10 Things You Should Know About "All Good Things..."

It's impossible to fathom, but Star Trek: The Next Generation concluded its seven-year run on May 23, 1994, with the two-hour finale, “All Good Things…” The extended farewell touched all the bases, sending Captain Picard into the past, present and future, a wild ride masterminded by Q. Fans caught glimpses of older versions of Picard, Worf, Riker, Crusher (or make that Captain Beverly Picard), etc. and "All Good Things..." remains one of Trek's most-popular finales. Today, we toast it with 10 Things You Should Know About "All Good Things..."

Puttin the All in "All Good Things..."

Who were the only two TNG regulars to appear in every episode? They were...  Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes.

And on the Sixth Day...

Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga tapped out the first draft for “All Good Things…” in just six days. They were also, at the same time, in active production on Star Trek Generations.

Poker-face Picard

Andreas Katsulas, Patti Yasutake, and Clyde Kusatsu reprised their recurring roles as Tomalak, Ogawa and Nakamura. And, of course, the series regulars gathered together for one last game of poker, joined -- finally, shockingly and poignantly -- by Picard.

The Last Line

Stewart’s Picard, fittingly intoned the finale's final words, “So, five-card stud, nothing wild... and the sky's the limit.”

Remembering Rick Kolbe

Rick Kolbe directed “All Good Things…” The go-to Trek helmer ultimately directed 16 TNG episodes, 13 Deep Space Nine episodes, 18 Voyagerepisodes (including the series premiere) and one Enterprise episode. Sadly, Kolbe passed away in 2012 after a long illness.

Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise

Fans glimpsed three different Enterprises throughout "All Good Things..." Along the way, Denise Crosby, Colm Meaney and John de Lancie returned one last time as Tasha Yar, Miles O’Brien and Q, respectively.

No... de Lancie?

John de Lancie didn't know for sure that he'd get the call to return to TNG for the finale. "As I’ve explained in the past, (with acting) it’s somebody else’s dinner party," he told StarTrek.com in a 2014 interview. "You can spend a lot of time hoping you’re going to get invited and wondering why you’re not. In my case, I knew that there’d be a dinner party that was called the last episode, and I didn’t know if I’d be involved. Then I got a call saying, ''You are going to be involved,' and I said, 'Oh, great.' Then, like all the other shows that you do, you wait – anxiously in this case – to find out, 'Am I going to really be happy being involved in it?' For me, I think the episodes with Q worked best when the story was really big, and this was a really big story that my involvement meant something to on a philosophical level. It was a weighty script in that respect, so I was just really pleased.

We'll Drink to That

The 2012 Winemaker's Reserve Roussanne from The Callaway Vineyard & Winery won the Gold at the recent 2014 Winemaker's Challenge Wine Competition. We bring this up because? Because the Picard-Geordi vineyard scenes in "All Good Things..." were filmed in early 1994 at the winery in Temecula, California.

The Late, Great Katsulas

Andreas Katsulas was in the midst of a great period in his career as a character actor when he reprised his role as Tomalak. He’d co-starred the year before in The Fugitive as Sykes, a/k/a the one-armed man, and had just started his run as G’Kar on Babylon 5. Katsulas later guested on Enterprise, portraying Captain Drennik in “Cogenitor” in 2003. That proved to be one of his final roles, as Katsulas battled cancer, which claimed his life on February 13, 2006. He was just 59 years old.

Award Worthy

“All Good Things…” was nominated for four Emmy Awards, winning one, for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects, and was also honored in 1995 with a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

And, what do YOU appreciate most about “All Good Things…”?