star trek captain jean luc picard

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Star Trek: Picard

Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.

• Kirsten Beyer
• Michael Chabon
• Akiva Goldsman
• Patrick Stewart
• Michelle Hurd
• 2.8K User reviews
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• 14 wins & 54 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Jean-Luc Picard

• Raffi Musiker

• Seven of Nine

• Dr. Agnes Jurati

• Cristóbal Rios …

• Adam Soong …

• La Sirena Computer

• Jack Crusher

• Doctor Beverly Crusher

• Captain Liam Shaw

• Ensign Sidney La Forge

• Ensign Esmar

• Titan Computer …
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• Trivia The Chateau Picard vineyard first appeared in Family (1990) . It was run by Jean-Luc Picard's brother Robert and his wife Marie, and their son René. Jean-Luc would learn in Star Trek: Generations (1994) that Robert and René had both burned to death in a fire, leaving Jean-Luc as the last in the Picard line.
• Goofs Commodore Oh often wears sunglasses. Star Trek lore establishes that Vulcans have an inner eyelid to protect against harsh sunlight on their desert planet. Oh's shades are a fashion statement, not a protective measure.
• The first season features a Borg cube and the planet Romulus.
• The second season features a Borg ship, a wormhole and hourglass, and the Borg Queen's silhouette.
• The third season does not have an opening titles sequence.
• Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: Comic Con 2019, The Picard Trailer, Streaming Services, and Midsommar (2019)

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• January 23, 2020 (United States)
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• The Sunstone Villa and Vineyard, Santa Ynes, California, USA (Château Picard)
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• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

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• Humans (24th century)
• Starfleet personnel
• Starfleet personnel (24th century)
• Starfleet helmsmen and flight controllers
• Starfleet cadets
• Starfleet ensigns
• Starfleet lieutenants
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• 2305 births

Jean-Luc Picard

• View history
• 1.1 Early life
• 1.2 Starfleet Academy
• 1.3 Early career
• 1.4.1 First tests of command
• 1.4.2 A seasoned captain
• 1.4.3 The Battle of Maxia
• 1.5 Interim years
• 1.6.4.1 Mirror universe problems
• 1.7.1 Old loyalties
• 1.7.2 Making first contact
• 1.7.3 Collapse of the Thallonian Empire
• 1.7.4.1 Behind enemy lines
• 1.7.4.2 The Return of Q
• 1.7.4.3 Gorn Crisis
• 1.7.4.4 The Battle of Betazed
• 1.7.4.5 Insurrection
• 1.7.4.6 The Battle of Ricktor Prime and Gul Madred
• 1.7.4.7 The Raid on San Francisco
• 1.7.5.1 Mission to Gemworld
• 1.7.5.2 Dead zones
• 1.7.5.3 Badlands mission and Jem'Hadar attack on DS9
• 1.7.5.4 Gateway crisis
• 1.7.5.5 Return of the Borg
• 1.7.5.6 Genesis wave
• 1.7.5.7 Strange bedfellows
• 1.7.6.1 Incident at Rashanar
• 1.7.6.2 The Dokaalan
• 1.7.6.3 The Bader and Dorset
• 1.7.6.4 Tezwa
• 1.7.6.5 Redemption
• 1.7.6.6 The Borg time wave
• 1.7.7 Shinzon
• 1.7.8 Confrontation with T'Uerell
• 1.7.9 Recruiting the hazard team
• 1.8.1 Ambassador Picard
• 1.9.1 Mystery of the Zhat Vash
• 2 Personal life
• 3 Alternate realities
• 4 Starfleet service record
• 6.1 Connections
• 6.2 Background
• 6.3.1 Appearances
• 6.4 External links

Biography [ ]

Early life [ ].

Jean-Luc Picard, the second son of Maurice Picard and Yvette Gessard Picard , was born in La Barre , France , on Earth on 13 July , 2305 . ( TNG episodes : " Conundrum ", " Family ", " Chain of Command ")

He adored his troubled mother Yvette, who would steep tea to the robust flavor which he continued to savor as an adult. ( PIC season 2 [ citation needed ] )

His aunt Adele also left an impression on his taste in the beverage . From an early age, Jean-Luc and his elder brother Robert Picard fought constantly, but shared friends such as Louis Blanchard and Claude . ( TNG episodes : " Where No One Has Gone Before ", " Family ", " Ensign Ro ", " Schisms "; TNG comic : " The Gift "; TNG novel : Perchance to Dream )

In addition to tea, Jean-Luc's aunt Adele had several home remedies, such as ginger tea with honey for the common cold , or a milk toddy for insomnia. ( TNG episodes : " Ensign Ro ", " Schisms ", " Cause and Effect ")

Jean-Luc's interest in history and archeology began in 2313 , when he was forced to escape to a small parish church to escape the bullying and torment of his brother. He was so captivated by the church that he wanted to know everything about the building. ( TNG novel : Guises of the Mind )

When he was young, one of Jean-Luc's aunts gave him an astronomy text. Maurice said that it was too advanced for a boy of his age, but the section of color photographs captured his imagination, and Jean-Luc dreamed of being in space "amongst objects of such rare elegance." ( TNG novel : Here There Be Dragons )

As a youth, he auditioned for a school production of Romeo and Juliet in order to get closer to the girl playing Juliet. Though hoping to be cast as Romeo, Jean-Luc ended up playing the role of the nurse. ( TNG novel : Q-in-Law )

Starfleet Academy [ ]

17-year-old Picard resolves to reapply to Starfleet Academy .

Picard first applied for admittance into Starfleet Academy at the age of 17 in 2322 . He failed the entrance exam, due in part to his problem with mathematics. Picard's friend Donald Varley convinced a crestfallen Jean-Luc that he belonged in Starfleet. The following year, Picard passed the exam, and was admitted into the Academy as a cadet . ( TNG comic : " The Noise of Justice ")

In his first year, Jean-Luc was supervised by Cadet First Lieutenant Ivan Gruzinov , and began taking extra math tutoring at Cal Tech in Old Pasadena with Adrienne Tillstrom . Picard also made good friends with Cadets Marta Batanides and Corey Zweller , and some adversaries, including Cadet Morgan Korsmo . He was the top scorer in his marksmanship course. ( TNG episodes : " Coming of Age ", " Tapestry "; TNG novels : Nightshade , Grounded , Vendetta ; TNG comic : " Hidden Agendas! ")

At one point during his Academy career, Picard, along with Zweller, risked possible expulsion and imprisonment for bringing the comatose Batanides to the black-market genetics laboratory on the world Yrskatdon , after discovering that the only known cure for Batanides's Fetal Incompatibility Syndrome was a banned genetic resequencing procedure. ( SA comic : " Judgment "; TNG novel : Rogue )

Picard was an excellent shuttle pilot at Starfleet Academy. ( TNG video game : Echoes from the Past )

In 2324 , Jean-Luc won the 41st Starfleet Academy Marathon against a number of competitors, and became the first freshmen to win the marathon, beating many favorites, including Fergus McLeod and David Gold . ( TNG episode : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II "; ST short story : " The Footfalls of Tradition "; SCE eBook : The Belly of the Beast )

Picard later credited Ivan Gruzinov as the man who ultimately "drummed him into shape." ( TNG novel : Blaze of Glory )

Ensign Picard enjoys drinks, shortly before being stabbed.

After graduating from Starfleet Academy in 2327 , Ensign Picard and his friends, Batanides and Zweller, awaited their first assignments at Starbase Earhart .

Young Picard stabbed by a Nausicaan.

While on the base, Picard was stabbed through the heart and nearly killed after brawling with three Nausicaans after a game of dom-jot . Picard's friend Anson Peters was also there and was the person who did not panic, getting help and performing first aid. "Jeannie" - as his friends called him - received an artificial heart at the starbase 's medical center. ( TNG episodes : " Samaritan Snare ", " Tapestry ", TNG comic : " Honor Bound! ")

Looking back at his personal Graduation Day photo, Picard thought of himself as a mischievous "damn fool", even though Beverly Crusher said otherwise and that his youth was what made them lifelong friends and not the man he is today. ( TNG movie : Star Trek Nemesis )

On his first shakedown cruise, his department head was Phillip Boom . ( TNG novel : Balance of Power )

Early career [ ]

After a few weeks of recovery, Ensign Picard was assigned to the USS Antares with his former supervisor, Ivan Gruzinov. ( TNG novel : Blaze of Glory )

In 2328 , Picard was granted a special shore leave to run an elite, long-distance race on a barren planet in the Elyrion system . Unfortunately, he did not finish in the top five. However, during his time on the planet, he befriended a young Zartani named Nuadra Demmix , and also gained experience with the Ubarrak . ( STA novel : Oblivion )

Around this time, as lieutenants , Picard and Robert DeSoto served together and became friends. ( TNG episode : " Tin Man ")

Lieutenant Jean-Luc Picard in ( 2329 )

In early 2329 , Picard was assigned to a starship under the command of Captain Anton Manning , where he was assigned as flight controller . Later that year, Picard attended the wedding of Ambassador Spock and Commander Saavik , of the USS Armstrong . ( TOS novel : Vulcan's Heart )

The Stargazer [ ]

In 2333 , Picard was a lieutenant commander , and second officer of the USS Stargazer under the command of Captain Daithan Ruhalter . The Stargazer was ordered to investigate the threat of a Nuyyad attack from beyond the galactic barrier . After crossing the barrier, the Stargazer was attacked and crippled by the Nuyyad, which left Captain Ruhlater dead, and first officer Commander Stephen Leach in a coma. Picard assumed command and got the Stargazer to safety at Magnia colony.

While undergoing repairs at the colony, the Stargazer 's crew, uncomfortable with such an inexperienced commander, mutinied. Picard managed to quell the mutiny and appointed Lt. Gilaad Ben Zoma as first officer and Lt. Vigo as tactical officer .

With the mutiny resolved, Picard had the Stargazer refitted with enhanced Kelvan weaponry and defended the Magnians from a Nuyyad attack and destroyed one of their weapons depots, before returning to Federation space.

Following the successful completion of the mission, Admiral Mehdi promoted Picard to captain and placed him in permanent command of the Stargazer . ( TNG novel : The Valiant )

In 2333, Picard was serving as first officer on the USS Stargazer when the ship was monitoring a fight between the Romulans and the Vulcan T'Uerell 's ship. As she was vastly outgunned and outnumbered, T'Uerell activated a Borg device, which destroyed an unpopulated planet and caused large pieces of debris to break off from the planetoid and head for the Phidian system , which had a population of hundreds of millions of people. The resulting shockwave from the planetoid's core hit the Stargazer , killing Captain Ruhalter. Picard took command and headed to a starbase. After the ship was somewhat repaired, the Stargazer took a task force inside the system to destroy much of the debris. Later, the task force saved three heavily populated planets; Phidian I , II and III , with the help of modified sensor pods armed with phasers, which the task force dragged into orbit using tractor beams .

Later, a huge piece of debris broke off the planetoid and headed for Phidian III. Picard realized that he would not be able to break it up with his ship's phasers and photon torpedoes, but could destroy it by using the ship's tractor beam to drag other debris into the larger piece’s path. After obliterating the immense piece of debris, the system was saved from annihilation. Picard was then promoted to Captain and command of the Stargazer . ( ST video game : Legacy )

First tests of command [ ]

Second Officer Picard.

Following the Nuyyad encounter, Stargazer proceeded to Starbase 32 , where Picard and Ben Zoma attended a meeting of Starfleet captains and admirals. Admiral Arlen McAteer ordered Picard to find and apprehend the pirate known as the White Wolf , who had been haunting the Beta Barritus system .

The Stargazer succeeded in traversing the systems, magnetic vortex belt while tracking White Wolf, but instead encountered the Constellation -class USS Cochise . Captain Greenbriar of the Cochise informed Picard that White Wolf was actually the famed exobiologist Emil Carridine , who was protecting a Prime Directive world. Picard decided not to apprehend Carridine, but returned to Starbase 32 with White Wolf's cargo, which angered Admiral McAteer. ( STA novel : Gauntlet )

Over the next few months, tensions between Picard and McAteer continued to mount. Following his failure to apprehend White Wolf, McAteer ordered the Stargazer to survey the Egreggedor system . Defying orders, Picard diverted the ship to Gnala at the request of his chief engineer , Phigus Simenon . The reptilian Simenon needed to return home so that he could participate in the traditional competition amongst males of his people that allowed the winner to be the one who fertilized the next generation of his clan's eggs. ( STA novel : Progenitor )

Picard first met the El-Aurian woman named Guinan while on an undercover assignment in the orbital city Oblivion . In the years that followed, Picard and Guinan would form a friendship that Guinan once described as, "Beyond friendship, beyond family". ( STA novel : Oblivion )

McAteer eventually held a competency hearing for Picard a few months later, but he failed to strip Picard of command, and Picard remained in command of the Stargazer .

After the competency hearing, Admiral Mehndi assigned the Stargazer to a long-term mission of exploration in uncharted regions of space. ( STA novel : Maker )

A seasoned captain [ ]

Captain Picard.

In the early 2340s the Stargazer returned to Earth for an extensive overhaul and refitting. While nominally still in command, Picard was given a temporary assignment in Paris, where he met and courted the future Jenice Manheim . On 9 April 2342, the day before the Stargazer was due to depart spacedock, he arranged to meet her at the Café des Artistes , but in the end he never showed up. ( TNG episode : " We'll Always Have Paris ")

In 2343 , Picard first met Lieutenant Elias Vaughn of Starfleet Intelligence . The two would meet several times over the coming years, including a coup on the planet Darnak VII .

In late 2343, Picard was forced to order the Stargazer to retreat after an intense battle with a vessel from the newly aggressive Cardassian Union . ( TLE novel : The Art of the Impossible ; ST comic : " Divided We Fall ")

In early 2344 , the Stargazer underwent several weeks of repairs and upgrades following the Cardassian battle at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars . It was during this time that Picard first made the acquaintance of Beverly Howard , the fiancée of his good friend and shipmate, Jack Crusher .

Soon after, the Stargazer rescued Ambassador Spock, who was undergoing pon farr and had escaped from the Romulans with the help of a Romulan defector, Subcommander Ruanek . ( TOS novel : Vulcan's Heart )

In 2345 , while en route to Alpha Pensura , the Stargazer received a priority message from a Gorn ship. The Gorn requested that the starship divert to Vontalimar IV . Arriving at the planet, Captain Picard met with the Gorn leader, Keeyah , who declared war on the Federation, because of their expansion in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants .

Not wanting to drag the Federation into a war with the Gorn, Picard challenged Keeyah to talk and negotiate through their differences instead. Picard's challenge was successful and war was averted, for the time being. ( TNG novel : Requiem )

In 2345 or 2346 , Picard became romantically involved with Miranda Vigo . It apparently was not an exclusive relationship (at least on her part), and after they parted ways she bore a son, Jason , for whom Picard was not the only possible father. However, Picard was completely unaware of this development until 2370 . ( TNG episode : " Bloodlines ")

In 2348 , Picard attended the wedding of Jack and Beverly Crusher in San Francisco . It was here that a Romulan spy named Manathas gathered the genetic material from Picard that was eventually used to grow the Picard-clone, Shinzon . ( TNG novel : Death in Winter )

Jean-Luc Picard circa 2349.

In 2349 , the Stargazer was ordered to the Debennius system after a series of terrorist attacks threatened to destabilize the region. The Stargazer s response to the attacks resulted in the death of Thallonian terrorist, Mendan Thul , son of General Gerrid Thul , who vowed revenge against Picard. ( TNG novel : The First Virtue )

In 2353 , the Stargazer was dispatched to the planet Xenex to talk with the Xenexians in an attempt to stop further bloodshed against the Danteri , who were seeking Federation membership. Picard and Jack Crusher met with a 19-year old warlord named M'k'n'zy of Calhoun . Picard was very impressed with M'k'n'zy, and he encouraged him to enter Starfleet Academy. ( NF novel : House of Cards )

Shortly after the assignment to Xenex, the Stargazer was the first Federation starship to encounter the Nensi phenomenon , a ball of energy and matter thought to have its origin in a special category of supernova . The encounter caused multiple systems failures and began an overload in the ships starboard warp field generator .

In order to save the ship, Picard reluctantly ordered Jack Crusher and chief of security , Peter "Pug" Joseph to sever the starboard warp nacelle from the ship with laser rifles before it could explode.

When communications went dead, Picard went out to investigate. He found his two officers apparently rendered unconscious after successfully detaching the nacelle. Unfortunately, he only had time to bring one officer back to the ship before the nacelle exploded. He chose Joseph, who was closer.

Picard later traveled to Earth to personally deliver Jack Crusher's body to Jack's widow, Beverly, and their son, Wesley . ( TNG novel : Reunion )

The Battle of Maxia [ ]

In 2355 , while exploring the Maxia Zeta system, the Stargazer was approached by an unidentified vessel (later revealed to be Ferengi ). The vessel attacked the Stargazer causing severe damage, and the Stargazer crew was only saved when Picard performed what became known as the Picard Maneuver , which destroyed the Ferengi vessel. The Stargazer was so badly damaged that the crew was forced to abandon the ship and leave it for dead. ( TNG episode : " The Battle "; TNG novels : Reunion , The Buried Age )

This became known as "The Stargazer Incident." ( TNG video game : The Transinium Challenge )

According to The Transinium Challenge video game this is considered the first time Picard's name ended up in the headlines and that up to this point, his record was clean.

Following the loss of the Stargazer , Picard faced a brutal court-martial hearing by JAG officer Phillipa Louvois . Picard and Louvois were romantically linked at the time and Picard in fact, asked for Phillipa to be his defense attorney but he found that she was already assigned as assistant trial counsel for the prosecution and as such, she was ruthless in her prosecution of Picard. In fact, she was so relentless that after using a bedroom confession against Picard in court, (which left Picard absolutely stunned as to her betrayal) , Louvois was removed from the case and she promptly resigned from Starfleet before she could be formally censured. ( TNG novel : The Buried Age ) Nonetheless, the grueling hearing found Picard innocent of any negligence, however his relationship with Louvois was ended. As a result of his actions at the Battle of Maxia , Picard was awarded the Grankite Order of Tactics on Stardate 38946.2. ( STA short story : " Darkness ")

Interim years [ ]

Picard explores Adonis II.

Following the court-martial hearings, Picard, who was feeling at ends following the destruction of the Stargazer , began to wonder if starship command was really for him. He decided to visit his former second officer Elizabeth Wu on the Hydra IV colony. Wu had left the Stargazer in 2336 , but Picard had kept in touch with her over the years, and desired the perspective of someone who had been in Starfleet, but left it behind.

Picard's craft crash-landed on an uncharted and unexplored planet. There, he encountered a group of Rhitori , whose ancestors owed their freedom to the Stargazer responding to their distress call over 20 years prior. The incident made Picard realize all the good that he had done, and could continue to do, as a starship captain. Picard decided to remain in Starfleet. ( STA short story : " Darkness ")

Soon after, Picard began guest lecturing at Starfleet Academy, as well as transferring between numerous assignments. ( TNG novel : Doors Into Chaos )

Picard also enrolled as a Ph.D. student in archaeology at the University of Alpha Centauri in 2355. Three years into this program, he was teaching an introductory class in archaeology when Guinan paid him a visit, and questioned whether he really wanted to avoid going back to commanding a starship.

During his time at the University of Alpha Centauri Picard assembled a group of archeologists who wanted discovered some survivors of the ancient race of Manraloth . Picard fell in love with the first survivor they were able to rescue from a time stasis field. Not remembering her past, she accepted the name "Ariel". Picard and Ariel spent many months together putting together a team of Starfleet specialists who would eventually search for other Manraloth. Knowing that he could achieve their goal only with the help of Starfleet, Picard rejoined the fleet and was given command of the Miranda -class USS Portia . For this mission he recruited Lieutenant Data as his science officer .

