The 25th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's seventh season is the first half of the feature-length series finale, . Originally aired on May 23, 1994 , it is widely regarded as one of the greatest television finales for its ambitious scope and emotional resolution. Plot Overview
: Seven years into his command of the Enterprise .
The story centers on , who begins involuntarily "jumping" through three different time periods:
Picard discovers he is being tested once more by the omnipotent entity , who claims Picard is responsible for a spatial anomaly that threatens to erase humanity from existence by preventing the first life forms from ever developing on Earth. Key Themes and Production