Background

[Retro Review] Tapestry, TNG

Article arrow_drop_down

In a diplomatic mission gone wrong, Captain Picard is beamed back home to the Enterprise after being shot in the chest and dies. The shot blew out his mechanical heart and as he crosses the celestial border from life to death, he’s met with his creator. Or at least someone claiming to be God, his old pal Q.

Q explains the situation. The heart, or lack of, killed him. Then he plays back the fight that made him lose his actual heart; a bar room brawl with a Nausican when the Captain was a newly minted Ensign. As Picard watches his young self being stabbed through the chest, leading to an artificial heart being implanted leading to it being shorted out decades later, Q gives his old pal a choice. Stay dead, or go back and fix the mistake.

Early on in the Next Generation, Picard quickly recounts how he lost his original heart to Wesley Crusher who seems bemused that the stuffy old Captain used to be a bit of a rebel. Tapestry nicely picks up on that story and offers a first look at the young Picard we could never imagine by swapping out the Captain we know fr his younger self. A recent Starfleet Academy graduate who’s awaiting his first assignment alongside his classmates and best friends of his youth.

Reliving his younger days thankfully means we get Patrick Stewart in the role because thats how he and Q see him. Avoiding casting a younger person in the role gives us a chance to see Captain Picard properly looking back at his younger self as he relives the mistakes he made as an ensign with sombre and often awkward replays. Also, who wants to watch a Picard growth episode with someone else in the role. We’ve learned a lot from the episode where he was a teenager with weirdly brown eyes….

The episode doesn’t have the “second chance” weight of others, such as DS9#’s The Visitor. But it does show a mature Picard dealing with his stupid younger self and trying to make up for mistakes. His regret of never having a non platonic relationship with his bestie is resolved, but he ruins it all by fighting his other best pal instead of the Nausican that stabbed him. Basically ensuring he never gets stabbed through the chest while simultaneously shattering his friend group.

Then the butterfly effect. What happens if he never gets in that fight and loses his friends? Turns out he ruins everything. In a jump to the present day after saving himself shows a lonely man avoiding risk means he avoided the risks on the Stargazer that led him to take command. He never became Captain. He instead jumps into a life where he never became a Captain. Never became anything really. Just a basic lower decks science officer known to never take risks and just be comfortable in his lower tier job. Even when asking about promotion Riker would clearly be more confident in letting Worf become a relationship counsellor.

I’ve always seen this as the episode where Q shows his true colours. He may have been a bit misguided, but nearly all of Q’s appearances seem to be a lesson for his favourite human. There’s a closing statement of not being sure if this happened or was imagined in a death delirium. But eventually Q told Picard outright he was messing with him to guide him in Picard Season 2, which gives the idea of Q being an agonistically nice guy more weight.

The entire point of the episode is about owning your mistakes. No ones perfect and we all mess up sometimes. Sure, some themes don’t resonate well. There’s nothing wrong with being a play it safe guy living a comfortable low key life and that’s not really acknowledged as well as it should be. Everyone’s amazing in their own way and doesn’t need to be an all out hero. And the emotional weight of the episode trails at the end as Picard resets his timeline and cheats death with a little help from a friend.

The moral of the story is very heavy handed. Take risks. Be bold. Be brave. Mistakes are character building and make us who we are. And it does work well. But at the same time, it’s mostly an episode to show Q for who he really is. A story we wouldn’t see come to an end for 29 years. For it’s flaws, it’s one of the best Picard episodes and one of the best Q episodes in the grant tapestry of Star Trek itself.

About the author

About the author

ADM JT Marczynka, DoFA

Creator of things, writer of words, caffeine addict. Director of Communications for Starfleet Command Quadrant 2.