After they found other survivors, Picard realized that Ariel (who in the meanwhile regained her memory, and remembered her true name: Giriaenn) had tricked him by using his feelings for her.

The Manraloth planned to destroy the Federation in order to save the galaxy. It took Picard three years to hunt them down, but in 2363 , he lead a fleet of seven starships to prevent the Regnancy of the Carnelian Throne from accessing the Manraloth archive.

The fleet, which was made up of the USS Cybele , USS Thelian , USS Tecumseh , USS Malinche , USS Victory , USS Puttkamer and the USS Nautilus , assembled in the Mirfak system before travelling at high warp to the Kirisha system where they engaged the Carnelian warships .

The Manraloth realised that their plans were wrong and evolved into the next stage of being. Soon after that Picard accepted to take command of the USS Enterprise -D . ( TNG novel : The Buried Age )

Before moving back into a starship command role in 2364 , Picard served as the special liaison officer to the Federation President . ( FASA RPG module : Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual )

The USS Enterprise -D [ ]

Jean Luc-Picard in 2364 .

Picard was ferried from Starbase 52 and assumed command of the Enterprise -D on stardate 41124.0 in 2364 , on the order of Rear Admiral Norah Satie . Also assigned to the Enterprise as chief medical officer was Jack Crusher's widow, Beverly Crusher. ( TNG novel : Reunion ; TNG novelization : All Good Things... ; TNG episode : " The Drumhead ")

Upon arriving on the Enterprise , he was greeted by his second officer Lieutenant Commander Data, who escorted him to the bridge. Upon arriving on the bridge, he informed the ship's computer that he was taking command of the ship, and began the Captain's log of the Enterprise . ( TNG novelization : Encounter at Farpoint )

During his first day as Captain of the Enterprise , Data interrupted Picard 12 times with questions or requests regarding starship operations. Picard eventually asked Data if he intended to check with him before breathing, and told Data that he was not a Captain that needed to be made aware of or approve every little detail involved with running the ship. ( TNG novelization : Relics )

Soon after taking command of the Enterprise-D , Picard and crew had their first encounter with omnipotent being known as Q . Q accused Picard and the humanity he represented as being unworthy of further access to the stars and put Picard and members of his crew on trial. Picard challenged Q to allow his crew to be tested as a barometer of humanity's progress. After Picard solved the mystery of Farpoint Station , Q agreed to let the Enterprise , and by extension, humanity itself continue its explorations. Q warned them, however, that the trial wasn't over. ( TNG novelization : Encounter at Farpoint )

In mid 2364, the Enterprise met with a Ferengi vessel in the Xendi Sabu system commanded by DaiMon Bok , who presented the long-lost Stargazer as a gift to Picard. Bok claimed to have found the starship adrift. He was actually the father of the Ferengi DaiMon defeated by Picard at Maxia-Zeta nine years earlier, and his 'gift' was actually part of an elaborate plan of revenge. Bok was arrested by his own crew for engaging in such an unprofitable venture as revenge. ( TNG episode : " The Battle ")

Picard in 2365.

The Enterprise was present when the Romulans returned to the galactic stage in late 2364, after a fifty-three year absence, since the Tomed Incident of 2311 . ( TNG episode : " The Neutral Zone ")

In early 2365 , the Enterprise was ordered to chair negotiations between the Klingons and the Kreel , after the Kreel had taken over an uninhabited planet designated DQN 1196 that contained a stash of advanced weaponry, and had begun attacking Klingon ships. The situation was very intense, as relations between the two adversaries were never good, but Picard and the Klingon Ambassador , The Honorable Kobry , managed to keep the situation on an even keel for the most part.

In the end, the weapons, and thus the point of contention, vanished when the weapons creators, the advanced race known as the Cognocenti , finished their tests on the species involved in the affair and moved on. ( TNG novel : Strike Zone )

Soon after, the Enterprise was summoned to the planet Raimon to attend the death ceremony of the planet's Primarch , Sarlis Gaspadral , an old friend of Picard's. When the Primarch was murdered, Picard was accused of the crime. Commander William T. Riker fought in Picard's place in the societies traditional trial by combat, and was nearly killed himself before the identity of the true killer, Lutina , the Primarch's daughter, was revealed. ( TNG comics : " Return to Raimon ", " Murder, Most Foul ")

When the USS Yamato , under the command of Captain Donald Varley was destroyed by an Iconian computer virus in 2365 , Picard and the Enterprise raced to find Iconia and stop the virus from destroying his own ship, and as it turned out, a cloaked Romulan warbird that had been stalking them. ( TNG episode : " Contagion ")

Picard and the Enterprise first encountered the Borg in System J-25 of the Delta Quadrant after a tense argument with Q. The Enterprise barely survived the encounter, and it was only with Q's help that the starship returned to the Alpha Quadrant . ( TNG episode : " Q Who ")

Picard as Locutus of Borg in 2366.

The Enterprise was assigned to transport Ambassador Sarek to Legara IV , in order to conclude his negotiations with the Legarans , which took nearly 100 years to complete. During the voyage it was discovered that Sarek had contracted Bendii Syndrome , and that his emotions were starting to control him. Picard volunteered to mind meld with Sarek, so that he could act as an emotional anchor for the Vulcan as he concluded the talks, which were successful. ( TNG episode : " Sarek "; TNG novelization : Unification )

The Borg kidnapped and assimilated Picard in late 2366 . The Borg intended the Picard-drone, designated as Locutus , to act as a liaison between the Borg and humanity. Using Picard's knowledge of Starfleet procedures, Locutus led the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 which resulted in the loss of 11,000 lives and 39 starships.

The Borg were stopped when Picard's first officer , William T. Riker , captured Locutus and managed to use Locutus' link to the collective against the Borg. ( TNG episodes : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part I ", " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II "; TNG novelization : Star Trek: First Contact )

In early 2367 , the former surviving crew of the Stargazer gathered aboard the Enterprise to travel with Captain Morgen , the hereditary leader of the planet Daa'V , to his coronation ceremony. During the voyage, attempts were made on the lives of both Morgen and Captain Ben Zoma. Evidence was planted implicating Idun Asmund as the killer, and she was confined. Enterprise Chief of security Worf investigated further, and discovered that the would-be killer was actually Dr. Carter Greyhorse . Greyhorse had grown despondent since the death of his lover, Idun's twin sister Gerda Asmund . Greyhorse was seeking revenge on those he believed to be responsible for Gerda's death. ( TNG novel : Reunion )

Later that year, the Borg launched a renewed assault on the Federation, sending several ships into the Alpha Quadrant . The Borg were defeated by the woman known as Delcara , who had commandeered an ancient Doomsday machine built by a long-forgotten race. Delcara used the weapon viscously in her personal vendetta against the Borg. In the end, Delcara proved to be as big of a threat as the Borg. Delcara vanished, never to return, after attempting to use her vessel to break the Warp 10 barrier . ( TNG novel : Vendetta )

Mirror universe problems [ ]

Picard discovered that several doppelgangers from the mirror universe had been raiding Federation facilities and allied ships. Following a raid on a Andorian cruiser, Picard discovered that they were doppelgangers of himself and Riker . Picard became suspicious when Admiral Owen Paris sent the Enterprise to the Martorelles array . Picard then met his counterpart and his crew when they attempted to take the Enterprise .( TNG - Through the Mirror comics : " Issue 2 ", " Issue 3 ", " Issue 4 " )

Picard playing his flute.

In 2368 , Picard was disabled by an alien probe while onboard the Enterprise . He woke up as a resident of the planet Kataan , being called by his wife as "Kamin". During a time period of approximately 20 minutes, Picard lived as Kamin during the planet's final decades. After five years since his first experience on Kataan, he accepted his life as a Starfleet officer had actually been some kind of illusion created by his own mind. During his life as Kamin, Picard devoted most of his time on playing flute. He was married to Eline and later had two children, daughter Meribor and son Batai, and one grandson, Kamie.

One day, Kamin was called by his family to witness "the launching", which only he seemed not to know about. As he witnessed the event, he recognized that the probe being launched from the planet's surface was actually the same probe that disabled him during his time on the Enterprise decades ago. Kamin's family then explained to him that that probe was launched so the Kataanian people would not be forgotten after their planet was destroyed. Picard then regained consciousness on the bridge of the Enterprise. Shocked and disoriented, Picard realized he had lived an entire lifetime in only a few real-time minutes. After the Enterprise is able to examine the probe's interior, they find a flute inside, the same one which Picard played while living as Kamin. He kept the flute for himself so he would always have a memory from his experience as Kamin. ( TNG episode : " The Inner Light ")

Picard in 2368.

In this same year, Picard went undercover on Romulus to investigate the activity of ambassador Spock on the planet. Following this mission he returned to the Enterprise to find correspondence from an old friend, Dr Marjorie Devarona , inviting him to join an expedition to recently discovered ruins on the planet Rajatha Prime . Picard gladly accepted and left Commander Riker in charge of the Enterprise for a week whilst he joined the expedition. ( TNG novelization : Unification ; TNG comic : " Captain's Pleasure ")

Shortly into his visit the team discovered a collection of harmonic diamonds , unknown to them at the time the gems stimulating areas of the brain associated with primitive emotions , including anger , envy , and greed , they soon began to affect the team. By the next morning the expedition’s comm. had been sabotaged and Dr Devarona had been killed. Picard had not touched the diamonds himself so remained unaffected but the rest of the group consumed by greed and suspicion gradually killed each other through the day. In short time only Picard and the first person to touch the gems, Gest , survived. As Gest made her move to attack Picard an away team from the Enterprise arrived, alerted by the lack in communications from the expedition. Per Dr. Devarona's last wishes Picard had the valuable diamonds invested in funding archaeological digs across the quadrant. ( TNG comic : " Captain's Pleasure ")

During this year, Picard and the entire crew of the Enterprise -D were temporarily transformed into Klingons by Q . ( TNG comic : " The Way of the Warrior "), ( TNG comic : " Devil's Brew ")

In 2369, Captain Picard met with Benjamin Sisko , who had been assigned to Deep Space 9 to assist the Bajorans in joining the Federation. Sisko was initially wary of Picard due to Jennifer Sisko having been killed aboard the USS Saratoga when Picard led the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 as Locutus. Following Sisko's encounter with the Prophets in the Bajoran wormhole , Sisko seemed to forgive Picard. ( DS9 episode : " Emissary ")

Picard decided to act as a secret benefactor for Jake Sisko after reading that Jennifer Sisko had died at Wolf 359 . ( DS9 novelization : Emissary )

At some point, Picard and the Enterprise received a report from Captain Buck Stratton of the USS Yandro , indicating that retired Captain Scotty had responded to a distress call ; Scott and the Goddard contacted the Enterprise directly, asking if Picard's offer to share their library computer was still available. While Scott was aboard, Guinan met with him and found herself uneasy about his presence and told her suspicions to the Captain, who agreed to speak with him only to discover the Goddard had departed. The shuttlecraft boarded a Klingon bird-of-prey and headed for the Arhennius star and appeared to be preparing for a gravity slingshot back through time. Guinan insisted they must follow, and when they emerged, they found themselves in 2293, and realized Scott intended to save his former commanding officer, James T. Kirk.

Guinan offered no further assistance, and Picard became cross with her; without her guidance, they decided to head towards Earth. En route, they came to Andor and found it surrounded by a Borg fleet, slowly assimilating the planet; Guinan revealed that they would find Earth similarly assimilated and the Collective entrenched in the Alpha Quadrant. A vessel, the D'Zidran hailed them, revealing the alternate versions of Tal and Guinan. When asked to explain their presence, Picard explained they were from an alternate reality, but lied that they were searching for alternate universes where the Borg had been destroyed.

Picard met with the alternate Guinan, who then convinced Tal to issue a fleet-wide alert for Scott. A vessel, the Wisdom had located the time traveling engineer and contacted the Enterprise , revealing the Sarek of this universe, now leader of the interstellar Alliance , who agreed to rendezvous with the Enterprise . While waiting for the Wisdom , while trying to sleep, Picard experienced the whispers of the Borg Collective, and he discovered a Borg spy amongst Sarek's crew, but could not determine their exact identity. Picard convinced Sarek to allow them to beam over and scan the Wisdom 's crew, and the spy - a Narisian named Baltior now possessed by the Borg Queen - attacked when she realized she was revealed.

With the Borg aware of their presence, and the Queen remembering false visions of seeing her own death at his hands, the Borg moved to destroy Picard and the Enterprise . Sarek logically but incorrectly assumed that the Borg would not deviate from their typical behavior of ignoring all starships that did not engage the Borg directly, but Kirk convinced Picard to act rather than delay when a Borg cube came for them. After this cube was destroyed via a secret weapon of the Alliance, the sensor shield around the Sol system lowered and they could see Earth assimilated, the cradle of the Borg in the Alpha Quadrant, as thousands of cubes emerged. Picard set a course for the Nexus, but Kirk instead convinced them to head for Gateway to utilize the Guardian of Forever . Suspecting that Kirk himself was the key to the altered timeline, he offered to kill himself, but Guinan insisted he could not, but must be returned to the Nexus, and the Enterprise doubled back for the energy ribbon. The Enterprise was successful in returning Kirk to the anomaly and the timeline returned to normal. ( Star Trek novel : Engines of Destiny )

At stardate 47111.1 the Enterprise was involved in the discovery of the Unity Device . Captain Picard worked together with the Garidian Captain Pentara and the Chodak Admiral Brodnack to send the Device into the future, feeling that the galaxy was not ready for such advanced technology. ( TNG video game : A Final Unity )

In late 2370, the Enterprise was sent to the Gorn homeworld to attend a peace summit with the Gorn. Enroute, the Enterprise encountered a long-abandoned alien station. When the starship approached, the station's systems became active and transported Captain Picard back in time to Cestus III in 2267 , four days before it was attacked by the Gorn.

On arrival at the outpost, Picard gave the false name of Dixon Hill to the commander of the outpost, Commodore Travers . In his time on the base, Picard was successful in preventing the base's reactor from exploding and witnessed first hand the brutal attack made on the outpost by the Gorn. Picard was eventually recovered from the past by the same transporter technology that sent him there. Following Picard's return to the 24th century, the Enterprise continued on to the Gorn homeworld. ( TNG novel : Requiem )

At stardate 47993.3 Picard, with the research assistance of Data discovered a conspiracy within Starfleet that was using findings reported in the Enterprise 's logs to create offensive weapons and tip the political scales in the Federation's favour. Picard somehow tracked this conspiracy to a secret complex on Earth and sent an away team of his senior staff to infiltrate it and reveal the conspiracy to the rest of Starfleet, with orders to destroy it as a last resort if necessary. ( TNG comics : " Space Seeds ", " An Inconvenient Truth ")

Picard narrowly avoids a phaser beam

Meanwhile Picard contacted Admiral Nechayev to inform her of his findings but received a cold reply warning him off taking the matter further. Picard (correctly) suspected the admiral might be involved in the conspiracy and went to talk to Mr. Boothby to ask his opinion on her and the conspiracy. Boothby confirmed rumours of a shady group within Starfleet, but was not sure whether or not Nechayev could be trusted.

Just as Boothby departed to go back to bed Picard found himself under attack, from a Tellarite lurking in the shadows. He made a dash through the flower beds but was unable to avoid the assassin’s phaser beams. Fortunately just as a beam pierced his torso he was beamed away.

Picard is greeted by one of the conspirators

He materialised within the conspirator's complex, and was greeted by one of the conspirators. After a brief debate on both mens' ethics Picard’s away team arrived to rescue him, but in response more of the conspirators beamed in to even the numbers. At an apparent stalemate Picard ordered Geordie to activate the explosive charges the team had set, but they failed to detonate - the conspirators had deactivated them moments after the away team set them. The conspirators then beamed away leaving Picard empty-handed. ( TNG comic : " An Inconvenient Truth ")

After the destruction of the Enterprise-D at the world of Veridian III , there was a brief hearing at Starfleet Command , in which Picard was cleared of any negligence or wrongdoing. It was announced that there would be another starship Enterprise built, the USS Enterprise -E , and it was assumed that command of the ship would be given to Picard. ( TNG novel : Triangle: Imzadi II ) Picard also sent word to Ambassador Spock on Romulus about Kirk's body. After the Ambassador removed Kirk's body from the Veridian gravesite, Picard met him at a place of burial in Iowa, and both men interred Kirk there. ( TNG comic : " Spock: Reflections ")

The USS Enterprise -E [ ]

Picard in 2372.

The USS Enterprise -E , was launched in early 2372 , but Picard wasn't offered the command as expected. Instead, command of the Enterprise went to Captain Morgan Bateson . Picard was ordered to go into Cardassian space and confront Gul Madred and negotiate for the release of Federation prisoners.

En route to Cardassia Prime , Picard relived some adventures of the USS Enterprise , under the command of James T. Kirk , on the vessel's holodeck . Kirk's adventures persuaded Picard that negotiation would be useless. Picard began planning to kidnap Madred and demand the prisoners' release. His move was successful and all Federation prisoners were released into Picard's custody.

Picard and the prisoners were later successful in regaining control of the Enterprise -E after the ship had been captured by the Klingon renegade Kozara , who attempted to use the ship to invade Cardassia. Following the Enterprise -E's recapture, Morgan Bateson turned the ship over to Picard's command. ( TNG novel : Ship of the Line )

Old loyalties [ ]

In early 2373 , Picard was reunited with Marta Batanides and Cortin Zweller , when the Enterprise -E was ordered to Chiaros IV to find the missing USS Slayton . The Enterprise -E was tasked to complete the Slayton s mission to convince the Chiarosians to join the Federation instead of the Romulan Star Empire.

Enroute to Chiaros, the Enterprise -E rendezvoused with the USS Thunderchild and took aboard Admiral Batanides and Ambassador Aubin Tabor . Upon reaching Chiaros, Ambassador Tabor was killed in the first diplomatic meeting. Afterward, Captain Picard learned that the first diplomatic team from the Slayton , led by Commander Zweller, had been taken prisoner by Chiarosian rebels.

Section 31: Rogue

The Enterprise -E crew managed to rescue the prisoners and learned that the Slayton had been destroyed after discovering a cloaked Romulan experimental facility that was studying a subspace singularity near Chiaros IV. The singularity was a huge potential supply of energy to whoever controlled it.

Picard soon discovered that Zweller was an agent of rogue intelligence agency Section 31 , and that Zweller's true mission on Chiaros was to make sure that the planet joined the Romulan Star Empire. In return from the Romulans, Zweller was to receive a list of all Tal Shiar agents currently operating in the Federation.

Picard allowed Zweller to complete his mission and Chiaros joined the Romulans . However, Picard, Data , and Lt. Sean Hawk managed to sneak aboard the secret Romulan facility in a stolen scout ship and destroy the base and the singularity it was studying, depriving the Romulans of their prize.

Picard felt betrayed by Zweller and handed him over to the USS Tian An Men to face charges, but those charges were cleared by Admiral Connaught Rossa . Picard strongly protested, but he was powerless to do anything. Afterward, Batanides swore that she would do everything in her power to bring down Section 31. ( TNG novel : Rogue )

Making first contact [ ]

In early 2373 , the Borg returned to the Alpha Quadrant and attacked Earth with a single cube. Picard, taking command of the Federation's fleet, destroyed the Borg cube, but not before it sent a small vessel into the past to change Earth's history by preventing Zefram Cochrane 's first warp flight in 2063 .

