Picard if he were alive today.

[BillJ]

What was wrong with Picard's interaction with the Mintokans?

It was more his attitude towards the situation and their beliefs. In the original Star Trek, Kirk was a bull in a China shop and was proven wrong quite a few times. In TNG, Picard was more of a missionary preaching the scripture of the Federation everywhere he went.

 

[Picard_Respecter]

It was more his attitude towards the situation and their beliefs. In the original Star Trek, Kirk was a bull in a China shop and was proven wrong quite a few times. In TNG, Picard was more of a missionary preaching the scripture of the Federation everywhere he went.

Sure. But what exactly is wrong with preaching the scripture of the Federation? They accidentally exposed themselves to the Mintokans.

 

[BillJ]

But what exactly is wrong with preaching the scripture of the Federation?

I'll let you figure that one out.

 

[Picard_Respecter]

I'll let you figure that one out.

Well, that's not an argument.

 

[XCV330]

When did he do this?

Screen name checks out

 

[BillJ]

Well, that's not an argument.

What is there to argue? It is in the show. Third aired episode, Picard essentially replaced a ruling head of state.

 

[XCV330]

Sure. But what exactly is wrong with preaching the scripture of the Federation? They accidentally exposed themselves to the Mintokans.

I misread and thought you said that he accidentally exposed himself to the Minnesotans. That would have been a great episode.

 

[Qonundrum]

Movie Picard is just "Starship Mine" on steroids. It's the same guy let loose. He'd be John McClane or Jonathan Rambo. He could do Picard speeches with some witty rejoinder and then shoot the villains in the neck.

Ironically, NEM is the one time where Picard isn't acting all generic action-heroey.

Witness:

• GEN: He's running around beating the snot out of Soran
• FC: He's running around machine gunning the snot out of a bunch of Borg
  
• INS: He's running around all Tarzen on the Magical-Pointless-Radiation-Maguffin-Collector-with-the-neato-self-destruct-button-for-no-reason
• NEM: Sits around giving orders after thinking through tactics and making a decision the way TV Picard had. Well, except for the one scene where he rejects Data's offer to pilot, what having listened to Data tell him what this strange new ship he's now having to pilot impromptu (this movie is a contrivance-driven mess that goes beyond absurd once too often, but I dare say it's actually underrated... add some terrific acting, no stupid comedy acts, and some amazing camerawork, lighting and direction (sans for overexposed planet), it's a shame the core plot is such an overstuffed mess as there is a genuine epic that just needed a few tweaks. )

 

[fireproof78]

The driving scene in Nem is the most egregious example to me.

 

[Qonundrum]

The driving scene in Nem is the most egregious example to me.

Despite mentioning "overexposed", I somehow managed to completely forget about the Argo scene - and not because it was crap (in concept, the direction and camera angles looked good, but they really wanted to outdo The Final Frontier for Plan B-As-In-Barricade for some reason...)

"Egregious" definitely fits. It's a contrived dune buggy scene, to get contrived android bits that have their own contrived sentient subprocessors that can wave on cue*, per a contrived plan by a contrived clone from a contrived failed experiment that's too contrived to buy into, who built a contrived ship with a handful of lowest-class citizens in a contrived way to somehow preventing being detected by the Romulans on the sister planet... Whittle down half of that - like not having Shinzon being a Picard clone who has no reason other than a contrived one to go to Earth and don't bother with the Remans since there's no way they could have built the "Wesley Crusher in Spaceship Form" ship () - and smooth out the rough edges, which feel like there's fewer than what it feels like, and voila. Shinzon being a Romulan who managed a takeover would have been a lot more convincing and compelling for a more credible backstory and build-up of a genuine threat...

...they didn't even need the contrived idea of yet-another-Data-prototype (B4), or Data's contrived and hollow death. The story just crams in way too much, especially as empty spectacle sans substance, and part of me wonders if they had started out with a simpler idea that could have worked on its own (and stronger) but just kept adding on because it's "a big screen epic and therefore needs to be crammed with as much as possible (but then they cut out some neat character-driven scenes that added more depth to the movie than all the crammed contrived bits combined)."

* at least they don't play it for fourth wall-break laughs. It could have been worse.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

He had some sort of debilitating hearing disorder as a child. He'd likely be disabled in the 21st century.

