcasting on all emergency channels. Do not approach Earth. A signal of unknown origin has turned our young against us. They have been assimilated by the Borg. Our fleet has been compromised and as we speak, our planetary defenses are falling. Sol Station is defending Earth as best it can. But we're almost out of time. We have not been able to find a way to stop this Borg signal and unassimilate our young. But I know if my father were here, he'd remind us all that hope is never lost. There are always possibilities. Until then, I implore you: save yourselves. Farewell."

As the above distress signal fills subspace, the Enterprise -D finds a Borg cube lurking in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Aboard is Jack Crusher, now designated as Vox, confirmed to be broadcasting the Borg signal that controls Starfleet. The cube disarms its weapons and lowers its shields, inviting the Federation contingent aboard; most of its power readings are going to powering the signal. Picard, Riker and Worf resolve to beam aboard the cube and track down Jack's lifesigns and cut the signal off at the source. Picard leaves Commodore Geordi La Forge in command. As they leave the bridge, he says, " It Has Been an Honor ," suggesting he expects a One-Way Trip .

Seven, Raffi and the older staff of the Titan -A secure the bridge by beaming the younger crewmembers into the locked transporter room. They're a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits — the Closest Thing We Got to a pilot is the ship's cook, who had to leave training to take over his mother's deli — but they are all that is left of Starfleet. They detect the NCC-1701-D near Jupiter and realize Picard is making a play. To buy him time, Seven orders the Invisibility Cloak engaged: the Fleet Formation system requires line-of-sight to work, and simply becoming invisible breaks the Titan free. She then begins Hit-and-Run Tactics , distracting the assimilated fleet. Unfortunately, Sidney, Alandra and the other Bridge Bunnies break free of the transporter room and destroy the cloaking device, exposing the Titan to return fire, just as Spacedock finally succumbs to assault and Earth's planetary shields fall.

Aboard the cube, It's Quiet… Too Quiet ; most of the drones are either dead or powered down in service of the signal. Crusher locates Jack, forcing the away team to split up; Picard admits he can no longer be The Captain , as now he is beholden to a higher calling: being a father instead. Riker and Worf look for an active terminal while Picard heads after Jack. The boy has been fully assimilated — he even has the same headpiece that Locutus of Borg did, laser pointer included — and he is accompanied by the Borg Queen. She goes on her Motive Rant : after Admiral Janeway made her presence known in the timeline ( VOY : " Endgame "), she was pushed deep into the recesses of space, deprived of succor. This ship and its drones are (with the exception of Queen Jurati's Collective from last season) the Last of Its Kind . That said, it's enough: with the help of her Changeling allies, she has learned to procreate, and is bent on the annihilation of the Federation.

The Cube breaks dormancy and opens fire, but Dr. Beverly Crusher — by now a full-fledged Combat Medic — is at the weapons stations, wielding the Enterprise 's weapons with a force and flair even Worf never managed. Meanwhile, Riker and Worf radio on the location of the transmitter, but there's a problem: it's buried deep inside the center of the cube. Data rises to the challenge, taking the Enterprise — a Mighty Glacier forty years old — into the Cube's superstructure in an Airstrike Impossible worthy of a Space Fighter . Finally, it's time for the Sadistic Choice : the transmitter is the heart of the Borg cube, and destroying it will destroy the cube... with Picard and Jack still on it, hidden by the interference. Beverly, tearful, signs off, but Worf and Riker refuse to return, insisting on heading in to rescue Picard. They arrive just as Picard, realizing he has no other option, voluntarily assimilates himself to go in after Jack.

The two meet in a Battle in the Centre of the Mind . Jack, the loner who has always felt different, has embraced his Family of Choice , the family the Borg claim to be. Picard admits that he is the same, that he joined Starfleet to find a Family Of Choice; but now he and Jack have each other, and perhaps that can suffice. Jack still refuses, so Picard walks the walk: he offers to stay with his son, come what may. This is all it takes, and Jack breaks free of the Borg's programming, separating himself from the Collective and tearing out the tube with which Picard had injected himself. He will die as himself , at least. Riker, seeing this, wishes a farewell to his Imzadi ... and Troi , apprehending this through her mental link with him, grabs the wheel and brings the ship over so they can beam Picard and the others back.

The Borg ship explodes, with the Enterprise -D rocketing out of the fireball . Aboard the Titan , the assimilated crew, about to retake the bridge, are suddenly restored to themselves, with Sidney breaking down in a Heroic BSoD in Seven's arms. Aboard the Enterprise bridge, there are plenty of happy reunions: the Picard-Crusher family, the Troi-Riker family, old friends Geordi, Data and Worf relaxing in the command chairs, and Geordi seeing his daughters freed, happy, and safe together with Seven and Raffi via viewscreen. After 35 years, the Borg threat is neutralized for good and all.

As Starfleet returns to normal, Admiral Beverly Crusher, newly installed Head of Starfleet Medical, implements transporter technology that allows the removal of the Borg DNA... and the catching of any remaining Changeling imposters. Raffi is finally invited to meet her granddaughter; she and the crew of the Enterprise are celebrities now, and her family is proud of her. Worf wishes her great future happiness. Many of the abducted Changeling victims are returned, including Captain Tuvok, who tells Seven that the Enterprise crew have been granted full pardons. Seven has realized that she is not a fit for Starfleet, and offers her resignation, but in answer, Tuvok gives her her latest crew evaluation — Captain Shaw, speaking in a recording from before his death, admits that her Military Maverick instincts are valuable, and recommends she be promoted to captain. (Her resignation is not accepted.) And Troi gets back to work helping Data grapple with his newfound humanity; apparently he keeps running over their session time limits.

After a Time Skip to 2402, the Enterprise -D is ensconced in its rightful place in the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime. Spacedock has been rebuilt, and Admirals Picard and Crusher see off a loved one — Ensign Jack Crusher, who has been fast-tracked through the Academy — to his latest posting: the Titan ... well, what was the Titan . Yes, in recognition of Jean-Luc Picard, his crew, and the efforts to defeat the Borg once and for all, the ship has officially been re-christened: NCC-1701- G . The Enterprise rides again.

Captain Seven of Nine and first officer Raffaela Musiker take her out for her shakedown cruise, with Jack on the bridge as a Special Counselor to the Captain . Seven is asked to choose her Catchphrase — " Engage ," " Let's fly ," " Hit it ," etc — and therefore to write the first line of her legacy. The scene cuts away before she says it .

In Ten Forward L.A., Picard's crew is gathered and has closed down the bar — again ; Guinan has apparently been giving them the side-eye to get them to leave for half an hour. It doesn't work, as Picard breaks out the poker deck . The series ends the way it did the first time: with Picard dealing out a hand to his True Companions .

