“The Last Generation”
Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, April 20, 2023
Written and directed by Terry Matalas
A pitch-perfect season and series finale delivered action, humor, and a whole lot of well-earned character emotion.
Doctor, you are in my spot.
WARNING: Spoilers below!
RECAP
“What began over 35 years ago ends tonight!”
The USS Enterprise-D (so excited to say that!) ignores the broadcast warning from the Federation President to avoid Earth: Spacedock is the last line of defense and there are no reinforcements coming. They track the Borg signal to Jupiter and find a huge cube hiding in the big red spot… sneaky. Jack is identified as the source of the “command signal” that is Borgifying Starfleet and they have to sever that connection “no matter the cost.” The cube drops shields in an arrogant “invitation” and Jean-Luc accepts, joined by Riker… and Worf, who offers to “make it a threesome”… Phrasing! Geordi is left in command as Picard takes a moment to look at his crew do the “It’s been an honor” thing… gulp. Things are extra creepy down on the “tomb” of a cube, which is eerily quiet, and they find most of the drones dead, their tissue being “cannibalized.” Bev has located Jack, so the landing trio is going to split up, with Jean-Luc saying it is time for him to stop being a captain and start being a dad. None of these guys think they are going to live out the day and their goodbyes are devastating.
Jean-Luc goes deeper into the unimatrix array where he finds Jack, all Borgified, a decrepit Queen hovering over him. Fused to the wall, this fresco from hell laughs as she welcomes Locutus, who can only watch as Jack issues orders and spouts Borg platitudes. The queen declares herself a proud mother, telling a defiant yet powerless Picard that Jack (and he) have been her salvation after the Federation left the collective “poisoned” and dying. Now they will rise again using Jack and Picard’s biology, giving up assimilation for this new “evolution.” Elsewhere, Worf and Riker have sorted out where the beacon is, and fight off some of the last drones as the cube fires on the Enterprise, but weapons officer Beverly (yes Beverly) takes out the turrets with ease. The beacon is buried impossibly deep in the cube but Data has a “gut” feeling so he goes full Lando and Nien Nunb diving the big D (phrasing?) into the Borg ship… and Deanna senses he is loving every terrifying moment. Knowing that time is running out for Earth, Picard starts unplugging Jack, ignoring the Queen’s protestation that his son is hers now. The desperate father is taken aback when Jack continues the attack, only saying “We are the Borg, resistance is futile.” He’s a real chip off the Locutus-block.
I make the Borg look good.
“We are all that is left of Starfleet.”
Over on the Titan, Seven has her hands full as she and Raffi fight their way through all the Borfigied youngsters, eventually taking over the bridge using some cool “portable beam-me-up” darts that send the Borgies to a locked transporter room. Spotting the Enterprise D taking on the cube, Seven knows she has to buy Picard time. The plan is to disconnect from the fleet control thing using the cloaking device to distract with a counterattack, but Seven first needs to rally her ragtag bridge crew made up of the remaining middle-aged folks on the ship, including the doctor at ops and a terrified cook as pilot. Seven rallies this team of misfits with a rousing speech that would impress Picard himself as she reminds them what they are fighting (and probably dying) for.
Through a series of hit-and-run attacks, the Titan starts to get the notice of the Collective by diverting resources and hopefully buying that time for Picard’s team. But one ship against the unified fleet can only do so much, especially as the Borg kids have broken out of the transporter room and sabotaged the cloaking device, bringing this raiding party to an end. Dead in the water, Seven’s bridge crew can only watch in horror as Spacedock falls. With the Titan neutralized and the planet’s last defenses dispatched, the Borgified Starfleet turns towards Earth and begins to target all the main population centers, planning to fulfill the Collective’s new directive to eliminate all the non-assimilated. Oh, and the Titan’s youngsters are headed to the bridge to do the same. Thankfully Captain Shaw didn’t live to see his ship come to this… Too soon?
Don’t look at me like that Raffi, we have work to do.
“There was a moment today where I was worried we might survive.”
Things look up when Data gets the Enterprise to the beacon, but Geordi realizes if they take it out, it will take the cube with it—along with the away team. Faced with the worst “needs of the many” decision ever, they reluctantly recognize what they must do. Riker and Worf do too as they vow to stay and try to get to Jack and Jean-Luc, knowing there is likely not enough time, but Will speaks for them both: “I owe him a lifetime, the least I can spare is a minute.” Deep in the cube, Jean-Luc realizes the only way to get to Jack is to do the thing he vowed never to do again: plug himself into the Collective. There he finds his son, seduced by the “euphoria” of all those voices speaking as one. Jean-Luc understands and tries to connect, telling Jack he joined Starfleet to find a connection he could never find at home but now understands that Jack was the family he was always missing. In this Borg mind space the assimilated young man wavers, but the allure of perfection is too strong and he declares this is where he belongs. Kids, am I right?
Out of time on the D, Geordi leaves it to a heartbroken Beverly to fire at the beacon, destroying it and setting off a chain reaction. Knowing what’s coming, Picard tells his son he will stay with him “until the end.” This final embrace breaks through as Jack recognizes he too has changed, giving him the strength to break the hold of the hive mind. Awakened, father and son unplug from the collective. Worf and Riker are there too, with the cube coming apart around them, the Klingon is ready to die with honor and Riker says his final goodbye to his Imzadi. (I’m not crying, you’re crying.) But that connection is the key. Deanna senses them and maneuvers the ship in to beam them out… at the last second of course, leaving the screaming Queenie to be incinerated. The cube’s destruction ends the Borg’s control of the fleet. Earth is saved and these families are reunited with hugs on the bridges of the Titan and Enterprise, except for an exhausted and wounded Worf, who falls asleep… snoring. I know how he feels, this episode has been emotionally exhausting… and it’s far from over.
The queen has really let herself go.
“Names mean almost everything.”
The threat is over, but there are a number of season threads left to tie up. A captain’s log from Riker sums up the aftermath by declaring this “a new day for friends both old and young.” Time starts progressing as Beverly is promoted to Admiral to oversee Starfleet Medical, purging the fleet’s young officers of Borg stuff and purging the fleet of the remaining Changelings. Real Tuvok briefs Seven on how everyone (including her) gets a pardon for “hijacking” the Titan and disobeying orders. Seven offers to resign over all the insubordination, but her former USS Voyager colleague surprises her with a recording of Captain Shaw’s final crew assessment, calling Seven “reckless” but acknowledging maybe she is just the kind of rulebreaker Starfleet needs. Tuvok rejects her resignation, calling her “Captain.” Dips—t from Chicago FTW! Raffi also gets some closure thanks to Worf leaking her classified heroics to the galaxy, to the delight of her ex and son who want her to finally meet her granddaughter. That Klingon is a big softy, even giving her a hug! Deanna and Riker are also ready to move on together as she plans a much-needed vacation, even as she gives Data one of many counseling sessions to help cope with all his various new feelings that include crying over a random cat. Maybe he just needs a new Spot.
Jump to one year later, and a fixed-up Enterprise-D is snuggled into position at the Starfleet museum with Riker, Picard, and Geordi there to give it a meta goodbye, “If ever there was better evidence that the past mattered… it’s right here.” Returning to a repaired (new?) Spacedock, Jack is now in a red Starfleet uniform, and the young ensign nervously paces in a shuttle with his parents as they approach his first posting. It’s the Titan… but wait, he and Beverly admit to some “subterfuge” as they reveal the ship has been rechristened. In honor of Admiral Picard and his crew’s heroics, the ship is now the USS Enterprise-G.
There really were plenty of letters left in the alphabet.
After kicking Jack out of the captain’s chair, Captain Seven welcomes him as she and first officer Raffi prepare for a shakedown cruise, unable to believe Starfleet has seen fit “to give a thief, a pirate, and a spy their own ship.” Sidney is there too as this new crew gives everyone a sneak peek at the hoped-for spinoff. They really put a button on it as the bridge crew ponders Seven’s potential catchphrase, “Your first official act of command. Writing the open line to your legacy.” Not subtle, Terry. I love it. But wait, there’s more… This is a generation’s final journey and we find the TNG gang having drinks at 10 Forward. Bev is toasted on blood wine, Worf talks about his meditation lecture, the Riker-Trois debate vacation destinations, Data tries to tell a dirty joke after being teed by up Geordi, and Jean-Luc wraps it up with some Shakespeare. They toast to their eternal friendship before settling in for one more game of poker. Perfect.
Oh, and in a mid-credits scene, Q shows up (don’t “think so linearly”!) to tell Jack his father’s trial may be over, but his has just begun.
Miss me?
ANALYSIS
Saying goodbye is hard
“The Last Generation” is everything you could want in a season finale, and a series finale too. Paying off a lot of the complicated elements leading up to this moment, the finale kept it simple, laying out the goal of shutting down the Borg beacon to save the galaxy. But within that were many layers of character complexity and even heartbreak along the way, setting up some incredible performances. The result was an emotional, high-stakes roller coaster that kept you guessing with a series of gut-wrenching moments when you felt all the weight of these characters and their history together, and how this could have been the end for any one of them. Balancing things out was just the right amount of lighter moments, organically peppered throughout.
Writer/director Terry Matalas showed his love for these characters as each was given their own hero moments, both subtle and profound. Each concurrent storyline is tied together through the fulfillment of various arcs all based around the themes of connection, family, sacrifice, and hope. The ultimate version of this was the titular character, with Patrick Stewart delivering one of his best performances as Jean-Luc Picard fighting his greatest fear to connect with the son he now realizes he has always needed. Ed Speleers’ performance was equally impressive, although Jack himself didn’t play much of a role in saving the day. LeVar Burton and Gates McFadden also stood out playing the heartbreak of Beverly struggling with the decision, weighing the life of her son against the fate of the Federation. With all of these life and death stakes, Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn’s banter continues to delight even as they, too, are challenged with emotional beats. The pacing of all the little goodbye moments, especially Riker staying behind for his friend and former captain, was almost too much to bear.
I can see the screen so much clearer without that hair clip in the way.
Jeri Ryan was also tasked with some heavy lifting in this episode, handling a lot of the action along with stepping up for some inspiring speechifying. In a way, this was sort of her audition to be captain, and she nailed it. It was a bit unclear how much help—if any—they were providing, but the scenes on the Titan provided a good POV on what was at stake for the Enterprise crew at the cube, and it was fun to see Seven’s ragtag bridge crew of middle-aged officers. While excellent editing wove these stories together, there might have been more impact if the Titan crew had been coordinating with the Enterprise team and had a clear objective that fit into the plan besides just harassing the Borgified fleet in the hopes of buying some time. It was fun to see Seven and Raffi together again, working as a team, however, it was also a reminder that this season has essentially ignored their romance, teed up in the season two finale.
Hands up, Borgies.
The queen is dead… for good
The scenes on the Borg cube looked great, really leaning into an H.R. Giger aesthetic, making this final stand of the Borg a true horror show. The makeup on the queen was especially creepy, adding to the menace and even pathos of it all. However, her dialogue was sort of canned villain revenge talk, with a few personal notes for the former Locutus. Behind all the great character moments, the fight with the Borg was a bit predictable, and even in its simplicity there was some confusion, such as why did the Borg attack continue after the beacon was destroyed, not ending until the cube blew up? It also feels like there is a disconnect between how the show transitioned from Vadic and the changelings to the Borg without ever really showing how and why they are working together (beyond a few lines of dialogue). Some viewers may not even make the connection that the Queen was Vadic’s “The Face” handler all along. In the end, the villains of this story weren’t all that interesting, but they provided a good catalyst for a lot of fascinating character stories.
While some fans may have balked at the Borg as the ultimate big bad instead of some less obvious deep-cut threat, there is a poetry to them as the ultimate adversary of Picard and The Next Generation. And one of the layers behind the title “The Last Generation” was that this was the last queen, on the last cube, decades after being “poisoned.” While her revenge was pointed at Picard, the true culprit was Janeway, who started the Borg down this long defeat in the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, which is why it was surprising after being namedropped so many times this season, the Queen never mentioned her. There is also a poetry here to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which ended years of fighting with the Klingons, the ultimate bad guys for the original generation. While it was satisfying to see the gloating queen come to an end, it would have been fitting for Picard to have at least tried a diplomatic approach or offer some sense of mercy.
F-ing Janeway.
A new legacy
One of the upsides of keeping the plot simple is that the main threat wrapped up fairly early in the episode to allow for an extended coda. This picked up on a lot of season arcs for these characters with some fun and heartwarming scenes across the board. Most of the loose ends were tied up, unless you are worried about poor Laris waiting in that café on Chaltok IV for Jean-Luc. Matalas went into extra innings to allow for these bonus moments to breathe and give the audience time to say goodbye to these characters and really give them the closure they need. Even the USS Enterprise-D got a little goodbye in a scene layered in meaning for the characters and the actors. They even forgoed the credit sequence to indulge in the final poker game. It went on far too long and it was perfect.
