Who is the better captain Picard or Jellico

[Shamrock Holmes]

Another example:

[now in "Engineering"]
ANNOTATION: (Jellico and La Forge climb out of a Jefferies tube)
JELLICO: Power transfer levels need to be upgraded by twenty percent. The efficiency of your warp coils is also unsatisfactory.
LAFORGE: Coil efficiency is well within specifications, Captain.
JELLICO: I'm not interested in the specs, Geordi. The efficiency needs to be raised by at least fifteen percent.
LAFORGE: Fifteen percent.
DATA: That is an attainable goal, but it will require realigning the warp coil and taking the secondary distribution grid offline.
JELLICO: Very good, Data. That's exactly what I want you to do.
LAFORGE: If we take this grid offline, we're going to have to shut down exobiology, the astrophysics lab and geological research.
JELLICO: We're not on a research mission. Get it done in two days.
DATA: I believe that is also an attainable goal. If we utilise the entire Engineering department, there should be sufficient manpower available to complete the task.
LAFORGE: Sure, if everybody works around the clock for the next two days.
JELLICO: Then you'd better get to it, Geordi. It looks like you have some work to do.

Jellico has been made aware of the minimum resources required for the orders he's given and agrees to it and then:

LAFORGE: Commander, he's asked me to completely reroute half the power systems on the ship, change every duty roster, realign the warp coils in two days, and now he's transferred a third of my department to Security.
RIKER: If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. Captain Jellico has made major changes in every department on the ship.
LAFORGE: Yeah, well, I don't mind making changes and I don't mind hard work, but the man isn't giving me the time I need to do the work. Someone's got to get him to listen to reason.
RIKER: It's not going to be me. He's made that abundantly clear.

This is within hours of taking command.

That said, I think most of us agree that he was right with this:

JELLICO: By the way. I prefer a certain formality on the Bridge. I'd appreciate it if you wore standard uniform when you're on duty.

 

[Gabriel]

Another example:

[now in "Engineering"]
ANNOTATION: (Jellico and La Forge climb out of a Jefferies tube)
JELLICO: Power transfer levels need to be upgraded by twenty percent. The efficiency of your warp coils is also unsatisfactory.
LAFORGE: Coil efficiency is well within specifications, Captain.
JELLICO: I'm not interested in the specs, Geordi. The efficiency needs to be raised by at least fifteen percent.
LAFORGE: Fifteen percent.
DATA: That is an attainable goal, but it will require realigning the warp coil and taking the secondary distribution grid offline.
JELLICO: Very good, Data. That's exactly what I want you to do.
LAFORGE: If we take this grid offline, we're going to have to shut down exobiology, the astrophysics lab and geological research.
JELLICO: We're not on a research mission. Get it done in two days.
DATA: I believe that is also an attainable goal. If we utilise the entire Engineering department, there should be sufficient manpower available to complete the task.
LAFORGE: Sure, if everybody works around the clock for the next two days.
JELLICO: Then you'd better get to it, Geordi. It looks like you have some work to do.

Jellico has been made aware of the minimum resources required for the orders he's given and agrees to it and then:

LAFORGE: Commander, he's asked me to completely reroute half the power systems on the ship, change every duty roster, realign the warp coils in two days, and now he's transferred a third of my department to Security.
RIKER: If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. Captain Jellico has made major changes in every department on the ship.
LAFORGE: Yeah, well, I don't mind making changes and I don't mind hard work, but the man isn't giving me the time I need to do the work. Someone's got to get him to listen to reason.
RIKER: It's not going to be me. He's made that abundantly clear.

This is within hours of taking command.

That said, I think most of us agree that he was right with this:

JELLICO: By the way. I prefer a certain formality on the Bridge. I'd appreciate it if you wore standard uniform when you're on duty.

Yes we can all agree on standard duty uniform But like jellico says “ may I be blunt, the enterprise is mine now.” I believe Riker was blowing it out of proportion a little bit. I mean when ever data took over as first officer he didn’t seem to mind jellico decisions. And since he has no feelings, then no arrogance. Also since data seems to go along with jellico decisions they clearly weren’t harming the ship also. It his ship he can run it as he likes as long as it is within starfleet regs. But he could have had a little better attitude. Also jellico is right with making laforge do the war for thing because they are possibly going into battle not a research mission

 

[Herbert]

On the surface, it seems like an easy poll to answer. After all, Picard is our guy. He's the one we've seen in seven seasons of the show. Jellico is a hard ass jerk, based on an extremely limited canon sample size. Jellico strikes me as a no nonsense kind of guy who will get the job done regardless of what the Enterprise crew thinks. He's not there to make friends. He knows the stakes and come hell or high water, he'll get the ship ready. End of story. What we don't know is how he is with his own crew and what they think of him. His comment to Troi about not having time to have a honeymoon with the crew suggests to me that under different circumstances, he (my speculation) may not be the hard ass that he is on the Enterprise. Or maybe the "honeymoon" quip is a sarcastic comment made in a fit of annoyance because the crew is pushing back at him. Who really knows?

