TNG Season 7 Episodes 25&26 All Good Things

The trial of the human race that Q instigates in Farpoint is seemingly ongoing, and it appears that Captain Jean-Luc Picard may be the destroyer of humanity itself, in the time-jumping finale to Star Trek: The Next Generation on television.
Encounter At Farpoint in itself, isn’t great, but without it the splendor that is All Good Things makes no sense. Thus you have to watch the first episode of Next Generation for the last to work. However, even with all the introductions and John DeLancie being frankly fantastic as Q, Farpoint doesn’t deserve to be in the top 25 on its own merits… All Good Things really does, though, and as the conclusion to the story that Farpoint starts, forgive me the conceit of putting them together as one story here.
Of course, like any other list of this nature, everyone will have alternative selections and to be utterly fair my ‘almosts’ include some brilliant episodes such as Ensign Ro, Second Chances and The Most Toys. Then again, Next Generation is my favorite TV show of all time, so there is very little of it I don’t enjoy or wouldn’t show to a friend.

Plot

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard inexplicably finds his mind jumping among three points in time: the present (stardate 47988 just prior to the starship USS Enterprise-D's first mission during the episode "Encounter at Farpoint", seven years earlier; and over twenty-five years into the future, where an aged Picard has retired to the family vineyard in La Barre, France. These jumps occur without warning, and the resulting discontinuity in Picard's behavior leaves him and those around him confused and concerned about his mental health.
In the present, Picard is ordered to take the Enterprise to the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone to investigate a spatial anomaly. In the future, he convinces his ex-wife, Dr. Beverly Picard, to take him on the USS Pasteur to find the anomaly. In the past, despite having Enterprise's mission to Farpoint Station cancelled by Starfleet to investigate the anomaly, Picard insists on continuing, believing the impending encounter with the omnipotent being Q to be more important. After reaching the place where he had first encountered Q, Picard finds himself back in Q's courtroom as seen in the first episode. Q reveals that the trial never concluded, and the current situation is humanity's last chance to prove themselves to the Q Continuum, but he secretly reveals that he is the cause of Picard's time jumping. Q challenges Picard to solve the mystery of the anomaly, cryptically stating that Picard will destroy humanity.
As Picard arrives at the anomaly in all three time periods, he discovers that the anomaly is much larger in the past, but does not exist at all in the future. As the past and present Enterprises scan the anomaly with inverse tachyon pulse beams, the Pasteur is attacked by Klingon ships, but the crew is saved due to the timely arrival of the Enterprise under the command of Admiral William Riker. Q once again appears to Picard and takes him to Earth 3.5 billion years ago, where the anomaly, growing larger as it moves backwards in time, has taken over the whole of the Alpha Quadrant and has prevented the formation of life on Earth. When Picard returns to the future, he discovers the anomaly has just appeared, created as a result of his orders, and the tachyon pulses from the three eras are sustaining it. Data and Geordi determine that they can stop the anomaly by having all three Enterprises fly into the center of it and create static warp shells. Picard relays the orders to each Enterprise. Each ship suffers catastrophic damage, with Q telling the future Picard that "all good things must come to an end" just before the future Enterprise explodes.
Picard finds himself facing Q in the courtroom as before. Q congratulates Picard for being able to think in multiple timelines simultaneously to solve the puzzle, which is proof that humanity can still evolve, much to his surprise. Q admits to helping Picard solve it with the time jumping, since he was the one that put them in this situation, and then goes on to explain that the anomaly has been stopped and that his past and present have been restored. He then withdraws from the courtroom and bids farewell to Picard by saying "See you ... out there". Picard then returns to the Enterprise of the present, no longer jumping through time.
As the senior staff members play their regular poker game, they reflect on the details of the future the captain related to prevent them from drifting apart. For the first time, Picard decides to join the game, expressing regret he had not done so before, and being reminded that he was always welcome.