More posts Follow

trending_flat
Fleet Support Recruitment: Alpha Quarter 2025

Following SFC's 50th anniversary, and looking ahead to whats to come in 2025 and beyond, we've been working on bolstering our fleet-wide operational support and opening the floor for officers to take a larger role in our operations. As part of our redefining our Fleet Support department, five roles were opened up to give more room for members to contribute beyond their unit and help shape the next generation of the club. Our first recruitment event saw two members brought on board to the Fleet Support panel and as we race through our first quarter of the year, we have the final three roles ready for recruitment! FLEET SUPPORT SFCQ2's Fleet Support division has been designed to aid and supplement membership opportunities and solidify a helpful, informative and supportive structure. Each role acts as a secondment to allow members to […]

trending_flat
For The Uniform: The Muted Tones of The Motion Picture

Starfleet's wardrobe always seems to change. Different producers and designers always bring something new to the table, whether it's a need to create a more militarised uniform, something nice and simple for a more real-world feel, or sometimes – just sometimes – space pyjamas. In the 1960s, colour television was all the rage and Star Trek was at the forefront of that huge leap in visual technology. It's outfits and set design were crafted to be bold and brash, resulting in the bright paintwork, scenes lit with vibrant pinks and purples and of course the now iconic division coloured uniforms. In both the planned launch of Phase II in 1978 and the earlier animated series in 1973, the iconic look of Starfleet was retained in all its bright and colourful glory. But when plans were scrapped and Paramount opted to […]

trending_flat
A Fistful of Star Trek Online’s Best Bits!

This week marks fifteen years since the launch of whats become Star Trek's most consistent and longest reigning video game, Star Trek Online. Developed following the relaunch of a new movie franchise, STO told the other side of the story. While NEro went back in time and created the Kelvin Timeline offshoot, STO focused on the galactic politics following the collapse of the Hobus Star. Customising your player character, you begin at the Academy, get yourself a star ship and rank up as you balance exploration, politics and shooting a lot of things! Over the years the game has changed and developed with expansions, new additions, rotating Executive Producers - and now new owners! - using multiple guest appearances into the mix for story mission while allowing group events, developing annual traditions and generally letting us all play with cool […]

trending_flat
Upcoming Away Missions in Glasgow & Edinburgh for the Tesla!

As we enter 2025 (or... 2402...?) there's no rest for the crew of the Tesla as the team are already back in action making a return to two of the biggest events in Scotland! One of the most active and welcoming crew, the year is already off to a flying start with more to come through the year! The first events of the year include.... Capital Sci Fi Con February 15th & 16th, O2 Academy Edinburgh Always the best way to kick start the year, Tesla is once again heading to Edinburgh for their first away mission in 2025! This years guest line up is one for the Whovians! This year the Fifth Doctor himself Peter Davidson will be in attendance for photo and autograph opportunities alongside co-star Janet Fielding, better known in the TARDIS as Fifth Doctor Companion Tegan! […]

trending_flat
Across The Universe! Black Ops Missions & Lifetime Achievements!

The year begins with a New Trek bringing us to even strange new worlds while franchise - both old and new - celebrate upcoming awards ceremonies. Section 31 Released... After a long, long wait the potentially least anticipated project in the Star Trek Universe was released on January 25th as Section 31, starring Michelle Yeoh reprising her role as reformed (kinda) Emperor Georgiou displaced in time and recruited to rejoin Section 31 for a dangerous mission to protect the Federation in the most non Federation way possible. Initially developed as a full series exploring the nature of the organisation's questionable origins and motives, the project was placed in the hands of new writers to transform the concept into a made for streaming movie as a condensed action piece that limited the original intention and replaced it with something a little […]

trending_flat
Boldly Going Nowhere: Section 31 Quick Review

REVIEW SCORE   FLEET SCORE   Focused on the outliers of the Star Trek Universe, the idea of the Section 31 film was to go beyond Starfleet and present the universe from a different perspective and in a different way. An idea thats been done with some hit and miss success over the past ten years. Section 31's initial pitch and writing team was something that had the potential to be something we could enjoy and even with mild hesitation, we were eager to see where the once series would go now a new writer had condensed the vague idea into a one off experiment, a streaming based movie to add to the tapestry of different flavours Star Trek has offered in resent years. It was also an experiment in offering a first real glimpse at a batch of heroes […]

