February 15th, 1993, "Tapestry"
Fiver by Michael DeSanto (never heard of him, either)
The Episode
CRUSHER: Tell Doctor Selar she can use ward three for the ambulatory cases, and I'll stay here.
Come to think of it, hasn't it been long enough since K'ehleyr's death that Suzie Plakson can play Selar again? She'll be namedropped a few more times before the series ends, so why not?
CRUSHER: He's in cardiac arrest. Connect the pulmonary support units. He's got internal haemorrhaging. The bioregulator of his artificial heart's been fused.
You'd think the implant would have a backup regulator.
PICARD: No. I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe that the afterlife is run by you. The universe is not so badly designed.
This line always stuck with me. Truly one of Picard's best burns.
MAURICE: I told you that Starfleet would bring you to a bad end, but you wouldn't listen. Now look at you. Dead before your time.
Come to think of it, why was Maurice so anti-Starfleet anyway? Was it just the general "new is bad" thinking that Robert displayed? I find such thinking overly simplistic and close-minded.
Q: Death has made you a little dim, Jean-Luc. These are the voices of all the people who have died through your actions or your inactions.
There's a lot to unpack here, but the simple version is that Picard isn't 100% responsible for the unforeseen consequences of his actions or inactions and as long as his motives weren't selfish you can't lay much blame on him.
Remember when I discussed how many TOS deaths were directly Kirk's fault?
Q: Your artificial heart. You might have lived if you had a real one instead of this unreliable piece of technology.
No matter whether his heart was real or artificial, no doubt there were missions that would've gone either way.
For that matter, wouldn't the Borg have upgraded this thing enough for Crusher to see that it was worthwhile to leave it as is?
(Picard, in old style uniform, gets slapped across the face by a woman who then storms out of the room)
MARTA: Bravo! Bravo!
COREY: Nicely done.
The expanded universe had a lot of fun fleshing out Marta and Corey's backstories. In particular Corey joining Section 31 and Marta hunting them down.
Q: Oh, you mortals are so obtuse. Why do you persist in believing that life and death are such static and rigid concepts. Why, I can take your life and give it back to you again with the snap of a finger.
Well, that's disturbing.
PICARD: Change them? You mean change the past? Q, even if you have been able to bring me back in time somehow, surely you must realise that any alteration in this timeline will have a profound impact on the future.
Q: Please. Spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important.
Oh, the argument to the contrary that we could come up with.
MARTA: Very, very nice. I think you should forget about Starfleet and play dom-jot for a living.
First appearance of dom-jot. Memory Alpha reveals an interesting story that was cut from "The Maquis." Curzon Dax, Cal Hudson, and Sisko once played dom-jot against the Zakdorn.
Q: Flowers! Is there a John Luck Pickard here?
Another classic. There's also a package here for Tony Stank...
PICARD: I'm not sure. Mister Worf, what is my rank and position?
WORF: You are a Lieutenant junior grade, Assistant Astrophysics officer.
One thing that confuses me is why Picard would stay in a dead-end Starfleet career instead of returning to Professor Galen. And why Astrophysics? You'd think there would be any number of science officers specializing in archeology on board.
PICARD: Who's the captain of this ship?
DATA: Captain Thomas Halloway.
The writers were considering bringing back Jellico as the captain, but I would've preferred DeSoto, it would've been a nice Easter Egg.
PICARD: Main Engineering. Are you having a good laugh now, Q? Does it amuse you to think of me living out the rest of my life as a dreary man in a tedious job?
And he can't resign and go back to Earth...why?
Q: Au contraire, he's the person you wanted to be. One who was less arrogant, and undisciplined as a youth. One who was less like me. The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did not fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realised how fragile life is or how important each moment must be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted for much of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never lead the away team on Milika Three to save the ambassador, or take charge of the Stargazer's Bridge when its Captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe. And he never, ever got noticed by anyone.
Let me just toss up a video link.
Milika III will only make a cameo in Stellar Cartography in Generations. I wish someone would write a novel about that.
As for the captain that was killed, that was Daithan Ruhalter. He practiced fencing with Picard. It was the prior captain, Anton Manning, that took Picard to Vulcan to attend the Spock/Saavik marriage.
PICARD: And, you know, there's still a part of me that cannot accept that Q would give me a second chance, or that he would demonstrate so much compassion. And if it was Q, I owe him a debt of gratitude.
Q will call in this debt during the events of the novel "Q-Squared."
Memory Alpha
* First time the Nausicaans appeared onscreen.
* A Selay and an Antican appear on the station, but they're supposed to be moral enemies. Oops.
* Picard had hair as a young man here, but was shown as bald in the photo in Nemesis. Simplest explanation-remove Nemesis from canon. Duh.
The Fiver
Riker: We were attacked! The Captain's been fatally injured!
Worf: That's what he gets for leading the away team.
Ouch.
Picard: Why does heaven look like the place where the Prophets live?
Q: It's the same complex. They live next door.
"We got a great deal on the timeshare!"
Q: So, do you have any regrets?
Picard: Yeah, I didn't get to fool around with Beverly.
Q: Besides that.
"How about that time the Borg killed millions of people using my knowledge?"
"We don't have the budget for something that big!"
Picard: Marta! Corey! My old college buddies! It's great to see you again!
Marta: Old?
Corey: Have you been smoking felicium again, Jonny?
Felicium is injected, not smoked.
Worf: Is something wrong, Lieutenant Picard?
Picard: What's going on? Why am I a lieutenant? Who's the captain of this ship?
Data: Kathryn Janeway.
Janeway was commanding the Bonestell at this point.
Nitpicker's Guide
* Picard says that the incident with the Naussicans was thirty years ago when it was really over forty years. Oops.
* Many inconsistencies between the story as told in "Samaritan Snare" and this episode.