Synopsis: Beverly nearly loses the most epic of hide and seek games.

Memory Alpha Summary: I’m a doctor, not a traveler!

Review: The premise of this episode is fantastic.  Every scene where the Enterprise loses more people is both creepy and hilarious as her senior officers begin to think Beverly is crazy.  Data explaining why the Enterprise crew would only consist of 100 or so people is great.  The best is when Picard tries to comfort Beverly when it’s just the two of them by saying, “We’ve never needed a crew before.”  It’s bone-chilling stuff.  We even get Beverly’s second “Jean-Luc I need to pour my heart out to you” moment right before he vanishes.

But then, dammit all, we end up having to watch from the other side of the glass, as the Traveler shows up in the real world to help Wesley get his mom back (and to ask him out now that he’s legal).  This instantly removes all tension for the remainder of the episode, as we’re now watching Beverly try to figure out the solution when we’ve been secretly let it on it by the writers.  Argh!

That said, this is by far Gates’s best episode to date.  She actually shows some range here rather than being just the nice-looking doctor.  Her conversation with the computer is wonderfully written and performed.

Then she’s saved by Wesley, and the hug they share is so devoid of emotion that you wonder if they need family therapy.

Money Quote (by the computer):  The universe is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter.

Synopsis:  A culmination of three years of Klingon politics (and some previous time travel shenanigans) comes to a head.

Memory Alpha Summary: And another paycheck for Denise Crosby

Review:  While the politics story is decent (but not great) as usual, Worf’s character develops even further as we see him interact with his brother and Gowron.  The two key moments in the first part of this cliffhanger are Worf’s resignation from the Federation and seeing Sela (Tasha?) come out from the shadows at episode’s end.  It’s not quite the impact that Best of Both Worlds had with its cliffhanger, but it’s still pretty effective.

The second part is a mess of stories, but I love them all.  Sela and Picard talking about Tasha and the Enterprise C is a moving scene.  The faceoff with the Romulans is low-key but tense.  The episode’s slam dunk to win the game is Data getting his first chance at captain and treating his prejudiced first officer like a bitch.  I for one am glad this subplot wasn’t an entire episode; we’ve had plenty of “Humans rule, androids drool” episodes, and the writing team managed to encompass what they needed.

My only quibble is that the fall of the Duras fleet seems to happen fairly quickly without any real exposition to make it seem natural.  The Klingon civil war is too abrupt to even feel like a war.  Perhaps more weeks passed by then I felt, but it wasn’t made very clear if that was the case.

Money Quote:  I understand your concerns.  Request denied.

Synopsis: Picard destroys humanity, then saves them just in time for Voyager.

Memory Alpha Summary: The End

Review:  When lauded series get ready for their final episode, there is often a palpable tension amongst fans expecting to be blown away.  The stress for the writers to send things off with a satisfying bang has to be enormous.  And while this is certainly not the best series finale in television history, it’s quite solid and a worthy sendoff.

Having Q back was a must, and they got it right.

Having the episode center around Picard was a must, and they got it right.

Bringing back O’Brien and Tasha were solid ideas and the plot as written successfully allowed for it.

The touches with the past were done with great care.  Data’s babbling, Picard forgetting Worf isn’t security chief, and a subtle nod to Admiral Satie all showed how much care was put into this.  It was also nice to see future Geordi making fun of the technobabble.  “Captain, we’ve got a problem with the warp core, or the phase inducers…or some other damn thing.”

While there are a couple of continuity issues (even allowing for the fact that there was purposeful discontinuity between the three time periods), the major plot hole is that when the Pasteur created the anomaly, it should have only appeared for a brief time in the future, gotten smaller, and then disappeared (if it should have appeared at all).  Rather, it is shown getting bigger in the future as well, which goes against what Picard learns later.  However, it’s a minor quibble in what otherwise is a very well written episode.

Hearing Q say “all good things must come to an end” is as poignant a line as ever.

It’ s only fitting the show ends with one final poker game and Picard joining the senior officers.  The final line feels appropriate without being overly cheesy.

So, five-card stud, nothing wild… and the sky’s the limit.

Synopsis: Picard grabs his saddle and yells, “Yippy-ky yay, motherfucker!”

Memory Alpha Summary: Though he doesn’t order a pizza.

