Spoilers Season 3 wild speculation

[Yistaan]

I know you were joking, but I sure hope the writers don't use a reset button to undo the fleet assimilation.

Just go full Revenge of the Sith with it.

Borg Queen: Admiral Picard, you survived.

Picard: Surprised?

Borg Queen: Your arrogance blinds you Admiral Picard. Now you will experience the full power of the Borg hive! (fires a phaser blast that hurls Picard across the room)

(intermittent cuts to Worf and Jack Crusher dueling with bat'leths on a volcanic planet)

Borg Queen: I have waited a long time for this moment, my little synth friend. At last, the Federation is no more!

Picard: Not if I have anything to say about it! Your rule is at an end, and it wasn't short enough!

Borg Queen: You will not stop me! Jack Crusher will become more powerful than either of us!

Picard: Your faith in your new drone is misplaced, as is your faith in the Borg collective!

 

[NCC-73515]

I'm betting it's going to be Doctor Joe Zimmerman, complete with an aged Robert Picardo Golem body

He can still be a hologram, an ECH, and just say he's friends with Zimmerman and wants to honor his creator by looking older like him now

I know you were joking, but I sure hope the writers don't use a reset button to undo the fleet assimilation.

You wanna let the whole fleet remain assimilated?

 

[Tuskin38]

You wanna let the whole fleet remain assimilated?

I don't think that's what they're saying at all.

 

[Eric Bean]

How this ends IMO. Not sure how they liberate the fleet, but the rest...

- Worf dies saving his friends. His last words are "Jadzia" as he goes out in a blaze of glory. He has the brave and honorable death he always wanted, and fulfills a destiny different than Kor, who outlives everyone. There is no Kor mention (too deep a cut), but it is his character arc. He dies well.
- They're gonna do a riff on Star Trek Destiny. Picard and Beverly will confront jack in person on the cube, and he will destroy this Queen, and change the Borg as a concept. Not exactly the Destiny way with the Catatoms, but into something positive (Jurati, but better).
- Jack resolves to take the Cube into the Delta Quadrant to liberate the rest of the Borg collective since he's a "transmitter" and will transmit their liberation.
- Beverly goes with him, since she doesn't want to lose him like she lost Wesley (heavy foreshadowing on this). She'll never return to the Alpha Quadrant.
- Data goes to Copelius (maybe with Geordi) since he's not longer alone in the universe. We get a brief Soji cameo and maybe a look at Lal's portrait, as he resolves to bring her back now too. Full circle with Season 1 Episode 1.
- Geordi saves his girls and decides to help rebuild starfleet rather than curate a museum.
- Deanna rejoins Starfleet alongside Riker. Riker becomes Captain of the USS Enterprise G, which is in fact, the upgraded Enterprise D in a modified Galaxy-X configuration (per Matalas' tease we'll see "-X" in the finale). Also draws one of the last aspects of All Good Things into canon.
- Picard goes and meets Laris and moves on with his life, his adventures being over at last.

The crew is broken up.
-Seven of Nine reconciles with Raffi, and becomes Captain of the Titan. Janeway and/or Tuvok cameo to wish her off. She realizes she carries the legacy of her three mentors - Janeway, Picard and Shaw - who were all great and very different captains. She, the Borg who became human who became a Starfleet Captain, is their Legacy.

And that is how the series, and the TNG era ends.

next up: the Legacy Era.

Holy crap! I'll be an emotional wreck if all that comes to pass. I'd love to see the G be a modified / refit Galaxy Class (I was thinking Venture variant from STO).

 

[Scionz]

Holy crap! I'll be an emotional wreck if all that comes to pass. I'd love to see the G be a modified / refit Galaxy Class (I was thinking Venture variant from STO).

I know it's tough, but I really gave everyone everything they want in my projection of how it ends. Really.

Remember, Worf is Klingon, not human No Klingon wants to linger on like Kor. Kor considered his longevity a curse. Worf has been ready to die on many occasions. But having him go out in a way that saves his crew and his ship is the best ending for him. He is someone who dying in his bed would be a betrayal. Also it sets up a Legacy arc for Alexander (who would be a Legacy character Matalas said) resolving his issues with his father now that he is gone.

