I said this in another video with this scene. I wanted to be a martial artist but didn't because I was told it was a waste of time. When I saw this episode, something clicked inside of me. I signed up with a martial arts school, became a black belt, fought bare knuckle for 10 years, and became a martial arts instructor. Thank you Star Trek! ❤
Was that the one with the masks where Data became the Sun God? If not, you mean the one with the masks where Data became the Sun God. You're welcome. 😅
Sad how such an excellent and thought-provoking series has been reduced to the dumb and senseless vulgar trash it is now under that talentless hack Kurtzman.
One of the best episodes of the series - to the point, I don't think this is showing how Picard sees his science officers, for his science officers do excel in their field and are probably passionate about what they do. His POV is that he's a science officer in the new timeline because that's what he settled for in life after taking no chances, losing his self-esteem, and playing it safe - and thus he is probably an average science officer at best. It's not the position itself that is the focus here.
Yeah, this alternate Picard has still had a 42 year career but hasn't even reached the rank of lieutenant. That doesn't seem like someone who excelled in his position.
Well, to be honest most of his science officers are young and climbing their way up the career ladder while science officers Picard was a 60 year old man who never tried to rank up. Just kept his head down. It's like how you go to a fast food place for lunch and the person taking your order is a high school kid you think "all right kid, working to get what you want, good for you" but if the person is a 30 year old you think " what a loser, working an entry level job at that age"
@@kdrapertrucker Some people don't have it what it takes to climb the ladder one of the biggest lies were all told growing up is "Anyone can succeed if you work hard enough" when in reality only a few can succeed and in order to do so you have to trample on others. Life is inherently unfair and rigged against most people I never got anywhere in life playing by the rules that everyone else plays by I had to get around the rules and do things my way. The only mistake the 30 year old guy made was not realizing that you can't win by playing the same way everyone else plays
John "Q" de Lancie (I shall always think of his name spelled that way) really shows his acting chops here: so steady, so intense, no change, just driving the point home... Beautiful
Q was only about giving life lessons to humanity, and to Picard in particular. He was never a villain, more of an “ends justify the means” kind of teacher.
The striking intensity in De Lancie's eyes here. Its interesting to notice at 0:40 how their shape is rather peculiar...How amazingly ROUND his eye opening is, his pupils are not symmetrical top to bottom, with whiteness showing at the bottom, and only the top cut off by his eye lids. Looking at other pictures of him, its clear that he intentially opened his eyes 'wide' and angled his head with the camera to achieve that look.
I cannot summon an appropriate level of humility to truthfully describe how much this shaped my life from the age of eleven on. I want to thank someone, but I don't know whom...
@@brmbkl He literally diminished in a mocking way the position were he ended up to be and Q made a point that he would "never be noticed by anybody" in such life so Picard could not take it, which means he is a narcissist who wants an extravagant attention and respect to himself and be above others.
It's not how he sees his officers. It's how he sees himself. There are officers who can thrive in other positions that don't require the personality traits necessary to be a leader or Captain. But Picard possesses or developed those traits and that's why he's miserable- not for his officers but for himself.
Considering that in the episodes "Booby Trap" and "The Chase" we saw that Picard had a penchant for alien archaeology it surprised me that he didn't follow that path. But I resent the things that Q said to him...even the guys who follow the elephants have an important role, and there are no unnecessary jobs aboard a starship.
The work, dedication, and contributions of everybody on the crew or the team counts. Everybody matters. But it is the Captain who gets the medals, the nearby officers who get the promotions, the department manager who gets the bonus.
@@pwnmeisterageI might have to laugh at Q, and he would certainly be puzzled. President Reagan had a plaque on his desk that stated "There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." I've read that the quote came from Harry Truman. But it implies a concept that Q can't grasp: selflessness.
To be fair, nothing the two of them were talking about were about the new position or duties this Picard held. It was the fact that he spent his entire Starfleet career doing the same thing, stuck at the rank of lieutenant for decades. You don’t have to wear red to advance, Picard is more than intelligent enough to run the science department of the Enterprise, but wasted his life and career by being too scared of taking any risks. That’s what’s being lamented upon here, not the job, but the wasted life.
@@NeoPersona I invite you to read "The Five People You Meet In Heaven". Eddie thought that he wasted his life because he didn't live the life he wanted to live. (Spoiler alert) He took over his father's amusement park maintenance job instead of becoming an engineer.
