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‘Star Trek Picard’ Season 3: All the Easter Eggs Explained, From Spacedock to That Post-Credit Cameo

There are numerous references to “Star Trek: The Next Generation” even Trekkies may have missed

“Star Trek: Picard” Season 3 is finally here and boy, is it a trip down memory lane.

This season, touted as the “final voyage,” reunites Jean-Luc Picard with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise .

Their adventures were chronicled in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which ran for seven seasons from 1987 to 1994. The last time the cast shared the screen was in the 2002 feature film “Star Trek: Nemesis.”

The newest season of “Picard” picks up some 20+ years later, with Picard (Patrick Stewart) assembling his old crew to save one of their own.

Each week, we’ll break down the easter eggs and “Trek” reference from the latest episode. Of course, spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution.

“Star Trek: Picard” Season 3, Episode 1 Easter Eggs

• The very title of this episode, “The Next Generation,” is an homage to the show that introduced us to the U.S.S. Enterprise D, its captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew.
• The episode opens on the Eleos, an aide vessel captained by Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), the former chief medical officer of the Enterprise. The camera pans through her personal items, including theater masks (Crusher formed a theater troupe on board the Enterprise and taught acting), orchids (her favorite flowers which she was seen tending in one episode) and a storage locker belonging to Lt. Jack Crusher (her first husband who was killed while serving under Picard). There’s also a glass filled with a blue liquor — unmistakably Romulan ale.
• Beverly is replaying Picard’s log during an encounter with the Borg, in which the Enterprise hid in a nebula. Beverly is hiding the Eleos near a nebula.
• The next scene features Picard at his family winery in France. In the distance, you can hear a dog barking, likely his pet pitbull “Number One.” He is looking at a painting of the Enterprise-D. His companion, Laris, says “The first love is always the sweetest.” Picard replies “Well, she wasn’t the first, but she was definitely my favorite.” Picard’s first command was the U.S.S. Stargazer, the same ship Jack Crusher served on.
• Picard tells an assistant to give the painting to Geordi, the first mention of Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), the Enterprise’s chief engineer and now head of Starfleet’s fleet museum.
• Picard looks at more memorabilia at his desk, which include a Bajoran award. He picks up a Ressikan flute, a memento of the time he lived the life of a man named Kamin on the dead planet Kataan. The story of Kamin is told in the Season 5 episode of “The Next Generation” titled “The Inner Light.”
• That evening, Picard receives an encoded message from Beverly Crusher. He’s alerted by the trill from his old Enterprise communications badge. It’s located in a box along with his red and black command uniform from the Enterprise.
• Picard meets up with his old friend/former first officer Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) at a bar. The bartender offers up miniatures of the Enterprise-D, which she calls “fat ones.” This is an inside joke for Trek fans; the Enterprise-D saucer was unusually oblong and large; later models were more streamlined.
• Riker reveals he is spending time apart from his wife Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), the former Enterprise counselor, and their daughter Kestra. Kestra is also the name of Deanna’s deceased sister, whose death was explored in the Season 7 episode of “The Next Generation” titled “Dark Page.”
• Picard shares the codeword “hellbird” with Riker. Riker explains that it was a term used when Picard was “incapacitated.” He’s referring to when Picard was assimilated by the Borg in the Season 3 finale of “The Next Generation” titled “The Best of Both Worlds.” The Borg gained all of Picard’s memories, so the crew had to devise a new system.
• To track down Crusher, Riker and Picard go aboard the U.S.S. Titan, Riker’s command after leaving the Enterprise. The ship has undergone a “Neo-Constitution refit.” The Constitution class is one of the most popular in Trek lore; the original Enterprise itself was a Constitution-class starship.
• The first officer aboard the Titan is none other than Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), another human who was assimilated by the Borg and rescued in the “Star Trek: Voyager” episode “Scorpion.” Seven became Picard’s ally during Season 1 of “Picard” where they helped root out Romulan spies.
• Seven introduces herself as Annika Hansen. Her commanding officer, Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) has instructed Seven to use her human name rather than her Borg designation.
• Seven was given a field commission by Picard, but officially joined Starfleet upon the advice of Picard and Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Janeway was the captain of the U.S.S. Voyager that rescued Seven.
• Seven invites Picard and Riker to the bridge, where they meet a smiling helmsman, ensign Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut). Sidney is Geordi’s eldest daughter. Riker embarrasses her by bringing up her nickname from Starfleet Academy — “Crash” La Forge — after she crashed a shuttle … twice.
• A quick pan around the Titan bridge reveals a Bajoran tactical officer, a Haiilian communications officer (with little hair) and a Vulcan science officer (with no hair). Bald crewmen (or crewwomen in this case) have had a special place in “Trek” lore, dating back to Lt. Ilia (Persis Khambatta) from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Other bald crewmembers include Lt. Airiam (Hannah Cheesman) from “Star Trek: Discovery,” Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and, of course, Picard.
• Showrunner Terry Matalas identified the Vulcan science officer as Lt. T’Veen. The actor who plays T’Veen, Stephanie Czajkowski, is a cancer survivor who kept her head shaved or short.
• As the Titan leaves spacedock, Seven tells the crew to set speed to “maximum warp.” Picard asks if she should give Engineering a heads-up before doing so, but Seven tells Picard there’s no need; it’s all automated now. During “The Next Generation,” Picard would often have to inform La Forge that he was going to push the limits of the Enterprises’ engines, despite the chief engineer’s concerns.
• Captain Shaw is not impressed by Picard or Riker, choosing to not greet them upon arrival and starting dinner before they arrive. Actor Todd Stashwick is not new to the “Trek” universe; he played Torak in the Season 4 episode of “Star Trek: Enterprise” titled “Kir’Shara.”
• Shaw tells Riker he had to purge the “bebop” files when he took command of Titan. Riker is a jazz lover and was shown to play the trombone in several episodes of “The Next Generation.” Shaw says he prefers “structure.” The music playing he’s playing in the background is a piano concerto by Chopin — classical music for a by-the-books captain.
• The “steak” Shaw is eating is blue — and we don’t mean undercooked. We don’t know the significance behind that but we wanted to point it out!
• In a secondary storyline, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) is working undercover to discover what happened to experimental weapons stolen from the Daystrom Institute. An informant gives her the clue “Red Lady” which she discovers is a red statue of Captain Rachel Garrett that will be dedicated at a Starfleet recruiting center. Garrett was the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise C, whose fate was explored in the Season 3 “The Next Generation” episode titled “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”
• Riker and Picard make their way aboard the Eleos. While exploring the ship, Riker calls Picard “Captain” and then apologizes, saying “old habits.” Picard later refers to Riker as “Number One” — the way they referred to each other during their Enterprise days.
• Riker is ambushed by an assailant (Ed Speleers) but manages to get the upper hand. When asked by Picard what his relationship is to Crusher, he responds “her son.” So far, the only son Crusher is known to have is Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), who lived and served aboard the Enterprise-D.
• The credits are filled with easter eggs themselves that will be revealed as the season progresses. The only one that is applicable right now is that display of the Shrike, the giant warship hunting the Eleos.

“Star Trek: Picard” Season 3, Episode 2 Easter Eggs

• We finally get the full name of Ed Speleers character — Jack Crusher. He’s named after his stepfather, Jack R. Crusher. We do a deep dive into the younger Crusher here .
• Among the Eleos’ supplies is a bottle of blue Romulan ale, one of the galaxy’s most inebriating liquors. In Episode 1, Beverly has a glass next to her bed.
• The Shrike opens fire on the Eleos, destroying the shuttle Picard and Riker flew over on. The debris reveals the shuttle’s name — Saavik. Saavik was a Vulcan officer who served aboard the Enterprise-A. She was played by the late Kirstie Alley and later by Robin Curtis.
• The Titan comes to the Eleos’ rescue and attempts to transport Picard, Riker and the Crushers aboard. However, the signal is blocked due to transport inhibitors Picard setup around the bridge. Realizing what he’s done, Picard takes out a phaser and destroys the inhibitors with surprising speed and accuracy, much to Jack’s astonishment. This is a subtle reminder that Picard is in a synthetic body with potentially better reflexes.
• Back on M’Talas Prime, Raffi meets up with her ex-husband, Jae Hwang (Randy Goodwin). Viewers previously met their son, Gabe (Mason Gooding), back in Season 1. In the Season 3 opener, Raffi gets emotional while looking at a photo of their granddaughter.
• Picard, Riker and Jack make their way to the Titan bridge, where they’re scolded by Capt. Shaw. At one point, Ensign Esmar (Jin Maley), the communication officer, calls out “Captain!” Shaw, Riker (who once commanded the Titan) and Picard all respond in unison, “What?”
• Capt. Vadic (Amanda Plummer) has dossiers on all the officers. She hints that Shaw has psychological problems. She also somehow knows that Picard is not human, saying “Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, in the synthetic flesh.”
• Jack Crusher has many aliases, among which is “James Cole.” James Cole is a character from “12 Monkeys,” the show that “Picard” showrunner Terry Matalas previously produced.
• While deep undercover, Raffi meets the Ferengi broker Sneed. Sneed is played by Aaron Stanford, who played James Cole on “12 Monkeys.” Of course, he’s barely unrecognizable under all those prosthetics.
• Sneed tries to break Raffi using the synthetic narcotic Splinter, which is administered via the eye. Given Raffi’s history of substance abuse, she is able to partially withstand its effects. Splinter is name of the technology used in “12 Monkeys.”
• Todd Stashwick, who plays Captain Shaw, ALSO appeared on “12 Monkeys.”
• Raffi’s handler is revealed to be non-other than Worf (Michael Dorn). Worf rescues Raffi by slicing and dicing his way through Sneed’s goons. The Romulan thug has green blood while Sneed’s Ferengi blood is yellow.
• Jack is about to turn himself over to Vadic when Beverly appears on the bridge of the Titan. She has a wordless exchange but it’s enough for Picard to confirm that Jack indeed is his son.

“Star Trek Picard” Season 3, Episode 3 Easter Eggs

• The episode opens with the Shrike hot on the Titan’s tail. Shaw orders the Titan to delve deeper into the nebula in an attempt to shake the Shrike. It’s an evasion maneuver seen in many Trek shows and films, notably “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
• After the opening credits, a graphic appears that reads “Before.” The scene opens with a digitally de-aged Picard and Riker. They’re older than they were on the Enterprise but younger than the present. They’re celebrating the birth of Riker’s son Thaddeus, who was born on the Titan after Riker became captain. That would date this celebration about three years after the events of “Star Trek: Nemesis” and 20 years before the events of “Picard” Season 3.
• Picard and Riker’s celebration is interrupted when Troi, Riker’s wife and Thaddeus’ mom, messages them with a fussy baby in hand. Riker apologizes and calls her imzadi , which is the Betazoid word for “beloved.”
• Back in the present, Seven of Nine is confined to her quarters for insubordination. There’s a model of the U.S.S. Voyager — the ship that rescued her — on her desk. Ensign La Forge visits her and commends her for helping Picard and Riker, which is something her dad would’ve done. Seven thanks La Forge and tells her to rest, to which La Forge answers, “Yes, Commander Seven” instead of “Yes, Commander Hansen” as a sign of friendship.
• Picard and Beverly finally have a face-to-face conversation about Jack. Picard got Beverly pregnant while on shore leave two months before she left the Enterprise. She never told him because she was afraid his enemies will target their son.
• At one point, Beverly tried to tell Picard about Jack but “two Reman assassins had intercepted the ship in the Donatra sector.” Donatra was the name of the commander of the Romulan warship Valdore seen in “Star Trek: Nemesis” played by Dina Meyer.
• After Raffi regains consciousness, she meets her rescuer/handler. He identifies himself as “Worf, son of Mogh. House of Martok. Son of Sergey. House of Rozhenko, bane to the Duras family, slayer of Gowron.” These are nods to Worf’s complicated lineage. His Klingon father was Mogh, but he was adopted as a boy by Sergey and Helena Rozhenko. Worf eventually aligned himself with House Martok, whose sworn enemies were the Duras family and notably the Duras sisters, who were killed in a battle against the Enterprise in “Star Trek Generations.” In the Season 7, Episode 22 of “Deep Space Nine,” Worf kills Chancellor Gowron for undermining Martok during the Dominion War.
• Jack and Seven discover the Shrike is tracking the Titan via its verterium emissions. Gas leaks are another “Trek” trope. It’s how the Enterprise and Excelsior were able to track General Chang’s cloaked Klingon ship in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”
• Jack knocks out the guard stationed outside Seven’s quarters, to which she responds, “You’re insane.” Remember this for later.
• Jack is attacked by the saboteur, who is revealed to be a Changeling, a species of shapeshifters that waged war against the Federation 25 years prior (the aforementioned Dominion War).
• While exposed to toxic verterium gas, Jack has visions of a woman (in the form of Seven of Nine) who beckons to him “find me!” Is he actually insane?
• Meanwhile, Raffi and Worf interrogate Titus Rikka, a criminal played by Thomas Dekker. As a child actor, Dekker appeared as Picard’s imaginary son in “Star Trek Generations.” He also played a holographic child on “Star Trek: Voyager.”
• Rikka is sweating and shaking profusely, which Raffi thinks are drug withdrawals. However, Worf recognizes them as something else. Rikka is also a Changeling who is losing the ability to hold his solid form.
• Worf asks Rikka how long he has been separated from the Great Link. The Link is the collective of Changelings in their liquid forms introduced in “Deep Space Nine.” The Link makes decisions for all Changelings.
• Worf tells Raffi about a schism in the Link and a rogue faction of Changelings that were not able to accept defeat from the Dominion War. It seems they have now infiltrated numerous parts of the Federation. Worf learned about the schism from “a close friend within the Link, a man of honor.” While Worf doesn’t name this friend, he’s referring to Odo (played by the late Rene Auberjonois), the Changeling constable on Deep Space Nine.
• Back on the Titan, Picard tells Riker to stop running and fight, despite the “instinct to be fearful of loss.” Picard is referring to the death of Riker’s son Thaddeus at a young age. Riker tells Picard he’s out of line.
• The Shrike uses the portal weapon to literally turn the Titan’s weapons on itself. The Titan is struck by its own torpedoes. The disabled ship gets pulled deeper into the nebula where it’ll be crushed by a gravity well.

“Star Trek Picard” Season 3, Episode 4 Easter Eggs

• The episode opens on Frontier Day five years prior. Picard is trying to enjoy his lunch at a pub when several Starfleet cadets gingerly approach him and ask him out the Hirogen. The Hirogen were alien hunters native to the Delta Quadrant (think Predators).
• The cadets ask Picard if he sought advice from Admiral Janeway. Janeway and the Voyager crew were the first Starfleet personnel to encounter the brutal race while stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
• With the Titan trapped in the nebula and its systems failing, Riker has a heart-to-heart with his former captain. Riker reveals he lost hope when his son Thaddeus died, and his wife Troi, as an empath, also felt his grief. Riker reveals he went on the mission to get away from Troi. He urges Picard to talk to Jack in the few hours they have left.
• Picard takes Jack to the holodeck where they enter a replica of Ten Forward – the Enterprise bar and later a brick-and-mortar bar.
• Picard offers Jack some Chateau Picard from his own winery. Jack politely turns him down and says he prefers whiskey.
• In order to trap the Changeling saboteur, Shaw tells Seven to find its “pot.” Seven assumes he is NOT referring to cannabis, demonstrating that marijuana is still around in the 25th Century.
• Shaw shows Seven an example of a Changeling “pot.” In the bottom corner of the display is a photo of Odo (Rene Auberjonois).
• Back on the Shrike, Vadic cuts off her hand, which dissolves into a Changeling face. The face instructs her to pursue “the asset,” which we assume is Jack.
• The show jumps back to Frontier Day five years ago. Picard regales the cadets with the story of the Tamarian alien he had to work with despite being unable to understand each other. The events he describes took place in the Season 5 Episode 2 of “The Next Generation” called “Darmok.”
• Another cadet references Jack R. Crusher, Beverly’s first husband. Picard later tells his son about the time he and Jack R. Crusher blindly navigated a micrometeoroid shower in a damaged shuttle together until they got home.
• Shaw interrupts Picard’s tale and reveals he was at The Battle of Wolf 359. The battle is infamous in Trek lore and is depicted in the first episode of “Deep Space Nine.” The Borg, having assimilated Picard, used his knowledge to massacre a fleet of 40 vessels. Among them was the U.S.S. Constance, on which Shaw served.
• Shaw was only a handful of survivors from Wolf 359 (11,000 people died in that single battle). He is still suffering from PTSD decades later.
• Beverly discovers the bio-electrical pulses are actually contractions and the nebula is a life form giving birth. Jack proposes the Titan ride the pulse waves out of the nebula.
• Beverly tells Riker that they’ve encountered species that thrive in space, in which Picard replies, “Farpoint!” Farpoint was the very first mission shown in the series premiere of “The Next Generation,” in which a station was actually an alien life form.
• Riker thinks the plan is too risky, but Beverly invokes Troi’s name, making him change his mind.
• Shaw and Seven work in tandem to open the warp nacelles in order to ride the wave. When La Forge appears and offers to help, Seven is able to deduce that La Forge is the Changeling after she calls her “Commander Hansen” instead of “Commander Seven.”
• With Picard and Jack’s help, the Titan frees itself from the nebula, which gives birth to space babies. Beverly quotes the Enterprise mission, “to seek out new life,” which they have done.
• It’s revealed that Jack was in the bar five years ago listening to his father’s story. Jack asks if Picard had a life outside Starfleet, to which Picard replies, “Starfleet has been the only family I have ever needed,” which crushes Jack.
• Riker reaches out to Troi and apologizes for his behavior.
• Back in his quarters, Jack experiences visions and is once again told by a female voice to “find me.”

“Star Trek Picard” Season 3 Episode 5 Easter Eggs

• The episode opens with Jack massacring all of the bridge crew in a shootout. Luckily, it’s just a vision. “Star Trek” tends to shy away from such explicit violence, but a similar scene took place in Season 2 of “Star Trek: Discovery” when Burnham has a vision of Leland murdering the Discovery bridge crew.
• At the end of his frightening vision, Jack’s eyes turn red and he again hears voices. Is he possessed? We deep dive into his visions here .
• Shaw, Seven, Picard and Riker talk about the Changeling they encountered, who can mimic other species down to their internal organs. Beverly wants to investigate how the Changelings can now bypass the ship’s internal security systems.
• With Starfleet on it’s way to question Picard and Riker, Jack asks if he should find himself a set of restraints. Picard responds, “many a rebel from all reaches of the galaxy have found their way to Starfleet.” This is a foreshadowing of what’s — or more accurately who’s — to come.
• Raffi and Worf spar on the La Sirena, and Worf easily defeats her before taking a meditative stance. He urges patience on her part. They receive a message from Worf’s handler, who denies them access to the Daystrom Station.
• While investigating the criminals who broke into Daystrom, Worf and Raffi pull up a list of suspects. One of them is Krinn. Among the other names on the screen include Morn, a side character from “Deep Space Nine” that frequented the station bar. Morn is a play on Norm, the lovable bar patron from “Cheers.”
• Before turning them over to Starfleet, Shaw chastises Riker and Picard for previous instances when they’ve defied orders/Starfleet Command. He mentions several famous “Enterprise” adventures, including when the Enterprise saucer was “hot-dropped” on a planet (“Star Trek: Generations), throwing the Prime Directive out the window to “snog” a villager on Ba’ku (“Star Trek: Insurrection),, or they time they created a tie paradox in the Devron system (“Star Trek: The Next Generation” series finale.)
• Riker and Picard meet the Starfleet Intelligence officer, who turns out to be Commander Ro Laren. We deep dive into Ro’s past here .
• While dissecting the Changeling, Beverly confirms they can mimic internal organs and do not revert to liquid state after death. They have somehow evolved, she deduces.
• After being interrogated, Picard tells Ro that the Changeling remains are in sickbay. She diverts them to the holodeck, where Picard disables the safety protocols, so he can essentially make it a booby trap. With the protocols disabled, he grabs a live phaser from behind the bar that belonged to Guinan. Guinan was a mentor to Ro aboard the Enterprise.
• After exchanging words and memories, Ro and Picard realize they are who they say they are. They sheathe their phasers and Ro reveals that Starfleet has been compromised by Changelings.
• Worf and Raffi meet the criminal Krinn, a Vulcan gangster. They are forced to fight to the death, and Raffi fatally stabs Worf. Fortunately, it’s a ruse. Worf has learned how to feign death. Krinn gives them a key that will grant them access to Daystrom Station.
• On her way back the Intrepid, Ro’s security team plant an explosive on her shuttle. They beam off, revealing they are Changelings. With seconds left, Ro does a suicide run towards the Intrepid and crashes into their nacelle.
• The Changelings find Jack, who kills four of them with ease. He sees another vision of a red doorway.
• Before leaving for the Intrepid, Ro gives Picard her Bajoran earring. The earring has her entire investigation encrypted within it. They receive a message from Ro’s operatives, who turn out to be Worf and Raffi.
• When Beverly asks Jack how she knew the security team was Changelings, he replies, “I didn’t. I think there’s something very wrong with me.”

“Star Trek Picard” Season 3 Episode 6 Easter Eggs

• The episode opens with the Titan on the run. The ship evades capture by dropping decoy transponders. We learn that in addition to Starfleet, Vadic and the Shrike are on its tail.
• Vadic confirms the Changelings will have vengeance on Frontier Day, which is approximately three days away.
• Beverly discovers that Jack has irumodic syndrome, inherited from Picard. The syndrome drove Picard to have hallucinations and disassociate from reality in the series finale of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” But after the events in Season 1 of “Picard,” he is in a synthetic body and no longer vulnerable to the syndrome. But as Jack is human, his condition will degenerate.
• Picard meets Jack in the holodeck bar. Jack asks how Picard survived irumodic syndrome, to which he replies, “I didn’t” — another reminder that Picard’s human body is gone … or is it?
• Raffi and Worf beam aboard the Titan. Worf thanks Picard for his annual bottle of “sour mead” aka wine from Chateau Picard, which he describes as “quite tart.”
• Seven and Raffi have a slightly awkward exchange in the transporter room, a reminder they used to be lovers.
• Worf and Raffi explain whatever the Changelings stole lies can be tracked in the Daystrom Station manifest. The station houses “experimental weapons” and “alien contraband.”
• Worf, Raffi and Riker beam aboard Daystrom and use the key from Krinn to disable the security system. Worf is glad that Raffi’s ex-lover Seven is not a part of the away team. Worf should know — his ex K’Ehleyr was killed while trying to help him in the “Next Generation” episode “Reunion.”
• Two Echelon-class Starfleet ships arrive at Daystrom with sophisticated tracking technology, forcing the Titan to flee.
• Worf, Raffi and Riker explore the inventory at Daystrom, which Worf calls “Section 31’s most nefarious table scraps.” Section 31 is a critical clandestine division of Starfleet intelligence introduced in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” but has been around since the time of “Discovery.” A “Section 31” spin-off starring Michelle Yeoh was reportedly in the works several years ago.
• Among the “good stuff” they find: a Genesis device used to terraform dead worlds (seen in “Star Trek II and III), a body scan and/or remains of James T. Kirk (captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise), and a genetically modified “attack” tribble (an irresistibly cute furry alien with extraordinary reproductive capabilities.
• The A.I. system defending Daystrom pulls up files on the away team, including one on Riker. The photo, interestingly, is of a younger Riker from approximately 20 years prior.
• The A.I. system sends a holographic crow, which caws at the away team. Riker notes there is “something familiar” about the crow as they approach the station mainframe.
• As part of the security response, the A.I. system creates a hologram of Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis), a holodeck villain created by Data to be his intellectual rival in “The Next Generation” episode “Elementary, Dear Data.”
• The Titan flees to Athan Prime, the home of the Federation Fleet Museum, which is overseen by former Enterprise crewmember and current Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton).
• Geordi beams aboard with his daughter Alandra and gives Beverly a big hug. He addresses his eldest daughter, Sidney, by her first name, to which she replies, “Sir.”
• Picard asks Geordi to clone the Titan’s transponder signal to lure them away from Daystrom, but Alandra reveals that plan won’t work because all the ships in the fleet “talk to each other” and are aware of each other’s location.
• Back at Daystrom, we see a shot of the two ships patrolling the station. There’s an off-screen conversation between the Sternbach and Cole, who are searching for the away team. Sternbach is the last name of Rick Sternbach, the visual designer who worked on “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and several Trek shows.
• Moriarity fires at the away team with live bullets, indicating safety protocols are turned off. Riker notes he is not the same self-aware Moriarity they encountered 30+ years prior. Every few seconds, musical notes punctuate the air. Riker, a trombone player, realizes the notes are to “Pop Goes The Weasel,” the song Data was trying to whistle when Riker first met him in the first episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Riker finishes the tune, which disables the Moriarity hologram.
• Worf, Riker and Raffi reach the main chamber and discover the A.I. system, which ends up being Data (Brent Spiner) or a version of him.
• Geordi initially refuses to help Picard. At best, he’ll be court-martialed. At worst, Starfleet will come after his family, two of whom we have now met. We have yet to meet his wife though she is mentioned in passing.
• Jack takes the captain’s chair next to Seven and looks at the various legendary ships stationed at the Fleet Museum. They include the U.S.S. Defiant (from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”), the U.S.S. Enterprise-A (from the “Star Trek” movies), the U.S.S. Voyager (from “Star Trek: Voyager”) where Seven was “reborn,” the HMS Bounty (the Klingon Bird of Prey used in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”). As each of these ships is shown, the musical theme from each respective series or film is played.
• Raffi notes that Data died (after the events of “Star Trek: Nemesis”) and Worf says this cannot be the Data they served with. Raffi says this Data is a hybrid synthetic with an android interface. Somehow, Starfleet was able to take Data’s memories from B4, a more primative android where Data stored his personality. They activate a hologram of Dr. Altan Soong, the son of Data’s creator and the man who created the body Picard inhabits now. He says this Soong golem in Daystrom has a bit of Lal (Data’s daughter), B4, Lore (Data’s evil twin) and Data.
• This may explain why the photo of Riker this Data has on file is about 20 years old — the last time he saw Riker “in person.” However, one would think this Data has access to the most current Starfleet files.
• Worf deduces that Data is protecting the manifest, he is the manifest. Unfortunately, the away team is discovered by Starfleet.
• Shaw, who was an engineer aboard the U.S.S. Constantine, geeks out over meeting Geordi.
• Jack and Sidney steal and install the cloaking device from the HMS Bounty, allowing the Titan to return to Daystrom Station undetected. Geordi and Alandra stay onboard the Titan to make sure the cloaking device works properly.
• Raffi and Worf escape Daystrom but Riker is captured. Geordi meets them in the transporter room and is taken aback by seeing his best friend, Data, 20 years after his death.
• With his daughters’ help, Geordi reactivates Data. All of the personalities manifest, but Data’s comes through strongest. He identifies Geordi, his best friend and calls Picard “captain,” the rank Picard held when Data died.
• Data finally reveals what was stolen from Daystrom Station: the human remains of Picard.
• Riker is interrogated by a Starfleet officer, who turns out to be Vadic. She blackmails Riker into telling Picard’s whereabouts with the one thing he cares about: his wife Deanna Troi.

“Star Trek Picard” Season 3 Episode 7 Easter Eggs

• The episode opens with the U.S.S. Titan hiding in the Chin’Toka Scrapyard. The Chin’Toka system was where several battles of the Dominion War were fought during “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” Many Starfleet and allied ships were destroyed, and it would make sense that their debris would be in a scrapyard.
• Seven of Nine reaches out to her former Voyager crewmate Tuvok (Tim Russ) for help. The four pips reveal that he has reached the rank of captain.
• Seven deduces that Tuvok is really a Changeling by lying about her neural net. The real Tuvok stabilized her neural net in Season 5, Episode 7 of “Voyager” (“Infinite Regress”).
• Picard, Beverly Crusher and Geordi La Forge turn to the Soong golem for answers. Unfortunately, the Lore personality has taken over. Lore was introduced as Data’s “evil twin” in Season 1, Episode 13 of “The Next Generation” (“Datalore”).
• Despite Geordi La Forge warning Jack Crusher to stay away from his daughter Sidney, the two engage in some flirting. Jack is able to read Sidney’s mind — a new ability he hasn’t demonstrated before.
• The Titan crew sets a trap for Vadic and the Changelings. They make it appear the Titan is derelict and have the Changelings board the ship. Once aboard, they lure them into traps and imprison them in forcefields.
• Beverly Crusher and Picard trap Vadic in sick bay. Vadic reveals the origin of her evolved physiology — she was experimented upon as a prisoner of war during the Dominion War. Want to know more? Here’s everything you need to know about Vadic .
• Lore disables the forcefields imprisoning the Changelings and Jack and Sidney become separated. Jack “possesses” Sidney and kills the Changeling attacking her. This is another one of Jack’s previously unseen abilities.
• Vadic whistles “Three Blind Mice” — another children’s song from Earth (“Pop Goes the Weasel” was played in the previous episode). Her human captor whistled the tune while experimenting on her and the other Changelings.

“Star Trek: Picard” Season 3, Episode 8 Easter Eggs

• Vadic and the Changelings commandeer the bridge of the U.S.S. Titan. She proceeds to cut off the ship’s “eyes” (power), “ears” (communications) and the “road ahead of them” (doors). Trapped with nowhere to go, the Changelings easily hunt down the crew.
• She lines up the bridge crew, which includes tactical officer Mura, communications officer Esmar, science officer T’Veen, Seven of Nine, and Captain Shaw.
• Jack uses his special powers to take over the body of a Titan security officer, but his connection is lost when a Changeling shoots the officer and kills him.
• Vadic gives the crew an ultimatum: deliver Jack Crusher or she’ll start executing the bridge officers one by one.
• Riker and Troi reunite on the Shrike, where they’re both being held prisoner. Riker again calls her imzadi (beloved) and tells her how he came face to face with “bleakness” while trapped in the nebula. He stops short of saying what it felt like, but it’s clear he’s referencing the death of their son, Thaddeus.
• Troi says a Changeling masked as Riker visited her. She joked he was “good in bed and bad at pizza.” One of Riker’s hobbies is making outdoor pizzas, as seen in Season 1 of “Picard.”
• Jack uses his power to take over Mura’s body and input a command override code, but Vadic catches him. She forces Mura and Esmar to their knees. She is about to execute Mura, but points the phaser at Esmar. After Esmar cries out Vadic shoots T’Veen instead. This shocking scene is a play on the “Redshirts always” trope in “Star Trek.” Mura and Esmar are “yellowshirts,” whereas T’Veen is a “blueshirt.”
• Riker and Troi have a heart-to-heart conversation. Riker says they might die aboard the Shrike and “Kestra would have lost everyone,” referencing their daughter. The topic then turns to their dead son. Riker felt immense grief after Thaddeus died, but Troi used her powers to dull that grief. She, in turn, felt everyone’s grief as an empath, which drove a wedge between them.
• Troi reveals she hated Nepethe, the planet they settled on to heal Thaddeus. She wants to move back to the city to drink raktajino  lattes. Raktajino  is a Klingon coffee mentioned throughout “Star Trek.”
• A Changeling guard enters their cell but is stabbed from behind by Worf. Worf professes that he’s “counted the days” since he last saw her, a nod back to when they were romantically involved in the later seasons of “The Next Generation.”
• Jack, Sidney, Beverly and Picard reunite with Geordi. In order to determine whether or not Picard is who he says he is, Geordi asks him what anniversary gift he received six years ago. “A Chateau Picard bordeaux, which you said was too dry,” Picard correctly responds. There’s an ongoing joke this season about the crew not liking Picard’s wine, with Shaw turning down a drink and Worf calling it too tart.
• Jack surrenders to Vadic on the bridge to stop the executions. He reveals he’s holding a device that will kill him if she makes any moves. She cryptically teases him about his powers, and refers to the “red door” he sees in his visions.
• Before they leave the Shrike, Raffi and Worf discover why the Changelings stole Picard’s body from Daystrom Station. They removed the parts of his brain with irumodic syndrome. Remember, Jack also has been diagnosed with irumodic syndrome, which may be giving him his special abilities.
• There’s another battle happening in this episode. Within the mind of the Soong golem, Data and his brother Lore are fighting for dominance, with the latter winning. Data draws upon his memories as Lore takes over. They include a violin concerto (Data played the string instrument several times in “The Next Generation), Sherlock Holmes houndstooth hat and pipe (he enjoyed playing the detective on the holodeck), a tricorder, a holographic crystal of slain crewmate Tasha Yar, a deck of cards (poker was a favorite pastime among the senior crew) and his cat Spot.
• Lore fully takes over and Geordi is distraught at losing his best friend a second time. However, Lore’s win is short-lived. The memories he took from Data transform him. “You took the things that were me, and in doing so, you became me,” a reconstituted Data explains.
• Data regains control of the Titan. Jack uses the device he brought to the bridge, which is not a grenade but a personal forcefield generator. Picard orders the evacuation hatch opened, which sucks Vadic into space. Her body freezes due to exposure and shatters into pieces when it hits the Shrike. The personal forcefield prevents Seven and Jack from being sucked out.
• The Titan then destroys the Shrike and presumably, Vadic and Picard’s remains.
• Despite Vadic’s death, Troi senses “a great darkness” on the ship.
• Data and Geordi help with repairs, at which point Data says, “We’re good here.” Geordi calls out that Data used a contraction, something he didn’t do previously but Lore could. It was one way to discern the two.
• Troi counsels Jack and tells him they’ll open the red door together.

