Ups & Downs From Star Trek: The Next Generation 7.25 - All Good Things...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- The temporal dangers of inverse tachyon pulses.
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Picard's line "I should've done this a long time ago" when he sat down to join them, always brought a tear to my eye.
"You were always welcome." 🥰
Indeed. I always thought it was a shame we didn't see more of Picard playing poker with the crew but that's Picard.
ending so nice they basically did it a second time and it still worked
I think it was the look around at each of their faces just as he says those words that got me. It truly was a beautiful ending.
I can't think of a better line to end the series on. And the callback to it at the end of Picard S3 was brilliant.
I think it's worth mentioning that Picard called for red alert in the past not because he panicked, but because it was something memorable. A captain shouting RED ALERT during a run of the mill ceremony would be remembered by people 7 years later. He wants to find out if his actions in the past influence the present and future. I thought that was very clever on Picard's part.
YES
And yet still, most strategic decision, as always, is to send just one ship out in there.
And we also learn that, even though we never saw the Ten Forward lounge in Season 1, it did exist before Guinan came aboard.
It's not unprecedented. I'm told that when President Carter (who was an engineering officer in the US Navy) took office, he was briefed on protocol for responding to a Soviet nuclear attack. As the briefing drew to a close, he pulled out a random pre planned response from the deck of recipes for disaster and said "Do this one."
Never thought of it that way, but I dig it.
"Imagine it's 1994...." oh honey. I was 23.... I remember how it all felt! It was such an anticipated episode and I was bouncing the day I popped to town, waited for Our Price to open, bought my vhs and rushed home to watch it! Also.... that's made me realise that I'm now the same age Stewart was filming this......
I was 7
All Good Things was THE best Star Trek finale, and one of the best finales of all time in a TV series. (Especially for the time)
For me, it's up there with the final episode of M.A.S.H. for amazing writing and emotional impact 😍
Yeah I recall my parents both sat down with me to watch it. My dad had some idea what was going on (he sometimes caught TNG episodes with me) and my mom liked the action and the visuals - she read a lot of SF when she was in her 30s so it wasn't that unfamiliar to her.
When Q says he's going to miss Picard you can tell he's being 100% genuine.
it was a lovely end to their story. Q loved Picard and I think in the last moment, Picard understood & recipricated the feelings for Q. All Q ever wanted was to hang out with Picard & challenge him to be better.
Caught it, LOL at "mavity"
love it
Came to the comments to point this out
I’m loving the Mavity 😂
What are you all talking about? Sir Issac Newton is the one who discovered the principle of mavity after some peculiar man and his traveling companion knocked the apple tree with his daft blue box. This is common knowledge taught in schools 😂
I will never tire of mavity
I agree with you about Q and the "trial never ends." But it is what he was said after, that at the time blew my mind.
Q goes "Seven years ago, I said we'd be watching you, and we have been - hoping that your ape-like race would demonstrate *some* growth, give *some* indication that your minds had room for expansion. But what have we seen instead? [...]
But instead of using the last seven years to change and to grow, you have squandered them."
And I remember thinking of all these episodes where the Enterprise encountered an unexplained phenomenon..as if testing the crew.
It was like an epiphany: Q was behind all of it.
but there were times when they did explore things beyond their comprehension. The Traveller encounter for example. Thought and Reality are not the separate things you perceived them to be.
I remember at the time, suddenly getting Yar back, and in such a low key way without fanfare or a 'surprise reveal' was such an emotional gut punch, fantastic.
Off course Q knows about the Borg thing in the Irumodic Syndrome, that's why the "Trial never ends", and that's why the Trial continues with Jack 👍
That last ending shot 😢
One of the best TV finales 😊
The 'mavity' slip-in. I actually LOL'd. Thank you for that. :P
Right? That got a big ol' chuckle out of me. :)
You bring great mavitas to this edition of Ups and Downs.
Lia Brams was Geordi’s hero and when they met, they had great chemistry together and it is easy to imagine a future where they end up together. Your reading of their relationship is just flat out wrong and flies in the face of what most of the fans feel. Again, you are out of touch with the viewers of your channel. So Dumb.
