Watched:
Pre-emptive Strike and
All Good Things.
Thoughts:
[Show spoiler]Pre-emptive Strike - Ro returns from tactical training only to be handed an immediate undercover assignment to infiltrate and deliver the Maquis into the hands of Federation security. Given Ro's past, and personality this inevitably leads to a moral dilemna for the character that plays out across the episode. Tbh, this is one of my favourite episodes of the series. I really liked the Maquis storyline that ran across TNG, DS9 and VOY. They were an adversary totally unlike anyone else the Federation ever faced, and it was a rare instance where the Federation weren't completely on the right side morally. Plus I love Ro as a character so this episode was always likely to appeal to me. I'm glad that they shone the spotlight on Ro one last time before the series finished and that they weren't afraid to go down the less-obvious route to conclude her character's arc. Michelle Forbes excels, and together with an engaging guest cast, even the lesser contribution of the full regular cast isn't really missed too much. A fantastic episode.
All Good Things - Final episodes are notoriously hard to do, especially to do well. Fewer still achieve "perfect" status (B5, The West Wing, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men). All Good Things is perfect. The fact that Moore and Braga wrote the script for this in a couple of weeks while they were working on Generations is pretty remarkable. The quality of the end product confirms that it was the right choice though and that they were a very safe pair of hands to deliver the series finale. Story-wise, the show comes full circle as Picard encounters three separate timelines, including one set around the time of the Farpoint mission - this gives ample opportunity for the likes of Denise Crosby and Colm Meaney to appear as their characters one last time (in TNG). Also most fittingly, there's a pivotal role for Q, and this story really concludes (for now, to resume in Picard many years later) the thawing of relations and the mutual respect between Picard and Q arc that started with Qpid but really accelerated with Tapestry. It's a brilliant evolution and bookend to their relationship across TNG. And, that final scene.... 
We watched the movie version for the exclusive doc, and then picked up the series disc to watch the wider season 7 docs.
All in all, I still think this is a brilliant, brilliant series, that occupies a very special place for me. It's aged in some ways but not in the most important ways - telling engaging stories with a raft of characters that you love.
These blu-rays, and the HD masters behind them - Bravo Paramount/CBS. It would have been easier, and cheaper, to upscale the VFX, but rebuilding the whole episodes from scratch went way above and beyond and the effort simply has to be applauded. I know the financials didn't work out at the time (I believe it's only recently become a profitable undertaking), but the series is now there, to be enjoyed by everyone in the best possible way for decades to come. Bravo!
Special mention goes to Roger Lay, Jr. and Robert Meyer Burnet (and once again Paramount/CBS for greenlighting the budget), because the extras on these sets, like the episode rebuilds, goes way above and beyond what could be reasonably expected. The documentaries, with everyone involved from the actors, through the production staff, to the execs, is nothing short of marvellous. I would absolutely have loved for
Babylon 5 to have been afforded this kind of treatment (we didn't even get the existing commentaries ported over FFS
), or for DS9 to eventually get similar TLC, but I suspect no other show will ever get this lavish a treatment again (fair play to the Doctor Who blu rays, they have bags of extras as well, but given their age there's only so much they can do as a lot of the cast throughout the years of that show are now simply, gone).
On the off-chance that there are people out there who love Star Trek or just sci-fi in general, who haven't seen this show, then give it a shot. The blu rays can be picked up quite reasonably, and the show itself is still one of the greatest shows ever produced IMO. Part of me is already looking forward to re-watching these episodes again some years down the line (hopefully, if I'm still around!
).
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