{"id":6523,"date":"2016-08-01T16:47:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T16:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/615-Tapestry"},"modified":"2016-08-01T16:47:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T16:47:39","slug":"615-tapestry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/01\/615-tapestry\/","title":{"rendered":"6.15 — \u201cTapestry\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

6.15 — \u201cTapestry\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> As he lies dying on an operating table following an accident, Picard is taken on a \u201cthis-is-your-life\u201d journey by Q, giving him the opportunity to explore the consequences of different choices he could have made as a young man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> I can understand the attraction of doing a backstory episode about Picard, but while it hits some very nice notes, it ultimately feels like an episode which doesn’t quite justify its own existence. Why are we watching this? Why is Q interested? \u201cQ, what is it you want?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John de Lancie looks great in the white room\/limbo scenes, which are fabulous in terms of painting with light. De Lancie sells a more serious version of Q than we’re used to very skillfully and precisely. One knock on Q is that he can be used as a lazy writer’s device, stepping in for the voice of the writer or the voice of God in scenes that are not limited by realism. De Lancie does a great job of keeping things grounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Picard\u2019s final speech about his life is nice, but I feel like I\u2019ve heard it elsewhere: \u201cThere are many parts of my youth that I’m not proud of. There were loose threads, untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads it unraveled the tapestry of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Based on the audio commentary included on the Blu-ray disc, it seems that “Tapestry” was a very personal, heartfelt piece of writing by teleplay author Ronald D. Moore, who always felt ashamed of dropping out of Cornell University, but reflects that if he had continued the path he was on, he would never have written on Star Trek or done any of the things that came after. If the metaphor is shopworn, it’s because it comes from the Three Fates of Greek mythology, and it works. There are too many things other things about this episode that don\u2019t work for me to give it full marks, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fundamentally, Picard plays himself as an old man throughout the episode, although he is supposed to have returned to 21 years of age. This makes all of his scenes with his young friends feel off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If Picard must think of himself as a dirty old man for having a romance Marta, then obviously he shouldn\u2019t go through with it. No wonder she has regrets afterwards. Her character feels underserviced by the writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s shocking to see Picard as a science officer, but he\u2019s basically just turned into Barclay here. I could not help thinking that the whole plot would have worked better as a Barclay episode. Could he have made different choices and turned himself into Captain Picard? Or maybe the differences between the two characters are more fundamental than the premise of this episode lets on. William Frakes and Marina Sirtis handle themselves well in their scene with Patrick Stewart in Ten Forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here’s a memorable quote from Q: \u201cYour life ended . . . under the inept ministrations of Doctor Beverly Crusher.\u201d Ouch! It stings \u2018cause it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3 of 5 Nausicaans in need of orthodontry.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/memory-alpha.wikia.com\/wiki\/Tapestry_(episode)<\/a>