Picard's Kurlan naiskos drop is pretty hilarious.

[enterprisecvn65]

So for the uninitiated in the episode The Chase" Picard's favorite archeology teacher, Professor Galen, pays a surprise visit to him on board the Enterprise. As part of his surprise Galen gives this artifact called a Kurlan naiskos to Picard. Which looks kind of like a 2 foot tall ceramic buddah statue and when the top is lifted there are a bunch of little ceramic figures inside which symbolize how this culture, which is now extinct, believed the whole was made up of many individuals.

This is amazing to Picard for a few reasons. First it's complete, which is apparently rare and second, it's even older than Picard thinks coming from the workshop of some master craftsman. Apparently finding one this old that is complete is like finding a unicorn.

This object is so amazing that it makes Picard, a man who isn't easily impressed and doesn't show his emotions easily, extremely moved to the point where he almost looks like he's going to cry. No other object in all of TNG, except perhaps that flute thing he owns, ever causes Picard to have such a strong emotional reaction. In fact when Galen tells him to keep Picard at first refuses saying it's too much for Galen to give him, but Galen insists and Picard eventually relents.

Galen then asks Picard to join him on a quest (I won't say for what for those who haven't seen the episode) Picard, much to Galen's anger, refuses saying he can't leave the Enterprise for that long.

Shortly thereafter Galen is murdered, which causes Picard to take up Galen's quest. You would think Galen dying would only make this object even more precious to Picard as it is now a dying gift from someone special in his life.

Fast forward to the end of Generations. If you've seen the Plinkett review of it you already know what happens, if not you should watch it....it's funny. Picard and Riker are in the, thanks to Riker's brilliant actions during the BOP attack, unsalvageable saucer of the Enterprise and are combing through the wrecked remains of Picard's ready room, looking for his photo album from the first part of the film (never mind the fact that in that scene he was in his quarters looking at it, but apparently at some point he brought it to his ready room) as Picard is combing through various wrecked objects he picks up....you guessed it the Kurlan naiskos. It looks like it's only the top, but it looks undamaged. So you think Picard would be overjoyed at this discovery and start looking to see if the rest of it survived......WRONG!!!!! after giving it a brief glance, Picard casually tosses it aside like a piece of trash!!!! Now he doesn't exactly slam it to the ground so it doesn't shatter into a thousand pieces. But he doesn't set it down gently and it's a pretty good bet that it breaks into a few pieces at least.

So the object that arguably means the most to Picard is discovered with a large piece intact and he doesn't give a shit and probably breaks it when he tosses it aside.

Now the obvious argument would be "If it's not all there he wouldn't want it." But Picard is a man who LOVES archeology, even if the bottom and little figures were destroyed (we never know because he never takes a second to look for them) it's highly unlikely a man who respects artifacts so highly would just toss aside a large intact piece of such a rare artifact. That'd be like throwing out the Venus de Milo because her arms are missing.

So he leaves the ready room to the bridge with only his photo book meaning he leaves it behind to be junked when they scrap the saucer section.

I know they just threw a bunch of crap in the ready room to make it looked trashed, but really not one person said "Hey wait....this is the item that Picard cherished most during the whole run of the show, maybe we should leave it out and certainly not have Picard pick it up and just toss it aside.

I guess it goes with the overall theme of Generations. Picard didn't seem all that busted up when Kirk died, so I guess he just doesn't care about things like he used to. It's just the cherry on top of the sundae that exemplified why this film was so weak.

 

[Green Shirt]

Uninitiated? Yeah, we're all a bunch of rubes here.

 

[Melakon]

For the uninitiated, Galen actor Norman Lloyd has an important role in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942).

 

[T'Girl]

Simply a matter of sentiment and priorities. The album with original family photos is more important than a gift from a close friend.

 

[Christopher]

There's a simple explanation that only just occurred to me. Picard knows that a Starfleet vessel is not the safest place to keep a priceless archaeological treasure, what with all the attacks and dangerous space thingies. So he kept the actual naiksos in a private storage facility back on Earth or somewhere, and kept a replica of it in his ready room for display purposes. Only the replica was destroyed, and he had no reason to be too upset about it, because the real one was still safe.

 

[Dukhat]

There's a simple explanation that only just occurred to me. Picard knows that a Starfleet vessel is not the safest place to keep a priceless archaeological treasure, what with all the attacks and dangerous space thingies. So he kept the actual naiksos in a private storage facility back on Earth or somewhere, and kept a replica of it in his ready room for display purposes. Only the replica was destroyed, and he had no reason to be too upset about it, because the real one was still safe.

