STAR TREK: PICARD 3×10 “The Last Generation” Review

Review

“Watch your future’s end.”

A haunting quote which the Borg Queen (Alice Kridge) first uttered to Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: First Contact. Those same words are uttered again to Picard this week as he grapples with the fate of his son Jack (Ed Speleers) and we, the audience, grapple with the end of the series.

The final episode of Star Trek: Picard is upon us. Written and directed by showrunner Terry Matalas, “The Last Generation” has an incredible amount of ground to cover. But in just 60 minutes the razor sharp script is able to dispatch with the looming threat in an incredibly action-packed and satisfying manner and still has enough time for a bittersweet goodbye to the cast.

If you’ve been following my reviews for season 3 you will have no doubt spotted I’ve given five stars to all ten episodes. But there was a real point after last week’s episode that I wondered whether “The Last Generation” would be able to wrap up everything without rushing to its conclusion. I need not have worried.

Matalas’ love for the franchise is abundantly clear from start to finish. “The Last Generation” is perfectly balanced, ensuring no major character is left on the sidelines. It’s astonishing how effortlessly the episode hits beat after beat of high stakes action without ever forgetting the man whose name is on the title card.

“Vox” left the future of Starfleet hanging in the balance with a storyline that feels bigger than anything the franchise has ever attempted on the small screen. I commented last week that it was a bold move on behalf of the production team to go this big. This week I’m circling back with a bigger round of applause for steering such a smooth landing. Whilst the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D deal directly with the Borg cube it’s up to Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) to distract the assimilated fleet of ships attempting to attack Earth. In one of many fist pumping moments in “The Last Generation” it was excellent to see the episode gave plenty of screen time to characters NOT from The Next Generation.

Jeri Ryan has been a standout of this cast from her first appearance in season one. What an incredible and unexpected victory lap this has been for Seven. This episode delivers an emotional arc which really drives home the development we’ve seen the character go through across three seasons. Bringing Shaw (Todd Stashwick) back in to the mix for one final push towards captaincy was the perfect way to cap her final story arc. Seven’s emotional response to seeing his recommendation for her promotion only cemented Ryan as Trek royalty.

Honestly, I could write for hours about how each of the legacy TNG cast members again upped their game in the finale. Each and every one of them grabbed this opportunity with both hands and really saw it through to the bitter end. With “The Last Generation” Matalas is able to give each of them a moment in the spotlight which either calls back to moments from the past or further shows how far they’ve come in the years since TNG ended.

Seeing Crusher (Gates McFadden) firing on all cylinders at tactical (“a lot has changed in twenty years”) or Deanna (Mariana Sirtis) taking the helm on to manoeuvre around the inside of a Borg cube to save her husband strikes right to the heart of why we love these characters. I wasn’t just on the edge of my seat. I was on the floor! But it isn’t all moments of pure elation. The level of emotional content is also fabulous. Geordi (LeVar Burton) and Data (Brent Spiner) arguing over trusting Data’s new found gut when it comes to flying inside the Borg is fraught with emotion and racks up the tension massively.

Much like the rest of the final season, in these closing moments Star Trek: Picard doesn’t simply keep the cast together for the sake of it. Worf (Michael Dorn), Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Picard are separate from the rest of the crew for much of the episode as they attend to matters on the Borg cube. Their time on the cube is some of the most emotional in the episode and certainly points the audience towards a potentially devastating outcome for Picard.

There are moments when “The Last Generation” points toward certain doom. There’s definitely a sense that no one is safe. But ultimately this final season was a love letter to the past and part of that meant giving the characters an ending they always deserved. There will be rational arguments about the episode having multiple end points, sending characters off on journeys I hope we are able to follow. It is perhaps an overly romantic love letter to each and every one of these actors and their counterparts. But ultimately I think you’ll agree that after the bitter taste of Star Trek: Nemesis, this was an experience they all deserved.

With all my finale predictions out of the window, I can’t believe I never saw the final group coming. Of course it had to end with… no I’m not spoiling it here…

Verdict

Star Trek: Picard season 3 leaves us just as it arrived. With a full 5⭐ from me. The final hour is action-packed and immaculately paced as it wraps up all the series’ lingering plot threads. Writer/director Terry Matalas gives the legacy TNG cast the ending they always deserved.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