“Star Trek: Picard” Season 3, Episode 9 Easter Eggs

• The song playing at the beginning of episode is “I Can’t Stop Crying” by Will Grove-White” from “Fleabag.”
• Jack says the red blossoms remind him of the trips he took with his Beverly to the Crimson Arboretum on Raritan IV. Showrunner Terry Matalas named the planet after Raritan, New Jersey, near where he grew up.
• The blossoms may be a metaphor for individuals, and the vines a metaphor for what connects them below the surface — a hint of what’s to come.
• Jack described the vines as “purposeful” and “perfect.” There is one species in the universe whose purpose is to seek perfection.
• The female voice from beyond the door beckons: “Hear me. Find me. Fear nothing. We will be together soon, Jack.”
• After her vision, Troi runs out to find Jack’s parents, Beverly and Picard. The sign on the door that closes behind her says “Counselor,” which was her role on the Enterprise.
• It’s finally revealed what’s behind the door: a Borg cube. His parents say it’s impossible, as Jack has never been assimilated and there are no nanoprobes in his system.
• Beverly says “no one has seen or heard from the Borg in a decade,” which directly contradicts the events of “Star Trek: Picard” Season 2, where the Borg asked specifically for Picard’s help.
• Beverly deduces that the Borg passed some organic technology to Jack through Locutus. Locutus is the name Picard took after being assimilated by the Borg 35 years prior. That was depicted in “The Next Generation” Season 3 finale and Season 4 opener “The Best of Both Worlds Part I and II.”
• Jean-Luc wants to tell Jack about the Borg but Troi stops him as there are protocols when threats to the Federation are discovered. Jack is considered “dangerous.”
• Picard speaks to Jack and tells him a Borg “seed” is implanted in him. Jack is distraught after learning he is merely a bee or drone. If you look at the wall behind him, the wall has a honeycomb design.
• He tries to leave but discovers security guards are stationed outside. He uses his ability to possess the security guards. When Picard asks Jack “What is this?” he responds in a very Borg-like answer: “futility.”
• Beverly also tries to stop Jack but the security guards stop her as well. He tells his mother he always thought the voice in his head was her, but now realizes it is the Borg Queen. He commandeers a shuttle and follows instructions from the Queen to “find me.”
• As they watch Jack escape, Picard tells Beverly “he inherited the best of you and the worst of me.” This is a reference to the aforementioned “The Best of Both Worlds” episodes.
• Data tries to comfort Picard by putting his hand on Picard’s shoulder. Picard pats Data’s hand. He did the same gesture to Riker in the Season 1 episode of “Nepenthe.”
• Jack flies to the coordinates the Queen sends him, and a Borg cube appears via a transwarp conduit.
• Geordi and Data make a startling discovery. Whereas assimilated Borg are “receivers,” Jack’s unique DNA makes him a “transmitter.” That’s why Vadic kept referring to him as special.
• Worf notes all of Starfleet is gathered in one location: the Sol system. A map appears with dozens of Starfleet vessels including the U.S.S. Sutherland (whose predecessor appeared in the “Next Generation” episode “Redemption”), the U.S.S. Okuda (named after “Trek” designers Michael and Denise Okuda), the U.S.S. Gagarin (named after the Soviet cosmonaut), the U.S.S. Ibn Al-Haythiam (named after the mathematician), the U.S.S. Drexler (named after “Trek” artist Doug Drexler), the U.S.S. Huygens (named after the Dutch astronomer), the U.S.S. Reliant (whose predecessor appeared in “The Wrath of Khan”) and several other ships.
• The map graphic dissolves into a live-action shot of the ships around Earth Spacedock about Earth. The doors open to reveal NCC-1701-F, the newest U.S.S. Enterprise commanded by Admiral Elizabeth Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy). More on Shelby’s guest appearance here .
• Shelby’s Frontier Day speech pays homage to the NX-01, the first Enterprise commanded by Jonathan Archer 250 years prior. That Enterprise’s adventures were shown in the series “Enterprise.”
• Shelby is proud to showcase the newest Starfleet technology, Fleet Formation. It allows all Starfleet vessels to synch and act as one, a very Borg-like concept. One of the ships that syncs with the Enterprise is the U.S.S. Pulaski, named after Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) who served on the Enterprise-D.
• Picard notes the irony of Fleet Formation as Shelby was introduced as a Borg tactical specialist who really disliked the Borg.
• Jack beams aboard the Borg cube determined to destroy the Queen. She calls him “my child” and “my flesh.” She also names him Regenerati (rebirth) and Puer Dei (Child of God) before settling on Vox (voice), which is also the name of the episode.
• The voice of the Queen belongs to Alice Krige, who reprises her role from “Star Trek: First Contact.”
• Jack tries to kill the Queen, but cannot bring himself to. She assimilates him using tendrils, saying the phrase “Resistance is futile.”
• Geordi and Data discover that the Changelings stole Picard’s human body to extract the Borg genetic code. They infiltrated Starfleet vessels and introduced the code into the transporter system. Everyone who beams on or off-board has the code spliced into their genes, making the dormant Borg drones. Beverly notes this only affects brains still developing, which in human age is 25 or younger.
• This explains why Ro didn’t trust the transporters and decided to take a shuttlecraft to board the Titan way back in Episode 5. She suspected the Changelings were contaminating them — and she was right.
• Picard tries to warn Shelby but it’s too late. The Borg Queen uses Jack to transmit her signal through the entire fleet, activating all the dormant drones, including both LaForge girls, tactical officer Mura and communications officer Esmar. They become Borg and begin taking over the bridge.
• Shelby is killed when activated Borg take over the Enterprise. She is shot twice by two ensigns.
• This also explains why Vadic executed T’Veen instead of Mura and Esmar. As a Vulcan, T’Veen was likely older than 25, as Vulcans age slower than humans. Showrunner Terry Matalas confirmed this theory to TheWrap.
• Geordi is terrified to learn both Sidney and Alandra have turned in Borg and no longer register as human.
• The older, unaffected crewmembers (Picard, Riker, Shaw, Seven) flee the bridge as Esmar takes control of the Titan.
• The U.S.S. Excelsior, a vessel featured in several “Trek” films, manages to regain control but is promptly destroyed by the other Starfleet vessels, including the U.S.S. Hikaru Sulu. The Sulu is named after the original Enterprise helmsman, who ironically later became the captain of the Excelsior.
• The assimilated ships take formation into a shape that resembles DNA helixes or Borg symbols, depending on who you ask.
• The older crewmembers make it down to the maintenance deck with hopes of escaping on a repair shuttle. Shaw is killed in the firefight. With his last breath, he gives command to Seven, finally addressing her as Seven of Nine instead of Commander Hansen.
• There’s a nice moment where Raffi shields/holds back Picard, her former commanding officer. Raffi also decides to stay with Seven, her former lover, onboard the Titan.
• The assimilated fleet approaches Spacedock with the goal of eliminating any remaining Earth defenses.
• Geordi pilots the crew back to the Fleet Museum. They need a ship which is not connected to the assimilated fleet. That ship, of course, is the Enterprise-D.
• Geordi explains that the saucer section, which crashed on Veridian III, was retrieved so as to not violate the Prime Directive and influence the less advanced species in the system. The secondary hull engine and nacelles are salvaged from the U.S.S. Syracuse, another Galaxy-class starship.
• Geordi says “obviously they cannot use the Enterprise-E” and everyone looks at Worf. Worf was the captain of the Enterprise-E, which has befallen some sad fate that renders her unusable.
• Picard assumes command of the Enterprise-D. The computer voice that greets him is that of Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the wife of creator Gene Roddenberry. She also played No. 1 and Nurse Chapel in “The Original Series,” and Lwaxana Troi in “The Next Generation.”
• The crew take their positions on the bridge, including Geordi at the helm, where he started in early episodes of “The Next Generation.”
• As the Enterprise-D sets course for Earth, Picard utters his famous phrases: “Make it so” and “Engage!” He also tugs at the bottom of his tunic, a signature move fans have dubbed The Picard Maneuver.

“Star Trek: Picard” Season 3, Episode 10 Easter Eggs

• The series finale is titled “The Last Generation,” a play on “The Next Generation” — the name of the “Star Trek” series that chronicled the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D.
• The Star Trek logo at the beginning of the show flickers and turns green as it is “assimilated’ by the Borg.
• Picard and the Enterprise-D crew receive a distress call from Anton Chekov, the President of the Federation. Chekov is the son of Enterprise-A helmsman Pavel Chekov, played by Walter Koenig in “The Original Series.”
• The Enterprise tracks the Borg cube to Jupiter. Riker mentions the Borg hid a transwarp conduit within the planet’s gases, allowing them to enter the Sol system and broadcast their signal.
• Picard says, “What began over 35 years ago ends tonight.” He is referring to the Enterprise’s first contact with the Borg in “The Next Generation” which was hastened by the omnipotent being Q (John DeLancie).
• A wide shot shows how small the Enterprise is compared to the cube. In previous shows, Borg cubes have been compared to small moons. Several antennae protrude from the cube, amplifying its signal to the Starfleet ships surrounding Earth and attacking Spacedock.
• Seven, Raffi and their ragtag group of non-assimilated crew take back the Titan bridge, beaming their assimilated colleagues to a locked transporter room.
• Beverly is able to isolate Jack’s location on the cube. Data offers to go, given his “experience with the Borg.” He’s referring to being kidnapped and altered by the Borg queen in “Star Trek: First Contact.” Picard refuses and has Riker and Worf round out his away team.
• As the ranking officer — a commodore — La Forge is granted command.
• Troi and Riker share an empathic moment together, as he may not return from this mission.
• Picard finds a fully assimilated Jack broadcasting the Borg signal. Jack is wearing an eye prosthetic similar to Locutus’.
• The Borg queen, whose body has withered away, calls Picard by his Borg designation: “Locutus.”
• Aboard the Titan, Raffi realizes the Titan can be released from Fleet Formation if they cloak. Seven tells tactical to upload every prefix code they have for the fleet. With each ship’s prefix code, the Titan can disable their shields. Captain Kirk used this exploit to disable the U.S.S. Reliant’s shields in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
• Riker and Worf find the beacon controls, but are attacked by drones. Worf dispatches several drones with his sword but is shot. He tells Riker to pick up his sword, but it’s too heavy. Hidden in the hilt is a phaser.
• The Borg cube fires upon the Enterprise. With Worf on the away team, Beverly takes over tactical, firing phasers and photon torpedos with accuracy. “A lot’s happened in the last 20 years,” she tells an astonished La Forge, Data and Troi.
• They locate the beacon at the heart of the cube. Data says he can fly the Enterprise into the cube ala Luke Skywalker and the Death Star in “Star Wars.”
• The fleet destroys Spacedock and Earth is defenseless. Sidney and Alandra destroy the Titan’s cloaking device, leaving the Titan exposed. Jack continues to broadcast orders, saying “concentrate fire on Sector 001.” Sector 001 is the Federation designation for Earth, and the fleet begins targeting all the major cities.
• In an attempt to stop the queen, Picard begins “unplugging” Jack. He then plugs himself into the Collective. Viewers see flashbacks from “The Next Generation” episodes “The Best of Both Worlds Part I and II.”
• Picard pleads with Jack to unplug, but Jack resists. La Forge tells Beverly to destroy the beacon, knowing it will kill Jack, Picard, Riker and Worf.
• Riker bids farewell Troi, saying “I love you, imzadi . We’ll be waiting, me and our boy,” referring to their deceased son Thaddeus.
• Troi empathically hears Riker and is able to discern their location despite the Cube falling apart around them. She also used this empathic tracking ability to locate Shinzon’s cloaked ship in “Star Trek: Nemesis.”
• The away team makes it safely aboard, and the cube — and Queen — are destroyed. With the beacon destroyed, all assimilated personnel regain individual control.
• We then get a captain’s log from Riker, explaining how Beverly, now an admiral and head of Starfleet Medical, devised a way to purge the Borg genetic code using transporter technology.
• By the end of “Picard,” Picard and Crusher hold admiral ranks, La Forge is a commodore, and Riker and Worf are captains. Troi holds a commander rank, while Data presumably never got promoted from his lieutenant commander rank.
• Captain Tuvok (Tim Russ) is alive and formally promotes Seven of Nine to captain, upon the recommendation from Shaw.
• Jay (Raffi’s estranged husband) sends her good news: their granddaughter wants to meet her grandmother. Raffi was looking at her granddaughter’s photo in the first episode.
• Data struggles to process his emotions and seeks counseling from Troi, but goes well over time during their appointments. Troi zones out by researching beach vacation spots, including Trill, Bajor, Malibu (California), Zadar IV, Orlando (Florida) and Kaphar Prime.
• There’s a time jump to a year later. The Enterprise-D is back at the Fleet Museum, where she is shutdown.
• Jack is fast-tracked through Starfleet and receives his first posting aboard the Titan, now re-christened the U.S.S. Enterprise-G.
• Jack’s commanding officers? Captain Seven of Nine and First Officer Raffi Musiker. He tells the helm to set a course for the M’Talas system with phasers and photon torpedos ready. It’s one final self-referring easter egg from showrunner Terry Matalas.
• The Enterprise-D crew close down Guinan’s Ten Forward Bar. Worf has been drinking prune juice, which Guinan introduced him to in “The Next Generation.” He called prune juice “a warrior’s drink.”
• The crew are joined by Picard for a game of poker. This mirrors the series finale of “The Next Generation.”
• In the post-credits, Jack is visited by Q (John de Lancie). We break down the ending and post-credit scene in detail here.

“Star Trek: Picard” is currently streaming on Paramount+

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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Ends With A New Beginning In Series Finale “The Last Generation”

| April 20, 2023 | By: Anthony Pascale 677 comments so far

“The Last Generation”

Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, April 20, 2023 Written and directed by Terry Matalas

A pitch-perfect season and series finale delivered action, humor, and a whole lot of well-earned character emotion.

Doctor, you are in my spot.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“What began over 35 years ago ends tonight!”

The USS Enterprise-D (so excited to say that!) ignores the broadcast warning from the Federation President to avoid Earth: Spacedock is the last line of defense and there are no reinforcements coming. They track the Borg signal to Jupiter and find a huge cube hiding in the big red spot… sneaky. Jack is identified as the source of the “command signal” that is Borgifying Starfleet and they have to sever that connection “no matter the cost.” The cube drops shields in an arrogant “invitation” and Jean-Luc accepts, joined by Riker… and Worf, who offers to “make it a threesome”… Phrasing!   Geordi is left in command as Picard takes a moment to look at his crew do the “It’s been an honor” thing… gulp. Things are extra creepy down on the “tomb” of a cube, which is eerily quiet, and they find most of the drones dead, their tissue being “cannibalized.” Bev has located Jack, so the landing trio is going to split up, with Jean-Luc saying it is time for him to stop being a captain and start being a dad. None of these guys think they are going to live out the day and their goodbyes are devastating.

Jean-Luc goes deeper into the unimatrix array where he finds Jack, all Borgified, a decrepit Queen hovering over him. Fused to the wall, this fresco from hell laughs as she welcomes Locutus, who can only watch as Jack issues orders and spouts Borg platitudes. The queen declares herself a proud mother, telling a defiant yet powerless Picard that Jack (and he) have been her salvation after the Federation left the collective “poisoned” and dying. Now they will rise again using Jack and Picard’s biology, giving up assimilation for this new “evolution.” Elsewhere, Worf and Riker have sorted out where the beacon is, and fight off some of the last drones as the cube fires on the Enterprise, but weapons officer Beverly (yes Beverly) takes out the turrets with ease. The beacon is buried impossibly deep in the cube but Data has a “gut” feeling so he goes full Lando and Nien Nunb diving the big D (phrasing?) into the Borg ship… and Deanna senses he is loving every terrifying moment. Knowing that time is running out for Earth, Picard starts unplugging Jack, ignoring the Queen’s protestation that his son is hers now. The desperate father is taken aback when Jack continues the attack, only saying  “We are the Borg, resistance is futile.” He’s a real chip off the Locutus-block.

I make the Borg look good.

“We are all that is left of Starfleet.”

Over on the Titan, Seven has her hands full as she and Raffi fight their way through all the Borfigied youngsters, eventually taking over the bridge using some cool “portable beam-me-up” darts that send the Borgies to a locked transporter room. Spotting the Enterprise D taking on the cube, Seven knows she has to buy Picard time. The plan is to disconnect from the fleet control thing using the cloaking device to distract with a counterattack, but Seven first needs to rally her ragtag bridge crew made up of the remaining middle-aged folks on the ship, including the doctor at ops and a terrified cook as pilot. Seven rallies this team of misfits with a rousing speech that would impress Picard himself as she reminds them what they are fighting (and probably dying) for.

Through a series of hit-and-run attacks, the Titan starts to get the notice of the Collective by diverting resources and hopefully buying that time for Picard’s team. But one ship against the unified fleet can only do so much, especially as the Borg kids have broken out of the transporter room and sabotaged the cloaking device, bringing this raiding party to an end. Dead in the water, Seven’s bridge crew can only watch in horror as Spacedock falls. With the Titan neutralized and the planet’s last defenses dispatched, the Borgified Starfleet turns towards Earth and begins to target all the main population centers, planning to fulfill the Collective’s new directive to eliminate all the non-assimilated. Oh, and the Titan’s youngsters are headed to the bridge to do the same. Thankfully Captain Shaw didn’t live to see his ship come to this… Too soon?

Don’t look at me like that Raffi, we have work to do.

“There was a moment today where I was worried we might survive.”

Things look up when Data gets the Enterprise to the beacon, but Geordi realizes if they take it out, it will take the cube with it—along with the away team. Faced with the worst “needs of the many” decision ever, they reluctantly recognize what they must do. Riker and Worf do too as they vow to stay and try to get to Jack and Jean-Luc, knowing there is likely not enough time, but Will speaks for them both: “I owe him a lifetime, the least I can spare is a minute.” Deep in the cube, Jean-Luc realizes the only way to get to Jack is to do the thing he vowed never to do again: plug himself into the Collective. There he finds his son, seduced by the “euphoria” of all those voices speaking as one. Jean-Luc understands and tries to connect, telling Jack he joined Starfleet to find a connection he could never find at home but now understands that Jack was the family he was always missing. In this Borg mind space the assimilated young man wavers, but the allure of perfection is too strong and he declares this is where he belongs. Kids, am I right?

Out of time on the D, Geordi leaves it to a heartbroken Beverly to fire at the beacon, destroying it and setting off a chain reaction. Knowing what’s coming, Picard tells his son he will stay with him “until the end.” This final embrace breaks through as Jack recognizes he too has changed, giving him the strength to break the hold of the hive mind. Awakened, father and son unplug from the collective. Worf and Riker are there too, with the cube coming apart around them, the Klingon is ready to die with honor and Riker says his final goodbye to his Imzadi. (I’m not crying, you’re crying.) But that connection is the key. Deanna senses them and maneuvers the ship in to beam them out… at the last second of course, leaving the screaming Queenie to be incinerated. The cube’s destruction ends the Borg’s control of the fleet. Earth is saved and these families are reunited with hugs on the bridges of the Titan and Enterprise, except for an exhausted and wounded Worf, who falls asleep… snoring. I know how he feels, this episode has been emotionally exhausting… and it’s far from over.

The queen has really let herself go.

“Names mean almost everything.”

The threat is over, but there are a number of season threads left to tie up. A captain’s log from Riker sums up the aftermath by declaring this “a new day for friends both old and young.” Time starts progressing as Beverly is promoted to Admiral to oversee Starfleet Medical, purging the fleet’s young officers of Borg stuff and purging the fleet of the remaining Changelings. Real Tuvok briefs Seven on how everyone (including her) gets a pardon for “hijacking” the Titan and disobeying orders. Seven offers to resign over all the insubordination, but her former USS Voyager colleague surprises her with a recording of Captain Shaw’s final crew assessment, calling Seven “reckless” but acknowledging maybe she is just the kind of rulebreaker Starfleet needs. Tuvok rejects her resignation, calling her “Captain.” Dips—t from Chicago FTW! Raffi also gets some closure thanks to Worf leaking her classified heroics to the galaxy, to the delight of her ex and son who want her to finally meet her granddaughter. That Klingon is a big softy, even giving her a hug! Deanna and Riker are also ready to move on together as she plans a much-needed vacation, even as she gives Data one of many counseling sessions to help cope with all his various new feelings that include crying over a random cat. Maybe he just needs a new Spot.

Jump to one year later,  and a fixed-up Enterprise-D is snuggled into position at the Starfleet museum with Riker, Picard, and Geordi there to give it a meta goodbye, “If ever there was better evidence that the past mattered… it’s right here.” Returning to a repaired (new?) Spacedock, Jack is now in a red Starfleet uniform, and the young ensign nervously paces in a shuttle with his parents as they approach his first posting. It’s the Titan… but wait, he and Beverly admit to some “subterfuge” as they reveal the ship has been rechristened. In honor of Admiral Picard and his crew’s heroics, the ship is now the USS Enterprise-G.

There really were plenty of letters left in the alphabet.

After kicking Jack out of the captain’s chair, Captain Seven welcomes him as she and first officer Raffi prepare for a shakedown cruise, unable to believe Starfleet has seen fit “to give a thief, a pirate, and a spy their own ship.” Sidney is there too as this new crew gives everyone a sneak peek at the hoped-for spinoff. They really put a button on it as the bridge crew ponders Seven’s potential catchphrase, “Your first official act of command. Writing the open line to your legacy.” Not subtle, Terry. I love it. But wait, there’s more… This is a generation’s final journey and we find the TNG gang having drinks at 10 Forward. Bev is toasted on blood wine, Worf talks about his meditation lecture, the Riker-Trois debate vacation destinations, Data tries to tell a dirty joke after being teed by up Geordi, and Jean-Luc wraps it up with some Shakespeare. They toast to their eternal friendship before settling in for one more game of poker. Perfect.

Oh, and in a mid-credits scene, Q shows up (don’t “think so linearly”!) to tell Jack his father’s trial may be over, but his has just begun.

Saying goodbye is hard

“The Last Generation” is everything you could want in a season finale, and a series finale too. Paying off a lot of the complicated elements leading up to this moment, the finale kept it simple, laying out the goal of shutting down the Borg beacon to save the galaxy. But within that were many layers of character complexity and even heartbreak along the way, setting up some incredible performances. The result was an emotional, high-stakes roller coaster that kept you guessing with a series of gut-wrenching moments when you felt all the weight of these characters and their history together, and how this could have been the end for any one of them. Balancing things out was just the right amount of lighter moments, organically peppered throughout.

Writer/director Terry Matalas showed his love for these characters as each was given their own hero moments, both subtle and profound. Each concurrent storyline is tied together through the fulfillment of various arcs all based around the themes of connection, family, sacrifice, and hope. The ultimate version of this was the titular character, with Patrick Stewart delivering one of his best performances as Jean-Luc Picard fighting his greatest fear to connect with the son he now realizes he has always needed. Ed Speleers’ performance was equally impressive, although Jack himself didn’t play much of a role in saving the day. LeVar Burton and Gates McFadden also stood out playing the heartbreak of Beverly struggling with the decision, weighing the life of her son against the fate of the Federation. With all of these life and death stakes, Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn’s banter continues to delight even as they, too, are challenged with emotional beats. The pacing of all the little goodbye moments, especially Riker staying behind for his friend and former captain, was almost too much to bear.

I can see the screen so much clearer without that hair clip in the way.

Jeri Ryan was also tasked with some heavy lifting in this episode, handling a lot of the action along with stepping up for some inspiring speechifying. In a way, this was sort of her audition to be captain, and she nailed it. It was a bit unclear how much help—if any—they were providing, but the scenes on the Titan provided a good POV on what was at stake for the Enterprise crew at the cube, and it was fun to see Seven’s ragtag bridge crew of middle-aged officers. While excellent editing wove these stories together, there might have been more impact if the Titan crew had been coordinating with the Enterprise team and had a clear objective that fit into the plan besides just harassing the Borgified fleet in the hopes of buying some time. It was fun to see Seven and Raffi together again, working as a team, however, it was also a reminder that this season has essentially ignored their romance, teed up in the season two finale.

Hands up, Borgies.

The queen is dead… for good

The scenes on the Borg cube looked great, really leaning into an H.R. Giger aesthetic, making this final stand of the Borg a true horror show. The makeup on the queen was especially creepy, adding to the menace and even pathos of it all. However, her dialogue was sort of canned villain revenge talk, with a few personal notes for the former Locutus. Behind all the great character moments, the fight with the Borg was a bit predictable, and even in its simplicity there was some confusion, such as why did the Borg attack continue after the beacon was destroyed, not ending until the cube blew up? It also feels like there is a disconnect between how the show transitioned from Vadic and the changelings to the Borg without ever really showing how and why they are working together (beyond a few lines of dialogue). Some viewers may not even make the connection that the Queen was Vadic’s “The Face” handler all along. In the end, the villains of this story weren’t all that interesting, but they provided a good catalyst for a lot of fascinating character stories.

While some fans may have balked at the Borg as the ultimate big bad instead of some less obvious deep-cut threat, there is a poetry to them as the ultimate adversary of Picard and The Next Generation . And one of the layers behind the title “The Last Generation” was that this was the last queen, on the last cube, decades after being “poisoned.” While her revenge was pointed at Picard, the true culprit was Janeway, who started the Borg down this long defeat in the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager , which is why it was surprising after being namedropped so many times this season, the Queen never mentioned her. There is also a poetry here to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , which ended years of fighting with the Klingons, the ultimate bad guys for the original generation. While it was satisfying to see the gloating queen come to an end, it would have been fitting for Picard to have at least tried a diplomatic approach or offer some sense of mercy.

F-ing Janeway.

A new legacy

One of the upsides of keeping the plot simple is that the main threat wrapped up fairly early in the episode to allow for an extended coda. This picked up on a lot of season arcs for these characters with some fun and heartwarming scenes across the board. Most of the loose ends were tied up, unless you are worried about poor Laris waiting in that café on Chaltok IV for Jean-Luc. Matalas went into extra innings to allow for these bonus moments to breathe and give the audience time to say goodbye to these characters and really give them the closure they need. Even the USS Enterprise-D got a little goodbye in a scene layered in meaning for the characters and the actors. They even forgoed the credit sequence to indulge in the final poker game. It went on far too long and it was perfect.

But Matalas wasn’t done with all these wonderful goodbyes. The coda was doing double duty, setting up what he hopes is a “ Star Trek: Legacy “ spinoff, and they weren’t subtle about that at all. Some of this was a bit much, such as rechristening the Titan. It wasn’t necessary and transforming it into the USS Enterprise-G seems more geared for a spin-off, but Starfleet honoring the admiral by naming the ship USS Picard (with special dispensation being that he is still alive) might have fit better in the context of a series finale. Still, all the pieces and characters are now in place for this spin-off, already showing some of the fun chemistry of the bridge crew, although it was surprising (or even confusing) that Jack ended up in command red and being “special counselor to the captain.” Bringing Q back was fun and he’s right, his season 2 death shouldn’t violate canon for an immortal. It was a nice bookend to the TNG era as he was there since the beginning, although it keeps Jack overly tied into his father’s story. After this season, this “next next generation” of characters are well poised to head off on their own 25 th- century adventures. Hopefully, viewers see this as intended, aspirational, and fitting into the Star Trek theme of an optimistic future. And maybe fan enthusiasm will help make the Legacy show happen someday. There are always… possibilities.

This is my ship.

Final thoughts

An excellent finale brought a fantastic season of Star Trek to an end, nicely wrapping up the series as a whole. “The Last Generation” will be remembered as one of the most emotional and satisfying episodes of Star Trek. It was really the finale to what was structured as an extended movie, the feature film ending the Next Generation era deserved. On top of that, it set up what could be a whole new era, with new and returning characters. What else could you ask for? These last 10 weeks have been a highlight in Star Trek history with unmatched consistent quality and execution. Let’s hope this isn’t the end for this team and these characters.

You even installed Riker’s seat warmer… nice.

• The opening Star Trek brand animation swapped out the USS Titan for the USS Enterprise-D, along with some Borg elements added to the Star Trek delta logo
• The opening space shot had a visual homage to the opening credits of Star Trek: The Next Generation .
• Federation President Anton Chekov is the son of Pavel Chekov, and was voiced by Walter Koenig of Star Trek: The Original Series . The president was named in honor of the late Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the three J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies.
• His “General Order 12” message was like the one given by the president in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , warning people away from Earth due to the destruction caused by the Whale Probe.
• Like in the previous episode, Star Trek: First Contact’s Alice Krige returned to voice the Borg Queen, but actress Jane Edwina Seymour played her, credited as “Borg Queen body double.”
• The Queen quoted herself from First Contact , telling Picard she invited him onto the Cube to witness his “future’s end.”
• One of Seven’s Titan bridge officers was played by makeup designer James MacKinnon, his third cameo following previously appearing in Picard (as a Borg drone) and Discovery (as a medical tech).
• Among the alien vacation destinations Troi was considering: Vulcan, Andoria, Omicron Ceti III (misspelled as Omicron Seti III), Bajor, Trill, Zadar IV, and Kaphar Prime. She also browsed Earth destinations Kauai, Malibu, and Orlando.
• Data’s attempt to tell the limerick starting with “There was a young lady from Venus…” was a callback to when he tried the same thing in the TNG episode “The Naked Now.”
• Picard’s final toast was a quote from Brutus from the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar .
• The song played during the poker game was “ All New Songs ” by Al Oxenhandler.
• Ending with a poker game was a tribute to the final scene from the TNG series finale “All Good Things…” It also bookends the Picard series which began with Data and Picard playing Poker in a dream sequence.
• The photo of a younger Picard and Crusher in Jack’s Quarters was of Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden attending a premiere in 1988 .

All good things…

More to come

We will discuss the episode in detail on Friday’s episode of All Access Star Trek . Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek podcast covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and South Korea. It also streams internationally on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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As far as a TNG sendoff it was honestly perfect. Giving the Enterprise D and her crew a much better send-off than was possible before. No issues as far as the TNG story. Q being there, in the end, is simply another lesson in his overall lesson that he has spoken to many times. Time is not always linear and he exists outside of linear time.

Now for my very very small critiques.

1. Raffi should not be Seven’s first officer because of their romantic history. 2. The Titan has its own history of service and should have kept her name. 3. The Enterprise G should have been something new and spectacular, not the renamed Titan, which is too small to be a modern Enterprise. What I would have done if I were Matalas was instead of the Odyssey Class F being shown as a minor role, have that same role filled by the Enterprise E. That way at the end of the show the reveal of the Odyssey Class F could have been done and the timeline would better sync up with that of STO. 4. Shaw should be Captain and not Seven quite yet. I would like to have seen her put in more time as First Officer next to Shaw. That would have been fascinating to watch. 5. Janeway should be the one promoting Seven for many many reasons. Tuvok is ok, but should have been Janway. 6. Janeway should have been involved in SOME way cuz Borg dammit.

These are very small critiques and this was the best Season of Trek in a very very long time, possibly ever in terms of the number of quality episodes.

I loved it too. Some thoughts on your points

• Honestly, I’m ok with it. Some things you stretch for story reasons, and that’s not that bad.
• Good point, but it also works for me. The Yorktown Aircraft Carrier that served the US Navy was rechristened from a previous name to honor the previous fallen Yorktown, so it’s not unprecedented, even in our society. Done to honor the role of the D’s role in the Borg conflict.
• I’m kind of with you on this point.
• That’s what makes his loss sting. We all wanted more Shaw, dammit.
• I get that, but I think Terry said the Prodigy team has domain over that character, and they don’t want to bump up against what that show is doing. That’s fair.

I just loved the finale. Hit’s all the right notes, and any and all fan service feels absolutely organic and earned. The optimism of Trek is at it’s best here.. this is the best sendoff, and I’m so glad we finally got it.

Wasn’t the current iteration of the Titan the “Constitution 2” class of ship? If so, that kind of seems fitting. The ship did not need to be called Enterprise though. Oh well. Minor nitpick.

1. Raffi should not be Seven’s first officer because of their romantic history.

Starfleet HR watched The Orville, and said “Oh, what the heck…”

Point 1 – how different from Riker and Troi on their TITAN?

Troi wasn’t first officer. That’s only a partial answer, to be sure, but at least she didn’t have the entire ship reporting to her.

Remember Janeway didn’t want James Read’s character inn Workforce to stay on Voyager because she wasn’t allowed to have a relationship with him if he was one of her crew.

Wow, James Read was on VOYAGER? Thought he was great on first season REMINGTON STEELE. Don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything else (oh yeah, THE ORVILLE), except in a background cameoas a cop with no dialog in BLUE THUNDER. I wonder if they had him read for Riker. Also wonder how he didn’t get cast in APOLLO 13 or FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, now that I think of it.

Aye, I would have loved these too. But what is done is done. The name Titan will likely be used on another ship. Of course, the Odyssey class should have been used in a grander sense/not wasted, but maybe the new Enterprise will get a refit at some point? Whatever happens, I just hope we find out via Star Trek: Legacy.

Perhaps (assuming something akin to Legacy gets a green light), we’ll see a (another) major refit to the Titan , Enterprise G to bring it in line with a more flagship type of ship. Not entirely unprecedented given the massive changes b/w the TOS Enterprise and the TMP Enterprise.

The Enterprise G should have been something new and spectacular, not the renamed Titan, which is too small to be a modern Enterprise. What I would have done if I were Matalas was instead of the Odyssey Class F being shown as a minor role, have that same role filled by the Enterprise E. That way at the end of the show the reveal of the Odyssey Class F could have been done and the timeline would better sync up with that of STO.

This, this right here. I don’t even like the Odyssey -class design that much but the 1701-F got done dirty here. Would’ve created a minor continuity error for STO but whatever.

Who cares about STO? It isn’t cannon. Yes, some of the ships from there appeared on screen–they are cannon. Keeping the timeline of a video game doesn’t matter.

Totally agree, and I really think that if they really were set on reusing the Titan-A and wanted to rechristen her with something important: I think it should have been the USS Picard. I agree the Enterprise G on an old “new” ship like that is actually a bit insulting.

Totally agree about the G. I was pretty disappointed in that :/ I was hoping that we would see the Titan rechristened as the USS – Picard, and then maybe they’d move on to a new ship as the G. I also agree that they should’ve used the E for Frontier Day, and then introduce the F at the end.

