WARNING:  Spoilers lie in the near future, or the present, or ... oh, the 
heck with it -- not very many lines down for TNG's finale episode, "All Good 
Things..."  If you haven't been spoiled yet and don't want to be, avoid the 
article.

Whew.  So that's it.  Not perfect, but very strong, and more than enough to 
make me sentimental about the end of an era.

"All good things must come to an end," indeed -- but first, they get the 
living hell synopsized out of them.  :-)  See you when it's over.  Maestro:

Troi and Worf are leaving the holodeck after a romantic evening, and Worf is 
becoming concerned that he may be hurting Riker's feelings.  Troi reassures 
him that it's more appropriate just now to deal with _their_ feelings, and 
Worf bends to kiss her --

-- only to be interrupted as Picard rushes on scene in his bathrobe, urgently 
asking what the date is.  When Worf replies that it's stardate 47988, Picard 
seems very puzzled.  When pressed, he tells Troi, "I don't know how or why, 
but I'm moving back and forth ... through time."

He can't describe exactly where he's been moving to and from, but he knows 
he's been both in the past and the future, by a matter of years in both 
instances.  Troi suggests that the vagueness might mean it was a dream, but 
Picard is adamant that the feelings and images were entirely too vivid to be 
anything unreal.  He adds that whenever he switched time periods, he briefly 
felt disoriented, but that then it ended, "as though I *belonged* in that 
time.  But, I can't --"

Suddenly, Picard finds himself in a vineyard as an old man, where he is 
tying up some vines.  He hears Geordi's voice calling to him, as Geordi 
strides onto the scene, complete with both a mustache and regular, 
functioning eyes.  "Captain, we've got a problem with the warp core, or 
the phase inducers, or some other damned thing," he laughs.  The two haven't 
seen each other in nine years (much less the twenty-five since they were all 
on the Enterprise), and catch up on old times for a short while.  Then, 
Picard gets down to basics:  "So what brings you here?"

Geordi claims to have just dropped by for a visit, but Picard is skeptical -- 
it's too long a trip.  "So," he muses, "you've heard."  Geordi agrees:  "Leah 
has some friends at Starfleet Medical ... word gets around."  Picard has 
recently come down with Irumodic Syndrome, a neurological disorder, but is 
adamant that he is *not* an invalid.  He and Geordi walk and talk, discussing 
both cooking styles and Geordi's recent novel, but then Picard sees something 
out of the corner of his eye and turns to look.  He sees vagabonds in the 
field jumping up and down, pointing at him and taunting him.  He stands 
transfixed, as Geordi tries to get his attention.  "Captain, are you all 
right?"

"Captain?"  It's no longer Geordi addressing him, but Tasha -- and Picard now 
finds himself in a shuttlecraft en route to take command of the Enterprise.  
Telling Tasha that he was distracted, Picard asks her to continue.  She sings 
the praises of the ship, then asks if she's done something wrong, concerned 
at his distant manner.  "No," he assures her, "it's just that you look very 
familiar."  The shuttle reaches the Enterprise, and Picard gets his first 
look...

... as he finds himself back in his quarters in the present, with Troi 
looking on, concerned.  He tells her where he just was, then sits in a corner 
of the room, worried that he's losing his mind.

In sickbay, all the evidence suggests that Picard has not hallucinated, and 
has also not left the ship in quite some time.  Beverly sardonically comments 
that Picard just likes waking them all up in the middle of the night, and 
then shoos Deanna out.  Once alone, she tells Picard that although she found 
no traces of Irumodic Syndrome, she did find a small defect in his parietal 
lobe that would make him susceptible to that ailment.  She assures him that 
it's only a possibility, nothing more, but her worried look betrays her 
feelings.  Picard reassures her that she's "going to have to put up with me 
for a long time," as Worf calls with a priority message from Admiral 
Nakamura.

Picard takes it in Bev's office, and is ordered to the Neutral Zone border, 
where no less than thirty Romulan warbirds are heading as well.  There is 
some sort of spatial anomaly in the Devron system, and both sides are 
converging to the closest location they can to get a look at it.  The 
Enterprise is to wait at the border, but *only* wait -- they cannot cross.  
Nakamura signs off, and Picard gets up to leave --

-- and finds himself back in the vineyard with Geordi, stumbling.  "This is 
not my time," he mumbles to himself: "I don't belong here."  Geordi is now 
extremely worried, but Picard scoffs at any suggestion that he's wrong:  "I'm 
not senile, dammit!  It *did* happen!"  However, when pressed, he admits that 
the details are extremely hazy and growing hazier by the minute.  He remains 
convinced that his situation is real, however, and is convinced that they 
must go see Data to find out what's happening.  Geordi grudgingly agrees, and 
they set off for Cambridge (though not before Picard again sees a vision of 
the vagabonds he saw earlier, and discovers that Geordi sees none of this.)

