Tapestry Ending Insults Ordinary People

[Mojochi]

Picard himself said the man (LtJG Picard) was bereft of passion and imagination. His problem was with the man, not the life. There's no shame in an ordinary life as long as you live with passion and imagination and so forth.

And my point has been... The man is HIM. Why couldn't he have lived as that version, but chosen to live unlike him, by living WITH the passion and imagination that LtJG Picard didn't? Call it a midlife crisis, or taking stock of himself and making changes, or whatever you want, to explain the change in behavior, but that this man isn't living to a perceived potential is not an unchangeable condition... whereas death, on the other hand, is, very much so

I realize that my point wouldn't make for a feasible tv show episode, wherein we return to the status quo, but from a logical standpoint, it doesn't make much sense for him to not even really explore the thought process of choosing death over choosing a life that needs to be overhauled... unless he really thinks Q is bluffing about death (Which I admit is possible, but personally I don't think he is)

 

[woodstock]

And my point has been... The man is HIM. Why couldn't he have lived as that version, but chosen to live unlike him, by living WITH the passion and imagination that LtJG Picard didn't? Call it a midlife crisis, or taking stock of himself and making changes, or whatever you want, to explain the change in behavior, but that this man isn't living to a perceived potential is not an unchangeable condition... whereas death, on the other hand, is, very much so

I realize that my point wouldn't make for a feasible tv show episode, wherein we return to the status quo, but from a logical standpoint, it doesn't make much sense for him to not even really explore the thought process of choosing death over choosing a life that needs to be overhauled... unless he really thinks Q is bluffing about death (Which I admit is possible, but personally I don't think he is)

He likely saw that the bulk of his career was over, there were fewer days ahead than behind, and that opportunities to remake his life would be few and far between. Especially if he were denied the chance for the command track. I know he could have chosen to make the best of it rather than death, but it's Picard. Regardless of the path LtJG chose, he's too prideful to live any different. Maybe that's a failing, but that's who he is.

 

[marsh8472]

In case this hasn't been brought up yet, Picard admitted to standing up a girl because he was afraid of being ordinary from this episode

"We'll Always Have Paris"

PICARD: I was afraid.
...
JENICE: Ah, that's better. It was raining and you couldn't find a cab. I waited all day. And it was raining. It rained the rest of the week. I went to Starfleet headquarters looking for you, but you'd already shipped out. So, come on, Jean-Luc. Let's hear the truth.
PICARD: It was fear. Fear of seeing you, losing my resolve. Fear of staying, losing myself. Fear that neither of these choices was right, and that, and that either would have
JENICE: For a long time, not a day went by when I didn't look up into the sky, and wonder.
PICARD: Each time that I returned to Earth, my thoughts were filled with you.
JENICE: I've thought a lot about this over the years, and perhaps you're leaving out your greatest fear. The real reason you left.
PICARD: Which was?
JENICE: That life with me would have somehow made you ordinary.
PICARD: You're wonderful. And am I that transparent?
JENICE: Only to me.

 

[Mojochi]

He likely saw that the bulk of his career was over, there were fewer days ahead than behind, and that opportunities to remake his life would be few and far between. Especially if he were denied the chance for the command track. I know he could have chosen to make the best of it rather than death, but it's Picard. Regardless of the path LtJG chose, he's too prideful to live any different. Maybe that's a failing, but that's who he is.

Sure. I get that. Maybe it's just because the show so constantly makes out that someone Picard's age isn't in the decline of life like someone his age might be in our time. That coupled with the fact that they tout their culture as being one with such liberty & opportunity, that it seems, at least to me, that anyone, at just about any point in their life, can choose to make it into whatever they want

Marsh makes a good point about Picard maybe having a lifelong fear of mediocrity. Hell, if you think back on Family, you can clearly see it was that fear which maybe drove him from the family vineyards to begin with. I guess it's just never been so clear cut as choosing to maybe die, instead of facing the challenges of overcoming mediocrity

 

[DonIago]

I still think Picard might have tried to adapt if Q hadn't shown up the first time Picard asked him to. But since Q did show up, how Picard might have "really" handled it is an unknown.

Though we can certainly speculate based on TIL that Picard might have found things to appreciate that he never would have expected.

But it's not like he's somehow obligated to try, either.

 

[Mojochi]

I still think Picard might have tried to adapt if Q hadn't shown up the first time Picard asked him to. But since Q did show up, how Picard might have "really" handled it is an unknown.

Though we can certainly speculate based on TIL that Picard might have found things to appreciate that he never would have expected.

But it's not like he's somehow obligated to try, either.

I kind of agree with that. At least I have to in order to give Picard some credit for the guy we know him as. That he knows Q is somehow in control of all this, & he's never going to trust that guy, he opts for a choice that might be a lot riskier to choose without Q's influence, because part of him thinks, in the back of his head, that Q is just pulling his leg... Sadly, that kind of robs the episode of a little gravitas, imho. Does he really have a true life altering revelation or does he just get humbled a little, knowing that Q can hit the reset button as usual? I'd kind of hope for the former, but to look at it that way, makes Picard seem a little blasé about death, but the latter perspective short changes the experience a bit

 

[DonIago]

I guess to me, and at the risk of stating the obvious, it's TNG's take on "It's a Wonderful Life". Picard has on some level had deep regrets about his past life decisions until Q comes along and shows him that the things he thought may have been mistakes influenced the world in ways he didn't fully account for.
Not really intended, then, to be a life-altering experience, but more of a life-affirming experience. Though I suspect it might also be a little humbling to Picard to realize that Q knew something about him that he didn't know about himself...but then, doesn't he say as much at the end of the episode?
If this episode has a commentary on the Blu rays, I wonder whether they touch on this at all...