But Matalas wasn’t done with all these wonderful goodbyes. The coda was doing double duty, setting up what he hopes is a “Star Trek: Legacy“ spinoff, and they weren’t subtle about that at all. Some of this was a bit much, such as rechristening the Titan. It wasn’t necessary and transforming it into the USS Enterprise-G seems more geared for a spin-off, but Starfleet honoring the admiral by naming the ship USS Picard (with special dispensation being that he is still alive) might have fit better in the context of a series finale. Still, all the pieces and characters are now in place for this spin-off, already showing some of the fun chemistry of the bridge crew, although it was surprising (or even confusing) that Jack ended up in command red and being “special counselor to the captain.” Bringing Q back was fun and he’s right, his season 2 death shouldn’t violate canon for an immortal. It was a nice bookend to the TNG era as he was there since the beginning, although it keeps Jack overly tied into his father’s story. After this season, this “next next generation” of characters are well poised to head off on their own 25th-century adventures. Hopefully, viewers see this as intended, aspirational, and fitting into the Star Trek theme of an optimistic future. And maybe fan enthusiasm will help make the Legacy show happen someday. There are always… possibilities.
This is my ship.
Final thoughts
An excellent finale brought a fantastic season of Star Trek to an end, nicely wrapping up the series as a whole. “The Last Generation” will be remembered as one of the most emotional and satisfying episodes of Star Trek. It was really the finale to what was structured as an extended movie, the feature film ending the Next Generation era deserved. On top of that, it set up what could be a whole new era, with new and returning characters. What else could you ask for? These last 10 weeks have been a highlight in Star Trek history with unmatched consistent quality and execution. Let’s hope this isn’t the end for this team and these characters.
You even installed Riker’s seat warmer… nice.
BITS
- The opening Star Trek brand animation swapped out the USS Titan for the USS Enterprise-D, along with some Borg elements added to the Star Trek delta logo
- The opening space shot had a visual homage to the opening credits of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- Federation President Anton Chekov is the son of Pavel Chekov, and was voiced by Walter Koenig of Star Trek: The Original Series. The president was named in honor of the late Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the three J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies.
- His “General Order 12” message was like the one given by the president in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, warning people away from Earth due to the destruction caused by the Whale Probe.
- Like in the previous episode, Star Trek: First Contact’s Alice Krige returned to voice the Borg Queen, but actress Jane Edwina Seymour played her, credited as “Borg Queen body double.”
- The Queen quoted herself from First Contact, telling Picard she invited him onto the Cube to witness his “future’s end.”
- One of Seven’s Titan bridge officers was played by makeup designer James MacKinnon, his third cameo following previously appearing in Picard (as a Borg drone) and Discovery (as a medical tech).
- Among the alien vacation destinations Troi was considering: Vulcan, Andoria, Omicron Ceti III (misspelled as Omicron Seti III), Bajor, Trill, Zadar IV, and Kaphar Prime. She also browsed Earth destinations Kauai, Malibu, and Orlando.
- Data’s attempt to tell the limerick starting with “There was a young lady from Venus…” was a callback to when he tried the same thing in the TNG episode “The Naked Now.”
- Picard’s final toast was a quote from Brutus from the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar.
- The song played during the poker game was “All New Songs” by Al Oxenhandler.
- Ending with a poker game was a tribute to the final scene from the TNG series finale “All Good Things…” It also bookends the Picard series which began with Data and Picard playing Poker in a dream sequence.
- The photo of a younger Picard and Crusher in Jack’s Quarters was of Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden attending a premiere in 1988.
All good things…
More to come
We will discuss the episode in detail on Friday’s episode of All Access Star Trek. Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek podcast covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.
Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and South Korea. It also streams 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.
As far as a TNG sendoff it was honestly perfect. Giving the Enterprise D and her crew a much better send-off than was possible before. No issues as far as the TNG story. Q being there, in the end, is simply another lesson in his overall lesson that he has spoken to many times. Time is not always linear and he exists outside of linear time.
Now for my very very small critiques.
1. Raffi should not be Seven’s first officer because of their romantic history.
2. The Titan has its own history of service and should have kept her name.
3. The Enterprise G should have been something new and spectacular, not the renamed Titan, which is too small to be a modern Enterprise. What I would have done if I were Matalas was instead of the Odyssey Class F being shown as a minor role, have that same role filled by the Enterprise E. That way at the end of the show the reveal of the Odyssey Class F could have been done and the timeline would better sync up with that of STO.
4. Shaw should be Captain and not Seven quite yet. I would like to have seen her put in more time as First Officer next to Shaw. That would have been fascinating to watch.
5. Janeway should be the one promoting Seven for many many reasons. Tuvok is ok, but should have been Janway.
6. Janeway should have been involved in SOME way cuz Borg dammit.
These are very small critiques and this was the best Season of Trek in a very very long time, possibly ever in terms of the number of quality episodes.
I loved it too. Some thoughts on your points
I just loved the finale. Hit’s all the right notes, and any and all fan service feels absolutely organic and earned. The optimism of Trek is at it’s best here.. this is the best sendoff, and I’m so glad we finally got it.
Wasn’t the current iteration of the Titan the “Constitution 2” class of ship? If so, that kind of seems fitting. The ship did not need to be called Enterprise though. Oh well. Minor nitpick.
1. Raffi should not be Seven’s first officer because of their romantic history.
Starfleet HR watched The Orville, and said “Oh, what the heck…”
Point 1 – how different from Riker and Troi on their TITAN?
Troi wasn’t first officer. That’s only a partial answer, to be sure, but at least she didn’t have the entire ship reporting to her.
Remember Janeway didn’t want James Read’s character inn Workforce to stay on Voyager because she wasn’t allowed to have a relationship with him if he was one of her crew.
Wow, James Read was on VOYAGER? Thought he was great on first season REMINGTON STEELE. Don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything else (oh yeah, THE ORVILLE), except in a background cameoas a cop with no dialog in BLUE THUNDER. I wonder if they had him read for Riker. Also wonder how he didn’t get cast in APOLLO 13 or FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, now that I think of it.
Aye, I would have loved these too. But what is done is done. The name Titan will likely be used on another ship. Of course, the Odyssey class should have been used in a grander sense/not wasted, but maybe the new Enterprise will get a refit at some point? Whatever happens, I just hope we find out via Star Trek: Legacy.
Perhaps (assuming something akin to Legacy gets a green light), we’ll see a (another) major refit to the
Titan, Enterprise G to bring it in line with a more flagship type of ship. Not entirely unprecedented given the massive changes b/w the TOS Enterprise and the TMP Enterprise.This, this right here. I don’t even like the Odyssey-class design that much but the 1701-F got done dirty here. Would’ve created a minor continuity error for STO but whatever.
Who cares about STO? It isn’t cannon. Yes, some of the ships from there appeared on screen–they are cannon. Keeping the timeline of a video game doesn’t matter.
Totally agree, and I really think that if they really were set on reusing the Titan-A and wanted to rechristen her with something important: I think it should have been the USS Picard. I agree the Enterprise G on an old “new” ship like that is actually a bit insulting.
Totally agree about the G. I was pretty disappointed in that :/ I was hoping that we would see the Titan rechristened as the USS – Picard, and then maybe they’d move on to a new ship as the G. I also agree that they should’ve used the E for Frontier Day, and then introduce the F at the end.
The Enterprise should be the biggest and baddest ship in the fleet. And while the Titan is a cool ship (I very much like the retro-design), it is very much not a flagship type of ship.
I don’t think non-gamers think very much of a fan designed video game ship which, to be blunt, isn’t particularly attractive.
Agreed on that point, but the underlying point is the G should be a flagship type ship, if not the flagship itself. The rechristened Titan isn’t that.
In regards to using the E as the decommissioned ship and then introducing the F at the end, I agree that the Odyssey class is kinda ugly, but the producers could’ve very easily tweaked things with the design to make it less clunky.
Terry Matalas shared that Janeway was the original plan instead of Tuvok but CBS said no because she’s already on Prodigy.
It was just wonderful, well done Terry, and well done to the whole crew and cast for delivering the true ending these heroes deserved.
Agreed 100%. Hope Stuart Baird is shown this; that’s HOW you do a send-off!
I hate Nemesis as much as anyone, but there’s no reason to take pot shots at a guy. I doubt he set out to make a bad movie. Let it go.
As director, Baird only made bad movies. Take as many shot as you want, he’s the only filmmaker in history who had Jerry Goldsmith score all his movies and it still wasn’t enough to save any of them.
Even if it wasn’t high art, I rather enjoyed EXECUTIVE DECISION. I saw it with a Palestinian-American friend in college who was publicly upset at the anti-Arab cliches but was also an aviation buff and privately told me “I really want to see this movie.”
I just don’t see the need to get personal and attack the people, particularly for a guy whose ONLY contribution to the franchise was two decades ago. It’s childish.
Agreed. It’s also important to note that Baird’s greatest contributions to film were as an editor.
Hey admins, we have a commenter encouraging personal insults, which is against site policy!
wah wah
I love the film Nemesis! Even though it’s not as good as “First Contact” for example I enjoy it very much. So not “anyone” hates it, at least one likes it 😉
I know Stuart Baird gets a bad rap and most of it deserved, but he didn’t create the story or write the script. It would have been a dreadful movie no matter who directed.
Disagree. Nemesis was still the better send off.
You’re certainly welcome to that opinion! While I was no big fan of this finale, it’s still better than Nemesis, which is just pure nails on a chalkboard from start to finish.
Stuart? Is that you?
I think it’s Stuart Baird’s mother.
How could someone not like him??????
Nope. Just a fan who likes good Trek.
…and Nemesis.
Since I like good Trek that sorta goes without saying.
Wait, you consider Nemesis good Trek? I’m not be snarky here, just genuinely surprised and curious.
I do. I also consider Wrath of Khan & Undiscovered Country good Trek.
Huh, fascinating. I don’t dislike Nemesis on the same level as others, but it definitely wasn’t a good movie. It had good moments, but as a whole it was very underwhelming.
Fair enough. But I make no bones that while there were a couple of bad decisions in that film, it was a pretty good finale for the TNG crew.
LOL. OK.
NEMESIS may have had its problems, but I think it’s underrated, and the ending was quite poignant.
It definitely has its moments. But it’s a tough watch.
It was no Undiscovered Country, that’s for sure. It did have an out of place scene or two. But overall it was pretty good. Managed to make me care about Data for the first time (quite the feat) and that 3rd act was pretty damn good stuff. Plus it really did have a finale feel to it. Characters grew and moved on. If was appropriate.
Two more things I liked about Nemesis: first, Shinzon showed some real signs of vulnerability, questioning whether he really wanted to proceed with his plan. Think of the dinner scene, where he asked, “were the PIcards always warriors?” You get the impression he really was weighing whether to carry through with his plan or to genuinely launch a peace initiative.
Second, the well-written dialog, particularly in the scene where Picard speaks with Shinzon’s hologram in the ready room. Again, you get the impression that Picard very nearly convinced Shinzon to stand down, with nary a phaser being fired. And then he broke of communication — “the triumph of the echo over the voice.” What might have been.
This was the kind of characterization absent from the adversaries in the following three JJVerse movies, as well as from from Vadic: mustache-twirlers all.
I think NEMESIS would have been better received if INSURRECTION had not been so lackluster. If the third movie had lived up to the quality of FIRST CONTACT, people would have stuck with the franchise. And the other problem is that the market for Star Trek was absolutely saturated. DS9 had ended all of three years earlier, VOY one year earlier. ENT had just started its run.
This is a lesson that Kurtzman would do very well to remember today.
I can’t say I loved the dialogue in Nemesis. The dinner scene and that scene in the ready room should have crackled, but they felt leaden and clumsy to me. What little humor is in the film felt forced, too. John Logan is just not suited to genre fare, even though he adores it. His worst work is consistently his sci-fi and horror.
I noticed that about Shinzon as well. He was just teetering on the edge of not following through with things.
I used to think I liked Nemesis because compared to the utterly lackluster Insurrection I might of thought it better than it really was given the reception it got. Kind of like I think I liked the front half of Picard S3 possibly because of the garbage nu-Trek that has come before. But over they years I still like it. Quite a bit. So I don’t think that’s it.
I think it utterly tanked the ending, which was surprising given that they had all the pieces there to make it emotional and engaging. Instead they managed to almost give GEN a run for its money in terms of how they blew Kirk’s death.
Nemesis was never meant to be a send off, but the first part of a Data resurrection arc. In vein of STII to STIII. This is the proper follow up/send off we should have gotten all those years ago.
It left itself open for future films just to keep open future possibilities. But the feeling very much was this was it for this crew. It was even marketed as such.
Indeed. “A generation’s final journey begins.” While it was clear they left open the possibility of more (which we got, in the form of PICARD), there was an air of finality about it, which I enjoyed.
