TNG's Jellico

Cafe Society
1

In Chain of Command Picard leaves the Enterprise for an extended mission involving counting illumination sources, and Captain Jellico takes command. We are of course, intended to dislike him (since he’s not Picard), but are we being fair. I’m of two minds.

First of all, since we don’t see Picard’s first moments on the Enterprise we don’t get a clear view of the differences with Jellico.

But we do see Picard’s first moments with Riker:

PICARD: A fairly routine manoeuvre but you handled it quite well.
RIKER: Thank you, sir. I hope I showed some promise.
PICARD: I do have some questions for you though.
RIKER: Yes, sir, I thought you might.
PICARD: I see in your file that Captain DeSoto thinks very highly of you. One curious thing, however, you refused to let him beam down to Altair Three.
RIKER: In my opinion, sir, Altair Three was too dangerous to risk exposing the Captain.
PICARD: I see. A Captain’s rank means nothing to you.
RIKER: Rather the reverse, sir. But a Captain’s life means a great deal to me.
PICARD: Isn’t it just possible that you don’t get to be a Starfleet Captain without knowing whether it’s safe to beam down or not? Isn’t it a little presumptuous of a first officer to second guess his captain’s judgment?
RIKER: Permission to speak candidly, sir?
PICARD: Always.
RIKER: Having been a first officer yourself, you know that assuming that responsibility must by definition include the safety of the captain. I have no problem with following any rules you lay down, short of compromising your safety.
PICARD: And you don’t intend to back off that position?
RIKER: No, sir,
PICARD: One further thing. A special favour.
RIKER: Anything, sir.
PICARD: Using the same kind of strength you showed with Captain DeSoto, I would appreciate it if you can keep me from making an ass of myself with children.

Some tough questions, forthrightly stated, but an openness to discussion (followed by a deliberate exposure of what Picard sees as a weakness in himself).

With Jellico, it goes like this:

JELLICO: How many duty watches does the crew stand?

RIKER: We’re on a standard three shift rotation.

JELLICO: I’d like to change that to four starting tonight.

Polite, but not exactly open (not a good sign for a productive command team? I don’t know - what do you think?). It’s certainly a reasonable request to change to a different shift rotation, and maybe senior staff on a premiere Starfleet vessel should have plans for all sorts of things, regularly updated, just in case the next Captain is non-human and wants a 9.5 hour watch rotation for a 47.5-hour “day” - but an order to “I’d like to see a plan for transitioning to a four shift watch rotation on my desk by noon tomorrow, with the start date to be next Monday” seems more efficient - unless he’s deliberately imposing a stress-test on Riker and the rest of the command staff (if he’s deliberately doing it, okay, that’s a choice - but if he’s inadvertently imposing a stress-test on all the staff, he’s a classic “I’m new here - gotta make my mark” bad boss").

Riker doesn’t come off particularly well in this episode at points, either, but let’s just focus on Jellico for the moment

2

Ronny Cox did a fantastic job of playing that role; his body language throughout just screams of insecurity. He’s competent but lacks certain people skills that keep him from being a Picard (or even a Riker).

3

I agree Cox did a great job but I don’t think he was screaming insecurity.

Starfleet captains have large egos. Kinda goes with the job. They have to evince that “they know best.” Good captains, like Picard or Kirk, realize they need to listen to their subordinates. Jellico assumes he has all the answers. Why he is a dick (although he has a few ok moments).

4

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember Jellico being hunched over for a large portion of the episode and anything that crossed his path in a negative way made him physically draw in even more. I took that for insecurity but it definitely could be other psychological failings. Probably dealing with that Axel Foley had something to do with it.

5

Jellico is a dick but he’s competent:

6

I always figured that, had Riker said “four,” Jellico would’ve replied “I’d like to change that to three, starting tonight.”

7

Concur

8

And you think you know more than Troi? Hmmph!

Riker: Well, I’ll say this for him… he’s sure of himself
Troi: No, he’s not.

9

Captain-101: Exude confidence.

10

Which is exactly his point. He was taking over an established crew, for a mission he knew might be very dangerous. That crew was used to taking orders from Picard, and Jellico had to impress upon them that he was the captain now, and they’d better be ready to jump when he gave a command.