Related

trending_flat
No One Expects The Starfleet Inquisition! Retro Review: Inquisition, DS9 S6E18

Stopped from heading to a quiet medical conference, Doctor Bashir is locked down with the crew of Deep Space Nine when internal investigations officer Sloan arrives. Apparently Deep Space Nine has a security breach. Information's being leaked to the enemy and all leads point to one person: Julian Bashir. It's a nice rarity when this era of Star Trek plays out it's story of the week without a B-Plot and Inquisition does it all quiet nicely. Especially as everything's played out from the perspective of Bashir as he's separated from his colleagues which enhances the tense paranoia of whats happening as Sloan probes through evidence that points to the doctor betraying the Federation. Thematically it's a story told many times before, even previously told in Star Trek, but with DS9's tone becoming a little darker by this stage, it worked […]

trending_flat
[Retro Review] Generations (1994)

Kirk's era my have started the phenomenon, but 1994 was a different era. Picard's Enterprise crew had just finished more than twice the amount of seasons of the original with one spin off finding it's feet and another in the pipeline. With the original crew having said their goodbyes in the Undiscovered country, the old was already out and the not quite as old were ready to take over the film branch of the Star Trek franchise. But not without a weird handover ceremony. Years after his final voyage as captain, Kirk is dragged out of retirement to sit in a chair and smile politely as a new captain launched with a new Enterprise. Of course, the new captain was typically useless so when the Enterprise was the only ship in range again, and the ship was dragged into an […]

trending_flat
[Retro Review] Schisms; TNG Season 6

Alien abduction isn't exactly an innovative or creative plot device. Long before the X Files became the most popular brand of alien conspiracy in media, we had everything from the memorably dazzling abduction in Close Encounters of the Third Kind to the found footage wonder The McPherson Tape. For Star Trek, however, it's an odd concept to include. Humanity is a space faring species and some of our best pals are aliens. If one crept into your bedroom in the middle of the night and took you on board their ship, that's more of a diplomatic nightmare than a horrific conspiracy. So when it did happen in Next Gen's Schisms it all felt a bit weird and creepy. Mostly in a good way.

trending_flat
[Retro Review] The One With The Whales (1986)

Closing off an accidental trilogy, Kirk and his disgraced crew wrap up chilling out on Vulcan to go back to Earth for a bit of a wrist slapping. While they saunter back home in a stolen Klingon ship, an alien probe pops round for tea and biscuits on Earth. Except, there's neither tea nor biscuits buit a confusing sense of chaos as it sucks everything around it of power and soaks up Earths oceans for what seems like no apparent reason.

trending_flat
[Retro Review] The Search For Spock (1984)

The Wrath of Khan was the end of the road, or so many thought. So killing off Spock was a way to close that chapter of their lives and move on to other projects. But of course, the second outing was also a success, but director Nick Meyer had a feeling it would be and put in a caveat. Before his death, Spock mind melded with Dr McCoy and told him to remember...

site2025m

Serving the fan community since 1974, SFC is an international not for profit fan organisation bringing together collective of fans collectively enjoying strange new worlds in science fiction media.

Star Trek and all related, derived or inferred ideas are the intellectual property of Paramount and Paramount Global. No infringement is intended in the use of this material. Starfleet Command Quadrant 2 (SFCQ2) does not generate any income or profit from their endeavours as a fan organisation, no part of which is sanctioned by the Paramount Global group or any sub-division of the legitimate copyright holders.

Core Website layout by Ghostpool. Managed and Maintained by Aim to Misbehave on behalf of Starfleet Command  Quadrant 2

© 2401 Starfleet  Command Quadrant 2 (SFCQ2)

Login to enjoy full advantages

Please login or subscribe to continue.

Go Premium!

Enjoy the full advantage of the premium access.

Stop following

Unfollow Cancel

Cancel subscription

Are you sure you want to cancel your subscription? You will lose your Premium access and stored playlists.

Go back Confirm cancellation