Beverly Crusher's first identity in Encounter at Farpoint was as a mother. Picard's old friend/flame, and ship Doctor were 2 and 3. It seems only fitting then her departure allows her to do all three: have one last kiss with Picard, the true love of each others lives, then follow her son to the Delta Quadrant healing the sick... namely the sickest people of all, the Borg collective.

Data... his entire arc was about being unique. The only one of his kind on the universe. Now he knows he isn't. There is an entire planet of androids who are his Children in a sense. He gets what he wants in that, and also, hopefully, a chance to bring Lal back.

Geordi is one of the most brilliant engineers of the 24th century, but he's become a museum curator. In a way, he followed Picard into exile, without leaving Starfleet. It's time to get him back in the game.

Riker and Deanna reconciling and being on a ship again in Starfleet, specifically the Enterprise-G (or just keep it Enterprise-D in Galaxy-X form) is the only way their Season 1 arch should end, for them both to start building a life after the long morning of the passing of their son. Riker took that step first, now Deanna will join him.

And Picard, after saving the Galaxy one last time, with his family saved and future secure in Jack, it's time for him to happily retire (as opposed to Season 1) and enjoy life a little. Picard gave his entire life for Starfleet and the Federation. He's entitled now, to find happiness outside of it.

So as I said, melancholy yes, but everyone gets everything they want.

 

[Danja]

I'm thinking Seven will link to the crew of the Titan and pull rank on them as Queen of the Cube (like she did on the cube in "Broken Pieces").

The crew of the Titan have no idea who they're dealing with.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm thinking Seven will link to the crew of the Titan and pull rank on them as Queen of the Cube (like she did on the cube in "Broken Pieces").

The crew of the Titan has no idea who they're dealing with.

She is the Captain, now.

 

[Danja]

She is the Captain, now.

For once, she holds the same rank in both Starfleet AND The Collective.

 

[Cube1701]

Another bit of speculation: we'll meet Admiral Shelby next episode.

We know that some very high ranking Federation officials are changelings. Riker mentioned that it was strange that Shelby would introduce something so Borg-like to the fleet.

The Borg aren't going to care about the Changelings (even if they successfully delivered Jack it probably wouldn't change).

So the Shelby we saw was a changeling.

 

[Skyshadow]

Now we know that this has been a long game for the Borg and Picard could hear them in his mind in ST:FC, who else knew?

Consider that Picard's body was kept by S31 as they/Soong had worked out that his brain had been altered. When do you think that they realised this? It is possible that when First Contact took place, S31 were already aware of what seemed to be Picard being able to hear the collective due to his DNA being altered (transporters and bio scans keep records showing the changes) and they had half an idea he could still hear/be controlled by them and this is why the E got sidelined in the battle of Sector 001.

If so this adds a whole other dimension to things if S31 knew all along and were keeping tabs on him and once they found out about his child, there was a desire to get their hands on him, the Changelings simply infiltrated this ongoing plot that S31 had for their own ends, creating the very situation that S31 were trying to avoid.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Woke up at 3am with an idea for how the finale could happen. Here is my "fanfic" finale:

They can use the transporters to undo the assimilation. Geordi has the Borg code that was added so he designs new transporter code that will revert people back to their old pattern from before they received the Borg DNA. They just need to get close enough to insert the code into the fleet. So the Ent-D takes evasive maneuvers to try to avoid taking fire from the fleet but still takes serious damage, but manages to get close enough and uploads the new code. Now they need someone to activate the transporters. This is where we get a bunch of legacy character cameos. We see Tuvok, O'Brien, Kyra, etc.. They are older so not affected by the Borg code, they managed to hide on the ships they happened to be on. Hence the title "the last generation" as it is the TNG cast and legacy characters from all of classic Trek, ie the last generation, that work together to save the day. They get the signal from Picard and they start activating transporters on all the ships in the fleet, thanks to the fleet formation that syncs all the ships together. All at once, we see the assimilated crew on every ship beam out and them beam back in, fully restored to their previous selves, but confused. Now fully restored, they retake the ships.