In Cambridge, Picard explains the situation to Data, who now holds the 
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the university, uses contractions fluently, 
seems more human than ever, and has recently put a touch of grey into some 
of his hair to lend "an air of distinction."  Data listens patiently to 
everything Picard has to say, but inquires about Picard's recent doctors' 
visits and confesses that the possibility of this all being a delusion has 
occurred to him.  However, with no proof that Picard's memories are not real, 
Data is willing to buy into the story, and begins to make preparations to use 
the biometrics lab on campus to do some tests.  Picard stands to thank 
Data --

-- and promptly finds himself in the shuttle bay of the Enterprise, about to 
formally assume command.  He reads the text of his orders haltingly, 
interrupted by more visions of the vagabonds that only he can see.  When they 
become too overwhelming for him to bear, he orders an immediate red alert.  
Everyone stands stunned for a moment, but Yar quickly whips them in line:  
"you heard him!  MOVE!"

Picard decides not to inform this group about his time-hopping experiences, 
not wishing to contaminate this time with knowledge of future events.  At a 
staff meeting, he finds that there are no signs of any alien presence (even 
after he tells Troi specifically to search for signs of something "acting on 
a level of intelligence far superior to our own"), and no signs of any 
security problems.  He orders Worf to start a security alert, then corrects 
his order after Tasha notes that *she* is the security chief, not Worf.  

Picard proceeds to the bridge, where Starfleet has just ordered the ship to 
cancel its Farpoint mission and proceed to the Devron system to investigate a 
spatial anomaly.  Picard, however, is convinced the answers lie at Farpoint 
and orders the ship to continue on its mission, much to the surprise of all 
the officers on board.  He then orders and accompanies Chief O'Brien down to 
Engineering to work on a problem with the plasma inducers.  There, he assures 
O'Brien that he is more than capable to the task at hand.  O'Brien orders 
others to join him, and notes that they'll all be "burning the midnight oil."
"That would be inappropriate," notes the newly arrived Commander Data, taking 
the statement far too literally.  Picard greets Data enthusiastically and 
puts him to work just as quickly.

"Jean-Luc, what's going on?", Beverly asks, snapping Picard back to the 
present.  He tells her he's had another time-shift, and a scan reveals that 
he's picked up an extra two days of memories in just the past few minutes!  
Everyone now believes he's shifting, but no one knows why -- and no one 
remembers the altered past that Picard is currently living, either.  As the 
ship continues towards the Neutral Zone, Riker asks Deanna to join him for 
dinner and is surprised to hear that she and Worf "have plans."  

After returning to the bridge and instructing a distracted Riker to take 
command if he becomes disoriented, Picard retreats to his ready room for a 
bit, with Beverly following shortly afterward.  She gets some warm milk (a 
"prescription") and orders Picard to get some rest, then gets very depressed 
about Picard's prognosis:  after all, he's *been* to the future and knows 
that he does indeed come down with Irumodic Syndrome.  Picard says that he 
doesn't consider that future cast in stone, and reassures her:  "A lot of 
things can happen in twenty-five years."  Bev ponders this, then leans down 
and kisses him gently.  "A lot of things can happen..." she says, and 
departs.  Picard muses...

...and is woken by Geordi in the future.  The lab is ready for Data's tests, 
but Picard is no longer interested in them -- rather, he insists that they 
must go to the Neutral Zone and look for the anomaly in the Devron system.  
Since it's in two timelines, it must be in this one as well, he reasons, and 
important.  Geordi is willing to play along, but reminds Picard that there 
currently *is* no Neutral Zone:  the Klingons took over the Romulan Empire 
and have abolished the Zone, becoming less than enchanted with the Federation 
in the process.  Picard acknowledges this, but wants to go anyway, and 
decides to call Admiral Riker to get a ship.

Riker, however, is less than forthcoming:  the borders are closed, and scans 
have shown no sign of an anomaly.  He bluntly says he can't help and closes 
the connection.  Picard gripes about Riker's current desk mentality, and 
wonders where they go from here.  When Data suggests hitching a lift with a 
medical ship (as they are currently allowed to cross over to treat a plague 
on Romulus), however, Picard cheers up, and asks Data to locate the USS 
Pasteur.  "I have some pull with the captain ... at least, I used to have."

The Pasteur soon arrives, commanded by Beverly:  Beverly *Picard*, Jean-Luc's 
ex-wife.  She says his idea is absurd, "but then I never could say no to 
you," and agrees to take him to the Devron system.  Geordi suggests 
contacting Worf, one-time member of the High Council, to get permission to 
cross the border, and Picard enthusiastically seconds the idea.  Picard 
leaves for his quarters to rest (after a great deal of coaxing), and Bev 
inquires to the others about his state of mind.  She's no more sure she 
believes him than the rest of his old crew, "but he's Jean-Luc Picard, and if 
he wants to go on one last mission, that's what we're going to do."

