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.
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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