Hello all, Ric here with my spoiler review of episode ten of Picard’s season three,
“the Last Generation”. First off, I want to give a props to the opening scene of the Enterprise
and the Borg elements added in instead of the usual introduction as well as the closing music
being the TNG theme. If nothing else, this is a better ending than Star Trek Nemesis.
The Borg have gained control over the youth of the Sol system and we start with a panning
shot reminiscent of the TNG opening and general warning from President Anton Checkov,
a respectful inclusion as the son of Pavel Checkov named after Anton Yelchin.
The situation sounds dire as those within the planetary shield of Earth too
are fending off the converted population. The Transmitter Cube was in the gases of Jupiter,
having arrived there last part through a transwarp conduit. That is worrying, that the
Borg managed to create such an inroad with such precision, but well… with the Borg now gone…
do we have a conduit to the Delta Quadrant on the doorstep of the Federation? Would be cool.
The cube itself is operating at about a third of its usual power in judging by its look,
it has been remade for this singular purpose. The Borg are indeed desperate, ravaged from Janeway’s
plague in Voyager’s Endgame and the maddened and lone queen has diverted all to this one gambit.
The drones aboard are being consumed to sustain the Queen, its armies are decaying and this a
desperate shot at evolving the Borg for a new age to avoid their extinction. The Queen herself
is a geiger-style nightmare of metal and flesh, integrated into her surroundings, in many ways,
this is a display of the Borg in their true colours. A monstrous merger of flesh and steel
and an empire that persists so long as the Queen alone survives.The new Borg vision however is not
one of assimilation, but the usurping of others through the biological infiltration of cultures.
This makes them more aggressive as it draws a defined line between those that can be Borg and
those who are expandable, so these new Borg in theory would quicker turn to destruction than
before, especially as the Borg coding can be passed down through the genes naturally.
Picard chooses to plug himself back into the collective hive mind in order to reach Jack
and it really is the ultimate sacrifice for him, more so than death. The Borg assimilation was the
greatest trauma he had ever experienced because it made him the antithesis of everything he was.
The fact he is willing to risk that once more to get to Jack was a powerful moment.
Jack meanwhile is enjoying the feeling of connectivity and understanding the
hive mind brings. A part of his mind was always seeking this connection,
the organic Borg seeking its link which now has him feeling intoxicated in its unity.
Overcome with the connection, he seems content to allow it to blissfully carry away his will.
Picard’s offer to remain reminds Jack that this connection he yearns for is not that of Borg
programming, but human and it’s enough to return some semblance of clear thought to him and he
disconnects from the lie. I enjoyed the moment where Picard admits to his own personal flaws,
at preventing himself that connection all his life, keeping people at a distance,
even his closest friends. This was something season two tried to tackle too and while I
liked where they were going there, their delivery was… muddled, let’s say. Here it is concise and
we have Picard once more faced with his inner weakness through the Borg as an instigating
force. He was used in Best of Both Worlds, he lost his cool in Star Trek First Contact and
now he confronts his fear of fatherhood. It seems the Borg routinely force introspection upon him.
The Queen too tries to claim ownership of Jack through twisted motherhood, a creating factor in
his production, but she would seek to use him, mistaking that for nurturing. This reveals the
ultimate lie of the Borg collective, for all its unity and voices, none have a say and it is the
most selfish of organisations. “A paradise that can be rebuilt so long as its leader survives is
not one for the people, but its selfish ruler” to paraphrase a life lesson. She cannibalises
everything so she alone can survive, even her own collective who she once claimed to represent.
With the Enterprise swooping in to beam them out, I did find it strange that there had been
no roof to this chamber which was much more cavernous than the scene suggested however,
but the moment was a joyful one, and Riker’s poignant call to his Imzadi was heartfelt.
Earlier too, when Riker chose to stay behind to get Picard out of the cube and I was convinced
that he, Picard or Worf were going to end up dead by the end of this episode.