What we all have to remember is that the episode was written the way it was, because it makes for better drama. It would have been far more boring had the crew just "yes sir"ed all his orders with no complaint.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I agree that while Riker was the reasonable one at the beginning he definately lost it later.

I don't think either of them are behaving appropriately here:

TROI: What are you going to do?
JELLICO: Send a message to Admiral Necheyev. I recommend that she reject Lemec's proposal and deploy additional starships along the border.
RIKER: What about Captain Picard?
ANNOTATION: (Jellico shakes his head)
RIKER: I'm not suggesting you trade an entire star system for one man's life, but you've got to acknowledge that these were Federation orders and he is a prisoner of war.
JELLICO: No.
RIKER: He will have the protection of the Seldonis Convention.
JELLICO: That would play right into Gul Lemec's hand. He's just waiting for some sign of weakness on our part before he starts making more demands.
RIKER: I can't believe you're willing to sacrifice Captain Picard's life as a negotiating tactic.
TROI: Will! Captain, we're all concerned about
JELLICO: Are you questioning my judgment, Commander?
RIKER: As First Officer, it is my responsibility to point out any actions that may be mistakes by a commanding officer. sir.
JELLICO: Then maybe it's time you found other responsibilities. You're relieved. Don't make me confine you to quarters as well.


And this scene is a textbook example of how not to make a point (even if you're mostly right):

[now in "Riker's quarters"]
ANNOTATION: (Riker is in casual clothes, reading, when the doorbell rings)
RIKER: Come in.
JELLICO: Am I disturbing you?
RIKER: Not at all.
JELLICO: Musician.
RIKER: Yes.
JELLICO: Classical? Contemporary?
RIKER: Jazz.
JELLICO: Ah.
RIKER: Is there something I can do for you, Captain?
JELLICO: Are you aware of our plans to attack the Cardassian invasion fleet?
RIKER: Yes, sir. I understand you've been talking to every shuttle pilot on board.
JELLICO: Let's drop the ranks for a moment. I don't like you. I think you're insubordinate, arrogant. wilful, and I don't think you're a particularly good first officer. But you are also the best pilot on the ship.
RIKER: Well, now that the ranks are dropped, Captain, I don't like you, either. You are arrogant and closed-minded. You need to control everything and everyone. You don't provide an atmosphere of trust, and you don't inspire these people to go out of their way for you. You've get everybody wound up so tight there's no joy in anything. I don't think you're a particularly good Captain.
JELLICO: I won't order you to fly this mission. I'm here to ask.
RIKER: Then ask me.
JELLICO: Will you pilot the shuttle, Commander?
RIKER: Yes.
ANNOTATION: (Jellico starts to leave)
RIKER: You're welcome.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

JELLICO: I won't order you to fly this mission. I'm here to ask.
RIKER: Then ask me.
JELLICO: Will you pilot the shuttle, Commander?
RIKER: Yes.
ANNOTATION: (Jellico starts to leave)
RIKER: You're welcome.

Lack of social grace not withstanding, Jellico actually showed good leadership here, giving Riker the opportunity to participate rather than demand it of him.

 

[Herbert]

The interesting thing is that First Season Riker probably wouldn't have had an issue with Jellico, and Jellico with him. It all comes down to the evolving characterization as the show progressed.

 

[Mojochi]

However, in the context of 'Picard v Jellico' I'd also draw your attention to the bolded segment, which implies to me that he does see it as appropriate (where time allows) for the XO to bring objections to the Captain's attention, and for the Captain to consider these objections before coming to a decision. Something that Jellico failed to do on at least one occassion

That he is not shown actively displaying his consideration, doesn't mean he hasn't given any. You must remember that he has been given more lead up time to this mission than the rest of the crew, and that many of the standard objections that a crew might have about shaking things up, he's probably already well aware of, & has given it his consideration.

