The Next Generation Ending Explained

“Star Trek: The Next Generation” was, by all measures, far more successful than the original “Star Trek” that preceded it. The original series wasn’t a big hit when it first aired in 1966, and didn’t become popular until Trekkies discovered it in reruns in the mid-1970s. By the mid-1980s, the series not only had a passionate following, but several hit “Star Trek” feature films had been made, ensuring that the franchise was long-lasting and widely celebrated. Creator Gene Roddenberry, wanting a project he could more closely oversee, launched the first spinoff “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in 1987, fast-forwarding the timeline of the franchise by about a century. The new show featured a new cast of characters, a new ship, and a new tone. This was, by Roddenberry’s orders, to be even more diplomatic and peaceful than even the original show. 

“Next Generation” stumbled a little in its first two seasons, but hit an amazingly solid groove by its third year, becoming a massive success and lasting for seven full seasons. It came to a close in 1994 when shopping reruns became too expensive; all seven “Next Generation” seasons had to be sold to local TV affiliates in a giant chunk and had to be rerun multiple times, so some affiliates didn’t want to make the time commitment with all 178 episodes. 

The final episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was a two-hour event that aired on May 23, 1994. It was called “All Good Things…,” and it featured an ambitious time-travel plot set in three timeframes throughout “Star Trek” history. One timeline was the “present” of the series. The second timeline was set seven years previous, right before the events of the “NextGen” pilot episode. The third timeline jumped about 25 years into the future, where Picard (Patrick Stewart) was an old man. 

“All Good Things…” is a great finale, largely because it boasts sharp writing from Trek vets Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga. The plot involves Captain Picard becoming “unstuck” in time, a la Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” In the present, he is facing a diagnosis of a rare and fatal brain ailment called Irumodic Syndrome, something that will degrade his ability to function over decades. In the past, he retains memories of what is to come, but has to wrestle with bizarre hallucinations while handling a crew that hasn’t come to know him yet. In the future, the Syndrome has done its work, and Picard has become somewhat senile. The future timeframe also catches up with what Geordi (LeVar Burton), Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Worf (Michael Dorn), and Data (Brent Spiner) have been up to. Troi (Marina Sirtis) is dead, and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) is now a starship captain named Captain Beverly Picard. Yes, she and Picard married and divorced in the interim. 

It’s eventually revealed that the trickster god Q (John de Lancie, a longtime recurring guest star) has something to do with the time-jumps. It’s possible Q is just testing Picard’s resolve and cleverness. Picard eventually finds a bizarre and destructive spatial phenomenon that is huge in the past, of average size in the present, and nonexistent in the future. What is happening? It seems that the phenomenon is getting larger the further backward in time it travels. And what would happen if that phenomenon continued to burn to the beginning of time? Would it destroy life on ancient planets? Perhaps. Picard has to come to terms with the fact that he is dealing with a temporal paradox. 

It’s a cool story, and the kind of heady sci-fi concept that Trekkies eat up. It certainly didn’t hurt that “All Good Things…” was able to give viewers a glimpse into the future and a nostalgic look into the past. 

Picard eventually figures out the nature of the spatial phenomenon, and accepts that paradoxes are indeed possible. Q is impressed that human minds are capable of grasping such things, and lets Picard return to his “present.” Was it all a dream? Did any of this actually happen? It’s more important that Picard was able to face a mind-blowing new concept, and prove that humans are indeed capable of psychological growth. 

In the final scene of “All Good Things…,” Picard enters the room where his senior staff typically gather to play games of poker. Picard hasn’t ever stopped to play cards, rarely fraternizing with his staff in such a fashion. They make a seat for him, and he begins to shuffle cards. As he does, he pauses and looks around the table. He realizes that his senior staff is warm and welcoing and that, after seven years of working together, they have kind of become his best friends. He comments that he should have come to play poker a long time ago. Troi mentions that he was always welcome. 

