Trek Thursdays: Trekking Towards Sixty #10 — ‘All Good Things…’ And ‘The Way Of The Warrior’

On September 8th, 1966, an intrepid crew of explorers boldly went where no one had ever gone before on television. At that moment, Star Trek was born. The series launched a franchise that has kept a firm grip on audiences for decades.

As the sixtieth anniversary approaches, we here at Comicon are ready to celebrate one of the greatest science fiction franchises. While Star Trek has graced the silver screen, it has lived most of its life on our television screens. So, that’s where our focus shall remain.

Every week through September 8th, we’ll be spotlighting two Star Trek episodes, from any and every iteration, that we feel are some of the greatest. At this point there are over 950 episodes of Trek, so it goes without saying some favorites won’t make the cut for this list of 60.

Star Trek now has a plentiful history of creating feature length adventures that take the final frontier to the big screen. At the same time, the franchise is no stranger to feature length adventures which remain on the best format for the series, the television screen.

In general, those moments have come through pilots, and series finales with a few sprinkled in the middle of seasons. For a spell there Star Trek: Voyager was well known to have some big feature length themed event nights on UPN. While they are usually technically two parters, especially when aired later, there is still a big bold feeling for most of them.

This week we’re looking at two of the best, one of them an ending and the other a different kind of beginning. Funny enough, they connect in more ways than one. This is fitting, since the series ran parallel with one picking up the baton of the other as the final curtain was drawn.

-RED ALERT: SPOILERS FOLLOW-

“All Good Things…”
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 7, Episode 25/26 (05/23/1994)

Synopsis: The dastardly Q (John de Lancie) returns with the dire news that Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is the key to causing the annihilation of humanity and the universe itself. A journey through time from the present to the past and twenty-five years in the future begins. Introductions, losses, endings, bitter rivalries, deaths, and more await the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise D in this series finale.

Yeah, we’re not pulling any punches here. Going right for the end and arguably one of the best episodes of TNG ever.

Series finales are often used to wrap up plotlines and celebrate all that the series has done or accomplished through the years. Doing both those things can often be quite daunting, with so many series finales ending up on lists of disappointment for fandom. Closing out something beloved is even harder as fandom builds up ideas in their heads where things are headed and the actual product can leave them reeling in various ways.

Because of it’s episodic nature, TNG didn’t have massive plotlines or threads to really come back to for the end, save one. That being the original premise from the pilot of Q putting Picard and all of humanity on trial. It all comes full circle (at least until Star Trek: Picard came around) as we get a Q and Picard heavy send off that pays respect and dues to everything we loved about the series.

The whole cast has much to do, save Deanna Troi (Mariana Sirtis) who pulled the short straw for the future portions. Seeing them playing older versions of themselves was pretty seamless, and as we’ve now seen from Picard, they weren’t too far off in some respects to how they would look or act. The ageless Data (Brent Spiner) is the only glaring issue in that modern day revival series. An issue that was at least fixed with some typical Star Trek technobabble miracle work.

Anyway, back to the episode at hand.

Everything about this episode just works as it showcases the beginning, middle, and end of the adventures so well. With the banter and issues between Picard and Q working so wonderfully. Even having Q do a title drop in the middle of the episode works, as it’s a dire usage and so fitting for the character and all the walls broken before him.

Had we never seen the TNG crew again, this final episode left fans hopeful and with a warm fuzzy heart that would have carried us for years. Just that final scene with Picard finally joining the crew for poker, and the reminder that he was always welcome. It hits the heart strings and feels so perfect seeing all seven of the cast together in this final moment, as not just friends but an actual found family.

“Five-card stud, nothing wild … and the sky’s the limit.”

Well said. The journey never ends.

“The Way Of The Warrior”
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 4, Episode 1/2 (10/02/1995)

Synopsis: With the threat of the Dominion becoming clearer in the Alpha Quadrant, the Klingon empire makes a bold move, that puts Deep Space Nine and the Federation in a tight position. A familiar face arrives to help discover the true intentions of the Klingons, as decades of peace stands on the precipice of destruction.

With TNG over, its characters taking the immediate leap to the big screen, it was Deep Space Nine’s time to stand tall. Its new younger sibling Voyager was just getting off the ground, making the more serialized station-based series the veteran sibling at this point.

Going big and bold with the Klingons was a solid move, as was the choice to bring Michael Dorn over to once more play the surly but loveable Lieutenant Worf. It was TNG that really gave Klingons a massive boost, not just because of Worf’s involvement but because of the deep focus they often gave in various episodes. While TNG walked with the Klingons, it’s hard to argue against the idea that DS9 was the one that ran with Klingons and really gave us some meaty bites with them.

Introducing a squabble between the Klingon Empire and the Federation gave the series even more of a serious kick. It really spoke to how dangerous the Dominion Changelings could be as their mere presence and potential infiltration was beginning to destabilize the quadrants.

Not only that but we got introduced to the wonderful General Martok (J.G. Hertzler) who becomes a regular supporting character over time. One of the best Klingons that we get outside of Worf, this move really showcased how varied and great the species really are. Additionally, we got more of Chancellor Gowron (Robert O’Reilly) who gives us that wolfish ‘wants to be eating up the scenery’ grin that we oh so love.

Having the massive battle with the Klingons, some of it hand to hand, on the station is chef’s kiss. It makes the Klingons dangerous again but also allowed the show to really once again focus on how gritty and determined and dangerous this crew can be. It shows how Deep Space Nine as an installation can, and has to, be a last bastion against threats, especially with the wormhole.

Another great note comes in an intriguing scene between Quark (Armin Shimerman) and Garak (Andrew Robinson) centered on Root Beer. Added as a way to pad the episode out, and almost cut out twice, the conversation is illuminating. Root Beer is meant as a subtextual stand in for the Federation. Having these two aliens living under the Federation speaking about how they have problems with the organization and what it means, but in the end would prefer being on the side of that behemoth when the chips are down.

We don’t often get things from the perspective of non-human or just non-Federation members in this way. Having these two seasoned great actors speak of this really hits home the series long-standing message that the ‘utopian’ Federation isn’t as rosy as it seems to be or could be.

This is the moment where Deep Space Nine went from really good to the path of beyond great. A noticeable shift happens, beyond the addition of Worf, that takes things to the absolute next level. One of those things is the bald and even more badass imposing looking Sisko (Avery Brooks).

Oh captain, my captain indeed.

Come back next week as we dive into two more of Star Trek’s greatest episodes.