Star Trek: The Next Generation 6.15

Tapestry

Captain Picard dies and is welcomed into the afterlife by Q. Picard rejects the idea that he is dead. Q explains that it was Picard’s artificial heart that was to blame for his death.

Q gives Picard a chance at redemption. He takes him back to when he was an ensign, two days before he got into the fight in which he was so badly injured that he had to have his heart replaced with an artificial one. If Picard can avoid the fight then Q will restore him to life, otherwise he will be doomed to spend eternity with Q.

Picard does what he can to avoid getting into a fight with the Nausicaans who almost killed him. Corey, one of his friends, isn’t very helpful. He seems eager to tempt fate. Marta, another friend, finds herself very attracted to Picard’s new attitude. 

Picard avoids the fight but alienates his friends. He is transported back to the present only to discover that things aren’t as they were. He is Lieutenant Junior Grade Picard rather than Captain Picard. He questions Commander Riker and Counselor Troi and discovers that while he is a dependable officer he isn’t considered to be command material.

Picard confronts Q and explains why he is displeased with the outcome of his decision to change his life. Q gives Picard one more chance to relive the potential fight with the Nausicaans. This time Picard takes on the Nausicaans with his friends and gets stabbed through the back just like he did originally.

Picard wakes up on the operating table in the present. He recovers from his wound. He is left wondering why Q did what he did.

Thoughts

I don't recall watching this episode before but I think that I have seen clips from it in the past.

I’m a bit torn by this episode. I can see two possible reads. The first is that Picard was wrong to believe that changing the past was the right course of action. The second is that it was Picard’s brashness as an ensign that made him who he became in the present. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Other possible reads exist.

I like this episode but the ending feels like a bit of a cheat. Q’s capricious nature and history of breaking rules are the only things that makes me think that maybe this episode is okay the way it is. It isn’t a favorite episode of mine but I think that on the whole it is a good one.