• Accidental Innuendo : In-Universe When Worf decides to join Picard and Riker on the Borg cube, he declares "And I will make it a threesome." It's promptly lampshaded: Riker: Do you even hear yourself?
• Actor Allusion : Not only does he end the series quoting Shakespeare, he engages in a Battle in the Center of the Mind , an obvious reference to Patrick Stewart's other famous role.
• Actually Pretty Funny : Data and Geordi are both visibly amused when post-mission Worf collapses in Troi's chair and promptly starts snoring .
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us : Continuing on from last episode, Seven, Raffi, and any surviving unassimilated Titan crewmembers are trapped aboard the still-hijacked Titan and trying to retake the ship. They successfully seize the bridge and then use the Titan to buy time for Earth.
• Alpha Strike : For the first time ever Beverly is placed in charge of the tactical station, when Geordi orders a return fire the Enterprise lights up the surface of the Cube . The entire bridge crew turns to look at her in surprise, which she responds with " A lot has happened in 20 years. "
• Jean Luc and Beverly come to the Enterprise to see Jack off. But it isn't clear if they are a couple. Jack does however have a picture of them on his nightstand.
• With the latest Starship Enterprise in service to Starfleet warping away from Earth to Boldly Go among the stars once more.
• In The Stinger , Q shows up to tell Jack that he has his own Humanity on Trial quest to deal with.
• Arc Welding : A variation. While the Federation-Borg conflict began on TNG, VOY had developed its own distinct Borg arc that branched off from the main narrative. After being implied last episode, VOY's Borg arc now formally circles back to and merges with the primary TNG Borg arc (as the events of "Endgame" and the damage Team Janeway did to the Collective on their way out of the Delta Quadrant are the catalyst for this final apocalyptic campaign.)
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving : Captain Tuvok confronts Seven of Nine for helping the old Enterprise crew hijack the Titan . Before he can finish, Seven announces that she is resigning from Starfleet. Tuvok then shows her a holo-recording of Captain Shaw (shortly before his death), giving his evaluation of Seven, commending her for her courage, loyalty and willingness to go against the rules if it's the right thing , and recommending her for promotion. Tuvok then tells Seven, "Resignation denied. Captain."
• The Red Alert conditions aboard the Enterprise -D have now adopted the darker lighting mode that wasn't introduced to the 24th century until after TNG had ended. Could be justified, as Geordi had to rebuild the bridge module with post-2371 components, which likely had the later OS updates.
• Building off last episode's ending, the 1701-D's warp drive effect has been updated from the original TNG-era "stretch" effect to the current Secret Hideout-era revamp.
• Awesome, yet Impractical : Worf's sword is so ridiculously heavy that Riker can barely lift it. As a mighty Klingon, Worf is apparently strong enough to wield it effectively, but that isn't how swords and bladed weapons work well in real life . They always have to be relatively light because extremely heavy weapons aren't just hard to swing, they also obey Newton's Third Law: swinging them will cause an equal opposite reaction on the wielder's body, pulling them wildly off balance and leave them extremely vulnerable to counter-attack.
• Awesomeness by Analysis : When the Titan registers the presence of a Galaxy -class starship in the Sol System, both Raffi and Seven are initially confused as to what the hell this is. Once Seven realizes it's the Enterprise -D, she quickly puts the pieces together: this is what Geordi's plan last episode was, the Enterprise -D can't be hacked by Fleet Formation, and they're making a play to shut down the Collective system at the source. This analysis also allows Seven and Raffi to figure out their own game plan: Disrupt the attack on Spacedock and buy as much time for Picard's team as they can.
• The real Tuvok returns to give Seven a promotion to captain; the Changelings having kept him alive as they hinted previously.
• Q returns to have a chat with Jack, despite dying last season. He dismisses this as linear thinking, suggesting this is an earlier version of the character nonetheless aware of his eventual end.
• Despite Captain Shaw having been slain last episode, Todd Stashwick returns for a cameo as part of a pre-recorded message Shaw made earlier in the season.
• Bait-and-Switch : A scene in the denouement begins with a voiceover of Deanna giving counseling advice in a way that implies that she is speaking to Jack. The scene then shows that she is having a counseling session with Data .
• Bait-and-Switch Comment : In the final scene, Data's given the honor of the TNG crew's final toast. He stands, gathers his thoughts, strikes a dignified pose...and then starts reciting that naughty limerick from "The Naked Now". Everybody immediately starts shouting at Data, leading the android to mock-pout he's never going to get to finish that limerick.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind : Picard connects himself to the Collective to attempt to reach Jack, which appears as a swirling mass of green energy all around them.
• Be Careful What You Wish For : Downplayed, as he does not actually regret the outcome, but Data does note that being human is just as difficult as the desire to be human and also "infinitely more complex" than he had considered.
• Beyond Redemption : The Borg Collective ultimately are this in the end; in spite of repeated questions about the morality of wiping them out over the course of the franchise, the Borg doom themselves to extinction through their inability to change their outlook that they could coexist note  Jurati's Collective proves that there is a capacity for the Borg to change and peacefully exist with other life in their constant pursuit of perfection that they would rather become an Omnicidal Maniac when facing the possibility of failure of reaching that goal. Thus no tears are shed by any party, in spite of their horrific condition inflicted upon them by Janeway's virus , when they are finally put down for good.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence : The Borg-assimilated fleet attacks Earth Spacedock, while the Titan (with her cloaking device ) uses Hit-and-Run Tactics to interfere with them; meanwhile , the Enterprise goes one-on-one against the Borg cube. The result: more Macross Missile Massacre , Beam Spam , and Stuff Blowing Up than just about every other installment in the franchise.
• Big "NO!" : The Borg Queen lets this out for the last time, once her plans are ruined and she is denied her opportunity at Taking You with Me .
• Bittersweet Ending : The Borg/Changeling conspiracy damaged Starfleet badly, with countless ships and personnel lost in their rampage, and possibly millions of young Starfleet personnel deeply traumatized by assimilation. However, Picard and his team triumphed over the Borg one last time, purging the universe of their threat once and for all. As well, a new generation of officers and an Enterprise (-G) set out to boldly go where no one has gone before.
• Body Horror : Alternate Janeway's last act was not kind to the Borg Queen, who is an emaciated torso with a melted face, scavenging her last remaining drones to sustain herself. Funnily enough, how malformed she is makes her now more of an Homage to her concept's original inspiration as a Xenomorph Xerox .
• The Queen would have won if she had just blown the Enterprise -D and her crew — people the Queen knew all too well had triumphed against the Borg during their last two attempts to assimilate Earth — out of the stars at the beginning of the episode. Instead, she lowers shields and invites Picard aboard. Her need to monologue to Picard and gloat to his face dooms her and the Collective.
• The Queen would've attacked Earth sooner had she immediately destroyed the Titan as they did the Excelsior when Seven and the others had re-taken the bridge. As with her need to gloat to Picard, she likely wanted those closest to him to suffer (and especially Seven given her relationship with the scourge of the Collective, i.e. Janeway).
• The season premiere was titled "The Next Generation", while the finale is titled "The Last Generation".
• The entire 24th century era of the franchise began with Jean-Luc Picard, his command crew, and the Enterprise -D — and now it ends with them.
• Q returns in The Stinger to bookend his first appearance in the very first episode of TNG and the 24th century, as well as his appearance in the very first Borg episode .
• The Enterprise -D was the first Starfleet ship to make official first contact with the Borg in " Q Who ," and the one to defeat the first Borg Cube that attacked the Sol System. It ends up being there to eradicate the last of the Borg.
• Riker and Worf were part of the very first Starfleet Away Team to set foot on a Borg Cube in "Q Who". They're now part of the very last Away Team to ever undertake such a mission.
• The Enterprise -D was also the first Starfleet ship to contact the Borg with a "hello" and the last one to literally tell them "go to hell" with the metaphorical middle finger.
• Chronologically, the Borg story began at Earth nearly 350 years earlier when the 24th Century Sphere traveled back in time and failed to stop Zefram Cochrane's historic flight. A century later , the drones that had survived the Sphere's destruction were discovered, awoken, and set off the chain of events that created a Stable Time Loop and brought the Collective to the Alpha Quadrant — and with all that ensued at System J-25, Wolf 359, etc. Now, the Borg's story chronologically ends at Earth 350 years later.
• The Next Generation ended with Picard sitting down for a game of Poker with his friends, and Picard ends the same way (not counting The Stinger ). Similarly, this show's pilot episode opened with Picard playing poker with Data (albeit as part of a dream sequence) and likewise ends with him once again playing a hand with the android, only this time surrounded by his whole command crew.
• In the Picard season one backstory, Raffi was selected by the then-newly promoted Admiral to serve as his adjutant for the Romulan Evacuation. To put it another way, Raffi was the Number Two to a former Captain of the Enterprise . Raffi now exits the series having reclaimed that role and serving as the Number Two of the current Captain of the Enterprise (i.e. Seven).
• Geordi's promise to Picard as they leave the bridge for the last time — that he will take care of the D because she's always taken good care of them — bookends Leonard McCoy 's similar parting advice to Data back during his Spinoff Sendoff in the TNG Pilot.
• The launch of the rechristened Enterprise -G is similar to her departure (as the Titan -A) from the season premiere. They even reuse much of the BGM.
• Thirty-six years later, and Data still wants to finish that rather peculiar limerick being delivered by someone in the shuttlecraft bay .
• Last episode, Geordi warns that one of the panels on the Enterprise -D’s port nacelle was loose, that he had a hard time trying to get it down. During the flyby of the Enterprise -D and Titan -A at the end, you can see that there’s a missing panel on that mentioned nacelle.
• Likewise, at the beginning of the Season, Picard told Seven that she was going to be a Captain before she knew it. He was more prescient than either of them knew.
• Similarly, back in "All Good Things", Picard humbly stated that he used to be quite a card player in his youth. Picard proves that was no idle boast by actually besting Riker (who was the most frequent poker victor on TNG) in the final game.
• Subtle one, but when Data takes the helm, he seems to finally understand the human predilection for piloting vehicles at unsafe velocities .
• Brief Accent Imitation : President Anton Chekov imitates his father's thicker Russian accent when telling everyone "There are always possibilities."
• The staging and angle of the Enterprise -D when it comes out of warp in that shot also matches the very first shot we ever saw of her in the opening scene of "Encounter at Farpoint" .
• Likewise, the Enterprise -D once again arrives home in the Sol system to rescue the Federation capital just as the Borg reach its doorstep. For Team Picard, this is also now the third time they've done this particular Big Damn Heroes routine (following Wolf 359 and the 2373 incursion ) while saving Earth from the Borg.
• And speaking of ST:FC , this is the second time that the Borg Queen tells Picard, "Watch your future's end."
• The two Borg drones Riker and Worf fight move more tactically, use energy weapons and have some hand-to-hand combat ability. This is unusual as Borg drones typically rely on a Zerg Rush with an Adaptive Ability with shields and don't bother defending themselves, but it is reminiscent of the splinter Borg group encountered in the "Descent" two-parter.
• The Enterprise -D hauls ass away from the exploding Borg cube exactly like in "The Best of Both Worlds" .
• The scene with the Enterprise -D next to the Titan -A in Earth orbit flying off into the sunrise mirrors a similar shot at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with the Enterprise -A and Excelsior flying into the sunset in Khitomer orbit.
• Likewise, both the film and the episode feature quotes from the play Julius Caesar in their last few scenes. Interestingly, Picard quotes Brutus’ nautical metaphor praising the importance of free will , adventure , and teamwork among equals . In contrast, Chang quotes Caesar’s astrological simile praising the (false sense of) permanence of fate , stability , and power over a hierarchy .
• The dust band and star cluster we see at the beginning of President Chekov's broadcast are an exact match to those in the TNG opening credits, starting with Season 3.
• The Cameo : President Anton Chekov is voiced by Walter Koenig .
• Can't Hold His Liquor : By the time of the final party at Ten Forward, Beverley's plastered. Justified, as she had been downing Klingon Bloodwine all night.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You : Just as the Dominion did during their Cold War with the UFP, Vadic and her rogue faction of Founders kept many of their captured Starfleet targets alive. They needed to be able to interrogate their captives for useful information (or personal details to help sell the imposters).
• Captain's Log : Delivered by Riker after the battle, summing up Starfleet's recovery efforts. "Captain's log, Stardate...shall we say 'one'. The first of a new day for friends both old and young. Starfleet has implemented a fleet-wide transporter solution to purge our young officers of the Borg infection. A world-saving effort developed by our new head of Starfleet Medical Branch — Admiral Crusher, who also managed to spearhead technology that privately scans for other irregularities. * Security officers apprehend a rogue Changeling exposed by the transporter buffer. In constant need for information, our changeling adversaries kept yet did not kill many of their targets. From the lowest of ranks to the very highest."
• Catchphrase : Jack and Raffi ask Seven what she's going to say to have the newly christened Enterprise -G go to warp for their first mission, as every ship captain seems to have their own personalised way of saying "Engage". Just as she's about to say it, cut to the Enterprise going to warp, leaving Seven's catchphrase a mystery .
• The Cavalry : Riker demands to know where the cavalry is as the Enterprise enters the Sol system and receives updates on the battle. Data's sensors confirm all distress calls from Federation and civilian ships have gone silent, meaning the 1701-D essentially is the cavalry.
• Character Death : The Borg Queen bites it again and for good this time.
• Chekhov's Gun : The Titan 's cloaking device proves to be the key to breaking the Fleet Formation override, which requires line-of-sight to function.
• Closest Thing We Got : Seven's temporary pilot is the ship's cook, who only partially finished pilot training before leaving to take care of the family restaurant.
• Collapsing Lair : The design of the Borg transmitter means that, when it's destroyed, the entire cube goes up with it.
• Combat Medic : Beverly, much like how she was on the first episode of this season, is a capable combatant, this time handling the tactical systems of the Enterprise -D against the Borg cube.
• Anton Chekov broadcasts a planetary distress signal in the same way that President Hiram Roth in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home did, using nearly the same dialogue ("Do not approach Earth").
• The fact that the new Earth Spacedock is able to (for now) Hold the Line against what is essentially the entire assimilated Federation fleet is a vast improvement upon the last time we saw one in battle , when three Texas -class automated starships were able to nearly wreck a Spacedock-like space station and a Sovereign -class starship with relative ease . Given that Starfleet lost several personnel, including a flag officer (albeit a corrupt one ), in that incident, and an auxiliary ship had to lure the rampaging ships away to give Starfleet time to respond and ended up being pummelled as a result, it's likely they took that veritable disaster as a wake-up call and responded to it by upgrading the type to improve defensive capabilities and developing a contingency plan for rogue ships.
• When Picard willingly reconnects to the Collective to save Jack, flashbacks to First Contact and to himself assimilated as Locutus appear during the "boot up" sequence.
• Worf tells Raffi that he has never shed any tears. Back in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Spock tells Scotty that Klingons have no tear ducts.
• Cooldown Hug : Sidney is suddenly freed from the Collective and hit by the trauma of being assimilated and forced to try to kill the people she cares about. She is initially dazed, then horrified by the sight of her phaser (set to kill) pointing at Seven, and starts to freak out while desperately stammering her apologies. Seven walks up to Sidney without any hesitation, hugs her as she breaks down sobbing, and calms her down by assuring her 'it's over'.
• Curb Stomp Cushion : Spacedock is getting pounded on by hundreds of ships and by all accounts it can't hold out forever, but not only does it manage to hold with Earth's planetary shields protecting it, it also is able to lay the hurt on attacking fleet. In one scene it disables at least 5 ships with all its return fire.
• Earth Spacedock also gets this as well as she’s not only able to hold her own against what is essentially a 300 strong armada carrying the mother of all ammunitions depots but is seen actually doling out equal amounts of punishment. This isn’t Kirk’s Earth Spacedock folks!
• Darkest Hour : Continuing on from "Vox", all interlinked Starfleet vessels are now under Borg control and all young officers or enlisted crewmen have been rapidly assimilated thanks to the Borg's transporter-introduced genetic malware. Earth's defenses have been destroyed, Spacedock's Last Stand is only delaying the inevitable, and the Borg-controlled flotilla is on the cusp of burning the cradle of humanity and the heart of the Federation to a smoking cinder. The last, best hope for Starfleet and the Federation lies in Jean-Luc Picard, his command crew, and the resurrected Enterprise -D — but even still, it's seven people and one decades-old ship against the totality of the Collective.
