TV #20 of 2021:
Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7
With very few exceptions, this final span of TNG plays like a program that has essentially run out of fresh ideas. There’s no real shame in that — the series already had over 150 episodes under its belt ahead of this last run, not even counting the franchise’s earlier TOS and TAS titles or the first year of Deep Space Nine, which collectively add another 120 or so — but it’s an unfortunate way to say goodbye to the era nonetheless. Certain hours are clear repeats of stronger previous plots, while others exhibit absurd low-bar concepts which may well have been rescued from the trash bin. We also get retcons aplenty, mostly in the form of crew members being visited by previously-unmentioned relatives in a naked attempt to gin up personal stakes in the writing, and a half-hearted gesture at a new relationship that only ever feels genuine in the admittedly-superb multiverse adventure “Parallels.”
As that one indicates, it’s not that everything in this batch is awful, but it is the case that most of the show’s worst outings are concentrated here. I can’t decide between such dreck as “Sub Rosa” or “Genesis” for the true bottom of the barrel, but including both those contenders amid some that are just marginally better makes watching this season a chore in a way that Star Trek has never seemed before. I am excited to return to DS9 next, and I’m hopeful this proves the low point for the entire venture and not merely Picard’s branch of it.
I do still have the spinoff movies to watch, so maybe they’ll offer the sort of closure which is largely absent for now (although I haven’t heard great things on that front). I should emphasize that I’ve generally enjoyed this version of the Enterprise and its journey through space, and I will miss characters like Data when the dust finally settles. But at the same time, I think I would look at them more positively had they departed a bit sooner.
This season: ★★☆☆☆
Overall series: ★★★☆☆
Seasons ranked: 4 > 3 > 5 > 2 > 6 > 1 > 7
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