Picard and the Enterprise followed the Borg to 2063 where Commanders Riker and Geordi La Forge assisted Cochrane with his historic flight.

On the Enterprise -E, Picard confronted the Borg Queen , and fought off a Borg attempt to assimilate the ship and crew. After being assured that the timeline had been saved, The Enterprise -E returned to the 24th Century . ( TNG novelization : Star Trek: First Contact )

After the Enterprise -E's return to 2373, she was docked at McKinley Station , and the crew was quarantined, scanned, and decontaminated for any possible Borg infections. While the Enterprise -E orbited Earth, Captain Picard and Lt. Commander Ranul Keru took a shuttlecraft to Bradbury City on Mars to return to personal effects of Lt. Sean Hawk , who was killed in the battle with the Borg, to his parents. ( TNG novel : Rogue )

Collapse of the Thallonian Empire [ ]

In late 2373, the Thallonian Empire in Sector 221-G collapsed and thousands of refugees were yearning to escape. The Enterprise was one of the first ships on the scene and was responsible for transporting refugees to Deep Space 5 .

On arrival at DS5, a meeting was held aboard the Enterprise , between Admirals Alynna Nechayev and Edward Jellico , Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Thallonian prince Si Cwan , and Danteri Ambassador Ryjaan . The meeting was to discuss the future of Thallonian space, to which all parties had different ideas. Captain Picard and Admiral Nechayev's suggestion was that a single Federation starship be assigned to the region, and with some negotiation, the plan was implemented.

At Picard's suggestion, command of the ship in question, the USS Excalibur , was given to former Starfleet officer, Mackenzie Calhoun, whose commission was reinstated with the rank of captain. ( NF novel : House of Cards )

The Dominion War [ ]

Behind enemy lines [ ].

In early 2374 , the Enterprise saw extensive action along the front-line in the Dominion War . After extensive battles with Jem'Hadar forces, the Enterprise received a distress call from the Ambassador -class , USS Aurora . They proceed to the scene and engaged several Cardassian vessels, which they dispatched, but not in time to save the Aurora . During the battle, the Bajoran vessel Orb of Peace , containing Maquis refugees, including Ro Laren *, arrived and aided in the battle.

Picard had the Maquis beamed aboard and Ro informed him that the Dominion was using slave labor in Sector 283 to construct an artificial wormhole . Completion of the project would allow the Dominion access to the Alpha Quadrant without needing to use the Bajoran wormhole . Picard agreed that they should investigate, and they left in the Orb of Peace donning Bajoran disguises. Meanwhile, Commander Riker took the Enterprise to be repaired at Starbase 209 , and left Lt. Commander Data behind in the shuttlecraft Cook to monitor the captain's process.

After dodging several patrols, the Orb of Peace made it to the OK Corral station in the Badlands . In the Badlands, the crew liberated slaves from the Cardassian tanker Tag Garwal . The slaves were mining corzanium from a black hole for the Dominion, for the construction of the wormhole. Among the survivors are former Enterprise -D personnel, Sam Lavelle and Taurik . ( TNG novel : Behind Enemy Lines )

As they proceed to Sector 283, the progress of the Orb of Peace was impeded by a Changeling who had taken the form of Taurik. Data managed to rescue the Orb of Peace and destroy the artificial wormhole by using the shuttle's escape pod as a meteoroid. The crew was later rescued by the Enterprise and proceeded to Deep Space 9 , which has recently been liberated by Captain Benjamin Sisko and a large task force. ( TNG novel : Tunnel Through the Stars )

The Return of Q [ ]

In mid-2374, the Enterprise arrived at Betazed and took aboard Professor Lem Faal and his family. The Enterprise was assigned to transport Faal to the edge of the galaxy, so that Faal could conduct experiments based on his life-long research to break through the galactic barrier using a specially designed wormhole probe .

Just before the test was about to be implemented, Q arrived on the Enterprise , along with his mate and child, q . He immediately vanished with Picard and took him through time to view his own personal history, and view its relevance to the current situation. Meanwhile, the Enterprise came under attack by the Calamarain , a species that had a grudge against Q. ( TNG novel : Q-Zone )

When Picard and Q return to the Enterprise , Professor Faal (under the control of 0 , another omnipotent being), launched the wormhole torpedo into the barrier and allowed 0 to return to the galaxy. 0 immediately hunted down Q, but Q was able to unite with the Calamarain and defeat 0. ( TNG novel : Q-Strike )

Gorn Crisis [ ]

In late 2374, Starfleet Command dispatched Captain Picard and the Enterprise to the Gorn Hegemony , to gain their support in the Dominion War. On arrival at the Gorn homeworld, the Enterprise crew discovered that the Black Crest faction had staged a coup and overthrew the government.

The Black Crest aimed to expand Gorn territory and launched several attacks on Federation outposts. Thankfully, Commander Riker and a Klingon task force were defending the outposts, and the attack was repelled. Meanwhile, Picard remained behind on the Gorn homeworld to try and solve the situation. ( TNG comic : " The Gorn Crisis ")

The Battle of Betazed [ ]

In early 2375 , the Enterprise was fighting Dominion forces deep inside Federation territory following the invasion of Betazed in late 2374. The Enterprise had suffered damage following the Battle of Rigel , but managed to dock at Starbase 133 for repairs.

A few weeks later, while docked at the starbase, Commander Elias Vaughn boarded the Enterprise on a top-priority assignment. Vaughn told Picard that the Enterprise was to lead a small Starfleet task force, comprising the USS Defiant and three Saber -class vessels, the USS Tulwar , USS Katana , and USS Scimitar , to attack the Dominion station, Sentok Nor in orbit of Betazed. While Vaughn was to lead a small team to the prison facility on Darona to free the murderer, Hunt Tevren , whose skills were needed by the Betazed resistance .

The attack on the station proved a success, and the Enterprise managed to rescue a large number of Betazoid slaves before the station self-destructed. However, the Katana was lost in the battle.

Vaughn's team was also partially successful, they managed to find Tevren, but he later died in battle with Jem'Hadar soldiers. Fortunately, before he died he taught some of his telepathic secrets to Commander Troi. Using the information gleaned from Troi, the most powerful members of the Betazed Resistance used their telepathic powers to empathically overload the minds of the Jem'Hadar occupation forces. Betazed was liberated; however, 1,200 Betazoid telepaths died from the strain of the attack. ( TNG novel : The Battle of Betazed )

Insurrection [ ]

In mid 2375 , the Enterprise proceeded into the Briar Patch to the planet Ba'ku , after Commander Data had appeared to have malfunctioned and sabotaged a joint Starfleet- Son'a duckblind mission on the surface. Eventually Picard and the Enterprise crew learned that Ba'ku's metaphasic rings were like a fountain of youth, and Admiral Matthew Dougherty and the Son'a leader, Ru'afo were determined to have the planet. Picard and the crew staged an insurrection and stopped the 600 Ba'ku from being transplanted from the planet, and discovered that the Son'a are actually Ba'ku. ( TNG novelization : Insurrection )

The Battle of Ricktor Prime and Gul Madred [ ]

The Enterprise was at the forefront of the allied forces at the Battle of Ricktor Prime in 2375. It was one of only four of the six allied ships at that battle to survive, though the day was won. After the battle, while en route to meet with a Klingon civilian, the Enterprise received a distress call from a Cardassian Akril -class vessel, the Pakliros .

The ship had suffered catastrophic engine damage, and there were only two survivors: Glinn Driana and Gul Madred . Driana died of radiation poisoning; Picard had Madred placed in the brig, and insisted on conducting the interrogation himself, over the objections of Troi and security chief Lieutenant Padraig Daniels .

Despite their positions being reversed from what they had been on Cardassia six years prior, Madred continued to manipulate Picard, including trying to get him to use his desire to see Driana against him. Eventually, with Troi's help, Picard ceased speaking to Madred, and stopped allowing the gul to continue to victimize him. ( TNG short story : " Four Lights ")

The Raid on San Francisco [ ]

In 2375, Picard was on Earth visiting his niece, Amarante Lebel , when she graduated from the Academy and the Enterprise was on a short-range mission. At the same time the Breen Confederacy launched an attack on Starfleet in San Francisco , destroying Starfleet Headquarters . Then, Picard led a group of newly graduated officers into Bunker SF-Zero-One , which housed backup controls for headquarters, then coordinated between the Enterprise and Columbia in an effort to stop the ships still pounding San Francisco, but they were engaged by DP-7 , a weapons platform responsible for the defense of North America . Picard determined that there was someone aboard the platform, so he beamed aboard, stunned the Breen agent , and disabled the platform; allowing Enterprise and Columbia to destroy the Breen ships. ( TNG short story : " Eleven Hours Out ")

Post-war crises [ ]

Mission to gemworld [ ].

In late 2375, the Enterprise was due to conduct a low-gravity survey of planet Primus IV , when they were summoned to Gemworld , home planet of Lieutenant Melora Pazlar , who was temporarily assigned to the Enterprise . Upon arriving on Gemworld, Captain Picard and the crew discovered that a dimensional rift was streaming dark matter onto the planet and destabilizing the artificial planet's support program.

Picard and the crew needed to obtain the crystal key shards from all of the races on Gemworld that were required to power down the planet's protective shell, and allow the Enterprise to power the force fields. The Alpusta seized control of the Enterprise and attempted to use its phaser banks to destroy the rift. The plan is thwarted, and the situation is resolved when Counselor Troi managed to contact an entity in the rift and convinced it to close the rift. ( TNG novels : Gemworld, Book One , Gemworld, Book Two )

Dead zones [ ]

In early 2376 , while attempting to rescue a Federation cargo hauler that had become stranded in the Romulan Neutral Zone, the Enterprise was the first of many ships across the galaxy to encounter a warp dead zone . Captain Picard soon learned that the dead zones were affecting the entire galaxy, and took aboard Ambassador Spock and the infamous Romulan mass-murderer, T'sart .

Spock believed that T'sart held vital information about the phenomena. However, T'sart was poisoned by a Klingon governor named Kalor before he could talk. Picard suspected that they needed to travel into Romulan space, so he sent Commander Riker, Counselor Troi, and Data in the runabout USS Kaku into Romulan territory to obtain a sample of barantium from a Romulan station to mask the Enterprise 's warp trail. However, Commander Folan of the IRW Makluan anticipated the action and rigged the station to explode.

Ambassador Spock managed to convince Commander Folan of the threat of the dead zones and he allowed the Enterprise to travel to the Caltiskan system . Upon reaching Caltiskan, the Enterprise (along with several other Enterprise s from around the multi-verse) penetrated the alien sphere that was responsible for the dead zones and shut the sphere down. ( TNG novels : Dead Zone , Forever Dark )

Badlands mission and Jem'Hadar attack on DS9 [ ]

In April of 2376 the Enterprise was assigned to patrol near the Badlands in response to rumored Breen activity. Traveling aboard the Enterprise was Commander Elias Vaughn, who confided in Picard about his thoughts of retirement. Picard suggested Vaughn would not be happy sitting back and letting worlds go by, and suggested he turned to writing or teaching.

After three weeks of the patrol, the Enterprise discovered a lost Cardassian freighter, the Kamal . Commander Vaughn led an away team to the freighter and discovered one of the lost Bajoran Orbs , the Orb of Memory , whose mind-affecting properties affected the entire away team. After recovering the Orb, Picard ordered a course set to starbase Deep Space 9 in the Bajoran sector, to return the Orb to the Bajoran people and have the Enterprise repaired after being damaged by the Badlands' plasma activity. ( DS9 novel : Avatar, Book One )

The Enterprise arrived at the station in the aftermath of a Jem'Hadar assault, and a planned Federation Alliance assault on the Dominion . Picard had time to enjoy delivering the recovered orb to Kira Nerys before the Enterprise and station personnel were called into action again to stop a Jem'Hadar assault on the station's fusion core . After the crisis was averted, Vaughn chose to stay behind on DS9 and fill the vacant post of station's first officer. Before the Enterprise departed Picard suggested each Federation ship in the allied task force , which had arrived shortly after the incident, donate an energy generator to the station to provide power until a replacement for the fusion core, which was destroyed by the Jem'Hadar, could be found. Also before departing, Picard took the opportunity to make peace with Ro Laren , who was then serving as a chief of security on the station. ( DS9 novel : Avatar, Book Two )

Gateway crisis [ ]

In early 2376, beings claiming to be the ancient Iconians opened up their entire network of Gateways , and began offering the technology to the highest bidder.

Captain Picard, given his prior experience with Iconian technology, was summoned back to Earth and conferred with Starfleet Command over the matter. Admiral William Ross temporarily re-assigned Picard to command the Saber -class USS Marco Polo on a mission to unite the Alpha Quadrant powers against the "Iconians".

Picard and Deanna Troi managed to assemble a fleet of seventeen vessels from various races to confront the "Iconians". During the confrontation, Picard discovered that, as suspected, these aliens were not the Iconians at all, but rather a race known as the Petraw . Picard discovered that, although the Petraw figured out how to activate the Gateways network, they did not know how to shut it down.

In an act of desperation, Picard stepped through a gateway aboard the Petraw ship in an attempt to make contact with the real Iconians. Upon meeting the real Iconians, Picard learned that they employed a non-intervention policy similar to the Prime Directive , and would not intervene in the matter. They did, however, send Picard to a world where the systems Master Resonator was located, which would close down the Gateway system. On the world, Picard managed to obtain all of the resonator keys and was returned to the bridge of the Enterprise .

The various keys were sent to different ships, and the ships were sent to specific gateways. The simultaneous use of the keys at the various gateway locations shut down the system, ending the threat. ( TNG - Gateways novel : Doors Into Chaos ; TNG - Gateways short story : " The Other Side ")

Return of the Borg [ ]

In mid 2376 , the Enterprise was leading a colonization effort in the Barissa Sector , when they received a distress call from the USS Premonition . Upon arriving at the Premonition 's coordinates, they found her under attack by two Borg Spheres. After destroying the Spheres, the Premonition 's captain, Thaddius Deming , informed Picard that he was from a future where the Borg had assimilated the Alpha Quadrant and that the attack was about to begin, starting with Starbase 612 .

Captain Picard would also learn that the Borg had used genetic samples from himself to recreate Locutus of Borg who served as the leader of the Collective's assimilation forces within the quadrant.

Upon arriving at the starbase, the Enterprise found that the base had been attacked. With Picard's assistance, the station was able to get its defenses back online and stop the Borg from assimilating the base. However, the crisis was far from over, with rumours that the Borg were also attacking the Klingons, and had forged an uneasy truce with Romulan Admiral Sela , who had allegedly established control of an Omega particle .

Problems grew worse for Picard and Starfleet when they learned that Ambassador Spock, who was to negotiate a truce between the Klingons and Romulans so they could help repel the invasion, had been assimilated en route. Picard was charged with defending Earth from the invasion, which he discovered was led by Locutus, after the Borg assimilated a clone of Picard.

The Borg were successful in assimilating Earth, but the Enterprise traveled back in time via the Premonition 's temporal systems. The Enterprise managed to stop the assimilation of Spock and help him forge an alliance with the Klingons and Romulans, and with their help stopped the Borg assimilating Earth.

Following this, Picard led a joint Federation/Klingon/Romulan task force into the Delta Quadrant and destroyed Unimatrix 001 by destabilizing the Omega particle. ( TNG video game : Armada )

Genesis wave [ ]

In late 2376 , Starfleet lost contact with many worlds in Sector 4368 , including Outpost Seran-T-1 and the planet Haken in the Hivernia system . The Enterprise was dispatched to the area to investigate and found that worlds that had once been inhabited, but are now lifeless terraformed worlds. The Enterprise discovered the Genesis Wave moving away from the worlds and set out to investigate.

After the destruction of the Pellean Principality , Dr. Leah Brahms was rescued by the Enterprise . She was the only survivor from Seran-T-1, because she was testing an experimental phase-shifting suit. Realizing that the suit could be the answer to surviving the wave, the suit is replicated en masse and tested at the waves next target, Persephone V . The test proved successful, and after the reformation of Sarona VIII , the wave was plotted as heading toward Earth and the Romulan Star Empire.

After rendezvousing with Admiral Nechayev and the USS Sovereign , the decision was made to make a stand on the Bolian colony world, Myrmidon . Starfleet constructed shelters on the planet to protect the population and used interphase generators from the Romulans to protect them. ( TNG novel : The Genesis Wave, Book 1 )

A tenuous Federation-Klingon-Romulan alliance was created and managed to assemble 40,000 vessels to form a "Ring of Fire" around the wave and dissipate it.

It was discovered that the wave had been activated by a species of Moss Creatures who were to use the transformed worlds as their new homeworlds. ( TNG novel : The Genesis Wave, Book 2 )

After repairs to Enterprise were completed at Starbase 302 in early 2377 , the Enterprise was one of many starships assigned to clean-up operations. Soon after, a portable version of the Genesis Device fell into the hands of a zealous Bajoran Vedek named Yorka , who believed it to be "The Orb of Life", one of the Bajoran Orbs of the Prophets . The Enterprise caught up with Yorka and confiscated the device on the planet Solosos III . ( TNG novel : The Genesis Wave, Book 3 )

The Enterprise was then sent to the planet Aluwna , a planet transformed by the Genesis Wave that managed to save its population in a series of transporter satellites. Once there, they assisted a group of Klingons that included Ambassador Worf and his son, Alexander Rozhenko , and humans that included Dr. Leah Brahms take on the dangers of the transformed world and restore its population from the satellites. ( TNG novel : Genesis Force )

Strange bedfellows [ ]

In mid-2377 ( Stardate 54522.2), the Borg once again returned to menace the Alpha Quadrant. The Enterprise and a small task force was sent to investigate a reported Borg presence in the Regula Badlands along the Romulan Neutral Zone. On arrival, they discovered a large Borg presence.

Shortly after, the Enterprise rushed to Starbase 176 after receiving a distress call stating that the Borg had attacked. The Enterprise arrived in time to restore the base and its defences into for the second Borg wave. This time, the Borg attacked the base with assimilated Starfleet vessels. The Borg were stopped and the assimilated vessels were retaken, including the Nebula -class USS Douglass .

Using information gathered from the Douglass ' sensor logs, Starfleet began to gather forces along the Neutral Zone as a staging ground for an attack into the Delta Quadrant , with the Enterprise leading the way. The fleet entered the transwarp portal and began the offensive in the Delta Quadrant. The invasion was a success as the Borg were caught unaware and their plans defeated.

As the Enterprise led the fleet back towards the Alpha Quadrant, the Borg mounted a counterstrike. Species 8472 arrived in the middle of the battle, and began attacking the Borg. Most ships managed to escape back home, but Species 8472 destroyed the Transwarp Portal and stranded the Enterprise in the Delta Quadrant. Picard was forced to form an alliance with the Borg Queen to stop the Species 8472 in exchange for getting the Enterprise home. As a result, a massive Federation-Borg task force entered fluidic space and defeated Species 8472. Following the battle, the Enterprise and the other surviving Federation ships, were returned to the Alpha Quadrant. ( TNG video game : Armada II )

The fall and rise of Jean-Luc Picard [ ]

In early 2378 , Picard was one of several Starfleet officers present at the first official debriefing of Captain Kathryn Janeway after her ship, the USS Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant . Picard was also on the short list of high-ranking officers that may have been involved in the sale of intelligence and technology to the Orion Syndicate . ( VOY novel : Homecoming )

Incident at Rashanar [ ]

In 2378 , the Enterprise , along with the USS Juno , was assigned to patrol against pirates and scavengers at the site of the Battle of Rashanar , one of the deadliest conflicts of the Dominion War. From the start of the mission, things went completely wrong for Picard and the Enterprise . First, the captain's yacht , the Calypso , was stolen by the Androssi , and then the Enterprise had to deal with the strange anomalies in the region.

