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Episode
234
Lessons
Romance is in the air when Captain Picard finds himself falling for a certain strong willed, highly-professional redhead on the crew. Nope, not that one. This one is Lt. Cdr. Nella Daren, and Picard may have just sent the woman he loves to her death. The Captain and Lieutenant make beautiful music when we put Lessons in the Mission Log.
Picard falls in love with his Piano teacher.
An interesting episode with some great, intimate moments.
Poor Picard never gets the girl 🙁 When he thought she had died, the heartache on his face made me want to cry
I liked the idea of this ep, although it felt like something that should have come up earlier. Picard has “no beach to walk on” because stupid Starfleet keeps having all these suicide missions for his girlfriends. Sheesh. So, once again, we sacrifice some plausibility for the sake of an emotional beat.
“Rock out with his Jacques out?” What did you guys have for breakfast?
And I totally won’t point out that you put “DeNiro” into ST09 (4’48”); although I thought is was chilling the way DeNiro demanded, “I want Kirk dead! I want his family dead!”
I had no recollection of this episode until this weeks podcast. Thanks for reminding me. Funny how there of episodes of TNG like this.
How did you like it? Kinda cool to have little easter egg surprises of these episodes of a show you really like…time capsule type surprise! I liked it because it developed the human aspect of the show vs the facial rubber prosthetic, alien of the week, disaster of the week concepts we get too often….
I was pleasantly surprised. Nice to see a slightly different Picard in action. I enjoy the episodes that show crew members in a different light.
Wendy Hughes “LCDR Daren” RIP 2014
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I was sad to learn that Wendy Hughes had passed away. I like to figure out the ages of these actors when I first saw these episodes in 1989-1996 when I was 17-25 years old…it really puts my life in perspective to know that I am just about the age Patrick Stewart was in 1989 when he became Jean-Luc Picard at 49, I am now 44. Wendy Hughes was 41 when this was filmed…
A bit silly for Starfleet to have no policy regarding fraternization. Human nature and all…for the serious life saving/endangering work they do. No sense in comparing it to current military rules, because it does not work perfectly anyway. So glad Picard referenced his experience on Kataan/Ressik. These small examples point to how poor TNG was at continuity and what a glaring oversight it was. A few plot threads here and there could have meshed the entire series run together so much more smoothly, showing some sort of vision, instead of the alien/face prosthetic, sci-fi challenge of the week storytelling we were saddled with….ugh…..
Well, I have some free time so…in case anyone wonders, there are some fraternization guidelines in the US military, not an expert, but if enlisted and officer start dating, they need to get married and be done with it. Generally frowned upon if enlisted do it those 2-3 ranks above or below them, same for officers I think. In the same command considered ok/tolerated, but not same rating scheme/chain……I had asked my guys if they thought online video game playing w officer and enlisted during off time could be considered fraternization..since they are not actually face to face physically spending time…answer is YES. Because a relationship is being created that others do not have access to and preferential treatment can result. i.e. “I won’t give watch/duty to Scott on Wednesdays, because that is our videogame Clan war night!”- lol
It is a tricky thing in and out of the military. If the boss is dating/married to someone else in the organization it adds to all kinds of questions, valid or not. Then add to that the life and death situations that can be faced in the military, yikes.
Yup. Always highly discouraged. Generally, the combat arms, line units don’t have this issue…but times are changing. I will find the really shameful Navy article..it was downright embarrassing….!
USS Cowpens
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/aug/07/why-uss-cowpens-co-gombert-savage-fired/
Yikes.
According to Wikipedia, “Frere Jacques” in Dutch is “Vader Jacob”.
Early, rejected name from Star Wars.
Better than Jeff Vader…
Is that an Eddie Izzard reference?
It is indeed. 🙂
Awesome 🙂
The people of Kataan should have got poor ol’ Hutch from Starship Mine to live out a life and learn to play a tin whistle… cause boy did that guy love to talk!
I felt like the discussion of Picard ordering people close to him on dangerous, potentially deadly missions missed one huge name, Jack Crusher. No, we did not see that happen. But it’s a huge plot point of the series, especially when we have talk of Picard and Beverly and Picard’s mentorship of Wesley. Jack was Picard’s best friend. In it’s way, it is as close a relationship one can have with someone who is not family or familiar like Commander Daren. To me the discussion on Picard ordering people he loved or cared for into life or death situations should not have included Famke Jansen’s character because their interaction was completely different. Just my thoughts. There are times I wish I could join you in the conversation!
Good catch on Jack
I’m a retired Army officer and spent 4 years enlisted in the Marines and this episode has bothered me for 20 years or so. I know Starfleet isn’t a military unit until it is. And I don’t understand how the ships have 98% officers, but for the most part chain of command is a thing, even when Wesley led that away team. But senior officers should not have relationships with people under them. Even in this episode where Ken and Ray point out nothing was compromised, other crew members will wonder. Plus how will Picard unbiasedly do her performance review (giggity giggity).
Well that’s my 2¢. This is my first post here, I think. Love the show.
That’s the issue, even under best intention Human nature will protect those closest to us.
Of course it is a bit of a stretch that the head of Stellar Cartography, (she makes maps), would be involved in such a risky mission. But regardless, this ship is often involved in risky business.
Picard hesitates sending her and were it not for her insistence to be part of the away team she would not have gone. Despite his desire and statements to not get partial, he already is showing it.
Actually, I was going to say the same thing. Seems obvious that a supervisor should never have relations with subordinate.
Maybe this is a stupid question, but how is the most acoustically perfect spot in the ship not the holodeck?
It is, but availability would be lower. Picard and Darren can play in the Jeffries tubes whenever they want, barring other work happening. Besides, having a sneaky hidey-hole to practice/kiss in would be fun. What I don’t understand is why that specific area is better than the dozens of others that are probably identical.
She asked for time in the Holodeck but…
This is not a Picard episode. I don’t know why they have Picard as the main char in this episode, because he doesn’t really act like Picard nor would this really be a Picard issue. If they replaced Picard with Riker, and changed Riker’s role to into the department head, while making Daren a shift lead, then you’d have, I think, a bit better of an episode with more drama and more lessons and such.
Your discussion on the fate of the Kataran civilisation and how Picard basically squandered their legacy was both hilarious and on-the-nose, as always guys 🙂
As regards the use of the Jefferies Tube painting, there really wasn’t room on stage to put an actual set in the location it occupied (the J-tube ladder-room was just 10 feet from the back wall). Also, I don’t think any more than two sections of horizontal Jefferies Tube were ever actually built, therefore it would have been impossible to do the slow pan back through the tubes if those same set pieces have been placed opposite the camera.
Usually, the J-tube painting was placed at the far end of the horizontal set pieces
Ridiculously late to the party – sorry, it’s been a crazy, crazy month. Good thing Picard has that Kataan story to fall back on, because…how would it have gone if he just rehashed the previous week’s episode? “Well, this one time…we did this baryon sweep thing…and I killed a whole bunch of bad guys…but hey, I saved my real saddle that I use with holodeck horses, sooooo …there’s that.” That sort of story just leads to a really sad flute solo*.
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* totally not a euphemism.
A lesson why superiors should not have relations with subordinates.
Contrived, perhaps dull and a bit repulsive, but a great ending.