• David Versus Goliath : Picard and the crew of the Enterprise -D have their work cut out for them as they have to take on a Borg Cube in a single ship thirty years past its prime (let alone without even a skeleton crew), once again dwarfed by the sheer size (and firepower) of the Collective's trademark vessel. In the same vein, Seven and her motley crew have to neutralize the Titan's assimilated officers and distract the entire Borgified armada to buy Sol Station more time. And although Sol Station is a massive fortress itself, it stands practically alone against almost the whole of Starfleet .
• Death by a Thousand Cuts : Earth Spacedock has defenses so strong that no single starship could ever hope to disable it. Unfortunately, the Borg have hijacked hundreds of starships, all of which are unloading on Spacedock with everything they have. Spacedock is shown disabling several of them, but the sheer volume of fire eventually overcomes their defenses.
• Death by Irony : Despite all the spectacle of the final confrontation, the Borg are ultimately defeated not through force of arms, but through loyalty, solidarity, self-sacrifice, and compassion as well as individualism. In other words, the Borg are laid low by the very ideals that are the bedrock of the Federation, Starfleet and the entire franchise — ideals which are also the antithesis of everything the Collective believes in and represents. Symbolically, it's a very classical Trek resolution.
• Decapitated Army : Subverted. When Jack is pulled from the Collective, the drones simply default to the last order given because the signal controlling them is still active, just no longer forwarding commands. The cube blowing up a minute later, thus severing the link completely, is what truly frees them from the Collective.
• Didn't Think This Through : Retroactive instance for Team Janeway following the confirmation that this is all payback for "Endgame". The Voyager crew was intent on using the Transwarp Hub to get home and dealing a crippling blow to the Borg in the process. Their mistake, however, was that they didn't stop to consider what would happen after they deployed the Neurolytic Pathogen. What if there were survivors...and how might they react to being poisoned and left to die by the Federation and Starfleet? Now, over 20 years later, Earth is paying the price for Janeway's failed foresight.
• Didn't See That Coming : The Borg Queen thought the Beacon was safe from enemy fire deep inside the Cube. She never anticipated that Picard's team would be daring and crazy enough to actually fly the Enterprise -D into the Cube itself.
• Drives Like Crazy : Data flies the Enterprise-D like he stole her into the Super-Cube's interior spaces. Justified, as Data's superhuman reflexes and perception make him the only member of Team Picard capable of such piloting. Deanna : Why am I sensing enjoyment? Data: (shit-eating grin)
• Dual Wielding : A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows Raffi battling with two hand phasers when her and Seven's teams invade the bridge to re-take it.
• Picard started the series alone in bitter, self-imposed exile from Starfleet and the rest of the world. Picard now exits it and the franchise having gained a family, reunited his closest friends for the first time in two decades (along with resurrecting Data and, in a way, the Enterprise -D too), and having triumphed once and for all over his oldest, most personal enemy.
• Raffi likewises started the series just as broken as Picard. The collapse of the Romulan Evacuation and her relationship with the Admiral also took down Raffi's career, her familial relationships, and her sobriety. But Picard's investigation into Soji Asha and Zhat Vash conspiracy slowly began pulling her out of the wreckage of her professional and personal lives. Raffi exits the series still struggling with her personal conflicts, but in much better shape now thanks to her relationships with Picard, Elnor, Seven, and now Worf. Having helped saved the Federation from utter annihilation, the recognition has allowed Raffi to not only begun reconciling with her son Gabe, but to also be offered one of the plum postings in all of Starfleet: The Federation Flagship's XO.
• Similarly to Raffi, Seven started the series just as broken by the death of her surrogate son Icheb and Starfleet's Fantastic Racism that prevented the ex-Borg from joining her friends from Voyager (and in spite of Janeway's fierce lobbying). Hooking up with Team Picard and her tumultuous romance with Raffi allowed Seven to slowly begin healing and living again. Seven exits the series having helped end the Borg for good and becoming Captain of the Federation Flagship (and while no longer romantically involved with Raffi, remaining close friends).
• Geordi and Sidney start the season estranged. Then just as Geordi begins to better understand and bond with Sidney, he loses her (and Alandra) to Borg assimilation. He's so desperate to save his girls that he's initially ready to rush out to their rescue without thinking things through. Thankfully, Data gets Geordi to see that they need a plan to save his girls. And it works. Seeing Sidney and Alandra, freed, safe, and happy, alongside Seven and Raffi, brings out a well-earned smile from Geordi.
• The Federation itself has gone through nearly half a century of conflict and societal upheaval not seen since the days of Captain Kirk with the threat of the Borg constantly in the back of everyone’s mind. The rising of the Sun over Earth dispels the long living nightmare of the last 40 years and the rise of a new century in which the Federation can recover and grow anew with a new Enterprise leading the way.
• This also applies to the USS Syracuse , from which Geordi gained the Enterprise's new secondary hull. While the actual ship undoubtedly had a distinguished career, and likely saw action in the Dominion War, it will live on as part of the Enterprise legacy. In fact the entire Galaxy class itself will live on as part of her legacy as well.
• A determined Picard states that "What began over thirty-five years ago ends tonight!" While he means the Federation-Borg conflict in-story, on a meta level of course he's also describing TNG itself, which premiered just over thirty-five years before the final season of Picard .
• In the final scene in Ten Forward, Riker says this looks like the end of the road. He's talking about last call (and Guinan trying to get them out of the now-closed bar). But of course, it's also talking about the closing minutes of the series finale and the last appearance of the TNG characters.
• Evil Evolves : The Borg Queen managed to survive the events of Voyager ' s Grand Finale through desperate, cannibalistic measures, sustained by a super massive Cube (possibly rebuilt from the Unimatrix Zero One complex) but is in no condition to make a direct assault against any modest spacefaring civilization, let alone the Federation and Starfleet. So they changed their tactics, utilizing Changelings to infiltrate Starfleet and secretly mess with the genetic code of near all of its officers to make them susceptible to mass assimilation once the trigger occurs . This change is cited by the Borg Queen herself no less as the catalyst for where they're going next. Queen : The future of the Borg does not lie in ... assimilation, but evolution.
• Evil Laugh : The Borg Queen gets a good one when she shows herself.
• Eye Awaken : The camera pans a couple of times on the face of one of the lifeless Borg drones that Worf and Riker find in the Cube. On the last one, the drone's eye snap open.
• Face Death with Dignity : Riker and Worf when the Borg cube looks ready to go up with them in it. Riker : Well, my old friend, is this good enough? Worf : This is indeed a fine day to die with honor.
• Fate Worse than Death : The Borg Queen's plan was to rebuild her Collective through the assimilated Starfleet officers by procreation , meaning that not only did she intend to have the Federation's youngest members wipe out their elders, but would then force them to reproduce in order to propagate her "species". In other words, she was not only going to commit murder but rape (both Mind Rape and sexually ) on a mass scale while her victims could do nothing to stop it.
• Final Battle : The events of Frontier Day in orbit of Earth and Jupiter ultimately serve as the final confrontation between the Federation and the Borg.
• Forbidden Zone : The opening starts with President Anton Chekov warning away anyone listening to his message from Earth as the Borg have taken over.
• The Borg's Assimilation Plot will fail, the Federation and Starfleet will be restored, and Earth will not be destroyed. On a meta level, similarly to DS9 and the outcome of the Dominion War, the franchise needs the UFP intact for future projects. In terms of internal continuity, we already know they're still intact and active into the late 32nd century (the setting of Star Trek: Discovery from the third season onwards). The dramatic tension going into the finale instead lies in how the day is saved and whether or not any of the TNG characters (the Enterprise -D included) will die to achieve that victory, as while they're long dead come the third season of Discovery , the circumstances of their final fates are unrevealed.
• Similarly, whether or not the Borg will be destroyed or survive to assimilate another day is also part of the dramatic tension, as there's been no mention of the Collective at all in the future timeframe of Discovery — except for one passing reference made by the Federation president wherein she compared Species 10-C's hive mind to the Borg Collective — leaving their fate in the centuries separating eras unknown, until now.
• Upon beaming over to the Cube, Picard discovers they're in even worse trouble than they thought. Not only is the Borg Queen still alive, but she's gone completely insane and devolved into an Omnicidal Maniac . So, if they can't stop the Collective here and now, it won't just be the Federation that falls. The reborn Borg Collective will spread throughout the stars and annihilate rather than assimilate every single lifeform in the galaxy.
• Played for Black Comedy in the Stringer. Having experienced and survived his father's archenemy (the Borg), Jack now finds himself facing his father's other perpetual pain in his posterior (i.e. Q).
• Code: One ( Total or imminent disaster, possible invasion, or the Federation is soon to be in open war, requiring Starfleet personnel to assume tactical alert )
• General Order 12 ( On the approach of any vessels where communications have not been established, raise shields )
• Starfleet Order 104 ( In the absence of a starship's captain, a flag officer had the authority to assume command )
• Regulation 19 Section C ( An officer can assume command if an eminent threat is detected, lives of Federation citizens are in question and no officer of equal or higher rank is there to mitigate the threat ).
• When the Enterprise -D flies by Jupiter, we're treated to a high-definition closeup of the saucer section. Sharp-eyed viewers can spot brief glimpses of the interiors of Ten Forward, the ready room, and the observation lounge when the camera pans over them.
• While it's already visible in the previous episode, the 1701-D's slow approach to Jupiter orbit offers a better chance and better lighting to see the differences between the original saucer section (and what work Geordi's been able to do on it) and the Syracuse's former stardrive section. The Syracuse is obviously a cleaner, well-preserved TNG-era Galaxy -class secondary hull. The D's primary hull, of course, is older, more worn and dirty, and still bears the signs of its fiery plunge through Veridian III's atmosphere thirty years earlier and of plowing into the surface and skidding to a stop. The starboard nacelle pylon also bears the Syracuse's registry number, NCC-17744, rather than the Enterprise's , NCC-1701-D, as Geordi said in the previous episode that he was still in the process of rebuilding the engineering hull of the Syracuse .
• Frontline General : Knowing the Collective as he does, Picard correctly concludes the Borg are on site somewhere in the Sol system directing the assimilated flotilla. His hunch is right, as Data detects a Borg vessel inside of Jupiter.
• Fully Absorbed Finale : For The Next Generation , as the final season was conceived and developed by Terry Matalas to be the farewell and sendoff that Nemesis failed to provide the franchise's second most famous crew.
• "Get Out of Jail Free" Card : After saving the entire Federation from a Borg takeover and near-annihilation, Starfleet can't exactly court-martial or dishonorably discharge Picard and the old 1701-D/E command crew (or Raffi, Seven, and the Titan officers and crew) for offenses and criminal acts committed throughout the season, can they? Tuvok even lampshades it during his scene with Seven.
• The Ghost : As the crew close down the bar they imply Guinan is just off camera, but is neither seen or heard.
• Grand Finale : For both Picard and the overarching TNG saga that began in 1987. Barring any potential post-series spinoffs, it is also the chronological finale of the entire 24th century era of the franchise, as Prodigy and Lower Decks , while still in production at the time of this episode's premiere, are both set before PIC in 2380 and 2384 respectively.
• Here We Go Again! : Having concluded Picard's Trial, Q's ready to begin the "judicial process" anew with the next generation (in the form of Picard's son).
• He's Back! : A minor, if humorous example. Just as the beloved "Picard Maneuver" returned in last week's penultimate shot, the likewise beloved and iconic "Riker Lean" also returns. Riker — or at least Jonathan Frakes — must love being back on this particular bridge with its consoles and finally being able to do it again.
• Hidden in Plain Sight : The Borg cube relaying the infection signal and harboring the Borg Queen is revealed to be hiding deep within Jupiter itself, practically sitting on Starfleet's doorstep the entire time as they waited for their moment to activate the assimilation process. Now that it's actually transmitting, it's had to poke out of the gaseous surface and can be detected.
• History Repeats : The Stinger ends much as TNG began: with (a) Picard finding themselves dealing with Q.
• Honor Before Reason : After completing their mission objective, Riker and Worf go back for Picard — and despite knowing it's a one-way trip and they're likely going to die once the Enterprise destroys the beacon. Riker's loyalty and love for Picard won't allow him to leave his former Captain behind. This honor and loyalty, of course, ironically is what ends up saving them all (as Deanna senses Riker's location in the dead zone through their empathic bond).
• Hope Spot : Played for black comedy in The Stinger when Q pops in. Jack is understandably confused, recounting how his father had said Q was dead. An annoyed Q grouses he had hoped the next generation wouldn't be so linear with its thinking (something he'd previously accused Jean-Luc of being). Alas, Jack's already dashed Q's hopes within mere moments of their first meeting.
• Even more impactful is that in the last 20 or so years the Borg have gone from being a nigh-untouchable threat that even the omnipotent Q didn’t DARE mess with to being the harmless bogeymen of children’s bedtime stories and by the 32nd century are nothing more than another footnote in Federation and Galactic history barely mentioned or acknowledged by anyone.
• Hypocritical Humor : Subtle instance that also doubles as a Brick Joke for Nemesis . Back during the Kolarus III away mission — specifically during Picard's... "piloting" of the Argo — Data remarked he was forever puzzled by the human predilection for piloting vehicles at unsafe velocities. Over 20 years later, Data's doing the exact same thing with the Enterprise -D — and loving every moment of it.
• Identical Grandson : We don't actually see President Anton Chekov, only hear him through the emergency message that begins the episode - but considering the voice is that of Walter Koenig, best known as Ensign Pavel Chekov from the Original Series, who is Anton's father, it's hardly a stretch of imagination that son Anton looks a lot like dear old dad.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant : The Galaxy class Enterprise -D was part of a bygone era where ship design focused on majesty and general purpose functionality , while not lacking in weaponry they were not known for tight maneuvers, Starfleet ships became more streamlined and maneuverable after the Borg encounter and Dominion War. But thanks to Data's advanced piloting coupled with being rebuilt with Dominion War era technological components and the star drive section of the Syracuse (along with improvements in modern visual effects) the D is shown strafing the Borg cube with weapons fire, eventually diving inside at full speed with little room to spare like she’s dancing the can-can!
• Informed Flaw : It's made clear in both this episode and the previous one that the Enterprise -D is at a disadvantage, being decades out of date and not even at full strength. And yet, the command crew do so well the old ship comes off as a Lightning Bruiser , only taking some light damage. Justified in that the Borg Cube is even worse off: it's at 36% capacity, and most of that is devoted to controlling Starfleet (to say nothing of countering the immense gravitational pull of Jupiter). There are barely any functional drones left besides the Queen, so their ability to adapt is practically non-existent. Additionally, Data is the one piloting the Enterprise -D and Dr. Crusher has worked on her aim considerably in the last 20 years.
• Indy Ploy : Following on from last episode, Team Picard has grabbed the Enterprise -D — the one active Starfleet ship left not linked into the Fleet Formation protocols and thus can't be hacked — from the Fleet Museum and, with people dying every second, must improv their plan once they reach the cube.
• Picard declares that it's been an honor serving with his friends as he, Riker, and Worf prepare to leave for the cube, knowing this is a mission some or all of them may not come back from.
• Riker and Worf say their goodbyes to each other this way as it seems that the Enterprise -D won't be able to rescue them.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet : Lampshaded by Riker upon beaming onto the Borg cube, as he notes that he has never been in such a situation that ended with a "pleasant surprise".
• Keystone Army : The Borg cube transmitting the signal is also the only thing holding the attack and assimilation of Starfleet together, meaning that for Picard and his crew to succeed in saving the Federation and the galaxy, they must sever the connection by any means necessary.
• Killed Off for Real : The original Borg Collective is, effectively, extinct by the end of the episode through a combination of Janeway's virus deteriorating them down to the one single cube that was broadcasting the signal assimilating the fleet from their original trillions-strong number and its subsequent destruction at the hands of the Enterprise -D undoing said assimilation, sealing their fate completely.