Acting solely on the word of his second officer , Data , Picard ordered an attack on what appeared to be the Ontailian heavy cruiser Vuxhal . In response to the attack, the Ontailians destroyed the Juno with all hands. ( TNG novel : A Time to Be Born )

Upon returning to Earth, Picard's competence as captain was called into question. Picard was relieved, and Riker assumed command. Picard was eventually allowed to return to the Enterprise under the supervision of Counselor Colleen Cabot , but only in the role of observer.

On Admiral Nechayev's orders the Enterprise returned to Rashanar and discovered that the "Onatailian" ship that they had destroyed was actually a shapeshifting creature. With some help from fledgling Traveler Wesley Crusher , the Enterprise vanquished the creature. Picard re-assumed command of the Enterprise . However, in order to save face with the Ontailian government and preserve their Federation membership, "official" blame still fell on the shoulders of Picard. ( TNG novel : A Time to Die )

The Dokaalan [ ]

Now in poor favor with Starfleet Command , Picard was ordered by Admiral Nechayev to investigate a 200-year-old distress signal sent by the Dokaalan . Starfleet fully expected the race to be long doomed, as the Dokalaan homeworld was breaking apart at the time of the signal. However, it was felt that the current political atmosphere of the Federation would benefit if the "tainted" Captain Picard were far away.

Upon arriving at the Dokaaalan system, Picard was astonished to find that a portion of the Dokaalan people had managed to save themselves in a series of asteroid outposts. Picard offered the service of the Federation to assist in their efforts to terraform another planet in the system to their needs, and uncovered a plot by the Satarrans to steal that world from them. ( TNG novels : A Time to Sow , A Time to Harvest )

The Bader and Dorset [ ]

The Enterprise was then ordered to the distant planet of Delta Sigma IV , a world co-inhabited by the Bader and the Dorset , two races that had traditionally been adversaries.

When it was discovered that a Starfleet-created medication was restoring the aggressive natures of the two races, thereby cancelling the calming effect of the planet's atmosphere, Picard, Riker, and Riker's father Kyle Riker struggled to find a workable solution. ( TNG novels : A Time to Love , A Time to Hate )

When Kinchawn , the ruler of a minor world named Tezwa , threatened war with the Klingon Empire , Picard and the Enterprise were sent in to mediate. Kinchawn, however, was not interested in mediation. He attacked the Klingon fleet with advanced nadion-pulse cannons , which killed over 6,000 warriors.

The weapons were of Federation origin, and Picard was ordered to take the planet out from under the nose of the Klingons, and destroy the weapons. To this end, Picard contacted Ambassador Worf , his former chief of security . Worf obtained the command codes for the Klingon fleet and provided them to Picard, which enabled him to defeat the Klingon fleet without ever firing a shot. ( TNG novel : A Time to Kill )

After the removal of Kinchawn, who managed to escape custody, the Enterprise remained at Tezwa acting as peacekeepers in the unstable region. an action made more difficult by the insurgency started by Kinchawn and his loyalists.

Picard and his crew eventually managed to trace the origins of the nadion pulse cannons all the way to the office of Koll Azernal , Chief of Staff to Federation President , Min Zife . Picard, and those of his crew who knew the truth, agreed to maintain their silence on the matter, as if it were to be discovered that 6,000 Klingons had died due to orders of the Federation President, war with the Klingon Empire would have been inevitable. Soon after, Zife resigned from office, and disappeared from public view. ( TNG novel : A Time to Heal )

Redemption [ ]

A year after the Rashanar incident, the Enterprise , and Picard in particular were forced to endure a grueling inspection from Starfleet Command. The inspection team included Captain Wai-Lin Go , Doctor Toby Russell and Betazoid Sabin Genestra , all of whom had some sort of personal grudge against Picard or his crew. The legendary Montgomery Scott , fearing that Starfleet was putting together a "stacked deck," volunteered for the last spot on the inspection team. The Enterprise and crew passed the inspection with flying colors, and were returned to grace with Starfleet Command.

Soon after, the Enterprise was assigned to help the Klingon Empire find their missing Emperor , who had replaced himself with a hologram , and found a secluded world on which he could pass his days painting landscapes. ( TNG novel : A Time for War, A Time for Peace )

The Borg time wave [ ]

On stardate 56344.5 in 2379, Picard and his ship were one of three that experienced the aftershock of the time wave created by the Borg. Picard was the first to learn about the Borg's plan to change their history when Geordi was partially assimilated by the Borg. ( TNG comic : " Alien Spotlight: Borg ")

Shinzon [ ]

Picard in 2379.

In late 2379, Captain Picard and the Enterprise were diverted to Romulus by Admiral Kathryn Janeway . Picard's mission was to greet the new Romulan Praetor , Shinzon of Remus . After a tense first meeting, it was discovered that Shinzon was a clone of Picard, previously part of an attempt to infiltrate the Federation. It was revealed that Shinzon needed Picard's DNA to stop himself from dying, and continue his mission to destroy Earth with his thalaron weapon aboard the Scimitar .

The Enterprise promptly left Romulus to warn Starfleet, but was pursued by the Scimitar , which cornered the starship near the Bassen Rift . Even with the assistance of Commander Donatra and the IRW Valdore , the Reman vessel soon overcame the Enterprise . In an act of desperation, to prevent the Scimitar reaching Earth, Picard ordered the Enterprise to ram the Scimitar . The tactic left both ships severely damaged, but the Enterprise at the disadvantage. To save his crew, Picard had Geordi La Forge transport him to the Scimitar to destroy it from within before it could kill the Enterprise ' crew with its thalaron weapon. He ended up dueling with, and killing Shinzon, but was left stunned as Shinzon's corpse rested upon him. Fortunately Data had reached the Scimitar and attached an emergency transporter device to Picard, sending him back to the Enterprise . Data then fired a phaser into the Scimitar 's thalaron core, destroying the vessel, and sacrificing his own life to save Picard and the Enterprise . ( TNG movie : Star Trek Nemesis )

Confrontation with T'Uerell [ ]

In 2380 , Picard and the Enterprise headed into a final confrontation with the Vulcan T'Uerell , a Vulcan who had been working with the Borg, inciting conflicts throughout local space, for two hundred years. Picard, with the assistance of Admiral Kathryn Janeway and her old starship, the USS Voyager . met with T'Uerell and learned of her true intentions; She planned to conquer the Alpha Quadrant with the Borg . She believed that everything she had done, including the deaths of many Starfleet personnel, have been for the greater good. Picard and Janeway attempted to convince her otherwise, but she refused. Janeway left the system and told Picard that "[she'd] be back with some friends" and ordered Picard to defend Federation colonies from assimilation. Picard succeeded, and then ordered that the ship be taken to Deep Space 9 .

T'Uerell and the Borg cubes made their way to Bajor and Deep Space 9 where Picard and his task force helped defend the Klingon and Romulan forces under threat of attack. With the loyalty Picard garnered, the Romulan and Klingon starships placed themselves under his flag. The forces engaged T'Uerell and her Borg allies and were victorious. With that, T'Uerell escaped with the Enterprise in hot pursuit.

T'Uerell fled to a star system with many Borg vessels, with Janeway noting that she would not be able to leave, because of all the ships surrounding her. After destroying a Borg tactical cube, the Federation/Klingon/Romulan forces, along with the Enterprise and its task force, engaged T'Uerell. After destroying the strain that protected her, all ships opened fire. T'Uerell's ship could not stand the intense weapons fire and was finally destroyed, thus bringing to an end 221 years of unending conflict. Picard heard T'Uerell calling out to him in her final minutes, though could not tell whether it was the Vulcan or the Borg in her who was calling. ( TNG video game : Legacy )

Recruiting the hazard team [ ]

Soon after, on a visit to Starfleet Academy , Captain Picard viewed a holodeck training session featuring Lieutenant Alexander Munro , who at the time, taught small unit tactics at the Academy. After talking with the young Lieutenant, he learned of the USS Voyager 's hazard team , and decided that he could put such a team to great use aboard the Federation's flagship. Not long after, the Captain had Munro, prospective recruits, as well as other officers who'd served on the previous incarnation of the team transferred to the Enterprise to restart the Hazard Team.

Not only did the team end up saving Picard's ship from Idryll invaders, but it also helped in lifting a cover-up perpetrated by the Attrexian people, (which proved that the Idryll had been a star-faring race many millennia ago) and located and exposed a Romulan militant group known as the " Empty Crown ," which sought to overthrow the Romulan government. Captain Picard stated that he would personally recommend that Hazard Teams be deployed throughout Starfleet, and he commended Lieutenant Munro for his valor and heroism as the team's leader. ( TNG video game : Elite Force II )

Admiralty and retirement [ ]

Between 2381 and 2385 , Picard left the Enterprise -E and was promoted to Admiral. He attended meeting of Starfleet Command, where he learned that the Romulan star was going Supernova within a few years. The Romulan Empire requested help in evacuating their territory. Picard was place in charge of the operation to ensure that many Romulans were evacuated. Picard was given command of the USS Verity and requested Intelligence officer, Commander Raffi Musiker as his XO . One of the first worlds the Verity evacuated was Ectis II ; those refugees were transported to Arnath , despite Picard's protests over conditions there. Following the evacuation at Ectis II, Picard evacuated a group of Qowat Milat nuns on Inxtis , relocating them and others to the Federation colony world of Vashti . Afterwards, at Nimbus III , Picard ran into difficulty with the Tal Shiar , who prevented the evacuation and massacred more than 50 colonists. ( PIC episode : " Remembrance "; PIC novel : The Last Best Hope )

Picard and the Verity were then diverted to Yuyat Beta to evacuate some 10,000 Romulans. There, Picard and Musiker met with Governor Shiana and her maior-domus , Athus to discuss the evacuation. At the colony's vineyard, Picard discovered the Yuyati and that their some four or five million of them. Picard demanded that the Governor to allow them to make a full assessment of the colony the Governor refused and them stay as her guests.

Picard refused to cooperate with the governor. As Picard was taken back to his cell, several Yuyati attacked and rescued him and Musiker. They were then taken to meet with two undercover agents of the Tal Shiar: Zhaban and Laris . Picard doubted that they wanted to help but agreed when they told Picard about Tal Shiar discovering their union. with Zhaban's help, Picard and Musiker was able get back inside the Governor's palace. Picard contacted the governor, who had taken control of the Verity . Picard and Musiker were able to transport themselves, Laris and Zhaban aboard the Verity . Picard placed Shiana in the brig.

Unfortunately, a Romulan warbird of the Tal Shiar arrived. Picard lost control of the Verity when Zhaban took control of it. However, Laris convinced him to stand down as two other warbirds arrived to assist Picard in response to his message to the Romulan Senate. Zhaban, seeing the truth, gave Picard back control of the Verity . Despite their duplicity, Picard decided to help them. Knowing they could not return let alone rejoin their people, Picard offered them a job working the vineyards at Château Picard on Earth.( PIC - Countdown comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ", " Issue 3 ")

With the Qowat Milat's help, Picard was able to evacuate some 250,000 Romulans to Vashti . There, he met a young boy named Elnor , gave him a copy of The Three Musketeers and taught him how to fence . Following the evacuation, Picard was informed of the attack by rogue synthetics on Mars.( PIC episode : " Absolute Candor ")

Following the attack on First Contact Day in 2385 and the loss of the entire evacuation fleet, Picard called it a "devastating" attack in a  Federation News Network  broadcast at the time. Picard presented a plan to the Federation council to use mothballed vessels to continue the evacuation of Romulans or he would resign. Unfortunately, the council chose to end the evacuation, enact a ban on synthetic lifeforms, and accepted Picard's resignation. Picard saw the synthetic ban a mistake.( Short Treks episode : " Children of Mars "; PIC episodes : " Remembrance ", " The End is the Beginning ")

Following his resignation, Picard returned to his childhood home in France. There, he lived with his house keepers, Laris, Zhaban and a dog, Number One . There, he tended to his family's vineyard and wrote history books. ( PIC episode : " Remembrance ")

In 2393 saw the opening of the El-Adrel IV linguistic research facility at which Meltha invoked the names of Picard and Dathon. ( ST website  : StarTrek.com )

Mystery of the Zhat Vash [ ]

During his retirement, Picard had dreams about Data. In 2399 , at the age of 94, Picard met Dahj Asha , an android created by Bruce Maddox using Commander Data's remaining neural code. Following another dream about Data, Picard discovered that Asha was based off one of Data's paintings that was given to Picard and stored at the Starfleet Archive Museum . ( PIC episode : " Remembrance ")

Personal life [ ]

Picard was an amateur archaeologist from an early age, and the interest would last all his life. Even as a Starfleet Captain, he often pondered what his life as an archaeologist would have been like; his knowledge of ancient artifacts and cultures often proved valuable during his command of the Stargazer and Enterprise . ( TNG episodes : " Rascals ", " The Chase ", " Gambit "; TNG novel : The Devil's Heart )

During his younger days, Picard enjoyed flying solar sail spacecraft. He sailed the near-Earth courses at Lambda Scorpii and L2 Puppis , among others, and almost qualified with a crew for the three-kilometer cup. ( TNG comic : " Ill Wind ")

Picard helping to cut down a tree in The Armada

In his youth Picard was dissatisfied with life as a farmer and never wanted to help around the vineyard. Later in life he expressed disappointment that he never got involved, and he relished the opportunity to help work the land when he visited The Armada , an agricultural colony, in 2365 . ( TNG comic : " Space Seeds ")

Alternate realities [ ]

Starfleet service record [ ], appendices [ ], connections [ ], background [ ].

Captain Jean-Luc Picard was portrayed by British actor Sir Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 - 1994 , the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine pilot episode " Emissary ", Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact ( 1996 ), Star Trek: Insurrection ( 1998 ), and Star Trek: Nemesis ( 2002 ). He reprised the role for Star Trek: Picard in 2020 . The 12-year-old Picard in TNG episode : " Rascals " was portrayed by David Tristan Birkin in 1992 , Marcus Nash portrayed Ensign Picard in TNG episode : " Tapestry " in 1993 , while Tom Hardy portrayed Cadet Picard (as well as Picard's clone, Shinzon) in a photograph in Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002.

Appearances and references [ ]

Appearances [ ], external links [ ].

• Jean-Luc Picard article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Jean-Luc Picard article at Tardis Data Core , the Doctor Who wiki
• Jean-Luc Picard article at the Star Trek Timelines Wiki .

• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 The Chase
• 3 Preserver (race)

The 10 greatest Picard moments from 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

With the new series "Star Trek: Picard," a fan-favorite character is back. For many, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart), who led us through triumph and turmoil in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (TNG), has been the embodiment of standing by your principles and acting on your values in the Trek universe. And though his circumstances may have changed drastically in the new show, the man remains the same — committed to doing what he believes is right.

That's a defining trait for Capt. Picard, and the theme appears throughout TNG. That's why we've compiled this list of Picard's 10 greatest moments over the course of TNG. While some of his most popular moments are on this list, you will also find some quieter, more thoughtful examples from the show that reveal the many facets of this great and complicated man.

Related: What 'Star Trek' to watch before 'Star Trek: Picard'

Episode: "Yesterday's Enterprise"

"History will never forget the name Enterprise."

One of Capt. Picard's most notable and respected traits is that he implicitly trusts the judgment of his crew, which is very much on display in this episode. In it, the Enterprise-C travels back in time and changes history for the worse; the Federation is in a war with the Klingons, and it is losing badly. Though Picard has no knowledge of the alterations to the timeline, he listens to both Guinan and Tasha Yar, who advise him to send the Enterprise-C back through time again, even though it will mean Yar's destruction. It's an incredibly risky move, but it pays off and eventually restores the timeline and the original order.

Episode: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2""Sleep, Data."

"Sleep, Data."

One of the most devastating moments from TNG came when the Borg assimilated Capt. Picard and used his knowledge to decimate a Federation war fleet at Wolf 359. It's heartbreaking, to say the least, and it might be one of Picard's lowest moments on the show. 

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But it leads to one of his greatest moments — when he finally breaks through the Borg implants and collective consciousness of the aliens to tell Data how to shut down the Borg cube. It shows incredible resolve and strength of character that Picard can push through and help his crew to defeat the terrible threat.

Video: Patrick Stewart and Isa Briones Talk Trek with Space.com

Episode: "Chain of Command, Part 2"

"There are four lights!"

Many claim that TNG never went into dark territory, but that's not the case at all. Some of the show's most notable moments explored darker themes, which is clear in "Chain of Command," a two-part episode that's difficult to watch but incredible nonetheless. When Picard is kidnapped by Cardassians and tortured, they try to break him by insisting that there are five lights in front of him when there are, in fact, four. It's a brutal process that really shows the viewer the degradation and mental stress of torture, at least in Trek form. In the end, Picard doesn't break, though he later admits he was very close to doing so under the strain.

Episode: "The Measure of a Man"

"Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there it sits!"

One of the most thoughtful and poignant episodes of TNG comes when Data is put on trial to determine whether he's the property of Starfleet or a form of intelligent life allowed to make his own decisions. 

In the episode, the outcome of the trial will determine the fundamental nature of what Data is and what rights he has, and Picard takes his duty to defend Data and his rights incredibly seriously. This is one of those episodes that shows the series at its absolute best, and Picard's impassioned speech in defense of Data is surely one for the books.

Related: The 10 best 'Star Trek' episodes ever

Episode: "The Drumhead"

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored. The first thought forbidden. The first freedom denied — chains us all irrevocably."

When Starfleet Adm. Norah Satie arrives aboard the Enterprise in hunt of a spy who's been leaking information to the Romulans, it seems like a necessary endeavor. 

Except, even after the saboteur is caught, Satie continues her investigation aboard the Enterprise, certain that the conspiracy is wider-ranging than it appears. She goes after Simon Tarses, a young officer, before turning her eyes on Picard himself. The captain becomes convinced that Satie's investigation has become a xenophobic witch hunt that completely disregards the truth.

Episode: "Family"

"I wasn't strong enough! I wasn't good enough! I should have been able to stop them!"

Taken hand in hand with "Best of Both Worlds," "Family" is the oft-missed conclusion of a three-episode arc in which Picard returns home to France and grapples with the implications of what happened to him at the hands of the Borg.

 Too often, in episodic television of TNG"s era, traumatic things happened and characters would be "fine" the next week because of show creators' resistance to serialized storytelling. This episode, however, allowed Picard to process his trauma and grief, and it's one of his best moments, not in spite of his naked vulnerability, but because of it.

Related:   'Star Trek: Picard' Couture: Jean-Luc's 15 Best TNG Outfits  

Episode: "Tapestry"

"I would rather die as the man I was than live the life I just saw."

In this memorable episode, Q, an omnipotent being, offers Picard the chance to live a different life. After the captain dies on the operating table following a heart attack, Q allows the man to go back in time and choose not to provoke the Nausicaans who stabbed him through the heart as a young Starfleet officer, which is what led to this moment. However, it turns out that incident was a defining moment in Picard's life, and in the end, he chooses to return to his old life. He realizes he'd rather risk death than live a safe, boring life.

Episode: "Encounter at Farpoint" (series premiere)

"If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are."

TNG's pilot episode isn't exactly considered the best of the series. In fact, as far as first episodes across the franchise go, it isn't exactly beloved. But in this episode, Stewart establishes the character of Picard and viewers get to see what the man is made of. Not to mention, the pilot introduces Q to the "Star Trek" universe. 

