Character Insight No. 308: Best of Jean-Luc Picard

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we celebrate the completion of 7 years of This Week in Trek by covering the best of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, from TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp308 

We covered the best of Q last week, and many of the same episodes could also be repeated on a list of best Picard episodes.  However, we will branch out this week into other episodes that feature Captain Picard, making a two part best of kind of like All Good Things, which we quoted last week.

Our journey through Picard's best moments begins in season 1's Conspiracy, in which an alien infiltration of Starfleet is uncovered and stopped by Picard and his crew.  We learn that Picard is a critical thinking and skeptical leader who will stand for the Federation's core principles above all else, including orders from commanding officers when necessary.  Plus, there's that memorable final head explosion scene.

QUOTE (from Conspiracy, S1):

Any recapping of Picard's best moments would be incomplete without a mention of The Best of Both Worlds, the cliffhanger spanning seasons 3 and 4, in which Picard is abducted and converted into a Borg.  But I draw your attention to the episode following this cliffhanger in season 4, which was entitled Family, and it deals with the fallout of the Borg incident as Picard and others recover from the trauma.  Picard has to deal with complicated family relations when he returns home to France, and it's an episode that makes the character really relatable on a number of levels.

QUOTE (from Family, S4):

From later in season 4, another top moment appears in the episode The Drumhead, in which Picard is found in a courtroom-style setting defending himself and his crew from an overzealous Starfleet admiral questioning them about an explosion on the Enterprise.  If you like Picard monologues, this episode is a great one.  

We then turn to season 6, and the epic two-parter Chain of Command.  Once again, Picard is removed from command but this time for a covert mission in Cardassian space.  Unfortunately, he is captured and tortured by a Cardassian Gul, and Patrick Stewart puts on arguably his best acting performance in the second half of this two-part episode.  Which leads to the iconic quote...

QUOTE (from Chain of Command, S6):

Picard - There are four lights!

Just a few episodes later in season 6, the episode Tapestry aired as another of Picard's top moments.  Picard almost dies and wakes up in an afterlife managed by Q, and this leads to an opportunity for Picard to relive some key life moments and change them.  But when he does, we learn that some of his past mistakes were key in forming the strong captain we see in the series, which is a good lesson for all who have mistakes and ghosts in their past.  This is Star Trek character building at its absolute best.

QUOTE (from Tapestry, S6):

Picard was the centerpiece of what made Star Trek different in its second iteration, but he became just as strong a character in his own way as the original Captain Kirk.  And the best news of all is that Picard's story is not yet complete, with a new CBS All Access series coming for this character.  These episodes from my past 2 segments should be required viewing to prepare for the new content on this character.

Jean-Luc Picard was played by Sir Patrick Stewart, who has had a long and memorable acting career.  He can also be seen in X-Men movies like the recent Logan, and in upcoming films such as The Kid who Would be King, where he plays the iconic Merlin.

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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 307: Best of Q

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue our series on the best of TNG with a look at the best moments of Q.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp307 

While Q is only a recurring character on TNG, he is perhaps the most notable one and recurs in enough important episodes to be like a main character.  His involvement with Picard's crew as a sometimes antagonist, sometimes benevolent alien being stretches all the way from the pilot to the series finale.  With Mike and Darrell planning to cover that finale next week in Episode Insight, now is a great time to review the best episodes and moments of Q.

Shortly after Q's first appearance in the pilot Encounter at Farpoint, where he puts humanity on trial, he appears again to test the crew with a deadly game to try and lure Commander Riker to join the Q Continuum.  He gives Riker Q powers to try and encourage him to join them and help them understand humanity's drive to explore and expand, but he ultimately rejects the offer at the end of Hide and Q.

QUOTE (from Hide and Q, S1):

Riker - Something about us compels us to learn, explore.

Q - Yes, the human compulsion. Unfortunately for us, it is a power which will grow stronger century after century, eon after eon.

Riker - Eon? Have you any idea how far we'll advance?

Q - Perhaps in a future which you cannot yet conceive, even beyond us.

One of the most critical moments comes later in the episode Q Who, in which Q offers his services as a member of Picard's crew and Picard rebuffs him by saying the humans can handle any threat they encounter.  Q then throws the Enterprise to the Delta quadrant to face the Borg for the first time.  This, of course, leads Picard to eventually beg Q for help and later, the Borg invasion that would define the futures of Picard, the Enterprise-D, and all the Federation.

