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Starfleet Career Summary
2333 – Assigned as commander and first officer on U.S.S. Stargazer, later
promoted to captain after death of his superior in battle
2355 – Forced to abandon Stargazer after encounter with then-unknown
Ferengi, with few casualties
2356 – Cleared of negligence in Stargazer loss by routine inquiry
2363 – Chosen to command relatively new Galaxy-class U.S.S.
Enterprise
2364 – Offered but turned down promotion to admiral as commandant of
Starfleet Academy
2366-7 – Declared missing in action during Borg invasion, later rescued
from assimilation and returned to Enterprise command
2369 – Assigned to covert raid and captured by Cardassians on Celtris
III, later returned to Enterprise command 2371 – Lost Enterprise at Veridian III while opposing El-Aurian
scientist Tolian Soran
2372 – Chosen to command relatively new Sovereign-class U.S.S.
Enterprise, SD 49827.5
2373 – Deflected Borg invasion of Earth; risked further contamination
to restore Borg temporal sabotage of human first contact
Psychological Profile: Report of Ship's Counselor Deanna Troi
Updated from Starfleet File Reports
An accomplished diplomat and tactician, Picard managed to surpass a
22-year career as first officer and later captain of the U.S.S.
Stargazer with an even more impressive record as captain of the fleet's
former flagship U.S.S. Enterprise. In the latter role he not only witnessed the major turning points of recent galactic history but played
a major role in them as well, from surviving as the only human abductee
of the Borg invasion in 2366, to becoming the chief contact point with
the Q Continuum, to serving as arbiter choosing the current ruler of the
Klingon Empire and exposing the Romulans as backers of his chief rivals,
later helping a pacifist underground movement to gain a toehold there.
Owing to a single-minded drive since childhood for a Starfleet career,
Picard has "never been a family man" and was long uncomfortable with the
Galaxy-class starship's civilian family contingent; the orphaned son of
Lt. Marla Aster again raised this concern, although his unease with
children has dissipated since being stranded with three youths during a
shipboard quantum filament crisis. His initial reaction to family is
also reflected in the friction with his father and, later, his older
brother over leaving the family business, a winery. However, when asked about having children of his own Picard once replied that "wishing for a
thing does not make it so." The issue of lineage and his lack of
offspring caused a sustained yet brief period of depression upon the
sudden accidental deaths in 2371 of Robert and his nephew Rene, his only
other family members. His outlook was also affected by the chance to
experience a traditional family through an encounter in the Nexus in
2371, as recounted later, and after having relived 40 years of a
Kataanan native's life three years earlier; in the latter case the
decades of experience compressed into 30 minutes from a Kataanan
archival probe was overwhelming.
Lingering throughout Picard's life is a series of unsuccessful romantic
relationships, stemming in part from his introspective nature as a
career officer and his self-professed desire to avoid long-term
commitments. Significant adult romances have included Jenice Manheim in 2342, Capt. Phillipa Louvois in 2356, rogue archeologist Vash in
2366-68, and Lt. Cmdr. Nella Darren in 2369. In addition, he also had
barely acknowledged feelings for Ens. Marta Batanides following their
Starfleet graduation; the Kriosian metamorph Kamala; and the widow of
his best friend Lt. Cmdr. Jack Crusher, Beverly — a Starfleet doctor,
longtime friend and his chief medical officer on the Enterprise.
Aside from these feelings regarding children, family and women, Picard
was even aloof with those he considered his close friends. Nevertheless,
he has shown a willingness to stake his career for them — as when
defending the inherent sentient's rights of first Data and then his
daughter Lal against Starfleet confiscation, then acting as Worf's
cha'dich before the Klingon High Council and stepping in on behalf of
Crewman Simon Tarses during Adm. Satie's virtual witchhunt. Also, a
Q-induced encounter in 2370 with a possible future timeline seems to have diffused this separation from friends somewhat. While he has had no
more encounters with his best Academy mates, both of Picard's closest
friends from his early career, Jack Crusher and Walker Keel, were killed
in the line of duty.
Part of Picard's private nature includes a difficulty in confronting
deep personal issues, which then tend to become suppressed.
Philosophically, he sees life and death as more than two choices of
eternal or momentary existence; in fact, he believes there is another
concept yet beyond human understanding. Genetic engineering with its
pre-determination disturbs him, saying it robs humanity of the unknown
factor that makes life worth living. Having to be patient in the
presence of mounting problems, even if it is unavoidable or even the
best path to take, is unsettling to him; nevertheless, he has shown a
clear skill in knowing when to solicit opinions and when to act decisively. His Enterprise operations officer, Data, once estimated only
a 17% chance that Picard would be so indecisive in a crisis as to call
Starfleet for instructions.
