Did you end up as Blue Shirt Picard?

[Relayer1]

I'm not ambitious - I never have been, and generally distrust people that are. Almost everyone that is is deluded about their level of competence and will step on you when convenient.

My aim was always to get out of working for a living as soon as possible. To that extent, I've been successful I suppose. My house is paid for and both my wife and I stopped working full time before we hit 50. Hardly a mansion, and we don't have a car, but we're doing O.K.

If that makes me a blue shirt, I'm happy with that.

 

[MacLeod]

I tend to play it more towards the safe side, so perhaps more towards a blue shirt but in my position at work in TNG terms I would be wearing a red shirt, I just steadily applied myself to the job (even though it was a career path I didn't plan on taking).

 

[Relayer1]

I tend to play it more towards the safe side, so perhaps more towards a blue shirt but in my position at work in TNG terms I would be wearing a red shirt, I just steadily applied myself to the job (even though it was a career path I didn't plan on taking).

I trained as a teacher but decided against it as a career. I got a job and got promoted several times after leaving Uni, ending up not liking what I was doing.

I moved jobs, found a niche I was happy in and kept my head down. Sidestepped a promotion when it came up and after 19 years there, took redundancy, which cleared the mortgage.

Sat on my ass for a while and ended up doing a couple of days a week at the comic shop I worked at when I was at Uni.

Glittering career neatly avoided...

 

[Santaman]

Blue shirt? moi? eh nah, work wise maybe, health doesn't permit greatness so I all make it up in my mind.. to hell with being normal.. I ride a 12 year old chinese scooter composed mainly out of rust and decaying plastic but it has desert camo and I think I'm a Pirate!

 

[Phil123]

If you're happy where you are and with what you're doing, I'd say your a Red Shirt Picard.

I never took the Blue Shirt to literally mean "the sciences" in the context of this episode, just to mean Picard not living up to his ambitions and potential. It wasn't what he had wanted. Not that it's not a great career path/life calling.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I’ve never wanted to lead, and never liked it whenever I was pushed into leading. I’m a much more effective Lancer. Just tell me what the job is, what the rules are for doing it*, point me at it, and let me go.

So I probably wouldn’t be a Red Shirt Picard, even given the opportunity.

*I like it better when you care less about how I do it than the fact that it gets done.

 

[Kor]

I would be more of a blue-shirt Spock. I like being second or third in command. It makes you less of a target than being the top dog.

Kor

 

[USS Triumphant]

My problem with this episode, looking back and knowing as much about Picard as I do now, is the idea that he would have stayed in Starfleet at all if he wanted to play it safer. He's still aboard the flagship, getting fired at by Romulans, Borg, etc, and facing the dangers of the unknown with the rest of the crew. He was a promising archaeology student, so I think he would have left Starfleet to pursue a career in that direction, instead. Or, maybe he'd have gone back to work at the vineyards, deciding his brother had been right.

As for me, I'm Emperor of all I survey (literally), and so I'm definitely not "Blue shirt Picard". But don't think that means I live the life of Riley. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

Well, he was already IN Starfleet. He might have considered quitting to do something else a “risk” too big to take.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. And sometimes, lopped-off is the same head.

 

[Qonundrum]

Or look at it from another perspective since thinking inside the box isn't as fun as wandering outside of it from time to time, unless one is inside a TARDIS but nevermind:

Without blue and yellow shirts to do the work, would Picard have gotten anywhere? "Tapestry" would have had a fun sequel with Q pointing that out to Picard as well. Leaders are great and worth following (like Kirk), but "Tapestry" - albeit not deliberately - inadvertently tells a wrong message that devalues everything else in the process. The word "oops" comes to mind. TOS valued its crewmembers, but McCoy and others would still elevate the role of captain and rightly so. "Tapestry" pretty much tells the inverse. Remember, Kirk often told of protecting his ship and crew. Picard would just let them all die and say he was doing them a favor and that was teased at in some episodes but the First Contact Movie just casually proves it. Thankfully TOS shows episodes of Kirk making blunders and Picard supporting his crew, otherwise those turgid battles in the 1990s of "Kirk vs Picard" would have been a lot easier to decide... though by early 1997 Sisko was starting to outdo both of them...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Blue Shirt Picard is only a tragedy because we already know what Picard is supposed to be. We were already familiar with the hero that is Red Shirt Picard. That's the only reason that it's unfortunate to see a Blue Shirt Picard.