It’s not that. He just doesn’t like that his life became stagnant after the incident. Sometimes a near death experience can give one the drive to be more than what they plan to be.
I think I just lost some respect for the show. There's no shame in being boring. There's no shame in simply existing. Picard may want fame and glory and power, but what little tastes of those things I've actually gotten were bitter on my tongue. "I'm a dime a dozen and so are you" is not an insult, it is simply acknowledging that success is not defined by those 'lofty achievements'. "God loves a plain man, that's why he made so many" is a good aphorism to live by. This isn't humility: I'm as petty and vain as everyone else, I just acknowledge that I don't have to be something extraordinary in order to have worth. I think that's the healthiest way to live.
Yes, there are some unpleasant lines in this episode, that send a poor message. The way I excuse it somewhat is to point out that this is Picard, and that's _not_ the life he wanted or would he happy in. He's not a happy, hard working scientist with a good work life balance. He's someone who's not actually trying to make his life match with what he values and cares about. I think there's something better the writers were trying to express, which they didn't entirely.
@@junbh2 I sort of disagree with the "the writers were trying for something they didn't quite get" thing you were saying. I think that the kind of people who write for the show are the type of people who are fiercely ambitious, who want to be famous, and who consider a life of simplicity and humility to be a failure. --- _Warning: I got off topic and went into a long anti-capitalist rant. You don't have to read the rest._ --- I think that the writers unintentionally gave us a glimpse into the culture of Hollywood/entertainment business. And I think that because the US is fanatically individualist and capitalist, they're constantly surrounded by that message even outside of show business. If you and everyone you know subscribes to a meritocracy mindset, you start to think that it's an immutable truth. This is during the neoliberal Regan era where people were calling for others to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and blaming AIDS victims because they "made the choice to be gay". Where people were blaming black people for their poverty because of their "culture of laziness and criminality" and their "moral failing" of drug use. Focus on service to our community and the affects the system has on individuals was... Out of fashion. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" was not really the prevailing attitude anymore. The days of New Deal were gone- replaced by militant anti-leftism due to the cold war. The de-emphasis on community is still going strong to this day, and has turned into Trumpism and the pawning of responsibility for climate change on the individual (among other things). This is barely starting to erode with millennials/Gen Z gaining class consciousness. We have 9/11, the 2008 crash, the impending climate apocalypse, the rise of trumpism/fascism, increased global communication, access to information that makes us resistant to propaganda, and the failures of the pandemic to thank for the increase in emphasis on community/systems.
And that's why you are unique. But so is the character of Picard. It's one character, the writers are not saying that's the right way to live and neither are any other characters.
"There's no shame in being boring" Boring to who? Picard probably acknowledges that he can appear boring to others. Look at his reading material when he went to Risa. It isn't about being boring to others. It's about how you see yourself. If other people feel that you're wonderful but you ultimately don't, then it doesn't matter. In this reality he feels regret at never having taken the chances that came to shape who he became. Instead, in his new life he shied away from the things that ultimately made him into someone he appreciated. All of us dream, but for some of us, those dreams are not really THAT important when it boils down to it. Many would not know how to appreciate some of their dreams coming true even if they did. Picard is a meditative and introspective man by nature and now older, likely deeply appreciates who he has managed to become even if he he's not happy with every step taken along the way. To have that man taken away and replaced by someone who never seems to have acted on the things that in hindsight he needed so deeply to become who he is is horrifying. If you married someone you loved in one life only to find that in another you never worked up the courage to ask them out wouldn't that horrify you? All those important memories and experiences just suddenly gone. Picard seems generally grateful to be who he is. To learn that in another life he is the very reason that life was taken away is mortifying. The message isn't about being boring. The message is about appreciating yourself and the "Tapestry" of things that made you who you are.
As you are, there are others that seek to be on top, to be challenged and excel. Both are worthy paths in life and I dont think is in anyone's best interest to deny one or the other just because it does not conform to a singular worldview. Picard has some selfish and narcissistic traits common on people that seek to be on top. He is also highly moral, which is a rare on those type of people. And that's why he is "special" in Q's eyes. I dont think the show is trying to belittle people that wish to be in the background, it's just pointing out that is not a life that Picard should live. He needs to be this greater than life person. The message is, every person should be and do what it feels right for them to be or do. Avoiding that is lying to yourself.