• Last Stand : For Starfleet, as the Enterprise -D, the Titan -A, and Spacedock are all that's standing between the Borg and the destruction of the heart of the Federation.
• A reprise of Dennis McCarthy 's "To Live Forever" from Generations plays at the Fleet Museum in the epilogue, as the now-fully refurbished Enterprise -D takes its place alongside its legendary sister ships. It musically brings the ship full circle where we'd left it back in 1994, but also symbolizing how it really will live forever now and not be forgotten and alone on some backwater alien world.
• Jerry Goldsmith's First Contact theme (which had been part of the End Credits music throughout the final Season) returns one more time to underscore Picard's final Patrick Stewart Speech .
• Locked Out of the Loop : Since the TNG characters fled Titan last episode, Seven and Raffi have no idea what Geordi's plan was (as there was no time for him to share it before the shuttlebay deck came under attack). So, when the Titan first registers the Enterprise -D's presence in the Sol System, both Raffi and Seven are initially confused as to what the hell this is (at least until Seven puts the pieces together and deduces Team Picard's plan).
• Logo Joke : The usual opening logo card is modified for this episode, swapping the Shrike for a Borg cube, replacing the Titan -A with the Enterprise -D, and ending with a green filter and red flash akin to the laser sight of a Borg drone. And of course, replacing the usual logo card tune with the Borg's four-chord leitmotif .
• Loophole Abuse : Q's return from the dead in the Stinger — or at least how it can be Q despite his death last Season. Q is 100% definitely dead , at least at the end of his own personal timeline. But, being a non-linear being means there's an infinite spectrum of hims out there that aren't dead yet to keep coming back and harassing Picard and his progeny for a long long time to come.
• Meaningful Echo : When Jack is rescued from the Borg Cube, Admiral Picard welcomes him to the Enterprise -D. A year later, Jack is ferried to his first assignment as a Starfleet ensign and revealing to Admiral Picard that the Titan -A has been rechristened: Jack: Welcome to the Enterprise , Admiral.
• Meaningful Rename : The Titan -A, following a harrowing battle against the entire assimilated fleet, is rechristened the Enterprise -G. She’s more than earned it.
• Starfleet continues in this tradition. For Picard to put Geordi in charge actually makes sense: Commodore La Forge outranks Captain Riker and Captain Worf. That said, when he (La Forge) tries to pull Riker and Worf off the Cube, Riker says, "Belay that order" — which he cannot legally say to someone who outranks him. Since the two are True Companions , not to mention on the lam from Starfleet, no one comments. (Besides, they're all taking orders from Jean-Luc Picard, who, as a retired admiral, can give orders to nobody whatsoever . Technically, Geordi is the ranking officer.)
• It strains credibility that Jack would be fast-tracked into an officer's commission after just one year, even with two admirals as his parents. However intelligent he may be, his behavior on the bridge of the Enterprise -G makes it clear that he's not very disciplined.
• Specifically, when Sidney's connection to the Collective is severed, she initially looks dazed. It's when she looks down and sees her phaser pointed at Seven that her eyes widen in shock/horror at what she was about to do: kill the people she loved, while being helpless to stop it.
• President Chekov's warning to avoid Earth at all costs sounds a lot like President Roth's warning during the Whale Probe crisis in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home .
• Troi and Riker are able to psychically communicate, which was a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness from the TNG pilot and never seen again until now.
• Near-Villain Victory : The Assimilated Starfleet managed to destroy Earth Spacedock and the planetary shield drops. They start targeting every major city and population center just before the Enterprise -D crew destroy the Borg Cube.
• The Needs of the Many : Our heroes on the Enterprise realize that destroying the transmitter will save Starfleet but also destroy the Cube, killing their friends still aboard. As much as it pains them, they blow up the transmitter, but stick around just long enough to rescue Picard and his team.
• Nepotism : Beverly and Picard congratulate Jack on a prestigious posting so early into his Starfleet career, calling it a great honor. Jack jokes that it could also be nepotism, given his heritage, though both deny their names got him anywhere.
• Never Be Hurt Again : Part of the Borg Queen's overrarching goal is to annihilate non-Borg and ensure the Collective can never be hurt again after what Janeway did to them. Ironically, this was also the same motive behind the Changelings forming the Dominion (furthering the parallels betweem the two powers).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero : Picard's final confrontation with the Queen confirms (curiously without actually naming her) that this final campaign against the Federation is Janeway's fault. The neurolytic pathogen that the Alternate Future Admiral Janeway "bequeathed" to the Borg back in "Endgame" ravaged the Collective, leaving the Queen reduced to a wreck, alone, and hellbent on revenge against Starfleet and the Federation.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain : The Borg Queen invites Picard into the cube to gloat. This ultimately is the last fatal mistake she ever makes as it allows not only Picard, but Worf, Riker and the Enterprise -D into the cube and puts the final nail in the coffin of the original Borg Collective.
• No Endor Holocaust : The Borg remotely assimilate roughly half of Starfleet and turn it against the other half. At the very least, most if not all of the 25+ crew of the assimilated vessels were killed, along with however many assimilated crew were killed during the battle. This is on top of the casualties that would have been incurred when Earth Spacedock fell. Despite this, the Dénouement treats the event as a momentary close call rather than a horrendous loss of life, and the cast are all smiles as they wrap up the remaining plot threads. No mention whatsoever is made of the massive casualties that must have ensued or the trauma those temporarily-assimilated survivors must now be dealing with.
• No Ontological Inertia : Zig-zagged with the assimilated Starfleet youths. Jack leaving the collective simply prevents them to receive new orders, so they default to the last order received (which was to kill every non-assimilated). However, when the cube explodes, their assimilation reverts instantly.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore : Having menaced the 24th century and the entire Star Trek franchise for over thirty years, the existential threat posed by the Borg Collective has finally ended. The original Collective is gone , leaving only Jurati's friendly offshoot out there somewhere.
• Not Quite Dead : Most of the drones on the cube are at best dead and at worst actively being cannibalized by nanoprobes for raw materials. This causes Riker and Worf to let down their guard when they access a Borg terminal, as the drones in that section are relatively intact and deployed in response to the intrusion.
• Not So Above It All : Worf reveals to Riker that there's a phaser hidden in the hilt of his sword. When Riker naturally complains about his choice of tactics, Worf responds: Worf: Swords are fun.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business : The Borg have notoriously always been so fixated, dark as it might be , on assimilating other cultures and adding them to their own to improve their chances of reaching perfection and, in a twisted way, gift that opportunity (regardless of whether their victims want to or not) to any species they find intriguing enough to add to their Collective... so the moment the Borg Queen herself gloats how the Borg no longer need to assimilate anymore is a massive sign that the Borg Collective — or what remains of it — have gone off the deep end and have fully slipped into their roles as the horribly evil monsters the galaxy saw them as when the Queen emphasizes their desire is now to annihilate all other life now that they can reproduce through the usage of the assimilated techno-organic youth of Starfleet and thus need to add nothing to them.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome : The assimilated Starfleet's attack on Earth and Spacedock has been continuing off-screen while Team Picard grabbed the Enterprise -D from the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime. All orbital weapons platforms have been destroyed, but Spacedock itself has held its own and repelled the attack so far, although with the sheer amount of firepower arrayed against the facility, it's only delaying the inevitable. Spacedock wouldn't have been unaffected by the Borg signal activation last episode and they're almost certainly trying to stop the same "instant drone" uprising that hit the entire Frontier Day fleet. Yet, Spacedock has managed to either stop the assimilated Starfleet personnel, or at least forced them into an impasse — and this is also all while fighting back against the similarly assimilated Starfleet armada.
• Omnicidal Maniac : Thanks to Janeway's neurolytic pathogen she unleashed on the Borg Collective, the sole surviving manifestation of the Borg Queen was driven mad by the isolation of being all alone and deprived from their original trillions-strong chorus, now seeing the original method of the Borg as a failure because it allowed them to be hurt so bad to begin with and concluding that the response for the Borg to achieve the perfection they desire is through violent evolution via self-propagation by any means necessary. As such, after one last mass assimilation of Starfleet's youth who would all be able to give rise to newer generations of Borg without needing to devour other worlds to grow their number, the Queen would just start to wipe out all other life to avoid their Collective ever being hurt again.
• One-Winged Angel : The final Borg Queen presents herself towering over her human opponents, what's left of her biological body partially rotten and wearing the electronics that fuse her to her ship like a menacing robe, with the tubes surrounding her even alluding to spider legs . This also, however, makes her more of a Clipped-Wing Angel due to her radical transformation being a consequence of the neurolytic pathogen introduced by Janeway, so instead being a sign of her immense power over the protagonists, it instead shows how desperate the Queen is not to die by any means necessary even if costs her own physical ability and the power of the Collective in the process.
• Outrun the Fireball : The Enterprise -D fleeing the Queen's exploding cube. This is, incidentally, the second time the "D" has to do this with the Borg, following on from the original 2366-67 incursion —and the third time by an Enterprise commanded by Picard, as even the "E" had to run hell at the end of the Battle of Sector 001 in First Contact .
• Orbital Bombardment : The assimilated fleet comes very close to laying waste to Earth.
• Patrick Stewart Speech : Given the honor of the TNG crew's final toast, Picard's very last speech of the franchise is, fittingly, one more recitiation of Shakespeare (specifically Brutus' speech to Cassius from Julius Caesar , Act 4. Scene 3. Amusingly, Picard's also using the toast as part of a long-winded means of proposing one more game of Poker with his crew. Picard: There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
• Pet the Dog : Worf covertly leaks Raffi's classified Starfleet Intelligence file, showing all the commendations for valor she earned.
• More over as love is an enigma to even non Mind Hive civilizations this is the one thing that the Borg, for all their efforts, are unable to assimilate as it’s something that all logic dictates shouldn’t even EXIST and yet somehow does in defiance of said logic!
• Precision F-Strike : Riker when he tries to wield Worf's Kur'leth...and nearly drops it because he didn't realize much the Klingon weapon really weighed. Riker: Oh shit! I had no idea it was that heavy!
• Promotion, Not Punishment : Seven of Nine prepares to resign from Starfleet in the aftermath of her disobeying of direct orders before Tuvok reveals that she — based upon a prior report from Captain Shaw — is to be promoted to captain instead. Tuvok: Resignation denied...Captain.
• Rage Quit : Played for laughs when Worf gets frustrated during their final poker game and folds with only two cards. Worf: I fold! Okay?! Geordi: Seriously? Troi: With two cards?
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits : The new command crew of the Enterprise -G, as they themselves lampshade with Seven even Tempting Fate . Raffi: I still can't believe Starfleet saw fit to give a thief, a pirate, and a spy their own ship. Jack: Bunch of ne'er-do-wells and rule-breakers, really. Seven: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• Seven is promoted to captain, and given command of the Titan -A, newly rechristened into the Enterprise -G.
• The Titan -A goes from being just another ship in Starfleet to being the flagship!
• While it's not particularly commented on, as not much was said about her rank either way, Beverly Crusher goes from a resigned Starfleet officer with the (former) rank of Commander to Head of Starfleet Medical with the rank of Admiral.
• The Borg Queen's vessel wasn't hiding in a nebula as "Vox" implied, but in Jupiter's atmosphere, or at least made a beeline there from wherever she picked up Jack and assimilated him.
• Voyager did more damage to the Borg on their way out of the Delta Quadrant than even they realized. The entire Collective was left crippled by the Alternate Future Janeway's neurolytic pathogen and has imploded in the 20+ years since "Endgame". The Queen and her Cube are the last remnant of the once-mighty power.
• Code 1 means the Federation is at war with, or being invaded by, a hostile power, and all Starfleet personnel must immediately assume tactical alert.
• General Order 12 means if you approach a vessel, and cannot establish contact, you must immediately go to Red Alert.
• Starfleet Order 104 means a ranking officer can assume command of a vessel from a flag officer if they have evidence that they are compromised.
• Regulation 19, Section C permits the highest-available officer to assume command of a vessel if the lives of Federation citizens are at risk.
• Shaw's Out-of-Character Alert example to Seven during the Changeling manhunt back in "No Win Scenario" likewise plays differently now with the new context. On the first watch, it came across as Shaw being the equal parts Jerkass , if Mentor in Sour Armor , of the early episodes. Now, it's revealed to have actually been a Sarcastic Confession (and one made possible only because of how angry Shaw was at Seven's betrayal of his trust).
• The Borg Queen's facial features complete with tubes in her right eyesocket can actually be seen as part of the gooey floating head image that Vadic takes orders from in the previous episodes. Also, even though her transmission to Vadic is in a male voice, the mannerisms of Alice Krige shine through plain as day.
• Rousing Speech : Delivered by Seven during the battle. Seven: I'm not asking you to give your lives for nothing. I'm asking you to fight for what's below. Your families, your children. The Borg have taken our crew, taken our captain. But in this moment, here and now, we are all that is left of Starfleet . It's up to us.
• Continuing on from last episode, the Enterprise -D being Team Picard's starship for the last battle with the Borg. This was the ship that made official first contact between the Federation and the Collective — an encounter that set off a chain of events that led to Wolf 359 and Picard's assimilation and ripple effects that reverberated across the franchise into DS9 , VOY, and even back in time to ENT. So, it's fitting that the ship that was there at at the very beginning of the Federation-Borg conflict — and which stood against the Collective twice more before Veridian III — is back for the final confrontation between the "best of both worlds".
• it turns into Laser-Guided Karma as without any means to keep it in orbit once the beacon’s destroyed Jupiter’s gravity begins to take hold of the cube even before it explodes and dooms whatever survives to be crushed by its gravity and disintegrated into oblivion by its winds. Jupiter was also seen as the Supreme God of Justice and a defender of humanity against chaos thus where else would a race that has destroyed countless civilizations and murdered/wiped out countless races and move on like a Karma Houdini style plague of locusts be given a fitting punishment than to be defeated for good in the home system of the single space faring civilization that has not only defied them thrice but has ultimately won the battle and erased their existence from the galaxy forever.
• The dawn symbolism also takes on greatest context in the overarching TNG-era narrative. When TNG opened, the UFP was at peace with the Klingons and the Romulans had retreated into isolation after the Tomed Incident. It was a golden age of peace, exploration, and utopia for over half a century — until First Contact with the Borg. Wolf 359 shattered that golden age and seemed to open the floodgates to non-stop crises and existential threats over the next 35 years: the Maquis, the Klingon invasion of Cardassia and the sundering of the Khitomer Accords, the Dominion War, the Son'a, Shinzon, the Synth Attack on Mars, and on and on. For the nearly four decades since Wolf 359, the UFP has taken hit after hit and lost more and more of its way amidst the darkness and uncertainty. But now, the final defeat of the Borg Collective and the renegade Founders is an exorcism of the last, vengeful ghosts of the past. The long night is over and the Federation has finally found its way out of the darkness.
• And with the Titan being rechristened a year later, it's also a Passing the Torch moment from one Enterprise to another.
• The Enterprise -D's final shutdown sequence in the Fleet Museum for obvious reasons. The 24th century era began with the voyages of the Enterprise -D, Jean-Luc Picard, and his crew. From their voyages (both in-universe and on a Meta level) came DS9 and VOY (and even ENT in terms of production order). So, having been preceded by Voyager and the Defiant (and, again in production order, the NX-01), the D now joins its "younger siblings" in the figurative, honorable afterlife. Geordi shutting the ship down is literally turning off the lights of not just the D, but the entire 24th century era — and it's ending exactly where it first began 35 years earlier.
• This final game also symbolizes his Character Development not just across this series, but also since the TNG series finale. While Picard had slowly bonded with his senior officers over TNG's run, he still ultimately maintained a professional working relationship with them as The Captain (with Beverly being the sole exception). When he sat down to play poker with the command crew in "All Good Things", it was really his first steps towards interacting with them on the same level and truly seeing them as his friends , rather than as his subordinate officers. Now, thirty years later, they end as they did before with another round of poker — but this time, Jean-Luc's the one initiating the game. He's visibly relaxed and at ease, grinning, and delighted to be surrounded by the people he has come to love and cherish more than anyone else in the galaxy.