Though he often heatedly defends a strict interpretation of the Prime
Directive, he has broken it numerous times when he felt it was
warranted. For example, during his Enterprise career he allowed an Edo
female to confront her "god" from space and brought a pre-spaceflight
Mintakan leader aboard so as to undo the damage done by cultural
contamination. (He later offered his life to a distressed Mintakan's
arrow to prove he was no immortal himself.) He also chafes at the
Starfleet directive banning captains from most away-team missions in
uncertain or hostile situations.
Picard had few friends as a youngster and self-admittedly "skipped his childhood," due to his early, single-minded drive to be in Starfleet.
Though shy, he took piano lessons only to please his mother; he hated
public performance and soon quit — a move he now regrets. He did build
airships in bottles when young, and like his nephew years later he wrote
a ribbon-winning report on starships; reading of the ancient Bajorans in
the fifth grade might have been another influence on his lifelong
passion for archeology. Later he was school president, valedictorian and
a star athlete.
Picard failed his first try on the Academy entrance exams but only
required one more to pass. As a student athlete, he became the only
freshman ever to win the Academy marathon — the event at Danula II
marked the beginning of his friendship with Admiral Hanson — and he once
out-wrestled a Ligonian in 14 seconds with a reverse body lift for a
pin. He graduated at or near the top of his Academy class, even though he once failed an Academy class over a woman he refers to only as
"A.F.," the initials he carved into gardener Boothby's prize campus elm
tree; he was called at least once to the Academy superintendent's
office, and he credits Boothby for helping him through an ordeal that
saved his graduation. His lack of self-discipline as a young officer
nearly led to his death in a near-fatal stabbing at Starbase Earhart in
2328 while awaiting post-graduation assignments. Picard went on as a
lieutenant to meet Ambassador Sarek at the wedding of his son Spock.
Another mentor of those years was archeology professor Richard Galen,
whose fatherly approach was a trait sorely missed by the son estranged
from his true father. In fact, it was not until after his abduction
during the Borg crisis that Picard ventured home, the first time in 20
years, and began to heal the rift with his brother Robert, who had been
jealous of his high-achieving younger brother whom he viewed as getting away with spurning family traditions and responsibilities.
In an early highlight of his illustrious and fondly recalled years
aboard the U.S.S. Stargazer, First Officer Picard took command of the
bridge upon his captain's death and saved the ship, leading to his
permanent promotion to captain. His command has abruptly halted in 2355
when the vessel was abandoned with relatively little loss of life during
an encounter that, years later, was realized to be the first UFP-Ferengi
contact; casualties would have been much higher had he not devised a
deceptive warp-speed jump maneuver that today is still studied and bears
his name. Even so, he endured a standard inquiry a year later but was
cleared of all negligence.
It was only a year before the Stargazer's loss, in 2354, that Jack
Crusher was killed on an away team, and he had returned the body to his widow at Starbase 32. That same year he visited Chalna; earlier, the
Stargazer had barely eluded ambush while on an unsuccessful truce
mission during the Cardassian border wars.
Picard assumed captaincy of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D on SD 41124, having
hand-picked much of his senior staff — such as two young officers who
impressed him enough upon first meeting to win a place in the senior
staff: Geordi La Forge once piloted his inspection tour shuttle and
stayed up all night to refit an engine part he'd made a passing comment
on, and he witnessed Tasha Yar risk her life to save colonists amid a
Carnelian mine field. Finally, he had picked Riker from among simple
resumes as his first officer and promoted him to commander sight unseen,
impressed by his record of independence. His command presence and ethics
persevered even through the Satarran memory wipe—despite orders, he
would not fire on unarmed people.
Within months of his Enterprise captaincy he was offered admiral's rank
and the job of commandant of Starfleet Academy by Admiral Quinn but
turned it down to retain his flagship. He also commanded the 23-ship
blockade fleet to deter Romulan interference along the Klingon border
during the empire's civil war of 2367-68, and undertook a covert raid in
2369 with two Enterprise officers on Celtris III to investigate a
reported Cardassian metagenic weapons base, later found to be a hoax.
Following the loss of the Enterprise at Veridian III, Picard won command
of the ship's next namesake, one of the new Sovereign class, in 2372 on
SD 49827.5. While Lt. Cmdr. Worf chose to be the exception, Picard's
entire senior staff and many junior officers made the transfer with
their captain. That continuity proves fortuitous: less than a year
later, Picard was ordered away from repelling a second Borg attack for
fear of giving unwitting aid to the enemy, but after reconsidering he led a deflection of the main assault. From there, a risky time-travel
gambit paid off to correct temporal sabotage involving human first
contact.
