"Family": Robert and Marie's disagreement

[Ragitsu]

Good evening!

In the episode "Family", we learn that there has been a minor clash of viewpoints between Robert Picard and his wife Marie.

ROBERT: Delicious, Marie.
MARIE: Thank you.
PICARD: Leave it to Robert to find the best cook in France, then marry her.
ROBERT: Yes, but sadly cooking is becoming a lost art. That's your wretched technology again.
MARIE: Robert and I have had more than a few discussions about getting a replicator in the house.
PICARD: I remember the same discussions between mother and father.
ROBERT: Father understood better than anybody else the danger of losing those values which we hold most precious.
PICARD: I don't see that you have to lose anything just by adding a convenience.
ROBERT: You wouldn't, but in my view, life is already too convenient.
MARIE: This is a very old argument.

This will continue to be a timeless element of the human condition as long as a part of us remains resistant to change, but I now wonder if anyone here has ever experienced similar differences of opinions with family and/or friends; if you have, please...share with the class.

 

[BozoThePerson]

Good evening!

In the episode "Family", we learn that there has been a minor clash of viewpoints between Robert Picard and his wife Marie.



This will continue to be a timeless element of the human condition as long as a part of us remains resistant to change, but I now wonder if anyone here has ever experienced similar differences of opinions with family and/or friends; if you have, please...share with the class.

I was told my mother in law resisted getting a microwave oven until she was too weak to use the stove.

 

[Mojochi]

The term luddite is like 2 & a half centuries old now. About the same for sabotage. Change has never been met with 100% acceptance. "What's so great about discovery? It's a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores" - Ian Malcolm

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

My employers are strangely resistant to getting school buses with backup cameras. Seems to me like basic safety equipment.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Reminded me of this scene:

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[Ragitsu]

Even to this day, computerized cellular phones are not fancied by all.

 

[Takeru]

It always bothered me a bit that there was even a debate, if Marie wants a replicator she should get one, Robert's opinion is irrelevant, if Marie is the one who does the cooking, she is the one who gets to decide how to do it and if Robert doesn't like it he's free to use the kitchen and makes his own food the old fashioned way.
Not every decision needs to be made by consensus, it's not like she's tearing down half of the house, it's about getting a kitchen appliance and because they live in a post scarcity moneyless society a replicator even cost anything so stop debating your husband and just get one.

 

[Shawnster]

It always bothered me a bit that there was even a debate, if Marie wants a replicator she should get one, Robert's opinion is irrelevant...

Maybe they couldn't afford one.

 

[Ragitsu]

By the way, who owns (or "owns") the house/property?

 

[Yistaan]

MARIE: Robert and I have had more than a few discussions about getting a replicator in the house.
PICARD: I remember the same discussions between mother and father.

(spoilers for Picard)

Spoiler

Not only is Maurice Picard seen using a PADD, but it seems heavily implied that his refusal to get a replicator was out of fear that Yvette in her insanity would replicate parts to make into a weapon (not unlike how Shinzo Abe was assassinated by basically a 3D printed gun)

The fact that Picard casually brings up replicator discussions involving his mother really doesn't fit well with the revelations of her mental health issues in the Picard show. It's hard to see this TNG conversation now as anything but dodging the real issues on why the Picard family had no replicators

 

[Riley]

(spoilers for Picard)

Spoiler

Not only is Maurice Picard seen using a PADD, but it seems heavily implied that his refusal to get a replicator was out of fear that Yvette in her insanity would replicate parts to make into a weapon (not unlike how Shinzo Abe was assassinated by basically a 3D printed gun)

The fact that Picard casually brings up replicator discussions involving his mother really doesn't fit well with the revelations of her mental health issues in the Picard show. It's hard to see this TNG conversation now as anything but dodging the real issues on why the Picard family had no replicators

Picard writer: "You know how that Generations movie needlessly and brutally killed off Picard's family? We should try to outdo that for the same reason, y'know, masking awful storytelling with 'edge' and 'relevance,' but how?

Other Picard writer: "I've got it! Let's reveal that Picard's mom was insane and killed herself! Nothing's edgier than suicide!"

First Picard writer: "Woohoo! Great idea! Let's go do some lines of coke!"

 

[DonIago]

While it was fun to see Gaius Baltar in Picard, the idea that in the 24th century the best solution he could come up with was "lock her in a room" is appalling and more than faintly ridiculous.

 

[Ragitsu]

Fortunately, I never partook of that series, because I detest the taste of tripe.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The term luddite is like 2 & a half centuries old now. About the same for sabotage. Change has never been met with 100% acceptance. "What's so great about discovery? It's a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores" - Ian Malcolm

Is Marie Pcard a Romulan spy?

Jean-Luc claimed her Vinyard and she didn't say boo if she was still even on Earth by that point.