Yep!
In my only defense of that guy, Nemesis wasn’t supposed to be the final send off per Spiner.
Stuart Baird was not the best director for Nemesis, but his legendary editing on Superman The Movie cannot be overlooked, nor his other directing efforts. The biggest issue with Nemesis was the problem that the TNG films overall: Stewart and Spiner were allowed to make the films The Picard and Data Show. TNG was a true ensemble, unlike the TOS crew. None of the films captured that (or the sense of wonder and exploration of the series) and this season has redeemed that somewhat.
As a final conclusion to the TNG crew (final for now anyway) the season was a big success. The first half of the season was some of the best stuff from this cast, too.
The finale, however, suffered from a lot of the same problems as the last two seasons: a rushed plot, bait-and-switch story beats that are ill-conceived for a finale, and some incredibly cringey story decisions.
Still, it was a solid season, and it was nice to see them all back together for one more adventure. Overall, it was the cast who elevated the show more than the story itself. Good job, everyone.
Agreed. Although this season was miles better than season two, and a modest improvement over season one, it did have some serious flaws, namely what you mentioned, but I would also add in tis season specifically, an overreliance on fanservice and nostalgia in place of plot. To an extent, that works – they don’t call it fanservice for nothing, but a little of that goes a long way.
As far as this episode specifically, it was pretty much paint-by-the-numbers. Nothing surprising or out of the blue at all, and for that I lay the blame with the producers who seemed, ultimately, to want to make an extended, more expensive episode of a 1990’s tv series and not much more. A series of harrowing adventures, and then, the status quo ante for most of the characters and a TV pilot “and the adventure continues” setup for a few. I have to admit, as a fan, that bar scene at the end was kind of nice as it leaves the TNG characters in a nice place, but they really could have done something more substantial.
On my scale of one to ten, the season overall is a seven. This episode: Six and a half.
You hit the nail on the head with the word RELIANCE. Because I can totally get behind a healthy helping of nostalgia and fan service if the rest of the story is solid. But it really did feel at times like much more attention was paid to nostalgia than to the story, particularly towards the last half of the season.
The finale also, I feel like so much focus was spent on getting the send-offs done right at the expense of a satisfying story conclusion. Once again though, it all generally works, and i’m curious how it will play if I binge all 10 back to back.
The issue is not specific to this show. It’s a writing issue. When you look at TOS, it was made in an era where plot had precedent over character development, at least for the series regulars (the only plot arcs were usually reserved for the guest stars and resolved within a single episode). Nowadays, it’s the other way around, and plots are often no more than pro forma frameworks used to support character development (your typical episode of NCIS, for example), which leads to some of the things we discuss here, like rushed, deus ex machina resolutions.
You’re not wrong. But TNG actually did this quite well: it was very much a character-centric show where the plots were more a framework to hang the character stuff onto.
But TNG didn’t ignore the stories to focus on the characters. The stories usually worked more or less, and when they didn’t, the characters elevated them.
The problem might be that with PIC S3, you throw in the added element of big budget action, and suddenly the story feels like it’s at the bottom of the totem pole.
TNG did a good job of threading the needle, but it was produced right about the time that TV was becoming more character-based. For me, it was an ideal balance, but it you look at why people watch TV series these days, it because of the characters. I mentioned NCIS in a previous post, and that’s a really good example. The NCIS fans I know never mention the plot of this week’s episode, they only ever talk about how much they like the characters.
Thank you for pointing this out. The best stories are character-driven; that is, the plot is driven by characters making choices. In episodic TV, most of the time (but of course not always), there is an inciting incident our main characters must first *react* to, but then their choices determine the outcome the rest of the way. Character-driven vs. plot-driven as a binary makes sense if you’re just watching something and reacting, but storytelling wise, it’s a false choice.
I just finished watching “The Last Generation”; ordinarily, I wait a day if I write a longer review, but since I feel the muse, I’ll put thoughts to paper now. The phrase that comes to mind is “good enough for government work.” In and of itself, the finale didn’t seem rushed and wrapped the season up adequately, complete with some Hallmark moments. We saw nothing, or almost nothing, that was cringeworthy; there were no Klingon dictionary scenes to be found. But of TNG’s three finales – “All Good Things,” NEMESIS (of which I think more highly than most), and now “Last Gen,”), I still found something unsatisfying. That’s because, despite multiple promises otherwise in the trailers, I ultimately didn’t see the episode as *consequential* for the characters. “All Good Things” showed Picard evolving as a captain, learning to become part of that poker game at long last. NEMESIS gave us Data’s sacrifice. “Et in Arcadia Ego” gave us Data experiencing death. “Last Gen” gave us…that reunion that Stewart rightly sought to avoid, or perhaps the word is “transcend,” when he signed on to this project back in 2018. (Data 2.0, admittedly, was something of an exception to this point; he’s now human, or nearly so. Seven, too. Maybe it’s because “Surrender” aired around Easter. I’d have liked to see the theme of the resurrected Data-as-redeemer explored much more, particularly with the ever-so-slight hint that Riker has become religious in as he got older.) The series seems to have jettisoned all of Picard’s character development from season one; the synthetic body, his coming to terms with Data’s death, his romance with Laris. I admit this leaves me wondering what the point was. It all just seems a touch too banal, given the tantalizing nature of what Matalas baited us with in the first half of the season. “By the numbers,” as someone put it above, seems an apt description. The young crewmen became de-Borgified much too quickly; in season one, we saw there were real consequences to being an XB. Picard, too, escaped from his nexus to the collective too easily. We were told that the Borg attacked many of Earth’s major cities: New York, Berlin, Paris, São Paolo, etc. (Somehow Russian and Ukrainian cities seemed to have escaped this fate, for once in history; the map of Eurasia suggested that they weren’t even hit, unlike everywhere else. Maybe Pres. Chekov worked some magic offscreen?) And yet we saw nothing of this supposedly cataclysmic destruction. Everyone sat around the poker table and went their merry way. Again: no consequences, no character growth. That poker table in the final scene could just as easily have been the table in “All Good Things.” Back when I watched “Imposters,” I would not have predicted coming to this conclusion. Season 3 seemed highly consequential then, what with the conflict between Picard and Riker in the nebula, and the turbulent reunion between Picard and Ro, or the marital tension between Riker and Troi, or the wistful nature of Picard’s history with Beverly. Season 3 continues a well-honed TNG tradition in which the first half of a two-part episode eclipsed the second. A big part of the problem – again, like much of NuTrek – is that the second half suffered from excessive nostalgia (or “memberberries,” Easter eggs, or whatever term you like). To be sure, I give PICARD a lot more leeway than the other NuTrek series here. It’s the capstone to a beloved 35-year-old series, and particularly one whose cast went into occultation for the last 20 of those years: it’s earned some nostalgia. The question is whether Matalas lathered it on too thick. I was on the fence as to my answer last week; the return to 1701-D, even if it is the Ship of Theseus, brought a tear to my eye as much as everyone else’s. But in “LastGen,” as in “The Bounty,” the nostalgia was all…just too much. Chekov’s son as Federation President, waxing eloquent about his father? It makes the Trek universe seem far too small, not to mention nepotistic. The return of Q? Patently unnecessary, and it ruined one of the few bits of season 2 that was well done; namely, Q’s mortality and his poignant farewell to Jean-Luc. Renaming the Titan? That ship has its own history, and the Big-E should be a state-of-the-art ship. If anything, they should have renamed it USS Picard (indeed, that’s what I thought, for a moment, that they were leading up to.) The other part of the problem was the lack of a truly compelling adversary. Now, I appreciated the fact that these Borg were not, at least superficially, the menace they were during TNG’s and VOY’s run. “The Last Generation” was an ominous title indeed; it was a bit of double entendre,… Read more »
I didn’t think of this quip for my original post, but I’ll shamelessly add here: his name isn’t “matalas” for nothing. :)
Many of your points were the same concerns I has. The main one being there was no character growth for anyone. And elements Picard dealt with in season 2 were just chucked out the window. Example… Picard’s crew never ever felt like his family throughout TNG’s TV run. It didn’t ever even begin to feel that way until the First Contact feature. So him saying he went to Star Fleet for a substitute family rang hollow. He was cold and distant to the entire crew the entirely of the show’s run.
There were indeed decent character elements in the first half. Which was easily the better of the two. And had the show just ended there with the addition of tying up the Changling conspiracy we would have had a pretty darn good season. The one glaring flaw there was the portal weapon use as a “distraction”. That made zero sense. Using the portal weapon was a huge flare telling Star Fleet to investigate! Had they absconded with Picard’s human body they probably could have gotten away with it as it would have delayed the inevitable investigation.
I don’t give the 2nd half nearly as much leeway as you do, however. All the weak episodes were there. I was not swayed by the nostalgia as TNG does not hold a special place in my heart (that will always belong with TOS) and there were way too many hard to buy elements. The Borgifying the young was somewhat clever but the idea was not thought through. Magically bringing everyone back after cube destruction was, well let’s be frank, dumb.
All that said based on the first half alone this was easily the best season of Trek Secret Hideout ever produced. Even with that horrid 2nd half. I do not think based on this that Matalas has earned taking over Trek. Might be OK to give him one more crack at something since there was promise. But that’s about all I, as a fan, could suggest.
LLAP.
“Overall, it was the cast who elevated the show more than the story itself.”
That final sentence is a good one.
Absolutely. On the face of it, that scene in Ten Forward was nothing special, but the cast’s chemistry made it special.
Yes, that sentence frames it perfectly. The cast, the actors, their gifts and chemistry made it what it was.
And that’s what makes me concerned for a follow-up. Without the chemistry of the TNG cast, can this showrunner deliver a solid Trek series with a dynamite story, rather than a flood of fan fiction?
Certainly a valid concern, I agree.
The one relationship I’d love to see is Riker/Seven. Very different characters, didn’t get any real time together. He’s by-the-book, but easy going in his later years, which creates conflict, but makes it hard for her to hate him, like she did Shaw.
If Legacy happens, I want Riker as a series regular, perhaps an admiral stationed on the Enterprise as a mission advisor or something, and I definitely want some more compelling new bridge crew. I’m actually bummed Raffi is on the Enterprise, since she fits better as a rogue working with Worf.
And as much as I like Jack, I don’t think he makes a compelling starfleet ensign. Though a good writer can change that.
Fully agreed.
Agreed. Also Jack’s sudden rush to the Borg —I guess because he grew up without a father and without an extended family? — didn’t really make all that much sense, at least to me, for what we’d seen of the character up to that point.
As far as Jack goes… he rushed off, was assimilated, and was back to himself in what felt like a half a minute. Very anti-climactic.
I just think the Borg reveal should have come in, say, episode 7, and had an episode or two dealing with it, where Jack is Vox, leading into saving him in the finale.
Instead it just rushed to the conclusion like Usain Bolt.
I was on the fence about this at the end of “Surrender”; at the time, I felt it made little difference whether the big reveal about Jack came in episode 7 or 8. (Hank Schrader didn’t discover the truth about Walter White until there were only five episodes of BREAKING BAD left, and Stan Beeman pieced together the truth about the Jennings clan in the *last* episode of THE AMERICANS.)
But here…I ultimately have to concede that AlphaPredator has a point. I never thought that Jack was ultimately tempted by the Borg, unlike Data in FIRST CONTACT. An earlier reveal would have left time to build some tension: the last temptation of Jack Crusher, if you will. As it was, his decision to abandon the work felt far too predictable.
I never once doubted that he’d be saved. But a little more buildup, a little more time spent with his being tempted by the Borg, and maybe there’d have been legitimate reason to think that Picard would have to kill his own son.
We never even got a chance to relish in the tragedy of Picard seeing his son taken by his worst enemy. That could have been a downright Shakespearean moment, instead it’s rushed by.
I didn’t get the impression that it was a rush to join the Borg, but an intense frustration that these feelings he had all of his life (for connection and perfection) where the result of an irredeemable nemesis, and he wanted to confront the Borg Queen and end her. Only once he got to the cube did he succumb to being assimilated.
Good to have you back today, man! I wasn’t down with the bullying and piling on directed towards you yesterday.
I’m not surprised Alpha is still around. Seems like a stubborn person.
Agreed!
People were bullying me? I honestly don’t even pay attention to that. I have things going on outside of this website.
Awesome!
“A solid season.” Spoken like a true Shiiiifffffttttteeeerrrrrr.
This episode was better then i thought it was going to be after the previous one but still wasn’t a fantastic episode imo but it was a good series finale.
It’s a better ending for the TNG crew and honestly while i love TNG i don’t feel the need to see them together again as this was a sufficient goodbye.
The Changeling/Borg team up was one of the silliest bit of story telling in Trek history and didn’t work imo.
So the Changelings were afraid of and working for a single Borg cube that couldn’t really go anywhere and needed their help for the plan that wouldn’t work any other way? Lol sorry but i don’t buy one bit.