• A bit of a Black Comedy variation. Once again, the Borg are at Earth's doorstep — and for the third time now, it's up to a starship Enterprise (let alone one commanded by Picard again ) to be The Cavalry and bail out everyone's asses.
• Worf still can't win a hand of poker if his life and honor depdended upon it.
• Running Gagged : In preparing for a Suicide Mission to rescue Picard and Jack while missing their chance to beam aboard the Enterprise , Worf comments that for a moment he was worried they would actually survive the battle, and later paraphrases the oft quoted "Today is a good day to die" as they prepare to Face Death with Dignity .
• Picard grimly observes that they have to sever the Borg cube's signal controlling their Keystone Army no matter the cost. The subtext (and Beverly's reaction) is clear: saving Jack may not be an option and they may end up forced to kill him to save Earth and the Federation.
• While it's not explicitly pointed out, the Spacedock crew also got hit with this during their fight against the assimilated Starfleet armada. By firing on Starfleet vessels, they're killing their friends, peers, and innocent people who've all been turned into unwitting pawns by the Borg. But if they don't fire back, then Earth's last line of defense will fall and there will be nothing to stop the cradle of hummanity from being reduced to a smoking cinder.
• Sanity Slippage : As a result of her body being ravaged by Janeway’s pathogen and the decimation of the Collective, the Borg Queen has become noticeably more unhinged than usual, her voice losing much of its trademark calm in favor of near seething rage and resentment towards Picard and the Federation.
• "Save the World" Climax : Following on from the ending of "Vox", Picard, his allies, and the refurbished Enterprise -D are now the last hope to save the assimilated Starfleet and Federation from the Borg.
• Saved by Canon : Again, the Federation and Starfleet will survive and be restored and Earth will not be destroyed, thanks to both still existing into the late 32nd century .
• Sequel Episode : The last two episodes serves as a continuation of both "The Best of Both Worlds" and Star Trek: First Contact , culminating in a Final Battle against the Borg. It's also explictly confirmed here this is just as much a sequel to "Endgame", following up on the Collective's fate after Voyager essentially fire-bombed them on their way out of the Delta Quadrant (and their revenge 20+ years in the making).
• Sequel Hook : Similar to how Discovery 's second season ended, the series ends this way, leaving it open to the adventures of the Enterprise -G. In particular, Q shows up to tell Jack that his trial has just begun.
• Single Tear : Seven sheds one as she watches Shaw's performance review, and realizes he did respect her.
• Skyward Scream : The Borg Queen does this as her cube explodes, while Picard, Riker, Worf and Jack are beamed away and rescued as everything collapses.
• The Enterprise -D flies into the cube to destroy it, just like how the Millennium Falcon and Wedge in his X-wing destroyed the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi . Data even says "Here goes nothing" right before entering, as Lando did. It also ends the same way, with the Enterprise rocketing out of the fireball of the exploding monstrosity just like the Falcon .
• Pavel Chekov's son is named Anton—a reference both to the late actor Anton Yelchin , who played Chekov in the Kelvin film series, and to the great playwright Anton Chekhov .
• Although that smug gloating turns to silent astonishment when the D begins tearing her cube up from the inside!
• Special Edition Title : The opening bumper replaces the Titan -A with the Enterprise -D, uses darker and more subdued music, and throws in a Borg cube.
• The Stinger : After the poker game, Q shows up in Jack's quarters on the Enterprise -G, informing him that while his father's trials are over, his are just beginning .
• Stunned Silence : Played for laughs with the collective reactions of Geordi, Deanna, and even Data when Beverly uses the D's weapons systems (and with precision and force that even Worf never did) to wreck the Queen's cube like a baseball bat whacking a piñata . Dr. Beverly Crusher: A lot's happened in the last twenty years.
• Justified. All Starfleet vessels are now under Borg control thanks to the Fleet Formation synchronization protocols and assimilated crew members, or would be the moment they entered range. The hijacked Starfleet armada moved so hard and so fast that any other nearby non-Starfleet Federation or civilian vessels have already been destroyed (or fled for their lives ) in the interim while Team Picard was grabbing the Enterprise -D from the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime (however far away that is from Earth). Superman, for all intents, literally can't even fly into Gotham.
• It's also worth noting that it's unclear if there are any DS9 and VOY characters (or secondary TNG characters like Barclay) present in the vicinity of Earth. Odds are reasonable that there are some of them on site (or at least Starfleet members) due to Frontier Day. But assuming they survived the initial attack, they almost certainly have got problems of their own, with the siege of Spacedock and the impending planetary bombardment of Earth.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending : While there have been some deaths and misery over the course of the season, the original Borg Collective is finally eradicated forever and Earth, Starfleet, and the Federation are simultaneously saved by efforts of Picard, his crew, and Seven of Nine who all are commended for their efforts, pardoned for their prior actions, and are to help usher in a new hopeful era in spite of all that has happened. And to cap it off too, Picard is able to finally able to reach out to his son Jack and becomes involved with his life as his father, while Jack becomes a Starfleet officer aboard the Titan -A, now rechristened to the Enterprise -G under the command of Captain Seven-of-Nine on her first new voyage.
• There was also a possibility that the reason they had no “Plan B” was that even if things went as expected or went south there would be no place for Vadic and her changelings to retreat to as the rest of the Founders wouldn’t want them back and in fact would most likely have them hunted down for “betraying them” for siding with and aiding an even worst threat than the “solids” as the Founders were no doubt fully aware of the Borg and the danger they represented.
• More over the fact that virus also caused the Borg Collective to lose their technological and tactical advantages over their neighbors as well as the civilizations that somehow managed to survive within their own borders undetected so there’s little reason to doubt that survivors of their “assimilations” (as well as civilizations on the Borg’s “post-human assimilation” list) took full advantage of this unexpected surprise “gift” to dish out some long overdue payback! As when the Borg Queen says that she had been forced to withdraw to the sparsest places of the galaxy in a single Cube unable to even assimilate anything of worth due to the virus, it means that the Collective was literally driven out beyond even the backwaters of civilized space itself! It goes to show just how loathed and HATED the Borg truly were that the entire GALAXY was more than eager to throw a whole library’s worth of books at them when they were finally brought low! Not that the Borg didn’t have it coming to them.
• Data is shown to be taking therapy after all is said and done, going over the scheduled time by an hour and apparently having daily sessions with Troi. Considering all that has happened to him, not the least of which includes melding his personality with Lore and being revived in a body that is almost human, it's not terribly surprising.
• The refurbishment of the Enterprise -D being completed within a year during the Time Skip . While Geordi had essentially spent the past 20 years working on it in his garage on the weekends, the restoration was ultimately a side project; it was clearly a lesser priority for the Fleet Museum's resources and agenda. After helping save the Federation — a victory only made possible because of Geordi's side-project and a non-networked ship — however, it's not hard to imagine that whatever resources and manpower Geordi wants, Geordi gets. Command would also almost certainly recognize the PR value (especially in the wake of the Frontier Day nightmare) of restoring and displaying the ship that literally singlehandedly stopped the Borg Collective once and for all and saved the UFP from assimilation and annihilation.
• Despite being fast-tracked through the Academy and earning a prestigious posting on the ship of his choosing, Jack only receives a posting as "special counselor" to Captain Seven of Nine. For all his practical spacefaring experience and clout for being a Picard and a Crusher, he's still young and unused to working in a command environment. Talent and nepotism can only fast-track someone so far in an institution with a strict military hierarchy like Starfleet.
• As Jack learns the hard way in The Stinger , if your father was the favorite mortal plaything of a mischievous godlike Trickster Mentor for over 30 years, then odds are good said higher-dimensional entity's also going to take an interest in any progeny of Mon Capitaine . And since said entity transcends space and time, the fact that he died several years ago is completely meaningless; he will still make time to "drop in" at a point before his passing.
• Sword Cane : When Worf is injured by two drones, Riker is not strong enough to lift his kur'leth. As it turns out, the kur'leth has a hand phaser built into the grip. Riker quickly questions the logic of using a bladed weapon over an energy weapon. Worf shrugs it off with "Swords are fun."
• Take a Third Option : Initially, it seems the Enterprise crew must choose between blowing up the beacon and killing their friends still aboard the cube, and dooming the rest of the galaxy to assimilation and genocide. Thanks to Deanna's emotional link with Riker helping her find the away team, they end up blowing up the beacon and rescuing their friends (and Jack to boot!) in the minute left between destroying the beacon and the cube blowing up.
• Taking You with Me : Even after her plans are in ruins, the Borg Queen tries to taunt Jean-Luc and Jack with this. She does not take their subsequent rescue well.
• Take Me Instead : Picard demands that the Borg Queen take him instead of Jack — but she doesn't want him anymore. Picard: Let him go. Take me. I'm the one you want. Your equal. Borg Queen: No. I don't want you, Locutus. The future of the Borg does not lie in... assimilation but evolution.
• Teleport Gun : Seven and the crew use modified phasers that instantly beam away whoever they shoot to the transporter room, which has been locked down to keep the Borg crew occupied. Unfortunately, the crew eventually break out. Seven: Good job routing transporter fields through phasers. You may have just invented the portable beam-me-up... if we survive.
• This Cannot Be! : From the expression on the Borg Queen's face, the last thing she ever expected to see was a Galaxy -class starship suddenly show up literally right on top of her.
• This Is Gonna Suck : Played for laughs in the final scene with Worf's agonized groaning after Picard produces the deck of Poker cards. His head's bowed in resignation, knowing he's gonna get his ass kicked at the poker table (and does).
• Time Skip : Following the final battle with the Borg, the finale jumps ahead one year for its epilogue.
• Together in Death : In what he expects to be his last moments, Riker calmly muses aloud that he'll be waiting for Deanna with their son. It's then subverted when this emotion is strong enough for Troi to sense his location in the cube and bring the Enterprise -D in for a rescue.
• Trademark Favorite Food : Worf's love of Prune Juice finally returns, as Beverley's dialogue during the final scene indicates he's had at least one glass of the stuff so far that evening.
• Turn in Your Badge : Averted; when Tuvok confronts Seven of Nine about her actions in stealing the Titan-A, Seven announces her intention to resign from Starfleet. Tuvok then shows her Captain Shaw's logs, in which he commended Seven for her courage and loyalty, despite her maverick tendencies. Tuvok then informs Seven, "Resignation denied, Captain."
• Unresolved Sexual Tension : Seven tells Sidney La Forge to ignore any orders that Jack gives on the new Enterprise . She says she always does (whilst smiling) and Jack smirks to himself.
• While Tuvok was still alive, it's left unrevealed when he was captured and replaced by the Founders (leaving it either presumably several months before the Season, or during the first half of Season Three once they realized Seven and the Titan were involved).
• Seven of Nine is asked to come up with a Catchphrase for ordering the ship to warp, like "Engage" or "Make it so". Just as she is about to say it, the scene cuts to an exterior shot of the ship as it takes off.
• Nor what happens during the Time Skip . Besides Tuvok, there would've been a lot of work identifying and arresting all the infiltrators, locating and rescuing their victims, rebuilding spacedock and so forth. Was the Enterprise -D in service during that time with a full crew?
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee : When the Enterprise crew learns where the core is, Geordi is sure that not even Sidney could get them in there. However, despite it being statistically- and probability-wise impossible, Data is just so certain he can pilot the Enterprise -D in and begs the others to let him do this. He doesn't explain how , but seeing as he's going balls-to-the-wall insane with the controls, it's more than certain his reflexes are just fast enough to pull off the stunt. It certainly caught the Borg by surprise.
• The assimilated fleet is able to wear down Earth Spacedock by virtue of having so many ships that Spacedock simply can't shoot them down fast enough.
• Conversely, Spacedock holding out as long as it does buys just enough time for Picard's crew to take out the Queen and save everyone.
• Villainous Breakdown : Twofold with the Queen: her motivation for annihilating Starfleet is built around a massive case of Sanity Slippage thanks to what Janeway's virus did to the Borg (along with the expected retribution dished out by the survivors of previous Borg attacks), leaving her the Last of Her Kind and is fundamentally broken into misathropy against all other life ; then, once denied her attempt of Revenge as her Borg Cube is falling apart all around her and seeing the end of the Collective before her very eyes, the Borg Queen completely loses what bit of civility she had left and screams even if he survives, Jack will always be alone without them as they escape. Jack simply tells her, while looking at Picard, he isn't alone .
• Visual Pun : Subtle one during the final scene in Ten Forward. At the poker table, Riker is seated to Picard's right. In other words, even now ol' Number One is still figuratively and literally Picard's right-hand man.
• Wham Episode : The original Borg Collective are effectively extinct for good by the end of the episode , eradicating the most dangerous Archenemy of the Federation seemingly forever with the destruction of their last Borg cube hiding within Jupiter.
• Wham Line : "Well, look at you. A chip off the old block." Q is Back from the Dead — or at least this is Q from a point prior to his death last season. He is omnipotent, after all, and doesn't obey linear time.
• Where's Laris at the end of the season? At the beginning of the season, they're clearly a couple, but Picard never mentions her at all during the season and never tries to call her or leave a message for her.
• While the remaining rogue Changelings are taken into custody, their final fate (if Starfleet imprisoned them indefinitely like the Female Founder, or if they were extradited back to the Gamma Quadrant to face the judgment of the Great Link) is left unrevealed.
• What a Piece of Junk : When the Titan 's sensors register the Enterprise at Jupiter, Seven deduces it's Team Picard engaging the Borg. Raffi's skeptical, pointing out the "D" (or what's left of her) is ancient (both in comparison to a Borg Cube and the rest of the hijacked Starfleet). Seven counters that's ironically it's greatest stregnth — that it can't be hacked by the Borg (and Raffi, now seeing her point, agrees).
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? : Zig-zagged. For much of the original show, and indeed for much of this episode, Deanna is basically a paperweight on the bridge. But then Heart Is an Awesome Power when her telepathic link with Riker allows her to locate and rescue Picard, Worf, Riker, and Jack from inside the dead zone in the cube.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Played for laughs when an incredulous Riker demands to know why Worf even had a phaser inside his Kur'leth's handle if he wasn't going to use it. Again, cue Worf's cheeky response that swords are fun.
• Worf Had the Flu : The Borg super-cube looks immensely terrifying, and the Enterprise -D is a 40 year old ship that would ordinarily be ridiculously outmatched even if she were in peak condition (which she isn't), but the Borg are in even worse shape. The cube is only 36% functional, most of the Borg drones — the Queen included — are necrotic and barely surviving, and is devoting most of its resources to the assimilation signal that is controlling Starfleet on the other side of the Sol System as well as resisting Jupiter’s own gravitational pull. While it still has way more guns than the Enterprise , it simply can't muster the power necessary to make those guns as effective as they would be in a proper engagement.
• Year Zero : In a Captain's Log, Riker resets the stardate to 1 to reflect the unambiguous destruction of the Borg Collective and the start of a new era (one free of the Borg threat). It’s doubtful anyone in Starfleet or the Federation is going to object.
• You Can't Go Home Again : A villanious variation. The Borg Queen's ranting ("No roads by which to return home!") is an indirect mention of Voyager 's destruction of the Borg Transwarp Hub over 20 years earlier. This confirms the cascade effect from the destruction of its interspatial manifolds did indeed bring down the entire Transwarp Network, further crippling the Collective and a boon to its enemies.
• You Shall Not Pass! : This is Spacedock's situation in the interim since "Vox". With Earth's orbital defenses destroyed, it's the only thing standing between the cradle of humanity and the assimilated Starfleet armada. It does eventually fall, but its valiant defense in holding off the entirety of Starfleet's continued barrage on it bought the crew of the Enterprise -D enough time to destroy the Cube broadcasting the signal.
• You're Insane! : Picard says this to the Borg Queen verbatim when he confronts her.
• Star Trek: Picard S3E09 "Vox"
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Star Trek: The Last Generation

