STAR TREK CLASSICS: All Good Things

Continuing our look at some of the best ever Star Trek stories, in order to get you warmed up for the new Star Trek movie, today we’ll be looking at the final story of the TV run of STAR TREK: The Next Generation. The two-part ‘All Good Things’ story has become one of the most respected pieces of genre television ever made, and remains a powerful tale even now, 15 years after it first aired. As a standalone story, ‘All Good Things’ might not work as well as it could, but as the climax to Star Trek: The Next generation’s TV era, it is immaculate.

The story, following Captain Jean-Luc Picard as he flashes from era to era while attempting to correct the effects of a special anomaly, also serves as a perfect bookend to the show’s first story, Encounter at Farpoint’. Q is back in All Good Things, and the story appears to be the final act of the trial that began in the pilot episode.

While the story has the possibility to be hugely confusing and convoluted, it is handled with such panache on the part of the cast and crew that it works beautifully. Loose threads are tied up, and a tantalizing glimpse into the possible futures of the main characters adds a whole new dimension to the series. The scenes between Patrick Stewart and John De Lancie in their trademark roles as Picard and Q are brilliant Star Trek, the perfect payoff to the seven years it took for the story to come full circle.

All Good Things works incredibly as a movie (which it was edited into for some releases on video and DVD), and grips from start to finish. Watching Jean-Luc grapple for his sanity while all around him changes and evolves and flits back and forth in time is a wonder to behold, and the talent of Patrick Stewart helps give the wild science fiction of the story some serious gravitas.

This iconic two-part story isn’t just the perfect ending to Star Trek: The Next Generation, it is one of the finest moments in science fiction television that has ever been broadcast.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 11:25 am and is filed under Geek Culture, Star Trek, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.