All Good Things is the best TNG Episode

[Qonundrum]

I've said this before and I'll probably say it again at some point but for me STNG ended with 'All Good Things...'.
The movies.... what are those.

They were missed opportunities. Not without some merit or watch-ability (I'd buy the 4K blu's, the movies are good), but generally were not as stellar as the 80s films - TNG films more often feel like a bunch of set-pieces and ideas plopped into a ball like gobs of clay, and made more for fanservice than continuing a thematic and linked story worthy of the big screen. 80s Trek movies were embryonic of a new style with a loose arc of recurring and expanding developments, but that's held up more than TNG's freewheeling and rushed, clipped-ending standalone flicks. Even secondary characters (Chekov, et al) had better reasons for returning to the Enterprise than TNG's (read: Worf and with each subsequent movie installment, his reasoning for being there got both more and more feeble, and more and more small universe syndrome. It's not quite unlike each movie regarding Data's <<fused-and-can't-be-removed-and-stuck-on//on-off switch added//is now removable but doesn't take it to the planet where he's acting out of anger at starfleet//what's an emotion chip?>> "emotion chip". (All this isn't to say the 80s films didn't have whoopsies, they did... just not as many, many are more easily explained anyway, or as lackadaisically thrown in.) But I unsurprisingly digressed.)

Then again, over the last few decades, some now opine how television feels larger and more epic with running themes and movies feel cheap. I'll agree television shows now have incredible budgets to achieve theater-worthy effects...

 

[Qonundrum]

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All that had to be Q manipulating everything and - perhaps - everyone, since early season 1 episodes like "Lonely Among Us" when Picard was being manipulated and compelled by an alien energy fritter residing inside of him, had him barking orders involving putting the ship in risk and - as a result - everyone else balks or relieves him of command because he's not his normal self (whatever that is), yet in the finale, everyone gulps, drinks a big gulp, and rolls along with their goofy new captain. The panache of the production makes it so easy to roll with, however.

 

[JesterFace]

They were missed opportunities. Not without some merit or watch-ability (I'd buy the 4K blu's, the movies are good), but generally were not as stellar as the 80s films

I don't "force" myself to watch the TNG films simply because I don't like them.
I'm not saying you or anyone else is forcing themseves to go though them, if you enjoy them, that's fine.

 

[at Quark's]

I'm not convinced that it's the very best TNG episode, but it's very high in my rankings too. It's certainly a great two-parter, and easily the best of any Trek series' finals.

 

[Iamnotspock]

All that had to be Q manipulating everything and - perhaps - everyone, since early season 1 episodes like "Lonely Among Us" when Picard was being manipulated and compelled by an alien energy fritter residing inside of him, had him barking orders involving putting the ship in risk and - as a result - everyone else balks or relieves him of command because he's not his normal self (whatever that is), yet in the finale, everyone gulps, drinks a big gulp, and rolls along with their goofy new captain. The panache of the production makes it so easy to roll with, however.

If memory serves, in "Lonely Among Us", the concerns about Picard were largely from Riker and Crusher, who were at Farpoint during the 2364 scenes in "All Good Things". Troi and Yar did voice some concern but perhaps neither felt they could fully stand against him, especially without a CMO to deem him unfit for duty. His behaviour also wasn't completely the same in both; in "Lonely...", the crew knew him well enough to know he was acting out of character and being snappy and condescending, and could be confident in relieving him, whereas in "AGT", he was a new captain of whom they were flat-out uncertain.

 

[Dee1891]

I thought "All Good Things" was okay. But I don't think it was the best TNG episode.

 

[somebuddyX]

I think it's best series finale Trek's done and I could easily see someone claiming it's their favourite or "the" best episode. It's not mine. I think the "best" one would be more along the lines of some message episode like "Who Watches The Watchers" or "The Inner Light," whereas my favourites are usually when some weird stuff happens. It's really well made and I love the effort they went to in bringing back the look of Season 1 and developing the future stuff. I had the novelisation when I was a kid and it had all these nice little extra scenes like Pulaski and Lwaxana, or Old Riker talking to Old Lavelle, or a really creepy moment when the Bajoran helm officer realises a scar she had was gone.

