...And why IMHO it does better service to the franchise than their movies did.
On the surface, All Good Things... is rather standard fare for a TNG plot. A dangerous temporal disturbance, not unlike Time Squared, or Cause & Effect, or even Timescape, a jarring phenomenon for one of the cast of characters, not too dissimilar from what Worf had just gone though in Parallels, a threat to the crew, Starfleet, & even humanity, & a reappearance of our most prominent guest actor. Beyond that boiler plate template though lies another, better layer, of it being a premise which would serve to bookend the series with that guest character. We'd get to revisit what has loomed over this universe since day one, & see at least some kind of resolution to it.
And all of these things are done pretty well. Are they rendering them the best that we've ever seen them pull off though? Probably not, and this is what I believe lies at the crux of why latter TNG seasons feel less wonderous or inspiring than earlier ones (Some folks rate their last season as one of the worst) Their priorities shifted. They became so ingrained in the formulaic practice of the show, that it became their chains, these tales about "space things" continuing to happen to these characters, these dangers that would always need more shields, or more power, or more invention. No longer were they really appreciating it as the awe-inspiring wonderment that had been the case of the 1st few seasons. How many unusual things can we give before they aren't feeling unusual anymore?
This is why the focus shifted to what was ultimately TNG's legacy. TNG was the 1st Trek show to intentionally focus on the characters and their growth, & it wasn't an easy journey to make that shift away from the episodic model of having everything & everyone return back to pilot episode status quo by the end. Kirk & his crew are ultimately no different by the end of TOS, but Picard & his? Very different. All their trials & tribulations, their triumphs & their losses being a huge part of them by then, and this finale succeeds by letting us unwrap all of that intimacy to its conclusion.
This episode works because at its core, its surface plot is irrelevant to it more being about this captain and the people he trusts & cares for, how their lives intertwine & unfold, and how their personalities clash & jive. This finale looked like run-of-the-mill Star Trek stuff, but FELT more like something out of Little House On The Prairie, than Star Trek, where a family is saying goodbye to us, after we've been shown them growing together for a time. This dynamic became so infused in their makeup that it sewed & will sew itself into every single ensuing Star Trek spin-off's DNA ever more. All Star Trek since TNG is now character driven as much as anything else, due to them, & they played that symphony to perfect conclusion. I defy you to not get a heartfelt feeling, seeing Picard deal cards to his mates, at the end of that show. THAT'S what you were meant to be tuning in for on this show.
And that's why their film series became ever more a failure IMHO, because it falls further & further away from that pursuit. Where it's finally just leaning on that currency of character that we've known them for, and not adding any to it, which ironically is the absolute opposite of what happened with the TOS crew, who we got nearly no intimate growth for during the series, but during their films, they almost leapt off the screen to become our family in that new personal way. I often wonder how TNG movies could have gotten it so backward in that way. How could they not see that's what made the 80s films so beloved? TOS became closer to us as the screen got bigger & somehow in trying to live up to it, TNG got father away up there.
It all makes me realize how special that finale was, because even if it was a somewhat pedestrian plot, it was only the set dressing for a heart of gold that was the core of our experience.
On the surface, All Good Things... is rather standard fare for a TNG plot. A dangerous temporal disturbance, not unlike Time Squared, or Cause & Effect, or even Timescape, a jarring phenomenon for one of the cast of characters, not too dissimilar from what Worf had just gone though in Parallels, a threat to the crew, Starfleet, & even humanity, & a reappearance of our most prominent guest actor. Beyond that boiler plate template though lies another, better layer, of it being a premise which would serve to bookend the series with that guest character. We'd get to revisit what has loomed over this universe since day one, & see at least some kind of resolution to it.
And all of these things are done pretty well. Are they rendering them the best that we've ever seen them pull off though? Probably not, and this is what I believe lies at the crux of why latter TNG seasons feel less wonderous or inspiring than earlier ones (Some folks rate their last season as one of the worst) Their priorities shifted. They became so ingrained in the formulaic practice of the show, that it became their chains, these tales about "space things" continuing to happen to these characters, these dangers that would always need more shields, or more power, or more invention. No longer were they really appreciating it as the awe-inspiring wonderment that had been the case of the 1st few seasons. How many unusual things can we give before they aren't feeling unusual anymore?
This is why the focus shifted to what was ultimately TNG's legacy. TNG was the 1st Trek show to intentionally focus on the characters and their growth, & it wasn't an easy journey to make that shift away from the episodic model of having everything & everyone return back to pilot episode status quo by the end. Kirk & his crew are ultimately no different by the end of TOS, but Picard & his? Very different. All their trials & tribulations, their triumphs & their losses being a huge part of them by then, and this finale succeeds by letting us unwrap all of that intimacy to its conclusion.
This episode works because at its core, its surface plot is irrelevant to it more being about this captain and the people he trusts & cares for, how their lives intertwine & unfold, and how their personalities clash & jive. This finale looked like run-of-the-mill Star Trek stuff, but FELT more like something out of Little House On The Prairie, than Star Trek, where a family is saying goodbye to us, after we've been shown them growing together for a time. This dynamic became so infused in their makeup that it sewed & will sew itself into every single ensuing Star Trek spin-off's DNA ever more. All Star Trek since TNG is now character driven as much as anything else, due to them, & they played that symphony to perfect conclusion. I defy you to not get a heartfelt feeling, seeing Picard deal cards to his mates, at the end of that show. THAT'S what you were meant to be tuning in for on this show.
And that's why their film series became ever more a failure IMHO, because it falls further & further away from that pursuit. Where it's finally just leaning on that currency of character that we've known them for, and not adding any to it, which ironically is the absolute opposite of what happened with the TOS crew, who we got nearly no intimate growth for during the series, but during their films, they almost leapt off the screen to become our family in that new personal way. I often wonder how TNG movies could have gotten it so backward in that way. How could they not see that's what made the 80s films so beloved? TOS became closer to us as the screen got bigger & somehow in trying to live up to it, TNG got father away up there.
It all makes me realize how special that finale was, because even if it was a somewhat pedestrian plot, it was only the set dressing for a heart of gold that was the core of our experience.