Yep, this is just another example of us the fans trying to rationalize something in Generations that makes no sense. For this particular point, I'd agree with Christopher. If someone gave me a priceless, extremely breakable antique, I wouldn't be flying around with it in a ship that's constantly getting into dangerous situations. Especially in an age where technology can create an exact replica of said item. I prefer to think that after a few days Picard gave the original to a museum after replicating it. That's really the only reason that makes sense based on what we see.

 

[Melakon]

Especially in an age where technology can create an exact replica of said item.

Maybe not exact. If that were possible, there would be perfect forgeries of things everywhere. There must be an identifier in the molecular code identifying it as replicated. Or a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Especially in an age where technology can create an exact replica of said item.

Maybe not exact. If that were possible, there would be perfect forgeries of things everywhere. There must be an identifier in the molecular code identifying it as replicated. Or a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom.

I also wonder if these future archaeologists are opposed to even sending rare artifacts through a transporter at all.

Come to think of it, didn't Picard have a lot of other junk in his ready room from other episodes? There was some kind of leather thingy I seem to recall from Who Watches the Watchers. I remember it being draped rather unceremoniously on the back of a chair. I always thought it would get a lot of wear and tear there, or at the very least a greasy spot where his head would rest upon it.

 

[Melakon]

Maybe the flute was the only original he kept. Though it seems Starfleet would have insisted on examining an alien artifact.

 

[Dukhat]

Especially in an age where technology can create an exact replica of said item.

Maybe not exact. If that were possible, there would be perfect forgeries of things everywhere. There must be an identifier in the molecular code identifying it as replicated. Or a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom.

Well, it's not about being exact per se, more that now an actual physical complete specimen of the artifact exists so that copies can be scanned from it.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

Uninitiated? Yeah, we're all a bunch of rubes here.

Yeah I realized it's not amateur night here...just wanted to make everyone feel included

 

[enterprisecvn65]

Simply a matter of sentiment and priorities. The album with original family photos is more important than a gift from a close friend.

Because it would have been impossible between the four hands he and Riker had to take both.

 

[Makarov]

It is pretty funny. I agree that perhaps Picard made a replica and sent the original to be properly stored somewhere else. I'm sure he made some replicas of his flute from Inner Light incase he dropped it. The writers had more important stuff to worry about though, especially when we can easily rationalize this kind of thing - and we are the only one's who would know what these props are from.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

To me though this just sums up in a microcosm how Generations was a rushed, not well thought out mess.

I'm sure when the came time for that scene they told the set people, just grab whatever props we have and scatter them around the room, no one will really notice anyway. And they were right.

But don't you think that at least ONE person would say....maybe we should leave this one out, after all we did dedicate a whole scene in an episode to it stressing how special it was and showing Picard almost breaking down...something we really never did before or since over an object. So let's leave it out, let alone have Picard pick it up and toss it aside like an empty beer can. But apparently no said a word. This would been like if Indiana Jones had gotten to keep the Holy Grail and he takes it home and later his house burns down and, as he's looking for some important archeology notes he took in the remains he picks the grail up and quickly tosses it aside.

It seems like such a little thing, but it's these little things that are done repeatedly throughout this film that made it what it was.

Unless it was done deliberately as an inside joke. Honestly though I just can't see the writers being that clever.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

To me though this just sums up in a microcosm how Generations was a rushed, not well thought out mess.

I'm sure when the came time for that scene they told the set people, just grab whatever props we have and scatter them around the room, no one will really notice anyway. And they were right.

But don't you think that at least ONE person would say....maybe we should leave this one out, after all we did dedicate a whole scene in an episode to it stressing how special it was and showing Picard almost breaking down...something we really never did before or since over an object. So let's leave it out, let alone have Picard pick it up and toss it aside like an empty beer can. But apparently no said a word. This would been like if Indiana Jones had gotten to keep the Holy Grail and he takes it home and later his house burns down and, as he's looking for some important archeology notes he took in the remains he picks the grail up and quickly tosses it aside.

It seems like such a little thing, but it's these little things that are done repeatedly throughout this film that made it what it was.

Unless it was done deliberately as an inside joke. Honestly though I just can't see the writers being that clever.

That's an annoyance with show-turned-movie. There's almost always an associative memory loss in the films, even if produced by the same people as the show. I was actually amazed that they remembered that Picard had a brother and a nephew!