@@BleepurchinI agree with Mr. Ferrick... And Mr. Burton.
i love Q's primodal glop line and the way he delivered it was hilarious.
Awesome, almost an hour with Sean talking about one of my all time favorite TV episodes.... Time to get a coffee!
It's great that they were able to get Andreas Katsulas back as Tomalak considering he was currently working on Babylon5 at the time as G'kar.
“Tacky Cardassian Fascist Eyesore” 🤣
Shax called it...
Them's fightin' words.
29:00 This kind of thing is paid off a little bit in Star Trek Insurrection
Riker: "Eject the warp core"
Geordi : "I just did"
"That's your expert opinion" 😂😂
Just stopped the video to mention this.... Absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the casual drop of "mavity" ❤😂
This isn't just the best Trek finale, it's maybe the best finale in television history.
TNG came out when I was 12. My family and friends all knew at 7:00 on Saturdays don’t bug me because i was watching Star Trek. I remember there was a marathon of fan favorite episodes before All Good Things happened, There were a lot of commercials for Star Trek merchandise, I bought a lot of things that day 😂Then the finale came on and I was loving every minute of it till we got to the end and it sunk in that I would never turn on the tv at 7 o clock on Saturday and see a new episode of TNG. I started crying like a baby. My best friend called me after it was done to check in on me. Star Trek has always been apart of my life like I know it has been for so many others. It is a hope for a bright future something we all need to strive for. Always Live Long and Prosper 🖖
My kids used to watch it with me. Great memories 🥰
I remember watching both the Journey's End special and the series finale on original airdate. I think my parents might still have Journey's End recorded on VHS somewhere...
Admiral Nakamura... one of Starfleet's admirals that didn't hit the evil admiral slope
Gonna assume you didn't just name a Japanese admiral and put the word "slope" in the same sentence on purpose....LOL
Regarding Deanna and Worf, they had been pushing a bond between the two for some time. When Worf was left paralyzed by a falling barrel, he wanted to entrust Alexander's upbringing to her in the event of his death, as his adoptive parents were too old to handle the task. She's also involved in trying to help Worf and Alexander with their relationship in other episodes. While that may seem more incidental then anything, it's still background relating to their dynamic.
Also they're together in an alternate universe as noted in 'Parallels'
@@charlesjohnson7458 I wanted to stick with stuff not mentioned in the video for more evidence, as that was used as evidence they "forced" the relationship.
Of course, some fans also know that there was a relationship between Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis behind the scenes during the show's run, but I prefer not to dive all that far into these kinds of things.
Deanna and Worf's marriage fell apart because of his mother-in-law Lwaxana Troi.
The producers had this beauty & the beast obsession and finally achieved -- not succeeded, with Dax in DS9
I have always been a believer in 'opposites attract' and for me I thought Deanna and Worf made a good pair
I agree the Worf, Deanna pairing seemed odd, but I would not have given it a down. With Pacard, season 3 when Worf espouses his feelings for Deanna during their rescue...great. Then Riker's line: "Inappropriate." It is precious. Maybe that is why I won't give it a down since I am seeing it through Picard, season 3.
It's alright, Marina said the same exact thing about her relationship with Worf as well.
Picard returning to the vineyard in All Good Things... is extra touching when you think they'd already decided upon the story for Generations so when we thought of at the time as a return to home and roots and family is really a lot more bitter-sweet.
When you mentioned Q knowing about Picards syndrome, a line from Voyager's Q2 came to mind when Q shouted "Don't provoke the Borg" I wonder if that is why nothing was said. Great video about an amazing episode.
I've missed the ups and downs! Please keep them coming, retro and all!
Two things:
1) In the first version of the script, Future Picard and co steal the Enterprise-D from a museum and take it to the Devron system. Hence the line about all three beams coming from the Enterprise was an error introduced when a higher-up (I think Michael Piller?) nixed the idea of stealing the Enterprise.
2) Ron Moore and Brannon Braga specifically said that they wrote this as a version of the future "that no-one wanted to happen". It was never intended to be canonical, nor was it a foregone conclusion that Picard would _inevitably_ develop Irumodic syndrome.