Picard exits the turbolift on the Pasteur, right onto the past Enterprise, 
which is nearing Farpoint station with no sign of Q or the barrier he erected 
at one time.  Picard, confused, orders the ship to hold position and heads 
for the ready room --

-- ending up right in Q's kangaroo court, where Judge Q smugly says that he 
thought Picard would never come.  Q refuses to "connect the dots" for Picard, 
but will allow Picard to figure out what's going on for himself; he will 
answer ten questions, as long as they're yes-or-no only.  Picard agrees.

"Are you putting mankind on trial again?"  "No."
"Is there any connection with the trial seven years ago and what's happening 
now?"  "I'd have to say yes."
"The spatial anomaly in the Neutral Zone ... is it related to what's going 
on?"  "Most DEFINITELY yes."
"Is it part of a Romulan plot -- a ploy to start a war?"  "No and no."
"Did you create the anomaly?"

Q giggles almost hysterically.  "No, no, no!  You're going to be so surprised 
when you find out where it came from -- if you ever figure it out."

"Are you responsible for my shifting through time?"

Q becomes more serious at this question.  "I'll answer that question if you 
promise you won't tell anyone."  He leans in closely, and stage-whispers, 
"YES."

"Why?"  "Sorry!  That's not a yes or a no question; you forfeit the rest of 
your questions!"

Q then informs Picard that the trial never ended, until now -- and that the 
Continuum has found humanity guilty "of being inferior."  He says that 
they've had seven years to show they were capable of expansion, and have 
chosen to waste those years instead with concerns on Riker's career, Data's 
quests for humanity, and "Troi's pedantic psychobabble."  

Q gloats once more that the end has come for "your trek through the stars."  
When Picard becomes confused about what the actual sentence is to be, Q 
pounces, saying that humanity is to be denied existence.  Picard is shocked, 
and accusatory, but Q will have none of it.  After all, he points out, *he's* 
not the one who destroys humanity -- PICARD is.  "May whatever god you 
believe in have mercy on your soul," Q says, and Picard finds himself in his 
present-day ready room.

Departing, he calls for red alert and a senior staff conference.  At that 
conference, everyone is skeptical about Q's sincerity except Picard, who is 
convinced that Q was in deadly earnest this time.  After a decision not to 
second-guess every action Picard takes, they theorize that Picard's 
time-shifting might be Q giving him a chance to correct whatever it is that 
he does.  The ship approaches the Neutral Zone, and Picard returns to the 
bridge.  There, they find several Warbirds on the Romulan side of the Zone, 
and Picard hails the flagship.  They respond --

-- only now it's the future Worf that the aged Picard sees on the viewscreen. 
Worf is sympathetic to their needs, but has to deny the request for their own 
safety, grumbling all the while that it wouldn't be a problem had Admiral 
Riker given them a cloaked ship.  Picard, however, manipulates Worf's sense 
of honor to shame Worf into giving them permission.  Worf complains about 
this, but grudgingly gives that permission -- as long as he is allowed to 
come along.

Beverly makes it clear that if major opposition arrives to challenge their 
presence in the Zone, the Pasteur is *leaving*, no doubt about it.  They head 
for the Devron system, but Beverly asks Picard to give the order, which he 
does.  "Engage."

"Engage to where, sir?" asks O'Brien on the past Enterprise.  Picard quickly 
clarifies that they are to head to the Devron system to investigate the 
anomaly, despite the fact that it is *in* the Neutral Zone.  Troi asks to 
speak to Picard privately, and expresses her concern that the crew isn't sure 
how to react to Picard's rather bizarre orders thus far.  Picard is 
appreciative, but says that at the moment he can't explain his reasoning.  
After a brief subspace conversation with Riker (and then an interlude where 
Troi tells Picard about her and Riker's prior relationship), he orders Earl 
Grey tea.  The computer professes ignorance of the beverage, and Picard 
smiles --

-- only now he's smiling at Tomalak, who is glaring at him from across the 
Neutral Zone.  Picard offers that each side send one ship to investigate the 
anomaly, to which Tomalak agrees.  They reach the system and see the anomaly, 
which is already very large.  The Enterprise begins scanning...

...while in the past, the Enterprise also reaches the system and begins 
scanning -- only here, the anomaly is far larger.  

"On screen, on screen!  Let's see it!" yells the future Picard, with the 
Pasteur *also* in the Devron system.  Unfortunately, this time he is 
disappointed:  "As you can see, Captain," says Data, "there's nothing there."