Q was a gift, especially in his interactions with the honorable captain; from the powerful being's pettiness to his ability to needle Picard in the best way, he's a vital part of the "Star Trek" universe.

Episode: "Star Trek: First Contact"

"The line must be drawn here. This far and no further!"

This might be cheating a little bit, because "First Contact" is a movie and not a TNG episode. But it's hard to argue that this impassioned speech isn't one of Picard's most memorable. The greatest moment of the film, however, isn't the speech itself; it's what comes after. Picard accepts that his vendetta against the Borg is, in fact, personal, and acknowledges that he needs to move beyond that fixation to save his crew. It's never easy to accept when we're wrong, and it's all the more moving to see such an icon admit that he's been shortsighted.

Episode: "The First Duty"

"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based, and if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform."

One of Stewart's most amazing talents is his ability to moralize and deliver lessons about values without sounding preachy or off-putting. That's one of the reasons why Picard has endured over the years, because he was a beacon of accessible hope for many viewers. 

Delivered to Wesley Crusher, this speech from "The First Duty" reminds us how important our values are and that the most important thing any of us can do is adhere to the truth. Given the premise of the new show, "Star Trek: Picard," this speech is extra-fitting, because it reminds us what Starfleet has always stood for and how it may or may not be failing the galaxy decades later.

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The 10 Best Jean-Luc Picard Episodes on 'Star Trek,' Ranked

"We have powerful tools: Openness, optimism and the spirit of curiosity."

Star Trek fans know their captains, and everyone has a favorite who is ready to go boldly where no one has gone before. Jean-Luc Picard, played by Sir Patrick Stewart , is considered to be one of the best and most beloved captains in Star Trek . Stewart first appeared in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Next Generation , “Encounter at Farpoint” and, more recently, has reprised his role in Star Trek: Picard .

Picard’s journey as Captain of the Enterprise, and his eventual promotion to Starfleet Admiral, is full of twists and turns as he navigates everything from his assimilation by the Borg to long-lost love. The best episodes make Jean-Luc come to terms with (and sometimes ignore) his emotions, which provides Star Trek fans with insight into how complex he is as a character. In most of Picard’s best episodes, his identity as a Starfleet captain becomes secondary, and they explore who he is as a person.

10 "The Impossible Box"

'star trek: picard' s.1, ep.6.

In "The Impossible Box," directed by Maja Vrvilo, Picard and the Enterprise crew head to a “retired” Borg Cube run by Cardassians. Jean-Luc is hesitant to board the cube due to his traumatic encounters with the Borg. He tries to push away those feelings as he is set on meeting with Hugh, a friend who happens to be a former borg. Picard boards the Borg cube alone and instantly is overwhelmed by memories of his assimilation. His emotional state becomes somewhat calmer after he learns about Hugh’s plans for the Borg Reclamation Project . Hugh proposes to Picard that he should become an advocate for Borg rights.

This episode provides Star Trek fans with a look at Picard, who still hasn’t yet processed what he did and experienced under Borg control. Even after all of those years, the only Borg that Jean-Luc trusts is Hugh. Picard’s attitude towards the Borg shifts when he realizes that not all of them are seeking to assimilate everyone.

Star Trek: Picard

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9 "We’ll Always Have Paris"

'star trek: the next generation' s.1, ep.24.

Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew’s shore leave is interrupted by the occurrence of a time loop. They receive a distress call from a scientist, Dr. Paul Manheim ( Rod Loomis ), who is well-known for his work related to time theory. Counselor Deanna Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) senses that Picard is feeling emotional, but he tells Troi that he is fine. Henry goes to the hologram for some unsuccessful therapy. It turns out that the wife of Paul, Jenice ( Michelle Phillips ), is an old flame of Picard’s. Picard had stood up Jenice while they were in Paris. He puts his feelings aside to help Dr. Manheim, but he finds it to be challenging.

There have been quite a few cases where Star Trek fans witnessed Captain Picard falling in love. However, this particular romance shows a different side of Picard. He is haunted by this lost love and wishes deep down that things would have turned out differently with Jenice. There is definitely romantic tension between Jenice and Picard, but this episode wouldn’t be anything without Dr. Crusher pouring out her feelings about Jean-Luc to Troi. While Picard isn’t present in this crucial scene, fans get to see how the two most prominent women in his life see him.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

8 "q who", 'star trek: the next generation' s.2, ep.16.

Q ( John de Lancie ) sends the Enterprise crew straight into unknown territory. Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ), a close confidant of Picard, warns Jean-Luc to return to Federation territory. However, Picard only listens to the pull of exploration. The Enterprise faces off with the Borg. The result is many crew deaths and the ship being close to destruction. Despite all of this, Picard refuses Q’s help until he is out of options. Q transports the Enterprise back home. Jean-Luc is left to deal with his losses and prepare for future Borg encounters.

Picard is usually fine with letting his crew help him, but not so much when it comes to Q. As a Starfleet captain, Jean-Luc can be overconfident. However, in this episode, Star Trek fans watch as Captain Picard lets his ego get in his way, and he does not want to ask Q for help to get out of the situation with the Borg. Picard does not even listen to Guinan because he usually thinks very highly of her advice. Picard's ego is very bruised from his confrontation with the Borg, but he does learn that being a risk-taker sometimes doesn't provide him with the best results. This is an interesting character arc that Jean-Luc goes through, and it sets the foundation for his tumultuous relationship with the Borg.

7 "Devil’s Due"

'star trek: the next generation' s.4, ep.13.

The Enterprise gets a distress call from Dr. Howard Clarke, played by Paul Lambert , about a planet called Ventax II. The scientist tells Picard and his crew that the people on this planet are thinking that their world is going to end soon. Jean-Luc along with Data ( Brent Spiner ) and a few other officers, meet with Jared ( Marcelo Tubert ), who is a Ventaxian leader, to discuss their beliefs around Andra. Suddenly, Adra ( Marta DuBois ) herself appears and offers up a contract. Picard starts to suspect that Andra is a con artist. Picard, Data, Jared, and Adra hold an arbitration hearing, and Picard defends the Ventaxian people. It turns out that Picard's instincts are right, and Adra is really a con artist. The contract becomes voided, and Ventax II is saved.

It's not often that fans get to see Captain Picard go to court for a planet. He becomes a hero to the Ventaxian people for saving them from the clutches of "Adra." Jean-Luc is very humble about his role in stopping Adra. After all, he didn't do it alone, and he teamed up, for the most part, with Data to discredit Adra. He forgoes his ego and gives the people of Ventax II credit for saving themselves. It's refreshing to see Jean-Luc go to bat for those who are vulnerable.

6 "The Emissary"

'star trek: the next generation' s.2, ep.20.

The Enterprise receives a classified mission to help out the Klingons. An emissary named K'Ehleyr ( Suzie Plakson ), a former lover of Worf ( Michael Dorn ), arrives and informs the crew that a Klingon ship is in a "sleep state," which means the Klingons on that ship don't know that the war with the Federation is over. K'Ehleyr wants to destroy the ship, but Picard doesn't want to. She wants them to die in battle. Picard encourages Worf to work with K'Ehleyr; however, this only leads to tension between the two. Ultimately, Worf comes up with a plan where he and K'Ehleyr disguise themselves as Klingon commanders and inform them that the war is over.

While this episode might be considered to be more Worf-centric, this is also a Jean-Luc episode. Picard pushes against what K'Ehleyr says because he is firm in his beliefs and his duty as a Starfleet captain. He doesn't want to kill innocent Klingons, even if they might fight back. This is one of the big reasons why Captain Picard is one of the most complex characters in the Star Trek universe. Yes, Jean-Luc loves taking risks, but he knows when something is too risky.

5 "Tapestry"

'star trek: the next generation' s.6, ep.15.

Picard gets shot by a terrorist and becomes unconscious. When Jean-Luc "wakes" up, he is greeted by Q, who says that he is dead because his artificial heart couldn't take the weapon. Picard says that he regrets his past actions of starting a bar fight as a young officer. During the fight, Jean-Luc was stabbed in his heart and had to get it replaced with an artificial one. Q transports Picard back in time and Jean-Luc prevents the bar fight from happening. He is taken back to the present, where he is no longer a Starfleet captain. Picard realizes that the risk he took during the fight made him the person that he was. With help from Q, Jean-Luc relives the bar fight as it originally was, and then he wakes back up on the Enterprise as a captain.

Star Trek fans know Jean-Luc as a risk-tasker, and it is fascinating to see how Picard's life would have been different from the result of one single event. This is yet another instance of Q providing Picard with a valuable life lesson, whether Jean-Luc knows it or not. If this "dream" had not happened, then Picard would have been afraid to take risks, and that would have prevented him from growing to become the captain that fans know and love.

4 "The Star Gazer"

'star trek: picard' s.2 ep.1.

Picard is getting used to his new body . He relaxes at his family home in France with Laris (Orla Brady). Both Laris and Picard want a romance, but the two stay distant from each other. He thinks about his relationship with his parents, and how his mother and father fought a lot. A mystery around a signal reunites Picard with new and old friends. They eventually make contact, and the Borg unexpectedly appear, and they seem to be asking to make peace. Jean-Luc self-destructs the ship. When he wakes up, he is face to face with Q.

There's so much going on in this very Picard-centric episode, and poor Jean-Luc gets a lot of challenges thrown his way all at once. Not only is Picard processing his "rebirth," he is also trying to live his best life after being a captain for such a long time. He is having a bit of an identity crisis and revisiting traumatic childhood memories on top of all of this. Picard's mother encouraged him to look at the stars, and Jean-Luc certainly couldn't look away from them. He becomes a Starfleet Admiral and continues to, unfortunately, ignore his life beyond his work. In this episode, Star Trek fans might at first be under the impression that Jean-Luc is set for "retirement," but this captain doesn't want to stop exploring, which is one of his most admirable personality traits. Another bonus in this episode is that fans witness the reunion of Q and Picard – a reliable formula for a great episode.

3 "Family"

'star trek: the next generation' s.4, ep.2.

Gene Roddenberry wasn't a big fan of this episode , but fans love this one because they actually get to know Picard's family. Picard visits his brother Robert ( Jeremy Kemp ), sister-in-law, and nephew René ( David Birkin ) in France. Jean-Luc is trying to recover from being assimilated by the Borg. He is reconsidering his career as a Starfleet captain. Jean-Luc and Robert get into a big argument with each other. They fight in the mud! Picard confesses that he feels that he has lost his humanity after being assimilated by the Borg. However, the fight results in them becoming closer together, and the two brothers bond over laughter and wine.

Patrick Stewart's acting is always remarkable, and in this episode, he digs deep into who Picard is with and without his family. That emotional scene where Jean-Luc breaks down is so intense and provides a glimpse into how he is processing what he is going through.

2 "Chain of Command, Part II"

'star trek: the next generation' s.6, ep.11.

In a previous episode, Picard is captured as a prisoner after a covert mission goes array. Picard is tortured by Gul Madred ( David Warner ), a Cardassian. Madred tries different methods to try to get Jean-Luc to talk, but Picard refuses to give him any information. The Cardassians are not able to successfully get Minos Korva, and are forced to retreat. Madred continues to torture Picard for information and lies to him about the Enterprise being destroyed. He wants Jean-Luc to admit that there are five lights instead of four. However, Madred's plan is ruined by one of his henchmen, and Picard is rescued.

This episode, like part one, deals with a lot of heavy topics like torture, which makes it hard to watch. Partick Stewart gives a heart-wrenching performance as a tortured Jean-Luc. Picard becomes almost broken to the point of no return, and that is scary. It's frightening to see a hero like Jean-Luc having to endure such pain. It is definitely one of those episodes that leaves fans on the edge of their seats hoping that Picard will be saved.

1 "The Inner Light"

'star trek: the next generation' s.5, ep.25.

Picard is knocked unconscious by a beam of light, and is transported into the body of another man named Kamin, who lives on a planet called Kattan. Picard falls in love, gets married, has children, and even learns to play the flute. He lives Kamin's life to its fullest. However, there are some signs that the planet Kamin calls home isn't doing well. There are signs of drought and a supernova set to destroy the planet. The citizens of Kattan store their memories in a rocket. After Picard wakes up, he realizes that he was experiencing Kamin's memories.

This is one of the best Jean-Luc Picard episodes, and it has been declared as Star Trek' s Magnus Opus . Both critics and fans love this one because it shows Picard outside his role as captain. This is the life that Picard would have had if he hadn't become a risk-tasking Starfleet captain.

NEXT: These Star Trek Episodes Were Banned in the U.K. for Almost 20 Years

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard

• View history
• 1.1 Contents
• 2 Background information
• 3 External link

Summary [ ]

Contents [ ].

• Forward by Beverly Crusher Picard, M.D., Starfleet Captain
• Prologue, prelude to Battle of Wolf 359 in 2366
• Childhood to Starfleet Academy acceptance in 2323
• Starfleet Academy years to graduation in 2327
• Encounter with the Nausicaans in 2327
• Service aboard USS Reliant , 2327 – 2329
• Service aboard USS Stargazer
• Promoted to Captain, USS Stargazer
• The wedding of Jack R. Crusher and Beverly Howard
• Encounter with the Chalnoth
• Abandoning of the Stargazer , 2350
• Court martial over loss of the Stargazer
• Meeting of Deanna Troi
• Meeting of Lieutenant Data
• Farpoint mission of the USS Enterprise in 2363 , through the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367
• Rescue from the Borg in 2367, through return from Romulus in 2379
• Marriage to Beverly Crusher, October 8, 2383 , through 2393

Background information [ ]

• Goodman has noted that part of the narrative was inspired by a 2012 interview with TrekMovie.com, in which he was reminded that Jean-Luc Picard was the first Picard to leave the solar system (as noted in Star Trek Nemesis .) [1]

External link [ ]

• The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

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Characters / Star Trek: The Next Generation - Jean-Luc Picard

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Character Index Main Characters ( Jean-Luc Picard ) | Recurring Crew | Other Recurring Characters

As this page also includes tropes from Star Trek: Picard , you may be interested in that series' character page as well.

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Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Played By: Patrick Stewart

Dubbed by: alain choquet (tng), jean-claude de goros (generations), claude giraud (first contact, insurrection and nemesis), dubbed by (brazilian portuguese): leonardo josé (tng, season one), márcio simões (tng-season 2 on, films), carlos campanile ( picard ), appearances: star trek: the next generation | star trek: deep space nine | star trek: generations | star trek: first contact | star trek: insurrection | star trek: nemesis.

" Tea. Earl grey. Hot. "

The bald captain , and arguably the most iconic example of that trope (next to Kirk, of course).

Polymath, diplomat, and all-around gentleman , Picard was cast very much in the Horatio Hornblower mold. Introduced as a cerebral hardass (a trait mirrored, aptly, by his artificial heart), he's actually quite a softie underneath the grim exterior. So much so, that modern Trekkies tend to regard Picard as the "soft" captain — at least until somebody fires at his ship or disregards an order.

Among his in-series achievements: Jean-Luc invented a starship maneuver, assisted in First Contact with the Q (among many other species), got the ball rolling on amendments to Federation law regarding android life (Sisko and Janeway followed his example in their respective Courtroom Episodes ), thwarted a Borg invasion or two, assisted in Zefram Cochran's famous warp experiment (via Time Travel ), chilled with Professor Moriarty and Mark Twain, brought Federation politics to the fore in his dealings with the Cardassians (setting the stage for DS9), and saved the universe from an eruption of Anti-Time or something . Anyway, only the Q Continuum understands what happened in that episode. But according to Q, it was pretty awesome.

In his personal life, Picard was born and raised in La Barre, France (though it's easy to forget with his prominant English accent). He was an amateur xenoarchaeologist and musician and was fond of classical literature, particularly Shakespeare . He maintained close personal relationships with the other senior officers of the Enterprise -D, particularly Data, whose quest for humanity Picard took a special interest in.

Of all the alien phenomena experienced by Picard, the principal ones that affect him are Q and the Borg: the former making a bet that his "enlightened" principles won't hold up in the darkness of space, and the latter threatening to change him into a violent, vengeful man — the very thing he despises.

