"It's the chain I go get and beat you with until you understand who's in rutting command here." - Jayne Cobb, Firefly.
Man that line hasn't aged well, frak seems sophisticated in comparison.
Anyway, 25 years ago, Captain Picard got to be a POW and Ronnie cox pointed out what a poo show his enterprise really was, ending troi's days of mermaid boobiforms.
This was a card that got played in bsg too, both written by Ron Moore, but a much better showing here.
Captain Jellico was right. Picard got burned on a black mission as a deniable asset, and it would have been a huge pivot for the series. He also broke the family nature of the show with cold professionalism. An Officer, instead of a patriarch.
Which made his Senator Kinsey character on stargate so much less. On that show, he was a cookie cutter bad guy. On TNG, he benched Riker, who had already spent a short time in the big chair during the first battle against the borg.
It was some damn fine TV, and I wish we could get something like it, instead of STD: kneeling football, pitbull klingon.