Repeated scans and alternate ideas prove equally fruitless, and with word 
coming of Klingon cruisers en route to expel this "intruder", time is running 
out.  Data suggests that an inverse tachyon pulse *might* help locate any 
temporal disturbances, but notes that modifying the deflector dish and 
scanning the entire system would take fourteen hours.  Bev allows six, much 
to Picard's chagrin -- but when he tries to protest, Bev virtually drags him 
into her ready room and informs him *never* to question her authority on her 
own bridge.  Once he apologizes, she acknowledges what is at stake, but also 
asks Picard to acknowledge the possibility that all of this *might* simply be 
a delusion created by Irumodic Syndrome.  Bev leaves, and Picard tries to, 
but hears a voice behind him.

It's Q, seemingly as old as this Picard is, and playing the "old and feeble" 
role to the hilt until Picard becomes enraged.  He then tells Picard that 
there *is* an answer for everything that's been going on, but that Picard has 
to find it himself.  He also assures Picard that he has help:  "what you 
were and what you are to become will always be with you."  With a final 
taunt, however, Q again reminds Picard that he destroys humanity.

In the present, the Anomaly is 200 million kilometers long and a major source 
of temporal energy.  The sensors aren't penetrating it, so Picard orders the 
tachyon pulse, which impresses Data to no end.  Data and Geordi work on and 
initiate the pulse, but Geordi experiences sudden pain in his VISOR and is 
taken to sickbay, where Bev finds that he is miraculously growing new eyes!  

Others report in that old scars are healing, and Data theorizes that the 
Anomaly has something to do with it.  He considers it a pocket of 
"anti-time", which when colliding with normal time might cause the disruption 
they are witnessing.  Picard asks, "what might have caused this eruption of 
time and anti-time?"

"Anti-time, sir?" queries a very confused past-Data.  Picard instructs Data 
to set up the tachyon pulse and also tells him what will be found, ordering 
him to then theorize what could have caused the pocket to form.  He 
discovers that the rift is twice as big here, which he finds perplexing.  
Picard heads for his ready room --

-- and emerges on the bridge of the Pasteur, currently coming under heavy 
fire from two Klingon cruisers.  They attempt to flee and then to surrender, 
but neither works.  The ship is heavily damaged, when the Enterprise decloaks 
and comes to save the day, commanded by Riker himself.  "We'll see if we can 
get the Klingons' attention," he says with understatement, as the Enterprise 
comes up from *under* the Klingon ships and punches half a dozen holes in one 
until it explodes.  The other ship disengages, and the Pasteur crew is beamed 
off their ship as a warp-core breach becomes imminent.

Riker grumbles that he knew Picard wouldn't listen, and harshly upbraids Worf 
for allowing them to cross the border in the first place.  Worf will have 
none of it, however, insisting that had Riker given them a good ship in the 
first place and acted with honor, all would be fine.  Riker prepares to leave 
for Federation space, but Picard insists that they stay and investigate.  
When Riker proves adamant, Picard's demands turn to raves, and Bev sedates 
him.  He sags --

-- and picks himself up on the present Enterprise in a corridor en route to 
sickbay.  In sickbay, he finds that Nurse Ogawa's fetus has reverted to less 
developed tissue, in another temporal reversion.  Bev says that before long, 
this effect may end up killing all of them.  Picard calls a conference and 
orders Data to start looking for a way to collapse the Anomaly safely.  Once 
everyone leaves, Picard broods, only to have Q arrive and note the enormity 
of the decision ahead of Picard.  Q offers a different perspective...

...and whisks Picard away to the dawn of life on Earth.  However, the Anomaly 
is present here as well, now filling an entire quadrant; and it soon becomes 
apparent that with it present, life does not and cannot form on Earth.  
Humanity is not destroyed; it never exists in the first place.  Picard 
quickly realizes this, and Q congratulates him for it, as Picard finds 
himself back on the past Enterprise.

He asks Data to find out how the Anomaly was formed, but Data says only a 
tomographic imaging scanner would let them penetrate the interference around 
the center -- and such a scanner is still in the theoretical stages.

In the present, however, it exists, and Picard promptly orders its use.  At 
the center, they then find three tachyon beams converging at a single point, 
and all three bear the same features, as if all were sent by the same ship!  

In the future, Picard wakes and heads for Ten-Forward to find Riker.  In 
Ten-Forward, the old crew are relaxing and thinking about old times -- except 
for Worf, who is sulking at a distant seat.  Beverly and Geordi urge Riker to 
heal this rift with Worf, which began because Riker could not accept that he 
would never get back together with Deanna (who is now dead).

Picard reaches Ten-Forward and tells Riker agitatedly that they must go back 
to the Devron system, because he now knows that *they* caused the Anomaly in 
the first place, with the tachyon pulses.  "We set everything in motion ... 
it's like the chicken and the egg, Will!"  Riker is incredulous, but Data 
sees what Picard is talking about, and discusses the paradox of their having 
created the very thing they were searching for -- the three pulses in three 
time-frames converged and tore a rift in subspace, creating this pocket of 
anti-time, the effects of which move *backward* in time rather than forward.  
Riker now agrees that they must go back and orders a course -- and asks Worf 
to lend a hand to boot...

