When has Picard lied?

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Picard said "the first duty of a Starfleet officer is to the truth." Dr House said, "Everybody lies." I'm trying to think of any examples of when Picard has lied. There were some instances where he lied for a mission, of course, but did he ever lie for his own purposes? I suppose not telling Beverly he was in love with her, and felt only friendship, was a lie of omission. But are there any other examples?

 

[Tosk]

Depends on how you define lying "for his own purpose".

First one that springs to mind is that he lied to Sito Jaxa when he told her that he didn't know how she came to be serving on board the Enterprise.

He also lies about being Mr. Mot. He wasn't actually on a mission at the time, but he was lying to save his skin of course.

 

[Ragitsu]

Greg H is not exactly a prime example of a role model.

 

[Finn]

To Beverly when they are having breakfast....

 

[at Quark's]

Of course, House is only an unevolved human.

Depends on how you define lying "for his own purpose".

First one that springs to mind is that he lied to Sito Jaxa when he told her that he didn't know how she came to be serving on board the Enterprise.

True, but that was only to test her, and he told her the truth later in the episode.

If that counts, his posing to Hugh as Locutus in I, Borg counts too, or his posing as Galen in Gambit, or his lying to that 19th century lady they're renting a room from in Time's Arrow that they're actors and that she performs her reading part wonderfully, or his promise to Nuria that he'll always remember the Mintakans (well, he might actually have kept his promise but at any rate, we never hear anything about them again), or...

 

[Tosk]

or his promise to Nuria that he'll always remember the Mintakans (well, he might actually have kept his promise but at any rate, we never hear anything about them again)

Him keeping that weaving for years and years doesn't impress you? He promised to remember them, not talk about them.

 

[at Quark's]

Him keeping that weaving for years and years doesn't impress you? He promised to remember them, not talk about them.

Never knew about that (just looked it up on Memory Alpha), nice to know they kept that in, just like the flute, thanks!

 

[NCC-73515]

Telling Lwaxana how legendary Data's fascinating stories are

 

[Qonundrum]

Telling Lwaxana how legendary Data's fascinating stories are

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Did Sito have it worse? And, worse than Picard or Lwaxana?

 

[StarMan]

Gul Madred I'm sure would attest to Picard being a persistent liar.

 

[Nerys Myk]

He spent an entire episode pretending to be someone else. "Gambit"

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

He spent an entire episode pretending to be someone else. "Gambit"

Gambit was him being undercover for a mission. I was getting at instances of Picard lying for his own benefit. The Lwaxana Troi example above is pretty good.

How about in "Family" when he pretended to be fine after his assimilation, when in actuality he was in the middle of a breakdown? That was definitely a violation of his "personal truth."

 

[Mojochi]

Chiefly, he orders the deliberate concealment of the truth from the entire crew in "Clues", Which very much bothers me, when you see him talk about the 1st duty being to the truth, & something I consider an unnecessary mistake, when he could've just as well found a way to instruct Data to make it appear that they'd done so, for the sake of the crew's safety, but then divulge the truth to everyone later, after they were clear of the Paxans. Everyone would be in a much better place to secure noninterference with the Paxans were they completely informed.

Other examples of deception on his part: In The Enemy, he conceals the truth about finding another survivor, when he hadn't yet. "Put on your best poker face #1"
He conceals the truth from Bok, about believing Jason Vigo to be his son in Bloodlines, when he'd already been told he wasn't

Edit: Oh and he completely dupes Moriarty in Ship In A Bottle. He lies to the Ferengi about Riker being his dad in Rascals

I'll probably think of some more, but not many

 

[Tosk]

Gambit was him being undercover for a mission.

Not a Starfleet mission. Picard was doing his own thing in Gambit, so it was lying for personal reasons.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Gambit was him being undercover for a mission. I was getting at instances of Picard lying for his own benefit. The Lwaxana Troi example above is pretty good.