QUOTE (from Q Who, S2):

Q - I'll be leaving now.  You thought you could handle it, so handle it.

Picard - Q, end this.

Q - Moi? What makes you think I'm inclined or capable of terminating this encounter?

Picard - If we all die, here, now, you will not be able to gloat!

My personal favorite moment for Q comes in his next appearance in the episode Deja Q, where Q is stripped of his continuum powers and requests asylum on the Enterprise.  During this time, he learns more about humanity from interacting with Data than he had in his previous encounters with the Enterprise, an important character moment for Q and for Data.  His selfless acts in this episode lead to his powers being restored, and this fun exchange just when Picard thinks he is done with Q for now.

QUOTE (from Deja Q, S3):

Picard - I suppose that is the end of Q

Q - Au contraire, mon capitan! He's back! I'm forgiven.  My brothers and sisters of the continuum have taken me back.

Riker - Swell.

Q - Don't fret, your good fortune is my good fortune!

Riker - I don't need your fantasy women.

Q - Oh you're so stolid.  You weren't like that before the beard.

There's many further fun episodes and interactions with Q, like when he decides to teach Picard a love lesson by putting the crew in a Robin Hood scenario in Qpid, but it all culminates in the finale All Good Things.  Q says that the trial and test of humanity never ends, and then puts Picard through a time-traveling challenge to save humanity from an anomaly of anti-time erupting in Picard's past, present, and future.  It's a fitting send off for Picard and the crew as Q challenges them once more and teaches them just as much about their own character as Q learns about humanity in the process.

QUOTE (from All Good Things, S7):

Picard - I sincerely hope that this is the last time I find myself here.

Q - You just don't get it, do you Jean-Luc? The trial never ends.  We wanted to see if you had the capability to expand your mind and horizons. And for one brief moment, you did.

Picard - When I solved the paradox.

Q - Exactly.

The character of Q is kind of the glue that holds the overall narrative of TNG together, and the fun portrayal of this character by John de Lancie was key to making this work.  His most famous role outside Trek is on the soap Days of our Lives, but he continues to act and voice act today, perhaps most notably as the weaselly antagonist Discord on the My Little Pony series.  It will be fun to see if he appears again in any form on the new Picard series in development. 

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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 306: Solbor

Happy Holidays, and Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review a recurring character named Solbor from Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp306 

Solbor is a Bajoran ranjen who serves as an assistant to Kai Winn, one of the most complicated characters in the Deep Space 9 story.  Solbor's first appearance is in the episode Til Death Do Us Part, and he joins the Kai as she comes to the station to be the officiant of Benjamin Sisko's wedding to Kassidy Yates.  During this visit, Solbor is deceived by Gul Dukat, who was disguised as a Bajoran farmer named Anjohl Tennan, into allowing Dukat to visit with the Kai.  Of course, Dukat is on the path to releasing the pah-wraiths by this point, which is something Solbor would not be copacetic with.

This role was supposed to be for just one isolated episode, but the showrunners loved actor James Otis and his portrayal of this character, so Solbor became a recurring character as a result.  One of his later episodes was simply a small role in Strange Bedfellows, where the Kai sends him to obtain the Orb of Prophecy for her.

The appearances for this character culminate in another episode near the end of the series centered on the Kai, Dukat, and Solbor struggle, that being The Changing Face of Evil.  Solbor begins to see though Dukat's Anjohl disguise when the Kai starts acting strangely, including asking Solbor to go retrieve the Book of the Kosst Amojan for her.  This text is believed to be evil by Solbor, and it leads him to test Anjohl's DNA, leading to the realization that this is a Cardassian in disguise.

QUOTE

When Solbor confronts his boss the Kai about the deception, he realizes too late that she is now in on the plan to release the pah-wraiths.  And thus, Solbor met his grisly end at the hand of the Kai.  Later on, a pah-wraith in the appearance of Solbor shows up in a couple more episodes, but the real Solbor is gone forever. 

As mentioned before, James Otis plays Solbor.  Outside Trek, he played small roles in movies like The Prestige and The Black Dahlia.  His most recent acting credit was in 2010 in the TV series Supernatural, and he has retired from acting in the meantime.

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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!