The future Enterprise reaches the Anomaly and sees it this time, in the very 
early stages of forming.  The first order of business is to stop the other 
two pulses that are sustaining it, and Picard's time-jumping allows him to do 
so in very short order.  However, nothing has changed, and Geordi realizes 
that the rupture must be *repaired*, and that this involves entering the rift 
itself and creating a static warp-shell around it, thus collapsing it and 
hopefully returning things to normal.  However, it has to be done in all 
three times, and as Picard notes the difficulty of this, he finds himself 
ordering it done in the past.

This time, Tasha, O'Brien and others are wary of the order and want an 
explanation.  Picard, however, says he can't give one.  "Frankly, we may not 
survive," he says, "but I want you to believe that I am doing this for a 
greater purpose, and that what is at stake here is more than any of you can 
possibly imagine.  I know you have your doubts about me, about each other, 
about the ship.  All I can say is that although we have only been together a 
short time, I know that you are the finest crew in the fleet -- and I would 
trust each of you with my life.  So, I am asking you for a leap of faith; and 
to trust me."

The past Enterprise plots a course and heads in.

In the present, Data suggests the same course of action.  "Mr. Data, you are 
a clever man -- in any time period," grins Picard as he orders it done.

All three ships enter the Anomaly, and all experience major system 
fluctuations upon doing so.  All three reach the center, and see their 
counterparts there as well.  The static shells are initiated, and begin to 
work -- but the temporal battering the ships are getting takes its toll on 
the warp cores.

The past Enterprise loses antimatter containment and goes up in a blaze of 
glory.

The present one rapidly follows suit.

"Two down, one to go," notes Q on the future ship.  The Anomaly is almost 
completely collapsed, but the future Enterprise is about to explode itself.  
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc; I'm going to miss you," muses Q.  "You had such 
potential.  But then again, all good things must come to an end."

The Anomaly collapses, and the Enterprise explodes -- simultaneously --

-- and Picard finds himself back in the courtroom, his head in his hands.  
"The Continuum didn't think you had it in you," he hears Q say, "but I knew 
you did."

When Picard presses Q, Q admits that it worked, and that humanity is saved 
once again.  Picard in turn thanks Q for giving him the chance to get 
humanity out of this fix, but Q notes that it was the Continuum that got him 
into it in the first place.  

Q continues, however, reminding Picard that "the trial never ends.  We wanted 
to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons ... and 
for one brief moment you *did*."

"When I realized the paradox."

"Exactly.  For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you 
had never considered.  THAT is the exploration that awaits you: not mapping 
stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of 
existence."

Picard presses Q for more information, and Q nearly tells him, but then 
smirks as he begins to depart.  "You'll find out.  In any case, I'll be 
watching; and if you're very lucky, I'll drop by to say hello from time to 
time.  See you -- out there..."

... and Picard finds himself in the corridor near Worf and Troi, back in the 
present, and back in his bathrobe.  All is well, but he's the only one that 
remembers any of it.

Later, the poker game is assembled, with all but Picard and Troi present.  
Everyone wonders why Picard told them as much about the future as he did, 
given the cautions they've always had about mucking with time.  Since the 
temporal nature of this crisis has already altered the future, however, Data 
speculates that the future is very changeable here -- and Riker suggests that 
this time they can change it "so that some things never happen."

Troi arrives for the game, and then Picard does as well, much to everyone's 
surprise.  "I should have done this a long time ago," he muses, as Troi 
assures him that he was always welcome.

"Well," he continues on, "five-card stud, nothing wild -- and the sky's the 
limit..."  And as the game goes ever onward, so does the Enterprise among the 
stars.

==========

Yow.  After a synopsis that long, it seems the only syllable that's 
appropriate.  Now, onwards to commentary (and no, it won't be another 400 
lines; I haven't the strength).

I have to admit that when I first heard the initial rumors of this episode's 
plot, those being of the "Q returns to deliver a final verdict on the trial" 
variety, I wasn't particularly impressed by them.  "Encounter at Farpoint" 
has always been a decent introduction to TNG's cast of characters, I've 
maintained, but the "humanity on trial" theme is one that's been used far too 
often for my tastes, and not one that worked all that well in EaF.  As a 
result, my initial expectations were a little low.

As time went on and I heard more about "All Good Things...", my appetite got 
substantially more whetted, though.  Picard time-jumping?  A taste of what 
kind of future *might* be in store for the characters we've come to know?  
Ron Moore and Brannon Braga hopefully returning to form?  

Fortunately, the latter was entirely true.  While the episode had a couple of 
minor leaps in logic that I don't think are explainable by invoking paradoxes 
:-), I think "All Good Things..." was a fitting sendoff for the TNG crew, and 
certainly a storyline that merited a 2-hour "event".

