Warning: there are minor spoilers here if you haven't watched the episodes leading up to this episode. But if you have watched those episodes, there's nothing hear that would surprise you:
To start, I love what they did here. I think the bones are excellent. And the reintroduction of a familiar ship is really a nice throwback. I wish they would go back to the comfortable, well lit bridge styles of that generation.
I didn't find the characters to be as endearing as they were in the 80s series. The acting was a bit wooden, dialogue just felt like it was written by writers slightly too young, and directing that wasn't able to bring it together well.
All the nods to the 80 series were there. The ideas were perfect. The outline of the story was excellent. The idea of how the Borg have decided to evolve and assimilate was ingenious.
But the characters just felt slightly off. Either an exaggeration of their former selves as in the case of Riker, Picard, and Warf. Or they were watered down versions as in the case of Laforge and Troy.
Dr Crusher felt off. But I guess that was intentional. I just wish we had seem some of her former self come though in the epilogue after the dust settled.
Data was quite well done. Especially the scenes with him and Troy.
Part of this is likely we dont get to see the full range and breadth of their character like we could in TNG series. But part was just Stewarts acting style has changed significantly. Some was the reading of the lines felt wooden, especially the banter between Warf and Riker. It was all the right ideas, just not the same naturalness as with TNG.
But as mentioned, they didn't have a lot of time to get back into character and their roles. I remember when Stewart first appeared as Picard in the 80's, many of the critics said his acting was wooden and he would fall over like a board if you pushed him. He grew into the role to become the best captain in the history of the show.
7 of 9 has lost a lot of interest to her character since she doesn't struggle with her borg side any more, or adapting to reintegration. These are the parts of her personality that were interesting, and her character hasn't really evolved into anything nearly as interesting. On top of this, her whole involvement in this episode felt rather pointless. Not quite sure what she achieved given all the screen time she had during this episode. Ultimately, Ro Laren would have probably been a more interesting character if they had decided to keep her on the show.
The Borg just seemed to be added on and not tied into the story well. A little more filler between their encounter with species ### in Voyager and now would have been nice. To me, that was one of the best borg stories since their introduction in TNG. No other Borg story felt as true to their original concept as that one. And their relationship with the changelings wasn't filled out well. It would have been interesting to see more of their interaction together. As it was, it made the series feel a bit cut in two. Was also hard to grasp the particular way the Plummer character communicated with her master (borg queen?). Not sure that makes much sense unless I missed something. Some missed opportunities here that could have added two or three episodes to the series, and tied together Locutus and 7 of 9's stories.
There were numerous other nagging issues, especially with some of the technology fleet synchronization explanations, but all in all, the final season, and especially this final episode did what it meant to do...make us nostalgic for a great series and cast. Makes me almost hungry again to go and watch TNG a third time. The feel and optimism of those post TOS series will just not be captured again. I know they finally died because they didn't evolve, but to me they were comfort food, and I could have continued watching versions of the same for the rest of my life. The newer sci fi has lost its' heart. They're fun, but just no soul. This last episode reminds us of what we've been missing for the past 20 years.
To start, I love what they did here. I think the bones are excellent. And the reintroduction of a familiar ship is really a nice throwback. I wish they would go back to the comfortable, well lit bridge styles of that generation.
I didn't find the characters to be as endearing as they were in the 80s series. The acting was a bit wooden, dialogue just felt like it was written by writers slightly too young, and directing that wasn't able to bring it together well.
All the nods to the 80 series were there. The ideas were perfect. The outline of the story was excellent. The idea of how the Borg have decided to evolve and assimilate was ingenious.
But the characters just felt slightly off. Either an exaggeration of their former selves as in the case of Riker, Picard, and Warf. Or they were watered down versions as in the case of Laforge and Troy.
Dr Crusher felt off. But I guess that was intentional. I just wish we had seem some of her former self come though in the epilogue after the dust settled.
Data was quite well done. Especially the scenes with him and Troy.
Part of this is likely we dont get to see the full range and breadth of their character like we could in TNG series. But part was just Stewarts acting style has changed significantly. Some was the reading of the lines felt wooden, especially the banter between Warf and Riker. It was all the right ideas, just not the same naturalness as with TNG.
But as mentioned, they didn't have a lot of time to get back into character and their roles. I remember when Stewart first appeared as Picard in the 80's, many of the critics said his acting was wooden and he would fall over like a board if you pushed him. He grew into the role to become the best captain in the history of the show.
7 of 9 has lost a lot of interest to her character since she doesn't struggle with her borg side any more, or adapting to reintegration. These are the parts of her personality that were interesting, and her character hasn't really evolved into anything nearly as interesting. On top of this, her whole involvement in this episode felt rather pointless. Not quite sure what she achieved given all the screen time she had during this episode. Ultimately, Ro Laren would have probably been a more interesting character if they had decided to keep her on the show.
The Borg just seemed to be added on and not tied into the story well. A little more filler between their encounter with species ### in Voyager and now would have been nice. To me, that was one of the best borg stories since their introduction in TNG. No other Borg story felt as true to their original concept as that one. And their relationship with the changelings wasn't filled out well. It would have been interesting to see more of their interaction together. As it was, it made the series feel a bit cut in two. Was also hard to grasp the particular way the Plummer character communicated with her master (borg queen?). Not sure that makes much sense unless I missed something. Some missed opportunities here that could have added two or three episodes to the series, and tied together Locutus and 7 of 9's stories.
There were numerous other nagging issues, especially with some of the technology fleet synchronization explanations, but all in all, the final season, and especially this final episode did what it meant to do...make us nostalgic for a great series and cast. Makes me almost hungry again to go and watch TNG a third time. The feel and optimism of those post TOS series will just not be captured again. I know they finally died because they didn't evolve, but to me they were comfort food, and I could have continued watching versions of the same for the rest of my life. The newer sci fi has lost its' heart. They're fun, but just no soul. This last episode reminds us of what we've been missing for the past 20 years.