The Enterprise should be the biggest and baddest ship in the fleet. And while the Titan is a cool ship (I very much like the retro-design), it is very much not a flagship type of ship.

I don’t think non-gamers think very much of a fan designed video game ship which, to be blunt, isn’t particularly attractive.

Agreed on that point, but the underlying point is the G should be a flagship type ship, if not the flagship itself. The rechristened Titan isn’t that.

In regards to using the E as the decommissioned ship and then introducing the F at the end, I agree that the Odyssey class is kinda ugly, but the producers could’ve very easily tweaked things with the design to make it less clunky.

Terry Matalas shared that Janeway was the original plan instead of Tuvok but CBS said no because she’s already on Prodigy.

It was just wonderful, well done Terry, and well done to the whole crew and cast for delivering the true ending these heroes deserved.

Agreed 100%. Hope Stuart Baird is shown this; that’s HOW you do a send-off!

I hate Nemesis as much as anyone, but there’s no reason to take pot shots at a guy. I doubt he set out to make a bad movie. Let it go.

As director, Baird only made bad movies. Take as many shot as you want, he’s the only filmmaker in history who had Jerry Goldsmith score all his movies and it still wasn’t enough to save any of them.

Even if it wasn’t high art, I rather enjoyed EXECUTIVE DECISION. I saw it with a Palestinian-American friend in college who was publicly upset at the anti-Arab cliches but was also an aviation buff and privately told me “I really want to see this movie.”

I just don’t see the need to get personal and attack the people, particularly for a guy whose ONLY contribution to the franchise was two decades ago. It’s childish.

Agreed. It’s also important to note that Baird’s greatest contributions to film were as an editor.

Hey admins, we have a commenter encouraging personal insults, which is against site policy!

I love the film Nemesis! Even though it’s not as good as “First Contact” for example I enjoy it very much. So not “anyone” hates it, at least one likes it 😉

I know Stuart Baird gets a bad rap and most of it deserved, but he didn’t create the story or write the script. It would have been a dreadful movie no matter who directed.

Disagree. Nemesis was still the better send off.

You’re certainly welcome to that opinion! While I was no big fan of this finale, it’s still better than Nemesis, which is just pure nails on a chalkboard from start to finish.

Stuart? Is that you?

I think it’s Stuart Baird’s mother.

How could someone not like him??????

Nope. Just a fan who likes good Trek.

…and Nemesis.

Since I like good Trek that sorta goes without saying.

Wait, you consider Nemesis good Trek? I’m not be snarky here, just genuinely surprised and curious.

I do. I also consider Wrath of Khan & Undiscovered Country good Trek.

Huh, fascinating. I don’t dislike Nemesis on the same level as others, but it definitely wasn’t a good movie. It had good moments, but as a whole it was very underwhelming.

Fair enough. But I make no bones that while there were a couple of bad decisions in that film, it was a pretty good finale for the TNG crew.

NEMESIS may have had its problems, but I think it’s underrated, and the ending was quite poignant.

It definitely has its moments. But it’s a tough watch.

It was no Undiscovered Country, that’s for sure. It did have an out of place scene or two. But overall it was pretty good. Managed to make me care about Data for the first time (quite the feat) and that 3rd act was pretty damn good stuff. Plus it really did have a finale feel to it. Characters grew and moved on. If was appropriate.

Two more things I liked about Nemesis: first, Shinzon showed some real signs of vulnerability, questioning whether he really wanted to proceed with his plan. Think of the dinner scene, where he asked, “were the PIcards always warriors?” You get the impression he really was weighing whether to carry through with his plan or to genuinely launch a peace initiative.

Second, the well-written dialog, particularly in the scene where Picard speaks with Shinzon’s hologram in the ready room. Again, you get the impression that Picard very nearly convinced Shinzon to stand down, with nary a phaser being fired. And then he broke of communication — “the triumph of the echo over the voice.” What might have been.

This was the kind of characterization absent from the adversaries in the following three JJVerse movies, as well as from from Vadic: mustache-twirlers all.

I think NEMESIS would have been better received if INSURRECTION had not been so lackluster. If the third movie had lived up to the quality of FIRST CONTACT, people would have stuck with the franchise. And the other problem is that the market for Star Trek was absolutely saturated. DS9 had ended all of three years earlier, VOY one year earlier. ENT had just started its run.

This is a lesson that Kurtzman would do very well to remember today.

I can’t say I loved the dialogue in Nemesis. The dinner scene and that scene in the ready room should have crackled, but they felt leaden and clumsy to me. What little humor is in the film felt forced, too. John Logan is just not suited to genre fare, even though he adores it. His worst work is consistently his sci-fi and horror.

I noticed that about Shinzon as well. He was just teetering on the edge of not following through with things.

I used to think I liked Nemesis because compared to the utterly lackluster Insurrection I might of thought it better than it really was given the reception it got. Kind of like I think I liked the front half of Picard S3 possibly because of the garbage nu-Trek that has come before. But over they years I still like it. Quite a bit. So I don’t think that’s it.

I think it utterly tanked the ending, which was surprising given that they had all the pieces there to make it emotional and engaging. Instead they managed to almost give GEN a run for its money in terms of how they blew Kirk’s death.

Nemesis was never meant to be a send off, but the first part of a Data resurrection arc. In vein of STII to STIII. This is the proper follow up/send off we should have gotten all those years ago.

It left itself open for future films just to keep open future possibilities. But the feeling very much was this was it for this crew. It was even marketed as such.

Indeed. “A generation’s final journey begins.” While it was clear they left open the possibility of more (which we got, in the form of PICARD), there was an air of finality about it, which I enjoyed.

In my only defense of that guy, Nemesis wasn’t supposed to be the final send off per Spiner.

Stuart Baird was not the best director for Nemesis, but his legendary editing on Superman The Movie cannot be overlooked, nor his other directing efforts. The biggest issue with Nemesis was the problem that the TNG films overall: Stewart and Spiner were allowed to make the films The Picard and Data Show. TNG was a true ensemble, unlike the TOS crew. None of the films captured that (or the sense of wonder and exploration of the series) and this season has redeemed that somewhat.

As a final conclusion to the TNG crew (final for now anyway) the season was a big success. The first half of the season was some of the best stuff from this cast, too.

The finale, however, suffered from a lot of the same problems as the last two seasons: a rushed plot, bait-and-switch story beats that are ill-conceived for a finale, and some incredibly cringey story decisions.

Still, it was a solid season, and it was nice to see them all back together for one more adventure. Overall, it was the cast who elevated the show more than the story itself. Good job, everyone.

Agreed. Although this season was miles better than season two, and a modest improvement over season one, it did have some serious flaws, namely what you mentioned, but I would also add in tis season specifically, an overreliance on fanservice and nostalgia in place of plot. To an extent, that works – they don’t call it fanservice for nothing, but a little of that goes a long way.

As far as this episode specifically, it was pretty much paint-by-the-numbers. Nothing surprising or out of the blue at all, and for that I lay the blame with the producers who seemed, ultimately, to want to make an extended, more expensive episode of a 1990’s tv series and not much more. A series of harrowing adventures, and then, the status quo ante for most of the characters and a TV pilot “and the adventure continues” setup for a few. I have to admit, as a fan, that bar scene at the end was kind of nice as it leaves the TNG characters in a nice place, but they really could have done something more substantial.

On my scale of one to ten, the season overall is a seven. This episode: Six and a half.

You hit the nail on the head with the word RELIANCE. Because I can totally get behind a healthy helping of nostalgia and fan service if the rest of the story is solid. But it really did feel at times like much more attention was paid to nostalgia than to the story, particularly towards the last half of the season.

The finale also, I feel like so much focus was spent on getting the send-offs done right at the expense of a satisfying story conclusion. Once again though, it all generally works, and i’m curious how it will play if I binge all 10 back to back.

The issue is not specific to this show. It’s a writing issue. When you look at TOS, it was made in an era where plot had precedent over character development, at least for the series regulars (the only plot arcs were usually reserved for the guest stars and resolved within a single episode). Nowadays, it’s the other way around, and plots are often no more than pro forma frameworks used to support character development (your typical episode of NCIS , for example) , which leads to some of the things we discuss here, like rushed, deus ex machina resolutions.

You’re not wrong. But TNG actually did this quite well: it was very much a character-centric show where the plots were more a framework to hang the character stuff onto.

But TNG didn’t ignore the stories to focus on the characters. The stories usually worked more or less, and when they didn’t, the characters elevated them.

The problem might be that with PIC S3, you throw in the added element of big budget action, and suddenly the story feels like it’s at the bottom of the totem pole.

TNG did a good job of threading the needle, but it was produced right about the time that TV was becoming more character-based. For me, it was an ideal balance, but it you look at why people watch TV series these days, it because of the characters. I mentioned NCIS in a previous post, and that’s a really good example. The NCIS fans I know never mention the plot of this week’s episode, they only ever talk about how much they like the characters.

Thank you for pointing this out. The best stories are character-driven; that is, the plot is driven by characters making choices. In episodic TV, most of the time (but of course not always), there is an inciting incident our main characters must first *react* to, but then their choices determine the outcome the rest of the way. Character-driven vs. plot-driven as a binary makes sense if you’re just watching something and reacting, but storytelling wise, it’s a false choice.

I just finished watching “The Last Generation”; ordinarily, I wait a day if I write a longer review, but since I feel the muse, I’ll put thoughts to paper now. The phrase that comes to mind is “good enough for government work.” In and of itself, the finale didn’t seem rushed and wrapped the season up adequately, complete with some Hallmark moments. We saw nothing, or almost nothing, that was cringeworthy; there were no Klingon dictionary scenes to be found. But of TNG’s three finales – “All Good Things,” NEMESIS (of which I think more highly than most), and now “Last Gen,”), I still found something unsatisfying. That’s because, despite multiple promises otherwise in the trailers, I ultimately didn’t see the episode as *consequential* for the characters. “All Good Things” showed Picard evolving as a captain, learning to become part of that poker game at long last. NEMESIS gave us Data’s sacrifice. “Et in Arcadia Ego” gave us Data experiencing death. “Last Gen” gave us…that reunion that Stewart rightly sought to avoid, or perhaps the word is “transcend,” when he signed on to this project back in 2018. (Data 2.0, admittedly, was something of an exception to this point; he’s now human, or nearly so. Seven, too. Maybe it’s because “Surrender” aired around Easter. I’d have liked to see the theme of the resurrected Data-as-redeemer explored much more, particularly with the ever-so-slight hint that Riker has become religious in as he got older.) The series seems to have jettisoned all of Picard’s character development from season one; the synthetic body, his coming to terms with Data’s death, his romance with Laris. I admit this leaves me wondering what the point was. It all just seems a touch too banal, given the tantalizing nature of what Matalas baited us with in the first half of the season. “By the numbers,” as someone put it above, seems an apt description. The young crewmen became de-Borgified much too quickly; in season one, we saw there were real consequences to being an XB. Picard, too, escaped from his nexus to the collective too easily. We were told that the Borg attacked many of Earth’s major cities: New York, Berlin, Paris, São Paolo, etc. (Somehow Russian and Ukrainian cities seemed to have escaped this fate, for once in history; the map of Eurasia suggested that they weren’t even hit, unlike everywhere else. Maybe Pres. Chekov worked some magic offscreen?) And yet we saw nothing of this supposedly cataclysmic destruction. Everyone sat around the poker table and went their merry way. Again: no consequences, no character growth. That poker table in the final scene could just as easily have been the table in “All Good Things.” Back when I watched “Imposters,” I would not have predicted coming to this conclusion. Season 3 seemed highly consequential then, what with the conflict between Picard and Riker in the nebula, and the turbulent reunion between Picard and Ro, or the marital tension between Riker and Troi, or the wistful nature of Picard’s history with Beverly. Season 3 continues a well-honed TNG tradition in which the first half of a two-part episode eclipsed the second. A big part of the problem – again, like much of NuTrek – is that the second half suffered from excessive nostalgia (or “memberberries,” Easter eggs, or whatever term you like). To be sure, I give PICARD a lot more leeway than the other NuTrek series here. It’s the capstone to a beloved 35-year-old series, and particularly one whose cast went into occultation for the last 20 of those years: it’s earned some nostalgia. The question is whether Matalas lathered it on too thick. I was on the fence as to my answer last week; the return to 1701-D, even if it is the Ship of Theseus, brought a tear to my eye as much as everyone else’s. But in “LastGen,” as in “The Bounty,” the nostalgia was all…just too much. Chekov’s son as Federation President, waxing eloquent about his father? It makes the Trek universe seem far too small, not to mention nepotistic. The return of Q? Patently unnecessary, and it ruined one of the few bits of season 2 that was well done; namely, Q’s mortality and his poignant farewell to Jean-Luc. Renaming the Titan? That ship has its own history, and the Big-E should be a state-of-the-art ship. If anything, they should have renamed it USS Picard (indeed, that’s what I thought, for a moment, that they were leading up to.) The other part of the problem was the lack of a truly compelling adversary. Now, I appreciated the fact that these Borg were not, at least superficially, the menace they were during TNG’s and VOY’s run. “The Last Generation” was an ominous title indeed; it was a bit of double entendre, …  Read more »

And, with the exception of Dr. Ohk, Matalas killed off some of his most interesting new characters: Shaw and T’Veen. 

I didn’t think of this quip for my original post, but I’ll shamelessly add here: his name isn’t “matalas” for nothing. :)

Many of your points were the same concerns I has. The main one being there was no character growth for anyone. And elements Picard dealt with in season 2 were just chucked out the window. Example… Picard’s crew never ever felt like his family throughout TNG’s TV run. It didn’t ever even begin to feel that way until the First Contact feature. So him saying he went to Star Fleet for a substitute family rang hollow. He was cold and distant to the entire crew the entirely of the show’s run.

There were indeed decent character elements in the first half. Which was easily the better of the two. And had the show just ended there with the addition of tying up the Changling conspiracy we would have had a pretty darn good season. The one glaring flaw there was the portal weapon use as a “distraction”. That made zero sense. Using the portal weapon was a huge flare telling Star Fleet to investigate! Had they absconded with Picard’s human body they probably could have gotten away with it as it would have delayed the inevitable investigation.

I don’t give the 2nd half nearly as much leeway as you do, however. All the weak episodes were there. I was not swayed by the nostalgia as TNG does not hold a special place in my heart (that will always belong with TOS) and there were way too many hard to buy elements. The Borgifying the young was somewhat clever but the idea was not thought through. Magically bringing everyone back after cube destruction was, well let’s be frank, dumb.

All that said based on the first half alone this was easily the best season of Trek Secret Hideout ever produced. Even with that horrid 2nd half. I do not think based on this that Matalas has earned taking over Trek. Might be OK to give him one more crack at something since there was promise. But that’s about all I, as a fan, could suggest.

“Overall, it was the cast who elevated the show more than the story itself.”

That final sentence is a good one.

Absolutely. On the face of it, that scene in Ten Forward was nothing special, but the cast’s chemistry made it special.

Yes, that sentence frames it perfectly. The cast, the actors, their gifts and chemistry made it what it was.

And that’s what makes me concerned for a follow-up. Without the chemistry of the TNG cast, can this showrunner deliver a solid Trek series with a dynamite story, rather than a flood of fan fiction?

Certainly a valid concern, I agree.

The one relationship I’d love to see is Riker/Seven. Very different characters, didn’t get any real time together. He’s by-the-book, but easy going in his later years, which creates conflict, but makes it hard for her to hate him, like she did Shaw.

If Legacy happens, I want Riker as a series regular, perhaps an admiral stationed on the Enterprise as a mission advisor or something, and I definitely want some more compelling new bridge crew. I’m actually bummed Raffi is on the Enterprise, since she fits better as a rogue working with Worf.

And as much as I like Jack, I don’t think he makes a compelling starfleet ensign. Though a good writer can change that.

Fully agreed.

Agreed. Also Jack’s sudden rush to the Borg —I guess because he grew up without a father and without an extended family? — didn’t really make all that much sense, at least to me, for what we’d seen of the character up to that point.

As far as Jack goes… he rushed off, was assimilated, and was back to himself in what felt like a half a minute. Very anti-climactic.

I just think the Borg reveal should have come in, say, episode 7, and had an episode or two dealing with it, where Jack is Vox, leading into saving him in the finale.

Instead it just rushed to the conclusion like Usain Bolt.

I was on the fence about this at the end of “Surrender”; at the time, I felt it made little difference whether the big reveal about Jack came in episode 7 or 8. (Hank Schrader didn’t discover the truth about Walter White until there were only five episodes of BREAKING BAD left, and Stan Beeman pieced together the truth about the Jennings clan in the *last* episode of THE AMERICANS.)

But here…I ultimately have to concede that AlphaPredator has a point. I never thought that Jack was ultimately tempted by the Borg, unlike Data in FIRST CONTACT. An earlier reveal would have left time to build some tension: the last temptation of Jack Crusher, if you will. As it was, his decision to abandon the work felt far too predictable.

I never once doubted that he’d be saved. But a little more buildup, a little more time spent with his being tempted by the Borg, and maybe there’d have been legitimate reason to think that Picard would have to kill his own son.

We never even got a chance to relish in the tragedy of Picard seeing his son taken by his worst enemy. That could have been a downright Shakespearean moment, instead it’s rushed by.

I didn’t get the impression that it was a rush to join the Borg, but an intense frustration that these feelings he had all of his life (for connection and perfection) where the result of an irredeemable nemesis, and he wanted to confront the Borg Queen and end her. Only once he got to the cube did he succumb to being assimilated.

Good to have you back today, man! I wasn’t down with the bullying and piling on directed towards you yesterday.

I’m not surprised Alpha is still around. Seems like a stubborn person.

People were bullying me? I honestly don’t even pay attention to that. I have things going on outside of this website.

“A solid season.” Spoken like a true Shiiiifffffttttteeeerrrrrr.

This episode was better then i thought it was going to be after the previous one but still wasn’t a fantastic episode imo but it was a good series finale. It’s a better ending for the TNG crew and honestly while i love TNG i don’t feel the need to see them together again as this was a sufficient goodbye.

The Changeling/Borg team up was one of the silliest bit of story telling in Trek history and didn’t work imo. So the Changelings were afraid of and working for a single Borg cube that couldn’t really go anywhere and needed their help for the plan that wouldn’t work any other way? Lol sorry but i don’t buy one bit.

Seeing the Enterprise-D in action again was great as was the CGI which gave it the capabilities we knew it had but never previously got to see because of the Budget in TNG/Generations.

I like the character of Q. John DeLancie does a great job but shoving him in during the credits was unnecessary. While S2 was good imo(It did have a lot of problems and S3 has the same problems)I liked his character resolution. If Terry felt he needed to bring a Q back then they should of had Q’s son instead.

The big no for me was renaming the Titan to Enterprise. Sorry but that is some fanfic level bad writing i don’t know what Terry Matalas was thinking when he decided on that. The Titan saved the day in the end along the Enterprise D. Renaming her destroys the Titan’s/Rikers legacy.

Generally this season for me has been good but shared the same problems as S2. Plot contrivances and nostalgia was used to prop up a weak story-line, too many characters and no sense of real urgency stopped this season from being great.

It to me fell flat in a lot of places and while i do think it stuck the landing it didn’t hit it dead on and instead landed some 20 meters from the center of the landing target.

Overall I give the entire Picard show a 8/10. Individually i give S1 a 8/10, S2 6/10 and S3 7/10.

“So the Changelings were afraid of and working for a single Borg cube that couldn’t really go anywhere and needed their help for the plan that wouldn’t work any other way? Lol sorry but i don’t buy one bit.”

Yeah yeah this. I said this before in the comment sections of other articles but damn this doesn’t make me feel any less used to get viewers.

“Renaming her destroys the Titan’s/Rikers legacy.” Not just Riker’s! Saavik’s too. And also Shaw himself imo.

Yep. The Changling story on its own was actually plenty good enough. There was zero reason to shove the tiresome Borg in this yet again. And it still makes no real sense why there was this alliance.

Yeah that bothers me as well. I had no issues having the Borg back, but they shouldn’t have given the Changelings the back seat when they showed up. And at the very least they should’ve done more to show how the alliance was formed. The Borg Queen told us why, but never how.

And showing up for the last episode only, out of nowhere, was also a cheap trick. Ultimately unsatisfying, and does a disservice to them as an adversary, too.

It’s really like talking to a goldfish at times lol. Just incredible. But yeah dude, I agree lol.

I agree, you’re a goldfish. Toilet time.

There’s a reason not to show kids ‘Finding Nemo.’

That whole reasoning almost warrants an entire episode to explore it. Isn’t that one of the advantages of these 10 episode “movies”? Perhaps they were afraid of Picard not being in the episode? I’m sure he could have been squeezed in such a thing somehow…

Exactly and that’s what really frustrated me because I was very excited like many to see the Changelings back. But then they are only used at a very surface level. I thought Vadic’s back story was interesting, but it shouldn’t have stopped there. We should’ve found out how that led her to the freaking Borg lol.

I honestly felt they should’ve revealed the Borg in episode 7 and they could’ve used episode 8 to present that backstory instead of wasting it with Vadic taunting Jack over who he is but never tells the guy. But episode 8 would’ve been the perfect time to do three things: Tell us Jack’s connection with the Borg, show how the Borg and Changeling came together and then build up the threat for Frontier day. Instead they wasted it on a useless hijacking the ship plot that just stalled the reveal for another episode.

Look I LOVE this season. I’ve said it every episode minus episode 2 and clearly episode 8, which only frustrated me. But yeah, it’s not perfect at all either. But I also know a lot of it was due to time and budget but you can say that about a lot of shows out there.

See… This has been one of the recurring problems with nu-Trek. The lack of ability to properly map out a season. The Xindi arc seemed to be fully mapped out. But these are only 10 episodes and they have all the time in the world to think them through and even edit them after. I just don’t see an excuse for that.

I know, it’s crazy ALTHOUGH for me season 3 was the best mapped out with all four dire seasons of Discovery and the first two seasons of Picard. I remember with both season 2 of Picard and season 4 of Discovery I just felt sooooo bored by the time we got to the mid-point. I will say season 3 didn’t bore me at all. I was really invested in every episode. But still frustrated in places and totally confused in others.

But like you I remember hearing less episodes would mean less filler and cutting the fat and both of these shows still had both.

The alliance made little sense and deserved to be explored better, as it turned the Changelings into goons. But the idea that Picard had to face his demons and rejoin the Collective to get back his son has some real poignancy.

OK but the thing is Picard already faced his demons in First Contact. That felt very much like closure to me.

I can’t argue it’s not derivative, but having it be because Picard is trying to save the child he realizes he loves is a nice addition to the character’s arc for me.

There is that but the “child I never knew about” trope has been seen before in Trek. So to me it was difficult to get into that aspect of the story. We even say a faux version of it in one of the TNG episodes.

I’m definitely grumbling about the Titan being renamed.

My spouse has a long-indulgent, yes I know you love the Titan reaction. They’d seen the Titan books about the house, and experienced my excitement when the Titan showed up in Lower Decks.

Agree with you on sense of urgency. This was a big problem with season two as well. The middle part of this season seemed to consist of episode after episode of people wandering around wondering what’s going on and never finding out, rinse and repeat.

Renaming the ship was a botch in my opinion as well.

I understand the annoyance at the renaming. But that was first done at the end of TVH. Obviously there was some other ship that just got repainted NCC-1701 and then they started that ridiculous precedent of adding letters. I hated back then. I still don’t like the concept but it’s less irritating now.

The Changeling/Borg team up was one of the silliest bit of story telling in Trek history and didn’t work imo. So the Changelings were afraid of and working for a single Borg cube that couldn’t really go anywhere and needed their help for the plan that wouldn’t work any other way? Lol sorry but i don’t buy one bit.

Yep. The weak adversaries really do undermine this season. THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY worked because we really did understand the motivations of the Klingon conservatives; they (like T’Kuvma) felt the Federation would annihilate or homogenize their culture, *even if well intentioned*. Yes, the fact that Chang quoted Shakespeare showed the absurdity of that position; cultures borrow from each other all the time. But still, we understood his motivations.

A sendoff to a beloved cast isn’t incompatible with a compelling story. That’s why I (OK, tentatively) think more of TUC (Klingon dictionaries and all) than “Last Gen.”

I was really hoping they were going to draw a line between what Janeway did to the Borg and what Section 31 did to the Changelings. I think it would not only been awesome to have them team up for revenge, but maybe something the Borg has in there repertoire could “cure” the Changelings and something the Changelings can do can reverse what Janeway did to the hive.

While rechristening the Titan as the Enterprise works for an emotional payoff (and for setting up a new series), did we get confirmation that the F was destroyed? Also, the Enterprise has always been the flagship (I believe) and the newest and greatest ships. Now it’s an old refit of a ship that is smaller than the Enterprise D. That doesn’t seem right.

I do believe it was established (albeit via a minor on-screen graphic, not dialogue) that the F was in the process of an “early de-commissioning.” Which doesn’t make sense in the aftermath of the finale, as it would have been easy enough just to say the F was destroyed in the battle.

I kind of like the idea of the newest Enterprise breaking the mold and being a scrappy little ship with character this time around as opposed to the ship out there with the biggest advantages.

It’s kind of fitting with the Royal Navy over the US Navy honestly. In the US Enterprise is an Aircraft Carrier. In the Royal Navy it’s an exploration vessel.

Huh! I didn’t know that! That’s interesting!

The name Enterprise as Air Carrier was born in WW2. She got many repairs and still got on fighting

The WW2 Enterprise was the most decorated ship in the US Navy. A true and factual legend.

At one point CV-6 was the only US carrier in service in the Pacific Theater. CVN-65 was the first nuclear powered carrier.

There have been 15 ships named HMS Enterprise since 1704 when the name was first given to a captured French sixth-rate.

5 of 15 were in service prior to the American Revolution. So, it’s not surprising that the name was continued in both navies.

The UK Enterprise has had many configurations and served many roles. The latest, a survey vessel was decommissioned this year

It hearkens back to TOS and the movies, when the Enterprise wasn’t necessarily the state-of-the-art flagship like she’s been in TNG onwards. It was her missions and her crew that made her special.

The F was being decommissioned during Frontier Day. It was on Raffi’s display in “The Next Generation.”

It was destroyed, yes. That’s why Geordi couldn’t put in the museum.

Enterprise E was destroyed. we are talking about Admiral’s Shelby Enterprise F

We actually don’t truly know her fate.

Both can exist. Perhaps Enterprise F got another name. Perhaps to honer Admiral Shelby.

I would have to disagree. Fanservice at its worst. Rechristening the Titan was absolutely unnecessary, and done as Matalas’ way of pitching a series for himself to produce set on the Enterprise.

Aye, Voyger did made their own name “big”. So perhaps “Titan” could had the same fame. But well, perhaps to raise the possibility higher? i do not mind then

Enterprise G – Titan class Starship?

Okay, so what? It was obvious early on S3 was going to be fan service through a fire hose, did you expect less?

Indeed, it came across as overly salesy, in a used-car salesperson way.

It’s not the first time an old ship was just repainted. I know it’s something worth forgetting but remember the very end of TVH?

You forget about the Excelsior?

The Enterprise, while being the flagship, wasn’t always the newest and greatest . . . The Enterprise-A was a renaming of the Yorktown, a 30+-year-old ship. The Enterprise-B was an Excelsior-class vessel, a class that had been in service for over a decade at that point.

This episode has left me feeling so ridiculously happy about the state of Trek right now. I can’t believe it was that good. WOW. I fully trust Matalas and desperately hope we get Star Trek: Legacy.

I agree 100%!

“but Starfleet honoring the admiral by naming the ship USS Picard might have fit better in the context of a series finale”

Definitely not. Starfleet is modeled after the 20th-century U.S. Navy, which only names ships after people after they have died. (Along those lines, this season indirectly establishes Pulaski as having died.)

I agree with you, the dialogue was just clunky. Saying “it’s been renamed in honor of you” would have made more sense if it was the USS Picard.

Did not the Titan deserve some honor? I mean it was Saavik’s flagship and Riker had a good command, no? Oh well, we get the TOS movie ship that should have been the TNG all along, good fix! Also like the Borg plot with them deciding to go with the robo-Picard tech. Changling-Borg arc should have been more than an episode. Picard being compromised through TNG and explaining his AI obsession / evacuation fleet with unnecessary robots programmed to act like slaves provides some redemption for S1 in setting up the superior S3.

You brought up another odd point. When Picard hooked himself up to the collective I would have thought that since he is now artificial that the assimilation just wouldn’t work anymore.

I can accept it, as Picard was a biological construct. It’s what the story required, so he got plugged back in.

Yes. That’s it exactly. Picard is whatever the story needs him to be.

Perhaps that’s why he was able to survive it; still, it would have been nice if the episode had *acknowledged* this point.

The Navy makes exceptions. Both carriers Reagan and HW Bush were commissioned before their namesakes died.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) was notorious for getting buildings and other infrastructure named after him *while he was still in office*, much less still alive.

Naming ships after deceased people was an official rule from 1969 to 1974. Since then, the Navy has named quite a few ships after living people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._military_vessels_named_after_living_Americans

USS John McCain being an excellent example.

The destroyer is named after the WWII admiral and submarine commander (McCain, McCain Jr.), not the Senator (McCain III).

Ah, you’re right of course. I completely forgot that!

I mean, he DID die.

That’s… an excellent point, actually.

Well, the U.S. Navy did name the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush while he still alive. As for the Pulaski it could have been named after Casimir Pulaski who was a Polish nobleman and cavalry officer during the American Revolution. Probably not, but I’m throwing it out there.

Sorry but: “In recognition of his efforts on behalf of the U.S. Navy, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was named the USS Carl Vinson, an honor rarely given to a person while living. On March 15, 1980, at age 96, he attended the ship’s launching.[5]”

Really enjoyed this one and seeing the new Enterprise. I only wish they’d gone with a new ship instead of rechristening Titan. I know that the E is part of Riker’s legacy too, but it was nice his Titan got its due (and the A was built from components of the original).

And welcome back Q.

Probably done so for budget reasons. If there is to be a Star Trek: Legacy series, we already have standing sets that can be used. Since Paramount+ is tightening their belts, the producers need to make sure their new concept is financially viable, and using existing sets for a “new” Enterprise and a new series makes sense.

Exactly my thoughts as well. Matalas et al delivered them an oven ready pilot. Just need a few extra sets like a proper engineering etc. Also, I think most would rather the money/resources be spent on Star Trek: Legacy, over Starfleet Academy or the Section 31 film. But that’s just my sense of things.

Matalas, at least I think it was him, tweeted the sets were bulldozed when filming completed.

This is so. Blass has noted that key interior fittings were packed for storage and shipment though.

I’ll just say that I’m a happy trekkie right now. And I like that my favorite crew got a happy ending too, enough with giving terrible lifes to beloved fiction characters off-screen. I had enough with how they did dirty to Will and Deanna. I hope we get to see how the story continues…

Greatest season and finale of Star Trek EVER!

Ohhh I don’t know, DS9 season 7 and ENT season 4 (until the last episode) definitely gives PIC S3 a run for its money in regards to season finales. But it’s great to see it in such high regard.

I definitely agree with both of those and both are in my top 5 as well.

It’s a great episode and a great finale for the TNG crew, but the rest? No.

The Enterprise is the flagship and belongs to the class of ship that is the current marvel/pinnacle/cutting edge of Starfleet engineering, not to a mediocre, underdog class of ship.

So, Terry should have left the Titan as is OR given them a brand new, modern, flagship Enterprise-G That should have been a no-brainer for a Trek fan.

I think I agree with this. I think fans would have been perfectly satisfied following a ship named Titan in the Legacy series so many (including me) are clamoring for.

I don’t find myself caring what ship gets the Enterprise name. But I agree that the finale for the TNG cast works, it’s the story resolution that doesn’t. The send-offs are nice, though, particularly the emotional payoff for Seven. Very well done.

Yes, a Yorktown class Enterprise. Would have been more fitting. You don’t put that name on just any ship.

or take the D for that matter

I liked most of it – especially President Chekov!

Once Raffi and Seven were on the bridge, I was wondering why Raffi, who we know was Picard’s second and flew La Sirena, couldn’t fly the Titan. That would have been much more dramatic badassery. The overall of everyone “coveting the chair” where you just order people around who aren’t as good as you – doesn’t even make sense in the moment.

President Chekov was a classy touch.

Though it did kind of take me out of the episode of the moment, this is fan service done right.

It didn’t have to be Chekov, it could have been someone new. It was a minor bit of dialog that serviced the story, but someone said “hey instead of just making it anyone, how about we do a cameo here?”

Shelby, by contrast felt unnecessary, because that scene wasn’t even really needed. It felt more like “we need a place to put Shelby.”

“ “we need a place to put Shelby…just so we can kill her”

Yes, I was glad to see Shelby but that scene was a little too random.

Having it be Shelby gives it a weight and familiarity it wouldn’t have had with some random never seen before admiral. As far as cameos go it worked much better than say Wesley Crusher’s in season 2.

I’m not as uptight at the cameos as some people are on here. They were fun for us long time fans who grew up watching the show. The Chekov dialog scene was a nice nod to Anton Yelchin.

Btw.. wasn’t much of a fan of the Wesley cameo either.

Ordinarily I’d feel that way myself. Walter has always struck me as a good guy, and he’s faced the worst kind of heartbreak life can throw at you these last years, so it was a nice grace moment from a franchise that has given but also cost him so much that offered him this late chance to participate. But given the amount of fan service and Easter eggs that had already been piled-on this year, not to mention the labored lift from THE VOYAGE HOME and the Russian playwright always confused with Keonig’s character, ten seconds into this thing and I’m already rolling my eyes. Not good.

I’ll admit I rolled my eyes at first, like “really? right out of the gate we’re going with a TOS cameo?” but after thinking about it more, it bothered me a lot less.

Yes, I found that resonated well.