I'm just saying that Shinzon needed help faking that fire to harvest Rene and Robert's spinal fluid.

 

[ananta]

Picard writer: "You know how that Generations movie needlessly and brutally killed off Picard's family? We should try to outdo that for the same reason, y'know, masking awful storytelling with 'edge' and 'relevance,' but how?

Other Picard writer: "I've got it! Let's reveal that Picard's mom was insane and killed herself! Nothing's edgier than suicide!"

First Picard writer: "Woohoo! Great idea! Let's go do some lines of coke!"

Both Generations and PIC highlight my feeling that TNG should have ended with “All Good Things”—THE END, full stop.

My issue with “Family” is how thoroughly unpleasant Robert is. Maybe it’s in the script but Jeremy Kemp leans into it way too far. He behaves like a bullying asshole. I’ve absolutely no idea what Marie saw in him. Certainly not his looks and not his scintillating personality. It’s hard to imagine he ever cracked a smile his entire life. He really was horrible. They softened him a bit at the end of course, but it was too little too late.

 

[DonIago]

I have a sense that some of the more dickish behavior we see from Robert for most of the episode is him deliberately trying to provoke Jean Luc...as he eventually does when he dials it up to 11.

It's probably not the kind of therapy Counselor Troi ever would have advocated for...or been able to provide...but it does seem to help in the end.

I get the sense that they never necessarily quite got along well, but I don't know that we should consider what we see here to be the baseline.

 

[fireproof78]

Good evening!

In the episode "Family", we learn that there has been a minor clash of viewpoints between Robert Picard and his wife Marie.



This will continue to be a timeless element of the human condition as long as a part of us remains resistant to change, but I now wonder if anyone here has ever experienced similar differences of opinions with family and/or friends; if you have, please...share with the class.

Yes, I'm married to one who slowly has accepted some technology but mostly we do a lot ourselves. Have a farm, chickens, etc.

There are exceptions, of course, and there are benefits they recognize, but technology is rarely latest or greatest.

 

[Riley]

Both Generations and PIC highlight my feeling that TNG should have ended with “All Good Things”—THE END, full stop.

My issue with “Family” is how thoroughly unpleasant Robert is. Maybe it’s in the script but Jeremy Kemp leans into it way too far. He behaves like a bullying asshole. I’ve absolutely no idea what Marie saw in him. Certainly not his looks and not his scintillating personality. It’s hard to imagine he ever cracked a smile his entire life. He really was horrible. They softened him a bit at the end of course, but it was too little too late.

I couldn't agree more. The movies were just excuses for the cast to get together, a fact they've admitted many times over the years. It was all phoned in and it shows. I agree about Robert, though I imagine he felt he had to be rough on Jean-Luc to break him down so he would admit he was suffering. I think the performance and/or the direction didn't bring that out enough.

 

[Mojochi]

Both Generations and PIC highlight my feeling that TNG should have ended with “All Good Things”—THE END, full stop.

My issue with “Family” is how thoroughly unpleasant Robert is. Maybe it’s in the script but Jeremy Kemp leans into it way too far. He behaves like a bullying asshole. I’ve absolutely no idea what Marie saw in him. Certainly not his looks and not his scintillating personality. It’s hard to imagine he ever cracked a smile his entire life. He really was horrible. They softened him a bit at the end of course, but it was too little too late.

I have to figure there's a few factors at play, which have Robert being unduly curmudgeonly, to a point that it seems unlikely anyone wound pair bond with him

1. He's getting old. Times have passed him by. It's possible to be very different in youth & grow to be someone seemingly unlikeable, while a true caring spouse still knows the person they love is in their, & the outward attitude is mostly affect, but deep down she knows him to still be good. "Let him dream" tells you his true nature. He also could've been much more handsome & confident, long ago, & possessed an imposing character that might've been magnetic, especially to a woman hoping to find a strong man to build a life with

2. Captain Picard has brought a pretty dysfunctional dynamic of unresolved history. There is unrepaired hurt he caused, that is seemingly better by the end of the encounter. We know that Picard was not a healthy minded youth. It took losing his heart to figure that out. Robert was the reliable & sensible one.

3. Robert doesn't even know Jean-Luc anymore, nor does he know the nature of this visit. If he's anything like the brother he'd known, it potentially represents a fairly deleterious impact on the child he's raising, & merits some defensiveness. So he goes hard at Johnny. Johnny kind of deserves it.

 

[Ragitsu]

Simple: when someone has suffered, there are times when "business as usual" from friends and family is preferable over an abnormal reaction (i.e., everyone else openly walks on eggshells with the skill of a world-class ballerina troupe). At least, certain psyches benefit more from being normally treated until the time for focused discourse and/or therapy naturally develops than they do marked cossetting at least partially intended to hasten the development of a resolution.