Star Trek #1613: The Last Generation

CAPTAIN'S LOG: The final chapter.

WHY WE LIKE IT: The Enterprise-D's last mission.

WHY WE DON'T: Are the endings too happy?

REVIEW: Hey, wow, Chekov's son Anton is President of the Federation and Koenig gets a voice-over cameo (where he quotes Spock))! Unfortunately, the Federation is about to fall to the nuBorg and only the "ancient" Enterprise-D and its former crew can do anything about it. The Titan's still in the mix just to keep things immediate, so while Seven and Raffi do retake the bridge (mistakenly thinking they've "invented" transporter tagging - I guess they didn't see Insurrection, like a lot of people), it's only to see the Spacedock destroyed and the networked fleet turn its weapons on Earth's population centers. We need them there to see the carnage, but also to have a to-the-second reprieve when the Borg Queen is ultimately defeated. Seven gives a good pep talk - she's always at her best when she does controlled outrage - but they're really sitting ducks through most of the episode.

What we're really here for is a desperate mission in which Picard, Riker and Worf infiltrate a mostly dead Borg Cube hiding in Jupiter's storms, to find Jack Crusher, but also the beacon that's sending orders to the new Collective so the Enterprise can destroy it. It's exciting and emotional, but it's very strange to me that the characters keep making their goodbyes, telegraphing that Picard (and possibly Worf and Riker) will die, only to have everyone survive! This is the end of the Picard show and pretty much the end of the TNG era, and it would have been quite appropriate to do away with characters, especially the ones least likely to return to these roles (and in this time frame, as the animated shows allow for cameos still), most notably Patrick Stewart. But no, they'll all make it out despite the "it's been an honor" speeches and Riker saying goodbye to Deanna, etc. It's one seeming sacrifice after another and then it's not. But does it matter? Is it enough that they make us BELIEVE it will happen so get our heart rates up? On first watch, yes. On subsequent viewings, it takes away from the experience. But did we WANT to see these characters die? well, we love them so much, I think we do come out of it with a sense of relief and a certain glow that they can have one final scene together at the end playing poker - a mirror of All Good Things' final shot - a family restored rather than destroyed. We'll come back to the epilogues in a few, but we have to talk about the main action.

On the Enterprise, Geordi's in command, but it's all about the others. Beverly is a badass at tactical. Data has his first gut instinct and flies the ship into the heart of the Cube with joyful abandon (which makes this Star Wars cliché a lot more interesting than it tends to be usually). And Deanna jumps into the pilot's seat to follow her sense of where Riker is so everyone can be beamed out of the exploding Cube, redeeming her for a similar "she can drive?" moment from Generations. ON the Cube, we have Riker and Worf - who really do make a great comic double act - fighting zombie drones, and Riker finding Worf's bat'leth really, really heavy (he never held one, even in or after A Matter of Honor?!). There's a surprise phaser in the hilt, but Worf thinks swords are more fun. After returning to the ship, Worf amusingly falls asleep in a chair. A lot of great moments.

Of course, it's Picard's rescue of Jack that holds our attention. We finally see the Queen and she's a mutated mess (Alice Krige must have been glad not to get into that make-up and just provide the voice). She's evolving the Collective, turning it into a kind of biological virus and calling on the uninfected (unassimilated) to be eliminated. And she's using Jack to do it. Picard, who has been running from this moment since The Best of Both Worlds (or Family, really) plugs into the Collective to try and reason with Jack. It's all relating back to his story, but can we all agree this is Janeway's fault? She destroyed the Borg and led to this desperate reckoning. In the hive mind, Picard connects with his son in a meaningful way, even agreeing to remain in there with him if he won't come out, which is of course what MAKES him come out. Picard sees Jack's need to connect, but distance from others as his own (again, see Family) and talks of "real" connections as opposed to that of the hive mind. There's a metaphor at play here that would devalue online interactions over face-to-face ones that I'm not entirely comfortable with given how the youth in the story fall prey to the computer hive, while older characters represent "real" connections. In another time, Jack would be the kind of person to say "OK, Boomer". But we don't have to tap into the preachiness of the metaphor, because we ARE invested in the personal drama that's on the top level of these moments.

As we head into the epilogues, I've come to terms with everyone surviving, but did they HAVE to over-egg the pudding by giving everyone such happy endings? Consider: Thanks to its new Head of Starfleet Medical, Beverly Crusher (for 20 years AWOL), the Federation is transporter-purged of both Borg mods and Changelings. The latter didn't kill most of the people they replaced, so Tuvok is fine. Everyone's gotten a pardon for breaking the rules (à la Star Trek IV), but Seven, who is ready to resign for her part in these affairs, is instead promoted to captain! And on Shaw's recommendation too! (Of course, he left that note before the events of the series, which puts his disappointment with her in a new context). Worf leaks Raffi's classified service record and she's acclaimed as a hero and her son reaches out to her finally. And Will and Deanna plan a vacation, if only she can get out of these long tedious counseling sessions with the newly human Data. A mistake at this point: It's one year later and only now Geordi turns the lights out in the Enterprise-D with Picard and Riker present. The card should only have come up in time for the NEXT moment. Because the happy endings aren't over...

In another Star Trek IV evocation, the Picards are shuttling to Jack's first posting as a member of Starfleet (which he swore he'd never join). They fast-tracked him through the Academy (he claims nepotism, and I think he's right) and has been assigned to the Titan, except the Titan has been redubbed the Enterprise-G. Picard's heart swells and then we're at the start of another show (until the final sequence at Guinan's, Picard's toast out of The Tempest, appropriately Shakespeare's last great play, and the poker scene). Captain Seven is in command, Raffi is her XO, Sidney is at the helm, and Jack is made counselor (not medical?!). We never find out what Seven's answer to "engage" is, but mid-credit scene in which Q puts Jack to the test opens the door to our finding out in a show for now called "Star Trek Legacy", which I am entirely in favor of. I've said from the beginning that "Picard" should be a series of rotating seasons about different characters from the previous era and that Seven seemed set to take over after Season 1. Jeri Ryan and her character have earned it, even if some might think it strange for Paramount+ to produce two shows about an Enterprise simultaneously.

LESSON: You don't kill anyone at the end of a love letter.

REWATCHABILITY - High: A satisfying farewell to the cast of TNG that promises exciting developments for the franchise.