Seeing the Enterprise-D in action again was great as was the CGI which gave it the capabilities we knew it had but never previously got to see because of the Budget in TNG/Generations.
I like the character of Q. John DeLancie does a great job but shoving him in during the credits was unnecessary. While S2 was good imo(It did have a lot of problems and S3 has the same problems)I liked his character resolution. If Terry felt he needed to bring a Q back then they should of had Q’s son instead.
The big no for me was renaming the Titan to Enterprise. Sorry but that is some fanfic level bad writing i don’t know what Terry Matalas was thinking when he decided on that. The Titan saved the day in the end along the Enterprise D. Renaming her destroys the Titan’s/Rikers legacy.
Generally this season for me has been good but shared the same problems as S2. Plot contrivances and nostalgia was used to prop up a weak story-line, too many characters and no sense of real urgency stopped this season from being great.
It to me fell flat in a lot of places and while i do think it stuck the landing it didn’t hit it dead on and instead landed some 20 meters from the center of the landing target.
Overall I give the entire Picard show a 8/10. Individually i give S1 a 8/10, S2 6/10 and S3 7/10.
“So the Changelings were afraid of and working for a single Borg cube that couldn’t really go anywhere and needed their help for the plan that wouldn’t work any other way? Lol sorry but i don’t buy one bit.”
Yeah yeah this. I said this before in the comment sections of other articles but damn this doesn’t make me feel any less used to get viewers.
“Renaming her destroys the Titan’s/Rikers legacy.” Not just Riker’s! Saavik’s too. And also Shaw himself imo.
Yep. The Changling story on its own was actually plenty good enough. There was zero reason to shove the tiresome Borg in this yet again. And it still makes no real sense why there was this alliance.
Agreed.
Yeah that bothers me as well. I had no issues having the Borg back, but they shouldn’t have given the Changelings the back seat when they showed up. And at the very least they should’ve done more to show how the alliance was formed. The Borg Queen told us why, but never how.
And showing up for the last episode only, out of nowhere, was also a cheap trick. Ultimately unsatisfying, and does a disservice to them as an adversary, too.
It’s really like talking to a goldfish at times lol. Just incredible. But yeah dude, I agree lol.
I agree, you’re a goldfish. Toilet time.
OK
There’s a reason not to show kids ‘Finding Nemo.’
LOL!
That whole reasoning almost warrants an entire episode to explore it. Isn’t that one of the advantages of these 10 episode “movies”? Perhaps they were afraid of Picard not being in the episode? I’m sure he could have been squeezed in such a thing somehow…
Exactly and that’s what really frustrated me because I was very excited like many to see the Changelings back. But then they are only used at a very surface level. I thought Vadic’s back story was interesting, but it shouldn’t have stopped there. We should’ve found out how that led her to the freaking Borg lol.
I honestly felt they should’ve revealed the Borg in episode 7 and they could’ve used episode 8 to present that backstory instead of wasting it with Vadic taunting Jack over who he is but never tells the guy. But episode 8 would’ve been the perfect time to do three things: Tell us Jack’s connection with the Borg, show how the Borg and Changeling came together and then build up the threat for Frontier day. Instead they wasted it on a useless hijacking the ship plot that just stalled the reveal for another episode.
Look I LOVE this season. I’ve said it every episode minus episode 2 and clearly episode 8, which only frustrated me. But yeah, it’s not perfect at all either. But I also know a lot of it was due to time and budget but you can say that about a lot of shows out there.
See… This has been one of the recurring problems with nu-Trek. The lack of ability to properly map out a season. The Xindi arc seemed to be fully mapped out. But these are only 10 episodes and they have all the time in the world to think them through and even edit them after. I just don’t see an excuse for that.
I know, it’s crazy ALTHOUGH for me season 3 was the best mapped out with all four dire seasons of Discovery and the first two seasons of Picard. I remember with both season 2 of Picard and season 4 of Discovery I just felt sooooo bored by the time we got to the mid-point. I will say season 3 didn’t bore me at all. I was really invested in every episode. But still frustrated in places and totally confused in others.
But like you I remember hearing less episodes would mean less filler and cutting the fat and both of these shows still had both.
The alliance made little sense and deserved to be explored better, as it turned the Changelings into goons. But the idea that Picard had to face his demons and rejoin the Collective to get back his son has some real poignancy.
OK but the thing is Picard already faced his demons in First Contact. That felt very much like closure to me.
I can’t argue it’s not derivative, but having it be because Picard is trying to save the child he realizes he loves is a nice addition to the character’s arc for me.
There is that but the “child I never knew about” trope has been seen before in Trek. So to me it was difficult to get into that aspect of the story. We even say a faux version of it in one of the TNG episodes.
I’m definitely grumbling about the Titan being renamed.
My spouse has a long-indulgent, yes I know you love the Titan reaction. They’d seen the Titan books about the house, and experienced my excitement when the Titan showed up in Lower Decks.
Agree with you on sense of urgency. This was a big problem with season two as well. The middle part of this season seemed to consist of episode after episode of people wandering around wondering what’s going on and never finding out, rinse and repeat.
Renaming the ship was a botch in my opinion as well.
I understand the annoyance at the renaming. But that was first done at the end of TVH. Obviously there was some other ship that just got repainted NCC-1701 and then they started that ridiculous precedent of adding letters. I hated back then. I still don’t like the concept but it’s less irritating now.
Yep. The weak adversaries really do undermine this season. THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY worked because we really did understand the motivations of the Klingon conservatives; they (like T’Kuvma) felt the Federation would annihilate or homogenize their culture, *even if well intentioned*. Yes, the fact that Chang quoted Shakespeare showed the absurdity of that position; cultures borrow from each other all the time. But still, we understood his motivations.
A sendoff to a beloved cast isn’t incompatible with a compelling story. That’s why I (OK, tentatively) think more of TUC (Klingon dictionaries and all) than “Last Gen.”
I was really hoping they were going to draw a line between what Janeway did to the Borg and what Section 31 did to the Changelings. I think it would not only been awesome to have them team up for revenge, but maybe something the Borg has in there repertoire could “cure” the Changelings and something the Changelings can do can reverse what Janeway did to the hive.
While rechristening the Titan as the Enterprise works for an emotional payoff (and for setting up a new series), did we get confirmation that the F was destroyed? Also, the Enterprise has always been the flagship (I believe) and the newest and greatest ships. Now it’s an old refit of a ship that is smaller than the Enterprise D. That doesn’t seem right.
I do believe it was established (albeit via a minor on-screen graphic, not dialogue) that the F was in the process of an “early de-commissioning.” Which doesn’t make sense in the aftermath of the finale, as it would have been easy enough just to say the F was destroyed in the battle.
I kind of like the idea of the newest Enterprise breaking the mold and being a scrappy little ship with character this time around as opposed to the ship out there with the biggest advantages.
It’s kind of fitting with the Royal Navy over the US Navy honestly. In the US Enterprise is an Aircraft Carrier. In the Royal Navy it’s an exploration vessel.
Huh! I didn’t know that! That’s interesting!
The name Enterprise as Air Carrier was born in WW2. She got many repairs and still got on fighting
The WW2 Enterprise was the most decorated ship in the US Navy. A true and factual legend.
At one point CV-6 was the only US carrier in service in the Pacific Theater. CVN-65 was the first nuclear powered carrier.
There have been 15 ships named HMS Enterprise since 1704 when the name was first given to a captured French sixth-rate.
5 of 15 were in service prior to the American Revolution. So, it’s not surprising that the name was continued in both navies.
The UK Enterprise has had many configurations and served many roles. The latest, a survey vessel was decommissioned this year
It hearkens back to TOS and the movies, when the Enterprise wasn’t necessarily the state-of-the-art flagship like she’s been in TNG onwards. It was her missions and her crew that made her special.
The F was being decommissioned during Frontier Day. It was on Raffi’s display in “The Next Generation.”
It was destroyed, yes. That’s why Geordi couldn’t put in the museum.
Enterprise E was destroyed. we are talking about Admiral’s Shelby Enterprise F
We actually don’t truly know her fate.
Both can exist. Perhaps Enterprise F got another name. Perhaps to honer Admiral Shelby.
I would have to disagree. Fanservice at its worst. Rechristening the Titan was absolutely unnecessary, and done as Matalas’ way of pitching a series for himself to produce set on the Enterprise.
Aye, Voyger did made their own name “big”. So perhaps “Titan” could had the same fame. But well, perhaps to raise the possibility higher? i do not mind then
Enterprise G – Titan class Starship?
Okay, so what? It was obvious early on S3 was going to be fan service through a fire hose, did you expect less?
Indeed, it came across as overly salesy, in a used-car salesperson way.
It’s not the first time an old ship was just repainted. I know it’s something worth forgetting but remember the very end of TVH?
You forget about the Excelsior?
The Enterprise, while being the flagship, wasn’t always the newest and greatest . . . The Enterprise-A was a renaming of the Yorktown, a 30+-year-old ship. The Enterprise-B was an Excelsior-class vessel, a class that had been in service for over a decade at that point.
This episode has left me feeling so ridiculously happy about the state of Trek right now. I can’t believe it was that good. WOW. I fully trust Matalas and desperately hope we get Star Trek: Legacy.
I agree 100%!
“but Starfleet honoring the admiral by naming the ship USS Picard might have fit better in the context of a series finale”
Definitely not. Starfleet is modeled after the 20th-century U.S. Navy, which only names ships after people after they have died. (Along those lines, this season indirectly establishes Pulaski as having died.)
I agree with you, the dialogue was just clunky. Saying “it’s been renamed in honor of you” would have made more sense if it was the USS Picard.
Did not the Titan deserve some honor? I mean it was Saavik’s flagship and Riker had a good command, no?
Oh well, we get the TOS movie ship that should have been the TNG all along, good fix! Also like the Borg plot with them deciding to go with the robo-Picard tech. Changling-Borg arc should have been more than an episode.
Picard being compromised through TNG and explaining his AI obsession / evacuation fleet with unnecessary robots programmed to act like slaves provides some redemption for S1 in setting up the superior S3.
You brought up another odd point. When Picard hooked himself up to the collective I would have thought that since he is now artificial that the assimilation just wouldn’t work anymore.
I can accept it, as Picard was a biological construct. It’s what the story required, so he got plugged back in.
Yes. That’s it exactly. Picard is whatever the story needs him to be.
Perhaps that’s why he was able to survive it; still, it would have been nice if the episode had *acknowledged* this point.
The Navy makes exceptions. Both carriers Reagan and HW Bush were commissioned before their namesakes died.
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) was notorious for getting buildings and other infrastructure named after him *while he was still in office*, much less still alive.
Naming ships after deceased people was an official rule from 1969 to 1974. Since then, the Navy has named quite a few ships after living people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._military_vessels_named_after_living_Americans
USS John McCain being an excellent example.
The destroyer is named after the WWII admiral and submarine commander (McCain, McCain Jr.), not the Senator (McCain III).
Ah, you’re right of course. I completely forgot that!
I mean, he DID die.
That’s… an excellent point, actually.
Well, the U.S. Navy did name the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush while he still alive. As for the Pulaski it could have been named after Casimir Pulaski who was a Polish nobleman and cavalry officer during the American Revolution. Probably not, but I’m throwing it out there.
Sorry but: “In recognition of his efforts on behalf of the U.S. Navy, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was named the USS Carl Vinson, an honor rarely given to a person while living. On March 15, 1980, at age 96, he attended the ship’s launching.[5]”
Really enjoyed this one and seeing the new Enterprise. I only wish they’d gone with a new ship instead of rechristening Titan. I know that the E is part of Riker’s legacy too, but it was nice his Titan got its due (and the A was built from components of the original).
And welcome back Q.
Probably done so for budget reasons. If there is to be a Star Trek: Legacy series, we already have standing sets that can be used. Since Paramount+ is tightening their belts, the producers need to make sure their new concept is financially viable, and using existing sets for a “new” Enterprise and a new series makes sense.
Exactly my thoughts as well. Matalas et al delivered them an oven ready pilot. Just need a few extra sets like a proper engineering etc. Also, I think most would rather the money/resources be spent on Star Trek: Legacy, over Starfleet Academy or the Section 31 film. But that’s just my sense of things.
Matalas, at least I think it was him, tweeted the sets were bulldozed when filming completed.
This is so. Blass has noted that key interior fittings were packed for storage and shipment though.
I’ll just say that I’m a happy trekkie right now. And I like that my favorite crew got a happy ending too, enough with giving terrible lifes to beloved fiction characters off-screen. I had enough with how they did dirty to Will and Deanna.
I hope we get to see how the story continues…
Greatest season and finale of Star Trek EVER!
Ohhh I don’t know, DS9 season 7 and ENT season 4 (until the last episode) definitely gives PIC S3 a run for its money in regards to season finales. But it’s great to see it in such high regard.
