All Good Things...

"I should have done this a long time ago."

"You were always welcome."

Tears.

I cried at the ending of the movie, because you remember all good thing you had , all good times you had , when you watched all of the series.

Great , the BEST ending of a series that i loved and shared with the rest of the world.

The best actors,who played the best characters, did an outstanding job. Thank you.

Rating: **** out of ****

While the original crew had it better with the movies, The Next Generation was the only Star Trek TV series that I watched consistently. The show had a cast that at least equalled that of the original, boasted better production values, and plots that were intriguing and touched on varieties of concepts that Kirk, Spock, and Bones never got the chance to explore. Deep Space Nine was too mired into the whole "war of the quadrants" to explore any ideas with real satisfaction, and while Voyager had the best effects and the best premise, the cast was middling at best. Enterprise took a while to get going but had a superb third season and a solid fourth.

All Good Things..., the swan song episode for TNG, is possibly the best of Star Trek, period, focusing on mind-boggling concepts while retaining the character development and human interest that made the show so appealing. It's the seventh year that the crew of the Starhip Enterprise have been together, but Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is experiencing odd timeshifts. He's constantly switching between three different time periods; in the past, right before the Farpoint mission, in the present, and in the future, where the crew has long split up, Picard is retired and is diagnosed with a debilitating mental illness. Naturally, the rest of the crew is skeptical (be it in any time period), but when Picard discovers the true nature of his constant shifting, he realizes it is both the means and cause with which the existence of mankind could be erased.

I hesitate to give too much away, though I doubt anyone with a passing interest in Star Trek hasn't already seen this episode. But it plays as an interesting comparison and contrast to the series' first episode, Encounter at Farpoint, which it directly ties in to with Picard's timeshifting to the past. There's been a notable improvement in the quality of the sets and the visual effects, and also the acting, the pacing, and the plot development.

All Good Things... has all the solid acting one expects from the cast, and a human touch that was missing from the latest film, Nemesis. It's interesting to note that this episode (meaning the whole series, as well) ends with the door open for all sorts of possibilities; at this time, this clearly implied the much-hyped transition to the big screen.

Unfortunately, some of the more open-ended questions this episode focused on were never even touched on. Sure, the Worf/Troi/Riker triangle was resolved, but one of my favorite ongoing side stories, the burgeoning romance between Picard and Dr. Crusher, was completely ignored in the movies. And the final scenes lead one to believe that the movies would take us to "places" never explored, even though the most recent film was merely a plot less action movie that didn't even have enough action to warrant the movie's existence.

Stewart is the true highlight of this episode, displaying the great acting chops he's been known for. The fact that we care for him and the rest of the crew as well, adds a sense of urgency and involvement in the proceedings that the otherwise quite frantic pace alone might not have been able to develop. The plot twists are pure Trek, each mysterious element giving away to some big revelation that only leads to more questions. The story is engrossing, the dialogue is strong, and the performances and characterizations are spot-on.

There are a few problems with All Good Things. The timeshifting obviously means we're going to see past and future versions of the cast, but everyone's aged to a certain extent where they can't quite pass for their more youthful selves and the old-age makeup is never entirely convincing (Old Riker's first appearance gave me a good laugh). That said, I would like to make mention of what full-blown hotties Marina Sirtis and especially Gates McFadden became (McFadden is easily the most attractive post 50-year old actress I've ever seen).

The continuing movie series actually began quite well; Generations and First Contact were enjoyable adventures, but everything seemed to fall apart with Insurrection. Funny, All Good Things... is a title that turned out more self-prophetic than anyone would have guessed.

"All Good Things" easily surpassed many of the Star Trek movies in its politically intricate and emotionally charged plot. It is a tradegy that ST:TNG had to come to an end at the crest of its success since two of the three movies "Generations" and "Insurrection" didn't come close to keeping the glory and concept of Star Trek Alive. "All Good Things" will go down in the Star Trek and Sci-Fi grapevine as the most watched and defining show of its time. Kudos.

We start the episode with a distraught Picard being bounced around through time, unaware why as the episode starts, going from his first day on the Enterprise as Captain of the federation flagship, the present as a Captain older and wiser and twenty years time as a retired wine maker back in his beloved France. To wrap things up even more Q appears and has apparently placed humanity back on trial as a savage warlike race. However this time it is Picard himself who has caused the destruction and unravelling of the universe itself, although he has no idea how?

When I first saw this double episode adventure I was a major fan of the series and having been largely disappointed with series 7 was hoping I would get a big finish to the series and I was not disappointed. The story is great and continues very much in the vain of the last Q episode "Tapestry" arguably up there as one of the best Q episodes ever.

The performances by the cast are verging on perfect as they have got to the point where the characters are like a favourite suit that you were with pride and panache, because you know that whatever happens, you're gonna look great in it. The effects are great and there are some truly fantastic images and moments that are so well written that it brings home everything that we love about trek. The direction is flawless and the ending is so amazing that it almost makes me cry.

Better than all the next gen films out together and so sad that they couldn't do it on the big screen. However for non-next gen aficionados check out the best eps from the first seven series before you see this one, as you have to get the meaning from the other shows before you can appreciate this.

It was the best series ending till "Doctor Who's Army of Ghosts and Doomsday" but it's the best finale to a series that wraps everything up beautifully. Happy Days!