The Admiral Clancy Character

[JConn]

First-time poster here!

Has there been any discussion about the Kirsten Clancy character and whether they could have used an existing, in-universe character to act as Picard's Starfleet foil?

There's a case to be made that Clancy is emblematic of a Starfleet that no longer resembles its former self. New Starfleet, new character to be the C in C. I can get on board with that.

I just wonder if the writers ever gave any thought to making the C in C who goes toe to toe with Picard someone we already know.

Options:

1. Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) as the C in C. They already teased out this possibility in Nemesis by making her Picard's superior officer. Maybe they thought Janeway was too idealistic and too much of an explorer to ever go over to the dark side and buy into the post-Mars world of suspicion and political isolationism.

2. Admiral Phillipa Louvois (Amanda McBroom). She'd be about the right age, and she already has a slightly rancorous relationship with Picard. Plus she'd be a bit of a tendril connecting the whole plot to Bruce Maddox / Synth plot. In a moment of anger, she could holler at Picard that she regrets her decision as JAG officer that Data was not the property of Starfleet. "Jean-Luc, if I had it to do again, I'd let Bruce Maddox take your Synth officer apart piece by piece! It's one of the greatest regrets of my career!"

3. Admiral Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy). Ambitious. Smart. Calculating. Perhaps made cynical after years of studying and fighting the Borg.

4. Admiral Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). It would be an interesting role reversal between her and Picard. She always accused him of not seeing the "human side of the equation." It's hard to imagine a plausible backstory that would lead to her leaving medicine / research and going into high command, but maybe she lost someone close to her on Mars (spouse? grandchild?). Plus Dr. Pulaski always was a bit suspicious of artificial intelligence.

5. Admiral Robin Lefler (Ashley Judd). Probably too young to play the C in C convincingly. Plus maybe not a significant enough character to make a meaningful connection.

6. Admiral Alynna Nechayev (Natalia Nogulich). Self-explanatory. I guess the downside is that she'd be picking up the role pretty much where she left it in TNG/DS9 without much development. The upside... the role already exists, and it seems plausible someone like that could rise to power under such circumstances.

Anyway, does anyone know if it was a strategic decision the writers made to go with a brand-new character versus someone already familiar to ST fans?

 

[fireproof78]

The whole point is that Starfleet is no longer "Picard's house" and that he has lost touch with what they are currently all about. Having a familiar admiral would completely undercut such a theme.

 

[JConn]

"The whole point is that Starfleet is no longer "Picard's house" and that he has lost touch with what they are currently all about. Having a familiar admiral would completely undercut such a theme."

Well, yes, that's how I prefaced my post: new Starfleet, new character. Which is obviously the way they chose to go.

With that said, there's a case to be made that a familiar Admiral who no longer resembles herself would fit in with the Starfleet that no longer resembles itself. Starfleet still has ships, starbases, warp drive, Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, etc. It's just that the spirit of the organization no resembles that which used to animate it.

That would be the problem with someone like Admiral Nechayev... she'd fit right in with little alteration. Even then, I suppose you could argue that someone like her was always marginalized by having a more hawkish outlook on Federation policy than the Federation Council or Starfleet Command. The idea of a formerly benign, well-meaning officer being corrupted by the politics of fear would be an interesting take.

 

[fireproof78]

"The whole point is that Starfleet is no longer "Picard's house" and that he has lost touch with what they are currently all about. Having a familiar admiral would completely undercut such a theme."

Well, yes, that's how I prefaced my post: new Starfleet, new character. Which is obviously the way they chose to go.

With that said, there's a case to be made that a familiar Admiral who no longer resembles herself would fit in with the Starfleet that no longer resembles itself. Starfleet still has ships, starbases, warp drive, Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, etc. It's just that the spirit of the organization no resembles that which used to animate it.

That would be the problem with someone like Admiral Nechayev... she'd fit right in with little alteration. Even then, I suppose you could argue that someone like her was always marginalized by having a more hawkish outlook on Federation policy than the Federation Council or Starfleet Command. The idea of a formerly benign, well-meaning officer being corrupted by the politics of fear would be an interesting take.

I do not think having a familiar admiral would have the same impact. Also, there would be the assumption that the familiar admiral would automatically assume the admiral would throw in behind Picard at some point in the story. Rather than allowing the mystery of who this admiral is and what might motivate her.

 

[FederationHistorian]

In the case of Janeway, we don’t even know if she still in Starfleet still, or if she’s even alive (a similar argument could be made for the other suggestions). If she's still alive, its possible that’s she left Starfleet in the aftermath of the synth ban, if you perceive the Doctor and his mobile emitter to fall under synthetic life. If she never left Starfleet, she could have been overseeing a transwarp experiment to help Starfleet transition over to a new warp drive and got lost again.

The rest are either going to Picard’s past (Louvois, Pulaski), too young (Lefler), or too convenient (Shelby, Nechayev).

At least with Admiral Clancy, it’s a new face to remind viewers that this is not the TNG/DS9/VOY era anymore. It would likely hit the viewer harder for them to know that Nechayev is subordinate to Clancy, than for Nechayev to be the new C in C.

 

[The Wormhole]

The fist time I saw the episode I was convinced the scene felt tailor-made for Admiral Nechayev, but now I've accepted Clancy as a new character. If anything, her interactions with Picard are all the more interesting if you factor in her backstory from the novel The Last Best Hope where Picard outranked her when he was an Admiral. Now the tables have turned, so to speak.