The book: "Imazadi II" resolves the entire Troi and Worf relationship and how Troi "returns" to Riker.
The first Imzadi book is one of my favourite books of all time and my degree is in English Literature 😊.
I loved this book. I still have it.
Me too. I have annotated it and underlined key lines and passages in it just as I would have for any text I studied for my degree. I loved it so much.
Starfleet's greatest nemesis... ROCKS!!!
Geordi was not stalking, the holodec made it into a romance program which was not what he intended for it to do. When he meets the actual Dr Brahms it leads to a humiliating situation for him due a misunderstanding.
Yeah, they ended on a good note. I can't see Geordi stalking, no indication he was ever like that.
Thank you 🙏
Agreed 🖖🏼
Also…there’s no specific thing that says it was Brahms. They just have the same first name. Still kinda maybe weird. Even if it is literally her. Anything can happen. Maybe she and her husband got divorced. Maybe she and Geordi got back in touch and something happened. Truth is stranger than fiction and this is fiction. It’s also a timeline that either never actually existed or isn’t the one in the reality we see in the rest of TNG and Picard. I’m a 23 year old woman and not saying the situation wasn’t cringey but does it really deserve so much shit? Also incel? Did Geordi ever blame or hate women for him never being able to get a date? And he never stalked her…the actual her. I don’t remember how long she’s been married but he didn’t know she was when she popped up.
two encounters between Geordie and Leah, and they end up married? She's already married as was established when she visited Enterprise D (to Geordie's disappointment), and she found out about Geordies "obsession" with holo-Leah. OK he has a bit of a crush on her but why the hell would she marry him?
I watched it in '94. I reminds me of where I was and whom I loved back then. Thank for the memories 😥😊🖖
I was 7 years old
I remember watching this episode in 1994 and I totally agree with Seán. "Please stop killing Tasha Yar!" 🪦⚱⚰
That poor woman has been through enough already. I bet every time The Grim Reaper sees her, he yells, "Oh, no! Not you again! Who keeps killing this woman?" 😂
Worf clearly likes eastern europe. Not only was he on the black sea here, he also recommended O'Brien to move to Minsk at the end of DS9.
Worf’s adoptive parents were from around there and I assume that’s where he spent some of his childhood, so his affinity for Eastern Europe doesn’t surprise me at all!
John's delivery of "Oh, nothing happened" was masterful.
John's delivery of most things is masterful
Thank you for taking the time for this extra long video!
A lot of memories from first watching in 1994 came back to my mind 😊
"Everyone's a bloody critic!" While literally being a critic. lol
I love how Riker told Worf we could use a hand and he ended up not doing anything on the bridge. The look on Worf face when Beverly ordered him to signal our surrender when her ship was attacked was priceless. They really did Worf wrong. Picard pretty much insulted him into helping him and Worf even called him out on it.
I love the way Picard stops being mildly antagonistic towards Q at the pond of goo. It's like he stop seeing Q as a bothersome imp and starts seeing him as a legitimate harbinger
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I watched the episode when it first aired with a huge group of friends and we had quite the party
This episode is a labor of love!🤩
"just keep Stalking". Reminds me of finding Dory and "Just keep swimming"! 🤣
Just keep circling...
I remember anticipating and watching this the first week came out! I remember it like it was yesterday. I recorded it on VHS and rewatched it several times that week.
Wow, 30 years since my absolute favorite Star Trek episodes ever.. also, Gates McFadden is one of the most underrated actors in all of Star Trek.
This can't have been 30 yrs ago, I was 30 when it came out. I'm only 39 now!
I've been wondering about that, "all came from the Enterprise" line for decades, thinking I'd missed something or something had been lost in the edit. Thank you for the peace of mind gained by knowing it is a known mistake, and that I'm not going ever so slightly screw-lookle.
omg I still remember the "we are almost at 50K" - wasnt even that long ago to be fair! congrats TrekCulture
The alternate Enterprise-D was my Latinum Up. Loved it so much I made my fan club ship a dreadnought Enterprise (shoutout to the USS Mir NCC-73281).
