The Next Generation

Some fun ideas and interesting setup. Fanatic core cast, particularly Spinner's Data. Does have a slightly rocky, stilted start, and I was surprised at how long it took Picard to feel like a proper character.

A strong start, exceptional middle, and some fantastic, stand-out episodes. And yet it chooses to end on a clip-show (and a rather poorly conceived one at that) rather than a cliffhanger. Or rather than the introduction of the Borg, which was a tour de force of sinister foreshadowing.

A weak start with the occasional gem gave way to an incredibly strong second half of the season, with some truly brilliant episodes, all culminating in a plotline I was not expecting so soon! I am, however, extremely grateful that I didn't actually have to wait a full year to get the second part of the Locutus storyline – that felt like a serious overcompensation for the lack of a season two cliffhanger!

A solid season with a solid cliffhanger that moves both Romulan and Klingon cultures forward, and nicely wraps up some loose ends.

Not the best cliffhanger ending; the episodes were better side-by-side, though it was a fun storyline. But overall, an almost flawless season.

Another slightly irritating cliffhanger, though this worked better as a season break. Still, the show as a whole continues to go from strength to strength, with some exceptional storylines and no duds in the mix. I'm not entirely sure why certain characters phase in or out. After a lot of Ro Laren and the transporter chief, they seem to have both gone on extended leave. I guess we'll see if, much like Berkeley, they begin popping back up in the final season.

From start to finish, the final season of The Next Generation was clearly painfully aware that it was coming to an end, and made sure that (most) of the dangling story arcs were wrapped up. This does result in a little too much navel-gazing at times, meaning that it lacks any specific overarching plots, narratives, or themes, but this is more than outweighed by a consistent stream of excellent stories. In a rare turn of events, almost all of the major characters get at least one truly solid, meaningful episode, whilst the show still leaves time to explore the broader Trek universe and Enterprise in general – particularly with the excellent Lower Decks episode, focused on an otherwise largely "new" subsection of the crew.

I'd say Worf, strangely, comes out of this the strongest, with two time-travel related episodes, one which allows us to explore many different facets of his character as he slips between alternate universes (and which, surprisingly, sets up a Worf/Dianna romance that the show keeps building on, but is happy to leave open-ended), and another that finally finds him come to some peace with the trials of being a father. Data, obviously, has a few standout moments, and I particularly enjoyed meeting his "mother" (and the subsequent revelations that ensue), along with the episode that seems an amnesiac Data stranded on a Medieval-era planet, trying to single-handedly reinvent medicine for the radiation poisoning he unwittingly unleashed on the inhabitants of a local community.

There are some distinctly weirder episodes, of course. Famously, this season included the "devolution" episode, which sees cast members regress to various stages of their evolutionary trees. It's most fun for showing what a proto-Klingon would have been like (hint: lots of scales, spikes, and a surprising amount of acidic venom), but I actually thought the underlying premise wasn't as ridiculous as I'd been led to believe, and thoroughly enjoyed watching Patrick Stewart attempt to become increasingly marmoset like 😂

Still, the final few episodes rattle through unfinished plots at such a breakneck pace, you do have to wonder if the season could have been reordered a little. We get the weird answer to all of the early-season riddles around young Wesley Crusher (though how much this is really an "answer" is unclear); Worf's aforementioned trials as a father; the return of an old Ferengi foe (which does have a nice moment that allows Picard to finally confront his fears of parenthood); and the most surprising cameo from the otherwise largely forgotten character of Ro Laren, who I had quite liked in the handful of episodes we previously saw her in, but mysteriously disappeared between seasons. I feel like at least some of these had been planned as longer, multi-episode arcs, but had to be condensed to fit within the season's limits.

Then, of course, there is the finale. And what a finale! It's confusingly named these days as a "Part I" that doesn't appear to ever have a "Part 2"; I'm not sure if this was an open-door for a future season, a nod to the past few seasons all ending on cliffhanger episodes (most likely), or an artefact of the extra-long runtime and TV scheduling, but it screwed up my dinner a little 😅 Still, the story is one of TNG's best, and it makes expert use of that extra time, pacing itself incredibly well. We jump forward and backward in time with a mystery that unfolds very cleverly and culminates in an extremely satisfying and simple ending. Add on top the fact that time travel means we can bring back Chief O'Brien (another character who just disappears between episodes) and Tasha Yar, whilst sprinkling over a dash of Q, and it's a beautiful ending to the show, its characters, and its specific expansion of the wider Trek universe.

The only thing that it leaves me wondering is: where are the Borg? For the villain that I would most equate with TNG and one of Star Trek's most enduring creations, I've been completely baffled that they have played some a small – and ever diminishing! – role in the series.

But that is a minor quibble in what is otherwise one of the show's strongest seasons, which is saying quite a bit.