I definitely agree with both of those and both are in my top 5 as well.
It’s a great episode and a great finale for the TNG crew, but the rest? No.
The Enterprise is the flagship and belongs to the class of ship that is the current marvel/pinnacle/cutting edge of Starfleet engineering, not to a mediocre, underdog class of ship.
So, Terry should have left the Titan as is OR given them a brand new, modern, flagship Enterprise-G
That should have been a no-brainer for a Trek fan.
I think I agree with this. I think fans would have been perfectly satisfied following a ship named Titan in the Legacy series so many (including me) are clamoring for.
I don’t find myself caring what ship gets the Enterprise name. But I agree that the finale for the TNG cast works, it’s the story resolution that doesn’t. The send-offs are nice, though, particularly the emotional payoff for Seven. Very well done.
Yes, a Yorktown class Enterprise. Would have been more fitting. You don’t put that name on just any ship.
or take the D for that matter
I liked most of it – especially President Chekov!
Once Raffi and Seven were on the bridge, I was wondering why Raffi, who we know was Picard’s second and flew La Sirena, couldn’t fly the Titan. That would have been much more dramatic badassery. The overall of everyone “coveting the chair” where you just order people around who aren’t as good as you – doesn’t even make sense in the moment.
President Chekov was a classy touch.
Though it did kind of take me out of the episode of the moment, this is fan service done right.
It didn’t have to be Chekov, it could have been someone new. It was a minor bit of dialog that serviced the story, but someone said “hey instead of just making it anyone, how about we do a cameo here?”
Shelby, by contrast felt unnecessary, because that scene wasn’t even really needed. It felt more like “we need a place to put Shelby.”
““we need a place to put Shelby…just so we can kill her”
Yes, I was glad to see Shelby but that scene was a little too random.
Having it be Shelby gives it a weight and familiarity it wouldn’t have had with some random never seen before admiral. As far as cameos go it worked much better than say Wesley Crusher’s in season 2.
I’m not as uptight at the cameos as some people are on here. They were fun for us long time fans who grew up watching the show. The Chekov dialog scene was a nice nod to Anton Yelchin.
Btw.. wasn’t much of a fan of the Wesley cameo either.
Ordinarily I’d feel that way myself. Walter has always struck me as a good guy, and he’s faced the worst kind of heartbreak life can throw at you these last years, so it was a nice grace moment from a franchise that has given but also cost him so much that offered him this late chance to participate. But given the amount of fan service and Easter eggs that had already been piled-on this year, not to mention the labored lift from THE VOYAGE HOME and the Russian playwright always confused with Keonig’s character, ten seconds into this thing and I’m already rolling my eyes. Not good.
I’ll admit I rolled my eyes at first, like “really? right out of the gate we’re going with a TOS cameo?” but after thinking about it more, it bothered me a lot less.
Yes, I found that resonated well.
Very nice to have Walker Koenig back to voice the part.
Well, and then it ended. It was an amazing season that I enjoyed a lot. But… this finale didn’t leave me fullfilled. It was an 8 where it should’ve been (where I wished it would’ve been) a 9 or a 10.
Did I enjoy the finale? Yes, there were a lot of moments where I was hooked, crying and or laughing. That’s where the 8 came from mostly: the emotional beats. Having to say goodbye to these wonderful characters and actors and the bond they so clearly have. Worf snoring, I mean come on, that had me laughing out loud through my tears. And having the real Tuvok back, especially in the room with Seven, was gold! Also happy to see Deanna back at the helm!
But this episode kinda made me feel like the first one of the season. The first 15 minutes were slow and klunky at times. I was still wondering how they were going to wrap everything up in just 1 episode, and then, half an hour later, they were basically done. It kinda felt too simple. Where was all the help that was coming to the rescue, like uhm, the rest of the Federation? Where were all the TNG cameos I was hoping for. It all felt a bit… small.
Then surely that would come in the post-battle celebrations, right? In one of the 5 endings LOL? That reveal of Jack’s new ship. Don’t tell me everybody wasn’t expecting either a USS Picard, or a new Enterprise, behind the Titan, like they did in Star Trek IV (was it?). In stead they named this kinda old underdog ship, Enterprise?! That was disappointing. Then later in the bar, when they actually told us Guinan was in the room (Geordi even looks at her off camera!) and then… nothing again! It might all be details, but these little disappointments definitely colored the feeling I had when it was over. Missed opportunities.
And as much as I want the Legacy show to happen, that bridge scene on the Titan with the new crew? I was so ready for that, but it kinda didn’t feel believable. I think I would’ve preferred it if they wouldn’t have included that.
So to end this sort of review: I’ve only watched it once. This is how I’m feeling right now. I’m sure, upon a 2nd or 3rd viewing (and some more explenation articles by Matalas) I will like the episode more. I just wish I would’ve felt like that after the 1st viewing.
The most awkward moment was Jack and Raffi basically laying out the plot synopsis of their spin-off series in dialogue, and then referencing the name of the show… cringe.
Yes, LOL!
That was, frankly awful. This kind of show does not need that kind of TV pilot ending.
Then later in the bar, when they actually told us Guinan was in the room (Geordi even looks at her off camera!) and then… nothing again!
That was genuinely poor. It’s like Whoopi Goldberg was unavailable at the time, but they planned to shoot an insert with her and couldn’t get it done. If that was the case, why leave the line in? In some ways, it’s like the similar scene at the end of season two, where Goldberg was there, but sitting several feet away from the main group interacting with them from a distance (presumably because of COVID protocols).
I didn’t have a lot of hope after the last episode (and episode 7 tbh), but this wrapped up in a pretty satisfying way. I’m happy with it more or less. The character work here was impeccable. Riker, Deanna, and Worf really got some good stuff. The Riker and Deanna romance really did nothing for me till Picard, both season 1 and this season. They were really great this episode. The end with all of them really got me.
However, I do feel like this lost steam around episode 7 and that they played it way too safe in back three. I didn’t want any of them to die, but still never felt like any of them were in any danger. Running right back to the Borg was a boring choice. Given how this was really firing on all cylinders between 2-6, I always feel like we were robbed of something that could have truly been great.
All that Janeway talk and then her never showing is funny, but Matalas did say she wasn’t appearing. I feel bad for people that got their hopes up though. Tuvok’s part definitely feels like it was written with Janeway in mind and she couldn’t do it for some reason.
I don’t need to see Elnor or Soji or whoever from seasons 1/2 again, but where was Laris at the end? Is she still somewhere waiting on Picard? I’d rather him have ended up with her then whatever they were implying with him and Beverly. I get they mentioned her several times across the season, but the Kestra stuff in the last two episodes remains weird to me. Not even a mention when Riker thought he was dying multiple times here? Or when he was basically saying goodbye to Deanna on the comms? Something’s felt weird to me about how they treated that character all season and I can’t really put my finger on it.
Q coming back was pointless but whatever. I’m still confused over the Raffi and Seven thing but at least they’re together on the ship. Hate that they renamed the Titan.
Overall I’m counting this season as a win. Barely a win and it took a lot to get here, but a win nonetheless. Since this is the end of the road most likely for a lot of these characters, I’ll take it.
I also was not a fan of the name change from the Titan-A to Enterprise-G. If I get the model of that ship, I hope we have the option of displaying either Titan or Enterprise (I’d choose Titan). That said, I love that ship design inside and out and hope beyond hope for that Matalas-run Legacy show!
The USS constitution was changed to Enterprise A , so no different to me
Was it? It was never mentioned what ship that was that got the new last minute paint job.
Not canonically mentioned, no. I think it might come from the novelization or one of the novels.
Count me as another one who wanted at least a mention of Laris at the end. And Kestra! We never did find out what happened to her when the Changelings kidnapped Deanna. Do we think the “wild woman of the woods” was really capable of taking care of herself?
Matalas and co. were so busy creating a new finale for the TNG crew they forgot it was also the finale for “Picard.”
Matalas said she’s at the Academy now or a pre-Academy thing, probably as a setup for whatever spinoff he wants. It just got cut for some reason.
I watched all the episodes this week with my wife so she’d be caught up, and they mentioned Kestra a few more times than I thought. I honestly thought it was just in the first episode. Had forgotten she comes up a few other times and in the Riker and Deanna stuff on the shrike. Still would have been nice to get a mention in the last two.
Laris is a big WTF. I assume it’s just cause they wanted that ambiguous Beverly and Picard ending.
Sublime. Significant. “Great joy and gratitude.” I saw it in IMAX in SF. Had a headache from crying so much. Was good to be surrounded by so many other fans who love these characters as much as I do. Terry Matalas has given us a gift – and he should be given the keys to do any Trek project his heart desires. Thanks Terry, you respected and elevated something so close to so many hearts.
That must’ve been awesome!
Were you crying because it was so lame?
I envy everyone who got to see it in IMAX with other fans. Glad you got to experience it, Mr. Montgomery!
OMG, you got to see it on IMAX too??? That’s amazing. I can only imagine what was like for you sitting in that theater.
And yes, I agree with you, with flaws and all. It’s not my favorite of NuTrek but it’s damn close.
Glad you had a great time man! :)
Fantastic.
Dislikes: The Borg (again). The “Face” not being something more interesting. Rip-off of Return of the Jedi AND Empire Strikes Back (Troi finding Riker is like Leia finding Luke under Bespin). The Borg cube having gaps large enough for a Galaxy-class starship to navigate through.
Other than that, I absolutely loved it. Worf, by FAR, is my favorite character. He is so cool, funny, honorable, and lovable. Really, Worf needs his own show! Seven was right there behind him as my second favorite. I was sure that Riker was going to die the way he said bye to Troi, so that got me. Using the transport-dart gun was like Insurrection, but still cool. I also loved that Jack at least had to put one year in the Academy, but I was hoping he’d be in medical.
The final scene playing poker was absolutely perfect. Fantastic episode. The fourth episode is still my favorite this season, but they stuck the landing with this one. Great work.
Jack in the medical? It is still possible. Look at La Forge, once sitting on the Console then Chief Engineer. The future is full of possibilities
This bothered me too; it was reminiscent of the turbolift scene in DISCOVERY.
Perhaps this cube was a lot larger than the cubes in BOBW and FIRST CONTACT, but still.
also 35% active or so. Perhaps the Maintain Borgs where put to silence to keep the Queen alive or such
I found that to be a huge stretch. And yet another reason why it would have been better to use the Defiant. I think it still is the biggest ship class Star Fleet ever constructed.
The Odyssey class apparently is bigger.
I get the argument for using the Defiant or the Enterprise A (cheaper sets to rebuild than the D or Voyager, too), but again it’s the emotion of seeing this crew reunited with that ship which overrides the practicality concerns. It brought a smile to my face and I sat next to a grown man who was reduced to tears in the final minutes of Vōx. On balance I’m fine with it in the end.
Was it? Wasn’t the Odyssey a “sister ship”? It looked exactly the same if I recall.
Obviously the reason they used the E-D was 100% for nostalgia purposes. Even though it made zero sense story wise. Since I was never connected to the TNG crew or that ship in any meaningful way the appearance of the D did nothing for me. In fact, I was happy as hell to see it bite the dust in Generations.
Wonderful. I have nothing more to say.
I still remember the heart break and depression a I felt when Generations destroyed the Enterprise D. Followed by Nemesis which killed Data and broke up the crew. But now we get to end with everything restored and hope renewed. What an emotional and rewarding send-off with so much optimism. This hardly feels like the end, but if it is…I’m thankful beyond words that we’ve left it here.
When I first saw the Titan was renamed to the Enterprise I was not a fan but after thinking about it from an in Universe perspective, the Titan slowing down the fleet just long enough for the D to destroy the Borg saved Billions of lives on Earth. If Seven and the crew hadn’t have slowed them down likely Billions on Earth would have perished even if Picard and crew were able to rescue the fleet after stopping the Borg. Saving Earth is a very Enterprise thing to do, and so I can see why they think this ship may be worthy of that name.
I still find it kind of humorous though when Crusher said that if Earth falls, the entire Federation falls. I don’t know, I think Vulcan and Andor might have been able to survive without Earth.
“These last 10 weeks have been a highlight in Star Trek history with unmatched consistent quality and execution”
Ummm … did I miss something? Most of it has been hastily slapped together scenes held together by the bare minimum of what could be called a plot. If even that. A lot of it shouldn’t even be called a plot.
This of course doesn’t go for this season which has been competently written for the most part. All legacy characters feld in character and liked all of the new ones. The story over all is just okay. But I wonder how much that has to do with the previous two seasons. If there was some kind of buildup to this and we hadn’t already done the Borg and the infiltrated/evil Federation two times before, this might have hit different.
Over all I’d say, it was a good season. A good ending that was only necessary because they couldn’t leave the already good ending form 1994 alone and made things worse, when they couldn’t even leave the at least okay ending of Nemesis alone. But in the end the pretty much just brought it back to where All Good Things already went.