As reader of the now non-canonical 1979 _Spaceflight Chronology_ Star Trek reference book, which covered how the three-nacelle Tritium-class was an utter failure because the three-nacelle configuration proved to be unworkable, I was never a fan of the three-nacelle Enterprise-D.
I remember watching this when it was first broadcast. Can't believe it's been 30 years.
Dude, you can't assume Geordi kept stalking Leah Brahms. Things were tense and weird when they first met in real life, but by the end of the episode, Leah was cool with Geordi. I could never see Geordi being a stalker either, he's not a creep to real people anyway. I think what "All Good Things" writer(s) intended was that either Leah left her husband, or he died, and Leah later ran back into Geordi and got something going after all.
Yeah, there was a series of books that had him in a friend/professional acquaintance role until her his and dies in a shuttle accident. They later marry. I get why they made a point in Picard S3 NOT to name the "mother" of their two daughters, just feel like there's more possibilities here. We know his (Geordis) mistakes romantically, but we have no clue of how she acts romantically (or socially at least). The only way a Leah/Geordis relationship occurs imo is that SHE pursues him, not the other way around.
Times have changed, things for the good and some other things, not so much, in today's "cancel culture" if you may want to refer to it as that or "crystal generation" or "wokism" or whatever, having a fantasy moment with a holographic version of a real woman, is "horrific" enough to gain the label of a Stalker. Apparantely. He was closed to gain the label of an incel here.
So don't be surprised at that.
Considering, Barclay used to have his sexual moments with a holographic Diana Troy. Which is worse and Barclay was never canceled from the Enterprise.
Should be called "Good and Not Good Things about All Good Things" :D
This is true class, I loved this Ups and Downs and its probbably my favourite one since "Those Old Scientists".
@SeanFerrick the sheer fun you have doing these just shines through the video, well done lad.
Also, is it just me or when Riker is in the old man make up, does he not look an awful lot like Orson Wells? If I'm wrong i'll accept it but I swear it's uncanny.
Amazing review, wonderfully done. Alright now, onto "In the Pale Moonlight" lol
15:28 there’s an awesome call back here which is missed by most. Including Sean. The Admiral who’s order he is quoting is Admiral Satie who is the Admiral in the Drumhead. Love that Easter egg.
Long before TH-cam and the internet was a thing called books. In particular one (or two) called the Nitpickers Guide to Star Trek The Next Generation.
Does anyone remember these?
The anti time anomaly was also picked apart in that books episode review , not just mistakenly described as being created by the three inverse tachyon beams from each enterprise,, but also the glaring oversight of the anomaly being visible in the future After it was created - it shouldn't have been present when going forward in time.
Still have those books.
Still on my bookshelf to this day!
Noidal points have a way of showing values on both sides. It just would be that the one moving into the future lacked the ability to have an effect ( its influnce in some aspect getting flipped) and by the time anyone thought to do something about it, they could send some time cops and realize it was being taken care of =)
This was always the problem I had with the finale. When I noticed it, the episode really didn't work as well for me. I felt like I could drive a mad truck through that plot hole. You could just say it was symmetric both forward and backward in time, but that's never mentioned in the episode, and a good amount of time was spent explaining how the anomaly grows backwards in time. Still, Q did it... so basically the old "A wizard did it" trope, could happen, if you want to excuse it.
Ok Boomer
I have Nitpicks II
Also for temporal observations: The Episode of Lost called The Constant was written with All good things in mind with Desmond jumping between past and present (I think they had to cut a third time jump for … time… reasons). That episode was also co-written by Damon Lindelof who would later on also co-write Star Trek Into Darkness
You know, I'd love to see a Retro Ups and Downs of the Equinox Two-Parter at some point in the future.
Worf's adoptive parents lived in the vicinity of Bobruysk, Belarus at the time of TNG, and Worf is on record having a favorable opinion of Minsk, so Worf has probably seen the actual Black Sea.
