I saw this on one of the livejournal communities I subscribe to and wasn’t satisfied with the short discussion that ensued so I thought I would bring it here for us to discuss.
In the TNG episode “The Battle”, it is stated that the Battle of Maxia, wherein the Stargazer is crippled, took place nine years prior but Picard had only taken command of the Enterprise a few scant months before. It was never hinted at in the rest of the series or in any of the movies that Picard had any other commands than the Stargazer, the E-D, and the E-E so the question is, what did he do in the almost decade between his two known commands? Was he a Starfleet instructor? Did he go into semi-retirement? Starbase duty? A fourth unknown command that’s he never felt the need to talk about in seventeen years? Anyone have any ideas?
It would be interesting if Jean Luc “first” met Guinan and developed their friendship in those years. I vaguely remember Guinan saying that their friendship went “way back.” However, considering her age, “way back” should mean more for her than 10 years.
For Picard to take command of Enterprise, I would think he would first have to have a more important posting after Stargazer.
He could definitely have had a stint as a Starfleet Instructor after the Battle of Maxim so that he could recuperate (ala recovering from being Locutus when he returned home).
There was also the matter of his fiance “to be” whom he left. Do you remember any stated timeframe for that? In addition, could there have been the death of Wesley’s father early in that nine years? And he could have grown closer to Beverly and could have met Pulaski in that time.
You’re forgetting the Olde San Francisco episode, where Data’s head was discovered in an archeological dig under San Fran. The Enterprise went back to Earth to investigate, and Picard and Data were sucked back in time to the early 1900s, where Pickard met Guinan for her first time.
I put “first” in quotes for a reason. Guinan never revealed to Picard that they had met in San Francisco until after he experienced the event. He could have met her in those intervening years and she would know they had met but he would not.
Guinan is at least 500 years old so I think that probably wasn’t her “first time.” Besides, I don’t remember him dropping in on her when she was having sex. Was that in the Canadian version? Now let’s forget the “Maxim” slip and concentrate on the “Pickard” slip, hmmm.
I have it on good authority that for at least three months, and perhaps as long as eighteen, he was working as a … well, a sort of laborer. This would have been done in obscurity, if not for an interesting piece of footage that has surfaced.
I have seen this footage (only on a friend’s computer, actually). It’s grainy, and the color’s off, but in my opinion this in no way negates its authenticity.
It is a snip of an advertisement where he is seated next to a large oak barrel, on which rests a wine glass. Jean-Luc (it’s clearly him, although I’ve only seen a poor-quality copy) picks up the glass, swirls the contents, and remarks, “Picard’s. We will sell no wine before its time.”
I’m not a ST fandom expert, but Starfleet was modeled on the US Navy. IRL, it would be a common career progression for a command-track officer to command a smaller vessel, serve ashore in various staff positions, and then take command afloat of a more-important vessel. In fact, demonstrating performance in staff positions is almost a “must” for an officer in our Navy today. Positions such as, say, the chief of staff for a destroyer group. Picard could have served in a number of such positions in the interim, have met all the people mentioned, and then become prominent enough to take command of Starfleet’s flagship.
I suspect that a good portion of the time between commanding the Stargazer and commanding the Enterprise was spent in training, learning how to run a Galaxy-class starship. You’ll notice that, in the early episodes, there was no indication that Picard needed much time to get to know his ship.
While the various crewmembers were mostly “specialists” who needed to learn only what was required to work in their own departments (though there was obviously some cross-training), Picard (and Riker too, I suppose) had to learn the workings of the entire ship. Considering the fact that the Enterprise-D was huge, and that it was a brand new class of ship, I’d bet that training took several years.
If that’s the case and Riker had to do it too, then that means he must have been promoted from a Lieutenant on the Pegasus to full commander and XO on the Enterprise almost immediately.