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Written by Andrew Steven Harris and illustrated by Gordon Purcell , the miniseries' premise centers around an alternate rendition of events in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , in which James T. Kirk fails to prevent the assassination of the Federation President , resulting in war breaking out between the Federation and the Klingon Empire . Ultimately, the Klingons conquer Earth . The miniseries takes places seventy years after these events – concurrent with the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation , and features alternate versions of Worf , Jean-Luc Picard , and Hikaru Sulu . [1] [2]

The official solicitation for issue #1 outlines the basic plot of the miniseries:

Issue #1 was ad-free. [3]

The trade paperback omnibus was released on 8 July 2009 .

• 3 Characters
• 4 External link

Creators [ ]

• Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry .
• Andrew Steven Harris (#1-5)
• Gordon Purcell (#1-5)
• Bob Almond (#1-5)
• Gordon Purcell (#2, #4)
• Terry Pallot (#4)
• Mario Boon (#1-5)
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• " Do Not Close Your Eyes "
• " No Cure for That "
• " What Happens Now "
• " Inevitability "
• " The End of History "

Characters [ ]

• Jean-Luc Picard

External link [ ]

The Last Generation at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

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Star Trek: Picard' s Finale Gives You Everything You Wanted, and That's No Longer a Problem

"the last generation" sends star trek: picard out with something it has craved since the very beginning: acceptance and understanding of itself..

A l ittle over three years ago, I said of Picard ’s first season finale that it gave its audience everything it wanted— and that that was a problem . Today, for its third and seemingly last season finale, I find myself wanting to tell you a similar thing. But I can’t, because while Picard ’s last goodbye does give you everything you wanted, I no longer think that it’s a detriment.

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The thing is, not a lot really happens in “The Last Generation.” A lot is happening—there’s spaceship dogfights, a threat against all of Earth, a ship turning into a base under siege as it gets in spaceship dogfights, Alice Krige’s Borg Queen borging it up, and the Enterprise -D defying all odds against its ginormous saucer structure to pull a Return of the Jedi Death Star II bombing run against a Borg Cube. All of these things are a lot , and they indeed are happening. But for all the spectacle and phaser-light shows that punctuate the vast majority of the episode, “The Last Generation” is at its heart a deceptively simple, earnest story. And that story is, to borrow the earlier Return of the Jedi parallel, kind of an inverse Star Wars riff wherein it is the father that must save the son, and reforge a familial link that has the power to face overwhelming odds.

What makes most of Picard ’s nostalgic overtures here work (a few are a bit groan-worthy, mostly in the sentimental epilogue that makes up the episode’s back third, which we’ll get to later) is that, beyond being in service of this simple core idea, at long last Picard itself is unabashed about the love it has for this world and these characters. For as surface level as a lot of this stuff is—it’s an hour-long action movie that has to do service to two separated groups of characters, and one of those groups is made up entirely of people who you might not ever see embody roles they have embodied for over three decades off and on again in such a manner—the show doesn’t question why this is happening. It knows why it’s happening. You want to see the Enterprise swirl through Borg fire, phasers flaring to match. You want to see Picard face the Borg Queen, who has haunted him for decades, and win . You want to see the TNG crew crack jokes with each other in the face of danger, because they’re comfortable with each other and love each other in such a way that even in the darkest of hours they shine brightly. You want big heroes giving big speeches and standing in front of a starship view screen, you want last-minute transporter beam-outs saving the day, and Picard finally, finally goes “oh go on, we want that too.”

There is no real convoluted reason for any of this, and although much of this last season has provided the set up for this hour of gleeful spectacle to happen, what happens here in the moment of “The Last Generation” is Picard letting itself go with the flow, and finally knowing what it really is all along: deeply, madly, fannishly in love with these characters. This might seem like a thing you could equally say in a derogatory fashion, and perhaps you could—especially as Picard has tried to do this before and it’s very much not worked, from season one routing all the interrogation of Starfleet and Picard himself in its final hour to season two , well... going off the deep end in a very different way. So why does “The Last Generation” succeed where they failed? Because there is no middle ground here, no time for half measures. You have Patrick Stewart and the main cast of The Next Generation together on screen for what could be the final time? You go for it . Hell, you throw in Federation President Anton Chekov, son of Pavel, played by Walter Koenig, just because you can!