Sean, the Leah twist is bad, but I think it is supposed to be there because this is a future created by Q, and Q would have interpreted it as he would had he been the one with the unrequited love. It’s supposed to feel tone deaf because Q doesn’t understand so many “simple” human emotions, just that Leah should be flattered because Jordi cares so much. It’s brilliant subtle foreshadowing by the writers
"Q is as important as any side character..." but Shaun, what about Groppler Zorn? More influential than Groppler Zorn!?
When he showed that clip of Q in old makeup my brain went “Why is Q cosplaying as Groppler Zone!?”
I don't understand why there hasn't been a 1000 episode Groppler Zorn spin off series. He was the most popular character of TNG and Groppler Zorn was the #1 baby name in the US from 1987-91!
Sean! Loved that the temporal observations went long. Enjoying the long format and this was of course, another great video of a wonderful episode of TNG. Keep up the good work ❤
I am eternally thankful to the writers and John De Lancie for the gift of being able to say that line "May whatever god you believe in have mercy on your soul" with no context and yet hit hard with it. You can saying with such mockery and menace...
"Data, you are a clever man, in any century!"
Agreed with your down of Riker, the jealous boyfriend ... the main problem I had with it was that was behaviour that Riker NEVER showed before, In fact, on at least one occasion he is obviously the exact OPPOSITE of jealous, telling Ral he's love nothing better than to see Deanna happy ... it was completely out of character for him to act that way IMO ...
The Worf-Riker part at the beginning was essential to show how it might be possible for their relationship to fall apart in the future, the whole premise being that the events from the future that we see could have come to pass. Don't forget you're now looking at this with the benefit of the movies, DS9 and Picard too, back in '94 we were watching this through a very different lense
AGAIN WITH THE MAVITY!!!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Sean! Data's pips in seven years in the past always bugged me, since I got the vhs of these episodes way back when, nearly 20 years ago
Sean, of all your uniforms, I think this one fits and suits you the best. You look screen-ready in it. If it was a gold uniform, you'd look a lot like Chief Engineer Argyle.
Ahh, been looking forward to this one. Great ups and downs, thanks all. Feels like such a long time since I saw this on first realease ...
Fantastic episode and review!
One of my all time favorites. A masterpiece. But that'll be a "down" for you as Q took Picard several billion years back in time to France, not several million as you state. ;)
As to the Enterprise/Pasteur line, I always took it as Data saying that the sensors couldn’t distinguish the sources of the other two beams and assigned them all to the enterprise, like they were being tricked.
I have had encounters with strangers where I see something I don't think is right, an argument breaks out and the other person is right. When this happens I tend to tell the other person, and the looks on their face is often very entertaining.
They get their mad up and then you say, "I hadn't considered your point. You are right. I apologies."
You can't stay mad after this if you want to stay the good guy. Life would be better if everyone has the backbone to apologies when they realize they are wrong.
Yasss 🙌🏼💪🏼😊🖖🏼
I absolutely loved this review/analysis. Very well put together and Sean is a wonderful presenter with a captivating candour and approach with delightful nuances as he goes. I discovered Trek Culture through Who Culture and am going through the back catalogue of videos here with eager anticipation. Well done to all involved.
A couple of things as I commented on Twitter when he posted a photo of him in that uniform Seán Ferrick is the only human alive to look great in it while Hollywood actors in all their obvious prettiness could only rise to looking fine (and most just survived it) so mr Ferrick by logic is hotter than the cast of TNG. lol 😂
Also, I don’t mind the Worf/Troi paring based on being sick of one true parings in fiction and feel writers should be able to evolve characters away from the original plan and explore new ideas. I’m fine with Riker Getting back together with her later but am happy they explore other paths. And at least it’s a good pairing and not the disaster that was in FRIENDS that the writers were fixated on going back to before it ended lol
One thing I would've loved- if the Future Enterprise had comm'd Tomalok once they figured out how to solve the anomaly, and Tomalok replying in the affirmative. They (the Romulans) wouldn't need to be in the anomaly, but knowing T would've helped would be great.