This is a friendly way to end the series, letting Picard have a personal moment. He begins to deal the cards, setting parameters for the game. When it comes to betting, he says that “The sky’s the limit.” A beatific line to end a great TV series. Picard, like the Trekkies watching, seems to realize that we have had a good thing for these last seven seasons. But, as the title implies, all good things must come to an end. The Enterprise-D drifts away, continuing on its mission.

An admirable detail of “All Good Things…” is that it doesn’t bring anything to a definitive close. “Star Trek: The Next Generation” doesn’t end with Picard leaving the ship to take on a new command, the death of a major character, or anything dramatic. The implication is that the adventures of the Enterprise-D will continue, but we simply won’t be allowed to see them anymore. If this was to be the last time fans see the “Next Generation” characters, it was a fitting send-off. 

Of course, at this point in “Star Trek” history, production was already underway for “Star Trek: Generations,” the first theatrical feature film based on “Next Generation.” “All Good Things…” aired on May 23, while “Generations” hit theaters on November 18. Trekkies only had to wait six months to see their favorite characters again. Also, Trekkies would have been paying attention to press announcements and shooting schedules, so there was no fear that Captain Picard wouldn’t return. We knew there was more coming. 

This kind of took the edge off “All Good Things…” It was a glorious ending to a great TV show, but no one was under any illusions that it was the actual ending. If anything, it was just a stop-gap in the franchise. Indeed, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” was already in its third season by the time “Generations” came out, and “Star Trek: Voyager” was to debut in January of 1995, so the finale for “Next Generation” became a little less meaningful among the glut. Yes, it was a fond farewell, but it wasn’t an adieu. 

Also, it didn’t help matters that, well, “Generations” kind of sucked. 

Teleplay writer Ron D. Moore recalled “All Good Things…” as a busy time in his life. He liked the finale, but his attention was split between “All Good Things…” and “Generations.” He even talked about how “All Good Things…” was supposed to have a fourth timeline story involving the Borg, but that he was perhaps getting too ambitious with that one. Indeed, in the oral history book “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams,” edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, there don’t seem to be many complaints from the cast and crew on the episode. Everyone knew the show was going to come to an end, even though some cast members — Jonathan Frakes in particular — remembered that he had signed on for additional seasons. But if this was going to be the ending, it was a good one. 

More than anything, reading “Fifty-Year Mission” mostly reveals stories of fatigue. 1992 to 1996 was a golden age for “Star Trek,” as three shows and two feature films were all in various stages of production. Audiences were huge, and the franchise felt unified, all overseen by the came creative team. In 1994, “Generations” and “All Good Things…” were shooting back-to-back, all while “DS9” and “Voyager” were casting and shooting on new sets. One can forgive the cast and crew for only remembering the bustle. 

Of course, because “Star Trek” was rolling ahead with “Next Generation”-inspired movies, the characters would have a few more finales to content with. “Generations” was followed by “Star Trek: First Contact” in 1996, “Star Trek: Insurrection” in 1998, and “Star Trek: Nemesis” in 2002. “Nemesis” was the most disappointing of the quartet, as it ends on such an anticlimactic note. By 2002, it was clear that the “Next Generation” cast members were done, and it was time to split everyone up into their separate lives. Riker and Troi married, and Riker was to become the captain of a ship called the U.S.S. Titan. Also, “Nemesis” ended with Data sacrificing his life to save his friends. 

The final scenes of “Nemesis” are melancholic and downright depressing. Data is dead, Worf is already on a new gig, and the “team” is breaking up. It would have been fine if the breakup was presented as inevitable, a sad progression of time, but it is so clumsily handled that it merely feels like a big bummer. 

In 2023, however, the “Next Generation” cast was assembled for another TV event, the third season of “Star Trek: Picard.” That series was set more or less at the same time as the “future” sequences from “All Good Things…,” but this time told the real story of where the characters have landed. Picard and his old co-workers assembl to foil a Borg plot and rescue Picard’s long-lost adult son. At the end of the series, the crew gathered at a tavern and, like in “All Good Things…,” decide to play poker. 

Picard, feeling lucky, mentions that “the stars have always been in my favor.” It was, after “Nemesis,” a much more satisfying end for the “Next Generation” crew.