Very nice to have Walker Koenig back to voice the part.

Well, and then it ended. It was an amazing season that I enjoyed a lot. But… this finale didn’t leave me fullfilled. It was an 8 where it should’ve been (where I wished it would’ve been) a 9 or a 10.

Did I enjoy the finale? Yes, there were a lot of moments where I was hooked, crying and or laughing. That’s where the 8 came from mostly: the emotional beats. Having to say goodbye to these wonderful characters and actors and the bond they so clearly have. Worf snoring, I mean come on, that had me laughing out loud through my tears. And having the real Tuvok back, especially in the room with Seven, was gold! Also happy to see Deanna back at the helm!

But this episode kinda made me feel like the first one of the season. The first 15 minutes were slow and klunky at times. I was still wondering how they were going to wrap everything up in just 1 episode, and then, half an hour later, they were basically done. It kinda felt too simple. Where was all the help that was coming to the rescue, like uhm, the rest of the Federation? Where were all the TNG cameos I was hoping for. It all felt a bit… small.

Then surely that would come in the post-battle celebrations, right? In one of the 5 endings LOL? That reveal of Jack’s new ship. Don’t tell me everybody wasn’t expecting either a USS Picard, or a new Enterprise, behind the Titan, like they did in Star Trek IV (was it?). In stead they named this kinda old underdog ship, Enterprise?! That was disappointing. Then later in the bar, when they actually told us Guinan was in the room (Geordi even looks at her off camera!) and then… nothing again! It might all be details, but these little disappointments definitely colored the feeling I had when it was over. Missed opportunities.

And as much as I want the Legacy show to happen, that bridge scene on the Titan with the new crew? I was so ready for that, but it kinda didn’t feel believable. I think I would’ve preferred it if they wouldn’t have included that.

So to end this sort of review: I’ve only watched it once. This is how I’m feeling right now. I’m sure, upon a 2nd or 3rd viewing (and some more explenation articles by Matalas) I will like the episode more. I just wish I would’ve felt like that after the 1st viewing.

The most awkward moment was Jack and Raffi basically laying out the plot synopsis of their spin-off series in dialogue, and then referencing the name of the show… cringe.

That was, frankly awful. This kind of show does not need that kind of TV pilot ending.

Then later in the bar, when they actually told us Guinan was in the room (Geordi even looks at her off camera!) and then… nothing again!

That was genuinely poor. It’s like Whoopi Goldberg was unavailable at the time, but they planned to shoot an insert with her and couldn’t get it done. If that was the case, why leave the line in? In some ways, it’s like the similar scene at the end of season two, where Goldberg was there, but sitting several feet away from the main group interacting with them from a distance (presumably because of COVID protocols).

I didn’t have a lot of hope after the last episode (and episode 7 tbh), but this wrapped up in a pretty satisfying way. I’m happy with it more or less. The character work here was impeccable. Riker, Deanna, and Worf really got some good stuff. The Riker and Deanna romance really did nothing for me till Picard, both season 1 and this season. They were really great this episode. The end with all of them really got me.

However, I do feel like this lost steam around episode 7 and that they played it way too safe in back three. I didn’t want any of them to die, but still never felt like any of them were in any danger. Running right back to the Borg was a boring choice. Given how this was really firing on all cylinders between 2-6, I always feel like we were robbed of something that could have truly been great.

All that Janeway talk and then her never showing is funny, but Matalas did say she wasn’t appearing. I feel bad for people that got their hopes up though. Tuvok’s part definitely feels like it was written with Janeway in mind and she couldn’t do it for some reason.

I don’t need to see Elnor or Soji or whoever from seasons 1/2 again, but where was Laris at the end? Is she still somewhere waiting on Picard? I’d rather him have ended up with her then whatever they were implying with him and Beverly. I get they mentioned her several times across the season, but the Kestra stuff in the last two episodes remains weird to me. Not even a mention when Riker thought he was dying multiple times here? Or when he was basically saying goodbye to Deanna on the comms? Something’s felt weird to me about how they treated that character all season and I can’t really put my finger on it.

Q coming back was pointless but whatever. I’m still confused over the Raffi and Seven thing but at least they’re together on the ship. Hate that they renamed the Titan.

Overall I’m counting this season as a win. Barely a win and it took a lot to get here, but a win nonetheless. Since this is the end of the road most likely for a lot of these characters, I’ll take it.

I also was not a fan of the name change from the Titan-A to Enterprise-G. If I get the model of that ship, I hope we have the option of displaying either Titan or Enterprise (I’d choose Titan). That said, I love that ship design inside and out and hope beyond hope for that Matalas-run Legacy show!

The USS constitution was changed to Enterprise A , so no different to me

Was it? It was never mentioned what ship that was that got the new last minute paint job.

Not canonically mentioned, no. I think it might come from the novelization or one of the novels.

Count me as another one who wanted at least a mention of Laris at the end. And Kestra! We never did find out what happened to her when the Changelings kidnapped Deanna. Do we think the “wild woman of the woods” was really capable of taking care of herself?

Matalas and co. were so busy creating a new finale for the TNG crew they forgot it was also the finale for “Picard.”

Matalas said she’s at the Academy now or a pre-Academy thing, probably as a setup for whatever spinoff he wants. It just got cut for some reason.

I watched all the episodes this week with my wife so she’d be caught up, and they mentioned Kestra a few more times than I thought. I honestly thought it was just in the first episode. Had forgotten she comes up a few other times and in the Riker and Deanna stuff on the shrike. Still would have been nice to get a mention in the last two.

Laris is a big WTF. I assume it’s just cause they wanted that ambiguous Beverly and Picard ending.

Sublime. Significant. “Great joy and gratitude.” I saw it in IMAX in SF. Had a headache from crying so much. Was good to be surrounded by so many other fans who love these characters as much as I do. Terry Matalas has given us a gift – and he should be given the keys to do any Trek project his heart desires. Thanks Terry, you respected and elevated something so close to so many hearts.

That must’ve been awesome!

Were you crying because it was so lame?

I envy everyone who got to see it in IMAX with other fans. Glad you got to experience it, Mr. Montgomery!

OMG, you got to see it on IMAX too??? That’s amazing. I can only imagine what was like for you sitting in that theater.

And yes, I agree with you, with flaws and all. It’s not my favorite of NuTrek but it’s damn close.

Glad you had a great time man! :)

Fantastic. Dislikes: The Borg (again). The “Face” not being something more interesting. Rip-off of Return of the Jedi AND Empire Strikes Back (Troi finding Riker is like Leia finding Luke under Bespin). The Borg cube having gaps large enough for a Galaxy-class starship to navigate through.

Other than that, I absolutely loved it. Worf, by FAR, is my favorite character. He is so cool, funny, honorable, and lovable. Really, Worf needs his own show! Seven was right there behind him as my second favorite. I was sure that Riker was going to die the way he said bye to Troi, so that got me. Using the transport-dart gun was like Insurrection, but still cool. I also loved that Jack at least had to put one year in the Academy, but I was hoping he’d be in medical.

The final scene playing poker was absolutely perfect. Fantastic episode. The fourth episode is still my favorite this season, but they stuck the landing with this one. Great work.

Jack in the medical? It is still possible. Look at La Forge, once sitting on the Console then Chief Engineer. The future is full of possibilities

The Borg cube having gaps large enough for a Galaxy-class starship to navigate through.

This bothered me too; it was reminiscent of the turbolift scene in DISCOVERY.

Perhaps this cube was a lot larger than the cubes in BOBW and FIRST CONTACT, but still.

also 35% active or so. Perhaps the Maintain Borgs where put to silence to keep the Queen alive or such

I found that to be a huge stretch. And yet another reason why it would have been better to use the Defiant. I think it still is the biggest ship class Star Fleet ever constructed.

The Odyssey class apparently is bigger.

I get the argument for using the Defiant or the Enterprise A (cheaper sets to rebuild than the D or Voyager, too), but again it’s the emotion of seeing this crew reunited with that ship which overrides the practicality concerns. It brought a smile to my face and I sat next to a grown man who was reduced to tears in the final minutes of Vōx. On balance I’m fine with it in the end.

Was it? Wasn’t the Odyssey a “sister ship”? It looked exactly the same if I recall.

Obviously the reason they used the E-D was 100% for nostalgia purposes. Even though it made zero sense story wise. Since I was never connected to the TNG crew or that ship in any meaningful way the appearance of the D did nothing for me. In fact, I was happy as hell to see it bite the dust in Generations.

Wonderful. I have nothing more to say.

I still remember the heart break and depression a I felt when Generations destroyed the Enterprise D. Followed by Nemesis which killed Data and broke up the crew. But now we get to end with everything restored and hope renewed. What an emotional and rewarding send-off with so much optimism. This hardly feels like the end, but if it is…I’m thankful beyond words that we’ve left it here.

When I first saw the Titan was renamed to the Enterprise I was not a fan but after thinking about it from an in Universe perspective, the Titan slowing down the fleet just long enough for the D to destroy the Borg saved Billions of lives on Earth. If Seven and the crew hadn’t have slowed them down likely Billions on Earth would have perished even if Picard and crew were able to rescue the fleet after stopping the Borg. Saving Earth is a very Enterprise thing to do, and so I can see why they think this ship may be worthy of that name.

I still find it kind of humorous though when Crusher said that if Earth falls, the entire Federation falls. I don’t know, I think Vulcan and Andor might have been able to survive without Earth.

“ These last 10 weeks have been a highlight in Star Trek history with unmatched consistent quality and execution ”

Ummm … did I miss something? Most of it has been hastily slapped together scenes held together by the bare minimum of what could be called a plot. If even that. A lot of it shouldn’t even be called a plot.

This of course doesn’t go for this season which has been competently written for the most part. All legacy characters feld in character and liked all of the new ones. The story over all is just okay. But I wonder how much that has to do with the previous two seasons. If there was some kind of buildup to this and we hadn’t already done the Borg and the infiltrated/evil Federation two times before, this might have hit different.

Over all I’d say, it was a good season. A good ending that was only necessary because they couldn’t leave the already good ending form 1994 alone and made things worse, when they couldn’t even leave the at least okay ending of Nemesis alone. But in the end the pretty much just brought it back to where All Good Things already went.

Compared to everything else CBS has given us since 2017 it’s amazing. Compared to the best stuff Rick Berman oversaw, it’s just okay in terms of Story. But I’d very much like gto see Matlas take on an original series in the Trek Universe.

I think I can agree that while I think this series severely went over a cliff after the Shrike was defeated there was enough good in it that compared to what we have been getting from Secret Hideout this is appearing to be much better than it really was. It’s like when you are starving even a tasteless cracker is the most delicious meal you have ever had.

I like the idea of why the Titan was rechristened the G. I never for once thought it would be the F since it was being decommissioned. Never thought for once the creators would keep a fan design around for another series. Imagine the royalties they would have to pay. It is a nice ship though and makes sense if they won’t be families on board. Doesn’t have to be huge like the D.

One additional homage I caught… President Chekhov said, “There are always possibilities.” That can be traced back to Star Trek II, and James Kirk (to Saavik) ”As your teacher, Mr. Spock, is fond of saying, ‘I like to think there always are …possibilities.’”

The closest thing Spock has said regarding that before WoK was in “The Galileo 7” when Spock said “There are always alternatives.”

Of course the payoff there was in the end when Spock said they may be out of alternatives Scott reminded him that he said there always are. Spock replied: Did I? I may have been mistaken. To which McCoy then said, “At least I lived long enough to hear that.”

It’s actually one of my favorite moments from TOS.

All right. Since the mods saw fit to delete my previous post, which involved nothing more than a couple lines of mild sarcasm and a pretty anodyne joke, I’ll play it straight. I thought last night’s finale was, literally, the most unimaginative, paint-by-the-numbers, derivative (right down to the overhead shot of the poker game that concluded the vastly superior “All Good Things”) hour in the history of this franchise, if not American television. I can’t even really call it awful — it’s just not interesting or memorable enough for even that. Just a focus-tested admixture of Trek cliches and pandering, studio-approved bonhomie that does nothing to inspire or edify its audience in the slightest. What a waste of this wonderful cast, who gave us so much, and what a squandering of our collective memory.

I saw your post. I got the joke. Though I worried! :)

I kind of agree with you. Probably didn’t help I watched Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 2 trailer before seeing this episode.

I still find P+ to be really annoying. This time they forced TWO commercials on me before the show started. What the hell, P+? I thought I payed for the “no commercials” level.

God I hate streaming.

For whatever reason, watching Paramount+ on an AppleTV bypasses their self-promoting ads, whereas on any other device I always see them. Maybe it’s some deal with Apple?

But regardless, they really should be shippable.

That’s a plus but Apple TV is way more expensive than other options. There really shouldn’t be any ads when you buy premium. Even the self promotion ones.

Wish I saw your original post. But since I felt All Good things was the most unimaginative, paint-by-numbers, mediocre at best Trek plot I have ever seen I would say this series is on par with that final episode. I still say Nemesis was easily the far better finale for this group and this season, while good by Secret Hideout standards, was still not very good given how it finished up. And part of that was disappointment because it did start out with so much promise.

I found it a little surprising how bland and predictable it was. Probably doesn’t bode well for screenwriters worried about AI taking their jobs. I mean, if you’re already writing or being forced to write like an algorithm by the suits…

Good luck with that strike.

Mr. Hall speaks somewhat figuratively and with undue emotion. However, what he says is logical, and I do, in fact, agree with it. :)

Considering the final 2 eps were a complete rip-off of Return of the Jedi, I don’t disagree all that much with you…though I did enjoy the last 20 min after the Death Star/Borg Cube was destroyed by Lando/Data.

Weirdly, I agree with almost everything you say, yet don’t view it quite as harshly. It was… fine. As in… it was boring, paint-by-numbers, and derivative, but… it did what it set out to do, and gave me some nice moments, so… eh.

It wasn’t perfect but still a far better sendoff for the TNG crew than what Nemesis offered up.

I found it all a little too fan-servicey at times and too often the resolution to problems came down to “we can do this together” or the “power of love will triumph over all”; sentimental and uplifting for sure but also a bit improbable, if such a thing is possible in a show set 400 years in the future. I also thought some of the acting felt a little too earnest or forced at times. But hey, if anybody earned that kind of leeway it’s this cast. Also, while Matalas has confirmed in interviews that this is the same Borg queen we saw at the end of Voyager I really didn’t get that connection from what was actually said during the episode (unless I missed a line of dialog).

Still, there was a lot to like. I for one wouldn’t mind a show chronicling the further adventures of Riker (who was probably the standout of the season for me) and Worf; I really think those two had some of the best lines and chemistry of the season. I was also happy to see the little coda with Q who I always thought deserved better than what he got in Picard S2.

Matalas must really be a TOS super-fan. Last week’s episode ended with a practical remake of the scene from TSFS where Kirk tells the crew he can’t ask them to risk themselves when the steal the Enterprise and this week we get Walter Koenig delivering a planetary warning that was right out of TVH, at times verbatim. Again, hardly original but it worked well enough within the context of the story.

I don’t know that I’m sold on a next-next gen spin-off; the dialog from that scene on the bridge felt kind of cringey to me. I’ve also never been a fan of Michelle Hurd’s Raffi and the idea of a weekly show with her involved leaves me cold.

Too bad Shaw is truly gone but overall I was entertained and despite its derivative nature and lack of originality it all held my attention to the end. Maybe that’s more a testament to the cast than the actual story but it’s still more than I can say for just about everything else we’ve gotten during the Kurtzman era so far.

No one is truly gone. Shaw will be back I bet. To cross franchises: “Somehow Shaw has returned.”

If we do get a Legacy series in the future…the G can also be refitted . I was hoping they would have gone with a sleeker design. I don’t mind that the G ( rechristened Titan A ) is smaller that the D, E and F, because they won’t be families on the ship.

The Titan is now the G? Told you so! First time I got something right :-)

Ha! Well, if there’s a first time this was the one to get right!

I certainly prefer they make Star Trek Legacy with an improper Enterprise than Starfleet Academy or Section 31

Well the good news is, we’re almost certainly getting all three. (though when I predicted this very ending and spin-off before the premiere, I was shouted down because “they won’t want two shows set on an Enterprise”)

I think most do lol

At this point, I’m on the fence. I would have said YES YES YES midway through the season, but now i’m mildly more compelled by what a Star Trek teen drama will be like than what the spin-off here will be, because it’s pretty obvious and trite.

Congratulations to everyone involved! That was an impressive accomplishment of putting together a coherent story on a limited budget (that TNG cast had to have been expensive, especially given their negotiating leverage) and I could feel the group’s passion for this story / this season in nearly every scene. Following the behind the scenes people on Twitter has been a nice reward after each episode (along with coverage on this site). The finale did a lot and didn’t devolve into gobbledygook (even if there were moments that were like “wait – what?” and “lol – okay, I guess”).

Plenty of affecting moments, nobody in the cast took a scene off – it was fun, a little thrilling, and it held my interest from start to finish and this season was easily the best of the three we got of Star Trek: Picard . I’ll put it just ahead of Strange New Worlds’ first season in the pantheon of live action Secret Hideout-era Trek because its aim was to deal with adult emotions in a mature way (SNW goes out of its way to be arrested development personality in therapy-level). A lot of what they did this year, from beginning to end, was pretty clever and then at times (mainly episodes four and five) soaring in emotion.

Wasn’t really a fan of the poker game as a concept — I (mostly) really liked the execution — if only because we’d already seen it before. That was my big thing about the finale: we’ve seen a lot of this stuff before and maybe I watched too many fan films in the wake of Enterprise ‘s cancellation through to when Paramount killed them off, but there was a “this is familiar” vibe to a lot of the moments — not saying Matalas ripped off fan film creators, only that it felt like watching a handsomely budgeted fan film at times, in terms of the story’s aims/ambitions.

I’m not all that into there being a Legacy spinoff, but I have to say that I was quite impressed by the individual performances of Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut (Sidney), Jin Maley (Esmar), and Joseph Lee (Mura) throughout the season — they didn’t have much great material and in earlier incarnations of Trek those roles could’ve easily stood out like sore thumbs in contrast to the seasoned acting vets surrounding them thanks to poor casting, but the actors were good at things like feeling like a real person and subtler things like their micro-expressions — Esmar’s in particular after she de-assimilates. I think Chestnut was really flipping great as Sidney, even if a lot of her season was spent saying “My daddy blah blah blah.”

Cool stuff. Maybe in a few days I’ll be able to process that I’ve said goodbye to my longest parasocial relationship. And if this is the last we see of the 25th century, then it was… fun.

I think we need to take a moment to recognize the sheer magnitude of what Terry Matalas has accomplished.

This “reunion” was not something in the cards at all. Patrick Stewart was not warm to the idea when PICARD was being put together a few years ago. Beyond getting Patrick’s approval, Terry had to go to each cast member and see if they were amenable to doing it- we all assume everyone was on board, but that still took a lot of legwork by Terry. Also, Terry had to get Kurtzman and the senior leaders at the production company to buy into this idea- a sharp turn creatively from the prior two seasons. Basically, Terry had to ask “Can I redo your work?” which in Hollywood is no small feat.

And when you also take into account the budget, which must have been a nightmare between the salaries involved and the long wishlist Terry had under his arm (rebuild the 1701-D bridge for a little more than one episode’s use!!), it must have been a long series of discussions/battles along the way.

And then Terry had to actually make the damn thing! He assembled an incredible production team of writers, artists, designers, and “legacy” crew- the amount of hours Terry had to spend doing all of this must have been insane. And to do it under COVID-19 restrictions, which makes any production a logistical challenge!

We fans can get a little too near-sighted with these shows, but looking at PICARD S3 in this context, whether you loved it or not, this was one of the most remarkable accomplishments in TV history. We owe Terry our gratitude.

It was very good and unexpected, but let’s not overstate its magnitude. It’s not like they got the cast of Friends or Seinfeld back together; almost the entire TNG cast have been wanting to come back for ages, they just needed someone to actually do it.

That’s where Matalas gets credit, for choosing that path. And while one might say that he was instrumental in convincing Paramount to do it, I suspect it wasn’t a tough sell. Why? Precisely BECAUSE Season 1 and Season 2 were successful in terms of viewership.

Getting the cast of Seinfeld back together was pretty easy. They did it for a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Friends is a unique case. It’s interesting you mention those two shows because like TNG, the casts remain incredibly close and have continued their personal relationships long past the expiration date of their TV shows.

Facepalm. Go read about that Curb “reunion” and why they chose to do it. It’s not even a reunion, and fans got maybe 11 minutes of actual Seinfeld content.

And your last sentence is my point: TNG is a family of actors who love working together, and wanted to come back, so it wasn’t some kind of tough thing to convince them.

I like your enthusiasm, but they already had several of them in Picard last season, plus the rest aren’t exactly getting a lot of acting jobs these days, and they all profit from the convention fan service. I seriously doubt it was all that hard — I think you are getting carried away.

Renaming the ship the USS Picard would have been perfect. But Enterprise G? I was hoping for a really cool new design. Such a disapointment.

But other than that I really likec the finale. Story was somewhat simple, but the various caracter moments where really great. So…fantanstic episode…but Enterprise G? Come on!

Yeah, I think USS Picard would’ve been a more fitting ending for Star Trek: Picard . The G is a solid capper to TNG-Season 8, which is what I guess most people see ST:P-S3 as anyway.

I don’t like the design to begin with. It grew on me throughout the season…but I really wanted the Enterprise G to be a really cool and new thing…And…the Titan earned it’s place in Star Trek history…why destroy that eradicating the name? And…they will most certainly redesign the interior or at least the bridge if this gets to be a new show…which I really hope…and Seven as Captain is cool, too…but…c’mon the Titan is the Enterprise now??? HOW LAME! (I hate myself for being so upset about this, because the episode was pretty decent though…)

While it was far from perfect (I didn’t expect it to be) it was an exceptional ending to the series! It gave us an ending we all kinda wanted & it was great seeing the whole crew together again in their last adventure. Terry I just wanna say THANK YOU for giving us a thrilling ride & also for bringing Ro Laren back, seeing her again was truly awesome! You brought back some great memories reuniting the cast & to that I say THANK YOU again! I hope Star Trek Legacy can come to fruition!!!

And what a ride it was! Well done Terry Matalas and crew! Thanks for the memories.

Wow. Well it was kinda obvious they weren’t going to stick the landing after all the terrible reveals and ridiculous plot from episode 9. But this was actually way worse than even I thought it would be.

Kinda unfortunate because had this series ended after that first act where the Shrike was beaten they would have had a pretty decent season on their hands. But no. They HAD to go bigger and sillier. Honestly there are so very many facepalm moments in this I’m not going to go over all of them. But here are two. First, I understand and get that time doesn’t exist on screen but honestly that “one minute at most” felt like the longest minute ever. When so much happens that the viewer actually wonders about a time limit that was mentioned it was edited just way too badly.

The other bit, and this is actually much worse… When they did finally blow up the cube I jokingly thought “and everyone magically gets un-borgified” as a joke. And then that is what they actually did!!! That was a major “I can’t believe they actually did that!” moment.

At any rate, this was far worse than the Kelpian yell. But the show was fairly decent for 8 episodes. Which is a rare thing for Secret Hideout. The only other thing they did that well was Prodigy.

And the final setups, while not unexpected, aren’t interesting. I’ve no interest in the Enterprise G or a 7 of 9 led series. None of the 3 characters are particularly engaging or interesting and then throwing Q back in the mix… Good grief. It’s like there is no one at CBS who encourages any originality anymore.

And one more thing… Nemesis was still the far better finale for this bunch. At least it felt like there was some growth for this group and was a good organic place to leave them. This one felt really forced.

I don’t disagree with much of this — pretty spot on. And for the same reasons, I am not interested in the follow-on series. What’s funny is that the one character that I would like to see more of is Shaw, but they pulled a Hemmer/David Marcus and killed him off prematurely. I think it would have been more fitting to have Picard die in the finale — now that would have had some gravitas to it.

Yes, I did find the Shaw character interesting. The mix of him and 7 together might have produced a decent show. Might. The problem is the more I see of 7 of 9 the less interest I have in her. She was fascinating as a person who lived an entire life as a Borg becoming her true self. But this many years later, to still have the Borg implants and worse… To still be preferring 7 of 9 as a name just doesn’t sit well with me. I get life events perhaps causing her to retreat back to her upbringing. Which would be tragic. But what she is now and what Secret Hideout has done with her… Not interested.

And if they had killed Picard, that would have carried a LOT of weight and probably saved the entire season. And I mean killed. Not Trek killed where they bring him back (again). I mean Gone. Forever. Like sacrificing himself to the Borg to release his son and then using whatever humanity he has left to destroy the remaining Borg from within. But we knew none of the old cast was going to perish. Even if one of them did it would have carried some weight.

Dude I’m surprised you liked even that many episodes lol. I honestly thought you would start to like it less by episode 5. But I definitely understand why you hated the last two episodes. All valid points.

And I fully agree about the ‘one minute’ line. But this is something Hollywood movies and shows always pulls. How many time do we see a countdown counter to a nuclear bomb going off in 5 minutes but take 20 minutes to defuse in reality? I love Mission Impossible 6, but that was the biggest pet peeve I had about that movie and the countdown clock in the end.

I guess it’s hard to try and edit these things down and try to pack in all the plot points needed, but the simple solution is stop throwing out the time lol. Just say, they don’t know if there is enough time to save them if you can’t edit it closer.

I get it. I said I know time doesn’t exist on screen but yeah. No one puts a stopwatch on these situations but there needs to be SOME self awareness in the editing process. Usually professional editors know how much they can reasonably get away with.

Man… If this was just the Shrike and the Changelings they had a decent season right there. There was no need for Picard to get Borg closure. He got that in First Contact.

Obviously agree about the time thing. It’s sooooo annoying and yet its always doe.

I really had no issues with seeing the Borg again, but I know many did. And I have said I was fully happy just to have the Changelings considering we haven’t seen them since DS9 ended.

The irony for me though is I remember telling someone that you don’t need a specific TNG villain, as long as its part of the same universe it really shouldn’t matter. But others pushed back and thought it should be TNG related and obviously Matalas agreed. That said, there are other TNG villains too like the Romulans, or Cardassians they could’ve faced off with. Would’ve been fine with those too.

Some nitpicky bits: Beverly wore the rank insignia of a Commodore in the end. Also, how would it be possible for every single member of starfleet.. cooks to disposable red-shirts to be an officer/Ensign. Having established enlisted ranks with O’Brian.. why not expand that a bit?

That has always been an issue for me with new-Trek. Ever since TNG there have been precious few actual crewmen. Seemed like everyone on board was an officer. And then there was the O’Brian enigma. He was treated like an officer. Even mentioned he went to the Academy. Presumably he didn’t graduate? Unless in this future society Chiefs is now an officer rank?

He was a lieutenant with two pips, then had his weird half pip and then ended up with chevrons. I wish the producers would assign some to watch for rank continuity issues.

And yet I don’t recall anyone referring to him as a Lieutenant. Did it happen once or twice?

I’ve tended to think that while there were enlisted personal, those guys just tended to be the background voices or folks you saw wandering the corridors. All conscripts probably went to the ‘Academy’, officer candidates headed off to the four year program, everyone else had a MOS identified and headed off to the appropriate school.

If so then the problem was no one could distinguish officers from crew by just looking. I realize it was probably a budget thing on TOS but there were quite obviously crewmen all over that ship.

Also, Academy is a school. Essentially officers school. If one is enlisted they would go through basic training. So that argument only really flies if one claims that the terms centuries from now change.

Basically, I’d agree, if I could ignore that enlisted Chief O’Brian says he went to the Academy. Trek has been really muddy on the structure of their training functions, but if you look to the Navy for an example, every shipboard function has a training school behind it. I don’t personally believe everyone on a Starfleet vessel is an officer, likewise, it makes little sense that Starfleet Academy only exists at one physical location, on Earth.

Did we find out that the Enterprise F got destroyed in the big battle? Do you even see the ship after the brief clip of Shelby getting vaporized by her Borgized crew?

Presumably something happened to the F if the Titan is now the Enterprise G.

The Enterprise-F was scheduled for early decommission. I think there has been a brief glimpse of this info on a graphic in the end credits LCARS montage all season long — or it’s in the big info array of Ro Laren’s that Picard and Riker glimpse in episodes 5 and 6. I can’t remember now, but Enterprise-F was always on the way out.

F being decommissioned is identified in the season premiere.

As I said in another thread last night: I loved, Loved, LOVED it!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

The Borg thing was OK if this means that we can finally put this villain to rest (I howled with joy at Deanna’s Troi Maneuver, bringing the D to a screeching halt right above the Queen’s throne room), but the last 20 minutes? THAT’s how you go out!!! 👏😃

“Star Trek: Legacy” is next! ✊️😊 And it’s gonna be on the G! ☝️😄👍 But Terry, please do the name justice, and sprinkle it with a few character appearances from some Niners as well from time to time!!! 🙏😉

That was FUN! 🌟

Renaming Titan to Enterprise-G is causing problems for Star Trek Online, which takes place in 2409 and that Enterprise-F is used.

Last Generation felt like a final TNG movie after Nemesis.

Not a fan of renaming the ship. Totally unnecessary.

It doesn’t actually. Star Trek Online isn’t canon. It exists in its own little bubble.

I think they’re going to establish that Trek Online is a parallel universe.

I really enjoyed the finale and have no complaints about it except that the episode went by too fast. Seeing the 1701-D in action with her old crew for one last time was awesome!

One of my favorite parts was when Beverly worked tactical like a pro and explained her skills by saying a lot has happened over 20 years. I also loved seeing Deanna taking the helm like she did in Generations and not crashing this time. So much fun! Also, ending with Seven as Captain of the 1701-G was perfect. I hope there is at least a movie with Captain Seven of Nine.

So, since the Borg queen is supposed to be the same one from the end of Voyager and she was what was left of the collective, does that imply that Captain and Admiral Janeway committed genocide? I know I have said I was tired of the Borg, but I hope that isn’t the case.

No because we have seen intact cubes since the end of Voyager timeline wise. And they were all just shut down. So unless someone’s been destroying them as they come across them, then she wasn’t. And if someone has been, that’s not Janeway’s fault, that’s on the people who destroyed them.

I was able to attend the IMAX viewing in San Francisco and I must say it was an experience right up there with seeing any great Star Trek movie. Considering the free passes, free popcorn and drink, and free poster… All I can say is thank you. Then the movie, I mean series finale came on, episode 9 and then 10 (plus the lovely Q&A after). It was like the old days of Star Trek at the movies. We cheered and laughed and cried. There was a lot of applause. Sheer f-ing Trekkie joy! I will never forget last night. I would have loved this incredible send off at home (and can’t wait to re and re-watch) but to see it in this way, in IMAX with other Trek fans, I really am having a really hard time finding the words. The two words that keep coming to mind are thank you.

Oh, what a blast that must have been! Good for you.

I was there in SF also. A lot of fun. :)

I was on the waiting list for IMAX tickets; I do wonder if I might have enjoyed the finale more had I watched it that way, rather than at home.

Wow….that was great! The Enterprise flying through the conduits of the Death Star……er, Borg cube, to blow it up over Endor…..er, Jupiter….. Jack. Q. So, wash, rinse, repeat?? Look, this was a polished production, but if all the next next has to offer is a reimagined rerun of the last one, then just put the exclamation point on this and give the SA and S31 productions the same attention to detail.

Yes, I get the sarcasm. And them talking about how hard it was. Which I didn’t buy as a viewer for one nanosecond. The gaps looked HUGE. Also Data is a robot. He could anticipate and react far better than anyone. And on top of that, there was no sequence, not even a few seconds, of Data struggling or reactions from the crew or anything. It was fake danger.

Fake danger is exactly what it was.

So far, none of the big season-ending threats in Picard — this season especially — feel like they have any stakes. The battle here felt like a mediocre video game. There was no doubt that the good guys would prevail somehow and everyone would laugh it off the next day (or a year later, or whatever).

Thinking back to TBOBW, where we didn’t even see the actual Wolf 359 battle, the stakes mostly felt real and dire. It felt like someone (or many) in our crew could die.

Gosh, even Jack — who willingly joined the Borg and killed loads of people because, er, something something growing up with just a mom — just tore off his Borg appliances somewhere between the transporter room and the bridge and was met with hugs and smiles.

Same with the Titan Borg kids suddenly de-assimilating at the last possible minute, just in time to hug it out).

No stakes. No danger. No consequences.

There’s nothing wrong with a simple, straightforward plot — but this was simplistic (and yet still convoluted).

Nice to see everybody, though. Michelle Forbes was good.

I mean, it’s to be expected that the good guys will win the day, but you’re right: it never felt like there was ever a doubt, it all felt too stiff and rehearsed, like they were all just running through the motions… reenacting a script :)

Seriously, it just felt very perfunctory. Lacking tension.

To be fair we knew our intrepid crew would win out. But when the audience views these things there needs to be some sort of stakes and times where you wonder how they are going to get out of this. Hence, the audience can feel the danger. In this finale that sense was never present. Ever. Which is one reason why I feel that if there was a death of a major character it would have given that finale a lot more weight.

well – that was a thing that happened. It was nice seeing them all play poker again. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than Nemesis. Onward Legacy

I can’t say I liked it or disliked it. Indifference is mostly the feeling I’m getting. Like watching a late stage episode of Voyager, I thought. They fly in and beat the Borg and we’re done. A fine, average way to pass an hour. The finest from what a still surviving alternate universe UPN would be offering us in 2023.

As for Legacy, I don’t care. Q again! Yeah sure, snap your fingers and go make a hundred of these shows. Whatever, Paramount.

Really sorry you didn’t like it more Wiley. I did love it but I’m a fanboy lol.

I will say if the legacy show happens, they can cut down on the nostalgia a bit and I think they will. This was really about TNG and those characters getting one last adventure together. I’m hoping the next show could be more of its own thing.