So, the writing first:

"All Good Things" was a character-driven piece, I think, but had one heck of 
a plot driving it.  Although the concept of the whole thing being Q's final 
test is a very slight annoyance, the paradox and the entire way in which 
Picard and company found out about it was absolutely marvelous.  

First of all, in keeping with the nonlinear way in which the show ran, we 
didn't start at the beginning, but in the middle, while Picard was *already* 
jumping around.  What's more, we could have seen that part of it from 
Picard's perspective, but I think it worked better seeing it from someone 
else's:  Picard's frenzied manner lent an added sense of urgency to the whole 
thing.

As to the Anomaly [tm] itself, I have to admit that Moore and Braga not only 
came up with a great idea, but ran with it further than I was really 
expecting them to.  "Anti-time" isn't an idea I've seen before, but is an 
interesting concept, and certainly something that's plausible-sounding enough 
to work very well in an SF setting.  What's more, the thought of anti-time's 
effects propagating *backwards* in time rather than forwards is an excellent 
one on more than a dramatic level:  one of the late Richard Feynman's great 
intuitive leaps was his decision to treat antimatter as a time-reversed state 
of normal matter:  thus, a positron can be treated in any relevant equation 
or Feynman diagram as an electron that happens to be traveling back in time.  
(No, I don't entirely like or understand that concept myself.  That's why I'm 
not in theoretical particle physics -- it's scary in there.  :-) )  Given 
that formulation, it makes absolutely perfect sense that "anti-time" must in 
some ways be *time* propagating backwards in ... er ... time.  Eep!

(It's also a nice touch that time and anti-time annihilation creates a major 
disruption in *space* more than in time.  Cute.)

The logic of the paradox was well thought out on nearly all points, but I see 
a few points that I imagine will spark debate:

1)  Why didn't the Pasteur see it initially, if it was growing as they went 
back in time?

and

2)  Data said the three beams were all from the Enterprise, but the future 
one was created by the Pasteur.

Point (2) is undoubtedly a glitch, but I think (1) is extremely arguable.  
Since the Anomaly's effects were growing as it went further and further 
backwards in the timeline, I think it makes a lot of sense to propose that 
the cause/effect blurring also was more and more pronounced further back in 
the past.  As such, the "we saw it before we created it" point may not be 
true at points *very* close to the Anomaly's creation; it may be a case then 
of not being able to see it until after you've made it -- which is what 
happens in normal time, after all.  

The whole thing's a little head-spinning, but it works for me.  One thing I 
would have done given the chance, however, and one thing that I think *might* 
have been done and then edited out, was fix (2) above, and there's an easy 
way to do it:

Suppose that the Anomaly cannot be stopped until it has been fully created -- 
something vaguely close to that was said anyway.  In that case, no attempts 
to collapse it can be made until the future Enterprise returned to the Devron 
system, aimed a tachyon beam at that point for a few seconds, thus fulfilling 
its role, *then* work on collapsing it.  That would have required maybe 
another 30-60 seconds of screen time to fix, and would have removed that 
objection to the paradox issue.  

No?  Well, thppth; I like it anyway.  :-)

In any event, the plot points less related to the paradox were also very 
solid.  Q's relentless taunting was its usual fun to watch (much more so here 
because he was in such deadly earnest; Q is at his best when he's at his most 
barbed), and the slow progress Picard made in pinpointing exactly what had 
been done was frustrating only because you were rooting for him so much.  
(For the record:  yes, I *did* figure out that the only easy way to destroy 
humanity would be back at the source, but I didn't figure out much more than 
that until it was revealed.)

Q's continued reference to humanity's being tested, as I've said, were 
slightly on the annoying side, but primarily because they kept reminding me 
of "Encounter at Farpoint", which is not necessarily the best thing to be 
reminded of.  However, that was virtually all made up for by the power of the 
exchanges between the two on every other matter.  Q's demeanor back at the 
dawn of life was fairly chilling, and his tone taken during their final 
conversation was absolutely breathtaking.  For once, I found myself not only 
liking Q as a foil for Picard, but liking him for what he was actually 
professing.  The only other time I *ever* remember doing that was in "Q Who" 
when he rather pointedly reminded Picard that "it's not safe out here;" here, 
he made a more complex point (to me, at least), and made it in an equally 
stunning way.  Extremely nice work.

On a related point, I'm sure most people noticed that Q's scoffing at what 
the Enterprise crew had accomplished over the past few years rather 
strikingly parallels a lot of criticisms that some elements of fandom have 
been lobbing TNG's way since day one:  "where's the exploration?  what's with 
all this character development stuff?"  Now, while I'd be the first to say 
that some of the approaches TNG has used over the years haven't worked, I 
think Q's main point at the end is an excellent one nonetheless:  exploration 
is *not* merely external, but can be internal as well, just as "good SF" is 
not synonymous with "hard science extrapolations that can lead to lots of 
gadgets going BING!"