• Depicted in a much more subtle manner than Kirk, and usually takes a backseat to his other talents.
• Picard has taken the helm himself in situations where extremely precise maneuvering is needed to get the ship out of danger, such as "Booby Trap" and "In Theory". He talked an inexperienced pilot through a difficult maneuver in order to avoid a crash in "Coming of Age", and most notably developed the Picard Maneuver (re-created in "The Battle") which exploits the fact that a ship traveling at FTL velocities can appear to be in two places at once due to delays in light reaching the viewer.
• According to Picard's backstory he graduated the academy as a Helmsman which was his position as a junior officer for his early career until at the rank of Lt. Commander he started taking command positions. So it's to be expected.
• Adventurer Archaeologist : Archaeology has long been a hobby of Jean-Luc's since his Academy days. He winds up going on adventures of this type in "Captain's Holiday," "The Chase," and "Gambit." In fact Picard mentions that he considered becoming an Archaeologist full time and abandoning his plans to join Starfleet, but decided to persue his original path and only take it on as a hobby.
• Ambadassador : Took Klingons to school on their own homeworld, brokered first contact with over 27 species, and helped define the legal rights of androids. The greatest diplomat of the last century, Sarek, finds Picard’s career to be 'satisfactory,' which is high praise from a Vulcan.
• The choice to have a Phillip Marlowe fan (as implied by the fictitious "Dixon Hill" program) means he's going to seize the opportunity, however fleeting, to be a real-life sleuth — most notably in the episode "Clues".
• Interestingly, Data dons a deerstalker cap and tweed coat while pursing Moriarty through the holodeck. The costume was made popular by Basil Rathbone in the anachronistic film versions (set during WWII, with Sherlock foiling Nazi spies), but is not at all how Holmes dressed in the original Strand stories. Once Moriarty gains self-awareness, he loses all interest in Data and instead demands to see Picard, who shows up wearing a silk top hat and tails — the preferred clothing of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
• In "The Survivors", Picard summons the Uxbridge couple to the ship and deconstructs their fantasy life, revealing what really happened during the attack. (Kevin saw his wife get killed and went momentarily insane, which annihilated the entire species of the invaders). He does this with all the skill of Hercule Poirot himself.
• Authority Sounds Deep : He's a highly influential Starfleet captain and has a fairly deep voice courtesy of Patrick Stewart.
• Trades them with Commander Tomalak in The Defector : Tomalak: You will still not survive our assault. Picard: And you will not survive ours. Shall we die together, Tomalak?
• Badass Bookworm : Picard is probably the most learned of all Trek captains. He believes there is no greater challenge than the study of philosophy.
• Often got labeled as a bureaucrat by more militant foes. He'd still steamroll over them if necessary, naturally. Duras: This is not your world, human. You do not command here. Picard: I'm not here to command. Duras: Then you must be ready to fight, something Starfleet does not teach you. Picard: You may test that assumption at your convenience .
• Q called Picard a dullard in their first encounter, and in some corners of Starfleet ("Measure of a Man", "The Wounded") he's considered an officious, pompous ass! Little do they suspect he will save the universe many times over.
• He doesn't appreciate having the rug pulled from underneath him in "Measure of a Man": his first officer is appointed to the prosecution and the hearing is being overseen by his ex. Whilst he will adhere to Starfleet’s directives, he speaks with great passion to argue for Data's self-awareness, shaming the Federation into breaking new ground. "Starfleet was formed to seek out new life. Well, THERE. IT. SITS! [beat] Waiting."
• Bad Liar : If there is one area in which Picard has a problem, it is that he is an atrocious liar. Such as that time he tried to brush off Lwaxana Troi by saying he was going to show a visiting ambassador how the ship's doors worked. Lwaxana, we remind you, is a telepath and an empath. And then there was the time in "Phantasms", where the admiral on the other end of the phone can clearly tell Picard's not that bothered about the ship's engine trouble delaying getting to the mind-numbingly dull luncheon.
• Bald of Authority : Jean Luc Picard is one of the most iconic examples of the trope as the bald, diplomatic , compassionate , captain of the Enterprise -D. It is indicated that he went Prematurely Bald somewhere in his late-twenties to early-thirties as he is depicted with hair in his younger years as an Ensign, when he was much more brash and arrogant. His present baldness helps to underscore how he has grown considerably Older and Wiser over the years.
• Bar Brawl : A pivotal moment in his youth was when he and his friends got into a fight with three Nausicaans. The incident left him with an artificial heart.
• The Borg are a huge one. He absolutely hates them with a passion and for very understandable reasons due to how they kidnapped and mind raped him to nearly destroy the Federation. Even years after, he still struggles with the trauma and will fly into murderous rage when he encounters them.
• Q. Picard makes no secret of how much he dislikes him due to his immaturity and ow he uses his powers to screw with everyone around him for fun. This gets downplayed as the show goes on and the two develop a grudging affection for one another.
• As a leader who sees the crew as his greatest responsibility , he takes anything that harms them very personally. Even if you're an omnipotent being, he will still tear you a new one if you hurt anyone under his command.
• Beware the Nice Ones : He is a consummate gentleman and diplomat, but he has also cursed out Klingons (in Klingon), killed Klingons bare-handed, survived Borg assimilation, survived torture, survived taking a large knife to the heart, told Romulans where to stick it (and backed it up), has single-handedly thwarted having his ship hijacked (several times), has told Starfleet officers several ranks above him to shove it (with not so much as a reprimand to show for it), has caused omnipotent aliens to bow to his gangsta, and has outfoxed at least one member of every known species in the Alpha Quadrant at least once.
• Benevolent Boss : He welcomes suggestions and different ideas from his staff ( apart from Worf, of course ) without ever losing his authority.
• Bold Explorer : A more subdued version than the original model of Kirk, but still with boldness to spare.
• The Borg nigh-effortlessly kidnap him from the bridge, Mind Rape him and turn him into one of their own, using the knowledge gained to plough through the Federation's defenses, with Picard utterly unable to fight it off. In the immediate aftermath, Picard actually breaks down in tears over what's done to him. Even years later, he still has nightmares over being assimilated, and when the Borg do return, all those wounds get opened up all over again.
• His experience in "Chain of Command", held hostage by the Cardassians and brutally tortured for days, first for information he doesn't have, then simply because the Gul in charge wants to break him. Picard supposedly manages to walk out defiantly, but later admits to Troi that by the end, he was so desperate for the torture to end he was starting to see five lights instead of four.
• British Stuffiness : In spite of being nominally French, Picard is every inch a stuffy Englishman. He is extremely reserved, avoids small talk, has difficulty relating to children, and doesn't show his feelings to his crew. It's generally considered a special occasion when he smiles or cracks a joke. It's therefore always a surprise when he references his life as a teen rebel .
• Broken Pedestal : Picard met Sarek as an awestruck youth and is still honored just to share oxygen with the guy who helped create the Federation. He was hoping to get the chance to meet him again, but it is all scuppered by Sarek's degenerative illness. Picard’s decision to perform a meld with Sarek in order to allow an important treaty to be concluded is probably the most selfless (and dangerous) thing he ever did on the show.
• It's no wonder the Picard of the future has a degenerative neurological disease. They really put him through hell on this show.
• Picard struggling with Lwaxana's luggage to the amusement of the crew. The things he does for Starfleet...
• Call to Agriculture : In one possible timeline, retired Picard returns to La Barre to tend the family winery. He had a falling out with his father and brother in part because he initially rejected the Call to Agriculture and joined Starfleet.
• Cannot Spit It Out : There is some history between Picard and Crusher which adds a little depth to both characters, but the series never felt the need to explore the relationship in any great depth (unless under the influence of a sex bug). You’ve got to love Picard’s tact; he heads off to Sickbay to welcome her on board in the pilot and then follows that up with "I'll request a transfer for you!"
• The Captain : The quintessential Starfleet captain. He's diplomatic, forceful when needed, well-educated, and thoughtful. Furthermore, unlike most naval captains shown in drama, he is often found in his personal office (Captain's Ready Room) working on the mundane administrative duties of his rank.
• "Make it so."
• "Tea, Earl Grey, hot."
• Character Tics : "The Picard Maneuver" — his habit of tugging his tunic down whenever he stands up. He's not alone in doing this, but he is the most blatant about it (and, for various reasons, the one most commonly seen doing it).
• Characterization Click Moment : Picard goes the whole first season without any mention of tea, of any variety, at any temperature. It's not until season 2's "Contagion" that it shows up.
• Characterization Marches On : He was a bit of an asshole in the first season. He wasn't just aloof or professional; he was a short-tempered hardass who hated kids and had little patience for practically anything. Later, he developed into the diplomatic father to his crew that he's remembered as. Picard also briefly carried on Chekov's habit of attributing everything to his home country. This running gag ended quickly, and seems very strange in light of the extensive knowledge of history and culture that he displays later on.
• Chick Magnet : Dr. Crusher, Mrs. Troi, Arda, the Borg Queen... all express an interest in him, to varying degrees of befuddlement or total disinterest (or in Lwaxana's case, as close as the man will come to total screaming terror). Meanwhile, "Tapestry" shows a younger Picard was something of a hound, but in middle age his skills in the charm arena have gotten pretty rusty.
• A notable subversion . Picard mentions in the pilot that he does not deal well with children. We later find that this is not dislike, but a discomfort that he sees as a personal flaw—he is far too used to dealing with supremely professional adults, and children also remind him of his own estranged family and his sacrifices for his career. Wesley thinks its too bad that the captain doesn’t like kids because he would have made a good father.
• In "The Bonding", Picard lets out a massive sigh as he realizes that he is going to have to tell Jeremy that his mother was killed on an away mission. Deep-space vessel or not, he has always questioned the policy of having children on a starship and it is a terrible burden to have to break bad news himself. Picard takes Jeremy’s hand and says that nobody is alone on the starship Enterprise .
• In Generations he enters a Lotus-Eater Machine and is actually given children of his own who adore him - he is so overwhelmed with joy he actually starts to cry . The machine in question - a space anomaly called the Nexus - gave him children because that was his deepest and most hidden desire.
• That being said, he's deeply fond of his nephew Rene, who reminds him of himself at that age. He's utterly devastated when both his brother Robert and Rene are revealed to have died in a fire in Generations .
• Amusingly, despite his unease with children, it seems that most children take a liking to him right away. We once even see a class onboard the Enterprise having a "Captain Picard Day", much to his embarrassment (although he seems somewhat amused when telling an admiral, "Hehehe, I'm a role model." ).
• Picard lights up at the subject of unsolved mysteries; his childhood hero was the pulp novel detective Dixon Hill. The holodeck allows Picard to fantasize himself as the two-fisted gumshoe.
• He also has a geeky love for old starships, boats, and planes, having built and played with model versions as a young boy (he wound up embarrassed and frustrated when he showed that side of himself a bit too much after finding an ancient, legendary starship from a dead civilization). Geordi’s gift to the captain on the Victory , a giant model sailing ship, is gorgeous.
• He was this close , more than once, to taking up archaeology as his full-time profession.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet : Picard is clearly embarrassed when alien women find him a smoldering hunk instead of a walking rulebook.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character : He's far more restrained than Kirk, both regarding women and away missions (his younger XO Riker is Kirk's successor in this regard).
• Cool Old Guy : He's in his 60s during The Next Generation . note  He was born in 2305, per his biography in "Conundrum." People just respect him naturally.
• Cool Uncle : His nephew Renee thinks the world of him.
• Cosmic Play Thing : Whenever Q wants to test humanity, he decides Picard should be the one to take it.
• It would have been sad if the one Shakespearean in the cast hadn’t been able to drop in on his android homeslice and partake in some renaissance theater. Patrick Stewart steps into the Elizabethan worlds with ease.
• Of course, the Dixon Hill program allows some of the ladies in his life to join in. Dr. Crusher looks very fetching in her stockings and veil (even as she stumbles uncertainly in high heels), and Whoopi certainly turns heads in her Prohibition dress. Dixon Hill made a brief comeback in First Contact when Lily wore a cleavage-baring dress and High-Class Gloves to a meeting with Nicky the Nose.
• Court-martialed : As stated in "The Measure of a Man" Jean-Luc Picard faced a general court-martial for the loss of his previous command, the USS Stargazer , but was cleared. note  Most navies have a standard court-martial which convenes whenever a ship is lost; this does not presume that the captain is suspected of wrongdoing, but merely that the circumstances surrounding the loss of the ship be made part of the official record. In fact, historically, some officers have been left in disgrace because they were denied the opportunity to try and clear their names in a court-martial.
• He speaks French and Klingon, and is well-versed in archaeology, literature, fencing, and horseback riding.
• Picard really runs rings around his crew in "Darmok", figuring out the Tamarian language in an impossibly tight situation. His crew have the luxury of the ship's database and can pool their resources and get absolutely nowhere.
• Often and usually at Q's expense. Very deadpan, no smirking. For a moment he decides to go along with Q’s proposal to join the crew and discusses what tasks would be too menial for such an entity.
• "Welcome to the Bridge, Mister La Forge." With an entrance like that he deserved some acknowledgement.
• ‘Number One, the Bridge, such as it is, is yours.’
• When captured by Cardassians and subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture that entailed making him think there are five lights being shined in his face instead of only four, he continues to insist that THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS! Often forgotten is that this is a subversion. Picard only shouts this after another Cardassian soldier walks in and orders the Gul to stop the torture. Later, Picard admits to Troi that not only would he have surrendered had the torture not been stopped just then, he could actually see five lights there .
• THE LINE MUST BE DRAWN HERE. THIS FAR, NO FURTHER! crew and friends beg him to sacrifice his ship to the Borg to save the future . He gets over it, after an extremely rare, and brief, but intense emotional meltdown.
• Very straightforward, though, in the alternate timeline of Yesterday's Enterprise : Klingon Officer: Federation ship, surrender and prepare to be boarded. Picard: That'll be the day. [fires phasers]
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu? : Q and the Borg are frequently on the receiving end of this.
• Distressed Dude : In Chain of Command at the hands of the Cardassians and in Best of Both Worlds, where he's captured by the Borg.
• Drink-Based Characterization : "Tea, Earl Gray, hot." A sophisticated drink for a sophisticated man.
• Dude, Where's My Respect? : Events always seem to conspire to cast doubt on Picard's service record, to his ongoing resentment. Despite saving his entire crew and inventing a new starship maneuver, he was dragged before a court martial and scapegoated for the destruction of the Stargazer . While automatic court martial for loss of ship has been standard naval practice for centuries (and he came away with a medal), the prosecutor apparently went above and beyond in attacking him. His image also took a severe battering following Wolf 359 (although it improves as time went on, as the means through which the Borg assimilate individuals into their collective became common knowledge among Starfleet officers) with at least one officer holding him personally responsible for the slaughter and Admiral Satie using it against him in a Kangaroo Court .
• Dysfunctional Family : As shown in "Family," his relationship with his brother Robert is very tense, while "Tapestry" implies that his father likewise never forgave him for running away to join Starfleet. His relationship with his nephew and his sister-in-law is much warmer.

• Frequently towards Worf as well, though in a less overt manner.
• A Father to His Men : He may not take a personal interest in his crew like Sisko or Janeway (at least not until "All Good Things..."), but he takes the deaths of his crewmen just as hard. He has, on several occasions ( The Drumhead , The Offspring , et al.), put his career on the line to protect a member of his crew from obstructive bureaucrats at Starfleet Command.
• Foil : Q calls Picard an impossibly stubborn human but that is the only way the Captain knows of infuriating the impish alien. Q often drives Picard nuts as well, though in that case it is all part of some grand design by the Continuum. (We think.)
• Foreign Culture Fetish : This Frenchman certainly seems very fond of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Earl Grey tea, English mythology (e.g. Robin Hood), Royal Navy hymns... ( Star Trek: Picard justifies this and his Misplaced Accent by saying that his ancestors fled to England during WWII and took a couple centuries to return to the chateau.)
• Former Teen Rebel : Picard confesses he hasn’t always been so disciplined and that his heart problems are a result of a drunken brawl involving insulting a pirate's mother and a knife in the back. It took a heart transplant to convince Picard to straighten up and fly right. It's also revealed that he got into serious hot water while in the Academy, and his career was only saved by the timely intervention of his mentor.
• Future Me Scares Me : They say if you travel far enough you are bound to meet yourself at some point and having experienced that in "Time Squared," he hopes it never happens again. Questions of the second captain’s presence becomes complicated when we discover that he is from six hours in the future. What could possibly have happened to force Picard to abandon his own ship? The solution is the captain fled the ship to save the crew from the effect of an anomaly, but this only ended up sparing his life whilst destroying the Enterprise . "I am more than apprehensive to play back a log that won't be recorded for several hours. "
• Generation Xerox : An unpleasant chapter in Picard's family history comes to light in "Journey's End". His ancestor, Javier Maribona-Picard, helped "colonize" New Mexico by slaughtering hundreds of Native Americans. Seven centuries later, Jean-Luc Picard would find himself forcibly relocating that same tribe (in space, no less).
• Gentleman Adventurer : Is a Starfleet officer because he loves exploring space and going on fantastic adventures on the Enterprise, but always maintains an air of dignity and class.
• Gentleman and a Scholar : He obviously wasn’t paying close attention in the Scouts when he was a nipper as he seems to have little luck making a fire in "Darmok" whilst his alien companion/foe enjoys warmth a few yards away. Picard is more at home behind a negotiating table than roughing it in the woods.
• Gondor Calls for Aid : He always prefers to resolve conflicts by diplomacy and finesse if possible, rather than resorting to combat. He's not above judiciously applied brinksmanship when necessary, either. When he suspected that he was being lured into a Romulan ambush as a prelude to war, he arranged for the Enterprise to be escorted by cloaked Klingon warships. Once the Romulan ambushers revealed themselves, so did the Klingons. (Sisko tried this, with some success, with the Klingons and Romulans, but the alliances didn't always last. Janeway tried it once in the Delta Quadrant and got badly burned, rarely resorting to diplomacy after that.)
• Good Is Not Nice : A minor version. Picard's reserved nature means that he's not particularly outgoing or friendly. However, he is extremely principled, caring and generous.
• Got Volunteered : He notes in "The Emissary" that whenever Starfleet admirals get enigmatic, he knows he is about to get slapped in the face with a wet trout. It's his lot in life as the flagship captain.
• In the same episode, Worf, a fellow small-talk hater, picks up on Picard's small-talk avoidance strategies and quickly requests to excuse himself from the event they are supposed to attend. Picard, clearly impressed, grants him this request. Geordi tries the same thing and Picard denies him on the grounds that he can't excuse his entire senior staff, telling him, "Mr. Worf beat you to it."
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice : He was run through by a long Nausicaan dagger as a cocky ensign, necessitating an artificial heart.
• I Was Quite the Looker : Not that Picard isn't handsome now, but he was quite dashing as a young Starfleet ensign thirty years prior, as seen in "Tapestry".
• Admitting surrender, especially to the Borg, as "First Contact" shows. It takes a lot for Picard to declare a situation beyond recovery.
• The Borg in general tend to make Picard unnerved; understandable given his assimilation, but it's otherwise completely out of character for Picard to have such hatred for an entire species.
• Ideal Hero : Picard was written as perfect as someone could get while still being relatively human. He favors diplomacy over force whenever possible, respects all forms of life, his greatest desire is to learn and explore, and he knows just when to defy the Insane Admiral or Prime Directive.
• Q frequently refers to Picard as " Mon capitaine " (my captain).
• In "Tapestry", his Starfleet Academy friends called him "Johnny".
• Kneel Before Zod : Q respects the captain but isn't above putting him in a life-or-death situation to remind him who's the boss.
• Large Ham : Picard and Patrick Stewart have equal levels of ham content, considering that both are Shakespearian actors, but only one is in command of a powerful starship.
• Last of His Kind : The death of his brother Robert and his nephew Rene, means that he's now the last Picard. Until the expanded universe, where Picard married Crusher after Nemesis and had a child with her.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities : Kirk , Sisko , Janeway and Archer were all promoted over the course of their respective series or films . Picard , on the other hand, chose to stay a captain for the entirety of his career. It is mentioned in All Good Things that Picard eventually became an ambassador. In Generations , Kirk flat-out tells Picard that he regrets being promoted to admiral and advises him to never let it happen to him. He becomes an Almighty Janitor as a consequence — he is more than qualified to be a top-ranked admiral and everyone knows it, to the point the actual admirals usually speak to him less as a subordinate and more as an equal, not blinking at him addressing them by their first names, and he even puts one or two in their place. In First Contact , when the Admiral leading the assault on the Borg invasion of Earth is killed, Captain Picard immediately takes command of the entire fleet (or what's left of it) and nobody questions it. Especially when he leads them to victory in a few minutes.
• Major Injury Underreaction : Young Picard's reaction to getting knifed through the heart was to begin laughing! Even Q was somewhat disturbed by this.
• Mama's Boy : If everybody is seeing what they most desire in "Where No One Has Gone Before", then it is telling that all Picard desires is to sit and have tea with his dead mother again.
• There's a few hints that he's a decent wrestler as well. In "The First Duty", the Starfleet Academy groundskeeper recalls the time where Picard hit "caught a Ligonian with a reverse body lift and pinned him down in the first fourteen seconds of the match."
• In Season 2 of Picard , it's revealed that his family fled France during World War II and settled in England. They did not return to Chateau Picard for over a century.
• Mouth of Sauron : After his abduction and assimilation by the Borg, he was supposed to be the Collective's mouthpiece to the Federation, demanding its surrender and leading the Cube to Earth. To further this, he was given the name Locutus, which is roughly Latin for "speaker".
• Must Make Amends : First Contact is usually treated as a joke in Trekdom, with the aliens completely misreading the crew's intentions ("A Piece of the Action", "Code of Honor") or revering the ship as a God ("Blink of an Eye", Into Darkness ). In "Who Watches the Watchers", Picard is aghast to learn the bronze age Mintakans have rekindled their old superstitions after an away team bungles the job and exposes their spying nest to Liko. Finally we get to see why breaking the Prime Directive is a dangerous business. Picard: And now you are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the Dark Ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? NO!
• My Greatest Failure : Prior to the series, either the loss of the Stargazer or the death of Jack Crusher. Both are superseded, though, by being used by the Borg to crush Starfleet at Wolf 359.
• My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours : Never try to quote protocol to Picard: you will lose.
• Noodle Incident : He did something while he was a cadet that would've gotten him expelled were it not for the intervention of Groundskeeper Boothby. We don't know what it was as Boothby brushes off Picard's thanks .
• Not Afraid to Die : He's fully prepared to sacrifice his life in performance of his duty. He defeats Nagilum by threatening to destroy the Enterprise and everyone onboard rather than let Nagilum kill half the crew for his amusement, as well as convincing Tomalak that he's really not bluffing when he says he's prepared to fight to the death , even though it would mean the destruction of both their vessels. He's also perfectly willing to die rather than assist the Borg when they kidnap him. Unfortunately they have something much nastier planned...
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent : Picard is supposed to be French, but Patrick Stewart uses his natural accent instead, creating a Misplaced Accent . Proposed explanations for this are that Picard learned English from an English tutor, whose accent he would have thus adopted, or that he is actually speaking French and the accent is simply how it is rendered by the universal translator.
• Not Himself : Riker goes on high alert when Picard kicks up his feet in his Ready Room or starts leading a sea shanty in Ten Forward. Our Jean-Luc is never this relaxed.
• Does everything in his power to get Lwaxana Troi out of his hair, including going to Warp 9 just so she'll be off the ship faster.
• His Dixon Hill program contrasts with the cultured image he likes to present of himself — a place where he can brawl with hoods and be snogged by dames of dubious morals. Not unlike the things he liked in his younger years, if "Tapestry" is any guide.
• He has a nose for alcohol and, when times are appropriate, appreciates a good drink. Makes sense, given he spent his childhood on the family vineyard and his brother still runs it.
• Not So Stoic : It's pretty clear in Generations that something is tremendously off with the Captain after he gets a comminique from home and suddenly becomes far more bad-tempered and brusque, even snapping at Riker on the bridge. It's only when Troi has a chat with him that the truth comes out; His brother and nephew have just died, and telling Troi this causes Picard to start crying .
• Officer and a Gentleman : He's an aficionado of archaeology, Shakespeare, fine wine, good tea, and pulp detective fiction.
• Papa Wolf : Although he isn't comfortable around children, Picard will always step up to protect them from harm.
• Parental Substitute : To Wesley.
• Patrick Stewart Speech : His actor is the Trope Namer . Picard is prone to giving big optimistic speeches. Lampshaded by Q at one point, who comments that he thinks the only reason he returns to the Enterprise sometimes is to hear one of Picard's speeches.
• Precision F-Strike : On a couple of occasions, Picard has uttered the word "merde" on screen; this is the French word for "shit".
• Pride Before a Fall : It's Picard’s hubris that they are ready to encounter anything that comes their way that encourages Q into providing him with a lesson to prove to him otherwise. Picard doesn’t heed Guinan’s warnings and heads off to explore this region of space (actually Borg Space) anyway. 18 crewmembers died to teach him a lesson.
• Psycho Electro : A lost entity takes possession of Picard's mind in "Lonely Among Us", shooting electricity through the helm controls and incapacitating the whole crew.
• The Reliable One : Even among his enemies, Picard is known for his dependability and honor. No less a figure than the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire assigned this random human to be mediator over the procedure that would determine his successor, solely because he trusted Picard more than anyone else despite only having met him once.
• To prove he is a more thoughtful man than Kirk, he immediately surrenders to the Q whereas Jimmy T would have blasted them to hell and damn the consequences (In later episodes, Picard will be a lot quicker to hit the self-destruct and leap into an escape pod, possibly because surrendering the Enterprise-D would be an unacceptable security risk for the Federation).
• In "Who Watches the Watchers," Picard allows himself to be shot by an arrow to prove his mortality. The Mintakans will resume their pursuit of science and leave the old beliefs behind, regardless of whether or not he survives Liko's arrow.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss : With Captain Phillipa Louvois in "The Measure of a Man". In one of the novels, it's further elaborated that Louvois and Picard were romantically involved before she was chosen to prosecute him during his court martial, where she betrayed him by using the fact he'd wake screaming the names of the dead Stargazer crew, as proof that he was guilty.
• The Stoic : While he is pushed to his limits several times and he develops a seething hatred for the Borg, Picard's reserve and emotional control are impressive enough that a Vulcan suffering from an age-related breakdown of self-control mind-links with him for stability. Spock himself finds Picard to be "remarkably analytical and dispassionate, for a human."
• Sufficiently Advanced Aliens : Picard is revered as a God figure by the Mintakans in "Who Watches the Watchers". Scenes of Picard being seen in a haze of light like some kind of benevolent God are a viewpoint into how pre-warp civilizations view the Federation (and the captain asking Dr. Crusher why she didn’t let Liko die rather than poison their race with alien ideas is very Old Testament of him). Like Sisko in the early seasons of DS9, Picard is extremely uncomfortable with the idea of being considered a religious icon. He has to try and think of a way to get through to Nuria and explain that his life and hers isn’t that different, talking of ships and phasers as better huts and better bows, but it doesn't really translate.
• Super-Hearing : In his backstory, he once suffered from a form of hyperacusis. Even though it was treated, he still has highly acute hearing by human standards.
• Technical Pacifist : Picard initially rejected the war games sim in "Peak Performance" because he firmly believes that Starfleet is not a military organization. (The back-to-back invasions by the Borg and the Dominion will soon clear up that misunderstanding.) However, with the looming Borg threat, he feels that his crew needs to brush up on their tactical skills.
• There Is No Cure : His alternate self in a Bad Future in " All Good Things " has the delusion-causing degenerative neurological disease Irumodic Syndrome, which has no known cure even in that time. See the Picard folder for more information.
• Took a Level in Badass : Picard could always handle himself in a fight, but it was played up to absurd lengths in the movies, where most of his scenes played out like "Die Hard In Space"
• Took a Level in Kindness : Due to some Early-Installment Weirdness and Characterization Marches On , Picard is established in the pilot to be a fairly surly, cold and distant man. He snaps at people and doesn't even bother looking at Riker when his new executive officer arrives on the bridge. A few episodes later, he admits that he was a bit harsh on his new number one. Over the course of the series, while Picard remains fairly stiff and formal, he becomes much warmer and soft-hearted.
• Trademark Favorite Food : "Tea. Earl Gray. Hot." While less iconic, it's also established that Picard would have a croissant for breakfast every day if left to his own devices.
• Tranquil Fury : How he often shows his anger.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension : Picard has this with Beverly Crusher, with whom he shares a close friendship that hovers juuuust outside of being romantic for the entire course of the show's run. It's never resolved, Picard remains a bachelor throughout all sequel movies and series.