How about in "Family" when he pretended to be fine after his assimilation, when in actuality he was in the middle of a breakdown? That was definitely a violation of his "personal truth."

They probably would have killed him if he hadn't came up with being a smuggler on the fly. There was no "mission" to speak of.
Pulls a similar tactic in "Starship Mine" when he claims to be "Mott the Barber." Self-preservation.

 

[Ragitsu]

We can consider those "tactical deceptions" performed in the line of duty. As for Mrs. Troi, please...relent; we all have our breaking points.

 

[DonIago]

None of these really seem like examples of Picard lying where there's any real moral ambiguity to it, assuming that's what the OP is trying to get at.

The later books in the A Time To... novel series did a spectacular job of putting Picard in a moral bind where he lied but there was no morally unambiguous path forward, but it's hard for me to imagine TNG the series being willing to take that kind of risk with the character.

Do we think Picard was lying or at least deluding himself when he claimed to Q in "Q Who" that humanity was ready for the challenges that lay ahead, shortly before Q introduced them to a challenge they were not ready for?

 

[at Quark's]

We can consider those "tactical deceptions" performed in the line of duty. As for Mrs. Troi, please...relent; we all have our breaking points.

I agree. That's why I said 'If that counts', referring to the earlier Sito Jaxa example which I'd also count as a tactical deception in the line of duty. I'm not sure there's any example of him outright lying.

EDIT: Come to think of it, yes, I know an example.

In Phantasms when he has to go to the Admiral's Banquet, which he earlier professes to Riker he can't think of anything more tedious but he has run out of excuses over the years.

NAKAMURA [on viewscreen]: You're not trying to avoid this particular engagement, are you, Picard?
PICARD: No, no, certainly not. I'm really looking forward to it.

Some may call that a socially acceptable white lie, but it's still a lie. He probably could have been honest about it without any negative consequences, except possibly for his own career. I doubt he would have hurt those Admirals' feelings, assuming they really all have that 'evolved sensibility' Picard pretends humanity to have in his century, and holding to the first duty of every Starfleet officer (that being the truth, in his own words).

Do we think Picard was lying or at least deluding himself when he claimed to Q in "Q Who" that humanity was ready for the challenges that lay ahead, shortly before Q introduced them to a challenge they were not ready for?

Lying? No. Deluding himself? I'd say that depends on how you interpret that phrase exactly. He could have been a lot more careful before expressing such self-assuredness about humanity, at the very least.

 

[NCC-73515]

Telling the Queen that he will freely take his place at her side if she lets Data go

 

[Mojochi]

None of these really seem like examples of Picard lying where there's any real moral ambiguity to it, assuming that's what the OP is trying to get at.

Agreed. It would kind of fly in the face of the nature of the whole character for anything like that to have been written for him, more than just his particular policy on his duty.

I will say though, I don't think it's especially morally ambiguous what he did in Clues. He was, after all, just trying to safeguard the ship & crew, with the decision. I do think however, that it does fly in the face of his supposed intelligence, and is a bit of a chink in his integrity that he so easily is goaded into lying to his whole crew, including himself, and orders them all to do the same, especially doing it to Data, who he couldn't be putting more of a personal burden upon, after having just treated him like a criminal the whole episode, for doing that very thing. In truth, if ever it did come out again, he's put Data at the same risk as before

If one were going to have to uphold such a profound falsehood in this circumstance, clearly the better option is to lie to the people threatening them. Who cares about their personal wishes in this case? They're going to kill you. You certainly have no future intention of interfering with them, & as long as you don't, what does it matter if the crew does have knowledge of their existence? It's not like they are unfamiliar with making things classified.

So the proper option is to go through with everything the way they did, and find a way to communicate to Data that when it's all clear, he can divulge everything. So while I don't think Picard was wrongfully lying, I do think he was wrong to support the action to carry out a lie upon his whole crew, if that makes any sense

Edit: In other words. I don't think its an immoral lie, but I do think its a mistake to perpetrate it on everyone