Compared to everything else CBS has given us since 2017 it’s amazing. Compared to the best stuff Rick Berman oversaw, it’s just okay in terms of Story. But I’d very much like gto see Matlas take on an original series in the Trek Universe.
I think I can agree that while I think this series severely went over a cliff after the Shrike was defeated there was enough good in it that compared to what we have been getting from Secret Hideout this is appearing to be much better than it really was. It’s like when you are starving even a tasteless cracker is the most delicious meal you have ever had.
I like the idea of why the Titan was rechristened the G. I never for once thought it would be the F since it was being decommissioned. Never thought for once the creators would keep a fan design around for another series.
Imagine the royalties they would have to pay.
It is a nice ship though and makes sense if they won’t be families on board. Doesn’t have to be huge like the D.
One additional homage I caught…
President Chekhov said, “There are always possibilities.”
That can be traced back to Star Trek II, and James Kirk (to Saavik)
”As your teacher, Mr. Spock, is fond of saying, ‘I like to think there always are …possibilities.’”
The closest thing Spock has said regarding that before WoK was in “The Galileo 7” when Spock said “There are always alternatives.”
Of course the payoff there was in the end when Spock said they may be out of alternatives Scott reminded him that he said there always are. Spock replied: Did I? I may have been mistaken. To which McCoy then said, “At least I lived long enough to hear that.”
It’s actually one of my favorite moments from TOS.
All right. Since the mods saw fit to delete my previous post, which involved nothing more than a couple lines of mild sarcasm and a pretty anodyne joke, I’ll play it straight. I thought last night’s finale was, literally, the most unimaginative, paint-by-the-numbers, derivative (right down to the overhead shot of the poker game that concluded the vastly superior “All Good Things”) hour in the history of this franchise, if not American television. I can’t even really call it awful — it’s just not interesting or memorable enough for even that. Just a focus-tested admixture of Trek cliches and pandering, studio-approved bonhomie that does nothing to inspire or edify its audience in the slightest. What a waste of this wonderful cast, who gave us so much, and what a squandering of our collective memory.
I saw your post. I got the joke. Though I worried! :)
I kind of agree with you. Probably didn’t help I watched Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 2 trailer before seeing this episode.
I still find P+ to be really annoying. This time they forced TWO commercials on me before the show started. What the hell, P+? I thought I payed for the “no commercials” level.
God I hate streaming.
For whatever reason, watching Paramount+ on an AppleTV bypasses their self-promoting ads, whereas on any other device I always see them. Maybe it’s some deal with Apple?
But regardless, they really should be shippable.
That’s a plus but Apple TV is way more expensive than other options. There really shouldn’t be any ads when you buy premium. Even the self promotion ones.
Wish I saw your original post. But since I felt All Good things was the most unimaginative, paint-by-numbers, mediocre at best Trek plot I have ever seen I would say this series is on par with that final episode. I still say Nemesis was easily the far better finale for this group and this season, while good by Secret Hideout standards, was still not very good given how it finished up. And part of that was disappointment because it did start out with so much promise.
I found it a little surprising how bland and predictable it was. Probably doesn’t bode well for screenwriters worried about AI taking their jobs. I mean, if you’re already writing or being forced to write like an algorithm by the suits…
Good luck with that strike.
Mr. Hall speaks somewhat figuratively and with undue emotion. However, what he says is logical, and I do, in fact, agree with it. :)
Me too.
Considering the final 2 eps were a complete rip-off of Return of the Jedi, I don’t disagree all that much with you…though I did enjoy the last 20 min after the Death Star/Borg Cube was destroyed by Lando/Data.
Weirdly, I agree with almost everything you say, yet don’t view it quite as harshly. It was… fine. As in… it was boring, paint-by-numbers, and derivative, but… it did what it set out to do, and gave me some nice moments, so… eh.
It wasn’t perfect but still a far better sendoff for the TNG crew than what Nemesis offered up.
I found it all a little too fan-servicey at times and too often the resolution to problems came down to “we can do this together” or the “power of love will triumph over all”; sentimental and uplifting for sure but also a bit improbable, if such a thing is possible in a show set 400 years in the future. I also thought some of the acting felt a little too earnest or forced at times. But hey, if anybody earned that kind of leeway it’s this cast. Also, while Matalas has confirmed in interviews that this is the same Borg queen we saw at the end of Voyager I really didn’t get that connection from what was actually said during the episode (unless I missed a line of dialog).
Still, there was a lot to like. I for one wouldn’t mind a show chronicling the further adventures of Riker (who was probably the standout of the season for me) and Worf; I really think those two had some of the best lines and chemistry of the season. I was also happy to see the little coda with Q who I always thought deserved better than what he got in Picard S2.
Matalas must really be a TOS super-fan. Last week’s episode ended with a practical remake of the scene from TSFS where Kirk tells the crew he can’t ask them to risk themselves when the steal the Enterprise and this week we get Walter Koenig delivering a planetary warning that was right out of TVH, at times verbatim. Again, hardly original but it worked well enough within the context of the story.
I don’t know that I’m sold on a next-next gen spin-off; the dialog from that scene on the bridge felt kind of cringey to me. I’ve also never been a fan of Michelle Hurd’s Raffi and the idea of a weekly show with her involved leaves me cold.
Too bad Shaw is truly gone but overall I was entertained and despite its derivative nature and lack of originality it all held my attention to the end. Maybe that’s more a testament to the cast than the actual story but it’s still more than I can say for just about everything else we’ve gotten during the Kurtzman era so far.
No one is truly gone. Shaw will be back I bet. To cross franchises: “Somehow Shaw has returned.”
If we do get a Legacy series in the future…the G can also be refitted . I was hoping they would have gone with a sleeker design. I don’t mind that the G ( rechristened Titan A ) is smaller that the D, E and F, because they won’t be families on the ship.
The Titan is now the G? Told you so! First time I got something right :-)
Ha! Well, if there’s a first time this was the one to get right!
I certainly prefer they make Star Trek Legacy with an improper Enterprise than Starfleet Academy or Section 31
Well the good news is, we’re almost certainly getting all three. (though when I predicted this very ending and spin-off before the premiere, I was shouted down because “they won’t want two shows set on an Enterprise”)
I think most do lol
At this point, I’m on the fence. I would have said YES YES YES midway through the season, but now i’m mildly more compelled by what a Star Trek teen drama will be like than what the spin-off here will be, because it’s pretty obvious and trite.
Congratulations to everyone involved! That was an impressive accomplishment of putting together a coherent story on a limited budget (that TNG cast had to have been expensive, especially given their negotiating leverage) and I could feel the group’s passion for this story / this season in nearly every scene. Following the behind the scenes people on Twitter has been a nice reward after each episode (along with coverage on this site). The finale did a lot and didn’t devolve into gobbledygook (even if there were moments that were like “wait – what?” and “lol – okay, I guess”).
Plenty of affecting moments, nobody in the cast took a scene off – it was fun, a little thrilling, and it held my interest from start to finish and this season was easily the best of the three we got of Star Trek: Picard. I’ll put it just ahead of Strange New Worlds’ first season in the pantheon of live action Secret Hideout-era Trek because its aim was to deal with adult emotions in a mature way (SNW goes out of its way to be arrested development personality in therapy-level). A lot of what they did this year, from beginning to end, was pretty clever and then at times (mainly episodes four and five) soaring in emotion.
Wasn’t really a fan of the poker game as a concept — I (mostly) really liked the execution — if only because we’d already seen it before. That was my big thing about the finale: we’ve seen a lot of this stuff before and maybe I watched too many fan films in the wake of Enterprise‘s cancellation through to when Paramount killed them off, but there was a “this is familiar” vibe to a lot of the moments — not saying Matalas ripped off fan film creators, only that it felt like watching a handsomely budgeted fan film at times, in terms of the story’s aims/ambitions.
I’m not all that into there being a Legacy spinoff, but I have to say that I was quite impressed by the individual performances of Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut (Sidney), Jin Maley (Esmar), and Joseph Lee (Mura) throughout the season — they didn’t have much great material and in earlier incarnations of Trek those roles could’ve easily stood out like sore thumbs in contrast to the seasoned acting vets surrounding them thanks to poor casting, but the actors were good at things like feeling like a real person and subtler things like their micro-expressions — Esmar’s in particular after she de-assimilates. I think Chestnut was really flipping great as Sidney, even if a lot of her season was spent saying “My daddy blah blah blah.”
Cool stuff. Maybe in a few days I’ll be able to process that I’ve said goodbye to my longest parasocial relationship. And if this is the last we see of the 25th century, then it was… fun.
I think we need to take a moment to recognize the sheer magnitude of what Terry Matalas has accomplished.
This “reunion” was not something in the cards at all. Patrick Stewart was not warm to the idea when PICARD was being put together a few years ago. Beyond getting Patrick’s approval, Terry had to go to each cast member and see if they were amenable to doing it- we all assume everyone was on board, but that still took a lot of legwork by Terry. Also, Terry had to get Kurtzman and the senior leaders at the production company to buy into this idea- a sharp turn creatively from the prior two seasons. Basically, Terry had to ask “Can I redo your work?” which in Hollywood is no small feat.
And when you also take into account the budget, which must have been a nightmare between the salaries involved and the long wishlist Terry had under his arm (rebuild the 1701-D bridge for a little more than one episode’s use!!), it must have been a long series of discussions/battles along the way.
And then Terry had to actually make the damn thing! He assembled an incredible production team of writers, artists, designers, and “legacy” crew- the amount of hours Terry had to spend doing all of this must have been insane. And to do it under COVID-19 restrictions, which makes any production a logistical challenge!
We fans can get a little too near-sighted with these shows, but looking at PICARD S3 in this context, whether you loved it or not, this was one of the most remarkable accomplishments in TV history. We owe Terry our gratitude.
It was very good and unexpected, but let’s not overstate its magnitude. It’s not like they got the cast of Friends or Seinfeld back together; almost the entire TNG cast have been wanting to come back for ages, they just needed someone to actually do it.
That’s where Matalas gets credit, for choosing that path. And while one might say that he was instrumental in convincing Paramount to do it, I suspect it wasn’t a tough sell. Why? Precisely BECAUSE Season 1 and Season 2 were successful in terms of viewership.
Getting the cast of Seinfeld back together was pretty easy. They did it for a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Friends is a unique case. It’s interesting you mention those two shows because like TNG, the casts remain incredibly close and have continued their personal relationships long past the expiration date of their TV shows.
Facepalm. Go read about that Curb “reunion” and why they chose to do it. It’s not even a reunion, and fans got maybe 11 minutes of actual Seinfeld content.
And your last sentence is my point: TNG is a family of actors who love working together, and wanted to come back, so it wasn’t some kind of tough thing to convince them.
I like your enthusiasm, but they already had several of them in Picard last season, plus the rest aren’t exactly getting a lot of acting jobs these days, and they all profit from the convention fan service. I seriously doubt it was all that hard — I think you are getting carried away.
Renaming the ship the USS Picard would have been perfect. But Enterprise G? I was hoping for a really cool new design. Such a disapointment.
But other than that I really likec the finale. Story was somewhat simple, but the various caracter moments where really great. So…fantanstic episode…but Enterprise G? Come on!
Yeah, I think USS Picard would’ve been a more fitting ending for Star Trek: Picard. The G is a solid capper to TNG-Season 8, which is what I guess most people see ST:P-S3 as anyway.
I don’t like the design to begin with. It grew on me throughout the season…but I really wanted the Enterprise G to be a really cool and new thing…And…the Titan earned it’s place in Star Trek history…why destroy that eradicating the name? And…they will most certainly redesign the interior or at least the bridge if this gets to be a new show…which I really hope…and Seven as Captain is cool, too…but…c’mon the Titan is the Enterprise now??? HOW LAME! (I hate myself for being so upset about this, because the episode was pretty decent though…)
While it was far from perfect (I didn’t expect it to be) it was an exceptional ending to the series! It gave us an ending we all kinda wanted & it was great seeing the whole crew together again in their last adventure. Terry I just wanna say THANK YOU for giving us a thrilling ride & also for bringing Ro Laren back, seeing her again was truly awesome! You brought back some great memories reuniting the cast & to that I say THANK YOU again! I hope Star Trek Legacy can come to fruition!!!
And what a ride it was! Well done Terry Matalas and crew! Thanks for the memories.
Wow. Well it was kinda obvious they weren’t going to stick the landing after all the terrible reveals and ridiculous plot from episode 9. But this was actually way worse than even I thought it would be.
Kinda unfortunate because had this series ended after that first act where the Shrike was beaten they would have had a pretty decent season on their hands. But no. They HAD to go bigger and sillier. Honestly there are so very many facepalm moments in this I’m not going to go over all of them. But here are two. First, I understand and get that time doesn’t exist on screen but honestly that “one minute at most” felt like the longest minute ever. When so much happens that the viewer actually wonders about a time limit that was mentioned it was edited just way too badly.
