Sometimes a Cake is Just a Cake

"Sometimes a cake is just a cake."

Episode 158: Phantasms

Captain's Log Stardate 47225.7 (Year 2370)

This episode was directed by Patrick Stewart and revolves around Data's dream sequence that leads to the crew discovering interphasic organisms feeding on the crew, resulting in troubles initializing the new warp core.

In this episode, we get to see Picard's disgust for "schmoozey" events, such as the annual Starfleet Admiral's Annual Banquet, an event that Picard has successfully avoided for 6 years. He gives Ryker a run-down on the event, describing it as:

"tedious, 50 admirals shaking hands, making dull conversations, uninteresting food, boring speeches..."

Hey, we've all been forced to attend these lame events for work, yes? I love how human Picard is in this scene. He's desperate to get out of a boring work function and can't find an excuse to get out of it.

When Gordi fails to get the new warp core to work, Picard gets on a power-trip, a mis-step in judgement perhaps? I'd hate to be Gordi right now. 

"Bridge to engineering, Mr. La Forge, why isn't my ship moving?"

Captain Picard has to explain his tardiness to Admiral Nakamura without giving away his true feelings about the banquet. I'd say this was the right thing to do; telling a little white lie to maintain professionalism is necessary, specifically to maintain respect towards your collegues. 

Feeling the pressure from Nakamura, Picard doubts his crew's efforts to solve the problem and offers troubleshooting suggestions to La Forge and Data, who are already 10 steps ahead of him. He goes as far as reaching for the device in Gordi's hands as if to take over the situation. It soon becomes clear that they were doing everything in their power to solve the problem and he was the one in the way. I love the delight on Picard's face when Ensign Tyler offers a menial task to get Picard out of the way. A swallow-my-pride shirt-tug and off he goes to lift a few compartments. 

Data attacks Troi in one of his "waking dreams" and Picard has a meeting to discuss the intentions behind Data's behavior. He is concerned about the safety of his crew and tactfully confines Data to his quarters, without treating it like a punishment. 

Once Dr. Crusher makes the discovery of interphasic organisms feeding on the crews cells, Picard begins to link Data's dreams to the creatures and suggest he hook Data's dream program to the Holodeck to view the dreams. 

"Normally I would wish you pleasant dreams. But in this case, bad dreams would be more helpful."

As Picard and Gordi enter into Data's dream, Picard shares that even an insignificant image could be an important symbol. He observes every detail, noting the symbolism of consumption between the cake and Troi's shoulder, where Data visualized a mouth during the attack. Picard continues to draw conclusions of the symbolism in each of the dream's images. He works through the problem out loud with Gordi, who helps fill in the gaps and together they solve the problem. When Data awakes, he offers to simulate the high-frequency pulse that eventually kills off the organisms. 

And we're dying to know, did Picard make it to the banquet after all? Luckily Gordi needed 6 more hours to complete construction of the new conduit, causing Picard to miss the banquet. Of course, he wouldn't want Gordi to rush his work as he "wouldn't want to sacrifice the safety of the ship".  Oh darn!

What did I learn about Picard's leadership?

• Picard is a conceptual-thinker. He knows the answers are not always black-and-white. 
• He uses problem-solving techniques, such as being observant, looking for symbols and connecting the dots. 
• Sometimes Picard is flawed and he had a fleeting moment of being "controlling" when undermining his engineer's capabilities. But he was quickly aware that he was not being helpful and stepped aside and regained confidence in his team.
• And lastly, telling a little white lie to show respect to a colleague is sometimes necessary, especially when trying to get out of a boring work function!