If his ship runs anything like Enterprise, he likely already knows what the difficulties are in switching shift rotation on short notice. The man knows Riker's service record. He knows how to find the quarters they've assigned him. He knows the specs on the engines. He knows every aspect of what the Cardassian negotiations will entail. That he asks Riker how many duty watches they run was likely just a pleasantry. He had to have already known imho, or at least had an educated guess, based on standards, & he knew he wanted it changed the minute he got under way with the mission. He is exceptionally well prepared imho. He probably already had a good idea what the crew's objections would be, & knew it wasn't a top priority, under the circumstances.

Riker is reporting that the department heads are saying that to immediately at no notice change from a three to four shift system would cause disruption, but that he had planned to sit down with Jellico as soon as he was formally in charge (the order was given by Jellico while Picard was still in charge), but Jellico barks at him and insists that the changes be carried out within TWO HOURS (a highly unrealistic and potentially dangerous timeframe IMO) regardless of objections.

The order given by Jellico is "I'd like to change that to four, starting tonight". Tonight, being a time after Jellico WILL be in command, which everyone has been informed of, & when tonight comes around, Will hasn't done it. Will's refusal to carry it out at the directed time is the reason it's being done last minute. It's an order for future reference.

Who gives a crap that Riker planned & expected to have a little sit down to negotiate the order he was given? Riker isn't calling the shots. He don't get to decide when orders can get haggled. It doesn't matter that the command change hasn't occurred yet. They know it's coming, & this is one of the things he expects, the very 1st order. Picard is already prepping for his new mission, before the formal command change, & so is Jellico, just as everyone else should be. A ceremony is just a ceremony. They know the score once Nechayev says her piece. You take your orders from this guy, from here on out. Probably not a good idea to push your weight over the minutia of formal ceremonies

All of Riker's poor behavior was always public or in view of subordinates, prior to being relieved. He was severely asking for it

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Lack of social grace not withstanding, Jellico actually showed good leadership here, giving Riker the opportunity to participate rather than demand it of him.

Agreed, it actually makes me think that some of Jellico's harsher elements were him reacting badly to the high pressure situation rather than a general defect in character (as I believe was Peter David's opinion).

 

[JesterFace]

If Jellico did indeed say he would like to move into 4 shift rotation but didn't actually give an order, Riker didn't disobey.

 

[Makarov]

Jellico didn't really choose his words wisely when giving the orders. RIker didn't even seem to know he wanted to be informed about the probe. If he had said two words "No questions." there's no way Riker would have delayed the shift rotation order, and Riker would have understood his command style at once.

 

[Mojochi]

If Jellico did indeed say he would like to move into 4 shift rotation but didn't actually give an order, Riker didn't disobey.

Yeah, sorry, kind language is no argument. It's not like he was asking for a choice of different types of sweetener in his coffee. He told him what he wanted as a preference, about the ship & crew he was to command. "I'd like you to change" a job related thing, from the guy in command, is an order.

In fact, everybody is so touchy about how he tells people "Get it done", like it's rude or something, but if you think about it, the one time he tried not being bossy about what he expected, right after beaming aboard, & used softer language, they ignored him. That was something that could easily be taken as an invitation to drop the courtesy. From that point on, it's "Get it Done". I actually don't mind being told by a superior to get something done... when I know that the person telling me is also someone equally up to getting things done, & lest we forget, Jellico got done everything he was sent there to do. He is straight up the "Get it Done" man. I like people who get it done

 

[Nightdiamond]

Who didn't ever wish they had a boss that would speak on their behalf when upper management was unreasonable? My thumbs up for Riker on this one. Sometimes upper management can be unreasonable.

The thing I found weird was when Jellico and crew were in the briefing room and he tells them about how they found the Cardassian fleet hiding in a Nebulae. It's pretty obvious something hostile is about to happen but the crew is coming up with every excuse not to do anything.

Geordi suggests maybe they're there for scientific research. Then Crusher tries to discourage him. Then when Jellico says they're taking action anyway and asks Crusher to prepare Sickbay she gives him the worse glare as she leaves.