The other bit, and this is actually much worse… When they did finally blow up the cube I jokingly thought “and everyone magically gets un-borgified” as a joke. And then that is what they actually did!!! That was a major “I can’t believe they actually did that!” moment.
At any rate, this was far worse than the Kelpian yell. But the show was fairly decent for 8 episodes. Which is a rare thing for Secret Hideout. The only other thing they did that well was Prodigy.
And the final setups, while not unexpected, aren’t interesting. I’ve no interest in the Enterprise G or a 7 of 9 led series. None of the 3 characters are particularly engaging or interesting and then throwing Q back in the mix… Good grief. It’s like there is no one at CBS who encourages any originality anymore.
And one more thing… Nemesis was still the far better finale for this bunch. At least it felt like there was some growth for this group and was a good organic place to leave them. This one felt really forced.
I don’t disagree with much of this — pretty spot on. And for the same reasons, I am not interested in the follow-on series. What’s funny is that the one character that I would like to see more of is Shaw, but they pulled a Hemmer/David Marcus and killed him off prematurely. I think it would have been more fitting to have Picard die in the finale — now that would have had some gravitas to it.
Yes, I did find the Shaw character interesting. The mix of him and 7 together might have produced a decent show. Might. The problem is the more I see of 7 of 9 the less interest I have in her. She was fascinating as a person who lived an entire life as a Borg becoming her true self. But this many years later, to still have the Borg implants and worse… To still be preferring 7 of 9 as a name just doesn’t sit well with me. I get life events perhaps causing her to retreat back to her upbringing. Which would be tragic. But what she is now and what Secret Hideout has done with her… Not interested.
And if they had killed Picard, that would have carried a LOT of weight and probably saved the entire season. And I mean killed. Not Trek killed where they bring him back (again). I mean Gone. Forever. Like sacrificing himself to the Borg to release his son and then using whatever humanity he has left to destroy the remaining Borg from within. But we knew none of the old cast was going to perish. Even if one of them did it would have carried some weight.
Dude I’m surprised you liked even that many episodes lol. I honestly thought you would start to like it less by episode 5. But I definitely understand why you hated the last two episodes. All valid points.
And I fully agree about the ‘one minute’ line. But this is something Hollywood movies and shows always pulls. How many time do we see a countdown counter to a nuclear bomb going off in 5 minutes but take 20 minutes to defuse in reality? I love Mission Impossible 6, but that was the biggest pet peeve I had about that movie and the countdown clock in the end.
I guess it’s hard to try and edit these things down and try to pack in all the plot points needed, but the simple solution is stop throwing out the time lol. Just say, they don’t know if there is enough time to save them if you can’t edit it closer.
I get it. I said I know time doesn’t exist on screen but yeah. No one puts a stopwatch on these situations but there needs to be SOME self awareness in the editing process. Usually professional editors know how much they can reasonably get away with.
Man… If this was just the Shrike and the Changelings they had a decent season right there. There was no need for Picard to get Borg closure. He got that in First Contact.
Obviously agree about the time thing. It’s sooooo annoying and yet its always doe.
I really had no issues with seeing the Borg again, but I know many did. And I have said I was fully happy just to have the Changelings considering we haven’t seen them since DS9 ended.
The irony for me though is I remember telling someone that you don’t need a specific TNG villain, as long as its part of the same universe it really shouldn’t matter. But others pushed back and thought it should be TNG related and obviously Matalas agreed. That said, there are other TNG villains too like the Romulans, or Cardassians they could’ve faced off with. Would’ve been fine with those too.
Some nitpicky bits: Beverly wore the rank insignia of a Commodore in the end. Also, how would it be possible for every single member of starfleet.. cooks to disposable red-shirts to be an officer/Ensign. Having established enlisted ranks with O’Brian.. why not expand that a bit?
That has always been an issue for me with new-Trek. Ever since TNG there have been precious few actual crewmen. Seemed like everyone on board was an officer. And then there was the O’Brian enigma. He was treated like an officer. Even mentioned he went to the Academy. Presumably he didn’t graduate? Unless in this future society Chiefs is now an officer rank?
He was a lieutenant with two pips, then had his weird half pip and then ended up with chevrons. I wish the producers would assign some to watch for rank continuity issues.
And yet I don’t recall anyone referring to him as a Lieutenant. Did it happen once or twice?
I’ve tended to think that while there were enlisted personal, those guys just tended to be the background voices or folks you saw wandering the corridors. All conscripts probably went to the ‘Academy’, officer candidates headed off to the four year program, everyone else had a MOS identified and headed off to the appropriate school.
If so then the problem was no one could distinguish officers from crew by just looking. I realize it was probably a budget thing on TOS but there were quite obviously crewmen all over that ship.
Also, Academy is a school. Essentially officers school. If one is enlisted they would go through basic training. So that argument only really flies if one claims that the terms centuries from now change.
Basically, I’d agree, if I could ignore that enlisted Chief O’Brian says he went to the Academy. Trek has been really muddy on the structure of their training functions, but if you look to the Navy for an example, every shipboard function has a training school behind it. I don’t personally believe everyone on a Starfleet vessel is an officer, likewise, it makes little sense that Starfleet Academy only exists at one physical location, on Earth.
Did we find out that the Enterprise F got destroyed in the big battle? Do you even see the ship after the brief clip of Shelby getting vaporized by her Borgized crew?
Presumably something happened to the F if the Titan is now the Enterprise G.
The Enterprise-F was scheduled for early decommission. I think there has been a brief glimpse of this info on a graphic in the end credits LCARS montage all season long — or it’s in the big info array of Ro Laren’s that Picard and Riker glimpse in episodes 5 and 6. I can’t remember now, but Enterprise-F was always on the way out.
F being decommissioned is identified in the season premiere.
As I said in another thread last night: 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! 🌟
Renaming Titan to Enterprise-G is causing problems for Star Trek Online, which takes place in 2409 and that Enterprise-F is used.
Last Generation felt like a final TNG movie after Nemesis.
Not a fan of renaming the ship. Totally unnecessary.
It doesn’t actually. Star Trek Online isn’t canon. It exists in its own little bubble.
I think they’re going to establish that Trek Online is a parallel universe.
I really enjoyed the finale and have no complaints about it except that the episode went by too fast. Seeing the 1701-D in action with her old crew for one last time was awesome!
One of my favorite parts was when Beverly worked tactical like a pro and explained her skills by saying a lot has happened over 20 years. I also loved seeing Deanna taking the helm like she did in Generations and not crashing this time. So much fun! Also, ending with Seven as Captain of the 1701-G was perfect. I hope there is at least a movie with Captain Seven of Nine.
So, since the Borg queen is supposed to be the same one from the end of Voyager and she was what was left of the collective, does that imply that Captain and Admiral Janeway committed genocide? I know I have said I was tired of the Borg, but I hope that isn’t the case.
No because we have seen intact cubes since the end of Voyager timeline wise. And they were all just shut down. So unless someone’s been destroying them as they come across them, then she wasn’t. And if someone has been, that’s not Janeway’s fault, that’s on the people who destroyed them.
I was able to attend the IMAX viewing in San Francisco and I must say it was an experience right up there with seeing any great Star Trek movie. Considering the free passes, free popcorn and drink, and free poster… All I can say is thank you. Then the movie, I mean series finale came on, episode 9 and then 10 (plus the lovely Q&A after). It was like the old days of Star Trek at the movies. We cheered and laughed and cried. There was a lot of applause. Sheer f-ing Trekkie joy! I will never forget last night. I would have loved this incredible send off at home (and can’t wait to re and re-watch) but to see it in this way, in IMAX with other Trek fans, I really am having a really hard time finding the words. The two words that keep coming to mind are thank you.
Oh, what a blast that must have been! Good for you.
I was there in SF also. A lot of fun. :)
I was on the waiting list for IMAX tickets; I do wonder if I might have enjoyed the finale more had I watched it that way, rather than at home.
Wow….that was great! The Enterprise flying through the conduits of the Death Star……er, Borg cube, to blow it up over Endor…..er, Jupiter…..
Jack. Q. So, wash, rinse, repeat?? Look, this was a polished production, but if all the next next has to offer is a reimagined rerun of the last one, then just put the exclamation point on this and give the SA and S31 productions the same attention to detail.
Yes, I get the sarcasm. And them talking about how hard it was. Which I didn’t buy as a viewer for one nanosecond. The gaps looked HUGE. Also Data is a robot. He could anticipate and react far better than anyone. And on top of that, there was no sequence, not even a few seconds, of Data struggling or reactions from the crew or anything. It was fake danger.
Fake danger is exactly what it was.
So far, none of the big season-ending threats in Picard — this season especially — feel like they have any stakes. The battle here felt like a mediocre video game. There was no doubt that the good guys would prevail somehow and everyone would laugh it off the next day (or a year later, or whatever).
Thinking back to TBOBW, where we didn’t even see the actual Wolf 359 battle, the stakes mostly felt real and dire. It felt like someone (or many) in our crew could die.
Gosh, even Jack — who willingly joined the Borg and killed loads of people because, er, something something growing up with just a mom — just tore off his Borg appliances somewhere between the transporter room and the bridge and was met with hugs and smiles.
Same with the Titan Borg kids suddenly de-assimilating at the last possible minute, just in time to hug it out).
No stakes. No danger. No consequences.
There’s nothing wrong with a simple, straightforward plot — but this was simplistic (and yet still convoluted).
Nice to see everybody, though. Michelle Forbes was good.
I mean, it’s to be expected that the good guys will win the day, but you’re right: it never felt like there was ever a doubt, it all felt too stiff and rehearsed, like they were all just running through the motions… reenacting a script :)
Seriously, it just felt very perfunctory. Lacking tension.
To be fair we knew our intrepid crew would win out. But when the audience views these things there needs to be some sort of stakes and times where you wonder how they are going to get out of this. Hence, the audience can feel the danger. In this finale that sense was never present. Ever. Which is one reason why I feel that if there was a death of a major character it would have given that finale a lot more weight.
well – that was a thing that happened. It was nice seeing them all play poker again. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than Nemesis. Onward Legacy
I can’t say I liked it or disliked it. Indifference is mostly the feeling I’m getting. Like watching a late stage episode of Voyager, I thought. They fly in and beat the Borg and we’re done. A fine, average way to pass an hour. The finest from what a still surviving alternate universe UPN would be offering us in 2023.
As for Legacy, I don’t care. Q again! Yeah sure, snap your fingers and go make a hundred of these shows. Whatever, Paramount.
Really sorry you didn’t like it more Wiley. I did love it but I’m a fanboy lol.
I will say if the legacy show happens, they can cut down on the nostalgia a bit and I think they will. This was really about TNG and those characters getting one last adventure together. I’m hoping the next show could be more of its own thing.
The good – we got a TOS movie era action-adventure story complete with what should have been the Ent-A with a Connie and David Marcus Picard. Got to see Shelby on the Ent-G. The Borg storyline with them wanting robo-Picard tech and a compromised Picard. Compromised Picard redeems Season 1 and Crusher keeping Jack Crusher from seeing him / why he ditched everyone to obsess about AI. President Chekov. The TNG fleet in shambles that they have to depend on a bunch of Neo Constitution TOS movie ships, awesome. Robo-Picard gets redemption in ending the Borg (vs. Janeway) and saving Starfleet.
The bad – The Borg got to be scary for a whole two episodes, should have been a longer arc with more changling ramifications, organics vs. full machinery being more of a theme. Riker’s Titan legacy gets the shaft, that should have been the Ent-A, not the Ent-G. No Saavik. The Titan, cough, Enterprise-G has a horrid bridge, those consoles on the side need to go around that you aren’t looking at a conference room with the Captain. Also Shaw, the best new character dies. Shelby dies. Ro dies. Rios was gone. Does not pay to be a professional Starfleet officer for sure. All the good characters died. I don’t see legacy without the Borg being viable, seems like it would degenerate to Young and the Restless in space (TNG vs. TOS movie arc) without the Borg, Changlings though I guess could work with them rebuilding the Starfleet and Jack Crusher and their neo Constitution class cruisers… Needs to draft Saavik.
Thinking about it the biggest bad was that starships are a dime a dozen, they last like 5-10 years. That’s where Strange New World shines.
Great great ep – tho one question/comment – If the smaller Titan is now the ENT-G, is there also an ENT-F? I’m ok with 2 Enterpriseseseses being around, especially if they are 2 different registries and ship types.
Fantastic TNG sendoff, tho. Needed some Janeway.
The Enterprise-F was scheduled to be retired from service (there’s a computer graphic at some point in this season or the end credits that states this), so there are not two Enterprises in service (the reveal of the G happens a full year after the events of Frontier Day, after all).
Agreed on having no Janeway after they name dropped her for three episodes straight. That would’ve been the biggest highlight for a lot of fans if she actually appeared.