Character-wise, everyone was written quite well, as befits a farewell.  
Although some characters had more to do than others (Picard and Data in 
particular), everyone did a good job with what they had.  The regular 
characters all felt absolutely *right*, in any time period, right down to 
Picard slipping and addressing Worf as security chief instead of Tasha, and 
Bev yelling at *Picard* for challenging authority.  Although some elements 
(like the Worf/Troi romance, which I still think is a bit forced) were ones I 
wouldn't have used, the reactions of everyone in and around the events we saw 
were in top form.

Onwards from writing to directing.  First of all, if I'd been in Winrich 
Kolbe's position when he first saw this script, I'd probably have demanded 
danger pay.  :-)  All those transitions between time-frames had to be just 
the right combination of jarring and seamless, and had to be done just so in 
order to let the audience realize a switch had occurred when the time was 
right, and not before.  That's not an easy task (hell, it wasn't easy to do 
in my synopsis above, and I'm working with a more limited medium and a 
smaller audience :-) ), and it's the sort of script that probably makes 
directors break out in cold sweats at night.

Kolbe pulled it off, and how.  The only transition that didn't quite come off 
was the very first one, and that may have been intentionally more jarring in 
order to get us used to the idea that they were happening at all.  Every 
other one that I can remember was utterly remarkable; while it was sometimes 
a shock to go from one place to another, it was never done in such a way as 
to keep the audience confused (assuming they were regular enough watches to 
notice cues like costumes to help keep track of past vs. present, at least).  
Excellent job on that front.

On the "regular scenes" side, Kolbe also did a good job, though not as 
spectacular a one as he did with the transitions.  The Picard/Q scenes have 
already been mentioned as terrific, and here I'd also put in a mention of how 
eerie the appearance of the courtroom flotsam was in Picard's vineyards.  My 
first thought was "wait a minute, when did David Lynch come in to do a guest 
direction?" when they first appeared, and it took a bit of time to convince 
me that that wasn't in fact the case.  As for the truly "regular scenes", 
where the focus is on the characters, the best thing a director can do is let 
the scene speak for itself and get the hell out of the way, and from what I 
can see Kolbe managed to do just that.  Praise all 'round for him.

That brings us to acting.  Yow.  I expect a lot of the discussion and praise 
will go to Stewart for his "Picard in three eras" tour de force, and rightly 
so; but I want to single out Brent Spiner a bit more.  Picard, despite the 
years that had to jump on and off the character, is still fundamentally the 
same man in all three time periods.  Sure, he's a bit stiffer in the past and 
a bit more crotchety (okay, a LOT more crotchety) in the future, but he's a 
very recognizable Picard all three times.

Data is in many ways *not* the same character in each period, however.  The 
current Data is one we've gotten used to, but the past one is a throwback.  
That Data is the one that was extremely android-like and forced, thinking and 
acting extremely literally and being far more brazenly inquisitive than the 
current one (and one that made some people wince), and Spiner had to go a 
long ways back to recover that character.  Meanwhile, the *future* Data is 
about as human as we can ever expect Data to get:  his speech is utterly 
natural, his demeanor is far more relaxed, and he's one mellow 'bot.  :-)  
Spiner had to project the Data he's developed for seven years to its ultimate 
for that role, which isn't particularly easy.  He managed to do both, 
seemingly without effort, and I am even more impressed with his skill here 
than I've been in the past -- and I liked him a lot before, too.

All the regulars were quite good.  Stewart and Spiner got the most to do, but 
Frakes's future Riker was about what I'd expect the Riker in that particular 
situation to be (and extremely reminiscent of the self-loathing Riker who 
appears in Peter David's novel _Imzadi_, another time-travel story).  Sirtis 
got somewhat short shrift, but did a good job with what she had; Burton's 
future Geordi was an interesting fellow; and Dorn's big scene had to be when 
Picard outmaneuvered Worf *yet again* with appeals to his sense of honor.

As for Gates McFadden, I actually liked her present character a bit more than 
the future one, but that's primarily because of what I was reading as the 
character's _faux_ British accent in the future.  I don't know if that's what 
it was supposed to be, or if (as friends have suggested) McFadden was just 
trying to age her delivery a bit -- but it didn't quite come off.  The 
character herself was wonderful, and the accent only jarred in a scene or 
two; but it was enough to mar an otherwise excellent performance.

In terms of guest stars, there's not much to be said beyond the usual 
plaudits for John de Lancie (except, perhaps, a wish that this is the last we 
see of Q; I like the character a lot, but this is a nice way to say goodbye 
to him).  Q was the mixture of mirthful and menacing that makes him as fun to 
watch as he is, and that's all that one really needs.  Colm Meaney and Denise 
Crosby were mostly there as "look who we can bring back" conceits, I think, 
but both did a good job recreating their original characters back in the 
Farpoint era.