"just keep stalking" 3-5 x-wives later, it still works
In regard to the question Sean asked about what was the point of the the anti-time future given Q would have known about the Borg-introduced anomaly in Picard's brain. First, Q never tells everything he knows, but that aside, Picard S2 shows us that while Q often painted his actions in grandiose terms about "humanity", he was really interested in Picard and drawing out Picard's fullest self. The anti-time future is more or less just that--he's teaching Picard a lesson about connection, which in turn leads Picard to engage in deeper relationships with his crew. These relationships then lead directly to 1) Jack Crusher's existence, 2) Picard's former crewmates surviving and coming to his aid in Picard S3 to defeat the Borg, and 3) Picard learning to accept his past and begin to heal the wounds his childhood had inflected in Picard S2. Like Q tells Picard in S2, he has always cared about him.
I've been thinking about this as I've been listening to stuff from Picard season 1
Totally agree with what you said about the Worf and Deanna romance. What I will say, though, is that I thought it was at least better set-up than the Seven & Chakotay romance at the end of Voyager. The W/D one is gradually built-up through several Season 7 episodes (“Genesis” and “Parallels” spring to mind, but there may have been others too!). Whereas the C/7 one was just quickly rushed in for two late Season 7 episodes before the Voyager finale.
I think people have gone a bit overboard with the whole Leah thing. He didn't intentionally make her hologram flirty. He made the program to fix the ship. And hologram flirting was already established with Riker and Minuet.
There's not anything actually creepy about him at all. The real issue was just that they kept giving him failed romances.
In fact I'll go as far as to say that storyline is basically the same as the Laan/Kirk one, which mysteriously doesn't bother anyone.
Very much agree about Troi and Worf, it was inserted for this episode just so that later there's an excuse for Riker and Worf to have fallen out. People criticise Voyager for doing this with Chakotay and Seven, but this is at least just as bad. Also, even at the time I hated Geordi being married to Leah (Brahms), one for the incel vibes but also cos it was just way too obvious from in series references, as if he couldn't have met someone in the intervening 20 years.
The phrase “It’s as if all 3 beams came from the Enterprise.” Is not a writing mistake. Data is merely making the point that all 3 beams are modulated in the exact same way as they are. He’s not declaring that all 3 came from 3 different Enterprises.
But as Mr Ferrick states, the writers themselves say it's a writing mistake
If we really want to explain it away, by that point in the future, the equipment is completely standard and standardized. The real reason the beams seem so identical, is that the all have the very same android operating them. Data himself would reflexively use the same most-efficient setup every time he did it.
@@sonicsean34 true, I’m just saying they they didn’t need to, the statement makes sense.
@@christopherbrentbrown8840 you're right it can be justified and it's not a huge deal.
I know the writers took it to be a mistake, and I noticed it when I watched the episode as a young kid. But after a moments though back in 1994 I decided that it was because Data created the beams, and being an android he created them exactly the same way each time. Just like when he plays the violin he plays a piece identically each time. Or how he blinks in a pattern rather than randomly.
In a pre-Star Trek Generations convention, Marina Sirtis herself said she didn't like the Troi-Worf pairing either. She literally said, "In the movie that whole stupid Troi-Worf thing won't be in it".😂
Marvelous presentation. Well done!
It is so great to hear a list like this put together by someone who is a thoughtful, true fan of Star Trek. Nicely done Sean!
I think some of the downs are a bit too much:
- Troi-Worf : I kinda like it, except it hasn't been explored enough, and felt like it was rushed to without actually having enough space to work with
- Geordi-Lia: Liked it too as continuity reference, and besides, it was a nice way to show how screwy that timeline was.
- Picard telling on Q: Oh come-on. Is Q such gullible that he would trust Picard to keep quiet. It was probably more to not shout it all over space and time, and letting the continuum know that he is deliberately manipulate events across time.
Other than that, nice video and spot on on many things.
This was an excellent review of All Good Things, I love the connections made to Picard Season 3. Well done. 🖖🏻
One of my favorite movies ever. Yes it's a 2 part episode but it's a dang movie! My favorite series end episodes of all trek. It was a mind frell 💯 and was just awesome. I saw it on television and several times on DVD and VHS. Now it's just on the Internet.