I know they were giving alternative opinions, but it made some of the crew look naïve and adversarial just to be adversarial, because Jellico was different.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'm not sure that we are supposed to think that Jellico is a dick, but rather just different from Picard. Assuming that Ron Moore's hands were on both episodes (he may have done significant rewrites to part II without earning a writing credit), Moore may have seen this story as a means of using its particulars to break "Gene's rules," namely the absence of conflict among humans. Certainly putting Marina Sirtis into the same costume as the rest of the cast was a bit of wish fulfillment. In these episodes, Moore could try to revive some of the dynamics of TOS in a world-turned-upside-down scenario. How would the crew react to and perform under someone whose choices were not determined by leadership style but by the needs of the mission? Jellico obviously wasn't one of those TOS commodores (badmodores?) who make terrible decisions, from whom Kirk takes back command via his superior leadership style. Jellico isn't Decker, e.g. Surliness aside, everyone performs admirably throughout the episode. The only part of the plan that fails was Picard's commando mission. Both Picard and Jellico seem to feel this entirely necessary mission is likely to fail in one way or other. (It's quite possible that the decision to disown Picard was made higher up.) Despite all the tensions caused by Jellico's arrival, the crew achieves what he wants, the ship is ready for war, and they figure out that cool, techy solution that allows the series to avoid the messiness of an actual war.

Conversely, I would like not to see David Warner interrogating Ronny Cox in the nude if he had been assigned to the commando mission.

 

[JesterFace]

In the end, no one can know the answer to this question until Jellico is a captain in a series of his own. Picard was in almost 180 episodes, Jellico in 2.

No offence to the beginner of this thread but this feels like a silly question.

 

[Lynx]

While he was an hard ass I don’t believe he was a terrible captain. We don’t know his history well and remember the crew was so use to Picard. Also he fussy started be an ass when Riker did not implement the 4 shift rotation. He did that because he gave Riker an order and Riker didn’t follow it. Now while Riker Was right on the fact that it will cause chaos on the enterprise, an lawful order is an lawful order end of story. While the first officer is supposed to keep the captain and crew safe not just blindly follow order he still needs to follow order that are lawful. Another reason why he was an ass is because he thought everyone was like Riker: arrogance. I like Riker but he does come across as arrogance. Riker should have followed the order then after a few days show jellico what trouble it causes. In a way he is guilty of insubordination. If I were jellico I would say: will I know you have been here longer than I have, but an order is an order. If you don’t like call starfleet and take a command opening so you can do your ship just like your want to. Because of rulers additude jellico wrongful assumes that the crew is all full of arrogance people who need to be whipped into shape. And on’t forget he did come up with the plan that eventually saved picard’s ass. One last thing it sounds like you don’t like you think that deep space nine is a bad posting. What’s wrong don’t like Sisko. Although of course I could be wrong

If Jellico had been a good Captain, then he would have listened to Riker and Troi in the firts place and realized that they were right instead of acting like an a**hole.

I must point out that you are actually wrong when it comes to my comment on Deep Space Nine and I'm sorry if I it did look like a negative comment. It was actually meant to be the opposite because I do see Deep Space Nine as a very well-managed station and I would rather have served under Sisko than Jellico.

Not to mention having the opportunity to visit Quark's bar now and then to have a beer and play some Dabo.

Or have a coffee and a nice chat with Garak!

 

[Admiral2]

If Jellico had been a good Captain, then he would have listened to Riker and Troi in the firts place and realized that they were right instead of acting like an a**hole.

If Riker had been a good First Officer right and wrong wouldn't have entered into it because the First Officer's first job is to make sure the captain gets what he wants. Period. End of Story, whether the Captain's an asshole or a sweetheart. If he makes a protest on behalf of the crew and the Captain says "do it anyway," end of discussion. He gets it done, whether the precious little snowflakes of the Enterprise-D like it or not.

 

[Mojochi]

There's no real basis for claiming he is either a great captain or a bad one, from this one display. However, that he'd already had a lengthy career of note, on his own ship, is at the top of the list for such a crucial mission, and proves himself to be both highly prepared & adept in it, enough to ultimately accomplish every desired outcome, in spite of having an ultimately uncooperative 1st officer, really supports the perspective that he is at least not a bad captain.

If you can do all those things, & the only thing you didn't manage to do is make everybody like you & how you did it, then you did well enough imho, bruised egos be damned

 

[Gabriel]

If Jellico had been a good Captain, then he would have listened to Riker and Troi in the firts place and realized that they were right instead of acting like an a**hole.

