Dr. Crusher prepares sickbay for an emergency arrival following an attack on an away team, soon Captain Picard is beamed in to the main biobed with a severe wound to his chest. Riker and Worf report that they were attacked coming out of a session on the planet, Picard taking a direct hit. Beverly begins working on Picard, having difficulty stabilizing his life-signs due to damage to his artificial heart.
Picard finds himself in a blindingly white space, he calls out into the void and is soon greeted by Q, who welcomes Picard to the afterlife. Picard, naturally, shows annoyance and skepticism with Q who claims Picard died and is now in the afterlife with Q serving as his guide to it. To prove this he has Picard face an apparition of his father angry with Picard for going into Starfleet against his wishes, along with the voices and questionings from everyone who's died due to Picard's actions during his tenure in Starfleet.
Picard grows more and more worried with his situation as Q continues with the charade. Picard wonders what Q wants, and Q says he wants nothing, only to offer Picard a chance to perhaps deal with any regrets he may have had during his life, the only regret Picard claims to have is dying and finding Q in the afterlife.
Q informs Picard he's directing his annoyance in the wrong direction, that Q isn't responsible for Picard's death but, rather, it was his artificial heart. Noting that Picard may have survived his injuries if he had his natural heart rather than an unreliable piece of technology, Q asks Picard how he lost his own heart.
Picard's response suggests a regret, prompting Q to show Picard a vision of his encounter with the Nausiccan who impaled Picard's heart from the back shortly after graduating the Academy. -A story he relayed to Wesley Crusher in a season 2 episode concerning complications with Picard's artificial heart. Picard muses that had his younger self not been so hot-headed and thought through his actions Picard may not now be dead.
He instantly finds himself in the Starbase Earhart outpost being slapped by a young woman, once alone Picard is joined by Q who informs Picard he's now in the past and has a chance to correct this regret from his youth. Picard insists on not changing anything for fear of contaminating the timeline but Q assures Picard he's not important enough to have any galactic impact on history. The only thing at stake here is Picard's own future.
Picard meets up with his friends from the Academy in a local bar/gambling establishment where his best friend -Corey- is playing a billiards-like game called Dom Jot and easily defeats his opponent. Soon a Nausicaan comes up and challenges Corey who accepts but quickly loses the game. Picard informs Q that if history repeats itself, Corey will seek revenge by cheating himself in a rematch the following day after tampering with the table.
Picard manages to alienate Corey by trying to stop him from cheating and threatening to tell authorities, however Picard's more responsible behavior perks up the interests of his other friend, Marta, a young woman whom Picard seems to suggest he regrets never trying to make their friendship something more.
That night, Marta makes advances towards Picard who reciprocates and the two make love that night, her leaving Picard alone in his bed the following morning.
Picard meets her for breakfast where she's now distant and seems to show her own regrets over what happened the previous night, and says that her and "Johnny" can no longer be friends but they will maintain appearances through that night's final meal between the trio. The meal turns to be uncomfortable given the previous day's events with Picard trying hard to make small-talk but it proves fruitless. Soon the Nausicaans return and challenges the three officers and makes disparaging comments towards Marta. During this Picard tries to calm the situation to no avail, after the lewd comments Corey goes to attack the Nausicaan but Picard pushes Corey away, claiming he saw one go for a knife. The Nausicaans walk away laughing, Corey says he doesn't know Picard anymore and Marta coldly gives Picard her goodbyes.
Q shows up to congratulate Picard on preventing his near-fatal injury.
Suddenly Picard finds himself on the bridge of the Enterprise with Worf asking what Picard wants. Disoriented at first, Picard realizes where he is and that Worf is talking to him as if he's a subordinate. Picard asks some questions concerning his rank (Lieutenant - Junior Grade) and the captain of the ship (Thomas Halloway), Data offers to take Picard to Sickbay, but Picard says he'll find his own way.
Entering Sickbay, Picard calls for Beverly but is greeted, instead, by Q -dressed as a mid-20th century doctor- who Picard confronts about the changes he's seen in spite of Q's promise. Q insists that nothing has changed, other than Picard himself which is what he wanted. Picard is alive, has a real heart beating in his chest, and is in a safe position. Welcoming Picard to his new life, Q leaves.
Picard seeks out Troi and Riker in Ten-Forward to talk about his career, both are reluctant to do so in the informal venue but Picard is insistent. Both struggle to come up with things worth mentioning about Picard only being able to point out he's a good officer but lacks anything to make himself standout. Picard wonders if he could make command someday, but both don't seem to think it's possible saying that him always playing it safe has made him too ordinary, but they're willing to work with him to help him maybe be more happy in his career.
Picard, in the turbolift, wonders if Q is happy with Picard being reduced and humiliated like this, he exits the turbolift into the "afterlife" Q presented him with earlier with Q chiding Picard for not showing gratitude over what Q has given him.
Picard is unhappy of being a dreary man lacking in ambition and imagination, Q points out that that is what Picard wanted, and as a result he's now a man who always played it safe and never got noticed by anyone. Never took the challenges Picard was faced with during his career that made him standout and worthy of commands. Picard demands to be returned to the past to put things back. Q reminds Picard this will mean his death, Picard says he'd rather die the man he was than live out the life he just saw.