The good – we got a TOS movie era action-adventure story complete with what should have been the Ent-A with a Connie and David Marcus Picard. Got to see Shelby on the Ent-G. The Borg storyline with them wanting robo-Picard tech and a compromised Picard. Compromised Picard redeems Season 1 and Crusher keeping Jack Crusher from seeing him / why he ditched everyone to obsess about AI. President Chekov. The TNG fleet in shambles that they have to depend on a bunch of Neo Constitution TOS movie ships, awesome. Robo-Picard gets redemption in ending the Borg (vs. Janeway) and saving Starfleet. The bad – The Borg got to be scary for a whole two episodes, should have been a longer arc with more changling ramifications, organics vs. full machinery being more of a theme. Riker’s Titan legacy gets the shaft, that should have been the Ent-A, not the Ent-G. No Saavik. The Titan, cough, Enterprise-G has a horrid bridge, those consoles on the side need to go around that you aren’t looking at a conference room with the Captain. Also Shaw, the best new character dies. Shelby dies. Ro dies. Rios was gone. Does not pay to be a professional Starfleet officer for sure. All the good characters died. I don’t see legacy without the Borg being viable, seems like it would degenerate to Young and the Restless in space (TNG vs. TOS movie arc) without the Borg, Changlings though I guess could work with them rebuilding the Starfleet and Jack Crusher and their neo Constitution class cruisers… Needs to draft Saavik.

Thinking about it the biggest bad was that starships are a dime a dozen, they last like 5-10 years. That’s where Strange New World shines.

Great great ep – tho one question/comment – If the smaller Titan is now the ENT-G, is there also an ENT-F? I’m ok with 2 Enterpriseseseses being around, especially if they are 2 different registries and ship types.

Fantastic TNG sendoff, tho. Needed some Janeway.

The Enterprise-F was scheduled to be retired from service (there’s a computer graphic at some point in this season or the end credits that states this), so there are not two Enterprises in service (the reveal of the G happens a full year after the events of Frontier Day, after all).

Agreed on having no Janeway after they name dropped her for three episodes straight. That would’ve been the biggest highlight for a lot of fans if she actually appeared.

The other poster said it about the F, it was already retiring. We were watching its final voyage in episode 9.

I loved the season, and I was very much hoping that the final episode would not disappoint. It was a pretty satisfying wrapup for all of the characters, and nicely tied up most of the season’s story arcs. That said, I was hoping for a few more cameos. I never expected Walter Koenig would appear, so that was a nice treat. But it seems a little silly to imply that Guinan is restocking the beer in the back while their card game is going on. And the Titan name already honors another starship; the re-christening was a rare misstep, I have to say. But those are minor quibbles. This is the strongest single season of Trek in many years, and I loved it.

Honestly if the “many years” only extends back to about 17 then that’s an awfully low bar to clear.

“But it seems a little silly to imply that Guinan is restocking the beer in the back while their card game is going on.”

Absolutely. The whole idea that Guinan has a bar in Los Angeles — complete with neon beer signs — seems silly to me.

Great review, Anthony. Just super. Fantastic season, such a thrill and so well done. Bring on the physical media, because I’m buying this season. Cheers.

This was a solid ending for a great crew. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing is. It was definitely one of the strongest seasons of Trek in a long time (up there with SNW season 1), and without a doubt the best season of the series..not that it had much competition from the previous seasons…but still! TNG was my first experience with Star Trek, and this season transported me back to 1994 where 12-year-old me watched the Enterprise sail off into the stars at the end of All Good Things. Thank you to Terry and crew for giving this group an amazing sendoff.

I do have some comments/notes that I’d like to share! Some have already been mentioned, but I’ll include them again since they were part of my original list:

The Enterprise-D seemed VERY maneuverable when it flew into the Borg cube. It was pulling off some moves that would have been better suited for the Defiant or a runabout vs. a fairly large Galaxy-class starship. I know that they had a way bigger VFX budget than on TNG or maybe even the movies and wanted to show it off, but the D is a capital ship that isn’t supposed to be zipping around like a bee. As cool as it was, it was a bit strange to watch

Like many others, I really disagreed with the Titan being rechristened as the Enterprise-G. This Titan was already at least partially built from pieces of the previous version (which also wasn’t that old), and after everything that it did to save the Federation, changing the name and chucking its history aside just seemed unfair to its legacy

Compared to what we saw in TNG and DS9, Picard as a series seemed to make starships more disposable. We saw decades-old Miranda, Excelsior and Oberth class ships throughout those series, but here the Enterprise-F was retired very quickly, Riker’s Titan wasn’t that old, and we’re already on the Voyager-B. With the destruction of Utopia Planitia Yards, you’d think they would try to keep ships in service as long as possible

Is Shelby actually dead? She took a couple of direct hits so I assume she is, but it would have been nice to have confirmed it one way or the other like they did with Shaw

LOVED hearing Walter Koenig as the Federation President. That was totally out of left field and a great addition. The little bit where he copied his “father’s” accent was great too, as was the choice of first name to honor Anton Yelchin

The Borg cube was in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot for most of the episode, then it was out in open space when it exploded. Did it move at some point?

Janeway was referenced throughout the season and since she advocated for Seven to get into Starfleet, it would have been great to see her alongside Tuvok promoting her to captain

Really loved seeing the old warp effect on the D’s viewscreen. The return of the bubble-shaped shield when they were escaping the exploding cube was a nice bit of nostalgia also. They used the modern transporter effect when beaming the crew off the cube though, so that was a little strange

It was a welcome change to see the writers use Data’s “gut” feelings to navigate the ship vs. just plugging him into the computer

When did Jack have time to rip off the Borg faceplate? When Picard was rescued Crusher said there would be a lot of microsurgery involved to liberate him from the implants. I know the Borg have created a new way to assimilate/reproduce, but Jack’s conversion seemed to be pretty old school so it shouldn’t have been easy to just tear it off

The Enterprise-D/Titan scene at the end reminded me of the Enterprise-A and Excelsior flying together at the end of ST6

They referenced Guinan being in the bar at the end, and it would’ve been great to see her make a quick appearance

Glad I didn’t turn off the credits before I saw that scene with Q! It definitely makes sense that an omnipotent being wouldn’t follow linear time

I just wish if finished at least half way decently. It wasn’t bad up to the Shrike destruction. Even that lame plot point about the portal weapon usage was merely a distraction. (I mean really… Had they never used it no one would have gone after them for quite some tie at least. Using that weapon was sending up a GIANT flare saying “come investigate us now!”) After that things started slowing down and even going downhill. That was where the story should have ended. Now this awful conclusion is the strongest memory.

I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I had some issues but overall I loved it too.

As far as hearing Walter Koenig’s voice, I loved it too but it’s funny this was leaked last year. I remember reading online somewhere and it said he would be playing a descendant of Chekhov. I just thought maybe it was cut for some reason but was so happy to hear it in the episode.

…as was the choice of first name to honor Anton Yelchin

I suppose that’s why they picked the name, but “Anton” isn’t a particularly uncommon name in Russian. I’d have frankly preferred they simply called him “President Yelchin” rather than trying to shoehorn him into Chekhov’s backstory. (It would have evoked a more optimistic time under Pres. Yeltsin, which also would have been a nice callback to TUC’s allusion to Gorbachev in the form of “Gorkon.”)

THANK YOU, Tony M, cast & crew, for an episode, and season, for the ages!!

Bravo!! 👍👏🍷❤️😎

Now, onto Captain Seven & the crew of the Enterprise-G!!

Love this golden age of Trek content 😀

Thank you Terry for the best season of TNG!

C’mon P+ We want a show on the G.

Why am I not loving this like the rest of you?

this just didn’t do it for me. It was ok. But the entire thing with The Borg and the fleet ships making the Borg logo—that was stupid. Picard sticking a thing in his neck and it just working was stupid.

The whole “sever the connection” and everyone is just fine afterwards was stupid. I feel like almost no thought was put into any of this. It was contrived non sense. BUT

Did I love seeing the D and the bridge and the old crew? Hell yes. But this all felt so easy. Remember Best of Both Worlds? The solve of that is such a clever thing. “Put them to Sleep”. Now it’s just shoot the thing and it’s the Death Star. What?

And the Changlings just kept everyone they copied alive and well? Huh?

and I have to talk about Patrick Stewart. It pains me to say this but…does this feel like the Captain to anyone? I know people change but Picard was always a guarded, dry, serious man. This Picard feels so alien. The Picard dignity and strength and determinism just isn’t there. It’s more than just the shaky voice of old age. It’s…the dialogue. The characterization. He’s always telling people how much they mean to him now. I’d prefer a stubborn Picard. A hardened Picard. He should’ve actually rejected his son UNTIL the final moment on that Borg ship. That would’ve been interesting. Picard doesn’t like Jack, maybe treats him a little cold. He doesn’t know what to say or how to act.

this just doesn’t feel right to me. The way the Star fleet officers talk to each other. The casual work place vibe it has. Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Kirk projected such strength, leadership, smarts, guile, will power and yes, hubris. And now it just seems like everyone is on equal footing. The banter. The quips.

Star Trek was always very dry. And I know that’s not sexy but that’s what Star Trek is. It can be fun and adventurous of course. But it’s not Fast & Furious or Star Wars.

I should also note…I don’t have nostalgic love for this franchise. I’m a new fan within the last few years. I started consuming Trek during the pandemic & became a massive fan. TOS, TNG and most of all DS9 are just wonderful.

This newer Trek feels so surface level. So shiny & rote and contrived. Some moments were terrific. The best scene in the entire show was the sequence with Ro Loren in the bar. The most Trek like this show felt was the one where all those things were born. That was the best episode by far.

they milked the Jack mystery for too long. The Borg seems lazy and the threat didn’t feel big. Now photon torpedoes and phasers can destroy Borg tech? Huh? I guess they no longer adapt?

I could go on and on. Maybe I have already.

You’re not alone in your questions and criticisms. I will say that there’s definitely a house style that all the new Star Treks must adhere to and I think that explains some of what bothers you when try to compare the new stuff to the old stuff. As for the character of Picard, yeah, he’s much closer to Movie Picard which had almost nothing to do with Show Picard and that had everything to do with Patrick Stewart. I think the emotional scope of this season, from beginning to end, really worked — that is, what it was about on the characters’ emotional level — but yeah I’m with you on a lot of the hand wavey junky Saturday afternoon syndicated TV sci-fantasy stuff.

I tend to agree on nearly all you said. Especially that amazingly ridiculous thing of blowing up the Borg ship reversed all the assimilations like magic. I’m sorry but… NO. In my post I even mentioned how I joked that would happen. JOKED! And then they actually did it! It was the ultimate facepalm. I find this even worse than the Kelpian yell. And Picard as a robot now… The assimilation shouldn’t even have worked on him now. But the plot needed him to talk to Jack so they just did it because they needed it to even though it didn’t make much sense.

Yes, Stewart has lost every bit of his old charisma. Not a knock. We all get older. But he just has no presence any longer. Frakes severely upstaged him in every scene they were together.

A lot of this episode was filled with facepalms. And again, its really unfortunate because it was decent for up to the end of Vadic. The series really should have ended there. Could have ended on a higher note at least.

All good points. In the end, it didn’t really work for me overall except as a “hey old friends!” reunion. I got the feels a few times, but I also heard myself saying “that’s dumb” out loud a lot (at 2 am when the rest of the house was sleeping).

Mostly, with the exception of Riker and LaForge (and sometimes Worf), I didn’t buy most of the original cast as their characters much of the time. It was actors on a set.

McFadden was fine but wasn’t given much to do or day (big deal, she fired phasers and doled out exposition) — and that’s ridiculous given how critical she should have been to the plot (and to Jack).

Sirtis mostly just seems to be playing herself. Spiner felt like Data a couple of times, but he overdid it, IMO.

Shaw and Jack showed promise early on, but after Episode 6/7 or so, they weren’t given much interesting to do. Same with Seven — interesting character on Voyager, solid actress — and this show has never really known what to do with her.

That’s what bugs me most, I think, about the TNG cast. All the talk about finally giving Crusher something to do and it didn’t amount to much at all. Yes, she was at the center of the story, but what did she actually do? She had a few really good scenes early on, but when it came down to the final act (last few episodes), she basically just stood around.

It’s nice to have a POV from someone relatively new to the franchise and who isn’t deeply nostalgic for the Berman era. It’s a really interesting perspective from someone who has watched the change from old guard to new guard at the same time. I’d imagine it’d be quite jarring to see how the tonal shift of the dialogue has changed so much if you’re experiencing it all at the same time, and for the first time, as Tiberious Mudd called it the new “House Style,” which I really like as a term to describe it.   I don’t have nostalgia for TNG. I didn’t exist when it aired so I haven’t enjoyed the season as much as others have because it has relied so heavily on nostalgia that does not have any impact on me.   I agree with all your points too. The biggest complaint I have is when the young officers just reverted back to their old selves. Why then would there be a need to run them through the transporter again? The fact that their Borgness just vanished so quickly didn’t really make sense as their DNA was altered was it not? Surely they’d have to undergo some kind of DNA editing, or CRISPR type procedure to get rid of it or to deactivate it again?   And the fact that the Changelings didn’t kill they people they impersonated? I guess that transporter guy on the Titan that Seven found dead was out of luck that day?   I really enjoyed the first half of the season. It had a lot of quieter, character driven and dialogue-heavy scenes which were the ones I most enjoyed. The season then really slumped for me in the middle and the dragging out Jack’s mystery box made it often quite tedious to watch.   I did really enjoy that scene with Ro that you are referring to though, again one of the smaller and quieter scenes that revolved around the characters history and not about the overall plot.  

I agree with all your points too. The biggest complaint I have is when the young officers just reverted back to their old selves. Why then would there be a need to run them through the transporter again? The fact that their Borgness just vanished so quickly didn’t really make sense as their DNA was altered was it not? Surely they’d have to undergo some kind of DNA editing, or CRISPR type procedure to get rid of it or to deactivate it again?

Yeah, that whole line of storytelling was not well thought out — kind of silly.

They didn’t want to think about it as far as I can tell.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I’ve criticized in Discovery and earlier seasons of Picard. Not going to rant on it, just say that it’s amazing how nostalgic charm can suddenly enable some to overcome that.

I really enjoyed the first half of the season. It had a lot of quieter, character driven and dialogue-heavy scenes which were the ones I most enjoyed. The season then really slumped for me in the middle and the dragging out Jack’s mystery box made it often quite tedious to watch.   I did really enjoy that scene with Ro that you are referring to though, again one of the smaller and quieter scenes that revolved around the characters history and not about the overall plot.

Well said, Dude. An spot on, regarding Stewart. I thought he pulled it off in S1, but I don’t know if it was aging and the stress of Covid, but staring with S2 he seemed like a shell of the Picard performance we were used to.

I didn’t even realize that the formation was supposed to be the Borg logo.

Frankly, another thing I kept scratching my head at was the whole “fleet formation” concept. We’ve seen plenty of “networked” ships in Starfleet before, going back to TWOK, where Enterprise disabled Reliant because of its very-networked access codes.

The networked ships thing was Chekov’s gun. You knew it would be their achilleas heel to whatever was going to happen. The only reason I can think of for doing that is the plan is to go to limited crewed or unmanned ships in the near term.

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• Space stations
• Federation shipyards

Earth Spacedock

• View history
• 2.1 Shuttlebay
• 3 Cadet training
• 6 External links

Summary [ ]

Earth Spacedock, referred to simply as "Spacedock" was the largest Starfleet spacedock structure in near-Earth orbit . Other space-built structures might have been larger, but none was ever built as close to the planetary surface. It was originally conceived as a military base for ship repairs and refits. Spacedock orbited Earth just within the Van Allen radiation belts . The close proximity to the denser layers of Earth's atmosphere would normally cause the station's orbit to decay so it was fitted with massive impulse engines that maintained its orbit. The outer doors were at some point enlarged to fit ships as large as the Galaxy -class starship.

Design, facilities and functions [ ]

Designed as a permanent base for the many ships traveling the Sol System . It could easily provide refit and repair facilities for up to 8 cruiser -sized starships and up to 24 of Starfleet's lesser-sized ships.

Although Spacedock was a vital link in Starfleet Operations and was administered by Starfleet Command , [ citation needed ] it was not an actual starbase . Being intended primarily as a military installation, it was originally designed to be equipped with 40 massive phaser banks, but the United Earth government objected to the presence of more weapons in Earth's orbit. [ citation needed ] A compromise was eventually reached and it was constructed weaponless, relying on high-powered deflectors . Nonetheless it retained its 40 weapon mounts, in case of interstellar war emergency, Starfleet Command can mount phaser weapons and have them operational within a single week. [ citation needed ]

Earth spacedock layout.

Another major purpose of Earth Spacedock was its ability to scan all of Solar space. The docking port became one of the central installations for weather-watch, debris- scan , radiation -flux analysis, and starship traffic control, for Sector 001 . This was made possible by the largest single sensor array and subspace communications equipment known at that time. Antennae were placed at the top of Spacedock, which were so sensitive they could detect a meter -sized object in the Solar System's cometary halo, at least half a light-year away. [ citation needed ]

In addition to its military and traffic control functions, Spacedock also became a commercial focal point for the Sol sector. Starfleet leases office space, warehouse facilities, cargo transporters, and trade arbitration for many of the more important commercial corporations. Because of its value as a trans-shipment point for both passengers and cargo, Spacedock also developed a thriving tourist trade. Its kilometers of wide halls were filled with shops, vendors, services and restaurant facilities catering to a wide range of races. It would eventually rival the Rigel star system as a source of revenue. What made this remarkable is that this commercial aspect of Starfleet's Repair and Service Facility had developed in a span of less than five years . [ citation needed ]

Earth Spacedock also provided the most extensive medical facilities in near-Terra orbit, rivaled only by those of the LaGrangian colonies in their completeness and scope of operation. The gravity of the station was entirely under the control of Starfleet engineers at any point in the station, so that the hospitals could be provided with any type of environment settings needed by species. The ongoing research being conducted here began to provide clues to the cures of many unsolvable medical mysteries. ( Stardate Magazine vol. 1 (1984), Issue 1: "The Serpent Factor")

Spacedock also housed a stateroom for conferences, and the lounge Club 47 .( STO mission : " Welcome to Earth Spacedock ")

In the late 24th century , several classes of Starfleet starships were commonly built at Spacedock 1, including the Saber -class and the Norway -class . ( DS9 reference : Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual )

Shuttlebay [ ]

Spacedock shuttlebay .

One shuttlebay was located on deck 47. Hangar doors opened to space to allow easy landing and departure for Federation shuttlecraft . A logistics officer was assigned to the area. The standard complement in the 2400s and 2410s decades included workbees , Type-8 shuttlecraft and Yellowstone -class runabouts . ( STO - Klingon War mission : " Welcome to Earth Spacedock ")

• Type-8 shuttlecraft
• Yellowstone -class runabouts

Cadet training [ ]

Earth Spacedock had become an auxiliary of Starfleet Headquarters , based in San Francisco . The wide variety of operations conducted at Spacedock made it an ideal training laboratory for Starfleet Academy . Cadets would get their first space experience there. No matter what branch of service the Cadet may eventually enter, the spacedock provided experiences related to almost every facet of Starfleet operations. Engineering cadets be exposed to tours of the facility's stabilizing impulse engine system and anti-matter reactors.

Because Starfleet provided security for the Spacedock, this gave on-the-job training in security and also familiarized the officer-to-be with the many different races that made up the Federation. The facility also provided great teaching grounds for Science , Medicine , Astrogation , and administration. ( Stardate Magazine vol. 1 (1984), Issue 1: "The Serpent Factor")

History [ ]

Earth Spacedock under construction.

Construction of Earth Spacedock began some time before late 2257, and was still in progress by the time the Federation-Klingon War of 2256-57 ended. ( DSC episode : " Will You Take My Hand? ")

According to another account, the station was fully operational, and in its final "mushroom-shaped" configuration as early as 2250 . ( TOS novel : Academy: Collision Course )

The USS Excelsior was at the moment the most important project completed within the Spacedock. ( Stardate Magazine vol. 1 (1984), Issue 1: "The Serpent Factor")

By 2409 , Spacedock served as the central hub of Starfleet Command and was under the command of Admiral Jorel Quinn , with Akira Sulu as second-in-command. ( STO mission : " Welcome to Earth Spacedock ") It was briefly a completely different design before Q Junior restored it to its classic look.

Undine attack on Earth Spacedock.

In 2410 , Earth Spacedock was heavily damaged during the Undine assault on Earth and Qo'noS. It received a refit some time after the incident. ( STO mission : " Surface Tension ")

The station was attacked again as part of the Iconians ' final assault on the Alliance. After the battle and the Iconian War ended, the station was rebuilt yet again. ( STO mission : " Midnight ")

See also [ ]

External links [ ].

• Earth Spacedock article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Earth_Spacedock article at The Star Trek Online Wiki .
• 1 The Chase
• 2 Preserver (race)
• 3 J.P. Hanson

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Apr 24, 2023

RECAP | Star Trek: Picard 309 – Võx

Jack Crusher is Borg.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Picard.

StarTrek.com

After their failed gambit with Vadic , the Changeling captain commandeered control over the U.S.S. Titan . With the lives of the crew hanging in the balance, Jean-Luc Picard and Jack Crush make one more final play with the latter surrendering himself on the Bridge. The ruse proved successful, giving Geordi La Forge enough time to merge Data and Lore's personality matrixes in the Daystrom Android M-5-10 positronic body. Regaining control of the Titan , Vadic and her soldiers are forced off the starship and their warship, the Shrike , destroyed.

Picard’s original crew aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-D — Geordi, Worf, Will Riker, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, and Data — are all finally reunited, and not a moment too soon as Picard needs them all now more than ever. They must stop the Changeling conspiracy at the Frontier Day celebration. However, to unlock what is planned, Troi, sensing a great darkness within Jack, agrees to use her Betazoid abilities to probe his mind in hopes of understanding how he's connected.

In Episode 9 of Star Trek: Picard , “ Võx ,” a devastating revelation about Jack alters the course of Picard’s life forever – and uncovers a truth that threatens every soul in the Federation. The final battle begins as Picard and his crew race to save the galaxy from annihilation – but not without a gut-wrenching cost.

• Jack Crusher
• Deanna Troi
• Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Jean-Luc Picard
• Data ( Daystrom Android M-5-10 )
• Geordi La Forge
• William Riker
• Elizabeth Shelby
• Seven of Nine (Annika Hansen)
• Sidney La Forge
• Alandra La Forge
• Matthew Arliss Mura
• Kova Rin Esmar

• U.S.S. Titan -A
• Titan shuttle
• Sol System, Sector 001
• Earth spacedock
• U.S.S. Enterprise , NCC-1701-F
• Fleet Museum , Athan Prime
• U.S.S. Enterprise , NCC-1701-D

Deanna Troi acknowledges the red door Jack Crusher’s mind desperately doesn’t wish to open, as well as his reluctance and fear. With her Betazoid abilities, Deanna appears alongside Jack in front of the red door flanked by red vines that has been haunting him. The counselor reassures him that she’s here with him; he’s safe. She asks about the red vines, but Jack persists that he does not know what they are or what they could mean. Thinking hard, Jack recalls the Crimson Arboretum on Raritan IV that his mother took him when he was a child as well as a song she adored, one that was “coded” in the melody, passed down from his father to his mother then to him. Remembering the thousands of blossoms, so much life, as red petals drift around them in the corridor, Jack tells Deanna each of those flowers were different and connected below the soil with the vines. While the thought isn’t comforting, he does find it right, true, purposeful, and perfect. Jack confirms he’s seeking a connection, many connections, while a voice calls out to him to hear her, find her, and fear nothing. Deanna asks if he’ll allow her to open the red door for him, promising once more he won’t be alone despite whatever they find behind it. Upon his approval, Deanna approaches the door with trepidation.

With her hand on the doorknob, Deanna opens the door, first seeing darkness, and then… Suddenly snapping back to reality in Jack’s quarters, Deanna gasps and recoils back from Jack, still processing the terror she witnessed in his mind. She apologizes while fleeing from the room while an anguished Jack asks what she saw. Deanna rushes to Sickbay seeking out Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard , who are pacing and worried about their son. She tells the concerned parents behind the red door, she saw a Borg Cube and heard their Collective voices.*

Star Trek: Picard - Behind the Red Door

The parents are aghast by the startling revelation. While Beverly states that Jack has never been assimilated, Picard internally recalls when he spoke for the Collective as Locutus of Borg before bringing up the lack of nanoprobes within Jack’s system. Beverly reasons that “biology doesn’t always need words to communicate,” noting some transceivers and receivers are organic. Still, they’re all shocked as the Borg have not been seen in over a decade, believing they must have evolved and had the ability to pass on the technology organically. Picard vehemently shuts down the discussion, stating that the only thing he’s ever passed on was Irumodic Syndrome.

Echoing Data’s previous revelation about how the Changelings were interested in Picard’s parietal lobe, Beverly asserts he never had the disease; Soong kept his body at Daystrom to search for something else. Vadic must have known that the Borg passed some organic form of technology through Locutus. Picard gravely processes that he is responsible for passing this onto their son. He takes responsibility in telling Jack as he believes the entire ordeal is his fault. Before Picard can head out, Deanna tells her former commander and Beverly that there are protocols. Vadic sought a weapon against humanity aka Jack, and with Jack’s ability to enter the minds of others and control them, he is therefore dangerous .

Exasperated, Jack laments his life of disconnection only to end up as an emblem of a Collective and its Queen. Still struggling, he wants to know how much of himself is broken. He has always known the world was imperfect, with its broken systems, wars, suffering, violence, bigotry, and poverty, but he still held out an inkling of a belief that if people could see and hear each other and act in one mind together… who knew that the answer all along was just a cybernetic authoritarianism. But if the Borg doesn’t feel and don’t care, while he does both immensely, he cannot comprehend how he factors into their plan. Picard softly suggests they take some precautions, which further confuses and wounds Jack as he asks his father what he sees when he looks at him. Picard, regretful, tells him this isn’t just about him anymore; when he was assimilated, he nearly killed everyone he knew and loved. Embarrassed and angry, the admiral admits how Jack does not understand what it feels like and what it means to be controlled by the Borg Queen . Softening, he tells Jack he believes there’s a place where Jack will be safe, a research academy on Vulcan — Keslovar.

Jack knows of it; he bites back believing his own father wants to send him to a prison where they’ll “lobotomize the Borg” from him. He declines and states he’ll handle his problem by himself. As he exits his quarters, he finds two Starfleet security officers armed with phasers at his door, realizing he was never going to get out of there on his own. Looking at his father pointedly, Jack reminds Picard that he once told him he’d never give up on him. Picard explains that Starfleet protocols dictate that they act in the interests of everyone else. And what about the protocols of a father? Jack questions if Picard were never issued those. Heartbroken but resolved, Jack uses his abilities to control the two officers in his quarters as they both now point their phasers at Picard. Responding to the admiral, he states the act is one of “futility.”

Beverly chases her son down the Titan’s corridor; however, the possessed security officers hold her back. Jack tells his mother he’s going home . She pleads that they can find another solution and undo all of this. All this time, the voice in his head that he thought was hers was in fact that of the Borg Queen. Resigned to his fate, he tells her he’s going to trade himself for answers, and once he’s close enough, he will show the Queen exactly who and what he is.

Beverly desperately pleads with him not to do this, worrying he will get himself killed, as Jack continues forward taking a shuttle. Focusing his mind, he inputs the Borg’s coordinates. As he departs, Picard and Beverly helplessly watch on from the Observation Lounge. Somberly, Picard notes that Jack inherited the best of her and the worst of him, while Beverly regretfully admits she gave her first son, Wesley Crusher, space and lost him to it; as a result, she watched Jack closer, so close she couldn’t see what was in front of her. Overcome with emotion and guilt, Beverly is determined to find something she can do to fix this. Data approaches the admiral, alone in the lounge, letting him know they've been unable to track Jack's shuttle, believing he is jamming his transponder. Unable to find the right words, Data places a comforting hand on Jean-Luc’s shoulder in support, who is touched by the gesture. He's interrupted by his communicator with Geordi La Forge requesting he head down to Sickbay to learn more about Jack.

Jack’s shuttle finds itself in the middle of a red storm; he’s unable to find the Borg. The computer system’s alarm warns him of tachyon radiation pulses, neutrino emissions, and gravitational flux. Believing it to be a wormhole, the shuttle’s computer corrects him that it’s a transwarp conduit when he’s suddenly wracked with pain, hearing a dissonant tone and voices. Jack soon looks up to discover a massive Borg Cube looming over him with its threatening presence.

Geordi informs Picard, Data, Beverly, Will Riker, and Worf that all Borg undergo genetic alterations in order for their organic bodies to communicate with their cybernetic components. However, when Picard was captured by the Borg, he endured a far more extensive alteration — new genetic code was written and stored inside of him. They were unable to detect it 35 years ago, but when Picard transitioned from his organic body to his synthetic one, Dr. Soong uncovered an anomaly in his brain, which were the dormant biological Borg adaptions. The Borg never truly let him go, which explains why Vadic sought his organic body from Daystrom; they needed the portion of his altered DNA in order to weaponize it. While Jean-Luc as Locutus was a receiver of sorts, able to still hear the Borg long after assimilation, in the case of Jack, he appears to be a transmitter , able to send instructions. Despite the Jack-controlled officers had not been assimilated before, they were still able to receive his signal. The fact that Jack was able to keep this dormant for most of his life is a testament to Beverly’s care and Jack’s will that he was able to resist for as long as he had. Geordi assures them that while Jack may be Borg, that was not all he was.

The Changelings have been working with the Borg since the beginning. As it stands, all of Starfleet is currently gathered in one location for Frontier Day . The entire conspiracy hinges on this very moment. Outnumbered and outgunned, the crew believes they still have to warn Starfleet any way they can. Calling the Bridge, Picard requests they return to the Sol System. Captain Shaw disagrees with the plan as all of Starfleet present for the celebration is running exercises where everyone aboard the Titan is flagged as dangerous fugitives. Unfortunately, it’s their only options, prompting Shaw to relent.

Star Trek: Picard - Frontier Day Ceremonial Speech

The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-F, under command of Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Shelby , ceremonially departs the spacedock above Earth’s orbit.** Addressing the entire fleet, Shelby makes a speech on why they’re all gathered for Frontier Day; it’s in celebration of the Enterprise NX-01’s maiden voyage 250 years prior. The first Warp 5-capable vessel’s journey led to the birth of Starfleet.***

Now, a quarter millennium later, on this day, they take their next vital step with a demonstration of their newest advancement — Fleet Formation — synchronistic technology that allows every ship in Starfleet to operate as one . An “impenetrable armada” allows them the ultimate safeguarding through unity and defense. And, in case of the unthinkable, fleetwide incapacitation is factored ensuring the safety of their crew. Listening to the address and recalling her unrelenting ambition decades prior, Riker clocks Shelby’s rise in Starfleet while Picard is flabbergasted by the irony of her endorsement of something so Borg-like. Examining the representation of starships assembled for Fleet Formation, Commander Seven notes that they’ll be crashing one hell of a party, with Ensign Sidney La Forge updating the crew that they’ll reach Sector 001 in less than an hour.

Elsewhere, Jack boards the Borg Cube with his phaser armed. As he navigates the dark vessel, the Borg Queen welcomes him home . She calls out to her “child” of her flesh and blood, telling Jack that he is the light for all her darkness, the light for all her suffering. Jack dismisses her assertions stating what while he does not know what he is, he surely isn’t hers. The Queen has thought of many names for him, including Regenerati and Puer Dei , which once more, Jack dismisses the notion that he is her rebirth nor is he a child of god, leading her to land on naming him Võx . While his father is Locutus , the one who speaks, he as Võx is the voice itself. Confident, she tells Jack he knows he has felt it too and urges him to believe in it. She explains that what she and Vadic saw in him was an end — the vindication of both their species. Jack states he believes in mercy as he raises her phaser to him; the Queen laughs at the gesture confirming if it was possible for him to kill her, he would have done so already. The anguishing Jack screams out in frustrating before resigning to the truth and dropping his phaser. After all, resistance is futile. At her urging to end his struggle, Jack allows himself to be assimilated, as a black cable connects to the back of his neck.

In Sickbay, Geordi and Data, after combing through the intel Raffi uncovered from the Shrike systems, alert Beverly that they’ve found Starfleet transporter code, which the Changelings have implemented parts of Picard’s Borg-altered DNA into Starfleet’s transporter systems. To her horror, Beverly cross-references the Titan ’s transporter system code, discovering the code is now part of the transporter system architecture. Data deduces that, among the system’s storage of coding common to all species, the transporters now consider Picard’s DNA as common biology to all species. This was the Changeling-Borg’s plan — as the Changelings infiltrate Starfleet ships, the new Borg-altered DNA is introduced to anyone who steps inside a transporter, assimilating entire fleets this whole time , without anyone ever knowing.****

Arriving in the Sol System, the Titan witnesses the summation of their decades-worth of technological advancements, which Riker compares to that of a firing squad. Suddenly, alarms blare throughout the Titan as the ship enters Fleet Formation mode. Shaw orders countermeasures; unfortunately, their systems are shutting down as part of the automation. Picard demands they transmit an emergency hail, alerting the entire fleet that the Changeling infiltration has made them all vulnerable to their greatest enemy, the Borg. In a direct transmission between the Titan and Shelby, Picard urgently pleads with the admiral to trust them. Before he can continue, their connection is lost with Mura detecting a massive energy spike from…

Deep within the Borg Cube, a beacon is initiated, resulting in a dissonant tone blaring across the Federation starship. As the Titan ’s monitors glitch with green markings on the Bridge, Seven winces in pain before stating that the Borg just sent out a signal. In Sickbay, after reviewing a Borg genetic simulation, Data suggests based on the data, their genetic material doesn’t propagate in a species past a certain point in their developmental cycle. For humans, that’s the age of 25; while they’re unaffected, the same can’t be said for the youngest members of their crew, as both parents, Beverly and Geordi, suddenly realize. Back on the Bridge, Shaw orders a red alert. The young Bridge crew — Mura, Sidney, Esmar, and Alandra — is unresponsive to his commands; veins begin to visibly appear on their skin similar to the vines Jack saw in his visions of the red door. At the helm, an assimilated and despondent Sidney turns around and, speaking as the Collective, tells the senior commanders, “ We are the Borg .”

