When I was 14, my dad died unexpectedly. ST:TNG was the big love of my early teen years, and during that time, the Enterprise D crew became an extra family, and in particular, Captain Picard a steadying, calm presence when everything was too bleak. I hope Patrick Stewart knew how much we loved him.

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Another reason to be bummed about how TV shows are now eight episodes every two years. It was potent to have a patrician guy on screen once a week, 25 times a year, for most of a decade, solving hard problems by consulting with a team of scientists and diplomats on the most ethical approach.

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I think a lot about how much this is the product of an era that saw the Berlin Wall fall, the Cold War end, and the threat of sudden nuclear annihilation vanish. The possibility of a peaceful future was in reach for a moment. Framing conflict as aberration is at the heart of TNG.

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Picard so obviously wants to be a diplomat 1000x more than he wants to ever have to be a badass shooting a phaser, and that's like, exactly the heart of why Star Trek is the scifi franchise that has shaped me the most

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Exactly. What other show, made in the last 30 years, will even ADMIT that torture is an abject failure at everything it claims to do; that the only thing it REALLY does is make the torturer feel Big and Strong in the moment, while simultaneously giving them PTSD for the rest of their life?

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