My parents divorced over the summer of '88, and the next two years were, honestly, a bit of a blur. I continued watching TNG, but my next concrete memory of it isn't until June of 1990, with the season 3 finale - The Best of Both Worlds, Part I. After the divorce, mom and I had moved across town into a less expensive residence. At the start of the summer of '90, we moved back to our house on John St. It was there, one night in mid-June, with half of our belongings still in boxes, that I watched as Picard had been turned into a Borg, and Riker gave the command to fire upon the Borg cube where his transformed captain was held captive.
This was stunning, mesmerizing stuff. Pre-Internet, we weren't inundated with all of the information at our disposal today. No online spoiler forums, no leaked production photos. It was simply taking-in a new story each week, then waiting three long months until the new season started. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after that episode had aired, and couldn't wait to see how it would be resolved in September.
As we know, Picard didn't die, and was soon back to his old self. The season 4 cliffhanger/season 5 premiere, Redemption, was very Klingon-heavy, and I remember watching a repeat of it that autumn at a sci-fi convention. All of us nerds and geeks were gathered in a room with one of those large projection television sets, and I remember the crowd loving the line where Chancellor Gowron, after having been threatened that another house may one day rule the Klingon Empire, smiled and said, "Perhaps. But not today."
I remember the viewing experiences of several season 5 episodes. Of course, there was the two-part Unification storyline, which saw the special guest appearance of Leonard Nimoy as Ambassador Spock. Other classics that year were Darmok, Disaster, Cause and Effect, I Borg, and The Inner Light. The season ended with another gem, Time's Arrow, which sees the crew travel back in time and meet Samuel Clemens, and a younger Guinan, after Data's 500-year-old head is found in a cave.
It's not a hot take to say that TNG kind of lost a bit of its mojo in seasons 6 and 7. There were some good episodes during that time (Timescape is a personal favorite), but there's a lot of wheat and chaff to separate. Of course, the series finale, All Good Things, is well-regarded, and for good reason. It nicely ties-up the ongoing Q thread (or, at least it did, until season 2 of Picard came along), and sees a subtle but emotional ending for the show, with Captain Picard finally joining the command staff for their regular game of poker.
About six months after TNG ended its television run, the crew was back with their first feature film. Generations isn't a great movie, but it's nowhere near as bad as fans say it is. I clearly remember watching it at the theater with my friend, Jeromy. Two years later, he and I were back at the cinema for First Contact - a better film, but with less of the positive Star Trek ethos we were used to. I will always remember that First Contact screening as the one I went to about an hour after learning my dad had terminal cancer.
The next two TNG movies - Insurrection, and Nemesis - well, not much needs to be said about them, though I do love the Jerry Goldsmith score for the former. And, of course, Patrick Stewart returned as Picard for the titular streaming series in 2020. To date, we've had Data, Troi and Riker on the show, with the full crew expected to return for season 3 next year. That's nice, but it's nothing like what it was back in the late-eighties and early-nineties, when we were all younger, and the adventures felt fresh and new. Ah, those were the days.
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