Review: Season six up to this point had been rather talky, so it was nice to finally get a good action show in there, especially one where it’s pretty much all Picard.  There’s several gruesome deaths along with cunning escapes by our hero.  I felt the story was tight, solid.  I think the B-plot down on the planet (specifically, dealing with the conspirators) was unnecessary, and seemed mostly there to give the rest of the bridge crew something to do.  But before that, Data’s new “small talk” subroutine was freaking hilarious.  I also kept smirking at the ongoing saddle joke all the way through.  It just seemed like a bunch of actors who loved working with one another having a great time.  Incidentally, it’s one of Stewart’s favorite episodes.

Synopsis: Three seasons too late, we finally get a kickass humanoid adversary.

Memory Alpha Summary: The minstrel boy to the war has gone

Review: I heart the Cardassians.  They’re smarter than the Romulans, less obvious.  Their presence in a room is also quite formidable.  They become a huge part of DS9 for a reason.  We’ll just ignore the fact that the Federation was supposedly at war with them just one year ago, as they were never mentioned before.

I also love this episode.  It’s a lot of talking between Picard and Gul Macet, but their conversations are calculated and tense.  O’Brien develops a personality, knows as “O’Brien must suffer,” and he almost becomes a main character before he leaves for DS9.  The interactions between O’Brien and Benjamin Maxwell are also quite dramatic.  I’m surprised Roddenberry even allowed this episode to be made, what with Maxwell giving into the primal human emotion of revenge.

Picard’s final speech to Macet is dynamite, a perfect ending.

Synopsis:  Riker, jealous that Worf discovered that he was a father in the last episode, finds out he’s a father in this one.

Memory Alpha Summary:  And captain, without a chance to turn it down!

Review:  A dynamite concept, and Riker shines.  Stumbling through his new life is fun yet realistic.  The boy who plays his son does a pretty decent job and just feels like a Riker.  The plot twists are also well-done, though the last one isn’t as fun.

Money Quote:  I said shut up!  As in close your mouth and stop talking.

Synopsis: Stewart finally gets to sing a march and kiss McFadden without it ruining his character’s reputation.

Memory Alpha Summary: A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a criminal…

Review: I’m a huge fan of “stuck in a room” plots and this one doesn’t disappoint.  Jumping back and forth between real Picard and doppelganger Picard is a bit awkward, but there aren’t any wasted scenes, which helps things move along.  Plus, we get to see Stewart’s incredible acting range in full force (without it feeling forced).  He truly is a remarkable actor.  When Crusher glares at him at episode end and he chokes up while saying “engage,” I can’t help but giggle.

I couldn’t help but wonder what the rest of the bridge crew were thinking when Crusher told them that she and the captain had a “very unusual evening.”  All they did was dance and kiss once, but her phrasing would certainly make my mind race.

Money Quote:  Your names all mean surrender!

Synopsis: Picard and Riker face off in a battle simulation, while crew members get sucked into the seedy underworld of Stratagema.

Memory Alpha Summary: The best episode featuring the Ferengi

Review: Considering the story’s real conflict doesn’t happen until there’s about ten minutes left, this script is consistently engaging.  Kolrami is perfectly smug without being over-the-top.  Pulaski officially starts identifying with Data.  Wesley has perhaps his best episode yet as he cheats to help out Riker’s crew in the simulation (and nobody glorifies him at the end).  The battle simulation and confrontation with the Ferengi is written very well, though I question how Worf was able to deceive the Ferengi sensors without access to their security codes.  Finally, the Stratagema rematch between Data and Kolrami is delightful, ending with Data forcing a stalemate and one of his awesomest quotes:

“In the strictest sense, I did not win.”

(beat)

“I busted him up!”

Synopsis: Riker flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

Memory Alpha Summary: Juicy fruit!

Review: Frakes here is superb.  It’s probably his best episode in the series.  It’s hard not to be in each moment with him as he feels he is losing his sanity.  The writing itself has a David Lynch feel to it in that even when it ends it’s hard to exactly parse what the fuck was happening, but the ride is enjoyable all the same.  It’s dark.  It’s intense.  Love it.

Synopsis:  McCarthyism, circa 2367.

Memory Alpha Summary:  With the first link, the chain is forged.

Review:  I am so glad they waited until season four to do something like this.  Had this been set in season one, the preachy factor would have been through the roof.  As it stands, Picard realizes that humans are still capable of yielding to their most destructive fears, even in the 24^th century.  Jean Simmons is an awesome guest star.  And while Earl Billings doesn’t even get a line as Admiral Henry, his role is awesome as well.  Courtroom scenes can be so gauche, yet the writers here pull out another gem, partly because they knew to give all the best lines to Picard.  It’s not quite as emotional as in Measure of a Man, but it’s more realistic and perhaps more relevant to our times.