I remember watching the finale when it aired with some roommates and at the end of Picard's speech to past Enterprise before going into the anonomly one of roommates yelled out "f*cking A". Perfect timing.
Thanks Sean! Have been following you from the start and enjoyed every broadcast. Great one this time and great idea to go back to notable episodes🙏🏻🖖
If I am not mistaken, the design of the "Pasteur" may have been based in part on one of the possible designs of the "Enterprise" back in the early 1960s, prior to the design being finalized, see "The Making of Star Trek" by Stephen E. Whitfield.
When you mention the person at the helm waiting for orders, it remined me of the end of "Relics" when the Enterprise is making a run for the Dyson Sphere's doors and the officer at the helm presses a few buttons and the ship tilts to the side to make it through the door (just in time of course). I remember thinking how odd it was that Picard did not give any orders to do anything. It took me a bit of time to figure out what it was about that that caught my attention, but eventually, it came to me. "Wow, they can do that?"
I recorded this episode in 1994 and wore out the tape. I wrote 47988 on the label but I never got the Troi walking in at the end until you said it. Well done forming a new wrinkle in my brain.
I would say that I preferred the ending to DS9 rather than NTG but thats my own personal opinion also I really didn’t mind the whole Dianna and Worf thing and would have liked to have seen it progress more in DS9: but I’m happy it didn’t.
A damn fine analysis. Can’t possibly argue it at any point.
Great episode. Possibly in my top 5 of TNG. Yes, there are some plot holes (some of them the size of moon craters), but it also has some great moments. There is some superb acting from numerous actors. The last scene is beautiful.
I do agree about the Deana/Worf pairing never worked for me (their offspring would stab you with a bat'leth and feel your pain at the same time). The Brahms thing is also just weird and creepy.
The plot hole for me was to do with the anomaly being bigger in the past. When the Pasteur arrived at the Devron system for the first time, the anomaly wasn't there. But then they return later, they saw if forming!.....This is wrong, as the anomaly is growing in reverse, so the Pasteur **should** have seen it forming (or at least formed). Returning later wouldn't work.
I was surprised not to hear Sean reference one of the most talked-about plot holes, namely that the anomaly doesn't appear in the future timeline until the _Enterprise_ returns to the scene, suggesting it's getting bigger in the future rather than in the past as the episode establishes. A few commenters here have mentioned it.
I've always head-canoned this as the anomaly growing in *_both_* temporal directions as a result of symmetry in the time/anti-time collision, in the same way that a head-on collision between two vehicles causes debris to move in all physical dimensions. To me, this is actually a slightly worse plot hole than the "three beams" problem because at least that one has a get-out in the interpretation of Data's actual dialogue from the episode. This one has nothing in-episode to properly hang a retcon on. But it's fun to play with.
But neither are enough to prevent _All Good Things_ from being one of the best _TNG_ episodes as well as one of the best TV finales ever. The sheer creativity, talent and love that went into crafting this episode shines through in every scene and it still holds up.
It's also worth checking out the novelisation which has a few extra scenes and character interactions as Easter eggs for the fans.
PS: I wouldn't ding the Data "3 pulses" line since it was HE who initiated all three. So they would be identical since he configured and modulated all three, he just didn't realize that. Also glad someone finally mentioned the missing pip on Data's collar in the past scenes. That always bugged the hell out of me when I first watched it in 1994.
38:11 Regarding timelines, if we assume that time is 3-dimensional like space, then we can say that all of those timelines happened, will happen, or happen now - but the difference is that our consciousness is only focused on one particular timeline or point in time.
Underrated moment: when Picard asks for the date, Worf just gives it to him. No confusion, no "why do you need to know the stardate?", just "Captain wants the stardate, so he gets the stardate." Gotta love Worf.
I agree, to me Deanna and Worf were like the pairing of Joey and Rachel on FRIENDS... never seemed right to me and always better as friends/family
I still remember the excitement I had watching the on-air promos leading up to the finale. The one I recall most clearly even had the Stardate on it in giant white text. They really built the finale up and man, did it ever deliver. Great TV coverage as well, I think the cover was 'The Magnificent Seven' with the cast on it