And by keeping things as simple as it does—while the Titan faces off against both its assimilated youth and the corrupted fleet turning on Earth’s defenses, Picard has to infiltrate the Borg Cube and rescue a now fully assimilated Jack from the clutches of the Queen— Picard allows itself to marinate in its characters as much as it does the razzle-dazzle of phaser beams and explosions. It gives time to have Geordi, Beverly, Troi, Riker, Worf, and Data not just be heroes but be comfortable with each other, connected in the same ways Jack seeks to be and believes he could find in the rebirth of the Borg, but ultimately finds in his father earnestly reaching out to him, being willing to almost sacrifice himself up to the scars of his time as Locutus if it means connecting to his son. It’s those connections that save the day: Picard breaking through to Jack; Geordi and his friends putting their faith in Data to pilot the Enterprise through to the heart of the Borg ship to save Riker, Worf, Picard and Jack—and Deanna trusting her connection to Riker to guide the ship to them. The remaining crew of the Titan puts their faith in Seven to stand up to the assimilated Starfleet and buy the time needed to pull off the impossible.

Everything is wrapped up just as simply, and perhaps even a little too conveniently, but in a way it feels like Picard begrudgingly accepts this as well. Stopping the Borg Queen reviving the collective with her greatest enemy was never really the point, so it essentially being stopped by blowing up an off switch is fine. It’s the characters and their bonds that were the real heart of it, and “The Last Generation” celebrates that lovingly—and that’s even before its bittersweet epilogue. As the dust settles and we jump ahead a year (just as conveniently, so we can have Starfleet and Earth back to normal), everything is as it should be. Dr. Crusher, now Admiral Crusher, has stopped running from her friends, and now leads Starfleet’s medical wing. Her son, free of the Collective, has followed in his parents’ footsteps for real and joined Starfleet. Seven of Nine, in a wonderful scene for Voyager fans, finally re-unites in the same room with Tim Russ’ Tuvok and is officially instated as c aptain of the Ti -oh, sorry, the Enterprise -G (this, this is the groanworthy fanservice, I feel. The disrespect to the Enterprise -F!). And Jack and Raffi, the actual Next Generation, will be beside her.

And then there’s them. The crew. They’re going their separate ways—Riker and Troi retired and going on a much needed vacation, Worf has exited the shadows of i ntelligence work to instead lecture, Geordi is back at the Fleet museum, and Data, Beverly, and Picard have all seemingly decided to stick around with Starfleet in various capacities too. But for one last night, they gather a round after a night at Ten Forward for a game of poker. Heroes of times passed, friends of the here and now and of the future, as the triumphant blare of the Next Generation theme plays out legends. It’s a fitting end for these revered figures, suitably balancing that fine line between finality and potential openness. A post-credits scene has other plans to make things not so final with a tip-of-the-hat nod to the Legacy demands, as a surprisingly returned Q blips aboard the Enterprise -G to inform young Mr. Crusher that while his father’s trial is over, his is just beginning. B ut it doesn’t take away from the overall conclusion “The Last Generation” places over three and a half decades of history here—a fitting embrace of the past, that doesn’t forget the potential of the future.

It’s farewell from Star Trek: Picard . And at long last, it’s earned it.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

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In case you missed it, here’s a preview clip for the new episode from last week’s edition of  The Ready Room with Wil Wheaton .

THE LAST GENERATION — In a desperate last stand, Jean-Luc Picard and generations of crews both old and new fight together to save the galaxy from the greatest threat they’ve ever faced as the saga of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ comes to a thrilling, epic conclusion.   Written and directed by Terry Matalas.

In addition, Paramount+ has released a number of new photos of the  Next Generation cast back on the Galaxy -class bridge — in a collection of images from last week’s “Võx” by unit photographer Trae Patton, and new cast publicity photos from Paramount+’s Sarah Coulter.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 will conclude on April 20 with “The Last Generation” on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada, following the next day in the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The series is also available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most other international locations.

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Star Trek Sets the Stage for Wesley Crusher's Galaxy-Shaking Return

• In Star Trek #19, by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Megan Levens, the stage is set for Wesley Crusher's epic return.
• Wesley's organization, the Travelers, are a powerful, but mysterious group who may hold the key to the franchise's god war.
• There could also be dire ramifications if Wesley meets his mother for the first time in years.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek #19!

Wesley Crusher has been suspiciously absent from Star Trek ’s franchise-shaking god war, but now the stage has been set for his return. Wesley’s mother, Doctor Beverly Crusher, was a key player in the god war–but little mention has been made of her god-like son. Now, in Star Trek #19, Doctor Crusher and the crew of the Theseus are heading to the Pleroma –and maybe Wesley Crusher as well.

Star Trek #19 is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Megan Levens. In a text piece, made to resemble Doctor Crusher’s personal log, she reflects on her recent victories aboard the Theseus. She then switches gears, mentioning Wesley. Doctor Crusher wonders if there is anything she could have done to keep him closer. She also stresses she may not even have factored into his decision to leave.

Later, she talks with Captain Sisko about their impending trip to the Pleroma.

She tells him it is “personal” and he immediately knows she is going to look for Wesley.

Wesley Crusher Was More Than Just a Starfleet Cadet

Wesley had powers beyond normal humans.

Introduced as one of the main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Wesley Crusher was a precocious kid living aboard the Enterprise. He would eventually leave the show midway through its fourth season to attend Starfleet Academy, but it never sat right with him. Disillusioned, he dropped out. In the seventh season Next Generation episode “Journey’s End,” Wesley learned of his true nature. Wesley leaves his family and friends behind to join the mysterious Travelers. As revealed in Star Trek #400, this was a one-way trip for Wesley, as he was not allowed to revisit his loved ones.

In Star Trek: Year Five , Wesley's bosses were referred to as the Aegis.

Wesley returned to the screen, as a full-fledged Traveler, in the season two finale of Star Trek: Picard. This episode also connected the Travelers to the Supervisors introduced in the Original Series’ second season. Prior to launching the flagship Star Trek title, Lanzing and Kelly had already handled the Supervisors in Year Five, where they were cast as the villains. In a recent interview with ScreenRant, Lanzing and Kelly admitted their story was completed before Picard’s season finale, but hinted that the two visions can be reconciled. The Pleroma may hold the key to Wesley Crusher’s return.

Star Trek's Darkest Timeline Turns Wesley Crusher into Picard's Opposite

Wesley's return to the star trek universe is almost guaranteed, what would be the cost of wesley's return.

In the ScreenRant interview, Lanzing and Kelly all but stated Wesley would be returning in a future issue of Star Trek. No details were given, but the Pleroma, the “Realm of the Gods,” is an entirely new place in the Star Trek universe. The Travelers and the Supervisors may have access to the Pleroma already, meaning Doctor Crusher could be reunited with Wesley sooner than later. However, the consequences of a Traveler returning home have never been fully explored. The ramifications of Wesley Crusher’s return to the Star Trek universe could be devastating.

Star Trek #19 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

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• Trivia Almost everyone in the cast became life-long friends. At LeVar Burton 's 1992 wedding, Brent Spiner served as best man, and Sir Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , and Michael Dorn all served as ushers. Man of the People (1992) (#6.3) aired on that day.
• Goofs It is claimed that Data can't use contractions (Can't, Isn't, Don't, etc) yet there are several instances throughout the series where he does. One of the first such examples is heard in Encounter at Farpoint (1987) , where Data uses the word "Can't" while the Enterprise is being chased by Q's "ship".

[repeated line]

Capt. Picard : Engage!

• Crazy credits The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.
• Alternate versions The first and last episodes were originally broadcast as two-hour TV movies, and were later re-edited into two one-hour episodes each. Both edits involved removing some scenes from each episode.
• Connections Edited into Reading Rainbow: The Bionic Bunny Show (1988)

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Published Apr 19, 2024

Remembering John G. Trimble

StarTrek.com honors the luminary whose contributions saved the Star Trek universe.

Mark Davis/StarTrek.com

StarTrek.com is saddened to report the passing of John G. Trimble, who passed away the morning of April 19, 2024, as confirmed by his daughter Lora Boem in a post .

Star Trek and fandom as we know it all stems from the efforts and passion of John and his wife Bjo Trimble , the couple who launched a grassroots letter writing campaign to Save Star Trek following NBC’s cancellation of the Original Series, resulting in a third season. With enough episodes then, Star Trek was able to enter syndication, propelling it into a phenomenon that warranted an animated series in 1973 and big-budget feature in 1979.

John and Bjo Trimble, in 2016, were brought on stage at Star Trek Las Vegas in celebration of the 50th anniversary, and the Star Trek franchise team surprised and honored them with a painted portrait of them by artist JK Woodward.

StarTrek.com

Recalling their efforts after a visit to the Original Series set , following the 50th anniversary honor, John Trimble told StarTrek.com, "When we saw the change in the cast and crew during the filming of 'The Deadly Years' from what it had been before, we knew something was going on. It had been a very up cast and crew, and now it was very down, the mood. We found out by going to craft services, the underground gossip source, that they were probably going to cancel the show after the second season. We had to leave and go back to Oakland, where we lived at the time, and on the way, we were talking about what a change it had been in the cast. I turned to Bjo and I said, 'There ought to be something we can do about that,' knowing full well that that was throwing down the challenge."

The couple immediately sprang into action. John Trimble added, "We spent the rest of the trip going up the Central Valley, before Interstate 5, back to Oakland, discussing how to do it and putting together the Save Star Trek campaign."

Bjo Trimble credited John for building out the framework of their grassroots campaign, "We knew, of course, we were going to have to both mail letters. John went down to the post office, learned all about mail rules, and brand new was the zip code system. They told us, flat out, that if material wasn't zip coded it wouldn't go out as bulk mail, that it would just sit in the post office. John got all the books in those days, and it was stacks of them, and learned about the zip code rules. And we came home and put those into effect when we mailed out letters. John was downstairs with a hand-cranked mimeograph machine, turning out the letters, which we still have a copy or two. We folded them, labeled them and stamped them, and put them in bulk mail. He was doing a whole bunch of the physical work, the grunt work. I was more getting people over to help us. It was actually wonderful. We would work the volunteers hard all weekend. John was everywhere; he was the one who ran the errands. He's the one who lifted, toted, and basically it simply was not possible for me to do it alone. This is why we're a pair."

The decades following their legendary writing campaign, John and Bjo Trimble remained ambassadors for science fiction, the space program, and the Society of Creative Anachronism. The pair continued to attend Star Trek premiere and events, meeting fellow fans and sharing their enthusiasm for each new iteration of Star Trek and generation of fandom, including last year’s Star Trek: Picard Season 3 red carpet premiere in Hollywood, CA.

The entire Star Trek family sends their condolences to Trimble’s family, friends, and loved ones around the world.

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Star trek: tng has a surprising fleetwood mac connection.

A member of Fleetwood Mac made a surprising appearance on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

• Mick Fleetwood, drummer of Fleetwood Mac, made a cameo in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 episode "Manhunt" as an alien ambassador.
• Fleetwood was a big Star Trek fan and requested to be part of the show, shaving his beard for the role and beaming on board the USS Enterprise-D.
• Many musicians have made surprise appearances in Star Trek, including Michelle Phillips, Iggy Pop, and Tom Morello, showcasing the franchise's appeal to diverse celebrities.

Classic 1970s rock band Fleetwood Mac has a surprising connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation . Beginning with its two-episode premiere in 1987, TNG brought live-action Star Trek back to television for the first time since the cancelation of Star Trek: The Original Series . While many fans of TOS were initially nervous about a Star Trek series that didn't feature Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) or Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek: The Next Generation went on to become a massive hit and one of the greatest science fiction series of all time.

Thanks to reruns and syndication, Star Trek: The Original Series developed a significant fanbase in the years following its cancelation. Many celebrities have talked about their love of Star Trek over the years, but some went even further, requesting a role in a Trek project. For example, Whoopi Goldberg reached out to TNG's producers and eventually took on the role of Ten Forward bartender Guinan, who appeared in 29 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation , as well as the movies Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: Nemesis . Mick Fleetwood, the drummer and leader of Fleetwood Mac, was also a huge Star Trek fan. After requesting a role in Trek , Fleetwood appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 19, "Manhunt" as an alien ambassador.

10 Star Trek Guest Star Actors You Forgot About

Mick fleetwood was in an episode of star trek: tng, fleetwood was unrecognizable in a cameo in tng season 2, episode 19, "manhunt.".