The fact that he acted One is not important when it comes being a good captain in a sense. While it is important that the crew respect the captain, Riker was challenging his authority in public. A first officer is not supposed to do that. He’s what data has to say:

DATA: Lieutenant, may I see you in the ready room?
WORF: Of course.
[now in "Ready room"]
DATA: Lieutenant, I am dissatisfied with your performance as First Officer.
WORF: May I ask in what way?
DATA: You continually question my orders in front of the crew. I do not believe this is appropriate behaviour.
WORF: With all due respect, sir, I have always felt free to voice my opinions even when they differ from those of Captain Picard or Commander Riker.
DATA: That is true. But in those situations, you were acting as Head of Security, not as FirstOfficer. The primary role of the second in command is to carry out the decisions of the Captain in this case, me.
WORF: But is it not my duty to offer youalternatives?
DATA: Yes. But once I have made a decision, it is your job to carry it out regardless of how you may personally feel. Any furtherobjections should be given to me in private, not in front of the crew. I do not recallCommander Riker ever publicly showing irritation with his Captain as you did a moment ago.
WORF: No, sir.
(All thanks to shamrock Holmes for putting this together)
Data is a hundred percent correct here. That is one reason why captain jellico was the way he was: didn’t like Riker’s arrogance. Also on him being a a** in the first place, do you really think all the great military leaders and non military leader care so much about people feels? No. Not Patton, not Halsey, not MacArthur, not Ernest king, etc. people don’t like jellico because he changed things up on the enterprise and did not care if the cre thought it was ok. Data was later first officer under jellico. Since data has no arrogance he will only object to riders that will threaten the enterprise in a big way. And since he did not object (at least not in public) to jellico commands then they must be ok. The fact is him being a a** is irrelevant. Jellico may not be be on the Kirk and Picard level of great captain but he is good captain. And if i were in starfleet and going to war I want to be on jellico ships I believe he keeps his ship ready and doesn’t hesitate. Also don’t forget he saved picard’s rear end.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

There's no real basis for claiming he is either a great captain or a bad one, from this one display. However, that he'd already had a lengthy career of note, on his own ship, is at the top of the list for such a crucial mission, and proves himself to be both highly prepared & adept in it, enough to ultimately accomplish every desired outcome, in spite of having an ultimately uncooperative 1st officer, really supports the perspective that he is at least not a bad captain.

One of the things we could do is compare how Jellico performs in this one episode with regard to other ST captains: Kirk in Enterprise Incident or Janeway in Omega Directive. In both cases, the captain is, more or less, alone in pursuing the mission. In each case, there is confusion and consternation from the crew. The reaction from Riker and the rest of the crew may, from this perspective, be natural, perhaps amplified by the fact that Jellico is new to the crew. Where I think Jellico goes further (and he has more freedom to do so) is that he emphasizes the importance of the mission with regard to the broad goals of the federation. Perhaps he could have done better to get the efficiency he wanted from engineering, but Jellico did exactly what he should when explaining the choice he makes between Picard's life and the values of the Federation.

 

[Lynx]

The fact that he acted One is not important when it comes being a good captain in a sense. While it is important that the crew respect the captain, Riker was challenging his authority in public. A first officer is not supposed to do that. He’s what data has to say:

DATA: Lieutenant, may I see you in the ready room?
WORF: Of course.
[now in "Ready room"]
DATA: Lieutenant, I am dissatisfied with your performance as First Officer.
WORF: May I ask in what way?
DATA: You continually question my orders in front of the crew. I do not believe this is appropriate behaviour.
WORF: With all due respect, sir, I have always felt free to voice my opinions even when they differ from those of Captain Picard or Commander Riker.
DATA: That is true. But in those situations, you were acting as Head of Security, not as FirstOfficer. The primary role of the second in command is to carry out the decisions of the Captain in this case, me.
WORF: But is it not my duty to offer youalternatives?
DATA: Yes. But once I have made a decision, it is your job to carry it out regardless of how you may personally feel. Any furtherobjections should be given to me in private, not in front of the crew. I do not recallCommander Riker ever publicly showing irritation with his Captain as you did a moment ago.
WORF: No, sir.
(All thanks to shamrock Holmes for putting this together)
Data is a hundred percent correct here. That is one reason why captain jellico was the way he was: didn’t like Riker’s arrogance. Also on him being a a** in the first place, do you really think all the great military leaders and non military leader care so much about people feels? No. Not Patton, not Halsey, not MacArthur, not Ernest king, etc. people don’t like jellico because he changed things up on the enterprise and did not care if the cre thought it was ok. Data was later first officer under jellico. Since data has no arrogance he will only object to riders that will threaten the enterprise in a big way. And since he did not object (at least not in public) to jellico commands then they must be ok. The fact is him being a a** is irrelevant. Jellico may not be be on the Kirk and Picard level of great captain but he is good captain. And if i were in starfleet and going to war I want to be on jellico ships I believe he keeps his ship ready and doesn’t hesitate. Also don’t forget he saved picard’s rear end.

