The ever expanding universe ofStar Trekhas never been too comfortable with endings. Time and time again, it has made reintroductions of or additions to stories seemingly long finished. Nonetheless, while the titular heroes of the franchises multiple series may keep coming back in various different ways, their prospective shows do end. Some reach their conclusion more dramatically than others, and some go down in sci-fi history. When it comes down to it, which series finale did its show justice?
With new additions constantly beinginvented by the creative minds at Paramount, including the possibility of anew Seven of Nine show, there are a lot of shows currently without endings. Hopefully, they can learn a thing or two from the shows of old. Each one of the core shows —Voyager, Deep Space 9, The Next Generation,andEnterprise— each had a distinctive ending. (The Original Seriesunfortunately never delivered a proper one, as the show got canceled after multiple budget cuts.) Of these four shows, it seems unanimous thatEnterprisehad an abysmal ending, with the death of Commander Tucker seeming throw away and purely written for shock value. But which among them, by contrast, was the best?
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The finale forVoyagerwas received fairly well, despite the show gettingsome fairly poor reviews over the years it ran. It was big, bold, and dramatic, and gave some emotional performances by a cast of characters that fans got to know and love through their long journey home. There was one issue, however — and it was a fairly big issue. For a show that was supposed to be all about returning home after a whopping 79 years ofhigh warpaway, the finale fell flat and failed to deliver an emotional conclusion to the crew actually getting home. The episode ends, and audiences are left wondering how the cast reacted and how they reintegrated back into the world they had left a whopping 7 years ago. The finale could have easily scraped some things or moved them around to accommodate this payoff. While the action elements of it were excellent, the emotional resonance was lacking.
The two biggest players left, then, areDS9andTNG,two shows that have been heralded as the bestStar Trekhas to offer. WhileDS9may have been consistently good,never succumbing to the early season issuesTNGexperienced, the conclusion left one small sour taste in fans' mouths. The finale is excellent, having a grand and well throughout conclusion to what had been one of the franchises biggest and most impactful story arcs, and it managed to tie up all the loose ends satisfyingly. The only issue focused aroundthe morally ambiguous captain Siskoand his departure.
It made narrative sense, and in a way, it was what the show had been gearing up to for a long time, Sisko leaving and joining the prophets. But it still meant he had to leave his family and friends behind, possibly to never return. Audiences have already experiencedwhat life his son Jake might havewith the absence of his father looming over him, so this departure felt unnecessary and sad for something that was meant to be a victorious conclusion to a well-loved show.
On the other hand, “All Good Things…” the final episode ofThe Next Generation,is a finale that many believe to be perfect. The episode is packed full of everything that madeTNGgreat: a fantastic storyline, paradoxes, second chances, moral conundrums, and of course mystery. The episode revolves around Picard getting caught between three different moments in time: the past (just beforethe iconic Enterprise D’sfirst mission), the present, and the future (with a very old, retired Picard). Picard, the only one aware of his situation, is forced to play a game of time traveling chess. He must get himself and his crew from each time period to work together and stop reality from getting destroyed by an anomaly.
The episode is tense, and full of near misses and high stakes. But it also pays tribute to each character, bringing each and every one of them together as members of the strange Starfleet family they have become. It allows a peek into the future for them all, showing what great things they managed to accomplish. What stands as possibly the best moment of the entire episode, however, is when everything is finished and the day is saved, the present day Picard sits down with his beloved crew and plays poker.
While this may seem like a fairly low-key moment, the emotional significance is huge. The crew are shown to play poker together regularly, but never with the Captain, who up until this point has always maintained a level of professional distance. His joining them as an equal, and as a friend rather than captain, resonated deeply with each one of them. It also hit home with the audiences, who have finally seen to a perfect conclusion to their story (untilPicardcame along, of course).