Mick Fleetwood plays an Antedian dignitary in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 episode, "Manhunt." Both of whom spend most of the episode in a catatonic state. Fleetwood was a big Star Trek fan and wanted to be a part of the show in whatever way he could, although he did have one request. In a 2015 interview with the Vancouver Sun , Fleetwood spoke about his TNG role, saying he told producers that he would shave his beard " if you promise me that I get to beam down or beam up." Due to the extensive prosthetics required to play the fish-like Antedian, Fleetwood did shave his beard, and the Antedians were beamed onto the USS Enterprise-D at the beginning of the episode. Despite being unrecognizable, Mick Fleetwood got his wish to be part of the Star Trek universe.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 's "Manhunt," the USS Enterprise-D picks up two Antedian dignitaries, including Mick Fleetwood who need transportation to a conference on Pacifica. Soon after the Antedians arrive, the USS Enterprise-D receives a message that Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) will also be traveling to the conference. The mother of Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Lwaxana has entered a part of a Betazoid woman's life known as The Phase, and she is determined to find a husband. She initially sets her sights on Captain Picard, but ultimately leaves the Enterprise without a partner. Before she departs, however, Lwaxana reveals that the Antedian dignitaries are actually assassins who were planning to set off a bomb at the conference.

Lwaxana Troi had previously been introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 11, "Haven," and, in total, she appeared in six episodes of TNG and 3 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Star Trek Has Other Surprising Musician Cameos

Star trek has a long history of celebrity cameos, including multiple rock stars and singers..

Mick Fleetwood was not the only musician who popped up in Star Trek over the years. Before Fleetwood's appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation , Michelle Phillips of the pop group The Mamas & the Papas portrayed Picard's former flame, Jenice Manheim, in TNG season 1, episode 24, "We'll Always Have Paris." The "Godfather of Punk," Iggy Pop appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 10, "The Magnificent Ferengi," as a Vorta named Yelgrun. DS9's executive producer Ira Steven Behr was responsible for casting Iggy Pop, as he was a big fan of the musician.

Tom Morello, former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, was such a big Star Trek fan that he reportedly contacted producer Rick Berman to request a role in Star Trek: Insurrection . Although Morello briefly appeared as a member of the Son'a species, his character was uncredited and barely seen. Because of this, he was asked to return for Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 20, "Good Shepherd," in which he portrayed Starfleet Crewman Mitchell. With its massive and dedicated fanbase, the Star Trek franchise has had quite a few memorable celebrity cameos, including several famous musicians.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star trek: deep space nine, star trek voyager.

Lost for a generation, original ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise model finally completes its voyage home

DALLAS (AP) — The first model of the USS Enterprise — used in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series — has boldly gone back home, returning to creator Gene Roddenberry’s son decades after it went missing.

The model's disappearance sometime in the 1970s had become the subject of lore, so it caused a stir when it popped up on eBay last fall. The sellers quickly took it down, and then contacted Dallas-based Heritage Auctions to authenticate it. Last weekend, the auction house facilitated the model's return.

Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, said he's thrilled to have the model that had graced the desk of his father, who died in 1991 at age 70.

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“This is not going home to adorn my shelves," Roddenberry said. “This is going to get restored and we’re working on ways to get it out so the public can see it and my hope is that it will land in a museum somewhere.”

Heritage's executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said the auction house was contacted by people who said they'd discovered it a storage unit, and when it was brought into their Beverly Hills office, he and a colleague “instantly knew that it was the real thing.”

They reached out to Roddenberry, who said he appreciates that everyone involved agreed returning the model was the right thing to do. He wouldn't go into details on the agreement reached but said “I felt it important to reward that and show appreciation for that.”

Maddalena said the model vanished in the 1970s after Gene Roddenberry loaned it to makers of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," which was released in 1979.

“No one knew what happened to it," Rod Roddenberry said.

The 3-foot (0.91-meter) model of the USS Enterprise was used in the show's original pilot episode as well as the opening credits of the resulting TV series, and was the prototype for the 11-foot (3-meter) version featured in the series' episodes. The larger model is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

The original “Star Trek” television series, which aired in the late 1960s, kicked off an ever-expanding multiverse of cultural phenomena, with TV and movie spinoffs and conventions where a fanbase of zealous and devoted Trekkies can’t get enough of memorabilia.

This USS Enterprise model would easily sell for more than $1 million at auction, but really “it’s priceless," Maddalena said.

“It could sell for any amount and I wouldn’t be surprised because of what it is," he said. “It is truly a cultural icon.”

Roddenberry, who was just a young boy when the model went missing, said he has spotty memories of it, “almost a deja vu.” He said it wasn't something he'd thought much about until people began contacting him after it appeared on eBay.

“I don't think I really, fully comprehended at first that this was the first Enterprise ever created,” he said.

He said he has no idea if there was something nefarious behind the disappearance all those decades ago or if it was just mistakenly lost, but it would be interesting to find out more about what happened.

“This piece is incredibly important and it has its own story and this would be a great piece of the story,” Roddenberry said.

Thankfully, he said, the discovery has cleared up one rumor: That it was destroyed because as a young boy, he'd thrown it into a pool.

“Finally I’m vindicated after all these years,” he said with a laugh.

How Battlestar Galactica Recruited A Star Trek Alum For Its Best Villain

The Cylons, androids created by man, are the villains of "Battlestar Galactica," but they wear human guises . This reflects how the show's human heroes are all deeply flawed people and humanity's foibles (from arrogance to self-destructive) continue to haunt them even as their technology soars past the modern day.

Indeed, the best villain in "Battlestar Galactica" was a human character: Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes), commander of the Battlestar Pegasus. In the series' pilot min-series, the Cylons attack humanity's 12 colonies. The only survivors appear to be Galactica herself and a handful of civilian spaceships, who set out to find the mythical world Earth to be their new home.

Midway through season 2 in the episode, "Pegasus," the Galactica and her fleet meet the Pegasus, the other Battlestar which survived the genocide. (Galactica, as an older model, didn't have networked computers for the Cylons to hack, while Pegasus was undergoing a retrofit and so avoided the full brunt of the Cylons' virus). It doesn't stay a happy reunion for long. In a great dramatic move, Cain pulls rank on Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) and wastes no time asserting her authority. The weight of her grave situation has made her snap, turning her into a dictator who cares not about preserving humanity but about going down swinging against the Cylons. If any subordinates question her, she kills them. 

Forbes, one of few actors who can be as steely and coldly terrifying as Olmos, was perfect casting. Moments like the cliffhanger ending of "Pegasus," where Adama and Cain have a tense phone call before their ships prepare for battle, make me think "Battlestar Galactica" might be the best science-fiction series ever filmed. 

Before "Galactica," series co-creator Ronald D. Moore was a writer on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" — which is where he first worked with Forbes.

Star Trek's Ensign Ro

Forbes joined "The Next Generation" in season 5 as Ensign Ro Laren and was a recurring character; she appeared in six of the season's 26 episodes. My first experience watching "The Next Generation" was a season 5 DVD box set, so I think of Ro as a more integral part of the show than she really was.

Ro is a Bajoran. (Like Southeast Asian cultures, Bajoran names arrange the family name preceding the given name.) Ro Laren's full history can be read here , but the nuts and bolts are: Bajor has long been occupied by the imperialist Cardassians and Ro grew up in a refugee camp. Her membership in Starfleet is more of an alliance of convenience; she certainly doesn't share the organization's idealism. In her last appearance (season 7's "Preemptive Strike," the penultimate "Next Generation" episode), she defects to the anti-Cardassian terrorist organization the Maquis.

Producer Rick Berman (who co-created Ro with writer Michael Piller) wanted to shake up the Enterprise-D crew dynamic. Quoted in "The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion" by Larry Nemecek, Berman says, "The other characters in the cast are relatively homogeneous; some might even say bland. So we wanted a character with the strength and dignity of a Starfleet officer but with a troubled past, an edge." Forbes was cast as Ro due to an impressive guest appearance in the season 4 episode "Half A Life" ( far from the only time "Star Trek" has reused an actor as a different character ).

Michelle Forbes passes on more Star Trek

The "Trek" producers were so impressed by Forbes they offered her a bigger, more permanent part.  "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," set on a station orbiting the liberated Bajor , was originally conceived with Ro as part of the main cast; she would move over from "Next Generation" to "Deep Space Nine" alongside Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney). But Forbes declined the part and Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) was created hastily to replace Ro.

Speaking to Indiewire in 2016 , Forbes admitted she's a "commitment-phobe." For some actors, a regular part on a TV show would be a godsend, but evidence suggests that wasn't what Forbes wanted. She preferred to focus on her film career, which by nature required only short(er) commitments and moving from project to project.

Forbes started shifting back to television in the late 90s (she was part of the main cast for seasons 5 and 6 of "Homicide: Life on the Street"). She was getting work in the movies, but alas, she wasn't a star the way someone with her talent deserved to be. That move eventually led to her getting the offer for "Battlestar Galactica."

Forbes appeared on the episode of the "Battlestar Galacticast" covering "Pegasus." (This is a podcast covering the series, one episode at a time, hosted by actress Tricia Helfer, aka Cylon Number Six, and writer Marc Bernadin.) Forbes discussed how she and her agents almost declined the role until she watched some of "Battlestar Galactica." Though wary of being typecast as a woman of authority, she knew she wanted to be a part of the series. "How close one can come to making bad decisions," Forbes prefaced the story.

Admiral Cain on Battlestar Galactica

"Pegasus" is roughly adapted from "Living Legend," one of the few times "Battlestar Galactica" remade an episode of the original 1978 series. Moore said on the DVD commentary for "Pegasus" that he wanted to remake "Living Legend" since he first accepted the "Galactica" job. He made the story his own, though, adding the twist of Cain (played by Lloyd Bridges in "Living Legend") being Adama's superior and a woman. The show had previously gender-flipped the hot shot pilot Starbuck, played by Dirk Benedict in the original and then by future  "Mandalorian" star Katee Sackhoff in the remake.

On "Trek," Moore wrote two episodes featuring Ro Laren: "Disaster" and "The Next Phase." But while he'd worked with Forbes before, he hadn't reimagined Cain with her in mind, nor was she his first choice. Moore and co. looked at many different actresses for the part and chose Forbes from that sea of options. Like most of their casting choices, it was a good call.

One detail of Forbes' casting that Moore appreciated was her relatively young age (she's 18 years younger than Olmos and was only 40 when she first played Cain). This added dimension to Cain's character; unlike the veteran Adama, she was a fast-tracked admiral who'd snapped when push came to shove.

As for Ro, with her "hot temper" and "rough edges" (as Forbes described her on the "Galacticast"), she would probably fit in better on Galactica than the Enterprise-D. After Ro defects to the Maquis in "Preemptive Strike," Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) observes to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) that she seemed convinced she was doing the right thing. Cain shares that same sense of conviction. 

The fall of Admiral Cain

Forbes admitted on "Galacticast" that she didn't quite piece together the "Star Trek" parallels (i.e. how Moore was purposefully flipping "Trek" clichés on their head) in "Battlestar Galactica." Even so, the same strengths that made Forbes excellent as Ro helped her play Cain. Forbes didn't play the Admiral as insane, merely hardened ( as she told TV Zone in 2006 ):

"She's lost perspective. People ask, 'Is she insane? Is she psychotic?' I hope that's not how she came across because that was never the intention. I think some individuals can appear to be that way, but this is a woman who did what she had to do in order to survive during some very brutal conflicts. Along the way, Cain lost her sense of judgement as well as her sense of reason and rationale."

Cain was a temporary part by design (at the end of her third appearance, "Resurrection Ship Part 2," she's murdered an escaped Cylon prisoner), which is probably another reason Forbes agreed to it. Still, the character was so memorable that Moore and his writers found a way to bring her back. Not with any hackneyed resurrection (though Cain as a Cylon could have been a great twist), but with the prequel TV movie "Razor," showing what Pegasus was up to before its rendezvous with Galactica and how Cain became the ruthless tyrant she was in "Pegasus."

When Michelle Forbes worked on both "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica," both shows clearly understood the kind of actor they had on their hands and did their best to get all they could out of her.

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The long lost original model of the USS Enterprise has been returned

The model, in the opening credits of Star Trek , had been missing since the 1970s. It popped up on eBay last fall. The seller helped facilitate its return to the family of the creator of Star Trek .

(SOUNDBITE OF ALEXANDER COURAGE'S "THEME FROM STAR TREK")

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Leila Fadel.

The long-lost original model of the USS Enterprise, the one that could be seen in the opening credits of the TV show "Star Trek," has been returned. Missing since the 1970s, the model popped up on eBay last fall. The seller eventually took down the item and helped facilitate its return to Rod Roddenberry, the son of the late "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry, the son, says he now hopes to get the model into a museum for the public to enjoy.

It's MORNING EDITION.

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