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This is a pretty common perspective I've read on the internet, and it was weirdly always the opposite of what I've had. When watching TNG as a kid, I always took Data at his word -- that he has no emotions and that insults or jokes or anything else truly has no effect on him. If it didn't bother Data, why should it bother me? It's also, as I've grown up and learned, secretly really good advise for handling bullies and narcissists. It's a kind of stonewalling, where you don't give the other person the reaction you're looking for.
Picard is a delegator, and he knows his staff, so he assigns tasks to people he feels are appropriate for the job. Troi is not just a councilor, but also a diplomat. That's kinda one of their primary functions/missions in general, so the main staff are all good at doing that kind of work. This fact is never explicitly said, but I feel it's shown to be the case through their actions and over the course of the show.
This one line is perhaps the most vociferously controversial in the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate.
Yes, but it's only one long (and two far).
I don't see why it can't be both. It's not like Picard gave Wesley or someone else grossly unqualified and incompetent those duties. He gave it to someone he trusted would do the best job that they could given the circumstances. As his hand was forced with Reva sitting out, hoping that Reva's pride and sense of duty would compel himself to get out of his funk.
This is an intensely weird episode. Because it both doesn't jive with later assertions in the franchise that genetic engineering in the Federation is banned, as well as the fact that they kinda just stumble backwards into a fountain of youth that never really gets brought up again despite the vast repercussions this discovery should have.
And realistically speaking, it’s soooooo much more horrifying and dangerous vs how it usually gets discussed in-show or the existential crises people discuss.
Sometimes dead is better.
I actually find the episode fascinating, even though I've seen it (and the rest of TNG) a million times over. It's the first, meaningful early look we get into how Picard's brain works, what motivates him, and what his character flaws are. The best Picard episodes are all ones like this that explore those facets of his personality. Of him coming into conflict with his perceived weaknesses, and either overcoming them, or reevaluating his views all together. It's something I always thought was both very interesting to watch, as well as always served as a good role model for an evolved idea of what masculinity could be. The biggest failure of the movie Nemesis isn't any of the things you normally hear fans whine about, it's that the central drama of the film is centered around Picard having the exact same personal identity crisis as this episode as if he hadn't learned that lesson before.
Loved that scene. It's also very fun that Worf thinks they're delicious b/c you know, aliens and whatnot.
That whole "Anbojutsu" sequence is pretty embarrassing/bad, but you can tell it's coming from a place of admiration from 1980s weeaboos.
IMO, I don't think what she's saying is necessarily mutually exclusive to what you've explained or what the rest of the episode is doing. To me, when someone says "you can't teach confidence" they're alluding to the fact that it's something that people need to discover for themselves. You can put people into positions where they will be set up to succeed/make learning that lesson for themselves a lot more likely. But it's not like confidence is a math equation you can force a kid to memorize.
One of the lowkey very interesting aspects of this story is that when the Enterprise first fires upon the Borg Cube, they actually severely crippling it. The implication being they had just kept blasting, they probably could have eliminated the Borg then and there. But due to their own nature as an inquisitive and non-aggressive people, they give the Borg the valuable time to repair their ship and figure out a defense against the Enterprise's weaponry. It's a way of showing through action the theme that Q is trying to convey to the crew/audience. They're out of their depth out here.
This is a point of disagreement between us. Mostly though, in that it is kind of the beginning of a character development arc that takes the entire show for it to complete for Picard. Whether you value or get what I got out of it is ymmv, but it's something about TNG I really value and adore.
Picard is for many and myself, a role model for progressive masculinity, and more generally human decency. A competent leader who is also compassionate, considerate, thoughtful, self-sacrificing, principled, yet open minded and open to critiques, etc. He runs counter to a lot of our culture's toxic masculinity traits and was one of our foundational TV-dads.
