I've never been so annoyed with an episode in my life. So as long as Captain Picard gets stabbed in a stupid, pointless fight and supports his shallow friends, he'll become a Captain instead of a lowly lieutenant. Because that incident CLEARLY defines who he is as a person, and he'll never do anything bold and ambitious after that.
You know, Back to the Future had George McFly's entire future success predicated on whether he punched a guy or not, and at least that movie was funny. This episode never posits that there might have been better ways to go about the incident that DIDN'T cause you to lose a vital organ in the process. That there might have been a smart way to avoid a fight. It's all black and white, like the dreaded Star Trek V movie that says that every man's personality is based on his singular "pain."
This strikes me as an episode that screams "Picard is TOO like Kirk! Look! He's reckless and wild and stuff and that made him great!" No, it's JUDGMENT that makes the character, and perhaps exercising skilled judgment at an early age might have made him an even better captain. But this episode (and Q's sanctimonious attitude only makes it worse) states that lacking good judgment equals having the ability to take chances. Why would you take a chance on that fight if it was essentially meaningless from the start? Is Captain Picard about taking risks on trivial matters just to show that he's a bold adventurer?
This is a facile episode that's unworthy of the series as a whole. It adds to the Hollywood trend of glamorizing youthful recklessness as a rite of passage. Congratulations if you're among that minority to survive recklessness into a massively successful adulthood. The rest of you well you may be incapacitated, miserable or dead, but at least you're not MEDIOCRE, are you?
You know, Back to the Future had George McFly's entire future success predicated on whether he punched a guy or not, and at least that movie was funny. This episode never posits that there might have been better ways to go about the incident that DIDN'T cause you to lose a vital organ in the process. That there might have been a smart way to avoid a fight. It's all black and white, like the dreaded Star Trek V movie that says that every man's personality is based on his singular "pain."
This strikes me as an episode that screams "Picard is TOO like Kirk! Look! He's reckless and wild and stuff and that made him great!" No, it's JUDGMENT that makes the character, and perhaps exercising skilled judgment at an early age might have made him an even better captain. But this episode (and Q's sanctimonious attitude only makes it worse) states that lacking good judgment equals having the ability to take chances. Why would you take a chance on that fight if it was essentially meaningless from the start? Is Captain Picard about taking risks on trivial matters just to show that he's a bold adventurer?
This is a facile episode that's unworthy of the series as a whole. It adds to the Hollywood trend of glamorizing youthful recklessness as a rite of passage. Congratulations if you're among that minority to survive recklessness into a massively successful adulthood. The rest of you well you may be incapacitated, miserable or dead, but at least you're not MEDIOCRE, are you?