There’s a moment at the end of Star Trek Generations that continually annoys me, especially considering Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) obsession with archaeology in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first film starring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Generations saw the USS Enterprise-D battle a mad scientist named Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell). This culminated in Picard teaming up with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), who lost his life to defeat Soran.
Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, “The Chase,” highlighted Captain Picard’s fascination with archaeology. Picard’s mentor, Professor Galen (Norman Lloyd) presents the Captain of the Enterprise with the Kurlan Naiskos, a rare, ancient artifact that survived the end of the Kurlan civilization a millennia before. Picard is overwhelmed by this gift; an emotional Jean-Luc treated the statue with delicate care, awe, and reverence. Which is why the way Picard treats the Kurlan Naiskos in its next Star Trek appearance is so shocking.
Star Trek Generations Forgot Captain Picard’s Archaeology Obsession
Picard Literally Drops The Kurlan Naiskos
At the end of Star Trek Generations, Captain Picard and Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) survey the wrecked bridge of the USS Enterprise-D. The Galaxy Class starship was forced to crash-land its saucer section on Veridian III while Picard and Captain Kirk were battling Dr. Tolian Soran. Jean-Luc finds the Kurlan Naiskos inexplicably among the Enterprise bridge’s debris. After regarding it for a moment, Picard immediately drops the Kurlan Naiskos on the floor. Just a year and a half earlier, Picard was jubilant to receive the Kurlan Naiskos, but he just casually tosses it aside.
Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “The Chase” was the basis for the main storyline involving the Progenitors in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.
30 years later, it’s still hard to reconcile how Captain Picard treats the Kurlan Naiskos in Star Trek Generations compared to his reverence for the priceless statue in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6. It’s a moment indicative of how the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies transformed Picard’s character to become an action movie hero. Captain Picard’s studious fascination with archaeology was forgotten, and his jaw-dropping disregard for the Kurlan Naiskos is a sign of this shift in how the Star Trek movies would present Picard going forward.
Star Trek: Picard Fixed Jean-Luc’s Respect For The Kurlan Naiskos
The Priceless Statue Was Recovered From The USS Enterprise-D’s Wreck
Star Trek: Picard rectified how Jean-Luc treated the Kurlan Naiskos at the end of Star Trek Generations. Star Trek: Picard‘s series premiere, “Remembrance,” saw Admiral Jean-Luc Picard visit the Starfleet Archive Museum, where he stored many tokens of his long career as Captain of the Enterprise. The Kurlan Naiskos was among Picard’s prized possessions, along with his Captain Picard Day banner, a statue of the USS Stargazer, and the painting тιтled “Daughter” by Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner).
Evidently, the Kurlan Naiskos was recovered from the wreckage of the USS Enterprise-D bridge and returned to Admiral Picard, though Jean-Luc didn’t see fit to take the millennia-old artifact with him when he beamed aboard the USS Farragut at the end of Star Trek Generations. In Star Trek: Picard season 3, the Kurlan Naiskos found a place of honor in Jean-Luc’s study at Chateau Picard. It took almost 30 years, but Star Trek restored Jean-Luc’s pᴀssion for archaeology and remembered how important the Kurlan Naiskos was to him.
Star Trek: TNG Movies Changed Captain Picard
Picard Became More Of An Action Hero
Star Trek Generations marked the beginning of Jean-Luc Picard’s transformation from the studious and cerebral Captain of Star Trek: The Next Generation into a sci-fi action movie leading man. Jean-Luc’s shift was gradual, starting with Star Trek Generations killing off Picard’s family off-screen. In keeping with the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies closing out with action-packed third acts, Picard and Captain Kirk had to fight Dr. Tolian Soran, and Jean-Luc became a more proactive and aggressive lead character.
Star Trek: First Contact solidified Captain Picard’s new status as an action hero, as Jean-Luc became a phaser-firing, Borg-fighting, superhero obsessed with defeating his cyborg alien enemies. Star Trek: Insurrection also ended with Captain Picard battling it out with the Son’a’s villainous leader, Ad’har Ru’afo (F. Murray Abraham). Picard’s conflict with his evil clone, Shinzon (Tom Hardy), in Star Trek: Nemesis rounded out this era of Action Movie Hero Picard.
The Kurlan Naiskos is indicative of Jean-Luc swinging back to the scholar with a pᴀssion for archeology he used to be.
However, Star Trek: Picard remade the older Admiral Picard closer to the intellectual, introspective soul he was in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although merely an Easter egg in Star Trek: Picard, the Kurlan Naiskos is indicative of Jean-Luc swinging back to the scholar with a pᴀssion for archeology he used to be. It’s harder to imagine Admiral Picard callously tossing the Kurlan Naiskos aside the way he did in Star Trek Generations.
