10 Best Final Lines In Star Trek Episodes
2. "So, Five-card Stud, Nothing Wild… And The Sky’s The Limit."
How do you end seven seasons of a beloved television show in style? With Picard finally joining the poker game and dealing the cards, of course!
All good things must come to an end, until about a week and a half later when you start work on the movie. The series finale of The Next Generation is as near to perfect as you can dare to get. Its clever premise is an epic romp across time that allows for as much nostalgia as the old-age makeup it requires.
The final scene and line are unparalleled in both their effective simplicity and emotive clout. Picard has spent the best part of the episode travelling back and forth through time (with a little help from everyone’s favourite letter of the alphabet) trying to prevent the destruction of humanity, and most of the galaxy, by a powerful anomaly. Before saving the day, although technically he started it, he is subject to the destruction of three Enterprises.
When Picard returns to the present, it is little wonder, therefore, that all he wants to do is kick back a little with his senior officers – all of whom are clearly now also his friends. "I should have done this a long time ago," he laments, and Troi reminds him that "[He was] always welcome".
Apparently, the fact that Picard had never attended a poker game in seven seasons was not a deliberate move on the part of the writers. They simply just never found time to include it until the finale – fortunately enough for us.