But it is not over. There is still the Borg Queen that must be stopped and Jack needs to be rescued. So the Ent-D warps to the Borg cube. When they get there, Picard and Riker beam aboard the Cube to rescue Jack. The Ent-D engages the Borg cube. This is where we get our Avengers Endgame "portal" moment. As the Ent-D is taking a beating, Data says "incoming warp signatures. It's starfleet!". We see the entire Starfleet warp in and engage the cube. It's the epic wolf 359 rematch! Picard and Riker get to Jack who betrays the Queen. They escape the cube and then starfleet blows up the cube.

Then we get an epilogue scene where admirals award medals to the TNG and Titan crew in honor of them saving the Federation. Seven gets promoted to captain and gets command of the Titan. The Ent-D is officially retired to the Fleet Museum. We see one last shot of the TNG crew on the bridge of the D as Picard gives a final captain's log and then says "computer: deactivate all systems". The TNG crew take one final look around and walk off the bridge of the D for the last time. We see the exterior shot of the D as all the lights turn off, fade to black and cue the TNG theme.

 

[SJGardner]

I'm imagining an homage to the end of The Undiscovered Country, with the Enterprise-D and the Titan flying off into the sunset, and Picard symbolically passing the torch to Captain Seven before the two ships part their ways. Starfleet orders the Enterprise-D back to the museum to serve as a permanent exhibit, to which Data once again gets to reply "to hell with our orders," even if only jokingly this time. The last shot of the episode would be the Enterprise triumphantly warping away to convey the message that the adventure never ends.

 

[137th Gebirg]

For once, she holds the same rank in both Starfleet AND The Collective.

And the Fenris Rangers.

 

[Tuskin38]

Terry said the Borg Cube wasn't in a Nebula. The -D in the ep10 preview clip detected a borg ship at Jupiter.
It's in Jupiter isn't it?

 

[Campe]

That was my thought when I saw the screenshot.

 

[USS Belmont]

So my question from the exclusive clip is why is spacedock not assimilated as well? They also have transporters and tons of young people in it, right? There should also be massive battles from within. There were no starships inside spacedock at all? How exactly does a space station at a singular point in orbit fights and hold off thousands of starships encircling an entire planet (especially with all orbital weapons platforms destroyed)?

 

[Species517]

You wanna let the whole fleet remain assimilated?

When I say I don't want the reset button, I mean I don't want the solution to be to go back in time and stop Jack from being born. The fleet doesn't get assimilated. Ro Laren doesn't die. Shelby doesn't die. Shaw doesn't die. The next generation crew has no memories of the events of this season. (see Voyager's "Year of Hell" ending)

 

[Campe]

When I say I don't want the reset button, I mean I don't want the solution to be to go back in time and stop Jack from being born. The fleet doesn't get assimilated. Ro Laren doesn't die. Shelby doesn't die. Shaw doesn't die. The next generation crew has no memories of the events of this season. (see Voyager's "Year of Hell" ending)

I would prefer that there are some actual stakes to this. If there’s a full reset and everyone comes out fine, I think I’ll be quite annoyed. I fully expect the majority of the under 25s to be okay. But there has to be a cost for that.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I hope they don't do a time travel reset. I would like to see our main characters win and stop the Borg of course but they should not undo the damage that the Borg inflict. I would like to see Starfleet still suffer loss of ships and crew so there was still consequences even though they ultimately prevail.

 

[ReddishAlert]

So my question from the exclusive clip is why is spacedock not assimilated as well? They also have transporters and tons of young people in it, right? There should also be massive battles from within. There were no starships inside spacedock at all? How exactly does a space station at a singular point in orbit fights and hold off thousands of starships encircling an entire planet (especially with all orbital weapons platforms destroyed)?

Well, Deep Space nine is a stationary target and is pretty effective against the fleet of Klingon ships.

In regards to the inside…maybe it’s a job you take close to retirement in Starfleet when you want to be close to home and they are all 60+