 

[StarMan]

The Measure of a Man
The Offspring
BOBW
The Inner Light
Q Who
The Defector
...

I could go on, but those are just a few episodes that I'd comfortably put above AGT, which is still a pretty solid episode and a damn good finale.

 

[PhotoBoy]

While there are quite a few other TNG episodes I like more than AGT, I do think it stands as the best ending to anything I've seen. Most endings like to blow everything up, kill off characters and generally ensure nothing could be the same again. I sometimes think that's because the writers can finally do whatever they want without having to worry about next week!

Anyway, I think AGT neatly threads the needle of bringing closure to the series and showing how far the characters have come while also leaving everything open for continuing adventures. Even if TNG hadn't been headed to the big screen and just continued in novels the way TOS has, it would have been the perfect ending (IMHO anyway).

That said, AGT does have some annoying little flaws that always bug me when I watch it. There's the aforementioned invisible anomaly that should have been visible and winked out of existence when they scanned it, there's the three beams described as matching the Enterprise's deflector dish when one of them came from the Pasteur and my final pet peeve- Worf and Deanna.

At the time that relationship sort-of worked, but as it was dropped and almost entirely ignored by DS9 it ended up being pointless. It would have been far better for Riker and Deanna to have finally got together given their closeness throughout the series and it's something that could have carried over to the movies.

 

[DonIago]

I do wish DS9 had provided some explanation as to what happened with Worf-Deanna, but that's a DS9 quibble, not an AGT quibble.

Though I also honestly got over Riker-Troi a long time ago and was a little disappointed when they brought it back to life in the films. The novels did get some good use out of it though.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Yeah, it's one of the best and one of my favorite episodes

Just wish Ron Jones came back at least for this episode, instead of having this awful generic wallpaper soundtrack

Why Rick, why?

 

[JesterFace]

While there are quite a few other TNG episodes I like more than AGT, I do think it stands as the best ending to anything I've seen. Most endings like to blow everything up, kill off characters and generally ensure nothing could be the same again.

Best ending to anything you've seen? I think I agree with that.
AGT didn't turn everything upside down, the crew continues their mission and that's it. Why would everything have to change? A great way to wrap up the series by bringing in the pilot episode,

At the time that relationship sort-of worked, but as it was dropped and almost entirely ignored by DS9 it ended up being pointless. It would have been far better for Riker and Deanna to have finally got together given their closeness throughout the series and it's something that could have carried over to the movies.

In a way it would have been better if DS9 hadn't borrowed Worf and perhaps that Worf and Deanna thing could have developed into something. Fearless warrior and a mind reading therapist together, might be an interesting couple.

 

[Mojochi]

Though I also honestly got over Riker-Troi a long time ago and was a little disappointed when they brought it back to life in the films.

That Deanna gets back together with Will after all that time, does nothing for me except remind me just how badly Tom Riker got his life completely wrecked by Will after they pulled that poor man off of Nervala IV. He'd have tried to stay on board the Enterprise to be with her, if it hadn't been for Will being there. Then Will blows the lid off of the Pegasus conspiracy, likely smearing Tom's reputation, sending him spiraling down a path to turning his back on Starfleet entirely. Then while he's probably rotting away in a prison somewhere, Will up & marries Deana... finally. Tom Riker is one of the most jilted characters in all of Trek lore. Dudes have gone supervillain for less lol

 

[JesterFace]

Then while he's probably rotting away in a prison somewhere, Will up & marries Deana... finally. Tom Riker is one of the most jilted characters in all of Trek lore. Dudes have gone supervillain for less lol

Tom ended up in jail because what he did, no one else could be blamed for that.

 

[johnnybear]

Sadly upon reflection the future projection of the Enterprise with three nacelles was an alternating time line from what we've seen in Picard and the like. Unless some of it is mentioned in the weeks to come of the new season?
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Forgive me but I can't actually remember why Worf was back with the Enterprise D in Star Trek:Insurrection? Wasn't DS9 and the Dominion still ongoing at that point? 1999 wasn't it?
JB

 

[DonIago]

IIRC he starts to say something about it but it fades into background noise.

Which, frankly, I was fine with. We all know that they wanted Worf in the film and that there wasn't really going to be any decent explanation they could provide.