??????? I really rather doubt that Captain Picard would ever have treated his bridge crew the way Jellico did, war or not.
Go watch how he treats Riker in "Farpoint". He isn't someone interested in excuses, he is interested in having his orders followed.
One Instance in the very first episode, which BTW was a test of Picard's new #1 (Riker's) abilities more than any indication of the Captain being any kind of "hard ass". I think you're projecting what you would have like to have seen Picard become, more than what we actually saw over seven seasons.
Undoubtedly, but it was never Picard's modus operandi on a daily or even very often basis. Unlike Captain Jellico who appeared to be in that mode constantly and relied on it to keep his crew in check 24/7.
Actually, he didn't. He didn't become the hardass until the crew started pushing back on his orders because he wasn't coddling them like Picard. He came on board the Enterprise, was very cordial with Riker, until Riker decided not to follow his orders and not even communicate with him that he wasn't carrying them out. I tend to think that Picard would've soured quickly on Rlker, if he came out of the Battle Bridge ready room an hour later and the saucer hadn't been reconnected. With Riker saying that the other officers didn't think it was a good idea and he was going to tell Picard later. They tried to write Jellico as the ass of the story, mistreating the poor downtrodden Enterprise crew, but what they did was make the crew look bad and ill prepared to do their jobs.
Jellico did nothing wrong, prepared a whiny crew complaining about "that's not how Captain Picard did it" for a potential war and made Troi wear a proper uniform. Riker's behaviour was embarrassing.
the thing that resonates with me about jellico to this day: no one said that what he asked for was impossible, just that it was difficult in other words, they didn't want to do it because they foresaw difficulty, not because they foresaw impossibility regardless of concerns about whether it is a "better way" you do the job the captain ordered you to do.
Um...then what's the difference that your attempting to make with Jellico? Riker DISOBEYED a simple order - and didn't even notify Jellico in a timely fashion about the Dept. Heads concerns either. Riker failed out of the gate for his new Captain big time on a very simple and straightforward order.
He might have if the crew turned into the kind of whiny bitches with him they did with Jellico. But here's something people overlook when they complain that Jellico was an unfair hardass. The crew whined just as much as they did in Chain of Command as they did in Sins of the Father when Kurn was acting XO and enforced a strict regime in the Enterprise, and that was with Picard's supervision and blessing. Indeed, which is proven by the scene with Geordi reacting to Jellico's wishes like "that's totally impossible" and then Data steps in and explains how it's totally possible.
It looks like the show is still happening https://blog.trekcore.com/2019/11/star-trek-section-31-show-writers-room-assembled/
Thanks a lot. I wanted this thread to stay in a nice Page 2 Death. But, nevertheless, I'm glad to hear it.
Riker beat the Borg. Jellico...did what, exactly? Jellico was an insecure, blustering little bitch. When the chips were down, he had to go to Riker and ask for his help. That Jellico needed to do a little dick-waving in the process, sharing his low opinion of Riker in the process of the ask, reflects poorly on Jellico; evidence of his insecurity.
Kept the Federation out of another war with the Cardassians? He was able to put aside his personal feelings and do the job assigned, which was probably why he was given command of the Enterprise over Riker to begin with. The fact that he went to Riker showed he was able to put the mission over his personal feelings. I liked the dig he made about Riker not being a very good first officer. I mean, where was Riker at that the Enterprise needed so many changes to be put on a defensive footing? What exactly had him and Picard been doing over the last couple of years? Starfleet may not be "the military" but they are clearly the defensive arm of the Federation, which means all ships (especially a sector command ship) should be able to swing to a defensive/offensive footing relatively easily. I remember seeing the episode differently when I was 22 and it originally debuted. Thought Jellico was such a dick. As I climbed the corporate ladder, I found I preferred working for people like Jellico, who were just straight forward with what they wanted without blowing smoke up my ass.
Over the decades I've found that people who behave like dicks are usually dicks.* Jellico got the job over Riker because it suited the writers. Based on Riker's past performance there was no reason at all for it. *Nolo contendre
I think that episode points out explicitly that the Enterprise-D was never meant to be a 'warship'. And that its Captain and Crew spent the previous six years treating it as the floating Science ship/Hotel it was. They were completely unprepared for the task at hand and why Jellico got so much pushback.
They were unprepared because the writers used weak technobabble as the reason for Picard to become black ops and be captured. “When I was on the Stargazer, we conducted extensive tests using theta band carrier waves. One of the reasons I was selected for this mission is my familiarity with the methods used for generating them.” Who would normally suggest that Picard couldn’t handle those negotiations?