Tapestry

DVD, TNG S6 (Tapestry)

Shades of 'It's A Wonderful Life' and 'A Christmas Carol' and for the same reasons they worked, this story does too - the themes of regret, of second chances and of the paths not taken are romantic in the old-fashioned sense of the word and speak as strongly now as they ever have. Especially good advice for jobseekers in the current state of the world: stand out from the crowd, take risks sometimes and grab hold of the opportunities that are presented. It's difficult to encapsulate what makes the episode so special or boil it down to the things that work, but in no particular order: Picard reliving his youth, allowing us to see some key moments of his early life, the friends he knew, the thoughts he had, the impulsive, unguarded officer, the Kirk-like maverick always up for a scrap no matter the odds, standing up for his friends and looking forward to an exciting life ahead in Starfleet.

It's one of the strangest Q episodes they ever did. For a start it doesn't even include Q in the title, almost unheard of! For another there's no way to be certain it really happened and even if it did, if it was really Q. Any powerful being could have used Q's image as the recognisable face Picard would react to, but if it was Q why was he so willing to help Picard see the error of his ways? Why did he only appear in Picard's experience and not afterwards when he's revived? If nothing else it made me wish the young Riker and the young Picard could have met. In some alternate timeline somewhere they did - what a story that would make!

There's plenty of story going on in this one not to need any wishful thinking. As well as seeing some of Picard's early career, we also see his Father (a Tom Paris situation, with Papa Picard never satisfied by his son, that's the impression), and get a running commentary from himself on the way he acted back in those days. There are few Picard episodes that go so deeply into his psyche, into his regrets and wishes. Q does him a huge favour by allowing this other life to pan out, almost like 'The Inner Light' did, only this time it's really Jean-Luc's own life. The part of the story where Picard lives in the present as the risk-averse, reliable, dependable Lieutenant Picard is both amusing (Riker racking his brain to say positive things about this older man!), and terribly sad. That his drive had left him as a result of not living out the misspent or wild youth is very believable, and it's all credit to himself that he did learn and grow from his experiences to become the most well-rounded captain of 'Star Trek.'

His exploits against the Nausicaans, as well as being something that had been spoken about as early as Season 2 (and it shows the age of the series that they were beginning to almost nostalgically look back at the early concepts and backstory as it approached the end of its run), also calls to mind Captain Kirk. At the start of the series those two captains seemed to be about as different as a couple of leaders could be, but over time it became more and more apparent how similar they were at different times in their lives, culminating in the ultimate demonstration of that in 'Star Trek: Generations' when they drop everything to fight side by side. Kirk was known as a stack of books on legs in his Academy days, quite the opposite to Jean-Luc, and yet he learned to temper his intelligence with backbone and physical reactions, while Picard tempered his hotheadedness with restraint and calm. They're both thinkers and both able to act decisively and that's very clear from the episode.

There are some fun trivia spots in this episode: Picard and his friends are seen wearing the 'TOS' film-era uniforms which Jack Crusher had also worn so we know they were used for decades. Dom-jot, the sport which had been mentioned or would be mentioned many times (especially by Jake and Nog on 'DS9'), is seen to be a snooker/pool/alien game. Not in the same league as Tri-dimensional Chess or Dabo, it's still gone down as one of those much referenced future games. Incredibly, for how much they hate each other, there were examples of both Selay and Anticans in the bar crowd standing together, but maybe this was a time when the races were getting along, or these were very open-minded examples! The surly Nausicaans debut, though they are portrayed as sub-idiot Klingons, only there to suffer/inflict a beating. The look was another brilliant design from Michael Westmore, their personality clear from the protruding fangs, deep-set, skull-like faces and explosion of unruly hair. They wouldn't change much in any of their appearances, but at least some of them spoke better English in future!

Picard's fighting skills, seen both in the young version and in 'our' Picard performing the same actions were well-choreographed scenes that had been in the imagination since it was first mentioned how he came to need an artificial heart, on telling Wesley the story (there's a similar scene at the end when he begins regaling Riker with another Nausicaan-themed tale), and managed to live up to the legend. The moment he's stabbed (they seem to like having people stabbed through the back on 'TNG' - it happened to Wesley in an early Q episode and someone else in another, I think), was graphic in some ways, though you don't actually see the wound on impact, but it's strangely moving to see Picard break out in laughter at his unfortunate demise as he looks down and sees he's been impaled. What should be a moment of terror and pain is transformed into something much more, transcending above the act to become about his life. That's the best I can do to explain it.

It's hard to see Picard being treated as an underling on the Enterprise - Worf has little time for his strange behaviour, Data shows concern for a troubled officer, and Riker and Troi are taken aback by his 'sudden' desire for more responsibility. At that point, and especially after the attitude Q had displayed throughout, it's easy to assume this could be for his own amusement, to bring the proud Picard low. For him, living out a dreary existence in which he didn't push himself, was worse than death, yet Q doesn't appear there to gloat and enjoy the moment, which makes me think this was a genuine gift to Picard. In his own bizarre way Q seems fond of the Captain and almost thinks of him as a friend and perhaps he always wanted Picard to succeed and understand that he has succeeded in life.

I think the moral of the story is that we should examine our own lives and not look back with regret, but understand why we acted a certain way and that we are different people at different ages. The tapestry of life will always be made up of mistakes, victories and losses, but it is what we learn through those experiences that make us who we are today - the sum of our past and the instrument of our future. Outside influences play a part, but it is how we react to life, and the end result that matters most, not dwelling on things that didn't work out or living off past glories. Because, as Picard found out, if you tug at just one thread of that tapestry, it's liable to unravel.

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