Overhearing what transpired on the Bridge, Geordi, reeling, asks the computer for the location of his other daughter Alandra. His worst nightmare actualized, the computer informs him that Alandra’s lifesigns are no longer compatible with human designation. There’s confusion among the senior commandeers on the Bridge as they look on at their unresponsive crew. Comms momentarily resume as the Titan picks up on a distorted feed of a terrified Shelby questioning what’s happening to her crew as well before being attacked from within by two of her own officers. The connection is lost again; hitting a button on his chair, Shaw picks up a chorus of screams from other Starfleet ships also attacked from within. The realization dawns on them — the entire fleet has been assimilated . The Bridge crew stand in unison and collectively drone out, “Eliminate all unassimilated,” and drawing phasers. As the senior officers are swarmed, with more assimilated crew arriving on the Bridge, Picard reminds them to set weapons to stun only as they flee. Geordi desperately runs to find his daughters, but Data holds him back saying they need a plan first. Heading to the captain’s chair, the Borg-controlled Esmar, flanked by the La Forge sisters, informs the Collective that they are now in command of the Titan .

Seeking refuge in the turbolift, Shaw questions why they haven’t been assimilated, with Seven quickly replying, with all the grey hair between them, it must have skipped a generation. They cannot save their ship, let alone the rest of the fleet, from inside; they need to find a way off the Titan . They receive an emergency hail on a maintenance channel from Captain Benbassat of the Excelsior ; they’ve managed to retake their Bridge, but it’s short-lived as they discover the fleet synchronization has them controlled remotely, pulling them out of formation and placing them in front of the Riker-deemed firing squad. To anyone who can hear them, the captain asks they notify his family just as the fleet destroys the starship. The Collective reports that with the Excelsior eliminated, the fleetwide assimilation is complete. With an idea brewing, Shaw changes course and has the turbolift head to the unmanned maintenance deck; there’s a repair shuttle they can use to escape. Touching his combadge, Picard relays a message to anyone who is listening and capable to meet them on the maintenance level. The Borg Collective, moving in fleet synchronization, dispatches a new transmission to those who resist — their armada has been added to theirs, and their weak and willful will soon be eliminated while their strongest has already been assimilated. Starfleet now is Borg.

The turbolift crew (Shaw, Picard, Riker, and Seven) reunite with Geordi, Data, Beverly, Raffi, Deanna, and Worf. They’ve been trying to get the doors to the Maintenance Bay open. Seeing Geordi, Picard assures him that they will get his daughters back, but right now, they need to get off this ship. Data asserts that the repair shuttle is their only means of escape as those small vessels are autonomous and do not connect to the new systems. Worf doesn’t like the odds of one single shuttle against the entire fleet; however, Geordi has another idea. Unfortunately, Borg-controlled officers arrive at the corridor, firing phasers. Shaw, Raffi, and Seven offer them cover as Geordi and Data board the shuttle. As Data adjusts to his new merge personality and thinks about their odds of success, Geordi tells his friend to be a little more positive, to which Data quips that he hopes they die quickly. As Shaw orders the rest of the crew to board the shuttle, the captain’s hit with a blast dead-center. Picard refuses to leave without everyone, but as Seven lunges towards the fallen Shaw, she tells Picard to go with the crew and find a way out of this for them. Raffi stays back on the Titan with Seven. The dying Shaw acknowledges “Seven of Nine” with her preferred designation, noting the ship isn’t his anymore; the conn is hers. The weight of it lands on her as Shaw is gone. From aboard the shuttle, the crew looks on in horror as the Borg-controlled Esmar orders the fleet to advance on the Spacedock with weapons ready to eliminate Earth's planetary defenses.

Dropping out of warp, the shuttle arrives at the Fleet Museum on Athan Prime. Geordi notes they need an older ship, one that’s analog and offline, and he has just the one at Hangar Bay 12. He intended to save the surprise for another day as he’s not done with restoration, but there’s no time like the present. Emotional, the crew takes in their former starship — the Enterprise -D — in all her glory. Thanks to the Prime Directive, the saucer was retrieved from Veridian III as to not influence the system. He’s been restoring their ship bit by bit and repairing the damage over the last 20 years. The engineer cheekily remarks that they unfortunately could not use the Enterprise -E as they all turn to face Worf, who maintains that was not his fault. Hanging on their last glimmer of hope, they all board the Enterprise -D, for the first time in over 30+ years, marveling at Geordi’s work and reminiscing about their former home.

Geordi assures the crew that this starship is the only functioning one left in the fleet that isn’t connected to the new systems. Returning to their old stations, Picard initiates system reactivation procedures, which acknowledges the ship is now under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who accepts his field demotion. He then pauses and reveals he’s reluctant to ask them all to put their lives on the line to face the Borg threat again. Riker confidently asserts, “We are the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise . But more than that, we’re your family.” Deanna adds that Jack, Sidney, and Alandra are their family as well. Wherever Jean-Luc goes, they go .

The admiral orders his crew to stations. Clearing the museum’s spacedock, they set a direct course for Earth, maximum warp. And from his old captain’s chair, Picard orders them to “engage.”

* “ Endgame " — The Borg and the Borg Queen were last seen in the Star Trek: Voyager series finale where the future Admiral Janeway cripples the Collective by infecting them with a neurolytic pathogen. The Borg, an ancient cybernetic life-form that’s part organic and part artificial, and their relentless pursuit of perfection and technology brought fear to all quadrants of the galaxy. The collective consciousness, where each drone is linked through the subspace network, allows for the Borg to adapt quickly and eliminate threats as they arise. Obsessed with power, the Borg Queen didn’t create the Borg; she was merely tasked with leading them.

** “ The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I and II ” — Lt. Commander Shelby made her first appearance in this two-parter following Picard’s abduction and assimilation by the Borg. The ambitious Borg expert boarded the Enterprise as Acting Captain Riker’s first officer. Their working relationship faced a bumpy road as she made it abundantly clear she intends to replace him as Picard’s first officer.

*** " Broken Bow " — Earth’s Starfleet sent its first ship, the Enterprise NX-01, with an interspecies crew to return a wounded Klingon back to his homework. Before the conclusion of the voyage, Captain Archer and his crew would initiate the first interstellar cooperation between humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites — the four founding species of the United Federation of Planets — with their actions creating many of the essential policies enacted in the Federation Charter, establishing the foundation of Starfleet.

**** " Dark Frontier, Part I and II " — In this two-parter, the Borg Queen attempts to lure Seven of Nine back to the hive. Upon learning of Captain Janeway's plan to steal a transwarp coil from a damaged Borg sphere, the Queen delivers a new assignment to Seven — assist in the programming of nanoprobes to assimilate humans or witness the Voyager crew be assimilated. It will take a few years to assimilate them without their knowledge, but they can be patient.

• “I Can’t Stop Crying” – Will Grove-White

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Recap / Star Trek: Picard S3E10 "The Last Generation"

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"This is President Anton Chekov of the United Federation of Planets broadcasting on all emergency channels. Do not approach Earth. A signal of unknown origin has turned our young against us. They have been assimilated by the Borg. Our fleet has been compromised and as we speak, our planetary defenses are falling. Sol Station is defending Earth as best it can. But we're almost out of time. We have not been able to find a way to stop this Borg signal and unassimilate our young. But I know if my father were here, he'd remind us all that hope is never lost. There are always possibilities. Until then, I implore you: save yourselves. Farewell."

As the above distress signal fills subspace, the Enterprise -D finds a Borg cube lurking in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Aboard is Jack Crusher, now designated as Vox, confirmed to be broadcasting the Borg signal that controls Starfleet. The cube disarms its weapons and lowers its shields, inviting the Federation contingent aboard; most of its power readings are going to powering the signal. Picard, Riker and Worf resolve to beam aboard the cube and track down Jack's lifesigns and cut the signal off at the source. Picard leaves Commodore Geordi La Forge in command. As they leave the bridge, he says, " It Has Been an Honor ," suggesting he expects a One-Way Trip .

Seven, Raffi and the older staff of the Titan -A secure the bridge by beaming the younger crewmembers into the locked transporter room. They're a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits — the Closest Thing We Got to a pilot is the ship's cook, who had to leave training to take over his mother's deli — but they are all that is left of Starfleet. They detect the NCC-1701-D near Jupiter and realize Picard is making a play. To buy him time, Seven orders the Invisibility Cloak engaged: the Fleet Formation system requires line-of-sight to work, and simply becoming invisible breaks the Titan free. She then begins Hit-and-Run Tactics , distracting the assimilated fleet. Unfortunately, Sidney, Alandra and the other Bridge Bunnies break free of the transporter room and destroy the cloaking device, exposing the Titan to return fire, just as Spacedock finally succumbs to assault and Earth's planetary shields fall.

Aboard the cube, It's Quiet… Too Quiet ; most of the drones are either dead or powered down in service of the signal. Crusher locates Jack, forcing the away team to split up; Picard admits he can no longer be The Captain , as now he is beholden to a higher calling: being a father instead. Riker and Worf look for an active terminal while Picard heads after Jack. The boy has been fully assimilated — he even has the same headpiece that Locutus of Borg did, laser pointer included — and he is accompanied by the Borg Queen. She goes on her Motive Rant : after Admiral Janeway made her presence known in the timeline ( VOY : " Endgame "), she was pushed deep into the recesses of space, deprived of succor. This ship and its drones are (with the exception of Queen Jurati's Collective from last season) the Last of Its Kind . That said, it's enough: with the help of her Changeling allies, she has learned to procreate, and is bent on the annihilation of the Federation.

The Cube breaks dormancy and opens fire, but Dr. Beverly Crusher — by now a full-fledged Combat Medic — is at the weapons stations, wielding the Enterprise 's weapons with a force and flair even Worf never managed. Meanwhile, Riker and Worf radio on the location of the transmitter, but there's a problem: it's buried deep inside the center of the cube. Data rises to the challenge, taking the Enterprise — a Mighty Glacier forty years old — into the Cube's superstructure in an Airstrike Impossible worthy of a Space Fighter . Finally, it's time for the Sadistic Choice : the transmitter is the heart of the Borg cube, and destroying it will destroy the cube... with Picard and Jack still on it, hidden by the interference. Beverly, tearful, signs off, but Worf and Riker refuse to return, insisting on heading in to rescue Picard. They arrive just as Picard, realizing he has no other option, voluntarily assimilates himself to go in after Jack.

The two meet in a Battle in the Centre of the Mind . Jack, the loner who has always felt different, has embraced his Family of Choice , the family the Borg claim to be. Picard admits that he is the same, that he joined Starfleet to find a Family Of Choice; but now he and Jack have each other, and perhaps that can suffice. Jack still refuses, so Picard walks the walk: he offers to stay with his son, come what may. This is all it takes, and Jack breaks free of the Borg's programming, separating himself from the Collective and tearing out the tube with which Picard had injected himself. He will die as himself , at least. Riker, seeing this, wishes a farewell to his Imzadi ... and Troi , apprehending this through her mental link with him, grabs the wheel and brings the ship over so they can beam Picard and the others back.

The Borg ship explodes, with the Enterprise -D rocketing out of the fireball . Aboard the Titan , the assimilated crew, about to retake the bridge, are suddenly restored to themselves, with Sidney breaking down in a Heroic BSoD in Seven's arms. Aboard the Enterprise bridge, there are plenty of happy reunions: the Picard-Crusher family, the Troi-Riker family, old friends Geordi, Data and Worf relaxing in the command chairs, and Geordi seeing his daughters freed, happy, and safe together with Seven and Raffi via viewscreen. After 35 years, the Borg threat is neutralized for good and all.

As Starfleet returns to normal, Admiral Beverly Crusher, newly installed Head of Starfleet Medical, implements transporter technology that allows the removal of the Borg DNA... and the catching of any remaining Changeling imposters. Raffi is finally invited to meet her granddaughter; she and the crew of the Enterprise are celebrities now, and her family is proud of her. Worf wishes her great future happiness. Many of the abducted Changeling victims are returned, including Captain Tuvok, who tells Seven that the Enterprise crew have been granted full pardons. Seven has realized that she is not a fit for Starfleet, and offers her resignation, but in answer, Tuvok gives her her latest crew evaluation — Captain Shaw, speaking in a recording from before his death, admits that her Military Maverick instincts are valuable, and recommends she be promoted to captain. (Her resignation is not accepted.) And Troi gets back to work helping Data grapple with his newfound humanity; apparently he keeps running over their session time limits.

After a Time Skip to 2402, the Enterprise -D is ensconced in its rightful place in the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime. Spacedock has been rebuilt, and Admirals Picard and Crusher see off a loved one — Ensign Jack Crusher, who has been fast-tracked through the Academy — to his latest posting: the Titan ... well, what was the Titan . Yes, in recognition of Jean-Luc Picard, his crew, and the efforts to defeat the Borg once and for all, the ship has officially been re-christened: NCC-1701- G . The Enterprise rides again.

Captain Seven of Nine and first officer Raffaela Musiker take her out for her shakedown cruise, with Jack on the bridge as a Special Counselor to the Captain . Seven is asked to choose her Catchphrase — " Engage ," " Let's fly ," " Hit it ," etc — and therefore to write the first line of her legacy. The scene cuts away before she says it .

In Ten Forward L.A., Picard's crew is gathered and has closed down the bar — again ; Guinan has apparently been giving them the side-eye to get them to leave for half an hour. It doesn't work, as Picard breaks out the poker deck . The series ends the way it did the first time: with Picard dealing out a hand to his True Companions .