"Time In Grade" apparently isn't a thing in Starfleet. Someone who's only advanced half a rank grade over a 30 or 40 year career - and still needs babysitting from his superiors - is never going to seriously get considered for further advancement.
as lovely as this episode is i think it drives the wrong message. i think it would be epic if picard actually said he loved the way he's lived that life and Q would punish him and return him back to the way he was.
I said this in another video with this scene. I wanted to be a martial artist but didn't because I was told it was a waste of time. When I saw this episode, something clicked inside of me. I signed up with a martial arts school, became a black belt, fought bare knuckle for 10 years, and became a martial arts instructor.
Thank you Star Trek! ❤
Quite possibly the most haunting episode of TNG, in my humble opinion, alongside The Inner Light.
Was that the one with the masks where Data became the Sun God? If not, you mean the one with the masks where Data became the Sun God. You're welcome. 😅
@@lashropa no, it's the one where Picard lives a whole life in an alien culture and discovers it was all a simulation from a long-dead civilisation.
Totally agree! One of Q's best speeches ever! Dunno how often I have watched particularly this scene... 😀😀😀
Darmok and Jalad on the Ocean
Both of those episodes are among my favorites! Quality stuff
How did such writing and acting talent come together in one show? So rare.
Sad how such an excellent and thought-provoking series has been reduced to the dumb and senseless vulgar trash it is now under that talentless hack Kurtzman.
"I'd rather die the man I was, than live the life I just saw." Picard, after seeing the new TNG reboot.
The life lesson here is simply amazing
Another example why _TNG_ was the peak of _Star Trek_ . This scene has been used in a modern context for various purposes to much effect.
Definitely one of the best Star Trek episodes and TNG
One of the best episodes of the series - to the point, I don't think this is showing how Picard sees his science officers, for his science officers do excel in their field and are probably passionate about what they do. His POV is that he's a science officer in the new timeline because that's what he settled for in life after taking no chances, losing his self-esteem, and playing it safe - and thus he is probably an average science officer at best. It's not the position itself that is the focus here.
Yeah, this alternate Picard has still had a 42 year career but hasn't even reached the rank of lieutenant. That doesn't seem like someone who excelled in his position.
Well, to be honest most of his science officers are young and climbing their way up the career ladder while science officers Picard was a 60 year old man who never tried to rank up. Just kept his head down. It's like how you go to a fast food place for lunch and the person taking your order is a high school kid you think "all right kid, working to get what you want, good for you" but if the person is a 30 year old you think " what a loser, working an entry level job at that age"
@@kdrapertrucker Some people don't have it what it takes to climb the ladder one of the biggest lies were all told growing up is "Anyone can succeed if you work hard enough" when in reality only a few can succeed and in order to do so you have to trample on others. Life is inherently unfair and rigged against most people I never got anywhere in life playing by the rules that everyone else plays by I had to get around the rules and do things my way. The only mistake the 30 year old guy made was not realizing that you can't win by playing the same way everyone else plays
John "Q" de Lancie (I shall always think of his name spelled that way) really shows his acting chops here: so steady, so intense, no change, just
driving
the point
home...
Beautiful
I love the little almost un-intelligable smirk he gives when Picard says "I made a mistake."
We are as much a product of our mistakes as we are of our successes
TNG expanding my vocabulary one episode at a time
I was really surprised to see Q giving someone a good life lesson.
@Koowluh oh, you maybe right, I haven't considered that.
Q was only about giving life lessons to humanity, and to Picard in particular. He was never a villain, more of an “ends justify the means” kind of teacher.
It is what he does. He just has his own style.
@@1978rharris makes sense if he has the power to undo any damage made.
Everything Q did, while often extreme, was to help Picard and humanity. Without Q humanity wouldn’t even exist.
Such an unforgettable scene. Thanks for sharing this!
As a middle aged man I get this.
The striking intensity in De Lancie's eyes here. Its interesting to notice at 0:40 how their shape is rather peculiar...How amazingly ROUND his eye opening is, his pupils are not symmetrical top to bottom, with whiteness showing at the bottom, and only the top cut off by his eye lids. Looking at other pictures of him, its clear that he intentially opened his eyes 'wide' and angled his head with the camera to achieve that look.
I cannot summon an appropriate level of humility to truthfully describe how much this shaped my life from the age of eleven on. I want to thank someone, but I don't know whom...
P.S. The subtitled exposition is a bit on the nose, yes? Give the scene some space professor. Geeze.
@@lashropa That was unnecessarily aggressive.
Thank the writers for inspiring you, would be a candidate..