Barring that, and given that he would grow up in a more capitalist society, he might end up as an archaeologist for hire, sort of like Vash.

 

[somebuddyX]

I was thinking of the Argo scene and then the final scene where he grabs the big gun and goes over to fight Shinzon. And I'm really mostly joking.

 

[FredH]

He’d be hanging out in LA’s 10 Forward Bar, of course.

 

[Farscape One]

Regarding Picard's actions and views in "Who Watches The Watchers"...

I am in complete agreement with Picard's actions and reasons. If the Minkatans were to go down the path of making Picard a god, that could very easily be subverted into inquisitions, crusades, holy wars, etc... exactly the things that have happened in our own history. And still go on in some parts of the world.

Picard very correctly did his best to make sure he wasn't deified. I don't see how his actions and reasons can be construed as anything but trying to fix a problem.


About the topic question...

It's an interesting question. I don't think he would be very much like the Picard we all know. First, he lives in a post-scarcity world. Second, a lot of the options he would have had growing up don't exist now.

So I would have to look at his main interests... exploration and archaeology. Our ability to explore is somewhat limited, but there is a lot of archaeological opportunities available now. (At least, in comparison to being, say, an astronaut. There are a lot less missions going to space than there are digs unearthing clues of the past.) And archaeology is exploration... it's simply exploring the past.

So I think Picard would be a full blown archaeologist, particularly his dialogue from "The Chase" that says if Starfleet wasn't an option he would have done that.


On a side note: if Chakotay was alive in 2023, he would likely work in the same circles as Picard because Chakotay said paleontology was his first love. Both professions do a lot of digging.

(For some reason, I have an image of the Atari game DIG DUG in my head with Picard's face superimposed over the game's hero.)

 

[at Quark's]

Ironically, NEM is the one time where Picard isn't acting all generic action-heroey.

Witness:

• GEN: He's running around beating the snot out of Soran
• FC: He's running around machine gunning the snot out of a bunch of Borg
  
• INS: He's running around all Tarzen on the Magical-Pointless-Radiation-Maguffin-Collector-with-the-neato-self-destruct-button-for-no-reason
• NEM: Sits around giving orders after thinking through tactics and making a decision the way TV Picard had. Well, except for the one scene where he rejects Data's offer to pilot, what having listened to Data tell him what this strange new ship he's now having to pilot impromptu (this movie is a contrivance-driven mess that goes beyond absurd once too often, but I dare say it's actually underrated... add some terrific acting, no stupid comedy acts, and some amazing camerawork, lighting and direction (sans for overexposed planet), it's a shame the core plot is such an overstuffed mess as there is a genuine epic that just needed a few tweaks. )

To be fair, in FC the Borg didn't give him a lot of other options. Well, yes, he could have evacuated and blown up the ship as Lily suggested. But even though I think that might have been the logical course of action, I can't fault him too severely for refusing to do that (at first).

 

[Farscape One]

There's also the fact that a LOT more debris will float around and/or fall to Earth. That could also alter history, because the material will almost certainly be taken and studied and things could be hurried along faster due to fibding how to reverse engineer either the technology or hull compositions.

Plus, some of the Borg could survive. (As ENT's "REGENERATION" proved.)

 

[ralfy]

Would be reading canonical literature and taking care of a small farm.

 

[SalyutBuran]

The most logical uninspired assumption would that he'd be a generic anthropology professor who did summer digs somewhere in the middle east.

Probably being a tiny big creative and more than a little rational he'd be an executive of some company. Maybe designing luxury goods etc.

He was a leader no matter where he was, but he was also a pragmatist not an idealist. He'd go where the movement is, in our society it's dollars in the federation it's the stars.

 

[BBC 2 6pm]

He turned down the chance to be an academic and joined the navy instead. I don't see why he wouldn't have done the same thing today. Maybe an air force officer who got involved with a space programme? But the most obvious parallel would be the captain of an aircraft carrier, which are sort of the 'flagships' of their national fleets.

 

[SalyutBuran]

He turned down the chance to be an academic and joined the navy instead. I don't see why he wouldn't have done the same thing today. Maybe an air force officer who got involved with a space programme? But the most obvious parallel would be the captain of an aircraft carrier, which are sort of the 'flagships' of their national fleets.

Because modern day militaries are a completely different beast.

Far less prestigious, less science and exploration etc, deeper moral ambiguity etc.