• Accidental Innuendo : In-Universe When Worf decides to join Picard and Riker on the Borg cube, he declares "And I will make it a threesome." It's promptly lampshaded: Riker: Do you even hear yourself?
• Actor Allusion : Not only does he end the series quoting Shakespeare, he engages in a Battle in the Center of the Mind , an obvious reference to Patrick Stewart's other famous role.
• Actually Pretty Funny : Data and Geordi are both visibly amused when post-mission Worf collapses in Troi's chair and promptly starts snoring .
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us : Continuing on from last episode, Seven, Raffi, and any surviving unassimilated Titan crewmembers are trapped aboard the still-hijacked Titan and trying to retake the ship. They successfully seize the bridge and then use the Titan to buy time for Earth.
• Alpha Strike : For the first time ever Beverly is placed in charge of the tactical station, when Geordi orders a return fire the Enterprise lights up the surface of the Cube . The entire bridge crew turns to look at her in surprise, which she responds with " A lot has happened in 20 years. "
• Ambiguous Situation : While Vadic's surviving conspirators are taken in custody by Starfleet, it's left unclear if they'll be held in Federation custody indefinitely, or if they'll be extradited back to the Gamma Quadrant to face judgement in the Great Link.
• With the latest Starship Enterprise in service to Starfleet warping away from Earth to Boldly Go among the stars once more.
• In The Stinger , Q shows up to tell Jack that he has his own Humanity on Trial quest to deal with.
• Arc Welding : A variation. While the Federation-Borg conflict began on TNG, VOY had developed its own distinct Borg arc that branched off from the main narrative. After being implied last episode, VOY's Borg arc now formally circles back to and merges with the primary TNG Borg arc (as the events of "Endgame" and the damage Team Janeway did to the Collective on their way out of the Delta Quadrant are the catalyst for this final apocalyptic campaign.)
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving : Captain Tuvok confronts Seven of Nine for helping the old Enterprise crew hijack the Titan . Before he can finish, Seven announces that she is resigning from Starfleet. Tuvok then shows her a holo-recording of Captain Shaw (shortly before his death), giving his evaluation of Seven, commending her for her courage, loyalty and willingness to go against the rules if it's the right thing , and recommending her for promotion. Tuvok then tells Seven, "Resignation denied. Captain."
• The Red Alert conditions aboard the Enterprise -D have now adopted the darker lighting mode that wasn't introduced to the 24th century until after TNG had ended. Could be justified, as Geordi had to rebuild the bridge module with post-2371 components, which likely had the later OS updates.
• Building off last episode's ending, the 1701-D's warp drive effect has been updated from the original TNG-era "stretch" effect to the current Secret Hideout-era revamp.
• Awesome, yet Impractical : Worf's sword is so ridiculously heavy that Riker can barely lift it. As a mighty Klingon, Worf is apparently strong enough to wield it effectively, but that isn't how swords and bladed weapons work well in real life . They always have to be relatively light because extremely heavy weapons aren't just hard to swing, they also obey Newton's Third Law: swinging them will cause an equal opposite reaction on the wielder's body, pulling them wildly off balance and leave them extremely vulnerable to counter-attack.
• Awesomeness by Analysis : When the Titan registers the presence of a Galaxy -class starship in the Sol System, both Raffi and Seven are initially confused as to what the hell this is. Once Seven realizes it's the Enterprise -D, she quickly puts the pieces together: this is what Geordi's plan last episode was, the Enterprise -D can't be hacked by Fleet Formation, and they're making a play to shut down the Collective system at the source. This analysis also allows Seven and Raffi to figure out their own game plan: Disrupt the attack on Spacedock and buy as much time for Picard's team as they can.
• The real Tuvok returns to give Seven a promotion to captain; the Changelings having kept him alive as they hinted previously.
• Q returns to have a chat with Jack, despite dying last season. He dismisses this as linear thinking, suggesting this is an earlier version of the character nonetheless aware of his eventual end.
• Despite Captain Shaw having been slain last episode, Todd Stashwick returns for a cameo as part of a pre-recorded message Shaw made earlier in the season.
• Bait-and-Switch : A scene in the denouement begins with a voiceover of Deanna giving counseling advice in a way that implies that she is speaking to Jack. The scene then shows that she is having a counseling session with Data .
• Bait-and-Switch Comment : In the final scene, Data's given the honor of the TNG crew's final toast. He stands, gathers his thoughts, strikes a dignified pose...and then starts reciting that naughty limerick from "The Naked Now". Everybody immediately starts shouting at Data, leading the android to mock-pout he's never going to get to finish that limerick.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind : Picard connects himself to the Collective to attempt to reach Jack, which appears as a swirling mass of green energy all around them.
• Be Careful What You Wish For : Downplayed, as he does not actually regret the outcome, but Data does note that being human is just as difficult as the desire to be human and also "infinitely more complex" than he had considered.
• Beyond Redemption : The Borg Collective ultimately are this in the end; in spite of repeated questions about the morality of wiping them out over the course of the franchise, the Borg doom themselves to extinction through their inability to change their outlook that they could coexist note  Jurati's Collective proves that there is a capacity for the Borg to change and peacefully exist with other life in their constant pursuit of perfection that they would rather become an Omnicidal Maniac when facing the possibility of failure of reaching that goal. Thus no tears are shed by any party, in spite of their horrific condition inflicted upon them by Janeway's virus , when they are finally put down for good.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence : The Borg-assimilated fleet attacks Earth Spacedock, while the Titan (with her cloaking device ) uses Hit-and-Run Tactics to interfere with them; meanwhile , the Enterprise goes one-on-one against the Borg cube. The result: more Macross Missile Massacre , Beam Spam , and Stuff Blowing Up than just about every other installment in the franchise.
• Big "NO!" : The Borg Queen lets this out for the last time, once her plans are ruined and she is denied her opportunity at Taking You with Me .
• Bittersweet Ending : The Borg/Changeling conspiracy damaged Starfleet badly, with countless ships and personnel lost in their rampage, and possibly millions of young Starfleet personnel deeply traumatized by assimilation. However, Picard and his team triumphed over the Borg one last time, purging the universe of their threat once and for all. As well, a new generation of officers and an Enterprise (-G) set out to boldly go where no one has gone before.
• Body Horror : Alternate Janeway's last act was not kind to the Borg Queen, who is an emaciated torso with a melted face, scavenging her last remaining drones to sustain herself. Funnily enough, how malformed she is makes her now more of an Homage to her concept's original inspiration as a Xenomorph Xerox .
• The Queen would have won if she had just blown the Enterprise -D and her crew — people the Queen knew all too well had triumphed against the Borg during their last two attempts to assimilate Earth — out of the stars at the beginning of the episode. Instead, she lowers shields and invites Picard aboard. Her need to monologue to Picard and gloat to his face dooms her and the Collective.
• The Queen would've attacked Earth sooner had she immediately destroyed the Titan as they did the Excelsior when Seven and the others had re-taken the bridge. As with her need to gloat to Picard, she likely wanted those closest to him to suffer (and especially Seven given her relationship with the scourge of the Collective, i.e. Janeway).
• The season premiere was titled "The Next Generation", while the finale is titled "The Last Generation".
• The entire 24th century era of the franchise began with Jean-Luc Picard, his command crew, and the Enterprise -D — and now it ends with them.
• Q returns in The Stinger to bookend his first appearance in the very first episode of TNG and the 24th century, as well as his appearance in the very first Borg episode .
• The Enterprise -D was the first Starfleet ship to make official first contact with the Borg in " Q Who ," and the one to defeat the first Borg Cube that attacked the Sol System. It ends up being there to eradicate the last of the Borg.
• Riker and Worf were part of the very first Starfleet Away Team to set foot on a Borg Cube in "Q Who". They're now part of the very last Away Team to ever undertake such a mission.
• The Enterprise -D was also the first Starfleet ship to contact the Borg with a "hello" and the last one to literally tell them "go to hell" with the metaphorical middle finger.
• Chronologically, the Borg story began at Earth nearly 350 years earlier when the 24th Century Sphere traveled back in time and failed to stop Zefram Cochrane's historic flight. A century later , the drones that had survived the Sphere's destruction were discovered, awoken, and set off the chain of events that created a Stable Time Loop and brought the Collective to the Alpha Quadrant — and with all that ensued at System J-25, Wolf 359, etc. Now, the Borg's story chronologically ends at Earth 350 years later.
• The Next Generation ended with Picard sitting down for a game of Poker with his friends, and Picard ends the same way (not counting The Stinger ). Similarly, this show's pilot episode opened with Picard playing poker with Data (albeit as part of a dream sequence) and likewise ends with him once again playing a hand with the android, only this time surrounded by his whole command crew.
• In the Picard season one backstory, Raffi was selected by the then-newly promoted Admiral to serve as his adjutant for the Romulan Evacuation. To put it another way, Raffi was the Number Two to a former Captain of the Enterprise . Raffi now exits the series having reclaimed that role and serving as the Number Two of the current Captain of the Enterprise (i.e. Seven).
• Geordi's promise to Picard as they leave the bridge for the last time — that he will take care of the D because she's always taken good care of them — bookends Leonard McCoy 's similar parting advice to Data back during his Spinoff Sendoff in the TNG Pilot.
• The launch of the rechristened Enterprise -G is similar to her departure (as the Titan -A) from the season premiere. They even reuse much of the BGM.
• Thirty-six years later, and Data still wants to finish that rather peculiar limerick being delivered by someone in the shuttlecraft bay .
• Last episode, Geordi warns that one of the panels on the Enterprise -D’s port nacelle was loose, that he had a hard time trying to get it down. During the flyby of the Enterprise -D and Titan -A at the end, you can see that there’s a missing panel on that mentioned nacelle.
• Likewise, at the beginning of the Season, Picard told Seven that she was going to be a Captain before she knew it. He was more prescient than either of them knew.
• Similarly, back in "All Good Things", Picard humbly stated that he used to be quite a card player in his youth. Picard proves that was no idle boast by actually besting Riker (who was the most frequent poker victor on TNG) in the final game.
• Subtle one, but when Data takes the helm, he seems to finally understand the human predilection for piloting vehicles at unsafe velocities .
• Brief Accent Imitation : President Anton Chekov imitates his father's thicker Russian accent when telling everyone "There are always possibilities."
• The staging and angle of the Enterprise -D when it comes out of warp in that shot also matches the very first shot we ever saw of her in the opening scene of "Encounter at Farpoint" .
• Likewise, the Enterprise -D once again arrives home in the Sol system to rescue the Federation capital just as the Borg reach its doorstep. For Team Picard, this is also now the third time they've done this particular Big Damn Heroes routine (following Wolf 359 and the 2373 incursion ) while saving Earth from the Borg.
• And speaking of ST:FC , this is the second time that the Borg Queen tells Picard, "Watch your future's end."
• The two Borg drones Riker and Worf fight move more tactically, use energy weapons and have some hand-to-hand combat ability. This is unusual as Borg drones typically rely on a Zerg Rush with an Adaptive Ability with shields and don't bother defending themselves, but it is reminiscent of the splinter Borg group encountered in the "Descent" two-parter.
• The Enterprise -D hauls ass away from the exploding Borg cube exactly like in "The Best of Both Worlds" .
• The scene with the Enterprise -D next to the Titan -A in Earth orbit flying off into the sunrise mirrors a similar shot at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with the Enterprise -A and Excelsior flying into the sunset in Khitomer orbit.
• Likewise, both the film and the episode feature quotes from the play Julius Caesar in their last few scenes. Interestingly, Picard quotes Brutus’ nautical metaphor praising the importance of free will , adventure , and teamwork among equals . In contrast, Chang quotes Caesar’s astrological simile praising the (false sense of) permanence of fate , stability , and power over a hierarchy .
• The dust band and star cluster we see at the beginning of President Chekov's broadcast are an exact match to those in the TNG opening credits, starting with Season 3.
• The Cameo : President Anton Chekov is voiced by Walter Koenig .
• Can't Hold His Liquor : By the time of the final party at Ten Forward, Beverley's plastered. Justified, as she had been downing Klingon Bloodwine all night.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You : Just as the Dominion did during their Cold War with the UFP, Vadic and her rogue faction of Founders kept many of their captured Starfleet targets alive. They needed to be able to interrogate their captives for useful information (or personal details to help sell the imposters).
• Captain's Log : Delivered by Riker after the battle, summing up Starfleet's recovery efforts. "Captain's log, Stardate...shall we say 'one'. The first of a new day for friends both old and young. Starfleet has implemented a fleet-wide transporter solution to purge our young officers of the Borg infection. A world-saving effort developed by our new head of Starfleet Medical Branch — Admiral Crusher, who also managed to spearhead technology that privately scans for other irregularities. * Security officers apprehend a rogue Changeling exposed by the transporter buffer. In constant need for information, our changeling adversaries kept yet did not kill many of their targets. From the lowest of ranks to the very highest."
• Catchphrase : Jack and Raffi ask Seven what she's going to say to have the newly christened Enterprise -G go to warp for their first mission, as every ship captain seems to have their own personalised way of saying "Engage". Just as she's about to say it, cut to the Enterprise going to warp, leaving Seven's catchphrase a mystery .
• The Cavalry : Riker demands to know where the cavalry is as the Enterprise enters the Sol system and receives updates on the battle. Data's sensors confirm all distress calls from Federation and civilian ships have gone silent, meaning the 1701-D essentially is the cavalry.
• Character Death : The Borg Queen bites it again and for good this time.
• Chekhov's Gun : The Titan 's cloaking device proves to be the key to breaking the Fleet Formation override, which requires line-of-sight to function.
• Closest Thing We Got : Seven's temporary pilot is the ship's cook, who only partially finished pilot training before leaving to take care of the family restaurant.
• Collapsing Lair : The design of the Borg transmitter means that, when it's destroyed, the entire cube goes up with it.
• Combat Medic : Beverly, much like how she was on the first episode of this season, is a capable combatant, this time handling the tactical systems of the Enterprise -D against the Borg cube.
• Anton Chekov broadcasts a planetary distress signal in the same way that President Hiram Roth in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home did, using nearly the same dialogue ("Do not approach Earth").
• The fact that the new Earth Spacedock is able to (for now) Hold the Line against what is essentially the entire assimilated Federation fleet is a vast improvement upon the last time we saw one in battle , when three Texas -class automated starships were able to nearly wreck a Spacedock-like space station and a Sovereign -class starship with relative ease . Given that Starfleet lost several personnel, including a flag officer (albeit a corrupt one ), in that incident, and an auxiliary ship had to lure the rampaging ships away to give Starfleet time to respond and ended up being pummelled as a result, it's likely they took that veritable disaster as a wake-up call and responded to it by upgrading the type to improve defensive capabilities and developing a contingency plan for rogue ships.
• When Picard willingly reconnects to the Collective to save Jack, flashbacks to First Contact and to himself assimilated as Locutus appear during the "boot up" sequence.
• Worf tells Raffi that he has never shed any tears. Back in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Spock tells Scotty that Klingons have no tear ducts.
• Cool-Down Hug : Sidney is suddenly freed from the Collective and hit by the trauma of being assimilated and forced to try to kill the people she cares about. She is initially dazed, then horrified by the sight of her phaser (set to kill) pointing at Seven, and starts to freak out while desperately stammering her apologies. Seven walks up to Sidney without any hesitation, hugs her as she breaks down sobbing, and calms her down by assuring her 'it's over'.
• Curb Stomp Cushion : Spacedock is getting pounded on by hundreds of ships and by all accounts it can't hold out forever, but not only does it manage to hold with Earth's planetary shields protecting it, it also is able to lay the hurt on attacking fleet. In one scene it disables at least 5 ships with all its return fire.
• Earth Spacedock also gets this as well as she’s not only able to hold her own against what is essentially a 300 strong armada carrying the mother of all ammunitions depots but is seen actually doling out equal amounts of punishment. This isn’t Kirk’s Earth Spacedock folks!
• Darkest Hour : Continuing on from "Vox", all interlinked Starfleet vessels are now under Borg control and all young officers or enlisted crewmen have been rapidly assimilated thanks to the Borg's transporter-introduced genetic malware. Earth's defenses have been destroyed, Spacedock's Last Stand is only delaying the inevitable, and the Borg-controlled flotilla is on the cusp of burning the cradle of humanity and the heart of the Federation to a smoking cinder. The last, best hope for Starfleet and the Federation lies in Jean-Luc Picard, his command crew, and the resurrected Enterprise -D — but even still, it's seven people and one decades-old ship against the totality of the Collective.
• David Versus Goliath : Picard and the crew of the Enterprise -D have their work cut out for them as they have to take on a Borg Cube in a single ship thirty years past its prime (let alone without even a skeleton crew), once again dwarfed by the sheer size (and firepower) of the Collective's trademark vessel. In the same vein, Seven and her motley crew have to neutralize the Titan's assimilated officers and distract the entire Borgified armada to buy Sol Station more time. And although Sol Station is a massive fortress itself, it stands practically alone against almost the whole of Starfleet .
• Death by a Thousand Cuts : Earth Spacedock has defenses so strong that no single starship could ever hope to disable it. Unfortunately, the Borg have hijacked hundreds of starships, all of which are unloading on Spacedock with everything they have. Spacedock is shown disabling several of them, but the sheer volume of fire eventually overcomes their defenses.
• Death by Irony : Despite all the spectacle of the final confrontation, the Borg are ultimately defeated not through force of arms, but through loyalty, solidarity, self-sacrifice, and compassion as well as individualism. In other words, the Borg are laid low by the very ideals that are the bedrock of the Federation, Starfleet and the entire franchise — ideals which are also the antithesis of everything the Collective believes in and represents. Symbolically, it's a very classical Trek resolution.
• Decapitated Army : Subverted. When Jack is pulled from the Collective, the drones simply default to the last order given because the signal controlling them is still active, just no longer forwarding commands. The cube blowing up a minute later, thus severing the link completely, is what truly frees them from the Collective.
• Didn't Think This Through : Retroactive instance for Team Janeway following the confirmation that this is all payback for "Endgame". The Voyager crew was intent on using the Transwarp Hub to get home and dealing a crippling blow to the Borg in the process. Their mistake, however, was that they didn't stop to consider what would happen after they deployed the Neurolytic Pathogen. What if there were survivors...and how might they react to being poisoned and left to die by the Federation and Starfleet? Now, over 20 years later, Earth is paying the price for Janeway's failed foresight.
• Didn't See That Coming : The Borg Queen thought the Beacon was safe from enemy fire deep inside the Cube. She never anticipated that Picard's team would be daring and crazy enough to actually fly the Enterprise -D into the Cube itself.
• Drives Like Crazy : Data flies the Enterprise-D like he stole her into the Super-Cube's interior spaces. Justified, as Data's superhuman reflexes and perception make him the only member of Team Picard capable of such piloting. Deanna : Why am I sensing enjoyment? Data: (shit-eating grin)
• Dual Wielding : A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows Raffi battling with two hand phasers when her and Seven's teams invade the bridge to re-take it.
• Picard started the series alone in bitter, self-imposed exile from Starfleet and the rest of the world. Picard now exits it and the franchise having gained a family, reunited his closest friends for the first time in two decades (along with resurrecting Data and, in a way, the Enterprise -D too), and having triumphed once and for all over his oldest, most personal enemy.
• Raffi likewises started the series just as broken as Picard. The collapse of the Romulan Evacuation and her relationship with the Admiral also took down Raffi's career, her familial relationships, and her sobriety. But Picard's investigation into Soji Asha and Zhat Vash conspiracy slowly began pulling her out of the wreckage of her professional and personal lives. Raffi exits the series still struggling with her personal conflicts, but in much better shape now thanks to her relationships with Picard, Elnor, Seven, and now Worf. Having helped saved the Federation from utter annihilation, the recognition has allowed Raffi to not only begun reconciling with her son Gabe, but to also be offered one of the plum postings in all of Starfleet: The Federation Flagship's XO.
• Similarly to Raffi, Seven started the series just as broken by the death of her surrogate son Icheb and Starfleet's Fantastic Racism that prevented the ex-Borg from joining her friends from Voyager (and in spite of Janeway's fierce lobbying). Hooking up with Team Picard and her tumultuous romance with Raffi allowed Seven to slowly begin healing and living again. Seven exits the series having helped end the Borg for good and becoming Captain of the Federation Flagship (and while no longer romantically involved with Raffi, remaining close friends).
• Geordi and Sidney start the season estranged. Then just as Geordi begins to better understand and bond with Sidney, he loses her (and Alandra) to Borg assimilation. He's so desperate to save his girls that he's initially ready to rush out to their rescue without thinking things through. Thankfully, Data gets Geordi to see that they need a plan to save his girls. And it works. Seeing Sidney and Alandra, freed, safe, and happy, alongside Seven and Raffi, brings out a well-earned smile from Geordi.
• The Federation itself has gone through nearly half a century of conflict and societal upheaval not seen since the days of Captain Kirk with the threat of the Borg constantly in the back of everyone’s mind. The rising of the Sun over Earth dispels the long living nightmare of the last 40 years and the rise of a new century in which the Federation can recover and grow anew with a new Enterprise leading the way.
• This also applies to the USS Syracuse , from which Geordi gained the Enterprise's new secondary hull. While the actual ship undoubtedly had a distinguished career, and likely saw action in the Dominion War, it will live on as part of the Enterprise legacy. In fact the entire Galaxy class itself will live on as part of her legacy as well.
• A determined Picard states that "What began over thirty-five years ago ends tonight!" While he means the Federation-Borg conflict in-story, on a meta level of course he's also describing TNG itself, which premiered just over thirty-five years before the final season of Picard .
• In the final scene in Ten Forward, Riker says this looks like the end of the road. He's talking about last call (and Guinan trying to get them out of the now-closed bar). But of course, it's also talking about the closing minutes of the series finale and the last appearance of the TNG characters.
• Evil Evolves : The Borg Queen managed to survive the events of Voyager ' s Grand Finale through desperate, cannibalistic measures, sustained by a super massive Cube (possibly rebuilt from the Unimatrix Zero One complex) but is in no condition to make a direct assault against any modest spacefaring civilization, let alone the Federation and Starfleet. So they changed their tactics, utilizing Changelings to infiltrate Starfleet and secretly mess with the genetic code of near all of its officers to make them susceptible to mass assimilation once the trigger occurs . This change is cited by the Borg Queen herself no less as the catalyst for where they're going next. Queen : The future of the Borg does not lie in ... assimilation, but evolution.
• Evil Laugh : The Borg Queen gets a good one when she shows herself.
• Eye Awaken : The camera pans a couple of times on the face of one of the lifeless Borg drones that Worf and Riker find in the Cube. On the last one, the drone's eye snap open.
• Face Death with Dignity : Riker and Worf when the Borg cube looks ready to go up with them in it. Riker : Well, my old friend, is this good enough? Worf : This is indeed a fine day to die with honor.
• Fate Worse than Death : The Borg Queen's plan was to rebuild her Collective through the assimilated Starfleet officers by procreation , meaning that not only did she intend to have the Federation's youngest members wipe out their elders, but would then force them to reproduce in order to propagate her "species". In other words, she was not only going to commit murder but rape (both Mind Rape and sexually ) on a mass scale while her victims could do nothing to stop it.
• Final Battle : The events of Frontier Day in orbit of Earth and Jupiter ultimately serve as the final confrontation between the Federation and the Borg.
• Forbidden Zone : The opening starts with President Anton Chekov warning away anyone listening to his message from Earth as the Borg have taken over.
• The Borg's Assimilation Plot will fail, the Federation and Starfleet will be restored, and Earth will not be destroyed. On a meta level, similarly to DS9 and the outcome of the Dominion War, the franchise needs the UFP intact for future projects. In terms of internal continuity, we already know they're still intact and active into the late 32nd century (the setting of Star Trek: Discovery from the third season onwards). The dramatic tension going into the finale instead lies in how the day is saved and whether or not any of the TNG characters (the Enterprise -D included) will die to achieve that victory, as while they're long dead come the third season of Discovery , the circumstances of their final fates are unrevealed.
• Similarly, whether or not the Borg will be destroyed or survive to assimilate another day is also part of the dramatic tension, as there's been no mention of the Collective at all in the future timeframe of Discovery — except for one passing reference made by the Federation president wherein she compared Species 10-C's hive mind to the Borg Collective — leaving their fate in the centuries separating eras unknown, until now.
• Upon beaming over to the Cube, Picard discovers they're in even worse trouble than they thought. Not only is the Borg Queen still alive, but she's gone completely insane and devolved into an Omnicidal Maniac . So, if they can't stop the Collective here and now, it won't just be the Federation that falls. The reborn Borg Collective will spread throughout the stars and annihilate rather than assimilate every single lifeform in the galaxy.
• Played for Black Comedy in the Stringer. Having experienced and survived his father's archenemy (the Borg), Jack now finds himself facing his father's other perpetual pain in his posterior (i.e. Q).
• Code: One ( Total or imminent disaster, possible invasion, or the Federation is soon to be in open war, requiring Starfleet personnel to assume tactical alert )
• General Order 12 ( On the approach of any vessels where communications have not been established, raise shields )
• Starfleet Order 104 ( In the absence of a starship's captain, a flag officer had the authority to assume command )
• Regulation 19 Section C ( An officer can assume command if an eminent threat is detected, lives of Federation citizens are in question and no officer of equal or higher rank is there to mitigate the threat ).
• When the Enterprise -D flies by Jupiter, we're treated to a high-definition closeup of the saucer section. Sharp-eyed viewers can spot brief glimpses of the interiors of Ten Forward, the ready room, and the observation lounge when the camera pans over them.
• While it's already visible in the previous episode, the 1701-D's slow approach to Jupiter orbit offers a better chance and better lighting to see the differences between the original saucer section (and what work Geordi's been able to do on it) and the Syracuse's former stardrive section. The Syracuse is obviously a cleaner, well-preserved TNG-era Galaxy -class secondary hull. The D's primary hull, of course, is older, more worn and dirty, and still bears the signs of its fiery plunge through Veridian III's atmosphere thirty years earlier and of plowing into the surface and skidding to a stop. The starboard nacelle pylon also bears the Syracuse's registry number, NCC-17744, rather than the Enterprise's , NCC-1701-D, as Geordi said in the previous episode that he was still in the process of rebuilding the engineering hull of the Syracuse .
• Frontline General : Knowing the Collective as he does, Picard correctly concludes the Borg are on site somewhere in the Sol system directing the assimilated flotilla. His hunch is right, as Data detects a Borg vessel inside of Jupiter.
• Fully Absorbed Finale : For The Next Generation , as the final season was conceived and developed by Terry Matalas to be the farewell and sendoff that Nemesis failed to provide the franchise's second most famous crew.
• "Get Out of Jail Free" Card : After saving the entire Federation from a Borg takeover and near-annihilation, Starfleet can't exactly court-martial or dishonorably discharge Picard and the old 1701-D/E command crew (or Raffi, Seven, and the Titan officers and crew) for offenses and criminal acts committed throughout the season, can they? Tuvok even lampshades it during his scene with Seven.
• The Ghost : As the crew close down the bar they imply Guinan is just off camera, but is neither seen or heard.
• Grand Finale : For both Picard and the overarching TNG saga that began in 1987. Barring any potential post-series spinoffs, it is also the chronological finale of the entire 24th century era of the franchise, as Prodigy and Lower Decks , while still in production at the time of this episode's premiere, are both set before PIC in 2380 and 2384 respectively.
• Here We Go Again! : Having concluded Picard's Trial, Q's ready to begin the "judicial process" anew with the next generation (in the form of Picard's son).
• He's Back! : A minor, if humorous example. Just as the beloved "Picard Maneuver" returned in last week's penultimate shot, the likewise beloved and iconic "Riker Lean" also returns. Riker — or at least Jonathan Frakes — must love being back on this particular bridge with its consoles and finally being able to do it again.
• Hidden in Plain Sight : The Borg cube relaying the infection signal and harboring the Borg Queen is revealed to be hiding deep within Jupiter itself, practically sitting on Starfleet's doorstep the entire time as they waited for their moment to activate the assimilation process. Now that it's actually transmitting, it's had to poke out of the gaseous surface and can be detected.
• History Repeats : The Stinger ends much as TNG began: with (a) Picard finding themselves dealing with Q.
• Honor Before Reason : After completing their mission objective, Riker and Worf go back for Picard — and despite knowing it's a one-way trip and they're likely going to die once the Enterprise destroys the beacon. Riker's loyalty and love for Picard won't allow him to leave his former Captain behind. This honor and loyalty, of course, ironically is what ends up saving them all (as Deanna senses Riker's location in the dead zone through their empathic bond).
• Hope Spot : Played for black comedy in The Stinger when Q pops in. Jack is understandably confused, recounting how his father had said Q was dead. An annoyed Q grouses he had hoped the next generation wouldn't be so linear with its thinking (something he'd previously accused Jean-Luc of being). Alas, Jack's already dashed Q's hopes within mere moments of their first meeting.
• Even more impactful is that in the last 20 or so years the Borg have gone from being a nigh-untouchable threat that even the omnipotent Q didn’t DARE mess with to being the harmless bogeymen of children’s bedtime stories and by the 32nd century are nothing more than another footnote in Federation and Galactic history barely mentioned or acknowledged by anyone.
• Hypocritical Humor : Subtle instance that also doubles as a Brick Joke for Nemesis . Back during the Kolarus III away mission — specifically during Picard's... "piloting" of the Argo — Data remarked he was forever puzzled by the human predilection for piloting vehicles at unsafe velocities. Over 20 years later, Data's doing the exact same thing with the Enterprise -D — and loving every moment of it.
• Identical Grandson : We don't actually see President Anton Chekov, only hear him through the emergency message that begins the episode - but considering the voice is that of Walter Koenig, best known as Ensign Pavel Chekov from the Original Series, who is Anton's father, it's hardly a stretch of imagination that son Anton looks a lot like dear old dad.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant : The Galaxy class Enterprise -D was part of a bygone era where ship design focused on majesty and general purpose functionality , while not lacking in weaponry they were not known for tight maneuvers, Starfleet ships became more streamlined and maneuverable after the Borg encounter and Dominion War. But thanks to Data's advanced piloting coupled with being rebuilt with Dominion War era technological components and the star drive section of the Syracuse (along with improvements in modern visual effects) the D is shown strafing the Borg cube with weapons fire, eventually diving inside at full speed with little room to spare like she’s dancing the can-can!
• Informed Flaw : It's made clear in both this episode and the previous one that the Enterprise -D is at a disadvantage, being decades out of date and not even at full strength. And yet, the command crew do so well the old ship comes off as a Lightning Bruiser , only taking some light damage. Justified in that the Borg Cube is even worse off: it's at 36% capacity, and most of that is devoted to controlling Starfleet (to say nothing of countering the immense gravitational pull of Jupiter). There are barely any functional drones left besides the Queen, so their ability to adapt is practically non-existent. Additionally, Data is the one piloting the Enterprise -D and Dr. Crusher has worked on her aim considerably in the last 20 years.
• Indy Ploy : Following on from last episode, Team Picard has grabbed the Enterprise -D — the one active Starfleet ship left not linked into the Fleet Formation protocols and thus can't be hacked — from the Fleet Museum and, with people dying every second, must improv their plan once they reach the cube.
• Picard declares that it's been an honor serving with his friends as he, Riker, and Worf prepare to leave for the cube, knowing this is a mission some or all of them may not come back from.
• Riker and Worf say their goodbyes to each other this way as it seems that the Enterprise -D won't be able to rescue them.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet : Lampshaded by Riker upon beaming onto the Borg cube, as he notes that he has never been in such a situation that ended with a "pleasant surprise".
• Keystone Army : The Borg cube transmitting the signal is also the only thing holding the attack and assimilation of Starfleet together, meaning that for Picard and his crew to succeed in saving the Federation and the galaxy, they must sever the connection by any means necessary.
• Killed Off for Real : The original Borg Collective is, effectively, extinct by the end of the episode through a combination of Janeway's virus deteriorating them down to the one single cube that was broadcasting the signal assimilating the fleet from their original trillions-strong number and its subsequent destruction at the hands of the Enterprise -D undoing said assimilation, sealing their fate completely.
• Last Stand : For Starfleet, as the Enterprise -D, the Titan -A, and Spacedock are all that's standing between the Borg and the destruction of the heart of the Federation.
• A reprise of Dennis McCarthy 's "To Live Forever" from Generations plays at the Fleet Museum in the epilogue, as the now-fully refurbished Enterprise -D takes its place alongside its legendary sister ships. It musically brings the ship full circle where we'd left it back in 1994, but also symbolizing how it really will live forever now and not be forgotten and alone on some backwater alien world.
• Jerry Goldsmith's First Contact theme (which had been part of the End Credits music throughout the final Season) returns one more time to underscore Picard's final Patrick Stewart Speech .
• Locked Out of the Loop : Since the TNG characters fled Titan last episode, Seven and Raffi have no idea what Geordi's plan was (as there was no time for him to share it before the shuttlebay deck came under attack). So, when the Titan first registers the Enterprise -D's presence in the Sol System, both Raffi and Seven are initially confused as to what the hell this is (at least until Seven puts the pieces together and deduces Team Picard's plan).
• Logo Joke : The usual opening logo card is modified for this episode, swapping the Shrike for a Borg cube, replacing the Titan -A with the Enterprise -D, and ending with a green filter and red flash akin to the laser sight of a Borg drone. And of course, replacing the usual logo card tune with the Borg's four-chord leitmotif .
• Loophole Abuse : Q's return from the dead in the Stinger — or at least how it can be Q despite his death last Season. Q is 100% definitely dead , at least at the end of his own personal timeline. But, being a non-linear being means there's an infinite spectrum of hims out there that aren't dead yet to keep coming back and harassing Picard and his progeny for a long long time to come.
• Meaningful Echo : When Jack is rescued from the Borg Cube, Admiral Picard welcomes him to the Enterprise -D. A year later, Jack is ferried to his first assignment as a Starfleet ensign and revealing to Admiral Picard that the Titan -A has been rechristened: Jack: Welcome to the Enterprise , Admiral.
• Meaningful Rename : The Titan -A, following a harrowing battle against the entire assimilated fleet, is rechristened the Enterprise -G. She’s more than earned it.
• Starfleet continues in this tradition. For Picard to put Geordi in charge actually makes sense: Commodore La Forge outranks Captain Riker and Captain Worf. That said, when he (La Forge) tries to pull Riker and Worf off the Cube, Riker says, "Belay that order" — which he cannot legally say to someone who outranks him. Since the two are True Companions , not to mention on the lam from Starfleet, no one comments. (Besides, they're all taking orders from Jean-Luc Picard, who, as a retired admiral, can give orders to nobody whatsoever . Technically, Geordi is the ranking officer.)
• It strains credibility that Jack would be fast-tracked into an officer's commission after just one year, even with two admirals as his parents. However intelligent he may be, his behavior on the bridge of the Enterprise -G makes it clear that he's not very disciplined.
• Specifically, when Sidney's connection to the Collective is severed, she initially looks dazed. It's when she looks down and sees her phaser pointed at Seven that her eyes widen in shock/horror at what she was about to do: kill the people she loved, while being helpless to stop it.
• President Chekov's warning to avoid Earth at all costs sounds a lot like President Roth's warning during the Whale Probe crisis in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home .
• Troi and Riker are able to psychically communicate, which was a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness from the TNG pilot and never seen again until now.
• Near-Villain Victory : The Assimilated Starfleet managed to destroy Earth Spacedock and the planetary shield drops. They start targeting every major city and population center just before the Enterprise -D crew destroy the Borg Cube.
• The Needs of the Many : Our heroes on the Enterprise realize that destroying the transmitter will save Starfleet but also destroy the Cube, killing their friends still aboard. As much as it pains them, they blow up the transmitter, but stick around just long enough to rescue Picard and his team.
• Nepotism : Beverly and Picard congratulate Jack on a prestigious posting so early into his Starfleet career, calling it a great honor. Jack jokes that it could also be nepotism, given his heritage, though both deny their names got him anywhere.
• Never Be Hurt Again : Part of the Borg Queen's overrarching goal is to annihilate non-Borg and ensure the Collective can never be hurt again after what Janeway did to them. Ironically, this was also the same motive behind the Changelings forming the Dominion (furthering the parallels betweem the two powers).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero : Picard's final confrontation with the Queen confirms (curiously without actually naming her) that this final campaign against the Federation is Janeway's fault. The neurolytic pathogen that the Alternate Admiral Janeway "bequeathed" to the Borg back in "Endgame" ravaged the Collective, leaving the Queen reduced to a wreck, alone, and hellbent on revenge against Starfleet and the Federation.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain : The Borg Queen invites Picard into the cube to gloat. This ultimately is the last fatal mistake she ever makes as it allows not only Picard, but Worf, Riker and the Enterprise -D into the cube and puts the final nail in the coffin of the original Borg Collective.
• No Endor Holocaust : The Borg remotely assimilate roughly half of Starfleet and turn it against the other half. At the very least, most if not all of the 25+ crew of the assimilated vessels were killed, along with however many assimilated crew were killed during the battle. This is on top of the casualties that would have been incurred when Earth Spacedock fell. Despite this, the Dénouement treats the event as a momentary close call rather than a horrendous loss of life, and the cast are all smiles as they wrap up the remaining plot threads. No mention whatsoever is made of the massive casualties that must have ensued or the trauma those temporarily-assimilated survivors must now be dealing with.
• No Ontological Inertia : Zig-zagged with the assimilated Starfleet youths. Jack leaving the collective simply prevents them to receive new orders, so they default to the last order received (which was to kill every non-assimilated). However, when the cube explodes, their assimilation reverts instantly.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore : Having menaced the 24th century and the entire Star Trek franchise for over thirty years, the existential threat posed by the Borg Collective has finally ended. The original Collective is gone , leaving only Jurati's friendly offshoot out there somewhere.
• Not Quite Dead : Most of the drones on the cube are at best dead and at worst actively being cannibalized by nanoprobes for raw materials. This causes Riker and Worf to let down their guard when they access a Borg terminal, as the drones in that section are relatively intact and deployed in response to the intrusion.
• Not So Above It All : Worf reveals to Riker that there's a phaser hidden in the hilt of his sword. When Riker naturally complains about his choice of tactics, Worf responds: Worf: Swords are fun.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business : The Borg have notoriously always been so fixated, dark as it might be , on assimilating other cultures and adding them to their own to improve their chances of reaching perfection and, in a twisted way, gift that opportunity (regardless of whether their victims want to or not) to any species they find intriguing enough to add to their Collective... so the moment the Borg Queen herself gloats how the Borg no longer need to assimilate anymore is a massive sign that the Borg Collective — or what remains of it — have gone off the deep end and have fully slipped into their roles as the horribly evil monsters the galaxy saw them as when the Queen emphasizes their desire is now to annihilate all other life now that they can reproduce through the usage of the assimilated techno-organic youth of Starfleet and thus need to add nothing to them.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome : The assimilated Starfleet's attack on Earth and Spacedock has been continuing off-screen while Team Picard grabbed the Enterprise -D from the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime. All orbital weapons platforms have been destroyed, but Spacedock itself has held its own and repelled the attack so far, although with the sheer amount of firepower arrayed against the facility, it's only delaying the inevitable. Spacedock wouldn't have been unaffected by the Borg signal activation last episode and they're almost certainly trying to stop the same "instant drone" uprising that hit the entire Frontier Day fleet. Yet, Spacedock has managed to either stop the assimilated Starfleet personnel, or at least forced them into an impasse — and this is also all while fighting back against the similarly assimilated Starfleet armada.
• Omnicidal Maniac : Thanks to Janeway's neurolytic pathogen she unleashed on the Borg Collective, the sole surviving manifestation of the Borg Queen was driven mad by the isolation of being all alone and deprived from their original trillions-strong chorus, now seeing the original method of the Borg as a failure because it allowed them to be hurt so bad to begin with and concluding that the response for the Borg to achieve the perfection they desire is through violent evolution via self-propagation by any means necessary. As such, after one last mass assimilation of Starfleet's youth who would all be able to give rise to newer generations of Borg without needing to devour other worlds to grow their number, the Queen would just start to wipe out all other life to avoid their Collective ever being hurt again.
• One-Winged Angel : The final Borg Queen presents herself towering over her human opponents, what's left of her biological body partially rotten and wearing the electronics that fuse her to her ship like a menacing robe, with the tubes surrounding her even alluding to spider legs . This also, however, makes her more of a Clipped-Wing Angel due to her radical transformation being a consequence of the neurolytic pathogen introduced by Janeway, so instead being a sign of her immense power over the protagonists, it instead shows how desperate the Queen is not to die by any means necessary even if costs her own physical ability and the power of the Collective in the process.
• Outrun the Fireball : The Enterprise -D fleeing the Queen's exploding cube. This is, incidentally, the second time the "D" has to do this with the Borg, following on from the original 2366-67 incursion —and the third time by an Enterprise commanded by Picard, as even the "E" had to run hell at the end of the Battle of Sector 001 in First Contact .
• Orbital Bombardment : The assimilated fleet comes very close to laying waste to Earth.
• Patrick Stewart Speech : Given the honor of the TNG crew's final toast, Picard's very last speech of the franchise is, fittingly, one more recitiation of Shakespeare (specifically Brutus' speech to Cassius from Julius Caesar , Act 4. Scene 3. Amusingly, Picard's also using the toast as part of a long-winded means of proposing one more game of Poker with his crew. Picard: There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
• Pet the Dog : Worf covertly leaks Raffi's classified Starfleet Intelligence file, showing all the commendations for valor she earned.
• More over as love is an enigma to even non Mind Hive civilizations this is the one thing that the Borg, for all their efforts, are unable to assimilate as it’s something that all logic dictates shouldn’t even EXIST and yet somehow does in defiance of said logic!
• Precision F-Strike : Riker when he tries to wield Worf's Kur'leth...and nearly drops it because he didn't realize much the Klingon weapon really weighed. Riker: Oh shit! I had no idea it was that heavy!
• Promotion, Not Punishment : Seven of Nine prepares to resign from Starfleet in the aftermath of her disobeying of direct orders before Tuvok reveals that she — based upon a prior report from Captain Shaw — is to be promoted to captain instead. Tuvok: Resignation denied...Captain.
• Rage Quit : Played for laughs when Worf gets frustrated during their final poker game and folds with only two cards. Worf: I fold! Okay?! Geordi: Seriously? Troi: With two cards?
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits : The new command crew of the Enterprise -G, as they themselves lampshade with Seven even Tempting Fate . Raffi: I still can't believe Starfleet saw fit to give a thief, a pirate, and a spy their own ship. Jack: Bunch of ne'er-do-wells and rule-breakers, really. Seven: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
• Seven is promoted to captain, and given command of the Titan -A, newly rechristened into the Enterprise -G.
• The Titan -A goes from being just another ship in Starfleet to being the flagship!
• While it's not particularly commented on, as not much was said about her rank either way, Beverly Crusher goes from a resigned Starfleet officer with the (former) rank of Commander to Head of Starfleet Medical with the rank of Admiral.
• The Borg Queen's vessel wasn't hiding in a nebula as "Vox" implied, but in Jupiter's atmosphere, or at least made a beeline there from wherever she picked up Jack and assimilated him.
• Voyager did more damage to the Borg on their way out of the Delta Quadrant than even they realized. The entire Collective was left crippled by the alternate Janeway's neurolytic pathogen and has imploded in the 20+ years since "Endgame". The Queen and her Cube are the last remnant of the once-mighty power.
• Code 1 means the Federation is at war with, or being invaded by, a hostile power, and all Starfleet personnel must immediately assume tactical alert.
• General Order 12 means if you approach a vessel, and cannot establish contact, you must immediately go to Red Alert.
• Starfleet Order 104 means a ranking officer can assume command of a vessel from a flag officer if they have evidence that they are compromised.
• Regulation 19, Section C permits the highest-available officer to assume command of a vessel if the lives of Federation citizens are at risk.
• Shaw's Out-of-Character Alert example to Seven during the Changeling manhunt back in "No Win Scenario" likewise plays differently now with the new context. On the first watch, it came across as Shaw being the equal parts Jerkass , if Mentor in Sour Armor , of the early episodes. Now, it's revealed to have actually been a Sarcastic Confession (and one made possible only because of how angry Shaw was at Seven's betrayal of his trust).
• The Borg Queen's facial features complete with tubes in her right eyesocket can actually be seen as part of the gooey floating head image that Vadic takes orders from in the previous episodes. Also, even though her transmission to Vadic is in a male voice, the mannerisms of Alice Krige shine through plain as day.
• Rousing Speech : Delivered by Seven during the battle. Seven: I'm not asking you to give your lives for nothing. I'm asking you to fight for what's below. Your families, your children. The Borg have taken our crew, taken our captain. But in this moment, here and now, we are all that is left of Starfleet . It's up to us.
• Continuing on from last episode, the Enterprise -D being Team Picard's starship for the last battle with the Borg. This was the ship that made official first contact between the Federation and the Collective — an encounter that set off a chain of events that led to Wolf 359 and Picard's assimilation and ripple effects that reverberated across the franchise into DS9 , VOY, and even back in time to ENT. So, it's fitting that the ship that was there at at the very beginning of the Federation-Borg conflict — and which stood against the Collective twice more before Veridian III — is back for the final confrontation between the "best of both worlds".
• it turns into Laser-Guided Karma as without any means to keep it in orbit once the beacon’s destroyed Jupiter’s gravity begins to take hold of the cube even before it explodes and dooms whatever survives to be crushed by its gravity and disintegrated into oblivion by its winds. Jupiter was also seen as the Supreme God of Justice and a defender of humanity against chaos thus where else would a race that has destroyed countless civilizations and murdered/wiped out countless races and move on like a Karma Houdini style plague of locusts be given a fitting punishment than to be defeated for good in the home system of the single space faring civilization that has not only defied them thrice but has ultimately won the battle and erased their existence from the galaxy forever.
• The dawn symbolism also takes on greatest context in the overarching TNG-era narrative. When TNG opened, the UFP was at peace with the Klingons and the Romulans had retreated into isolation after the Tomed Incident. It was a golden age of peace, exploration, and utopia for over half a century — until First Contact with the Borg. Wolf 359 shattered that golden age and seemed to open the floodgates to non-stop crises and existential threats over the next 35 years: the Maquis, the Klingon invasion of Cardassia and the sundering of the Khitomer Accords, the Dominion War, the Son'a, Shinzon, the Synth Attack on Mars, and on and on. For the nearly four decades since Wolf 359, the UFP has taken hit after hit and lost more and more of its way amidst the darkness and uncertainty. But now, the final defeat of the Borg Collective and the renegade Founders is an exorcism of the last, vengeful ghosts of the past. The long night is over and the Federation has finally found its way out of the darkness.
• And with the Titan being rechristened a year later, it's also a Passing the Torch moment from one Enterprise to another.
• The Enterprise -D's final shutdown sequence in the Fleet Museum for obvious reasons. The 24th century era began with the voyages of the Enterprise -D, Jean-Luc Picard, and his crew. From their voyages (both in-universe and on a Meta level) came DS9 and VOY (and even ENT in terms of production order). So, having been preceded by Voyager and the Defiant (and, again in production order, the NX-01), the D now joins its "younger siblings" in the figurative, honorable afterlife. Geordi shutting the ship down is literally turning off the lights of not just the D, but the entire 24th century era — and it's ending exactly where it first began 35 years earlier.
• This final game also symbolizes his Character Development not just across this series, but also since the TNG series finale. While Picard had slowly bonded with his senior officers over TNG's run, he still ultimately maintained a professional working relationship with them as The Captain (with Beverly being the sole exception). When he sat down to play poker with the command crew in "All Good Things", it was really his first steps towards interacting with them on the same level and truly seeing them as his friends , rather than as his subordinate officers. Now, thirty years later, they end as they did before with another round of poker — but this time, Jean-Luc's the one initiating the game. He's visibly relaxed and at ease, grinning, and delighted to be surrounded by the people he has come to love and cherish more than anyone else in the galaxy.
• A bit of a Black Comedy variation. Once again, the Borg are at Earth's doorstep — and for the third time now, it's up to a starship Enterprise (let alone one commanded by Picard again ) to be The Cavalry and bail out everyone's asses.
• Worf still can't win a hand of poker if his life and honor depdended upon it.
• Running Gagged : In preparing for a Suicide Mission to rescue Picard and Jack while missing their chance to beam aboard the Enterprise , Worf comments that for a moment he was worried they would actually survive the battle, and later paraphrases the oft quoted "Today is a good day to die" as they prepare to Face Death with Dignity .
• Picard grimly observes that they have to sever the Borg cube's signal controlling their Keystone Army no matter the cost. The subtext (and Beverly's reaction) is clear: saving Jack may not be an option and they may end up forced to kill him to save Earth and the Federation.
• While it's not explicitly pointed out, the Spacedock crew also got hit with this during their fight against the assimilated Starfleet armada. By firing on Starfleet vessels, they're killing their friends, peers, and innocent people who've all been turned into unwitting pawns by the Borg. But if they don't fire back, then Earth's last line of defense will fall and there will be nothing to stop the cradle of hummanity from being reduced to a smoking cinder.
• Sanity Slippage : As a result of her body being ravaged by Janeway’s pathogen and the decimation of the Collective, the Borg Queen has become noticeably more unhinged than usual, her voice losing much of its trademark calm in favor of near seething rage and resentment towards Picard and the Federation.
• "Save the World" Climax : Following on from the ending of "Vox", Picard, his allies, and the refurbished Enterprise -D are now the last hope to save the assimilated Starfleet and Federation from the Borg.
• Saved by Canon : Again, the Federation and Starfleet will survive and be restored and Earth will not be destroyed, thanks to both still existing into the late 32nd century .
• Sequel Episode : The last two episodes serves as a continuation of both "The Best of Both Worlds" and Star Trek: First Contact , culminating in a Final Battle against the Borg. To a lesser extent, it's also a sequel to "Endgame", following up on the Collective's fate after Voyager essentially fire-bombed them on their way out of the Delta Quadrant.
• Sequel Hook : Similar to how Discovery 's second season ended, the series ends this way, leaving it open to the adventures of the Enterprise -G. In particular, Q shows up to tell Jack that his trial has just begun.
• Single Tear : Seven sheds one as she watches Shaw's performance review, and realizes he did respect her.
• Skyward Scream : The Borg Queen does this as her cube explodes, while Picard, Riker, Worf and Jack are beamed away and rescued as everything collapses.
• The Enterprise -D flies into the cube to destroy it, just like how the Millennium Falcon and Wedge in his X-wing destroyed the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi . Data even says "Here goes nothing" right before entering, as Lando did. It also ends the same way, with the Enterprise rocketing out of the fireball of the exploding monstrosity just like the Falcon .
• Pavel Chekov's son is named Anton—a reference both to the late actor Anton Yelchin , who played Chekov in the Kelvin film series, and to the great playwright Anton Chekhov .
• Although that smug gloating turns to silent astonishment when the D begins tearing her cube up from the inside!
• Special Edition Title : The opening bumper replaces the Titan -A with the Enterprise -D, uses darker and more subdued music, and throws in a Borg cube.
• The Stinger : After the poker game, Q shows up in Jack's quarters on the Enterprise -G, informing him that while his father's trials are over, his are just beginning .
• Stunned Silence : Played for laughs with the collective reactions of Geordi, Deanna, and even Data when Beverly uses the D's weapons systems (and with precision and force that even Worf never did) to wreck the Queen's cube like a baseball bat whacking a piñata . Dr. Beverly Crusher: A lot's happened in the last twenty years.
• Justified. All Starfleet vessels are now under Borg control thanks to the Fleet Formation synchronization protocols and assimilated crew members, or would be the moment they entered range. The hijacked Starfleet armada moved so hard and so fast that any other nearby non-Starfleet Federation or civilian vessels have already been destroyed (or fled for their lives ) in the interim while Team Picard was grabbing the Enterprise -D from the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime (however far away that is from Earth). Superman, for all intents, literally can't even fly into Gotham.
• It's also worth noting that it's unclear if there are any DS9 and VOY characters (or secondary TNG characters like Barclay) present in the vicinity of Earth. Odds are reasonable that there are some of them on site (or at least Starfleet members) due to Frontier Day. But assuming they survived the initial attack, they almost certainly have got problems of their own, with the siege of Spacedock and the impending planetary bombardment of Earth.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending : While there have been some deaths and misery over the course of the season, the original Borg Collective is finally eradicated forever and Earth, Starfleet, and the Federation are simultaneously saved by efforts of Picard, his crew, and Seven of Nine who all are commended for their efforts, pardoned for their prior actions, and are to help usher in a new hopeful era in spite of all that has happened. And to cap it off too, Picard is able to finally able to reach out to his son Jack and becomes involved with his life as his father, while Jack becomes a Starfleet officer aboard the Titan -A, now rechristened to the Enterprise -G under the command of Captain Seven-of-Nine on her first new voyage.
• There was also a possibility that the reason they had no “Plan B” was that even if things went as expected or went south there would be no place for Vadic and her changelings to retreat to as the rest of the Founders wouldn’t want them back and in fact would most likely have them hunted down for “betraying them” for siding with and aiding an even worst threat than the “solids” as the Founders were no doubt fully aware of the Borg and the danger they represented.
• More over the fact that virus also caused the Borg Collective to lose their technological and tactical advantages over their neighbors as well as the civilizations that somehow managed to survive within their own borders undetected so there’s little reason to doubt that survivors of their “assimilations” (as well as civilizations on the Borg’s “post-human assimilation” list) took full advantage of this unexpected surprise “gift” to dish out some long overdue payback! As when the Borg Queen says that she had been forced to withdraw to the sparsest places of the galaxy in a single Cube unable to even assimilate anything of worth due to the virus, it means that the Collective was literally driven out beyond even the backwaters of civilized space itself! It goes to show just how loathed and HATED the Borg truly were that the entire GALAXY was more than eager to throw a whole library’s worth of books at them when they were finally brought low! Not that the Borg didn’t have it coming to them.
• Data is shown to be taking therapy after all is said and done, going over the scheduled time by an hour and apparently having daily sessions with Troi. Considering all that has happened to him, not the least of which includes melding his personality with Lore and being revived in a body that is almost human, it's not terribly surprising.
• The refurbishment of the Enterprise -D being completed within a year during the Time Skip . While Geordi had essentially spent the past 20 years working on it in his garage on the weekends, the restoration was ultimately a side project; it was clearly a lesser priority for the Fleet Museum's resources and agenda. After helping save the Federation — a victory only made possible because of Geordi's side-project and a non-networked ship — however, it's not hard to imagine that whatever resources and manpower Geordi wants, Geordi gets. Command would also almost certainly recognize the PR value (especially in the wake of the Frontier Day nightmare) of restoring and displaying the ship that literally singlehandedly stopped the Borg Collective once and for all and saved the UFP from assimilation and annihilation.
• Despite being fast-tracked through the Academy and earning a prestigious posting on the ship of his choosing, Jack only receives a posting as "special counselor" to Captain Seven of Nine. For all his practical spacefaring experience and clout for being a Picard and a Crusher, he's still young and unused to working in a command environment. Talent and nepotism can only fast-track someone so far in an institution with a strict military hierarchy like Starfleet.
• As Jack learns the hard way in The Stinger , if your father was the favorite mortal plaything of a mischievous godlike Trickster Mentor for over 30 years, then odds are good said higher-dimensional entity's also going to take an interest in any progeny of Mon Capitaine . And since said entity transcends space and time, the fact that he died several years ago is completely meaningless; he will still make time to "drop in" at a point before his passing.
• Sword Cane : When Worf is injured by two drones, Riker is not strong enough to lift his kur'leth. As it turns out, the kur'leth has a hand phaser built into the grip. Riker quickly questions the logic of using a bladed weapon over an energy weapon. Worf shrugs it off with "Swords are fun."
• Take a Third Option : Initially, it seems the Enterprise crew must choose between blowing up the beacon and killing their friends still aboard the cube, and dooming the rest of the galaxy to assimilation and genocide. Thanks to Deanna's emotional link with Riker helping her find the away team, they end up blowing up the beacon and rescuing their friends (and Jack to boot!) in the minute left between destroying the beacon and the cube blowing up.
• Taking You with Me : Even after her plans are in ruins, the Borg Queen tries to taunt Jean-Luc and Jack with this. She does not take their subsequent rescue well.
• Take Me Instead : Picard demands that the Borg Queen take him instead of Jack — but she doesn't want him anymore. Picard: Let him go. Take me. I'm the one you want. Your equal. Borg Queen: No. I don't want you, Locutus. The future of the Borg does not lie in... assimilation but evolution.
• Teleport Gun : Seven and the crew use modified phasers that instantly beam away whoever they shoot to the transporter room, which has been locked down to keep the Borg crew occupied. Unfortunately, the crew eventually break out. Seven: Good job routing transporter fields through phasers. You may have just invented the portable beam-me-up... if we survive.
• This Cannot Be! : From the expression on the Borg Queen's face, the last thing she ever expected to see was a Galaxy -class starship suddenly show up literally right on top of her.
• This Is Gonna Suck : Played for laughs in the final scene with Worf's agonized groaning after Picard produces the deck of Poker cards. His head's bowed in resignation, knowing he's gonna get his ass kicked at the poker table (and does).
• Time Skip : Following the final battle with the Borg, the finale jumps ahead one year for its epilogue.
• Together in Death : In what he expects to be his last moments, Riker calmly muses aloud that he'll be waiting for Deanna with their son. It's then subverted when this emotion is strong enough for Troi to sense his location in the cube and bring the Enterprise -D in for a rescue.
• Trademark Favorite Food : Worf's love of Prune Juice finally returns, as Beverley's dialogue during the final scene indicates he's had at least one glass of the stuff so far that evening.
• Turn in Your Badge : Averted; when Tuvok confronts Seven of Nine about her actions in stealing the Titan-A, Seven announces her intention to resign from Starfleet. Tuvok then shows her Captain Shaw's logs, in which he commended Seven for her courage and loyalty, despite her maverick tendencies. Tuvok then informs Seven, "Resignation denied, Captain."
• Unresolved Sexual Tension : Seven tells Sidney La Forge to ignore any orders that Jack gives on the new Enterprise . She says she always does (whilst smiling) and Jack smirks to himself.
• While Tuvok was still alive, it's left unrevealed when he was captured and replaced by the Founders (leaving it either presumably several months before the Season, or during the first half of Season Three once they realized Seven and the Titan were involved).
• Seven of Nine is asked to come up with a Catchphrase for ordering the ship to warp, like "Engage" or "Make it so". Just as she is about to say it, the scene cuts to an exterior shot of the ship as it takes off.
• Nor what happens during the Time Skip . Besides Tuvok, there would've been a lot of work identifying and arresting all the infiltrators, locating and rescuing their victims, rebuilding spacedock and so forth. Was the Enterprise -D in service during that time with a full crew?
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee : When the Enterprise crew learns where the core is, Geordi is sure that not even Sidney could get them in there. However, despite it being statistically- and probability-wise impossible, Data is just so certain he can pilot the Enterprise -D in and begs the others to let him do this. He doesn't explain how , but seeing as he's going balls-to-the-wall insane with the controls, it's more than certain his reflexes are just fast enough to pull off the stunt. It certainly caught the Borg by surprise.
• The assimilated fleet is able to wear down Earth Spacedock by virtue of having so many ships that Spacedock simply can't shoot them down fast enough.
• Conversely, Spacedock holding out as long as it does buys just enough time for Picard's crew to take out the Queen and save everyone.
• Villainous Breakdown : Twofold with the Queen: her motivation for annihilating Starfleet is built around a massive case of Sanity Slippage thanks to what Janeway's virus did to the Borg (along with the expected retribution dished out by the survivors of previous Borg attacks), leaving her the Last of Her Kind and is fundamentally broken into misathropy against all other life ; then, once denied her attempt of Revenge as her Borg Cube is falling apart all around her and seeing the end of the Collective before her very eyes, the Borg Queen completely loses what bit of civility she had left and screams even if he survives, Jack will always be alone without them as they escape. Jack simply tells her, while looking at Picard, he isn't alone .
• Visual Pun : Subtle one during the final scene in Ten Forward. At the poker table, Riker is seated to Picard's right. In other words, even now ol' Number One is still figuratively and literally Picard's right-hand man.
• Wham Episode : The original Borg Collective are effectively extinct for good by the end of the episode , eradicating the most dangerous Archenemy of the Federation seemingly forever with the destruction of their last Borg cube hiding within Jupiter.
• Wham Line : "Well, look at you. A chip off the old block." Q is Back from the Dead — or at least this is Q from a point prior to his death last season. He is omnipotent, after all, and doesn't obey linear time.
• Where's Laris at the end of the season? At the beginning of the season, they're clearly a couple, but Picard never mentions her at all during the season and never tries to call her or leave a message for her.
• While the remaining rogue Changelings are taken into custody, their final fate (if Starfleet imprisoned them indefinitely like the Female Founder, or if they were extradited back to the Gamma Quadrant to face the judgment of the Great Link) is left unrevealed.
• What a Piece of Junk : When the Titan 's sensors register the Enterprise at Jupiter, Seven deduces it's Team Picard engaging the Borg. Raffi's skeptical, pointing out the "D" (or what's left of her) is ancient (both in comparison to a Borg Cube and the rest of the hijacked Starfleet). Seven counters that's ironically it's greatest stregnth — that it can't be hacked by the Borg (and Raffi, now seeing her point, agrees).
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? : Zig-zagged. For much of the original show, and indeed for much of this episode, Deanna is basically a paperweight on the bridge. But then Heart Is an Awesome Power when her telepathic link with Riker allows her to locate and rescue Picard, Worf, Riker, and Jack from inside the dead zone in the cube.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Played for laughs when an incredulous Riker demands to know why Worf even had a phaser inside his Kur'leth's handle if he wasn't going to use it. Again, cue Worf's cheeky response that swords are fun.
• Worf Had the Flu : The Borg super-cube looks immensely terrifying, and the Enterprise -D is a 40 year old ship that would ordinarily be ridiculously outmatched even if she were in peak condition (which she isn't), but the Borg are in even worse shape. The cube is only 36% functional, most of the Borg drones — the Queen included — are necrotic and barely surviving, and is devoting most of its resources to the assimilation signal that is controlling Starfleet on the other side of the Sol System as well as resisting Jupiter’s own gravitational pull. While it still has way more guns than the Enterprise , it simply can't muster the power necessary to make those guns as effective as they would be in a proper engagement.
• Year Zero : In a Captain's Log, Riker resets the stardate to 1 to reflect the unambiguous destruction of the Borg Collective and the start of a new era (one free of the Borg threat). It’s doubtful anyone in Starfleet or the Federation is going to object.
• You Can't Go Home Again : A villanious variation. The Borg Queen's ranting ("No roads by which to return home!") is an indirect mention of Voyager 's destruction of the Borg Transwarp Hub over 20 years earlier. This confirms the cascade effect from the destruction of its interspatial manifolds did indeed bring down the entire Transwarp Network, further crippling the Collective and a boon to its enemies.
• You Shall Not Pass! : This is Spacedock's situation in the interim since "Vox". With Earth's orbital defenses destroyed, it's the only thing standing between the cradle of humanity and the assimilated Starfleet armada. It does eventually fall, but its valiant defense in holding off the entirety of Starfleet's continued barrage on it bought the crew of the Enterprise -D enough time to destroy the Cube broadcasting the signal.
• You're Insane! : Picard says this to the Borg Queen verbatim when he confronts her.
• Star Trek: Picard S3E09 "Vox"
• Recap/Star Trek: Picard