It's possible that LTJG Picard, had Q not rescued him, might have put his money where his mouth was and ended up taking his own life. Sort of the opposite of TIL, then, where instead of Picard discovering things he could enjoy that he never expected, he finds himself trapped in a life he could never enjoy.

 

[Nakita Akita]

In the TNG episode "Tapestry", we see that Picard led a very different life due to wanting to change it. Instead of one that takes risks, is ambitious and pushes the envelope to get noticed and make Captain, he leads an ordinary, risk-averse life and is stuck at LTJG rank as some lowly nobody science officer.

Upon realizing this, Picard then declares that he would rather die as captain of the Enterprise than continue to live as a nobody.

On reflection, I started to think. Wait a minute, most of his crew members are probably nobody lowly crew members that never advance very far. Does Picard think that low of them? And IRL, most of us are that lowly nobody science officer. I mean is living an ordinary life that bad? Few of us can become extraordinary by definition and most of us IRL (and most people even in the Trekverse) live "dreary lives doing tedious jobs".

Don't get me wrong. I loved this episode. But there's no escaping that Picard would rather be dead than live some comfortable but ordinary life. Well most of us are that lowly nobody science officer IRL, I know I am. So it did feel a bit insulting to me.

I completly agree with him.
I know a lot of losers and I wouldn't want to suddenly wake up and have changed places with one of them.
I'm not a star ship captain but I still get it.
To never have dared, or pushed yourself, always stay safe.
I couldn't live like that. I don't even understand people like that.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

It isn't really even worth considering for Picard because Q a known liar and s--t stirrer is behind the whole thing. We don't even know if any of that was real or just some sort of illusion.

 

[DonIago]

I'm sure somewhere in the multiverse it's real. The LTJGVerse.

Well here's one to make your head spin...what if Q actually swapped the two Picard consciousnesses, so LTJG Picard briefly found himself as Captain?

 

[Mojochi]

I'm sure somewhere in the multiverse it's real. The LTJGVerse.

Well here's one to make your head spin...what if Q actually swapped the two Picard consciousnesses, so LTJG Picard briefly found himself as Captain?

Dying on a sickbay table?

 

[DonIago]

Well, hopefully under better circumstances, heh.

 

[at Quark's]

Dying on a sickbay table?

^Both Picards would have felt good about their life choices after Q had swapped them back again ("I'm still only LtJg but at least I'm alive and safe!")

 

[Mojochi]

Raises an interesting question... Does Q intrude on other Picards' lives? It would seem terribly meddlesome to intrude on LtJG Picard's life similarly to how he does on the captain we know. I'd also imagine it to be a bit boring for Q as well, at least in that one case, but surely there are other Picard's just as interesting as the one we seem him harass, & in all likelihood, Q transcends space and time in such a way that suggests he is the same Q in all these different realities. So does he mess around with other Picards too? Because that really means he has quite a more impressive knowledge of the man than Picard himself could ever have

 

[Gary7]

Here's what Picard said in the end:
PICARD: "Are you having a good laugh now, Q? Does it amuse you to think of me living out the rest of my life as a dreary man in a tedious job?"
PICARD: "I would rather die as the man I was than live the life I just saw."

So the only slander to the job he said was "tedious." And that he considered himself "dreary." I think he's just caught up in the distress of it all. He WAS captain. And being demoted... not having that powerful position... it's VERY hard to go backwards.
But I have to admit... every time I see this episode, I do feel like he demeans the position he had. It doesn't feel good to hear him say these things. I'd have preferred something more like:
PICARD: "Are you having a good laugh now, Q? Does it amuse you to think of me living out the rest of my life doing a job I find tedious, with command forever out of reach?"

That's a bit more palatable for me... Still, I understand his point of view and rationalize it that way. I love this episode. One of the top 10, IMHO.

 

[Mojochi]

It doesn't feel good to hear him say these things.

There's honestly any number of ways they could've tweaked a line here or there & made it less of a slam on the other Picard's life. IMHO, no matter what the 1st impression of that life might be, it is still a lease on a LIFE as opposed to a death sentence

 

[Gary7]

^ True... but it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? And the "heat of the moment."

I truly don't believe that if Picard found himself stuck in a life sciences junior officer role, he wouldn't end his life. He'd find a way to change things. Maybe not command of the Enterprise... but he'd work hard to educate himself as best he could, then take the command tests... perhaps do well enough that he could get command of a lesser ship. Maybe command a ship like the Stargazer. Who knows. But that's the Picard we know. He never gives up.

 

[Nyotarules]

^He would quit Starfleet and call Professor Galen, 'Is that archaeology vacancy still open?

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Yeah it seems to me that a more plausible Picard alternate life would be him as an archaeologist.

 

[Mojochi]

Yeah it seems to me that a more plausible Picard alternate life would be him as an archaeologist.

Or gone back & made some little Picards, being how that's always been in the back of his head

That might have made LtJg Picard's life a whole different scenario, if in one other scene, he was shown to have a family aboard