The First Duty

I don’t know why the writing assumption wasn’t that they’d all be seen as highly irresponsible anyway and deemed dangerous for Starfleet duty. Kirk took major risks because his crew or entire civilizations were at stake, not to show off.

 

It was the characters that thought they'd be viewed with awe. Characters make mistakes, they make wrong decisions.

 

No, Picard never says “But you all missed one thing, didn’t you? Even if you’d made Academy history, no reasonable starship captain would’ve requested you for their command!”

I mean Locarno and the others aren’t clueless in that story: they know full well that if the maneuver had succeeded, they would’ve had graduation glory on top of their other achievements. Imagine an actual pilot doing something risky with their plane in violation of an explicit, official ban. What does that say about Starfleet?

 

If the manouver had succeeded they would (should)have been kicked out of Starfleet or pretty much what happened.

 

Speaking of what might have happened is academic at that point. They effed up, a man is dead. That's where Picard is focused.

The episode itself never makes it seem like the Starburst was a good idea, except from the perspective of four overconfident cadets.

 

I like this episode as strong character drama with good acting but I think the premise is a little contrived. I don't think academy cadets would ruin their career just to impress everyone with a vain stunt. Yes characters make mistakes and Wil Wheaton gave a good performance playing a more fallable character. Patrick Stewart was great in this episode too.

 

No, Picard makes it clear that it would’ve been fabulous for all of them… if only they’d succeeded. Again, Locarno was ambitious but not clueless. He knew that successfully violating the ban would only do great things for his career.

 

Starfleet rewards risky behavior and breaking the rules if it gets the job done. Even the prime directive can be broken based on gut feeling. It wouldn't have been a big issue if they had pulled it off. They probably found Locarno a spot at section 31.

"Why didn't you break a few rules?" -Picard to his brother

 

Maybe Picard was referring to the Wesley Crusher commandment.

Remember the early first season episode (the one with the half naked people running around), Wesley made that infamous declaration "I'm with Starfleet. We don't lie."

It did sound juvenile and it was easy to mock Wesley (probably deservedly so) for saying it the way that he did.

The irony in "The First Duty" was that when Picard was lecturing Wesley about how the first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, Picard was basically echoing what Wesley had said back in the first season. Picard said roughly the same thing but, of course, he did so in a grandiose and Shakespearean way, as only Picard can.

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Another noteworthy thing about "The First Duty" was that Wesley's story arc had come full circle. Early on in the series, Wesley said that he don't lie because he's with Starfleet. But it was a lie, a cover up, among other things, that caused the boy wonder's downfall. In a way, Wesley was hoisted by his own petard.

That would be Wesley's last episode (until he returned briefly later on), and he essentially left in disgrace for doing something that he said he wouldn't do.

Then again, Wesley got off easy. Someone was killed as a result of what Wesley and the others did. Add the cover up on top of that. Yet he still wasn't expelled as he should have been.

 

What does it say? That Picard is in a Utopian Dreamworld of his own making (IE it's all in his mind) and in the actual 24th century - flawed humanity still exists and is front and center a part of Starfleet.

 

I always thought the prime directive was their first duty

 

No he doesn't. When Picard speaks of graduating a legend/blaze of glory, he is speaking of what he thinks Locarno convinced the other cadets to go along with. He's attempting to recontruct the same picture that Locarno painted for Red Squad. That's why he says, "Am I correct?" after saying it.

It was his last appearance until the next one?

 

Stewart WAS great in this episode. But it's funny knowing that he drifted to sleep often during the hearing scenes

 

It would seem likely that there are specific blind spots instead, one of these being next to Titan. The place is famed for harebrained maneuvering in general: remember Riker and his Titan's Turn from "Chain of Command"? The cadets here thought they could practice their thing in the blind spot, but either miscalculated and actually came out of the spot while doing forbidden things, or then got phenomenally unlucky and were caught by a satellite that wasn't normally there or wasn't normally looking that way.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Except there was no job here to be done.

I’m not sure what you’re going for here. Are you saying they not only openly defied the ban, but weren’t even sure they’d get away with it? Everything in the episode points to the idea that it would’ve been better than fine for Locarno and the others if only everything had gone without a hitch. They’re smart enough not to ask for permanent black marks or a ban-violation inquiry with serious consequences for their piloting licenses.

 

"They're smart enough" is a dangerous assumption in the best of cases... I could easily see guys and gals of that age completely blind to the way the world really works. I mean, that's not a dangerous assumption at all, looking around.

Timo Saloniemi

 

But a ban on a maneuver is the sort of thing that comes with guidelines in a manual in case it’s defied; it shouldn’t even take a Starfleet genius to figure out what would happen next.

 

Manuals, rules and written word, blah! Grown-up* stuff.

Timo Saloniemi

* What Cadets are not, at least in our reality

 

No, it's my opinion that they thought they'd absolutely get away with it. Doesn't mean they actually would have though, people convince themselves of incorrect things all the time. I know I do. Is this one of them? I don't know.

 

I like that they subvert our expectations, at least as regards Wesley. Early in the show we're shown that Wes almost inevitably seems drawn into a particular life: he saves the ship, he's declared as gifted and something of a child genius capable of memorising incredibly complex things, a model student, and he's the son of two officers. Within the cloistered Enterprise enviroment, he seems almost hypnotized into fulfiling the expectations of his peers there. He discusses these things fairly early on, when Riker explains that some humans like Captain Okona prefer an existence outside of the happy world provided by the Federation, and even says that maybe Wesley will discover for himself one day that Starfleet life isn't for him, but Wesley insists his mind is made up and he knows where his future lies...

But then, he 'goes to college'. And his time at the Academy, not to put too finer point on it, opens his eyes. Yes, we are presented with it as "Wesley has changed". But in reality, what has changed is the enviroment. He's outside of the Enterprise and outside of their expectations of him and making his own mind up. He struggles with making his choice in The First Duty. And ultimately, in Journey's End, he's finally realized what Commander Riker had suggested all those years before: that his idealism doesn't match the things he sees the Federation doing, and he angrily calls the Enterprise crew out on their hypocricy. This is strong stuff, and Wil Weaton plays it all beautifully, but the constraints of the series as it existed back then kind of stopped us from really focusing on it in a meaningful way. It's one of those things that would absolutely be done better, if The Next Generation were being produced today.