The Time Warriors and Beyond

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriros, Zombie Blues, Tales of ballinfree and more

So most of you will know that Picard season two revealed an unknown event in Jean Luc Picard’s life. His mother suffered from a mental health issue and subsequently committed suicide. This would traumatise the captain to be and while it is an interesting thing to see happen to a Trek character, it was revealed that Picard had always imagined that his mother had grown to old age.

Now this line was included to explain something that happened in the very first season of Star Trek the Next Generation in an episode called Where No One Has Gone Before. The show was brand new, expected to fail and this new crew were blank canvases to be painted upon. That would happen over the next seven years, several movies and in the Picard series where we discover his tragic secret.

But to me, this story was awkward as it just didn’t seem to work for me. Mental health did exist and afflict humans in the future as we saw in several episodes including Dagger of the Mind, Hard Time where O’Brien almost committed suicide and Twilight in Star Trek Enterprise. And I am all for delving into stories like this but the scene in Where No One Has Gone Before always stuck with me.

Patrick Stewart always wanted to add something new to Picard in every episode and while that didn’t always happen, this short scene is powerful and speaks volumes about him more than Picard season 2. It can also be interpreted as a foreshadow of his mother’s real fate but not for me.

In the episode, the Enterprise is thrown so far across the galaxy by the mysterious Traveler and the arrogant Kosinski. Kosinski claims his methods will allow starships to travel faster and further than ever before. But no one expects just how far.

The Enterprise ends up in a region of space where their thoughts become reality , putting the whole ship in danger. They must escape but the ship is torn apart by the crew’s own thoughts.

Picard is heading along a corridor to meet with the Traveler when he turns a corner and sees his mother.

She is sat at a table with a pot of tea. This is a very underrated and often forgotten moment that gives us a very rare insight of the very closed Jean Luc Picard. I think even Jellico would have melted if he had met his mother and we know what a shit he was.

The scene is enhanced by the soundtrack which gives a magic quality to the scene.

“You look tense Jean Luc. Come, and have a cup of tea.”

Look at every soap opera or family especially in Ireland and a cup of tea solved everyhting. Picard like Earl Grey and his mother may have been the one to get him on to it.

Curiously, Picard says Mama, just like the little boy. The bottom line is every man dissolves into the little boy he was when around his mother.

She says that she made it real strong, the way he likes it. There is a beautiful image here of the corridor in the background looking a bit fuzzy as if this were indeed a dream but we know that whatever is in a person’s head becomes real. So this is Picard’s mother but the dream version he made up to top hide his dark past. This doesn’t ring true for me and when I watched this, it made such an impact.

You should always listen to your mother because she is wise and often the foolishness of youth covers your ears to her wisdom.

Picard approaches his mother and tells her this can’t be as she….She finishes the sentence for him.

“Dead? But I’m always wth you. You know that.”

Picard says “Yes. I’ve felt that.”

Now, that is an interesting thing because it gives an insight into Picard. It is also something sadly that is never revisited or explored. Picard admits that he has felt the presence of his dead mother. Now, as captain and a man of science, this is something you would never hear come from the mouth of the captain, even though he is an open-minded person given what they encounter on a weekly basis.

Does this imply Picard has a belief in the afterlife? That the soul moves on but still stays in our lives, watching us. Given if that is true, that is something that dies with this episode. And being the man he is, he asks his mother, why now?

She replies does he mean here at the end of the universe or perhaps the beginning of it. He says they believe it to be the outer rim then falls to her side as she smiles at him. He asks her if she knows where the ship is and if she understands what is happening?

The camera cuts to Riker who calls to the captain who sharply snaps, “Just a minute, Number One!” When he turns again, his mother is gone.

All the time, Picard is not facing his first officer. He is still in his bubble but hurting because his mother has gone. Stewart’s expression is one of pain. His face crumbles as the loss sweeps over him again. It doesn’t matter that he has just had something everyone wishes for; a moment, no matter how brief with a lost loved onbe. You can see his pain as he looks to the apace where she just was but is forced to acknowledge, his mother was no longer there.

For me, this scene actually negates Picard season 2’s storyline as the reaction here is of someone that watched their mother grow old and pass. He jumps at the chance for her counsel. If she is an illusion, she certainly talks like a real person. She knows where they are and what it means for her son. Some will say this is Picard’s internal conflict and wonder about this place but I disagree.

This region manifests thoughts into reality but all Picard really knew was that this was the outer rim. it is his mother that opens his mind to the possibility that this is may well the beginning of the universe. This view doesn’t really strike me as how Picard thinks but that he actually had a moment with his mother out here. While Picard season 2 would have you believe this version of his mother is in fact an illusion Picard created, she is a wise woman seeking to guide her son, not an illusion.

Another interesting point is Riker interrupting. Picard is furuous as it robbed him of further conversation with his mother. Riker is often strutting about, sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong. You could say Picard is a rational man who would chalk it up to nothing. But in his quieter moments, he would surely run what happened over in his head, maybe stewing a resentment against his first officer. Maybe this is where Picard decides to be more proactive and lead away teams. There is no time limit to resentment.

On the other hand, people will say this is Picard’s illusion to cover what happened. But why would he drop that now? Here. When his ship and crew are in deadly danger? I cannot believe that he would call on a falsehood to try and solve his dilemma. For me, this was Picard and his mother and remember this is thirty years apart roughly.

It would have been nice to explore Picard’s spiritual side given his candid admission that he has felt his mother’s spirit watching over him. While Ben Sisko would be the spiritrual captain in the future, it is an aspect of Picard that was a missed opportunity. It is revisited in the episode Where Silence Has Lease where the Enterprise and its crew are trapped and on the very brink of death for the amusement of the being Nagilum. He intends to experiment on the crew having already killed one for his own curiosity. Rather than let him, Picard sets the self-destruct.

Data and Troi come to his ready room to ask about death. Picard tells them there is two opinions; one is that we simply die into nothingness and the other that we ascend to a higher form of consciousness. When asked what he beleives, Picard believes that he thinks death is more than that and our existence is part of a reality beyond what we currently understand as reality. We see that he is open to the possibility of life after death.

When faced with a possible ghost in Sub Rosa, it is clear that he knows what they are up against and it is no ghost but a parasite of some sort. It’s a pity this wasn’t explored further but Ben Sisko explored it all brilliantly in Deep Space 9.

Picard meeting his mother was a beautiful moment that could have brought new aspects to Picard. And for me, this is the mother he really had.