Still has one of the best final lines of a TV series: "Five card stud, nothing wild, and the sky's the limit."

The last scene with the poker is, to me, Picard finally acknowledging that he's not just a Captain with a crew, but a person with friends. Really good friends. Huge moment, and an excellent way to finish the series.

"I'm recording this 2 weeks before Picard releases"

I was with you when we started on Voyager and you didn't have proper lighting. You had hair; blue streaks if I remember correctly. I've literally spent hundreds of hours listening to you.

It really pains me to see Lore speculate about Picard, pre-Picard. Such an innocent soul, unawares as to the turmoil that will come.

Who would have thought

“But the Chief Engineer isn’t on board. Mr O’Brien, Trust me. I know you can do it. All those years you spent as a child building those model starship engines, they were well worth it”. - I love the warmth Picard shows to O’brien here to give him confidence, Picard remembering that O’Brien used to make ships in bottles from the episode ‘Booby Trap’.

I think the poker game idea was great, because it's a no-tech throwback that we can easily identify with. No fake holodeck stuff, just real people playing a game in a friendly, personal setting. It goes a long way to humanizing the crew that we already know and love. Picard's "I should have done this a long time ago." and the hesitant look from the doorway is probably some of the best advice one can get before its "too late" to do so.

The original script sounds like the TNG movie we deserved. Still a great episode. I can't wait for your thoughts on the Picard show

My sister and I had a running Word doc going last year where we wrote down everything horribly wrong/bad/poorly done/confusing/nonsensical from ST: Picard. After about 4 pages of notes after just 3 episodes, we just stopped watching the show together (I carried on by myself, glumly). I'm very curious to know what form your Rumination on that show will take, because having seen your Ruminations on TNG, Voyager, and DS9, I'm not sure how a Rumination series on a hole-ridden, "puzzle-box" narrative show like ST: Picard would even take shape. Can the entire show be a Lamentation? There's so much decaying meat on that bone. All the elements of story that you love--rational plot, characterization, setting, etc. --none of it is there. Red Letter Media did a pretty good job of lambasting it, but I'm very curious to hear your thoughts. The "family" of the Next Generation deserved better.

Glad to have finally reached the end of this TNG journey with you! ONWARDS AND FORWARDS to TOS and ENT 😄

Of COURSE that last scene gets me "in the feels"!

Thank you for all these ruminations of TNG and DS9. It's been a long road, getting from there to here (heh) but it was a fun ride.

It's been a long road, lore thank you.

This series, your videos, they have helped me so much. In quarantine in dark days the death of loved ones. Thank you, I'm still smiling and alive again because of your videos.

Thank you so, so much for this truly wonderful series. You've helped introduce me to Star Trek, and for that I'm forever grateful. I know you recorded these some time ago, but huge congratulations for finishing the whole series for both TNG and Deep Space Nine! I look forward to the best/worst of TNG video next week, and to all your future ruminations. Bless you, Lore.

17:30

I feel like the final lines speak of their respective series' heart very nicely:

"The family fell apart, because they stopped being family. But those connections were still there... I wonder how the Picard show handled this.

All Good Things has always been one of my top 5 Star Trek episodes. You telling me how hard it was to get it rolling and giving me your thoughts has only elevated it for me. I’ll always wonder what might have been, but I’ve been on a character arc of my own for a few years to accept what is and move on. Now seems like a good time to conclude it.