Star Trek: 10 Times Picard Proved The Future Was Worth Fighting For
7. ...All Good Things
In the finale of Star Trek The Next Generation, Picard realises the paradox and along the way challenges the notion of accepted reality.
The journey to discover this is far from simple. Jean Luc finds himself shifting through time, later discovering that Q is causing these time shifts. The episode is a direct message to the audience - who you were and who you are to be are a part of who you are. It is both linear and it isn't.
The anomaly that Picard causes in the future has negative effects on the present and the past - this search for truth has blinded him. Once he sees that the smaller the issue in the future, the more abstract, travelled backward and began to unravel the fabric of his own existence, he sees that time is relative and something that hasn't happened yet can drag down the present.
It is science fiction at its purest. It would be a fine example of Roddenberry-esque storytelling, using the tropes to remind the audience that worrying over what will come can impact the present and in hindsight the past itself. Picard uses his strength to collapse the issue in all time eras because the journey needed a reminder that what is coming is coming and shouldn't be rushed into existence.
As the final note plays and the Enterprise flies off into the distance, the journey goes ever on.