Admiral (retired) Jean-Luc Picard

Appearances: Star Trek: Picard

• Actor Allusion : In addition to the occasional Shoutout To Shakespeare , Picard mentions that he never really "got" science fiction (as Patrick Stewart is not a fan of the genre), he starts out the series as an old man waiting to die after losing virtually everyone close to him (Ala Logan ), and he suffered familial trauma as a child (similar to Stewart's father having suffered from PTSD).
• Artificial Human : In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", his human body succumbs to the effects of his latent brain defect, but his mind is scanned before his brain functions fully cease, and then it's transferred to an android golem that functions exactly like a regular human body. He lives on as a synth, but without the enhancements of a Soong-type android (so no Super-Strength , Super-Reflexes , Super-Hearing or the processing power of a computer, and no extensions to his natural lifespan), since Altan knows that he won't want to have to adjust to new superpowers at his age or be made immortal . The only advantage his synth body has over his human body is a lack of Irumodic Syndrome. Star Trek: Discovery reveals that he is a Super Prototype of this sort of thing.
• The Atoner : In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1", he's accused of wanting to rescue the synthetics to atone for his failure to save the Romulans, rather than because his help will actually achieve anything.
• Back from the Dead : In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", he dies of complications from what is believed to be Irumodic Syndrome, but Agnes, Altan, and Soji transfer his mind to a biological android, bringing him back to life.
• He came to resent and despise Starfleet for their refusal to help the Romulan people.
• On the flip side, several Starfleet officers lost their respect for him because of his criticisms of the organization.
• Because he resigned in protest, Starfleet decided to boot out Raffi. Picard's choice cost Raffi her passion in life and he never bothered to keep in contact with her, even to see if she was alright.
• The opening flashback in "Absolute Candor" shows that Picard used to be revered by the Romulans on Vashti. Fourteen years later, that reverence has faded to resentment.
• He was like a father figure to Elnor, but similar to Raffi, Picard didn't talk to him for fourteen years.
• Call to Agriculture : In his retirement years, he has been managing his family's vineyard in France.
• Commonality Connection : In "Maps and Legends", he's delighted when he learns that Jurati shares his fondness for Earl Grey tea. Picard : Your preference? We have a selection. Jurati : Earl Grey? Picard : (smiling) I knew there was something about you.
• Cool Old Guy : Older and cooler than ever, if a bit more jaded.
• Cynicism Catalyst : Starfleet's refusal to help the Romulans, in the wake of the devastating synth attack on Mars, caused Picard to resign his commission in protest.
• Dark and Troubled Past : As a child, his mother committed suicide after hurting him during a bout of bipolar disorder, leaving him emotionally stunted and unwilling to let other people into his life. His own relationship with his father was left strained as a result, and he spent years thinking of him as a far worse man than he actually was. And not only is he still haunted by his assimilation by The Borg, but he's spent 14 years cut off from his old friends, embittered that Starfleet would so quickly turn its back on Romulus in its hour of need.
• Dark Is Not Evil : His clothing is often black and/or dark grey, and he's the Hero Protagonist of the series.
• Death Seeker : It's not explicit or conscious, but the aging, embittered, and mortally ill Picard jumps at the chance to organize a Ragtag Band of Misfits to tackle a huge conspiracy which freely employs special forces kill squads, is perfectly willing to walk into situations which could get him killed, and throws down his sword when forced into a duel with someone who is clearly serious about wanting him dead. (He also refuses to involve too many of his friends in his quest, suggesting that he knows at heart how dangerous it is.) He'd surely be quite happy to go out in a blaze of glory.
• Didn't Think This Through : When he learns about the threat against Soji's life, he goes to Starfleet for help...two days after he gave them a very scathing criticism about their refusal to help Romulus evacuate following the terrorist attack on Mars—an incident of which he resigned in protest over and left him on very bad terms with Starfleet—and without evidence of his claims. Fleet Admiral Clancy calls him out for his "sheer, fucking hubris" to think he could just waltz in asking for a ship in spite of what he did, and shows him the door after dressing him down.
• Distressed Dude : In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", he's under house arrest at Coppelius Station.
• Fatal Flaw : Pride with a dash of Honor Before Reason . In his past Picard was respected and famous across the galaxy for his decorated career in Starfleet, and while he didn't overtly become arrogant or proud he still possessed a strong sense of self-image, and also a strong sense of morals. ​This is why he left Starfleet, because he felt it was no longer keeping true to the ideals he believed it should stand for, and he would not be a part of the organization in such a state. Several characters tell him that under the circumstances at the time (Mars scourged by synths, Romulus about to be destroyed), leaving Starfleet did far more harm than good, because it was exactly the sort of time when men like Jean-Luc Picard were needed most. From their perspective, it was Starfleet's Darkest Hour , and rather than help the organization help itself, Picard walked away for the sake of upholding his personal honor, and it cost him a lot of respect and friendships. This repeatedly bites him over the course of the first season when people he assumes would readily help him are bitter towards him. Even Riker and Troi, his oldest friends, call him out for assuming that being Jean-Luc Picard gives him wide knowledge over everyone and everything.
• Feeling Their Age : Even if his health is excellent for his age, he's still in his nineties. Just a brisk jog has him gasping for breath.
• The idealistic Picard and the cynical Seven of Nine are former Borg drones who reacted very differently when the Federation reneged on its promise to aid the Romulan people. Picard resigned from Starfleet and was inactive in interstellar affairs for the past fourteen years, whereas Seven became a vigilante who works for the Fenris Rangers in lawless regions that the Federation had abandoned. They are human Parental Substitutes to non-human men, Elnor and Icheb, respectively. Picard was a Disappeared Dad to Elnor since he quit Starfleet, which contrasts Seven, who maintained her close ties with Icheb because he helped her with the Fenris Rangers' reconnaissance while he was on leave from the USS Coleman . Elnor arrives in time to save Picard's life on Vashti, but Seven is too late to save Icheb's life on Vergessen. Picard tries to convince Seven not to seek revenge for Icheb's death by killing Bjayzl and her gang of criminals, but Seven carries out the executions anyway.
• He and Raffi are former Starfleet officers who have ignored a son figure (Elnor and Gabriel Hwang, respectively) for many years, and when they finally reunite with them, the outcome is very different. Picard doesn't apologize for his abandonment of Elnor and requests that his surrogate son be part of his crew, whereas Raffi does apologize for her neglect of Gabriel and hopes that she can spend time with her son. Picard and Raffi then receive a Calling the Old Man Out speech from Elnor and Gabriel. Elnor at first rejects his father figure's offer, but changes his mind when the latter's life is in danger; his love for Picard overcomes his resentment. Gabriel, however, remains incredibly bitter at his mother, so he shuts down any possibility of a reconciliation. Picard gets his surrogate son back, but Raffi is still cut off from her son.
• Go Out with a Smile : As he's dying, he grins at Soji because he's glad that she made the right choice, and he affectionately smiles at Elnor, who's the closest thing he has to a son.
• When he goes to see Admiral Clancy, C-in-C of Starfleet, to request to be reinstated and given a ship so he can track down a lead on Data's possible daughter, he offers, if an admiral is too much for such a mission, to be downgraded to captain. Clancy, however, is not happy with him, both for an interview on the news in which he was highly critical of Starfleet as well as lingering resentment for how he left the fleet in the first place, and turns him down. Even with the demotion.
• Later Played for Laughs in "Vox", where the Enterprise -D's computers refer to him as "Captain" Picard (since the systems haven't been online for 30 years), which leads him to jokingly accept this "field demotion".
• Gratuitous French : A meta version; he is shown speaking French to his dog to remind the audience that he is actually supposed to be French. He equates being interviewed with heading off to the guillotine (" Bien, à la guillotine, alors. "). Played straight when he puts on a Maurice Chevalier Accent while portraying an organ trader and refers to Seven of Nine as a jeune fille . He throws in the occasional French word, such as Adieu in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2."
• Heroic Sacrifice : With his misdiagnosed Irumodic Syndrome worsening, Picard goes into battle to defend Coppelius from the Romulan fleet. It costs him his life, temporarily at least .
• In Season 1, once he gets back into a chair and gives out orders, the old Jean-Luc begins to shine through the bitter, cynical old man who'd been sitting at his vineyard waiting to die.
• More symbolically in Season 3, he retakes command of the Enterprise -D, with his old crew beside him, to save The Federation once more from extinction.
• He thought that Starfleet would value his reputation and threat of resignation over its decision not to help the Romulans. They just took it and showed him the door.
• He expects Admiral Clancy to greenlight his mission to find Bruce Maddox and Dahj's twin sister, despite having publicly slammed Starfleet and the Federation two days earlier and despite having no actual evidence to support his claims about both Soji and the Zhat Vash. Clancy chews him out for his "sheer fucking hubris."
• Sarcastically invoked by Laris when she's infuriated by Picard acting as if the galaxy revolves around him. Picard : I don't fully understand all of it, but I know that it's important, and not only to me. Laris : No, of course, if it's important to Jean-Luc Picard, it must be important to the whole galaxy .
• A few times, Picard and his crew drop his name into a request in the belief that it will help grease the skids. The results are mixed at best.
• In Spite of a Nail : In the Confederation of Earth alternate timeline, Picard still has a synthetic body, although in that timeline he got it after being severely wounded in a fight with Gul Dukat.
• When he has an opportunity to destroy the Borg collective he doesn't because Hugh has become an individual with rights and it would be wrong to sacrifice him. The Borg wiped out entire civilizations in the Delta Quadrant, and came close to destroying the Federation, all because Picard couldn't bring himself to compromise his morals.
• After the synth attack, Starfleet abandoned their attempts to evacuate the Romulans. Picard reacted by resigning in protest. By doing so, he squandered his ability to use his authority as an admiral to save many Romulans, leaving them all to die instead.
• Despite Starfleet having pragmatic reasons for doing so, Picard's scathing criticism about the organization abandoning Romulus to its fate when they could have otherwise helped isn't entirely wrong. Once Starfleet learns the Zhat Vash caused the attack , they start to accept that the Admiral had a point.
• Even though he's trying to be diplomatic about it as possible, Picard accusing Riker — his best friend — of being cowardly to attack the Shrike because he's letting his dead son's death affect his decision-making is a major dick move. The next episode, with the Titan plummeting to her doom, Riker admits that Jean-Luc was right.
• Knight in Sour Armor : He isn't at all happy with the cynical turn Starfleet has taken, but as shown by his "The Reason You Suck" Speech aimed at a sleazy journalist, it's only because his idealism is now even more pronounced.
• The Leader : He's the Charismatic type who relies on being a Magnetic Hero to band together a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits to assist him on his mission.
• Let's Get Dangerous! : In Season 3, after discovering Vadic's target is his son , it only takes moments for the jaded, guilt-ridden retired admiral to step aside for the return of Captain Picard. Taken to another level when it turns out the Big Bad is the Borg Queen and he pulls out even more stops to ensure the Borg are finally defeated for good this time .
• Lethal Chef : Season 3 suggests this as it has his old crew mates show disdain for his iconic Chateau Picard wine. Riker has no taste to it, Worf calls it “sour mead” and Picard accuses Geordi of having “pedestrian” tastes when the latter uses an incident as a Trust Password .
• Living Legend : He's famous across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, although his reputation has been somewhat tarnished after he resigned from Starfleet because he chose to do absolutely nothing (other than caring for his family's vineyard and writing history books) during his retirement.
• Magnetic Hero : He spends the first four episodes collecting a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits for his Badass Crew , even though some of them have their own grudges against him or idealistic causes in general.
• Not So Above It All : He is shown stickfighting with the boy Elnor and, when required to work undercover, gleefully hamming up his villain role with an eyepatch and Maurice Chevalier Accent .
• Oh, Crap! : Season 2 starts with him self-destructing the new Stargazer to keep the Borg Queen from getting ahold of Starfleet's tech, only to wake up in his chateau, dressed in a black uniform and with a very different badge on his chest. Then an android servant comes in, with no record of Laris anywhere. As he's having a panic at his situation, then he hears a familiar voice...and Q pops up right behind up.
• Papa Wolf : When the Borg Queen basically makes Jack her slave, Picard goes back into the Collective to rescue him.
• Parental Substitute : Because the orphan Elnor was raised by the all-female Qowat Milat sect, Picard was the sole significant male figure in his life, so naturally the boy looked up to the older man as a surrogate father.
• Pass Fail : He's technically an xB, but because he doesn't possess any visible Borg implants, he doesn't endure the galaxy-wide persecution that the other former drones do, who are perceived to be "property to be exploited, or as a hazard to be warehoused." He never has to worry about being a victim of Borg tech harvesters (like Icheb) or being a victim of a government-sanctioned xB massacre (like Hugh and his patients). Rios conveniently forgot that Picard was once part of the Collective, and when Elnor ponders if the xBs are better off dead, he's obviously not thinking about his surrogate father.
• C'mon, it's Picard , it's practically a reflex for him. He even gets one in the premiere when he assures Dahj that what she is doesn't affect who she is.
• He also gives one to Rios to the effect that even after leaving Starfleet, Rios is still at heart a Starfleet officer. This prompts Rios to hang a lampshade he had ready for just this moment: "Raffi warned me you were a speechmaker."
• Putting the Band Back Together : Defied in Season 1. When he learns about Soji's plight and how Dr. Bruce Maddox may be connected to it, it's suggested to him that he get his old Enterprise crew back. He refuses, not wanting them to risk their lives out of loyalty to him after losing Data 20 years ago. It winds up being Played Straight in Season 3, where Will joins him on a mission to rescue Beverly, which eventually brings Worf, Geordi, the resurrected Data and Deanna back to his side once more. Then he gets one more surprise member of his old crew: The Enterprise -D herself!
• Rank Up : He eventually gained a promotion to admiral after the events of Nemesis , although he later resigned from the position after Starfleet decided to not help the Romulans in the lead-up to the destruction of Romulus .
• Rebuilt Pedestal : Season 2 reveals that Starfleet has stopped treating him like a pariah for resigning and much more like the respected Captain he used to. It helps that he's now become the head of Starfleet Academy, and has smoothened things over with everyone else.
• Retcon : * In "Where No One Has Gone Before", a hallucination of his mother appeared, implying she survived to old age. It's shown in Season 2 that she hung herself when Picard was a child, and he only imagined her as having lived that long to cope with the pain .
• Retired Badass : As the former captain of the Enterprise , he's long since retired from the Starfleet admiralty by the time the series begins. It doesn't make him any less capable of command decisions when he gets out of his vineyard and back to the stars.
• Revision : "All Good Things" hinted that he would suffer from Irumodic Syndrome, which Season 1 brought to pass and eventually killed him temporarily. Season 3 reveals it was never Irumodic Syndrome, but misdiagnosed as such. It was really a leftover from his time as Locutus, made so the Borg could pass his DNA onto a descendant they could use as a transmitter for their new hive mind, and assume full control of Starfleet.
• Scatterbrained Senior : Not specifically, but certain characters do enjoy characterizing him as something of a weird, headstrong Space Grandpa. And to their credit, they're not entirely wrong, as Picard himself admits he's lost perspective on some matters due to his age and various lingering traumas. The potential return (or rather eventual manifestation) of his Irumodic Syndrome from "All Good Things" strongly implies he is on the road to becoming a Scatterbrained Senior for real, however. Except it isn't Irumodic Syndrome that's killing him; it's Borg tech .
• When he can't get Starfleet to aid him through proper channels, he goes off the grid to investigate the androids on his own.
• As mentioned in Star Trek: Lower Decks , he privately funds at least one renegade archaeologist who steals cultural artifacts from museums to return them to their original owners.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran : As he says in the pilot, the actual dreams he has are lovely, it’s the waking up that he resents.
• There Is No Cure : Discussed . He discovers in " Maps and Legends " that the structural defect in his brain could cause one of a number of fatal syndromes, only a number of which are even treatable; including the Irumodic Syndrome which his alternate future self in The Next Generation was diagnosed with (see the above folder). Unfortunately, it turns out that it wasn't Irumodic Syndrome at all; it was Borg Tech left in his brain so he could explicitly pass it down to a descendant they could use to control all of Starfleet.
• Took a Level in Cynic : Or, at the very least, a lot more jaded. He lost neither his compassion nor his idealism, but just couldn't take the politics of Starfleet any longer. When he scathingly tears into Starfleet for abandoning Romulus so quickly, and even in a later private confrontation with Admiral Clancy, he speaks disdainfully of how the group he once served would quickly abandoned their duty to help others because they'd rather let old prejudices cloud their judgement.
• Took a Level in Jerkass : In spite of the level that he took in kindness generally, it's nevertheless quite disturbing how horribly he treats Raffi, at least in the earlier episodes of Season 1. He plies her with alcohol to try to persuade her to sign on with his quest, essentially feeding her addiction for his own purposes. Later, after she's locked herself in her room on La Sirena because she's distraught that she failed to reconcile with her son, Picard reacts to her anguished "Go away!" with an unconcerned little smile, as if to say, "Oh that silly Raffi, always giving into despair and drinking herself to death." His seeming lack of empathy for his supposed friend is perhaps best on display in "The Impossible Box," where Raffi (who is only on this mission because she loves and respects Picard that much ) burns her last bridge with one of the few friends she has left at Starfleet to get Picard access to the Artifact. Emmy, pissed at being used, tells Raffi never to contact her again, and Raffi is visibly heartbroken. What is Picard's reaction, even as she stumbles pathetically back to her room to continue drowning her sorrows? He gives her a lighthearted round of applause, and even incites the others to join in. Seriously, if we didn't know Picard better, it would almost seem like he was actively mocking his friend's utter misery.
• Not in the sense that he's even more idealistic or compassionate than in his younger years, but he certainly seems much more ready to express his affection for people. It's not just the effect of not being the other characters' commanding officer anymore, as he used to be on the Enterprise . In the flashback to the Romulan evacuation, he's going out of his way to be kind to the young Elnor, even taking the time to read stories and play/fence with him — when he was previously known to have little patience with children. He shows absolutely no hesitation in hugging and kissing note  on the cheek Deanna and Will, which he didn't even do at their wedding , when they were already on their way to Will's new ship, so it wasn't an issue of appropriate behavior towards subordinates anymore. He's also happy to let Hugh and adult Elnor hug him in greeting. This new cuddliness particularly stands out against his own rueful admission to Soji that he used to share Data's "limited" "capacity for expressing and processing emotion" to some degree. (Perhaps owning a dog helped with learning to be more expressive.) He also admits to her that he did love Data (in his own fatherly-supportive way) and hopes that the affection was returned, inasmuch that was possible for Data. In the last few episodes of Season 1, he's being remarkably gentle and understanding with Dr. Jurati (during and after her confession) and he seems to intentionally encourage Elnor's and Soji's attachment to him as a father figure with lines like "I'm very proud of you." It's only with Raffi that he still seems to feel that hugging and saying "I love you" is weird — but he still returns the phrase after some hesitation. Overall, it comes across like in his younger years, Picard's kindness came mainly from ethical principles and high-minded, though somewhat distant idealism, but now it also comes from deep personal affection for the people in his life, and the wish to show them that and treat them as well as he can, while he still can. note  Which only makes sense, given his lingering grief over Data's death, and also considering his own medical diagnosis.
• It's best exemplified in Season 3 with his old crew. At the end of TNG , he symbolically joins them for a poker game after years of keeping his distance. Back together with them once more, his final scene ends with him initiating one last game for the night, being far more jovial and relaxed.
• He's among the very few people in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants who wanted to save Romulan lives when the Romulan star was about to explode.
• His personal mission is to rescue Soji from the Zhat Vash. In "Stardust City Rag", he describes her to Seven of Nine as: Picard : Someone who has no else to help her, someone who will likely die if I don't.
• What the Hell, Hero? : In Season 3, when he learns that Beverly had a son with him that she kept hidden for 20 years, he stunts her criticisms that she didn't want Jack to be in immortal danger, or that Picard himself once professed he feared he couldn't be a father, by pointing out that keeping Jack out of his life took that choice away from him.
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Jean-Luc Picard

