All Good Things...

"All Good Things..."
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
Aboard the USS Pasteur, scanning the Devron System.
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 25 & 26
Directed by	Winrich Kolbe
Written by	Brannon Braga Ronald D. Moore
Featured music	Dennis McCarthy
Production code	277 & 278
Original air date	May 23, 1994 (1994-05-23)
Guest actors
John de Lancie - Q Andreas Katsulas - Tomalak Clyde Kusatsu - Adm. Nakamura Patti Yasutake - Alyssa Ogawa Denise Crosby - Tasha Yar Colm Meaney - Miles O'Brien Pamela Kosh - Jessel Tim Kelleher - Gaines Alison Brooks - Chilton Stephen Matthew Garvin - Ensign Majel Barrett - Computer Voice
Episode chronology
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List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

"All Good Things..." is the 25th and 26th episodes of the seventh season and the series finale of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It is the 177th and 178th overall episodes of the series. The title is derived from the expression, "All good things must come to an end".

Plot

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard inexplicably finds his mind jumping between the present (stardate 47988) and the past just prior to the USS Enterprise-D's first mission seven years earlier at Farpoint Station (in which Cmdr. William Riker, Lt. Geordi La Forge, and Dr. Beverly Crusher and her young son, Wesley join the Enterprise crew), and twenty-five years into the future, where an aged Picard has retired to the family vineyard in Labarre, France. These jumps occur without warning, and the resulting discontinuity in Picard's behavior frequently leaves him and those around him confused.

In the present, Picard is ordered to take the Enterprise to the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone to investigate a spatial anomaly.

In the future, he gains passage on the USS Pasteur, which is under the command of his ex-wife, Dr. Beverly Picard, whom he convinces to find the anomaly.

In the past, despite having the Enterprise's mission to Farpoint Station cancelled by Starfleet to investigate the anomaly, Picard insists on continuing, believing the impending encounter with Q to be more important. After reaching the place where he had first encountered the Q in the form of a net near Farpoint Station and finding nothing there, Picard enters his ready room, only to find himself once again in Q's courtroom. Q reveals that he is the cause of Picard's time jumping, and challenges Picard to solve the mystery of the anomaly, cryptically stating that Picard will destroy humanity.

As Jean-Luc Picard arrives at the anomaly in all three time periods, he discovers that the anomaly is much larger in the past, but does not exist at all in the future. As the past and present Enterprises scan the anomaly with tachyon beams, the USS Pasteur is attacked by Klingon ships, but the crew is saved due to the timely arrival of the future Enterprise under the command of Admiral William Riker. He fires on several of the attacking Klingon warships, which causes them to flee the neutral zone. It is revealed that Riker and Worf are in a feud over the late Enterprise counselor Deanna Troi, with whom both had a serious relationship. Q once again appears to Picard and takes him to billions of years in the past on Earth, where the anomaly, growing larger as it moves backwards in time, has taken over the whole of the Alpha Quadrant and has prevented the formation of life on Earth. When Picard returns to the future, he discovers the anomaly has appeared, created as a result of his orders, and the tachyon pulses from the three eras are sustaining it. Data and Geordi determine that they can stop the anomaly by having all three Enterprises fly into the centre of it and create static warp shells. Picard relays the orders to each Enterprise. Each ship suffers warp core breaches, with Q telling the future Picard that "all good things must come to an end" just before the future Enterprise explodes.

Jean-Luc Picard finds himself facing Q, as humanity's judge in the same courtroom as seven years earlier. Q congratulates Picard for being able to think in multiple timelines simultaneously in order to solve the puzzle, which is proof that humanity can still evolve, much to the surprise of the Q Continuum. Q explains that the anomaly never actually existed and that his past and present have been restored. He then withdraws from the courtroom and bids farewell to Picard by saying "See you ... out there," echoing Picard's final line of the pilot episode "Let's see what's out there." Picard then returns to the Enterprise of the present and no longer jumping through time.

For the first time ever, Picard decides to join the crew's regular poker game, stating regret he had not done so before, saying "...and the sky's the limit," suggesting more adventures lay ahead for the crew.

Notes

• "All Good Things..." was broadcast as a two-hour episode; reruns are most often shown in edited form as two one-hour episodes.
• Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga expected that Michael Piller or Jeri Taylor would write the finale; consequently, they wound up writing "All Good Things..." concurrently with Star Trek: Generations, oftentimes confusing aspects of the two. In the DVD commentary for Star Trek: Generations, they made the comment that "All Good Things..." was easier, since there was a stricter deadline compelling them to get it done.
• The writers took many of the relationships on the show and intentionally distorted and subverted them; examples include Picard and Dr. Crusher's failed marriage; the falling out between Worf and Riker over Troi's death. They also took many trends on the show and included them, such as Crusher's captaincy and, most notably, the officers' regular poker game.
• The episode concludes events of the series' 1987 premiere episode, "Encounter at Farpoint" in which the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, representing all humanity, was put on trial by Q. In the climactic scene, Q says, invoking the episode's title, "all good things must come to an end." When Picard says to Q in the post-apocalyptic year 2370 "courtroom," that "the last time I stood here was seven years ago," Q replies, "the trial never ends," suggesting that Q has observed the events of the entire series. When Q later says, "See you...out there..." he implies that he will continue watching, into the future. Q is therefore put forth as inherently omniscient, as well as omnipotent, although not omnipresent. Furthermore, he becomes a metaphor for the series' audience itself.
• "All Good Things..." won the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.^[1] The only other episode so honored was "The Inner Light".
• During the filming of "All Good Things...," a behind-the-scenes retrospective documentary called Journey's End: The Saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation, hosted by Jonathan Frakes, was also filmed.^[2]

Notes

References

• Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 7, disc 7, selection 1.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: All Good Things...

• All Good Things... at the Internet Movie Database
• "All Good Things..., Part I" at TV.com
• "All Good Things..., Part II" at TV.com
• All Good Things... at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• All Good Things..., Part I at StarTrek.com
• All Good Things..., Part II at StarTrek.com