Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap/S6/E14 Tapestry

Series:Star Trek the Next Generation Episode: Season 6, Episode 14 Title:"Tapestry" Previous: Face of the Enemy Next: Birthright Recapper: Rms Oceanic

Tapestry begins with an Away Team being beamed directly into Sick Bay with a critically wounded Picard. Apparently they were ambushed and Picard was shot in the chest. His Plot Armor kept such a shot from being fatal, but it's caused his artificial heart to malfunction. Doctor Crusher attempts to Techno Babble it into working again, but apparently Picard dies. He starts to Go Into the Light towards a white-robed figure...and it's Q.

After the opening credits Q explains that he is God, which Picard rejects. Q tries to prove it by bringing his overbearing father to berate Jean-Luc for having the nerve to die in his mid sixties after a long and successful career, as well as all the people who died as a result of his decisions. Tasha Yar is curiously absent from this. Q's real point comes up: Can Picard says that he has no regrets? He has one: the artificial heart. A real heart would have allowed him to survive that shot somehow. We then see how he got it, as described to Wesley in Samaritan Snare: Getting into a fight with three Nausicaans, and getting stabbed in the heart, and laughing as he lay dying.

While musing on what a Hot-Blooded jerk he was back then and wishing he could have changed it, he is suddenly slapped by a woman. He realises he is alive, in a Wrath of Khan era uniform and being sarcastically applauded by his old acadamy friends, Marta and Corey, only they don't look so old. After they leave, Q appears and explains he's given Picard a chance to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Picard, aware of the danger of how tampering with nails can lead to Hitler ruling the Universe, initially refuses to do anything, but Q is having none of it.

"Q: Please! Spare me your egotistical musings of your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or Galaxies to explode. To be blunt: You're not that important. [...] The only thing at stake is your life and your peace of mind."

Picard then tells Q why he was slapped: He scheduled two dates at the same time. We see him at the other date, but with the older and more cautious Picard instead of what was apparently a Casanova Wannabe it doesn't go well and he gets a drink in the face for his troubles. His friend Corey is showing off at a pool-like game called dom-jot. One of the Nausicaans who would later start the fight challenges him to a game, and apparently wins due to cheating. Originally Picard helped Corey rig the table to even the odds, but knowing this would lead to the fight Picard now advises against it when Corey brings it up. This unexpected mature response impresses Marta, but before it can go anywhere Q walks in with flowers for "John Luck Pickherd". Q then tells Picard Corey is rigging the table anyway, so Picard goes to Corey and threatens to report him if he doesn't stop.

Corey is aghast at Picard's sudden stodgyness, but Marta is even more impressed and after a night of passion, Picard turns over in bed to say "Good Morning" to Marta, only to find Q there, Marta having slipped away. Thank goodness for the Modesty Bedsheet. Marta regrets the encounter, and Q sums up Picard's action's so far.

"Q: Let's see: You managed to get slapped by one women, had a drink tossed in your face by another and alienate your two best friends. Doing pretty well so far."

Picard tries to reconcile with Corey and Marta, but the Nausicaans come in and taunt them for being cowards. Corey stands up to fight, but Picard throws him to one side, preventing the fight and stabbing but breaking his friendship with Corey as well. But on the bright side, Q tells Picard he succeeded at saving his life. Hurray! Wait...why is he only a Junior Lieutenant in the present?

It appears Picard is now a "Lower Decks" type character, an assistant Astrophysics officer with average evaluation reports. Talking to Riker about advancing his career, he discovers that in his career he never showed any ambition or ability to take risks, so he's effectively stuck in a dead end job. Lamenting in private about how Q is free to taunt him, Q brings him back to the white place and spells out how this is the result of his choice not to be a rash jerk in his youth.

"Q: That Picard never had a brush with death. Never came face to face with his own mortality. Never realised how fragile life is or how precious each moment could be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted through most of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that came. He learned to play it safe. And he never...ever...got noticed by anyone."

Picard now admits he was wrong and asks Q to let him Set Right What Once Went Wrong...again. Q notes he'll die on that table, but Picard says he'd rather die as a successful captain than live as a nobody. So Q sends him back, he starts the fight and gets stabbed in the heart for his troubles, and as he knows his life is back on track, he now knows why he laughed. He laughs still in Sick Bay, his artificial heart stabilizing. Was this all just a Near-Death Experience, a Vision Quest by Q to give him deeper insights into himself, or maybe both? Picard wonders with Riker whether it was All Just a Dream, or maybe Q has undergone Character Development of his own.

"Picard: There are threads of my life that I am not proud of. But I found that when given a chance to pull at one, it undid the tapestry of my entire life."

Riker is amused at the idea of a Hot-Blooded Picard, so Picard starts telling him about an earlier encoutner with Nausicaans as the Enterprise flies away.