Shades of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and the movie It's a Wonderful Life.
This was one of my top 5 episodes
never forget this episode
This is the finest Star Trek
Science Fiction at its finest
We are all the sum of our choices.
This is my favorite episode!
Mine, too! I've lost count of the number of times I've watched it.
Such a great episode.
this scene means so much to me as i relate with it.. destroyed my own life wishing things were different. Later crying out to the Lord.. I was wrong
it’s sad to me that this is really how picard sees his science officers
Shit I never thought of it that way.
@@soulysephiroth that's not the point. it's just not his path. that's whu he's miserable.
@@brmbkl
He literally diminished in a mocking way the position were he ended up to be and Q made a point that he would "never be noticed by anybody" in such life so Picard could not take it, which means he is a narcissist who wants an extravagant attention and respect to himself and be above others.
It's not how he sees his officers. It's how he sees himself. There are officers who can thrive in other positions that don't require the personality traits necessary to be a leader or Captain. But Picard possesses or developed those traits and that's why he's miserable- not for his officers but for himself.
He fell in love with one of his science officers.
Considering that in the episodes "Booby Trap" and "The Chase" we saw that Picard had a penchant for alien archaeology it surprised me that he didn't follow that path.
But I resent the things that Q said to him...even the guys who follow the elephants have an important role, and there are no unnecessary jobs aboard a starship.
The work, dedication, and contributions of everybody on the crew or the team counts. Everybody matters.
But it is the Captain who gets the medals, the nearby officers who get the promotions, the department manager who gets the bonus.
@@pwnmeisterageI might have to laugh at Q, and he would certainly be puzzled.
President Reagan had a plaque on his desk that stated "There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit."
I've read that the quote came from Harry Truman.
But it implies a concept that Q can't grasp: selflessness.
To be fair, nothing the two of them were talking about were about the new position or duties this Picard held. It was the fact that he spent his entire Starfleet career doing the same thing, stuck at the rank of lieutenant for decades. You don’t have to wear red to advance, Picard is more than intelligent enough to run the science department of the Enterprise, but wasted his life and career by being too scared of taking any risks. That’s what’s being lamented upon here, not the job, but the wasted life.
@@NeoPersona I invite you to read "The Five People You Meet In Heaven". Eddie thought that he wasted his life because he didn't live the life he wanted to live.
(Spoiler alert)
He took over his father's amusement park maintenance job instead of becoming an engineer.
Picard conveniently forgot that the choice to die as the man he was carried with it an eternity with Q. 😁
Not so. I would say he accepted it as a consequence of maintaining his integrity.
Great clip! Thanks man, I needed that today!
what a great episode.
It's a wonderful star trek life!
this "conversation" is when I loved Q.
Remember. Picard views every person in his crew below the bridge officers as dull and tedious.
It’s not that. He just doesn’t like that his life became stagnant after the incident. Sometimes a near death experience can give one the drive to be more than what they plan to be.
Why the fuck do I suddenly see a bunch of people with this take. What brain dead youtube video essay maker did you people hear this from?
“I rather die the man I was than live the life I just saw.”
One of my all time favorite episodes.
He looks good in blue
Great scene
John de Lancie doesn’t blink once during this scene
And then "Picard" happened - oh well.
Okay we get it
I think Q is coming back for Season 2 though
Bereft of Passion & Imagination? He's now qualified to write for Star Trek: Picard.
Q tugged on a thread of Picard’s tapestry and it all unraveled.
Obviously not seen Star Trek Picard then!
Jim Day needs a Q of christmas past song
Well done sir.
So that means Picard thinks most of the crew under him are in tedious jobs, the older they are the more pathetic they must seem to him now.
I doubt it. That would mean he views the vast majority of star fleet as pathetic.
Ngl he looks good on blue
Tapestry is the name of this episode
The sad thing is that a lot of people have had this life. Playing it safe.
tahts me in a nutshell. so they do talk about me .
Well this is most people working full time jobs.
@2:23 Q: "Make it so!"
I think I just lost some respect for the show. There's no shame in being boring. There's no shame in simply existing. Picard may want fame and glory and power, but what little tastes of those things I've actually gotten were bitter on my tongue.
"I'm a dime a dozen and so are you" is not an insult, it is simply acknowledging that success is not defined by those 'lofty achievements'. "God loves a plain man, that's why he made so many" is a good aphorism to live by.
