Picard's biggest mistake

[enterprisecvn65]

If not for his arrogance and smart mouth the Borg may have gone in some different direction in the galaxy and never encountered the Federation and countless lives and ships, at least Federation ones, wouldn't have been lost.

Hadn't they already assimilated Seven of Nine's family at that point though?

That's one big piece of retconning!

I never watched voueur or Enterprise so if there was something in those shows that showed mankind encountered the Borg earlier I'm not aware of it.

From the ST I know humans didn't know of the Borg and vice versa until Picard kept sniping at Q and he decided to show Picard how wrong he was.

If not for that who is to say the Borg would have headed towards earth. They might have picked a different direction to explore. If they retconned it in a later show that this wasn't the first encounter I'm not aware of it

"Q If we die here, now.....you will not able to gloat. You wanted to frighten us. We're frightened. You wanted to show us that we were inadequate. For the moment I grant that. You wanted me to say 'I need you'......I NEED YOU!"

 

[kirkfan]

Hadn't they already assimilated Seven of Nine's family at that point though?

That's one big piece of retconning!

I never watched voueur or Enterprise so if there was something in those shows that showed mankind encountered the Borg earlier I'm not aware of it.

From the ST I know humans didn't know of the Borg and vice versa until Picard kept sniping at Q and he decided to show Picard how wrong he was.

If not for that who is to say the Borg would have headed towards earth. They might have picked a different direction to explore. If they retconned it in a later show that this wasn't the first encounter I'm not aware of it

"Q If we die here, now.....you will not able to gloat. You wanted to frighten us. We're frightened. You wanted to show us that we were inadequate. For the moment I grant that. You wanted me to say 'I need you'......I NEED YOU!"

A wiser course of action would have been NOT to provoke an omnipotent being to begin with but I guess that's too much foresight to ask of a starfleet captain.

 

[BigJake]

A wiser course of action would have been NOT to provoke an omnipotent being to begin with but I guess that's too much foresight to ask of a starfleet captain.

Inviting said being to come aboard and mess with your crew in the guise of "helping" you wouldn't be my first choice either.

 

[T'Girl]

That's one big piece of retconning!

Not retcon, just the gradual introduction of new information.

From the ST I know humans didn't know of the Borg and vice versa until Picard kept sniping at Q and he decided to show Picard how wrong he was.

It isn't that Humans never heard of the Borg, it's Picard and his officers who never did.

Picard apparently never heard of the Hanson's project, which isn't that hard to believe. My impression is that the Hanson themselves didn't initially know what they were going after. They were chasing a rumor.

Archer's encounter of two centuries before with them was either never entered into the Enterprise Dee's computer records, or the way Archer described it in his report didn't match up with any search parameters Picard's crew entered into a search.

If not for his arrogance and smart mouth the Borg may have gone in some different direction in the galaxy and never encountered the Federation ...

Q is a sadistic asshole, regardless of anything Picard said or didn't say, Q's actions could of been exactly the same.

And if Picard explored the area or headed straight back to the Federation is likely irrelevant too, Q would have positioned them in such a way as to meet the Borg cube.

 

[kirkfan]

A wiser course of action would have been NOT to provoke an omnipotent being to begin with but I guess that's too much foresight to ask of a starfleet captain.

Inviting said being to come aboard and mess with your crew in the guise of "helping" you wouldn't be my first choice either.

It would have been more advisable to let him in, while keeping an eye on his actions.

 

[Memory Alpha]

Yeah, "I, Borg" is the winner, IMO, but I want to throw another one out there. Picard's treatment of Sito in "Lower Decks" is utterly terrible and is as unfair as could be, given his consistency and priority in being fair. That episode is a little unsettling, and probably by design. Here are the good guys seen by a few underlings as an exclusive little clique. But Picard vindictively bullies Sito into an extremely dangerous mission for which she obviously does not have the experience. He literally threw her to the wolves. I don't know if it counts as a mistake per se, but to me it absolutely tarnishes is impeccable character a little.

 

[Makarov]

Lower Decks is unsettling to me because not only do the lower ranking members have all these disadvantages, but they also don't have any plot armor! If it was a higher ranking member of the crew, there would be some elaborate plot that allows them to survive the mission. I would never want to be a lower ranking member in starfleet if we are judging by Lower Decks.

 

[Leviathan]

...his attempted French accent.

 

[kirkfan]

...his attempted French accent.

I don't think he even went that far. His French in the bynars' episode is simply awful. If they want to sell us the idea of someone being French they could have at least given him some pointers on how to pronounce the dozen of words he spoke in the whole series. Hiring a language coach for one day wasn't going to kill them!