Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas promised us that “safety not guaranteed” heading into the series finale, and that The Next Generation crew would be “getting a proper send off.” Despite the fact that killing off a TNG character would be “risky”, this finale had me on the edge of my seat throughout waiting for the other gravity boot to drop.
Jack has sought out the Borg cube and the Borg Queen and turned the Starfleet armada against Earth and all of its defenses. The Titan has been commandeered by Borg-ified Federation youth. The old TNG crew have sought refuge in the NCC-1701 D. It looks as though the only option is a rescue / kamikaze mission into the Borg cube to rescue Jack and/or kill the Borg in the process, thus saving Earth, the Federation, and everyone else in the universe.
The Enterprise crew locate the Borg cube hiding out in Jupiter’s Red Spot (the supposed “nebula” we saw previously). But the cube is eerily quiet, with only a skeleton crew aboard. Riker, Worf and Picard enter and try to locate both Jack and the beacon from which he’s transmitting. Every turn seems to imply the imminent death of anyone on the away team. Picard says his farewells to each of them multiple times, before declaring that he can no longer be a captain; he must be a father.
Jean-Luc Picard: #1 dad
Picard ventures deeper into the Cube, leaving Worf and Riker to fight off the few remaining Borg with only a mak’leth and its hidden disruptor. The Borg cube has been cannibalizing itself for years, and at this point most of the Borg on board have given up their biological matter to maintain the Queen. But there are a couple of active drones who manage to mostly disarm Riker and Worf. If Worf’s last words had been “Swords are fun,” I wouldn’t have been entirely upset.
Meanwhile, the Queen draws Picard deeper into her spider’s web, with Jack at the center. The Queen (the same from First Contact, etc) is barely holding on, even more of a skeleton than she usually is. She has finally realized that evolution is more effective than assimilation with the promise of perfection. Picard sees the Borg collective crumbing around him and makes the decision to go back inside to convince Jack to leave the comfort of the collective. We get a touching moment of Picard putting on his “#1 dad” hat and convincing Jack that he’s not alone in the universe.
Anyone can die at any moment!…but no one does
At the same time, Geordi, Crusher, Troi, and Data are back on board the Enterprise D. When Riker transmits the location of the beacon, Data decides to “fly with his gut” and to pilot the impossible route to the center of the Cube. When the ship arrives, it seems like firing on the beacon will destroy the Borg cube and all who remain within. It really looks like the ending of this series could be the destruction of the Borg, the Enterprise D, and everyone on it.
The writers deserve high praise for getting us to believe that they might have killed ANY, let alone ALL, of the main crew. I wasn’t convinced they’d be safe until the final credits rolled, and even then we get one last Q appearance where he threatens Jack with a good time. What might be going on there, I wonder?
Instead of everyone dying, we get a happy ending for all involved. Seven is posthumously recommended by Shaw for the rank of Captain, and she gets it. Raffi and Jack serve along with her on the newly christened Enterprise G (previously Titan). The TNG crew share their love for one another and close down Guinan’s 10-Forward with one final game of poker.
Verdict
We will never see these characters again. And while I’m happy that they get a happy ending, there’s a little part of me that’s a little disappointed everything wrapped up so neatly.
And we never do hear the end of Data’s limerick…
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