This isn't humility: I'm as petty and vain as everyone else, I just acknowledge that I don't have to be something extraordinary in order to have worth. I think that's the healthiest way to live.
Yes, there are some unpleasant lines in this episode, that send a poor message. The way I excuse it somewhat is to point out that this is Picard, and that's _not_ the life he wanted or would he happy in. He's not a happy, hard working scientist with a good work life balance. He's someone who's not actually trying to make his life match with what he values and cares about.
I think there's something better the writers were trying to express, which they didn't entirely.
@@junbh2 I sort of disagree with the "the writers were trying for something they didn't quite get" thing you were saying.
I think that the kind of people who write for the show are the type of people who are fiercely ambitious, who want to be famous, and who consider a life of simplicity and humility to be a failure.
--- _Warning: I got off topic and went into a long anti-capitalist rant. You don't have to read the rest._ ---
I think that the writers unintentionally gave us a glimpse into the culture of Hollywood/entertainment business. And I think that because the US is fanatically individualist and capitalist, they're constantly surrounded by that message even outside of show business. If you and everyone you know subscribes to a meritocracy mindset, you start to think that it's an immutable truth.
This is during the neoliberal Regan era where people were calling for others to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and blaming AIDS victims because they "made the choice to be gay". Where people were blaming black people for their poverty because of their "culture of laziness and criminality" and their "moral failing" of drug use.
Focus on service to our community and the affects the system has on individuals was... Out of fashion. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" was not really the prevailing attitude anymore. The days of New Deal were gone- replaced by militant anti-leftism due to the cold war. The de-emphasis on community is still going strong to this day, and has turned into Trumpism and the pawning of responsibility for climate change on the individual (among other things).
This is barely starting to erode with millennials/Gen Z gaining class consciousness. We have 9/11, the 2008 crash, the impending climate apocalypse, the rise of trumpism/fascism, increased global communication, access to information that makes us resistant to propaganda, and the failures of the pandemic to thank for the increase in emphasis on community/systems.
And that's why you are unique. But so is the character of Picard. It's one character, the writers are not saying that's the right way to live and neither are any other characters.
"There's no shame in being boring"
Boring to who?
Picard probably acknowledges that he can appear boring to others. Look at his reading material when he went to Risa. It isn't about being boring to others. It's about how you see yourself. If other people feel that you're wonderful but you ultimately don't, then it doesn't matter. In this reality he feels regret at never having taken the chances that came to shape who he became. Instead, in his new life he shied away from the things that ultimately made him into someone he appreciated.
All of us dream, but for some of us, those dreams are not really THAT important when it boils down to it. Many would not know how to appreciate some of their dreams coming true even if they did. Picard is a meditative and introspective man by nature and now older, likely deeply appreciates who he has managed to become even if he he's not happy with every step taken along the way.
To have that man taken away and replaced by someone who never seems to have acted on the things that in hindsight he needed so deeply to become who he is is horrifying. If you married someone you loved in one life only to find that in another you never worked up the courage to ask them out wouldn't that horrify you? All those important memories and experiences just suddenly gone. Picard seems generally grateful to be who he is. To learn that in another life he is the very reason that life was taken away is mortifying.
The message isn't about being boring. The message is about appreciating yourself and the "Tapestry" of things that made you who you are.
As you are, there are others that seek to be on top, to be challenged and excel. Both are worthy paths in life and I dont think is in anyone's best interest to deny one or the other just because it does not conform to a singular worldview. Picard has some selfish and narcissistic traits common on people that seek to be on top. He is also highly moral, which is a rare on those type of people. And that's why he is "special" in Q's eyes.
I dont think the show is trying to belittle people that wish to be in the background, it's just pointing out that is not a life that Picard should live. He needs to be this greater than life person. The message is, every person should be and do what it feels right for them to be or do. Avoiding that is lying to yourself.
"Time In Grade" apparently isn't a thing in Starfleet.
Someone who's only advanced half a rank grade over a 30 or 40 year career - and still needs babysitting from his superiors - is never going to seriously get considered for further advancement.
Its why the US military is so terrible. ;)
I can't be A FUCKING LOWER DECKER!!!!!!!!!!
We need intelligent dialogue back in media. Why is everything so dumb down nowadays?
You gotta account for the other >50% of the population
as lovely as this episode is i think it drives the wrong message. i think it would be epic if picard actually said he loved the way he's lived that life and Q would punish him and return him back to the way he was.
Picard would be lying in that case. He was miserable. And Q would know it.