Other mission performance highlights of his years on the Enterprise's
included his second meeting with Sarek, where at great personal risk he
agreed to a mind-meld to save the Legaran conference in 2366 with the
ailing ambassador; the legendary Vulcan had taken an interest in his
career, calling it "satisfactory," but Picard was still awed by the UFP
legend. They met again briefly as Sarek lay dying two years later as
Picard was en route to another reunion with Spock, leading an
underground pro-unification movement with Vulcan on Romulus.
Picard has also participated in first-contact encounters with the Borg,
Ferengi, Edo, Aldeans, Tamarians, Jarada, Malcoria III, Douwd, Mintaka III, Paxans, Cytherians, the Ux-Mal, and Devidians, among others, and
served as a negotiator and diplomat on missions including Acamar III,
Rutia IV, Angosia III, Bajor, Talarians, Turkana IV, Pentaurus V, Ventax
II, Kaelon II, Lenaria, Gemaris V-Dachlyd, and Krios-Valt Minor.
Picard keeps a healthy outlook on life with a wide variety of interests
and recreational pursuits, including his near-professional pursuit of
archeology, having studied the Iconian culture since his cadet days and
addressed the Federation Archeological Council as keynote speaker on his
oft-studied Tagus III ruins in 2367. He enjoys Terran literature in its
written rather than holo-visual display, especially detective fiction
such as Dixon Hill, and Shakespearean drama; oddly enough, while he
enjoys role-playing the former in holo-programs, he avoids acting or any
other performance art himself despite an interest in classical music and
attending the shipboard concerts and plays on the Enterprise. Even so, he overcame his childhood dislike and began playing a Kataanan flute
following his encounter with that culture.
Picard's interests go well beyond archeology and literature,
however. The subject of planetary motion and physics is another; he kept
up with the Atlantis Project on Earth through journals; and is
fascinated to be the first to discover the spacefaring life form,
communicate with the Crystalline Entity, and reveal an ancient
Promellian battle cruiser. He has studied semantics and keeps his Latin
fresh, but has no interest in politics, dance, small animals, or the
Enterprise senior staff's poker game until his 2370 encounter with Q and
an alternate future timeline.
Medical history: Report of Cmdr. Beverly Crusher, M.D., Enterprise
CMO
Picard enjoys excellent health, thanks to a regimen carried over from
his days as an athlete. He still finds time for fencing, racquetball and
equine sports, usually by Holodeck, but he does show a tendency for
overwork, avoids formal vacations, and has reported bouts of insomnia.
His aversion to annual physicals must also be noted and dealt with.
Owing to a fatal stabbing through the heart in a brawl as a
newly-graduated ensign in 2328, a cardiac device later found to be
defective was implanted to save his life. The unit required replacement
when it malfunctioned in 2365, overseen at Starbase 212 by then-CMO Dr.
Katherine Pulaski. Four years later in a near-fatal Lenarian attack
using compressed tetryon weaponry, it was damaged and replaced. He suffered head trauma to the right temple area in the same incident that
led to Jack Crusher's death in 2355, and has sustained numerous injuries
on occasion, none with long-lasting physical damage.
He was formerly declared dead by Adm. Hanson as a casualty of war after
his assimilation by the Borg; the ruling was rescinded six days later,
after he fought through the imposed Borg mind of Locutus and got back to
his own identity following his recapture. Along with his physical
recovery, the invasive incident took an enormous emotional toll and
required several weeks of counseling. Picard followed a similar though
less lengthy recuperation following his capture and torture by
Cardassians in 2369.
Counselor's update: Report of Cmdr. Deanna Troi, 2373
Less than a year on our new ship and I find myself returning to the
events of 2366-67 regarding our captain: the once-quelled ghosts of his
Locutus experience and his former commands have returned. It has taken
this second Borg experience to remind him of the existence of a "Borg
queen" who pursued him then, and his reaction to the bureaucratic
Starfleet reaction on his involvement is an issue I am positive will be
resolved by the caption's unusually strong self-ego. However, in dealing
with reports by officers who were present, I have decided to focus future
efforts on the subject's lingering anger toward his one-time captors in
future, if any, Borg encounters.
This episode has also revealed a second and as-yet unexamined factor in
the captain's command decision-making process to be considered in future crises: his command history itself. Certainly Picard has compiled an
illustrious career and laudable accomplishments in both diplomacy and
tactics, but the fact remains that he abandoned his first command — a
decision cleared by court-martial review — and lost his second. While
his quick accession to a new command betrayed any concern at Starfleet
about his emotional fitness to lead a starship, it did play a factor in
delaying his eventual decision surrounding the aborted abandonment and
self-destruct of the new vessel to stop the Borg temporal invasion. In
this case, thanks to the interference of a strong-willed contemporary
associate of Zefram Cochrane, Picard was persuaded that self-destruct
was his only option, then thankfully found other options that saved his
vessel — including his unusually strong bond with longtime second
officer Data.
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