This may be the greatest series finale episode I have ever seen. I need to rewatch Babylon 5, but this one really felt like a good wrap up that also didn't feel like an ending which is pretty much what they were going for. The only real complaints I have are that the Riker/Worf making up thing didn't really feel very earned and also seemed to come out of nowhere. The Worf/Troi relationship is only a few episodes old so having that suddenly be the main thing between the two of them felt kinda odd, but I guess it also no longer happened so why worry. Centering the finale on the Picard/Q relationship really goes a long way to showing what the show has been about broadly and since Tapestries Q is no longer a totally Picard hater it felt like a natural continuing of their relationship.
The episode opens with Worf saying goodnight to Troi and as he goes in for the kiss Picard stumbles into them in his sleeping clothes with the classic time traveler line, "what day is this?" Picard explains to Troi that he has the feeling he has been falling through different time periods and as he continues he suddenly finds himself an old man tending his vineyards. Geordi walks up with cool new machine eyes and we learn he isn't just there to say hi, Picard has been diagnosed with a degenerative mental condition. Geordi therefore has a hard time believing that Picard has actually been travelling through time but agrees to take him to meet with Data. And suddenly Picard is on a shuttle with Natasha Yar in a season one uniform about to go onto the Enterprise for the first time. Back in the "present" Picard finds himself in sickbay. Dr. Crusher is finishing her scans, but can't find anything wrong. Picard gets a call from an admiral that there is trouble in the neutral zone.
And then he is having tea with Data at Cambridge. Data offers to get some scans done on him which upsets Picard. Then he is arriving on the Enterprise and meeting the crew for the first time, but he is also constantly being taunted by the jurors from Q's court who keep appearing and taunting him. He gives a disjointed introduction and then calls for red alert, all hands to battle stations even though they are still docked. Picard learns that in the past timeline there is also a problem in the neutral zone and after lending a hand to get the ship ready they bypass Farpoint and head straight to the Devron system where the crisis seems to be originating. He finds himself in the present in sickbay again and Crusher scans him and find that even though he was there the entire time (only a few minutes) his brain has accumulated several hours of additional memories. They rush to the neutral zone where several Romulan ships have lined up along the border.
In the future timeline Picard wakes up from a nap on Data's couch, it is time to go get scanned, but now he knows what he needs to do, get to the neutral zone. They try calling admiral Riker but he refuses to help so they contact Worf who after some pushing agrees if he can go with them. They are going to take Captain Picard's ship, Captain Beverly Picard that is. In the past Picard is still confusing everybody but eventually gets Q to reveal that he is behind all this. Picard finds himself on trial again but this time Q lets him ask some questions and the captain learns he is the threat to humanity this time and it all has to do with the anomaly. In the future they are on there way to the Devron system on the Pasteur. In the present Picard is confronted by Commander Tomalek who is on the other side of the neutral zone. Both captains agree to send one ship to investigate the anomaly and whey the arrive they find a large zone of temporal distortion. In the past he arrives and finds it is even bigger, but in the future it isn't there at all.
Future Data suggests an inverse tachyon pulse to scan the anomaly which he also gets going in the other two timelines much to past Data's astonishment. As soon as the beam is turned on in the present things start getting strange as Geordi regenerates his ability to see and Nurse Ogawa loses her baby. In the past the Pasteur is attacked and just before it is about to be destroyed Riker shows up with the badass future Enterprise and saves the day, but not the Pasteur which is destroyed. Q pulls Picard out and shows him past earth where the anomaly has grown so big it is destroying early life on Earth dooming humanity. Future Picard isn't having much luck convincing everybody but Data finally listens and agrees he may be right. The two of them convince Riker to take the Enterprise back and when the arrive the anomaly has appeared. Picard takes all three ships into the anomaly to form a static warp shell and seal it for good. All three ships are destroyed and Picard finds himself in Q's court one last time. They say good bye and Picard is back on the Enterprise where he joins in his first senior staff poker game.
Review: Not quite a perfect episode, but a damn good ending to what has long been my favorite Trek series. We shall see how I feel after DS9, but TNG is going to be hard to top.
9 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment