USS Stargazer Court Marshal

[Captain Robert April]

Being courtmartialed only means he was tried, not convicted.

Kirk was courtmartialed over Ben Finney's alleged death, and everything worked out fine there, right?

 

[Timo]

A court martial of Riker and others involved may well have taken place after ST:GEN all right.

Whether it "worked out fine", we can debate from several angles. The next two times we see our heroes, they're stuck at their traditional ranks, aboard a ship smaller than their original ride, and Starfleet has told them to go to the corner and stay there until further notice. The third time doesn't exactly bring improvement, even if it involves a slightly more prestigious mission.

Might be Riker and Picard were found guilty of no wrongdoing but less than eligible for promotion in the near future.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Shikarnov]

A court martial of Riker and others involved may well have taken place after ST:GEN all right.

Whether it "worked out fine", we can debate from several angles. The next two times we see our heroes, they're stuck at their traditional ranks, aboard a ship smaller than their original ride, and Starfleet has told them to go to the corner and stay there until further notice. The third time doesn't exactly bring improvement, even if it involves a slightly more prestigious mission.

Might be Riker and Picard were found guilty of no wrongdoing but less than eligible for promotion in the near future.

Timo Saloniemi

I don't know, Timo. Commander LaForge notes that the Enterprise-E "the the most advanced ship in the fleet" in First Contact. So while the ship may be smaller, I don't know if it could be considered punishment. Besides, given Picard's love of children, he might even have requested a different class of vessel since they were renaming ships anyway (unless Sovereign Class ships can be constructed a lot faster than other Starfleet ships).

 

[Deks]

Yup.
The crew of the Enterprise-D was 'rewarded' with 'the most advanced ship in the fleet' and they have been in space for over a year by the time of FC.

The only reason SF stick them into the Neutral Zone was because they feared Picard's personal judgment would be impaired due to his past dealing with the Borg (which was a stupid move at best because that kind of behavior makes Picard look like he's a child who is incapable of moving past what happened to him years ago).
There's no doubt that the experience would be traumatizing ... but come on... he's a SF captain.
SF should have removed him from command if they thought this encounter with the Borg would be 'psychologically detrimental'.

 

[Timo]

To the contrary, Starfleet was dead right about Picard remaining a potential traitor - he was still impregnated with Borgness, including a subspace receiver (transceiver?)!

What would have been stupid is keeping an entire starship out of action just because the skipper is likely to betray his species. Just order Riker to put Picard to jail, or to a defueled shuttlepod, and then take the ship to action. Or if Riker, too, is untrustworthy (and why would Starfleet reveal this to Picard - and why should Picard say so to Riker even if he knew?), then all the top officers could be dragged away in chains while the ship fought, and then restored to their positions after the compromising action was over. That's their employer's prerogative, certainly.

It's quite possible Starfleet wasn't that sort of stupid, though. Perhaps they simply realized a Sovereign wasn't worth much in battle, or at least not in a battle against a Borg cube? Perhaps they were aware of fundamental flaws in the design? Perhaps the ship was never meant to be much of a fighter, which is why she's bristling with small defensive guns instead of mounting a few big ones of decisive firepower?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Starbreaker]

You need to read The Buried Age. The court martial scene at the beginning is fantastic.

 

[Timo]

It's an excellent take on the event, if one wants to proceed from the assumption that Starfleet wants its own ships destroyed. It then takes some effort to accept that Picard's last log entry was so highly poetic and contrary to fact, but it's not an inelegant idea at all; it would nicely fit Picard's personality that he should do a cryptic high-brow log entry where some other skipper would just write "Abandoned ship, hope my fancy scuttling attempt works. Was a good ship, damn shame. End log."...

It just doesn't please me personally - because but for this single interpretation, we would have little or no reason to think that Starfleet does want its own ships destroyed when immediate salvage appears unlikely. It's a pretty cliched approach to space opera, and not completely in the spirit of the naval adventures on which Star Trek builds.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Castellan]

Yup.
The crew of the Enterprise-D was 'rewarded' with 'the most advanced ship in the fleet' and they have been in space for over a year by the time of FC.

The only reason SF stick them into the Neutral Zone was because they feared Picard's personal judgment would be impaired due to his past dealing with the Borg (which was a stupid move at best because that kind of behavior makes Picard look like he's a child who is incapable of moving past what happened to him years ago).
There's no doubt that the experience would be traumatizing ... but come on... he's a SF captain.
SF should have removed him from command if they thought this encounter with the Borg would be 'psychologically detrimental'.

Either way, Starfleet was WRONG. Had Picard not disobeyed and simply stayed where he was, twitteling his thumbs around the Neutral Zone and watching for the Romulans (the Romulans were probably too busy thinking how'd they be able to handle the Borg once they are through with the Federation), everyone in Starfleet would be having a nice, pale complexion.

Plus those in high levels of authority have a bad habit of treating everyone else like children.

 

[DataLoreSpock]

Amen to that.
If Picard had acted like the 'good son', the Federation would be screwed.
It is like that of people.
If they are higher up than you,then you do not have any say in anything.

 

[Timo]

Can't blame Starfleet for not trusting Picard, tho. Indeed, the very reason he saved the day was because he really was a Borg fifth columnist, with a secret phone line to the enemy boss herself.

Fortunately, he also happened to be a double agent.

Timo Saloniemi