How did Picard avoid disciplinary action after the events of First Contact?

I just wondered about this. Picard was given orders by Admiral Hayes to patrol the Neutral Zone and steer clear of the Borg incursion of Sector 001. Picard later decided the Admiral could shove those orders up his ass and went anyway, which eventually led to the defeat of the Borg in the 24th century, and later in the 21st century. Now, this is all and good. Everything worked out for the best. But, would his superiors see it this way?

What if the Enterprise had lost? Then, the Borg would have control of a Borg-ified state of the art Sovereign-class starship to do with as it pleases in the 21st century.

What if the Borg could use their neural link to Picard to gain a tactical advantage over the Federation fleet amassed over Earth?

What of the countless crewmembers who died/became Borg who wouldn't have died had Picard NOT joined in the battle? We know the Borg assimilated at least decks 26 to 11, so we don't have exact numbers as to how many were Borg-ified, but I imagine it's a lot.

Now, you could also argued that Picard saved the battle at Sector 001. We don't know if he did or not. The fleet could have stopped the cube without his help (albeit with more loss of ships and lives). Picard may have just sped up the end of the battle.

You could also argue Picard saved Earth. Well, so did Admiral Kirk, who, along with other charges (which did not include the deaths of 2/3rds of his crew), was still dropped in rank. So, why didn't Picard at least get a rank deduction? Or any discipline at all?

 

He was scheduled for a promotion to Admiral, and a desk job. That was cancelled, and a reprimand was put into his record.

 

Weell he could arue that he was responding to a distress call. If you listen to the radio chatter when the Fleet engages in the Borg you hear a call for assitance.

 

Saving the world tends to get you a free pass in Star Trek's world.

 

Kirk's "punishment" was a bit of a fix to get him back in the Captain's chair and away from his desk. Everybody grinned and applauded when it was announced. If it was like a kid destroying a car he stole (but for the right reasons) getting an exact duplicate back as "punishment". He would've gotten off scot free otherwise just as Picard apparently got off here.

Anyway, it's not the events of First Contact that should see Picard punished - but in Generations where the Enterprise is lost in a minor skirmish with an antiquated Bop something that also had alot to do with keeping on duty a patently emotionally unstable Lt Cmdr (resulting in the kidnapping of Geordi..etc). If the whole Veridan debacle isn't a sign you need to put the captain out to pasture, I don't know what is.

 

In every movie, the villain wins some. The captain should fry for that, surely - nothing bad is allowed to happen on his shift.

In ST:INS, Picard rebels against the supposedly democratically elected government of the UFP and denies life from trillions (until the end credits roll and said government reverses Picard's "decision", of course). If that doesn't get you quietly vaporized behind the corner, there's little reason to assume any lesser disrespect of authority would.

Well, at least in ST:NEM, Picard only drives at unsafe velocities.

Timo Saloniemi

 

by blowing up a bloody borg cube?

"we are in the military which means if you fail it's a court martial offense - if you succeed we call it initiative" sorry, don't know where i remember thatone from

 

But....is Starfleet a military????

 

General Order 23
Subsection 7
Paragraph 3
Sub Paragraph 1.0.7

"If a Starfleet Captain violates orders, yet in the course of the movie said captain saves planet Earth from certain doom, said captain will avoid any logical and meaningful consequences to their career."

 

engaging borg cubes and being vaporized by them is definately the military side of starfleet.

 

I think you missed my joke.

 

indeed - i still don't get it

 

Stay un-assimilated, my friends.

 

Starfleet and The Federation could then also claim they did punish Kirk for his actions. But at the end of the Day

1.>Kirk got back the Job he really wanted
2.>Starfleet and the UFP got one of their best Captain's back

 

There was a huge, ponderous, never-ending debate a few months ago about "Is Starfleet a Military Organization"...and every time a topic like this comes up, we fear a re-birth!

 

The admirals who told our Picard to patrol the Neutral Zone, where from a different universe than the universe our Picard returned to, so the real issue is why wasn't our Picard put into detention (forever) for being alt universe refugee by an Admiralty who had no idea if our Picard was good or evil?

 

Some orders are never meant to be obeyed.

 

The battle in First Contact answers that question.

The battle in First Contact answers that question too.

The Federation regularly engages in wars, sometimes multiple wars at the same time. If Starfleet isn't the Federation's military then who is? Because the Federation does have a force that fights it's many wars.

 

*sigh....

 

One could just as well ask why Admiral Hayes wasn't subjected to any kind of disciplinary action.

Hayes' flagship was destroyed during the Battle of Sector 001, yet Hayes himself survived. And as we already know from "The Measure of a Man", a court-martial is standard procedure whenever a ship is lost. That same episode gave no indication that it matters HOW the ship was lost, so there must be another reason why Hayes was not court-martialed.

His rank can't be the issue, as I'm sure flag officers of all services have been subject to courts martial over the years.