 

[SolarisOne]

The fist time I saw the episode I was convinced the scene felt tailor-made for Admiral Nechayev.

I can see it. She'd probably leave "fucking" out of "sheer fucking hubris". But I can definitely see the rest of the conversation going exactly the way it did in canon.

 

[The Old Mixer]

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[Vger23]

I think it’s way better to have some random admiral tell Picard to cram it up his ass.

 

[Mister Spock]

It would be fanservice for fanservices sake. If Admiral Janeway had turned up, the forum would be on fire with posts about Janeway being turned into a megabitch.

Besides which, introducing characters like Admiral Clancy and Doctor Benayoun is nice world building in that it hints at friendships and adventures Picard has had that we've not been privy to.

 

[Mage]

she could have been overseeing a transwarp experiment to help Starfleet transition over to a new warp drive and got lost again.

"For the love of God, not again....... Someone better find me a nebula, I'm gonna need a lot of coffee!!!"

 

[Vger23]

It would be fanservice for fanservices sake. If Admiral Janeway had turned up, the forum would be on fire with posts about Janeway being turned into a megabitch.

Besides which, introducing characters like Admiral Clancy and Doctor Benayoun is nice world building in that it hints at friendships and adventures Picard has had that we've not been privy to.

It's also a demonstration, as pointed out, that Picar

As much as I find Picard a somewhat tiresome character (and enjoyed the Star Trek: Picard series because a lot of it was about humbling him), I would be pretty offended to have Janeway dressing him down. I wasn’t a big fan of her criticizing Kirk and company either. But, even though Picard can grate on me...Janeway has no business lecturing him.

 

[fireproof78]

As much as I find Picard a somewhat tiresome character (and enjoyed the Star Trek: Picard series because a lot of it was about humbling him), I would be pretty offended to have Janeway dressing him down. I wasn’t a big fan of her criticizing Kirk and company either. But, even though Picard can grate on me...Janeway has no business lecturing him.

Agreed. Her being an admiral in First Contact was bad enough.

 

[DEWLine]

Bad for whom?

 

[fireproof78]

Bad for whom?

Picard.

 

[Danja]

5. Admiral Robin Lefler (Ashley Judd). Probably too young to play the C in C convincingly. Plus maybe not a significant enough character to make a meaningful connection.

Ashley is 52.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Judd

A lot of organizations have young, politically connected wunderkinds in charge (Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Twitter's Jack Dorsey, etc.).

It wouldn't be out of place in the real world (How many older employees have to deal with supervisors who are young enough to be their kids? That could be a source of conflict.)

It would be another sign that Starfleet has moved on past Picard.

 

[DEWLine]

I can see other reasons in addition to these why Ashley Judd might be asked back to reprise her role at Robin Lefler...

 

[Sci]

1. Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) as the C in C. They already teased out this possibility in Nemesis by making her Picard's superior officer.

I don't really see how a friendly cameo in a movie released 18 years ago constitutes "teasing out" the possibility of Janeway as a seemingly-unsympathetic supervisor in PIC.

2. Admiral Phillipa Louvois (Amanda McBroom). She'd be about the right age, and she already has a slightly rancorous relationship with Picard. Plus she'd be a bit of a tendril connecting the whole plot to Bruce Maddox / Synth plot. In a moment of anger, she could holler at Picard that she regrets her decision as JAG officer that Data was not the property of Starfleet. "Jean-Luc, if I had it to do again, I'd let Bruce Maddox take your Synth officer apart piece by piece! It's one of the greatest regrets of my career!"

3. Admiral Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy). Ambitious. Smart. Calculating. Perhaps made cynical after years of studying and fighting the Borg.

4. Admiral Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). It would be an interesting role reversal between her and Picard. She always accused him of not seeing the "human side of the equation." It's hard to imagine a plausible backstory that would lead to her leaving medicine / research and going into high command, but maybe she lost someone close to her on Mars (spouse? grandchild?). Plus Dr. Pulaski always was a bit suspicious of artificial intelligence.

5. Admiral Robin Lefler (Ashley Judd). Probably too young to play the C in C convincingly. Plus maybe not a significant enough character to make a meaningful connection.

6. Admiral Alynna Nechayev (Natalia Nogulich). Self-explanatory. I guess the downside is that she'd be picking up the role pretty much where she left it in TNG/DS9 without much development. The upside... the role already exists, and it seems plausible someone like that could rise to power under such circumstances.

Is there a reason your candidates for the unsympathetic supervisor figure are all women?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Agreed. Her being an admiral in First Contact was bad enough.

Oh? In what way?

IMHO, Janeway is Admiral material in a way that other captains weren't. Whereas most regular captains only want to be that - the captain of a starship - I totally believed that Janeway would have designs on the Admiralty.

That said, I do NOT see Janeway as unsympathetic in any way. If she turns up on PIC, she should be on Picard's side.

 

[fireproof78]

Oh? In what way?

IMHO, Janeway is Admiral material in a way that other captains weren't. Whereas most regular captains only want to be that - the captain of a starship - I totally believed that Janeway would have designs on the Admiralty.

That said, I do NOT see Janeway as unsympathetic in any way. If she turns up on PIC, she should be on Picard's side.

Mostly how fast she ranked up to three pip admiral despite Voyager being her first command. It's a minor annoyance that Picard has so many years of command and yet Janeway makes admiral before him.