In a normal transfer of command, there’s at least some time available to get to know people, and take a softer approach. Jellico didn’t have that luxury, but he still needed to be clearly in command before the shit hit the fan. Hard-ass was the bet way to get to that spot.

11

I worked with many “Jellico types” in my career. They would blow in, make big changes with much fanfare and then quietly over the next 6 months or so, we would change everything back to how it was.

12

My opinion from 11 years ago:

“So how did Starfleet’s Best respond? They whined like little children denied their candy. Riker especially: “He’s not doing things the way we always did! (pout).””

from another post:

I happened to like Deanna’s character, the Goddess of Empathy, while at the same time siding with Capt Jellico that she should put a proper uniform on.

13

I can see how making a change to assert your authority could make sense, but this particular one seems stupid. You’re changing everyone’s sleep schedule in a short period of time. You’re going to have groggy people on a mission of utmost importance.

And even if it wasn’t pointless, it seems unlikely that any actual benefit of four shifts would outweigh the effects. Maybe work with what you have?

14

What he had was a crew that didn’t accept the fact that he was captain now, and he couldn’t afford that, going into a situation that could turn into a war at any moment.

If Riker was even half the first officer he was supposed to be, he should have recognized the bad position Jellico was in, what Jellico was trying to do by shaking things up, and actually supported Jellico when the rest of the crew started bitching.

I’d expect an ensign to whine about things being shaken up, but by the time you’re a senior officer, you should understand things like this.

15

I agree that Riker should have worked with Jellico to make the transition work - but Jellico didn’t give much of an opening for that.

On a larger note, Jellico doesn’t need everyone on the ship to recognize him as the big dog to be an effective Captain - he needs the command team to recognize him as the boss, and everyone else will follow along in the chain of command. Ordering Deanna to dress differently is perfectly appropriate; it makes it clear that he’s not Picard and that he’s in charge. Rearranging the watch schedule seems like it would raise questions about his judgment among the lower staff who otherwise would have rolled with the change of Captain without worry (“There’s a new guy I won’t see or receive direct orders from in charge of the ship - big deal”).

16

That in and of itself is the main good thing Jellico did for the series.

I have to imagine that Marina Sirtis was relieved to be dressed normally, rather than forced to wear odd, non-standard clothing that emphasized her as a sex symbol / woo purveyor / someone not to be taken seriously.

17

In the big picture, I never understood why Picard had to lead the mission. Keeping him on the Enterprise and sending, oh, Riker to lead it makes more sense. Riker loves that shit! In a critical ship mission, Picard should have remained in command. But then we wouldn’t have had humiliated Picard. Again. And it would have fit in a hour.

But then, just last night I watched the Lower Decks (the series) that flashed back to Mariner’s memories and anger at what happened to Sito Jaxa, and I was reminded how much I hate what Picard did to her in Lower Decks (the episode). Don’t send untrained people on spy missions! And don’t play on their weaknesses or insecurities and manipulate them to get them to “volunteer”! Just pick someone that wants to go.

eta: I would have told Picard to pound sand. I’m not spending years in prison at best, or end up dead (more likely, as happened) just so Picard can get his brownie points for completing his mission. Oh maybe he’ll feel sad, remembering, but then something new will come along and he’ll pat himself on the back for that, too.

18

I can’t remember where I heard the story, but supposedly when Sirtis saw Gates McFadden in her conservative slacks and lab coat for the first time, Sirtis asked, “How come you got such a conservative outfit?” and McFadden replied, “Because I told them I wouldn’t wear shorts.”

19

IIRC, Picard had experience with the easily-mistaken-for-background-radiation stuff the enemy was apparently masking their signals as — and apparently it was pretty niche even when Picard was fresh out of the Academy, and even more so decades later — and so he’s the guy you want right there to separate wheat from chaff when a doomsday weapon is in play; Riker, not as much.

20

Or maybe Picard’s the guy you get to train the special forces folks so they can do the job (I know, it may be that time is of the essence, and the amount of training required might take too much time).