Picard's family

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Have any of the novels dealt with the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Picard's brother and nephew?

Somebody brought this up in GenTrek...how Robert and Rene died in a fire, and how suspicious it is that in the 24th century, things like this still happen.

I mean, sure, Robert didn't allow replicators in his home, but he wasn't a Luddite. Didn't he at least have a fire hose?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Who has their own firehose?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Who has their own firehose?

In the buildings on a commercial vineyard? Probably all of them.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In the buildings on a commercial vineyard? Probably all of them.

Didn't they die at home?

 

[rahullak]

No automatic fire suppression systems in the 24th century? Or perhaps Robert resented his brother's success so much he began to hate all high technology. Which could be why Jean-Luc felt their deaths so viscerally - it may have been partially his fault.

 

[The Wormhole]

No automatic fire suppression systems in the 24th century? Or perhaps Robert resented his brother's success so much he began to hate all high technology. Which could be why Jean-Luc felt their deaths so viscerally - it may have been partially his fault.

If Robert is so resentful of Jean-Luc he refuses to have his home up to modern fire code standards, that's entirely on Robert, not Jean-Luc.

 

[rahullak]

If Robert is so resentful of Jean-Luc he refuses to have his home up to modern fire code standards, that's entirely on Robert, not Jean-Luc.

But knowing Jean-Luc, he would take part of the blame himself. After all, it's family.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Didn't they die at home?

Their house is on a vineyard. I don't recall it was specifically a house fire. Novels have said that Marie is still living, so maybe they were in a shed and she was in the house?

 

[DonIago]

I believe all GEN stipulates is that it was a fire. Could have been a forest fire for all we know.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Somehow, a forest fire seems unlikely on Earth as well. I mean, they have automated weather suppression systems that stamp out tornadoes supposedly, a fire seems pretty easy to deal with. There are probably drones floating around everywhere. Dying in a fire seems so unlikely. But then again, neither Picard or Troi said anything like, 'JFC who dies in a fire in this day in age?' so I guess it could happen.

From what I recall, the books have Marie rebuilding the sections of the house damaged by the fire, restored to look exactly how it looked beforehand, as she has become the head of the Picard Vineyard.

 

[DonIago]

I wasn't attempting to speak to the likeliness of it, simply on the paucity of information that we're provided with.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

But of course.. was just thinking out loud. I think Picard only says, 'Burned to death in a fire,' and that was it. Super fishy.

 

[DonIago]

Maybe Soran set the fire, or arranged for it to be set, so that when he met Picard later he'd be more pliable to Soran's request that he be allowed back aboard the observatory...

Well, that assumes that Robert and the kid were in a location such that Soran could accomplish that and make it back to the observatory in time for the E to arrive, and that he knew the E would rescue him...

...and yet, still less convoluted than the Nexus!

 

[Tim Thomason]

Maybe people are just so reliant on drone firefighting systems, that house fires, while stopped quickly enough after detection, are not immediately tended to by active, present firefighters. René might've had an accident installing the new replicator, and Robert went in to save him (or vise versa), but collapsed from smoke inhalation. The explosion began in a small room in their large estate, and by the time local sensors detected an anomalous energy reading, both were dead or near to it. The drones may not have even flown until the fire escaped to the outside or larger portions of the building, and no firefighters transported in (or could get a lock on Robert or René) until after the fire was controlled.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

My god man, having them die in a fire caused by a replicator explosion. I like you and your dramatic sense of irony.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

But since we already know Robert would never allow replicators on the family estate, how could that be possible?

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

But since we already know Robert would never allow replicators on the family estate, how could that be possible?

Exactly! When he finally let them install one, it burns them down! It's a fantastically dark solution.

 

[Snaploud]

Robert Picard faked his death, de-aged himself with a transporter, and traveled back in time to the 1980s to invent the Queller Drive and kill some Sidons in 1999.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager's_Return

 

[Nerys Myk]

It was a freak marshmelon dispenser accident on a camping trip.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It was a freak marshmelon dispenser accident on a camping trip.

Death by s'mores.