So it was a great surprise that we actually got a happy ending for all involved and dare I say it…
it was almost too good to be true. Now, I would rather have this ending than the complete
opposite, don’t get me wrong but if ever there was a time for someone to bow out permanently,
this was that time. I think I was just so expectant of someone to cop it, that when no one
perished it felt kind of… anticlimactic. It’s an odd criticism to have, and once again I reiterate,
I prefer this to having a despondent ending. But I think that has been the only real issue
with this series as a whole. The reverence it treats these characters with is often spelled
out on screen a little too much for my tastes. Such as Riker’s family speech in episode nine
and I find myself thinking at times, “yes, yes I get it, I like these characters too
but-...” It felt like the series was still trying to make up for the time Admiral Clancy
swore at Picard. Like Luke Skywalker catching the lightsaber and to the camera saying it should be
respected. I think they could have taken a few more risks, but in hindsight, I would much, much
rather have this happy ending than a darker tone. I have mentioned before how the action scenes in
this series got a little lacklustre in places and the storming of the Bridge from Seven and
her team was one of these moments. The ensuing firefight had next to no range nor cover and
yet many shots still missed. The plot shields were on full once again at this point but one
thing I did like was seeing Seven one arm a rifle as she has done in the past series.
They recapture the bridge by using transporter tagging phasers systems or something? I want to
know more about those for sure, but for now it's some rigged up tech to save the day,
my guess it kinda tags the target for the Titan’s transporters to do the work.
Seven makes the choice to engage the controlled fleet to distract as much as the Titan can and
they have several advantages, which is just as well or they would be destroyed easily.
The cloaking device breaks the line of sight communication signal, which seems
like a glaring flaw in such a system. The other benefit is that library of prefix codes that the
Titan uses to penetrate the shields of the other Starfleet vessels. Aside from the techy aspects
of this feat which feel very plot convenient, I did feel exhilarated by the confrontations,
but never truly thought the Titan was in danger. Unlike the crew of the Enterprise.
The Galaxy class moves with the finesse of a much smaller vessel and we have seen it perform
the occasional feat of unexpected nimbleness but not to this extent, it was a little excessive but
did I enjoy it? Yes, it was fun and flashy to watch, but it did leave me puzzled and trying
to ratify 7 years of watching this huge cruiser gracefully float by with the fighter-craft like
tight turns it was pulling. However the conversation preceding this, I liked a lot.
Data studying the convoluted route to the centre of the transmitter cube knew he could manage it
despite the odds and statistics being against them from the feeling in his gut, human instinct.
Brilliant, and more aspects that were beyond the prior incarnation of Data.
In fact, jumping forwards to the ending scenes, Data undergoing counselling was oddly gratifying
to see, he can truly experience and converse about emotions now and I loved the line that
being human was as complex a task as trying to attain humanity. It tells me that Data still has
experiences to explore and a journey ahead of him, even in his “old age”.
I am not entirely sold on the Enterprise G. The USS Titan was the hero ship of this series and an
amazing vessel in its own right, from the original captain to Seven taking command, the Titan already
has the makings of an impressive legacy and I feel that it did not need to adopt the name Enterprise
when it was perfectly liked and appreciated as its own successor to the original Titan. In terms of
the look, I feel that it is a major step back in the lineage of the vessels named Enterprise which
have always been at the forefront of every facet of Starfleet innovation, while the Titan was a
specialty ship, a smaller vessel and not one that could hold its own in combat, despite how it was
portrayed in this finale. Now it is stepping into the role of the Enterprise G I cannot help but
feel that was unnecessary and almost pandering. Yes, part of me is a little salty to see the
Enterprise F out of the picture, but I would have been perfectly happy for the Titan to emerge as
the new flagship of the Federation in its place until a new Enterprise entered the picture.
But again, the conversation immediately preceding it I enjoyed, with Crusher’s nerves and Picard’s
support. That shows that things for our retired admiral have continued to improve with his son and
he gets that connection with his family at last, something that was always missing from Picard.
I’m glad nepotism was brought up by Jack because of course that is something that
would be on their minds, and it reflects his more pragmatic nature. Jack is not a blind follower,
much like Seven of Nine so this should be an interesting command if nothing else.
Worf was still used for comedic effect which annoys me a little, but again, I still laughed
or smiled at every joke so not much has changed here for me. Every member of the cast had
something to do in the finale which needed to happen to be a cohesive send off for the crew.
Overall I think this episode has plenty of good dialogue and moments between the characters that
were delivered with heartfelt and deep care. Then the show switches to action scenes that while fun,
made me scratch my head on closer inspection, but then on to the next endearing or dramatic moment.
Overall I forgive it its faults because I was having fun and as a biassed Trekkie,
I’m going to go easy on Star Trek I enjoy more than ones I don’t.
Thank you for watching this review of Picard’s finale. I intend to continue
with some speculative videos at the state of the galaxy as well as some
digging to see just how interconnected Star Trek Online is to this tale with so
much infiltrating the series. Until then, I’ve been Ric, thank you for watching and goodbye!