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10, 'The Last Generation,' Recap & Spoilers

The ending to Star Trek: Picard brings together the Next Generation crew for their last stand. Here's a recap of the Paramount+ series finale.

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10, "The Last Generation," now streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Picard has finally reached its end, with cinematic action set pieces and standout character moments for all of its main characters as they set out to save Earth from the Borg Collective and the Changelings. At the helm of the restored USS Enterprise -D , Jean-Luc Picard moves to rescue his son Jack from the Borg as the assimilated Starfleet armada moves forward. And not only does this provide the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew with a thrilling sendoff -- the Picard series finale promises an exciting new beginning.

Pavel Chekhov’s relative Anton sends out a distress signal warning Federation vessels to stay away from Earth because the planet’s orbital defenses have been obliterated; both Spacedock's and Earth’s shielding is being bombarded by the armada. The Enterprise detects a Borg signal emitting from a Borg Cube hidden in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, with Picard and Beverly Crusher identifying the broadcaster commanding the subjugated fleet as an assimilated Jack Crusher . Picard commands the USS Titan to approach the Borg and destroy the beacon, which would effectively sever its broadcast and free the assimilated from its control.

RELATED: Picard's Subtlest Cameo Brings Star Trek's First Lady Back to the Franchise

Beverly pinpoints Jack’s location on the Borg Cube. Picard, Will Riker and Worf board it to destroy the beacon personally and rescue Jack from the Borg Queen’s insidious grasp -- the latter objective carried out by Picard alone. The Queen informs Picard that it was Jack’s presence on the far side of the quadrant that revived them from the virus Kathryn Janeway infected them with , with the Queen forced to cannibalize her own collective to survive. Vengeful over the condition she’s been left in, the Queen is determined to use her new collective to annihilate rather than assimilate. She activates a small number of drones to defend the beacon while the Cube’s weapons attack the Enterprise .

Seven of Nine and Raffi Musiker lead a small strike force to retake control of the Titan , isolating the assimilated on the starship to sealed transporter rooms while careful not to give away their actions to the other starships. Using the Titan ’s retrofitted cloaking device, Seven distracts the Borg with a strafing run -- but Spacedock is still destroyed, causing the last of Earth’s shields to deactivate. The confined assimilated break free and disable the cloaking device, leaving the Titan exposed and cornered while the armada begins to target population centers around Earth.

RELATED: Star Trek: Picard Just Paid Off a Weird First Contact Moment

Beverly destroys the Cube’s surface defenses before Data pilots the Enterprise to the location of the beacon at the Borg vessel’s core, provided by Riker and Worf. As the beacon is destroyed and the resulting shockwave begins to overtake the rest of the ship, Picard assimilates himself again to communicate with Jack from within the collective. He liberates Jack, the two reuniting with Riker and Worf in the nick of time to return to the Enterprise . The Queen’s destruction reverses the assimilation of the young Starfleet personnel, prompting them to immediately cease their attack on Earth.

In the aftermath, Beverly rejoins Starfleet and develops technology to purge any lingering Borg influence from those affected as well as detect the evolved Changelings continuing to hide within Starfleet ranks. Tuvok is found safe and sound and pardons the Enterprise crew for the crimes they committed to save the day. He promotes Seven to captain the Titan, which is rechristened as the Enterprise -G, with Raffi and Jack officially joining its crew. But as the old Enterprise -D officers reunite over an impromptu poker game back at Guinan’s bar, Jack is confronted privately by Q... who informs him that his trial for humanity has only just begun.

Created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer, Alex Kurtzman and Terry Matalas, all three seasons of Star Trek: Picard are available to stream in their entirety on Paramount+.

• Federation Hubs
• Space stations

Earth Spacedock

• Remastered content
• Season Nine: A New Accord
• VisualEditor
• View history

Earth Spacedock is a facility orbiting Earth in the Sol System and serves as the main hub for all Federation players.

• 1.1 Starships in the vicinity
• 2.1 Transporter Room
• 2.2 Main concourse & Shipyard
• 2.3 Infirmary
• 2.4 Requisitions & Exchange
• 2.5 Operations & Admiral's Office
• 2.6 Club 47 & Rondel
• 2.7 Mezzanine
• 3 Missions involved
• 4 Other involvement
• 7 External Links

General information [ | ]

As of 2410 , the commanding officer of the station is Captain Akira Sulu who handles organizational businesses for the station's Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Jorel Quinn .

Earth Spacedock is one of Starfleet's largest orbital installations. Its beam and draft are 3,812 m and 5,544 m, respectively, with a total dry mass of 10,552,000 t. It offers a volume of 21,924,000 m³ and has a complement of 312,000.

Starships in the vicinity [ | ]

• U.S.S. Hercules
• U.S.S. Phobos
• U.S.S. Justicar
• U.S.S. Marotz
• U.S.S. Shirgat
• U.S.S. Tereshkova
• U.S.S. Titan
• U.S.S. Jenner
• U.S.S. Powhatan
• U.S.S. Manticore
• U.S.S. Leviathan
• U.S.S. Phaeton
• U.S.S. Kamran (patrolling)
• U.S.S. Pathfinder (patrolling)
• U.S.S. Berkeley
• U.S.S. Cerberus
• U.S.S. Geronimo (in drydock)
• U.S.S. Hotspur
• U.S.S. Indefatigable
• F.M.S. Karluk
• I.G.V. Khyzon (patrolling)
• U.S.S. Lakota
• U.S.S. Loma Prieta (in drydock)
• U.S.S. Los Gatos (patrolling)
• U.S.S. Pasteur
• U.S.S. Redoubt
• U.S.S. Rhode Island
• U.S.S. Sagan
• V.S.S. Soval
• U.S.S. Trafalgar
• U.S.S. Tahde (patrolling)

Locations [ | ]

Earth Spacedock Master Systems Display

Earth Spacedock has the following accessible areas:

• Deck 47 - Strut frames 147-152 (see subsections below)
• Deck 83 - Sections Red & Blue (only for Foundry doors)

Transporter Room [ | ]

This is the room you are first in when you beam down to Earth Spacedock. You can also beam down to Starfleet Academy from there.

• Chief Ch'Thras welcomes you and provides navigational information around Earth Spacedock.

Main concourse & Shipyard [ | ]

The main concourse of Earth Spacedock's deck 47.

Display listing starships docked in Earth Spacedock.

The Main Concourse is the central plaza of Earth Spacedock's deck 47. At the Shipyard, players can select and customize their starship, as well as obtain new vessels.

• Commander Menn Hilo , sitting on a bench
• Captain Jay Yim , who tells you about racing and gives “Tour the Galaxy (Daily)”
• Captain David Ford
• Lieutenant Mieri
• Risian Visitor (only during Lohlunat Festival )
• Q (only during Winter event , Anniversary events)
• Malcom Sissel , an officer who can help you with undocking from the spacedock
• Chief Engineer , who can repair ship injuries
• Dirz Raxx , at whom you can customize your starship
• Ensign Obin , from whom you can select which of your starships to use at the moment
• Shalah , from whom you may requisition starship components for energy credits
• Lieutenant Commander Ophlim
• Lieutenant Laurel , who can provide information regarding the requisitioning of starships
• Ensign Byarnez , who can provide information regarding the requisitioning of shuttles

Infirmary [ | ]

The infirmary of Earth Spacedock's deck 47.

• Chief Medical Officer heals personal injuries
• Nurse Rassa

Requisitions & Exchange [ | ]

Requisitions and the Exchange

View of the shuttlebay adjacent to the Requisitions area

This is where players may purchase personal kits and equipment, as well as alter their appearance and costume, for a price. Players will also find the bank , their fleet bank , and the Exchange , where players purchase and sell items with other players.

• Ghemik Telur , a plain, simple tailor who will alter your clothing and your appearance
• Ensign Lessa , from whom you can requisition personal equipment and weapons for energy credits
• Lieutenant Shelby , who provides information about the Gear Upgrade System
• Lieutenant Commander Arut
• The Commodities Brokers Hosa and Fhoss
• Ferengi Collector , who buys Prototype Consoles
• Grym , a Ferengi who gives players the Lobi Crystal tutorial mission “Unlocking the Box” .
• Exchange Officer
• Bank Officer
• Civilian Contractor
• Market Speculator

Operations & Admiral's Office [ | ]

Earth Spacedock Operations, including the holographic representation of the station and stationed ships

In Operations, which is the location of the Admiral's Office, players can talk to Admiral Quinn and get information on what to do once they're commanding their first vessel.

• Ensign Rraak ( Caitian , former cadet and transporter chief on the player's Tutorial Starship )
• Starfleet Liasion [sic]
• Commander Burgess , Starfleet Intelligence officer overseeing military operations along the Klingon front
• Akira Sulu is Admiral Quinn's second-in-command, replacing Commander Samuel Winters
• The Fleet Ambassador , who can help you start or manage your fleet
• The Assignment Officer who answers questions about mission difficulties
• Security Officer , Duty Officer Assignment Giver
• Lt. Commander Elsa Mora , the go-to person for requisitioning bridge officers
• The Bridge Officer Trainer , the person you go to for training your bridge officers
• Commander Balt , who provides you information about ranks, levels, and skill points
• Lieutenant Commander Okret , a former Skill Trainer
• Temporal Agent Philip Crey
• Admiral Quinn is the commanding officer of Earth Spacedock and new players will speak with him frequently to begin and complete new missions
• Linnea , the Admiral's administrative assistant, standing next to him
• Ambassador Jiro Sugihara , helps you in your diplomacy career
• Deferi Ambassador , requesting assistance to retaliate against the Borg's assimilation of Defera
• Romulan Ambassador , requesting assistance colonizing New Romulus

Club 47 & Rondel [ | ]

Club 47's Astrolounge and...

... Synthbar

Some random guests occasionally visit Club 47 (here: Parts of the Enterprise -F's crew, amongst others)

• Commander Shoko Futagami
• Ensign Olesre
• Lieutenants Jotun and Yaris
• Ensigns Paxad and Tessmer
• Bartender Nelan
• Lieutenant Commander Orjas
• Captain Marrone
• Lieutenant Yeniz
• Waitress, roams freely and provides food & drinks
• Desperate Trill , unsuccessfully trying to hit on various female guests
• Cpt. Jay Yim
• Franklin Drake
• Lt. Miral Paris
• Enterprise -F crewmembers: Cmdr. Mathias , Cmdr. Savel , Lt. Cmdr. Inasi , Lt. Kav

Mezzanine [ | ]

Deck 47's mezzanine

The Mezzanine is an elevated walkway accessible via the turbolifts. It allows an overview over the entire main concourse and shipyard. It offers seating areas, including a 3D-chess table, and is designed as a hang-out and relaxation area. It also contains a memorial plaque, dedicated to deceased Star Trek cast and crew.

Missions involved [ | ]

Earth Spacedock, heavily damaged by an Undine ambush in 2410

• “Welcome to Earth Spacedock” : After rescuing colonists from Vega Colony in early 2409 , you are ordered to return to Earth Spacedock to drop off the evacuees and meet with Admiral Quinn .
• “Changing Clothes” , “Skills Trainer” , “Medical Attention” , “Out of Commission” , and “A Difficult Decision” : Beginning at Ensign Rraak , a chain of breadcrumb-missions instructs you to find out more about Earth Spacedock's amenities.
• “Stranded in Space” : Before embarking on your first mission after your turbulent training cruise, you have the option to seek out Malcolm Sissel on Earth Spacedock, who will instruct you on how to undock your ship.
• “Surface Tension” : In early 2410 , Earth Spacedock is heavily damaged by the Undine during an ambush. Although the attack was merely concerted as a distraction from the Undine's main target, Qo'noS , Admiral Quinn was severely injured and Lieutenant Commander E'genn was exposed as an Undine infiltrator.
• “Blood of Ancients” : The powers of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants hold a joint briefing on Earth Spacedock to discuss the strategy to combat the Iconians , but the briefing is interrupted by a Herald attack on New Romulus .
• “Midnight” : During the final battle against the Iconians in Earth orbit, Earth Spacedock is badly damaged and the U.S.S. Chimera assists in its evacuation.
• " Operation Wolf ": Coordinated by Leeta , players undergo a holodeck simulation of a potential raid of Earth Spacedock in the mirror universe .

Other involvement [ | ]

• In Tales of the War #1, Captain Tom Paris meets with Admiral Jorel Quinn in his office onboard ESD to discuss the formation of Delta Flight . It is also implied that Paris used to be the commanding officer of ESD prior to Quinn.
• In Tales of the War #14, Admiral Quinn records a personal log from his office on ESD. He reflects on the disastrous events of “Broken Circle” , and privately disputes claims that the attack on the Herald Sphere was even a partial victory. He notes that Herald attacks have increased since the attack, and that L'Miren 's Heralds are now joining the fight. He notes that while Starfleet had elected to reject the Krenim weapon, he fears that recent events will cause Starfleet Command to reevaluate that decision.

Notes [ | ]

The original ESD design, entrance to the Admiral's office shown

• This map replaced the old Earth Spacedock map with the release of Season 9 . In the mission “Surface Tension” , which was released along with the redesign, the player fights Undine boarding parties in the destroyed old interior map of the Spacedock, thereby giving somewhat of an in-universe explanation for the map-revamp.
• Following the death of Leonard Nimoy in February 2015, a plaque dedicated to the memory of all deceased cast and crew of the Star Trek franchise was erected in the mezzanine, and black banners were displayed during a week of mourning from March 5 through 12.
• Several hanging lights where added to the main concourse of ESD along with the graphics/lighting update released with Agents of Yesterday: Artifacts .
• During the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, the Pasteur was joined by the U.S.S. Comfort and U.S.S. Mercy (named for the US Navy hospital ships) outside the station. Inside, the Pasteur is no longer visible inside the docking bay, and two other Olympic -class ships (presumably the Mercy and Comfort ) are visible from the windows in the operations area.

See also [ | ]

• Terran Space Defense Fortress

External Links [ | ]

• Spacedock (Earth) at Memory Alpha , the Star Trek Wiki.
• Earth Spacedock at Memory Beta , the non-canon Star Trek Wiki.
• Season 9 Dev Blog #13 - Redesign of ESD
• 2 Playable starship
• 3 Delta Recruitment

• View history

The Enterprise approaches Spacedock One

A spacedock , or drydock , was a facility where starships were loaded, unloaded, built, or repaired. Most spacefaring species had some type of spacedock, and they thus varied widely in design. The United Federation of Planets and United Earth had spacedocks that most often took the form of a free-standing, orbital, single-starship-sized "cage". This form of spacedock was virtually synonymous with the word drydock. Generally, these cage designs were used for major construction or refits and could be part of a shipyard .

Some spacedocks, however, were part of starbases and outposts , and allowed for more secure repairs in a totally enclosed, multi-functional facility. The USS Excelsior enjoyed at least the final stages of its construction in Spacedock One , orbiting Earth .

• 1.1.1 23rd century
• 1.1.2 24th century
• 1.1.3 32nd century
• 1.2 Alternate reality
• 1.3 Mirror universe
• 2.1 Related topics
• 2.2 Background information
• 2.3 External link

History [ ]

Prime reality [ ], 23rd century [ ].

In 2257 , the USS Enterprise was towed to spacedock after the Enterprise suffered major system failures. ( DIS : " Brother ")

The Enterprise in Earth Drydock

Following the Battle near Xahea , the Enterprise spent a hundred and twenty four days in Drydock undergoing repairs until it was finally restored to active status in 2258 . ( DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

Earth Space docks in 2259

In 2259 , the Enterprise returned to spacedock for scheduled maintenance and for the crew to enjoy some much needed downtime . The Enterprise was originally scheduled to leave spacedock a week after Stardate 1739.12, but the USS Archer 's mission to Kiley 279 forced the Enterprise to leave earlier. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

24th century [ ]

In 2371 , all of Earth's spacedocks were erased from existence after the death of Gabriel Bell in 2024 . They, and the correct timeline, were restored after Benjamin Sisko assumed Bell's identity and successfully brought the Bell Riots to their original conclusion. ( DS9 : " Past Tense, Part I ", " Past Tense, Part II ")

USS Voyager in drydock

The Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards contained a number of drydocks. The USS Voyager spent some time in a drydock at Utopia Planitia before its launch in 2371 . ( VOY : " Relativity ")

In 2373 , Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force attacked and destroyed the Cardassian spacedocks on Torros III . ( DS9 : " Call to Arms ")

Also in that year, Chief Miles O'Brien told Captain Sisko that a spacedock would be a better place to repair the USS Defiant than Deep Space 9 after Michael Eddington 's cascade virus damaged the ship. ( DS9 : " For the Uniform ")

There were also spacedocks in orbit of Trelka V in the 2370s . Three Galor -class starships were docked there in 2375 when Martok led the attack on the Trelka starbase . ( DS9 : " Once More Unto the Breach ")

Near the end of 2375 , Martok and Worf lead an attack on Monac IV which resulted in the destruction of Monac Shipyards by a solar flair . ( DS9 : " Image in the Sand " " Shadows and Symbols ")

32nd century [ ]

The USS Voyager in Archer spacedock

In 3190 , The Federation built Archer Spacedock , the first spacedock built since The Burn . ( DIS : " Kobayashi Maru ")

Alternate reality [ ]

In 2259 of the alternate reality , a facility affiliated with Section 31 was in orbit of the Jovian moon Io . Known as the Io Facility , it was where the USS Vengeance was constructed and launched. ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

In 2263 , the USS Enterprise -A was under construction in a spacedock located in one of the space lanes of Yorktown Station . ( Star Trek Beyond )

Mirror universe [ ]

The USS Defiant in a mirror universe Tholian spacedock

In the mirror universe year 2155 , the Tholians took the USS Defiant to a spacedock built into an asteroid - moon in orbit around a gas giant and began a salvage operation, but were unable to finish because the ship was stolen by Commander Jonathan Archer of the ISS Enterprise . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

Appendices [ ]

Related topics [ ].

• Cardassian orbital drydock
• Earth spacedocks
• Unnamed Federation space stations

Background information [ ]

The first mention of a spacedock is in " The Doomsday Machine ".

The script for The Motion Picture calls the structure an "Orbital Dry Dock".

The terms "Spacedock" and "Drydock" have been used interchangeably to describe the same structures. NAR-30974 , the facility the USS Enterprise -B was launched from in Star Trek Generations , had markings saying it was a "Starfleet Drydock" while the script and dialogue used "spacedock." Voyager launched from a similar, if smaller, facility that was referred to as a "drydock" in dialogue and the scripts in the episode " Relativity ".

Very little is known about the enclosed spacedocks seen in the Star Trek films and TNG episodes. Their dimensions, internal layout, regular and maximum compliment, and if the spacedock was open to civilians or if it was restricted to Starfleet personnel, is unknown.

There seem to be very different sizes of the enclosed spacedocks, despite having the same basic "mushroom" design in the 23rd century as they do in the 24th . It is known, for instance, that some can accommodate a Galaxy -class starship, although the facility seen in the movies – whose space doors seem barely wide enough to accommodate the Enterprise – seem able to admit nothing larger than an Excelsior -class vessel. This is because stock footage of the original Enterprise entering the dock was superimposed with the new, larger USS Enterprise -D entering the same port.

External link [ ]

• Spacedock at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 3 Ancient humanoid

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Star Trek: Discovery is cracking open a box Next Gen closed on purpose

The USS Discovery is on a mad chase across the galaxy for one of Star Trek’s biggest secrets

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Calling back to a single 30-year-old episode of television is a time-honored Star Trek tradition , one that’s led the franchise to some of its most fascinating detours. And in its two-episode season premiere, Star Trek: Discovery seems to be kicking off an entire season calling back to one particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

And not just any episode! The 1993 installment of Next Gen in question delivered a revelation so seemingly earth-shaking that it should have rewritten galactic politics on a massive scale. But then, as was the way in the 1990s era of episodic TV, nobody ever mentioned it again.

At least until now.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.]

Writer Michelle Paradise and director Olatunde Osunsanmi lay out the connection at the end of the first of two episodes released this week, “Red Directive.” Discovery’s mission is to follow a series of ancient clues leading to a cache of ancient technology, and to get there before a couple of professional thieves, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), do.

The technology, as Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) explains, belongs to the so-called Progenitors, a barely understood ancient spacefaring species that “created life as we know it […] every humanoid species in the galaxy.” Presumably such tech holds the key to understanding how the Progenitors did that, and how that power could be used again.

The Progenitors are from the Star Trek episode “The Chase”

Kovich also calls up a helpful video presentation of the moment the Progenitors were discovered by an assembled group of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian captains, including Jean-Luc Picard. But you don’t have to be a Star Trek lore nerd to know you’re actually just looking at clips from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Specifically, from the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets. Questions abound: What does the program do? And what kind of entity could have been so ancient and powerful that it had determined the genetic legacy of most of the known galaxy before sentient life had even evolved here — and then left no trace of its existence except the genetic codes themselves?

In a nutshell, the mysterious death of Captain Picard’s old archeology professor (did you know that if he hadn’t gone into Starfleet, Jean-Luc was studying to be a space archeologist? Well, now you do) sets the captain and the Enterprise on a search for the missing DNA fragments necessary to complete his unfinished work.

The action of the episode becomes a grand chase, as Klingon and Cardassian captains come to believe the program must be a great weapon or dangerous secret. Eventually Picard and his rivals all discover the lonely planet with the final DNA strain — and when they get there, some Romulans who’ve been secretly following all of them show up, too, just to make things even more tense.

In the end, the program isn’t a weapon or a secret, but a message from an ancient race of humanoids that apparently created sentient life in our galaxy as we know it.

Actor Salome Jens appears as a Progenitor hologram, and delivers a speech that’s stirring by any standard of Star Trek monologues, telling the story of a race of sentients that took to the stars and found them empty. They had evolved too early to meet other forms of sentient life, and knew that their time was too limited to ever expect to.

“We knew that one day we would be gone; that nothing of us would survive, so we left you,” Jens’ Progenitor explains. The Progenitors seeded humanoid life across the galaxy in their own image; life that tended to evolve into bipedal, tailless, largely hairless creatures with two eyes and two arms and five fingers on each hand. And they left clues in the genetic signature of their work, broken up among the stars.

Wait, was this really all about lampshading the limits of Star Trek’s alien design?

Kinda, yes! The writers of “The Chase,” Ron Moore and Joe Menosky, were inspired by elements of Carl Sagan’s Contact , but also by Menosky’s pet fascination creating an in-universe explanation for why all the common alien species in Star Trek are basically shaped like humans (albeit with latex on their faces).

In other hands, it would be hokey and trite, but even under heavy makeup, Jens sells the hell out of her single scene on voice and stance alone — it’s no wonder she was asked back to the Trek fold to play a major antagonist role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

“It was our hope that you would have to come together in fellowship and companionship to hear this message, and if you can see and hear me, our hope has been fulfilled,” the Progenitor hologram concludes, with gentle compassion. “You are a monument, not to our greatness, but to our existence. That was our wish: That you, too, would know life. [...] There is something of us in each of you, and so something of you in each other.”

But though “The Chase” carried a sweeping revelation, nothing ever really panned out from it. You’d think that a message of togetherness that fundamentally rewrote the origin of life in the universe would have to have tweaked Star Trek’s galactic politics a bit, right? Seems like this would give the Star Trek setting a radically different understanding of the origins of life than we have in the real world — this is literally intelligent design! At the very least there’d be some other characters talking about how humans and Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans and Ferengi and Cardassians and Trill and Bajorans, all share the same genetic ancestor.

But nope: The Pandora’s box of Progenitor lore remained closed. Gene Roddenberry’s successor and Trek producer Rick Berman seems to have been disenchanted with the episode’s reveal — and you can’t really blame him for not wanting to rock the whole cosmology of Star Trek in an episode that’s mostly about explaining how if you turn the DNA snippets like this they make a cool spiral. Now look at this computer screen with the spiral :

Except now, Star Trek: Discovery is opening the box and rocking the boat. This new mad, puzzle-box chase around the galaxy promises to expand on the Progenitors, an idea so big that not even The Next Generation was willing to touch it. It’s a tall order, but Discovery has never been more free to shake up Star Trek continuity than it is right now — we’ll have to wait for more episodes of the show’s final season to find out how free it intends to be.

Star Trek: Discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants

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