It wasn't just Riker.

No one did like Jellico, due to the fact that he messed up everything as soon as he came on board the ship. If he had been a bit smarter and listened to his senior officers, then he would have had a chance to get the respect from the crew.

His actions when it came to that fourth shift were downright stupid and didn't accomplish anything, it just messed up something which had obviously functioned excellent for a very long time and all of his actions did only create confusion, distrust and anger among the crew.

Therefore my comparision in my first post with that hockey coach who almost managed to ruin a whole team during one season.

When it came to the situation between Data and Worf, it was different. First of all Worf kept nagging on Data many times in front of other crew members, something that Riker didn't do to Jellico. Second, Data never acted like an elephant in a glass shop during his stint as Captain. Data had a problem with Worf while Jellico had a problem with the whole crew (except Data due to the fact that Data had no emotions, maybe Jellico should have been better suited with a ship full of androids or robots).

I wouldn't like to go to war with a captain like Jellico because he would mess up everything with orders, contra-orders and screaming and end up getting the ship being blasted to pieces because he would be to thick-headed to understand that a certain action would be doomed to failure.

As I wrote before, I've also had a similar boss once at a place I worked who managed to destroy the good atmosphere among the people there. That was not a pleasant expreience.
Fortunately I was lucky to find another job.

 

[JesterFace]

DATA: You continually question my orders in front of the crew. I do not believe this is appropriate behaviour.
WORF: With all due respect, sir, I have always felt free to voice my opinions even when they differ from those of Captain Picard or Commander Riker.
DATA: That is true. But in those situations, you were acting as Head of Security, not as FirstOfficer. The primary role of the second in command is to carry out the decisions of the Captain in this case, me.

Basically, 1st officer does what he is told and security officer, in this case one with lower rank, gets to voice out his opinions.

 

[DonIago]

It wasn't just Riker.

No one did like Jellico, due to the fact that he messed up everything as soon as he came on board the ship. If he had been a bit smarter and listened to his senior officers, then he would have had a chance to get the respect from the crew.

His actions when it came to that fourth shift were downright stupid and didn't accomplish anything, it just messed up something which had obviously functioned excellent for a very long time and all of his actions did only create confusion, distrust and anger among the crew.

Therefore my comparision in my first post with that hockey coach who almost managed to ruin a whole team during one season.

When it came to the situation between Data and Worf, it was different. First of all Worf kept nagging on Data many times in front of other crew members, something that Riker didn't do to Jellico. Second, Data never acted like an elephant in a glass shop during his stint as Captain. Data had a problem with Worf while Jellico had a problem with the whole crew (except Data due to the fact that Data had no emotions, maybe Jellico should have been better suited with a ship full of androids or robots).

I wouldn't like to go to war with a captain like Jellico because he would mess up everything with orders, contra-orders and screaming and end up getting the ship being blasted to pieces because he would be to thick-headed to understand that a certain action would be doomed to failure.

As I wrote before, I've also had a similar boss once at a place I worked who managed to destroy the good atmosphere among the people there. That was not a pleasant expreience.
Fortunately I was lucky to find another job.

Consider this...what if the boss you described above had brought the company to the verge of bankruptcy, and someone was brought in to try to save it? Do you think the new boss would want to entertain discussion of the pros and cons of current policies and procedures, or do you think their primary focus would be saving the company as quickly as possible and then making nice with you?

 

[Paradise City]

Picard has his strengths including a Jellico side to his own character. Picard could switch to "drill sergeant" mode if need be. So I'd pluck for Picard for that reason. Picard seemed to get quite soft though in comparison to season one Picard who could give Riker a grilling. That said when Picard felt he was getting messed around in the Pegasus eposide, it was Riker that got a chewin'. Funny to see how Jellico would've reacted to Pressman.

What would also be interesting is if Jellico had gotten the Locutus treatment. Would he have that same pathology haunting him as Picard did? Would it have broken him? The crew probably wouldn't have been that bothered to bring him back if he been assimilated.