The other poster said it about the F, it was already retiring. We were watching its final voyage in episode 9.
I loved the season, and I was very much hoping that the final episode would not disappoint. It was a pretty satisfying wrapup for all of the characters, and nicely tied up most of the season’s story arcs.
That said, I was hoping for a few more cameos. I never expected Walter Koenig would appear, so that was a nice treat. But it seems a little silly to imply that Guinan is restocking the beer in the back while their card game is going on. And the Titan name already honors another starship; the re-christening was a rare misstep, I have to say.
But those are minor quibbles. This is the strongest single season of Trek in many years, and I loved it.
Honestly if the “many years” only extends back to about 17 then that’s an awfully low bar to clear.
“But it seems a little silly to imply that Guinan is restocking the beer in the back while their card game is going on.”
Absolutely. The whole idea that Guinan has a bar in Los Angeles — complete with neon beer signs — seems silly to me.
Great review, Anthony. Just super. Fantastic season, such a thrill and so well done. Bring on the physical media, because I’m buying this season. Cheers.
This was a solid ending for a great crew. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing is. It was definitely one of the strongest seasons of Trek in a long time (up there with SNW season 1), and without a doubt the best season of the series..not that it had much competition from the previous seasons…but still! TNG was my first experience with Star Trek, and this season transported me back to 1994 where 12-year-old me watched the Enterprise sail off into the stars at the end of All Good Things. Thank you to Terry and crew for giving this group an amazing sendoff.
I do have some comments/notes that I’d like to share! Some have already been mentioned, but I’ll include them again since they were part of my original list:
The Enterprise-D seemed VERY maneuverable when it flew into the Borg cube. It was pulling off some moves that would have been better suited for the Defiant or a runabout vs. a fairly large Galaxy-class starship. I know that they had a way bigger VFX budget than on TNG or maybe even the movies and wanted to show it off, but the D is a capital ship that isn’t supposed to be zipping around like a bee. As cool as it was, it was a bit strange to watch
Like many others, I really disagreed with the Titan being rechristened as the Enterprise-G. This Titan was already at least partially built from pieces of the previous version (which also wasn’t that old), and after everything that it did to save the Federation, changing the name and chucking its history aside just seemed unfair to its legacy
Compared to what we saw in TNG and DS9, Picard as a series seemed to make starships more disposable. We saw decades-old Miranda, Excelsior and Oberth class ships throughout those series, but here the Enterprise-F was retired very quickly, Riker’s Titan wasn’t that old, and we’re already on the Voyager-B. With the destruction of Utopia Planitia Yards, you’d think they would try to keep ships in service as long as possible
Is Shelby actually dead? She took a couple of direct hits so I assume she is, but it would have been nice to have confirmed it one way or the other like they did with Shaw
LOVED hearing Walter Koenig as the Federation President. That was totally out of left field and a great addition. The little bit where he copied his “father’s” accent was great too, as was the choice of first name to honor Anton Yelchin
The Borg cube was in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot for most of the episode, then it was out in open space when it exploded. Did it move at some point?
Janeway was referenced throughout the season and since she advocated for Seven to get into Starfleet, it would have been great to see her alongside Tuvok promoting her to captain
Really loved seeing the old warp effect on the D’s viewscreen. The return of the bubble-shaped shield when they were escaping the exploding cube was a nice bit of nostalgia also. They used the modern transporter effect when beaming the crew off the cube though, so that was a little strange
It was a welcome change to see the writers use Data’s “gut” feelings to navigate the ship vs. just plugging him into the computer
When did Jack have time to rip off the Borg faceplate? When Picard was rescued Crusher said there would be a lot of microsurgery involved to liberate him from the implants. I know the Borg have created a new way to assimilate/reproduce, but Jack’s conversion seemed to be pretty old school so it shouldn’t have been easy to just tear it off
The Enterprise-D/Titan scene at the end reminded me of the Enterprise-A and Excelsior flying together at the end of ST6
They referenced Guinan being in the bar at the end, and it would’ve been great to see her make a quick appearance
Glad I didn’t turn off the credits before I saw that scene with Q! It definitely makes sense that an omnipotent being wouldn’t follow linear time
I just wish if finished at least half way decently. It wasn’t bad up to the Shrike destruction. Even that lame plot point about the portal weapon usage was merely a distraction. (I mean really… Had they never used it no one would have gone after them for quite some tie at least. Using that weapon was sending up a GIANT flare saying “come investigate us now!”) After that things started slowing down and even going downhill. That was where the story should have ended. Now this awful conclusion is the strongest memory.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I had some issues but overall I loved it too.
As far as hearing Walter Koenig’s voice, I loved it too but it’s funny this was leaked last year. I remember reading online somewhere and it said he would be playing a descendant of Chekhov. I just thought maybe it was cut for some reason but was so happy to hear it in the episode.
I suppose that’s why they picked the name, but “Anton” isn’t a particularly uncommon name in Russian. I’d have frankly preferred they simply called him “President Yelchin” rather than trying to shoehorn him into Chekhov’s backstory. (It would have evoked a more optimistic time under Pres. Yeltsin, which also would have been a nice callback to TUC’s allusion to Gorbachev in the form of “Gorkon.”)
THANK YOU, Tony M, cast & crew, for an episode, and season, for the ages!!
Bravo!! 👍👏🍷❤️😎
Now, onto Captain Seven & the crew of the Enterprise-G!!
Love this golden age of Trek content 😀
Thank you Terry for the best season of TNG!
C’mon P+ We want a show on the G.
Why am I not loving this like the rest of you?
this just didn’t do it for me. It was ok. But the entire thing with The Borg and the fleet ships making the Borg logo—that was stupid. Picard sticking a thing in his neck and it just working was stupid.
The whole “sever the connection” and everyone is just fine afterwards was stupid. I feel like almost no thought was put into any of this. It was contrived non sense. BUT
Did I love seeing the D and the bridge and the old crew? Hell yes. But this all felt so easy. Remember Best of Both Worlds? The solve of that is such a clever thing. “Put them to Sleep”. Now it’s just shoot the thing and it’s the Death Star. What?
And the Changlings just kept everyone they copied alive and well? Huh?
and I have to talk about Patrick Stewart. It pains me to say this but…does this feel like the Captain to anyone? I know people change but Picard was always a guarded, dry, serious man. This Picard feels so alien. The Picard dignity and strength and determinism just isn’t there. It’s more than just the shaky voice of old age. It’s…the dialogue. The characterization. He’s always telling people how much they mean to him now. I’d prefer a stubborn Picard. A hardened Picard. He should’ve actually rejected his son UNTIL the final moment on that Borg ship. That would’ve been interesting. Picard doesn’t like Jack, maybe treats him a little cold. He doesn’t know what to say or how to act.
this just doesn’t feel right to me. The way the Star fleet officers talk to each other. The casual work place vibe it has. Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Kirk projected such strength, leadership, smarts, guile, will power and yes, hubris. And now it just seems like everyone is on equal footing. The banter. The quips.
Star Trek was always very dry. And I know that’s not sexy but that’s what Star Trek is. It can be fun and adventurous of course. But it’s not Fast & Furious or Star Wars.
I should also note…I don’t have nostalgic love for this franchise. I’m a new fan within the last few years. I started consuming Trek during the pandemic & became a massive fan. TOS, TNG and most of all DS9 are just wonderful.
This newer Trek feels so surface level. So shiny & rote and contrived. Some moments were terrific. The best scene in the entire show was the sequence with Ro Loren in the bar. The most Trek like this show felt was the one where all those things were born. That was the best episode by far.
they milked the Jack mystery for too long. The Borg seems lazy and the threat didn’t feel big. Now photon torpedoes and phasers can destroy Borg tech? Huh? I guess they no longer adapt?
I could go on and on. Maybe I have already.
You’re not alone in your questions and criticisms. I will say that there’s definitely a house style that all the new Star Treks must adhere to and I think that explains some of what bothers you when try to compare the new stuff to the old stuff. As for the character of Picard, yeah, he’s much closer to Movie Picard which had almost nothing to do with Show Picard and that had everything to do with Patrick Stewart. I think the emotional scope of this season, from beginning to end, really worked — that is, what it was about on the characters’ emotional level — but yeah I’m with you on a lot of the hand wavey junky Saturday afternoon syndicated TV sci-fantasy stuff.
I tend to agree on nearly all you said. Especially that amazingly ridiculous thing of blowing up the Borg ship reversed all the assimilations like magic. I’m sorry but… NO. In my post I even mentioned how I joked that would happen. JOKED! And then they actually did it! It was the ultimate facepalm. I find this even worse than the Kelpian yell. And Picard as a robot now… The assimilation shouldn’t even have worked on him now. But the plot needed him to talk to Jack so they just did it because they needed it to even though it didn’t make much sense.
Yes, Stewart has lost every bit of his old charisma. Not a knock. We all get older. But he just has no presence any longer. Frakes severely upstaged him in every scene they were together.
A lot of this episode was filled with facepalms. And again, its really unfortunate because it was decent for up to the end of Vadic. The series really should have ended there. Could have ended on a higher note at least.
All good points. In the end, it didn’t really work for me overall except as a “hey old friends!” reunion. I got the feels a few times, but I also heard myself saying “that’s dumb” out loud a lot (at 2 am when the rest of the house was sleeping).
Mostly, with the exception of Riker and LaForge (and sometimes Worf), I didn’t buy most of the original cast as their characters much of the time. It was actors on a set.
McFadden was fine but wasn’t given much to do or day (big deal, she fired phasers and doled out exposition) — and that’s ridiculous given how critical she should have been to the plot (and to Jack).
Sirtis mostly just seems to be playing herself. Spiner felt like Data a couple of times, but he overdid it, IMO.
Shaw and Jack showed promise early on, but after Episode 6/7 or so, they weren’t given much interesting to do. Same with Seven — interesting character on Voyager, solid actress — and this show has never really known what to do with her.
That’s what bugs me most, I think, about the TNG cast. All the talk about finally giving Crusher something to do and it didn’t amount to much at all. Yes, she was at the center of the story, but what did she actually do? She had a few really good scenes early on, but when it came down to the final act (last few episodes), she basically just stood around.
It’s nice to have a POV from someone relatively new to the franchise and who isn’t deeply nostalgic for the Berman era. It’s a really interesting perspective from someone who has watched the change from old guard to new guard at the same time. I’d imagine it’d be quite jarring to see how the tonal shift of the dialogue has changed so much if you’re experiencing it all at the same time, and for the first time, as Tiberious Mudd called it the new “House Style,” which I really like as a term to describe it.
I don’t have nostalgia for TNG. I didn’t exist when it aired so I haven’t enjoyed the season as much as others have because it has relied so heavily on nostalgia that does not have any impact on me.
I agree with all your points too. The biggest complaint I have is when the young officers just reverted back to their old selves. Why then would there be a need to run them through the transporter again? The fact that their Borgness just vanished so quickly didn’t really make sense as their DNA was altered was it not? Surely they’d have to undergo some kind of DNA editing, or CRISPR type procedure to get rid of it or to deactivate it again?
And the fact that the Changelings didn’t kill they people they impersonated? I guess that transporter guy on the Titan that Seven found dead was out of luck that day?
I really enjoyed the first half of the season. It had a lot of quieter, character driven and dialogue-heavy scenes which were the ones I most enjoyed. The season then really slumped for me in the middle and the dragging out Jack’s mystery box made it often quite tedious to watch.
I did really enjoy that scene with Ro that you are referring to though, again one of the smaller and quieter scenes that revolved around the characters history and not about the overall plot.
I agree with all your points too. The biggest complaint I have is when the young officers just reverted back to their old selves. Why then would there be a need to run them through the transporter again? The fact that their Borgness just vanished so quickly didn’t really make sense as their DNA was altered was it not? Surely they’d have to undergo some kind of DNA editing, or CRISPR type procedure to get rid of it or to deactivate it again?
Yeah, that whole line of storytelling was not well thought out — kind of silly.
They didn’t want to think about it as far as I can tell.
This is exactly the kind of stuff I’ve criticized in Discovery and earlier seasons of Picard. Not going to rant on it, just say that it’s amazing how nostalgic charm can suddenly enable some to overcome that.
Seconded.
3rded.
Well said, Dude. An spot on, regarding Stewart. I thought he pulled it off in S1, but I don’t know if it was aging and the stress of Covid, but staring with S2 he seemed like a shell of the Picard performance we were used to.
I didn’t even realize that the formation was supposed to be the Borg logo.
Frankly, another thing I kept scratching my head at was the whole “fleet formation” concept. We’ve seen plenty of “networked” ships in Starfleet before, going back to TWOK, where Enterprise disabled Reliant because of its very-networked access codes.
The networked ships thing was Chekov’s gun. You knew it would be their achilleas heel to whatever was going to happen. The only reason I can think of for doing that is the plan is to go to limited crewed or unmanned ships in the near term.