Riker's going to get the big "SHUT UP, William!!" scolding from Picard, then send to the brig for insubordination for at least a week for calling TNG-era JL that
Would Riker get away with calling Picard "JL"?
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Riker's going to get the big "SHUT UP, William!!" scolding from Picard, then send to the brig for insubordination for at least a week for calling TNG-era JL that
Agreed. The only person on the Enterprise who has the right to call him 'Jean-Luc' was Beverly, because of their decades-long friendship and affection toward one another. It's unthinkable for Data to call Picard 'Jean-Luc' or JL even as they grew closer and he began to treat Data like a son he never had.
In the promos Picard calls Riker "Will" and Troi calls him "Jean-Luc," but IMO that is acceptable as by 2399 they all have become close to one another, Picard is no longer their commanding officer aboard the Enterprise,
and both Riker and Troi are presumably have retired from Starfleet as well.
Having Raffi called Picard 'JL' is like seeing a millennial-age junior staff calling their superiors their nicknames or first name, which I assume is fine in some work settings but is clearly not acceptable in organizations with strong top-down hierarchy like the military, or even at universities. In my old grad school all PhD students call their thesis advisor 'Professor Picard' or 'Dr Picard.' Once you have defended your dissertation (thereby earning the right to be called a 'Dr' yourself), you may call your advisor 'Jean-Luc,' but in all cases you never call him 'JL.'
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Picard is European - so it would be Jean-luc - not a single one of my students, PhD or otherwise refer to me as Prof. Zhang.
I thought it was because Michael Chabon wants to destroy Star Trek, but your point may have some validity.
Yep.
I always get confused by people getting irritated by things they define as "out of character" showing up in Star Trek. People grow, change, and evolve. It's not unusual. In fact, it's completely realistic and human. Expecting Picard or any other Star Trek character to exist in a box is not only unrealistic, it's pretty limiting and dull.
"Out of character" for Picard would be doing something immoral, unjust, or rash. Perhaps doing stand-up comedy would probably also qualify. Going for a dunebuggy joy ride or allowing someone with a certain relationship and personality type to assign an affectionate nickname to you is not.
I think it's a wonderful creative choice. It tells you everything you need to know about the type of relationship these two people have formed in just one, simple exchange. As a viewer, you know right away that Picard's relationship with her is different from Riker. You also know that Picard is different in this time (and in his new job) than he might have been when he was in command of the Enterprise. You know that things have progressed and come into perspective for him.
Which is what everyone seems to be clamoring for, given the amount of whining and armchair writing I see out here about "too much exposition."
We can't have it both ways.
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I think Raffi Musiker in Starfleet was something of a "bend the rules, until you can't bend them anymore" kind of officer. I think she was rebellious in nature. A good counter-balance to Picard. The "JL" thing was probably something he tolerated at first, then realized she had a personal affection for him and embraced it.
I thought it was jarring and pulled me out of the story. I don't really care about in-universe explanations, but nothing else on screen made me think Picard had changed in a way for this to make sense.
Maybe there's something unique and special to their previous relationship, but having it show up abruptly like this is very distracting.
Maybe there's something unique and special to their previous relationship, but having it show up abruptly like this is very distracting.
Each person we meet in life affects us in different ways. Musiker connected with Picard in a way most others, even close friends, hadn't.
Maybe? But it's an unlikely match, and the nickname suggests an intimacy that would be weird for the prior portrayals of Picard and what we have heard of their previous (command) relationship. The show may yet contextualize it to my satisfaction, but right now it strikes me as odd and jarring.
To you............
It might have struck me as odd, if I hadn't read the comics first.
As an undergrad at an American uni, lots of my professors were perfectly fine with being addressed by first name, some actually being more comfortable with that than with a formal title. One woman professor was adamant that we may either call her by her first name, or Doctor or Professor so-and-so, but never "Miss," "Missus" or "Mizz."
Kor
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JL sounds weird. It just has no good ring to it and it also makes as an abbreviation no sense. Saying Jean-Luc takes just as much time as those two letters. If they wanted a nickname for Picard why not just Jean, Luc or J? At least it would be shorter and all options have a better sound than JL in my opinion.
Well, yeah. I don't pretend to speak for the collective. I'm not Locutus.
I didn't read those. But we've known Picard for a long, long time and have never seen anything like this, so I don't think it's strange people find it unusual.
It just strikes me as hard to imagine how this came about in a command relationship, based both on what we've seen of Picard and see from him now. YMMV.
Wouldn't it all depend on the relationship? Others have alluded that Picard served with Raffi in different circumstances than the day to day starship operation. Certainly I have been in situations where nicknames just kind of pop up and care forward despite being kind of odd at first.
We've seen a lot of Starfleet relationships that were more casual. With Spock calling Kirk, Jim. Dax calling Sisko, Ben. Chakotay calling Janeway, Katherine. Picard seems like an outlier, embracing a style that had clearly went out of fashion in Starfleet.
Maybe Picard through age and experience, finally found that person he could have a more casual relationship?
The thing about a nickname is that it's received either willingly or unwillingly, and it says something about both the giver and the receiver. Clearly it was received willingly, in that Picard had the power in the relationship, but I find it hard to imagine him doing so. Even if he was being friendly, I would expect a "Please call me Jean-Luc."
It's possible to invent scenarios when this could have come about, but that's the same as making up stuff to explain away Discovery's plot holes. Just not my bag.
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