That said, we have the "other stuff" section.  :-)  Onwards:

-- On the FX side:  that was one mind-blowing battle sequence.  3-D tactics?  
We've *never* seen that on television Trek, and only rarely seen it in the 
films (ST2 and ST6 in particular).  The tactics were impressive, and the 
Enterprise's weapons systems seem ... pretty good then, too.  :-)  I want 
one.

-- Also on the FX side, the final entrance into the Anomaly was good, as was 
the destruction of all three Enterprises.  (As Lisa put it, "ah, proof that 
Brannon [Braga] had a hand in the show." :-) )

-- I liked the idea of Tomalak returning one final time, but this way of 
doing it was one of the episode's real failures.  It looked, quite honestly, 
like Andreas Katsulas got the call while on a long lunch break from doing 
"Babylon 5", and was rushed through the script and makeup without even 
breaking character as B5's G'Kar.  *Not* impressive, I'm afraid.

-- Data holding the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge was a hoot.  Not only did 
Newton hold the position at one time, but Hawking currently holds it now -- 
and given his interest in the show, I've no doubt that this was meant as a 
tip of the hat to Hawking.

-- I can't decide whether I liked the way around having to shave Frakes's 
beard for the "past Riker" sequences or not.  As Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap 
put it, "there's a fine line between clever and stupid," and this was 
right on the border.  :-)  [Tufnel's sage wisdom would also apply to those 
who object to the "warp 13" references in the future because warp 10 is a 
limit:  "these go to 11." ;-) ]

-- Denise Crosby's acting was fine, but that hairpiece needed work.  In the 
final frenzy as the ship was being destroyed, I expected one of her shouts to 
be "and this small animal on top of my head is attacking my face, HELP!"

-- Name-dropping was very big in this episode, not too surprisingly.  Here's 
a list off the top of my head that will no doubt have many additions:

	-- Geordi's wife is named Leah and is now head of the Daystrom
		Institute.  Gotta be Leah Brahms.
	-- Picard's formal command orders were signed by Norah Satie.  VERY
		interesting, given "The Drumhead".
	-- The USS Bozeman was at the Neutral Zone in the present.  That's
		the same ship as came through the time-rift in "Cause and
		Effect".  [Bozeman is also Brannon Braga's hometown.]

-- Data's cats.  'nuff said.  :-)

-- Lastly, there were a few places where we were reminded just a bit *too* 
much of Stewart's "A Christmas Carol" performance to keep straight faces.  
When Picard comes back and finds he's back when he started, our immediate 
response was "Christmas Day!  I haven't missed it!"  :-)

-- The final shot, of the whirling poker table to the turning ship, was 
beautiful.  I wasn't quite moved to tears, but I was definitely moved.

That would seem to do it.  So, a wrapup and then some final words:

Plot:  A few minor logic goofs in the eye of the paradox, but a remarkably
	imaginative idea in creating it in the first place, and a hell of a
	triple-universe story.
Plot Handling:  Utterly stunning.  It'll hold up for a long time.
Characterization:  Top-notch.

OVERALL:  Well, objectively it's probably more like a 9 than a 10; but I've 
been here since October of 1987 (and reviewing since November of '88), and 
dammit, I'm allowed to be sentimental.  A 10.  

That's it -- and that's it for my avocation as TNG reviewer, as well.  I 
mean, yes, I'll be doing a season-7 wrapup in a month or two and a series 
retrospective at some later time; and yes, there are movies to come -- but as 
an ongoing, weekly series, this is it.  I would like to thank the makers of 
"Star Trek: the Next Generation" (and by that, I mean writers, actors, 
directors, producers, and everyone else involved) for a wild ride.  Special 
thanks would go to the regular writers for the last three or four years -- 
Ron Moore, Brannon Braga, Rene Echevarria, and Naren Shankar -- for their 
work on the show and their support and encouragement to this fan who's 
egotistical enough to think he can write :-); and to Michael Piller and Rick 
Berman, for keeping the show on an even keel in the past five years (or more, 
in Berman's case) -- it may not always have been the keel I'd want (or, at 
times, more like a keel-hauling), but you take the bad along with the good.
Thanks to you all.

And another thank-you to those netters who've been such faithful readers of 
this ranting.  Your comments have helped me improve my reviews over the 
years, offered me thought-provoking ideas to consider and to challenge at 
times, and kept me going over what's been nearly one quarter of my life, with 
all the attendant good times and bad.  Without you and your continued 
interest, I might have stopped doing this any number of times -- with you, 
I never considered it.  I thank you for your interest, your tolerance, and 
your enthusiasm.  It means a lot.

To quote Tasha from long ago:  "No goodbyes.  Just good memories.  Hailing 
frequencies closed, sir."

Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET:  tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET:  tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
"So ... five-card stud, nothing wild -- and the sky's the limit."
			-- Picard
--
Copyright 1994, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
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