In general, though, there is absolutely NO shame in being a "blue shirt" (whatever the hell that actually means). We can't all be heroes, can we? Just because we're not saving the universe every other damn day, does that mean we are a failure? HELL no. There is a place in the universe for heroes, AND for the regular people who just want to survive another day.

Me, I work at Kroger, and I'm proud of what I do, but I'm under no illusions as to my importance in the grand scheme of things. I'm just a guy who works at a supermarket - nothing more, nothing less. But there's no reason I should be ashamed of what I do, is there? Yeah, sure, I'm not a cop or firefighter or military man or anything like that. But I still enjoy what I do, and at the end of the day, I can look myself in the mirror and realize that I've put in a good day's work. Why shouldn't I be proud of that?

And to anyone else reading this, this also applies to you. Whatever job you have, do it well, and that means you have won the fight. Do not let ANYONE tell you that you should be ashamed because you're not high enough up on the totem pole.

But don't take my word for it...Aaron Tippin explains it better than I ever could.

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You get up every morning 'fore the sun comes up
Toss a lunchbox into a pickup truck
A long, hard day sure ain't much fun
But you've gotta get it started if you wanna get it done
You set your mind and roll up your sleeves
You're workin' on a working man's Ph.D

With your heart and your hands and the sweat on your brow
You build the things that really make the world go around
If it works, if it runs, if it lasts for years
You can bet your bottom dollar it was made right here
With pride, honor and dignity
From a man with a working man's Ph.D

Now there ain't no shame in a job well done
From driving a nail to driving a truck
As a matter of fact I'd like to set things straight
A few more people should be pullin' their weight
If you want a cram course in reality
You get yourself a working man's Ph.D

When the quittin' whistle blows and the dust settles down
There ain't no trophies or cheering crowds
You'll face yourself at the end of the day
And be damn proud of whatever you've made
Can't hang it on the wall for the world to see
But you've got yourself a working man's Ph.D

Now there ain't no shame in a job well done
From driving a nail to driving a truck
As a matter of fact I'd like to set things straight
A few more people should be pullin' their weight
If you want a cram course in reality
You get yourself a working man's Ph.D

 

[Finn]

^It's not about the job. I rewatched the episode recently. I just happened to reach Tapestry around the time this thread started. It was more about the version of a Picard who was mediocre and not taking opportunities, in responding to challenges and things life would throw at him.

 

[Mojochi]

I'd be miserable as shit if I were in some command role (Red shirt). Good god. I'm sure they'd jump at me for it right now at my job. Never wanted anything like that. Hell, I bet even if I lived in the 24th century Star Trek reality, I'd still opt for some blue shirt job, if I was in Starfleet at all... probably not the one he was doing, but definitely an ancillary support role, maybe in the medical branch, which is kind of what I do now

Career fulfilment is overblown. It is such a small part of overall wellbeing. Finding a vocation you can feel your impact is worthwhile enough to be there every day, that's about all anyone really needs imho. Anything more than that requires sacrifice in other areas of your life. Some people have a drive that makes them want to make those sacrifices, & that's terrific, but that you don't doesn't make you anything less, & the potential liberties in other areas of your life can be just as rewarding/fulfilling.

 

[Clerk Kant]

I have always been and will forever be a blue shirt.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

not in your current avatar

 

[SPCTRE]

Neither, really, but I also don't think the metaphor works especially well.

What usually happens in life though is that things don't go as expected (or even planned) - and that's a good thing, generally speaking.

 

[Twilight Phoenix]

"Did you end up as blue shirt Picard ?"

No, I ended up as the anonymous person who cleans blue shirt Picard's toilets...

 

[JirinPanthosa]

When I was a kid I dreamed of being a blue shirt, and ended up a gold shirt.

 

[Finn]

Worf, Geordi or Data?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Worf, Geordi or Data?

Geordi is the closest.