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Jean-Luc Picard is a retired Human Starfleet officer and the former Federation Ambassador to Vulcan . His first command was the U.S.S. Stargazer (NCC-2893) , but he is most well-known for serving as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and, following that ship's destruction, its successor, U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) .

• 2 Apocryphal Timeline
• 3 Missions involved
• 5 External links

History [ | ]

• 2349: Captain Picard takes the Stargazer on an exploratory mission in the Kassae System and discovers ancient ruins. ( “Researcher Rescue” )
• 2381 : Picard is appointed to lead the defense against the renewed Borg threat. He enlists Seven of Nine to assist with the efforts.
• 2385 : Picard and the Enterprise lead efforts to evacuate Federation citizens from Khitomer when the Klingon Empire expels all non-Klingons. Later that year, Picard resigns his commission in Starfleet and becomes the Federation ambassador to Vulcan.
• 2386 : Picard is among those who testify on Data's behalf, leading to Starfleet Command's decision to reinstate the android's Starfleet commission.
• 2387 : Ambassador Picard, along with Spock , appeal to the Vulcan High Council to help the Romulans save their home planet from destruction; the Vulcans refuse. Picard contacts Geordi La Forge for assistance.

Apocryphal Timeline [ | ]

• 2389 : Picard works to repair relations between the Vulcans and the rest of the Federation, following the revelation that they had refused to help the Romulans. He also offers to mediate peace talks between the Klingon Empire and the Gorn Hegemony , but the offer is refused by King Slathis . Picard eventually drafts a border treaty that would be accepted by the Gorn, if a Gorn team were to lose a game of baseball against the Pike City Pioneers. When the game abruptly ends with the revelation that the Gorn had been infiltrated by Undine , it is believed that Picard convinces the Gorn's allies - the Romulans , Breen , Tzenkethi , and Kinshaya - to pressure the Gorn into accepting Federation mediation. ( The Needs of the Many )
• 2402 : Ambassador Picard retires and settles in France.
• Picard has a son, René Jacques Robert François Picard, with Beverly Crusher . ( The Needs of the Many )

Missions involved [ | ]

• “The Measure of Morality (Part 2)” : Captain Picard (or simulacrums of him) command the U.S.S. Enterprise -D and Enterprise -E against a rogue Excalbian Borg Queen simulacrum.

Notes [ | ]

• The consumable food item [ Chateau Picard ] is a wine from his family's vineyard. According to The Needs of the Many , the vineyard was relocated to Mars by Picard's son. The pilot episode of Star Trek: Picard contests this however, showing the vineyard to still be present in its original location of La Barre, France.
• Picard's dialogue in the mission "Measure of Morality (Part 2)" are pre-recorded voice lines from the Next Generation episode Yesterday's Enterprise .

External links [ | ]

• Jean-Luc Picard at Memory Alpha , the Star Trek Wiki.
• 1 Playable starship
• 3 Infinity Prize Pack - T6 Ship

FlickSphere

21 Things About Star Trek That Fans Hesitate to Acknowledge

Posted: April 27, 2024 | Last updated: April 27, 2024

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Published Jun 15, 2020

10 Jean-Luc Picard Books You Need to Read Right Now

Make it so.

StarTrek.com

When Jean-Luc Picard took command of the U.S.S. Enterprise at the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation , he confessed to his new first officer, William Riker, that he was uncomfortable around children. Despite this unease, Starfleet saw fit to give him a ship with families and children numbering among the vessel’s complement.

It took a while, but Picard soon relaxed — ever so slightly — when in the presence of the youngsters running around the Enterprise . It soon became an annual event for the children to celebrate “Captain Picard Day.” The festivities included an art contest in which entries were judged by the good captain himself. Though Picard was never happy with the idea of being at the center of such activities, he understood his position as a role model for these impressionable young minds. For the sake of crew morale, he put on his game face and gritted his teeth while accepting with grace the attentions lavished upon him.

We find out in the first season of Star Trek: Picard that thirty years after the first such observance was held aboard the Enterprise , the good captain held onto one of the colorful banners used to signify the day. Of course he’s a sentimental softy; we all knew it.

Here in the real world, “Captain Picard Day” has been celebrated by Star Trek fans dating back to 2007. How June 16th came to the be “official” day depends on whether you believe Star Trek ’s stardates can easily be converted to actual calendar dates. Some intrepid fan did the math and arrived at that date, so here we are.

Since his introduction in 1987, Jean-Luc Picard has been the face of Star Trek: The Next Generation . A man of many talents and interests and possessed of tremendous convictions, we grew to love him over the course of the television series and subsequent motion pictures, and now fans get to enjoy him in all new stories with Star Trek: Picard . Elsewhere, he’s been at the center of numerous tales told within the pages of novels and comics spanning more than thirty years and continuing to this day.

While certainly not intended as an exhaustive list, here are just a few stories which have explored the inimitable character of Jean-Luc Picard.

Vendetta by Peter David (May 1991)

The Borg have become one of Star Trek ’s greatest adversaries, appearing in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager and even once on Star Trek: Enterprise . After the events of Picard’s kidnapping by the Borg in “The Best of Both Worlds” but before the discovery of Hugh in “I, Borg,” author Peter David brings the Borg back to try their hand at invading the Federation once again. This time, however, the Collective faces a threat capable of annihilating them.

Reunion by Michael Jan Friedman (November 1991)

This was the first novel to explore Picard’s past as captain of the U.S.S. Stargazer , which he commanded for 22 years. Friedman introduces us to several of Picard’s old friends and shipmates who helped Picard become the formidable, experienced leader he is by the time we meet him on Star Trek: The Next Generation . This book ended up spawning its own series of novels, Star Trek: Stargazer , all written by Friedman.

Requiem by Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin Ryan (October 1994)

When Picard is thrown back in time after encountering a mysterious alien object, he awakens to find himself at a pivotal point in history: one hundred years in the past, on the Federation colony planet Cestus III. He knows the colonists will be annihilated by a Gorn vessel, resulting in first contact with this heretofore unknown race and an epic confrontation between the Gorn ship’s commander and the legendary Captain James T. Kirk. Trapped a century removed from his own ship and crew, Picard must navigate the coming events without doing anything which may alter history as he knows it.

Perchance to Dream by Keith R.A. DeCandido, illustrated by Peter Pachoumis and Lucian Rizzo (February – May 2000)

An extremist faction on an alien world is using a “telepathic virus” as a weapon to influence dreams to a point where the victims begin experiencing dangerous hallucinations. When the Enterprise crew falls victim to the attack, Picard fights back using the other personalities which are now a part of his identity: Sarek via his mind meld with the Vulcan ambassador, Kamin, the man whose life Picard lived in “The Inner Life,” and Locutus, his Borg persona.

The Buried Age by Christopher L. Bennett (July 2007)

This novel offers a study of Picard’s life before the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation : the nine years between the loss of the Stargazer and his taking command of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D . Think you know the story? Think again!

Destiny trilogy by David Mack (September-November 2008)

Set just two years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis , this epic trilogy sees the Borg determined to conquer their most formidable adversary once and for all. The stakes are high and the costs very real as the Borg drive through Federation space, destroying worlds and wiping out billions of people. More than a decade after its initial publication, the ramifications of this storyline continue to resonate within the Star Trek novels’ “expanded universe.”

Hive by Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, and Travis Fickett; illustrated by Joe Corroney (September-January 2013)

Star Trek comics chart different storytelling paths from the novels, and Braga, Matalas, and Fickett use the format to bring readers a tale stretching from a point soon after Star Trek: Nemesis to a far future where Picard is still Locutus and part of the Borg. To defeat them this time, Picard needs help from someone else who’s escaped the Collective: Seven of Nine.

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard by David A. Goodman (October 2017)

Published by Titan Books, this examination of the famous captain’s life and career is not compatible with the novels from Simon & Schuster. However, it is in synch with what we know of Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation and the subsequent films and is therefore a fun read for fans who’ve not already plunged headlong into the novel continuity.

Picard: Countdown by Kirsten Beyer & Mike Johnson, illustrated by Angel Hernandez (November 2019 – January 2020)

Set fifteen years before the events of Star Trek: Picard ’s first season, this 3-part comics miniseries by Picard co-creator Kirsten Beyer and IDW Star Trek comics veteran Mike Johnson gives readers a glimpse at one of the several missions Admiral Picard undertook during his mission to relocate Romulan citizens before their sun goes supernova. It also introduces us to Zhaban and Laris, the two Romulan Tal Shiar agents who will forsake their careers to assist Picard.

The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack (February 2020)

This epic, years-spanning tale reveals the full scope of the massive undertaking Jean-Luc Picard led on behalf of the Romulan people, beginning with his promotion to admiral and transfer of command to the U.S.S. Verity , where he gains a new first officer and friend, Raffi Musiker. McCormack charts the obstacles Picard and Musiker chart while attempting to carry out their vital mission even as resistance to the effort mounts from all sides. This culminates in the tragic events on Mars in 2385 and setting the stage for Star Trek: Picard ’s first season.

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Dayton Ward (he/him) is a New York Times bestselling author or co-author of numerous novels and short stories, including a whole bunch of stuff set in the Star Trek universe, and often working with friend and co-writer Kevin Dilmore. As he’s still a big ol' geek at heart, Dayton is known to wax nostalgic about all manner of Star Trek topics over on his own blog, The Fog of Ward.

Dayton Ward (he/him) is a New York Times bestselling author or co-author of numerous novels and short stories including a whole bunch of stuff set in the Star Trek universe, and often collaborating with friend and co-writer Kevin Dilmore. As he’s still a big ol' geek at heart, Dayton is known to wax nostalgic about all manner of Star Trek topics over on his own blog, The Fog of Ward .

In addition to streaming on Paramount+ , Star Trek: Picard also streams on Prime Video outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in Canada can be seen on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Picard is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery's commander rayner is the new riker.

Star Trek: Discovery's new Number One, Commander Rayner, shares many similarities with TNG's Commander William T Riker that go beyond the beard.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors "

• Rayner in Star Trek: Discovery shows reluctance to lead, akin to Riker in The Next Generation, emphasizing the importance of strong leadership dynamics.
• Similar to Riker on the USS Enterprise-D, Rayner's style proves valuable in solving critical issues in "Mirrors" episode.
• Burnham's mission and leadership choices parallel Picard and Riker dynamics, showcasing a balance of risk-taking and bold decision-making in Star Trek lore.

Star Trek: Discovery 's new Number One, Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) has a lot in common with Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) from Star Trek: The Next Generation . In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors", written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco and directed by Jen McGowan , Rayner has to reluctantly take the center seat while Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is on an away mission. Rayner's reluctance to take the conn, and his insistence that he lead the away mission in Burnham's stead, draws similarities between him and Will Riker.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 , "Mirrors" reveals that Rayner, formerly the captain of the USS Antares, is unsure that his style will gel with his new crew. However, by bringing the Discovery's bridge crew together, Rayner is able to solve the problem of how to drag the ISS Enterprise out of interdimensional space . With Burnham back on board, Rayner is back to being the USS Discovery's Number One, but satisfied that he can lead from the center seat, much like Riker at the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4, episode 1, "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"

Jonathan Frakes Is In Star Trek: Discovery Even If You Don’t See Riker

Star trek: discovery's commander rayner is reluctant to be captain - like riker in tng.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , Riker turned down several opportunities to become captain, preferring to stay aboard the USS Enterprise-D as second-in-command to Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). However, Riker was often placed in charge of the starship Enterprise , most notably when Picard was assimilated by the Borg Collective. After rescuing Captain Picard from the Borg, and saving the Federation from the Collective, he was happy to step down from Captain to Commander Riker, satisfied that he'd proved his worth as a captain. For Riker, serving as Number One on the Federation flagship was just as huge an achievement as his own command .

Riker finally accepted a promotion to captain of the USS Titan in Star Trek: Nemesis .

Rayner in Star Trek: Discovery was demoted from Captain to Commander in season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons". The USS Discovery is Rayner's last chance, which is presumably why, like Riker in TNG , he's keen not to chase promotion. His reasoning is different to Riker's because Rayner had already been a captain for years before becoming Burnham's Number One . Rayner is reluctant to take charge in "Mirrors" because it's not his crew, and his command style is very different to Burnham's.

Commander Rayner Is The Riker To Burnham's Picard In Star Trek: Discovery

One of the reasons that Rayner gives for not wanting to take the conn is that Burnham's away mission is " too risky " for the captain of the USS Discovery . Riker leading the away missions in Star Trek: The Next Generation became such a trope that Picard jokes about it in his Star Trek: Nemesis wedding toast . Burnham explains why she and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) are the best crew members to take on the mission, forcing Rayner to concede that she's right. Picard would do the same in later seasons of TNG as he took a more active role in away missions.

Discussing Riker's replacement aboard the Enterprise, Commander Data (Brent Spiner), Picard jokes: " I will be training my new first officer. You all know him. He's a tyrannical martinet who'll never, ever allow me to go on away missions! "

When Burnham offered Rayner the role of second-in-command in Star Trek: Discovery she made it clear that she didn't want a " yes man ". Picard didn't want Riker to be one either, which is why he was so impressed by his fierce opposition to Captain Robert DeSoto (Michael Cavanaugh) leading an away mission on Altair III. Riker risked court martial to convince DeSoto that his away mission was " too risky " for the captain of the USS Hood, something that ultimately led to him becoming the second-in-command of the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+

All episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation are streaming now on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.