It's especially weird because you just know had this pottery figure turned up later in the series, it would've been lavishly and lovingly explained, if only briefly.

I wouldn't want slavish attention paid to such things in the movies, mind you.

 

[Trimm]

This has never bothered me, ever, in all the years since GEN came out. Given what Picard had just experienced, and learned in the process, the only thing that really mattered to him was that photo album. It makes total sense in the context of the film.

If you want to fan speculate, Christopher's explanation is as good as any. You could also argue that there was no way that Starfleet was going to just let the Enterprise sit there on Veridian 3, and Picard could have every expectation that the rest of his ready room would be salvaged in good time, whereas given the loss of his family that album mattered right then and there.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

This has never bothered me, ever, in all the years since GEN came out. Given what Picard had just experienced, and learned in the process, the only thing that really mattered to him was that photo album. It makes total sense in the context of the film.

If you want to fan speculate, Christopher's explanation is as good as any. You could also argue that there was no way that Starfleet was going to just let the Enterprise sit there on Veridian 3, and Picard could have every expectation that the rest of his ready room would be salvaged in good time, whereas given the loss of his family that album mattered right then and there.

Fine if that's your belief. Tell me though then why not have him pick it up gently look at it for a second and then set it gently down. Not just toss it away in a fashion that will probably break it.

And this wasn't just "Some gift from a friend" Galen was like a father figure to him and the sculpture was something like finding the holy grail of the archeological world. The fact Galen is killed shortly after would only magnify it's importance to him.

So he wants his photo album above all else.....fine. That doesn't mean everything else special in his life is suddenly worthless crap.

It wasn't written to show some deep statement of picard's priorities or they would have made more of a point about it instead of a 3 second shot.

It was either an inside joke or movie making. Based on the rest of generations I'm guessing the latter. Defend it if you wish but all I have to do is watch The Chase to know it was ridiculous.

 

[Trimm]

This has never bothered me, ever, in all the years since GEN came out. Given what Picard had just experienced, and learned in the process, the only thing that really mattered to him was that photo album. It makes total sense in the context of the film.

If you want to fan speculate, Christopher's explanation is as good as any. You could also argue that there was no way that Starfleet was going to just let the Enterprise sit there on Veridian 3, and Picard could have every expectation that the rest of his ready room would be salvaged in good time, whereas given the loss of his family that album mattered right then and there.

Fine if that's your belief. Tell me though then why not have him pick it up gently look at it for a second and then set it gently down. Not just toss it away in a fashion that will probably break it.

And this wasn't just "Some gift from a friend" Galen was like a father figure to him and the sculpture was something like finding the holy grail of the archeological world. The fact Galen is killed shortly after would only magnify it's importance to him.

So he wants his photo album above all else.....fine. That doesn't mean everything else special in his life is suddenly worthless crap.

It wasn't written to show some deep statement of picard's priorities or they would have made more of a point about it instead of a 3 second shot.

It was either an inside joke or movie making. Based on the rest of generations I'm guessing the latter. Defend it if you wish but all I have to do is watch The Chase to know it was ridiculous.

The very fact that he and Riker were searching the remains of the Ready Room specifically for the album IS a statement of Picard's priorities. The fact is that the photo album was both more relevant and more important to the actual plot and message of Generations than the piece from The Chase.

I actually think that the coda on the Ent-D bridge is one of the high points of Generations, and I'm not going to get particularly worked up that they didn't pay homage to a piece of set dressing from a season 6 episode that wasn't particularly important to what the film was actually trying to say.

 

[Mojochi]

Who keeps a family photo album in the 24th century anyhow? I don't even do that anymore. If you had any sense whatsoever you'd have it backed up digitally, thereby negating the necessity of having to have it in a book, or (If you happen to like flipping through it AS a book) thereby negating the need to go sifting through ship wreckage to find it. Just make another one from the backups

Not the ancient flute from a dead civilization, not the primitive one of a kind artifact of another dead civilization, but definitely the book of cards with photographic prints on them, which could have been effortlessly stored digitally. Insanity if you ask me

Hell, we don't even know if anyone grabbed the Moriarty cube. Dude could be getting screwed over yet again

 

[CrazyMatt]

Generations was a mess! And Ron Moore's statement that they destroyed the E-D because (paraphrasing) 'We wanted a cooler looking new one' is the most foolish thing to ever come out of that talented man's mouth.