Picard finds himself back face-to-face with the Nausicaan where he accepts their challenges and begins a fight, him, Corey and Marta take on the Nuasicaans with their standard Starfleet fight-moves. Corey and Marta are soon knocked out and as Picard takes on two at once he's quickly stabbed in the back, through the heart, by the third. Picard drops to his knees, looks down at his blood-soaked tunic and the dagger coming from his chest and begins to gleefully laugh.
His laugh continues as we're taken back into the present where Beverly says Picard's life-signs are stabilizing and he'll be fine.
Picard recounts his experience to Riker, unsure if it was a vision or if it was real. And if it were real he may owe Q a debt of gratitude. Riker wonders why considering it sounds like Q put Picard through hell, Picard says that Q made him realize that every moment in his life is part of a rich tapestry that unravels by pulling on a single loose thread. The moments he regrets make him the man he is.
Smiling, Riker says he wished he knew that younger Picard, taking on the group of Nausicaans. Picard grins saying it wasn't his first encounter with some surly Nausicaans and begins recounting a story from earlier in his Academy days.
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There's not much to say. This episode easily falls within my top 5 episodes of Trek and I may even nail it down to #2 if I were to really think about it.
It's pretty much a perfect episode even though it doesn't feature most of the main-cast but it's a great example of what Trek can really do when it puts it's heart to it and that Trek can be good without space battles, strange new worlds and dealing with present-day issues in a sci-fi setting. It really deals with the regrets that everyone likely has about their life and showing how a small change in your own past while may not affect the rest of the world but could drastically impact who you are now.
Setting aside "All Good Things..." this is also easily my favorite Q episode and is yet another example of how I've never seen Q as a villain in the series, but very much an ally for Picard even if he has a rather questionable way of showing it. We could argue what Q's intent was all along here but for me it really seems like this is another example of Q wanting to help Picard more than harm him or embarrass him. Q shows some degree of concern of Picard's humanity and sense of self-worth here. We could probably debate all day long whether or not Picard's survival of his injuries is from Beverly's medical skills or if Q aided things.
Lots of great interactions between Picard and Q here through the episode during the past-scenes and little puns/jokes by Q at Picard's expense. ("Penny for your thoughts," after Picard is slapped by a woman named Penny, after Picard says something poignant Q says it's something that "gets you right here" while pounding on his chest over his heart. Obviously alluding to Picard's pending injuries.)
There's basically nothing bad about this episode that I can think of. It's just an A+ story all around.
But on the nitpicking side:
- The romantic encounter Picard has with Marta is a puzzling one to me. She pretty much initiates their kissing and eventual love making but the day-after she shows some strong regrets over it. Saying it ruined their friendship. Was Picard bad in bed or did something happen that night for her to regret the romantic encounter she initiated?
- I do wonder how Corey/Picard were able to get into the gambling establishment after it had apparently closed.
- I wonder if along with allowing Picard to put-back the way it was his encounter with the Nausicaans Q also corrected his friendships with Marta and Corey?
- Q says that Picard's not important enough for any change in his future to impact the universe but it does seem a stretch that the changes wouldn't impact at least some things on the Enterprise in the present. It's most likely to me that the whole thing was orchestrated and amplified by Q for the sake of making his point, rather than showing Picard the "real" present if he had done things differently.
-In the present we see Worf is still on the bridge, we could probably question whether or not Captain Halloway would have made the same promotions after Yar's death and if he would've acted as Worf's advocate in his familial challenges on Q'onos the same way Picard did. If not, Worf would have died losing his challenges to his father's honor.
-We see that Data still serves on the ship. In the series we see many times how differently Picard treats Data than it seems others did. Would Halloway have arbitrated for Data's "rights" as an individual as Picard did? Hell, Picard's arguments came from a conversation with Guinan who was likely on the ship due to Picard's insistence.
-It's fuzzy, but it always seemed implied Riker held himself back from getting his own command due to his respect and admiration of Picard. Would Halloway have been the same thing?
-It's pretty much out-right stated in "The Next Phase" that Geordi was on the ship due to Picard's wanting him there following an en encounter on a shuttle during an inspection tour. Would Halloway have had the same encounter, the same thoughts, and had brought Geordi on the ship to eventually be Chief Engineer?
-Between what Q, Troi and Riker say, Lieutenant J.G. Picard never really stood out and got noticed during his career. He obviously must have stood out somewhat considering he's on the Enterprise where only Starfleet's best and brightest -people who stand out- serve.
-Really, in 30-40 years of serving Picard had only gotten *one* promotion? (From Ensign to Lieutenant J.G.) Wouldn't there be *some* system in place that'd given him some-kind of "mandatory" promotion or some noteworthy action to get Picard other promotions? Another example of Q likely just rubbing salt in Picard's wounds.
-There's some timeline issues here. Picard says during the first afterlife scene that 30 years passed between the encounter with the Nausicaans and his "death." Season 6 takes place in 2369 or 2370. When arriving in the past, Q says Picard is 21 again, meaning Picard is around 50 in the present and this also means that he graduated around 2339. But when celebrating their graduation, Picard says they're the class of '27.
So either they graduated and hung around SB Earhart for 12 years or closer to 45 years passed between Picard's getting stabbed in the heart and "dying" in the present. (I suppose "Class of '27" could be talking about some other dating system, but there's little to suggest that anytime in Trek years are expressed in anything different than the way we use them today.)
All nitpicking.
This is a fantastic, fantastic episode.
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