star trek - Why wasn't Captain Picard ever promoted beyond Captain?

At the end of Nemesis movie, Captain Picard is still captain despite having served for many years.

Let's go over some key years from his career as provided by StarTrek.com.

Year 2333: Assigned as commander and first officer on U.S.S. Stargazer.

Year 2355: Promoted to captain of Stargazer after death of his superior in battle.

Year 2363: (or 2364?) Chosen to command relatively new Galaxy-class U.S.S. Enterprise-D.

Year 2372: Chosen to command relatively new Sovereign-class U.S.S. Enterprise-E.

He had a 22-year career as first officer and later captain of the U.S.S. Stargazer with an even more impressive record as captain of the fleet's former flagship U.S.S. Enterprise.

Like an admiral, he has led multiple ships several times. He's comfortable handling sensitive diplomatic negotiations like a diplomat. The man should have been promoted to admiral or appointed as ambassador. Yet, he's still just a captain.

He was offered a promotion to admiral if he would become the commandant of Starfleet Academy, but he turned that down. (I think that was in the second season of ST:TNG.)

Others have been promoted faster than him. Riker became captain after spending less time as Commander than Picard. Captain Janeway became admiral after only 7 years as captain (years 2371 to 2378).

Why hasn't Picard been promoted yet?

Did he annoy some superior officers?

Was he held back in his career?

Did he choose to stay a captain?

Was it because Starfleet lost many good captains in the battles against the Borg? (You could say Starfleet could not afford to promote him because they needed good captains after the two Borg invasions.)

Was it because Starfleet wasn't sure about him after his assimilation? (It was mentioned in the First Contact movie they had some reservations about him going against the Borg.)

Answer

Because he wanted to stay a captain. As you said, he is offered a promotion in TNG: Coming Of Age, and he declines it for this very reason:

QUINN: That's not enough. I want to promote you to Admiral, and I want you to take over as Commandant of Starfleet Academy.
PICARD: The Academy.
QUINN: Yes.

PICARD: The Academy?
QUINN: I need you close.
PICARD: Then there was never a problem with the Enterprise.
QUINN: No, but I had to be sure you hadn't been co-opted.
PICARD: Greg, this is politics, and I'm not good at politics. Surely there are others who are better suited.

Later in the episode:

QUINN: Wish I could convince you to change your mind.
PICARD: I'll serve you better here.

Later, Captain Kirk directly told him not to ever accept promotion in Star Trek: Generations, further affirming his position.

KIRK: You know, maybe this is less about an empty house than that empty chair on the bridge of the Enterprise. Ever since I left Starfleet I haven't made a difference. ...Captain of the Enterprise, huh?
PICARD: That's right.
KIRK: Close to retirement?
PICARD: I'm not planning on it.
KIRK: Let me tell you something. Don't! Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there, you can make a difference.

(Emphasis mine)

Kirk later reinforces his philosophy of "making a difference" with his dying words:

KIRK: Did we do it? ...Did we make a difference?
PICARD: Oh, yes, we made a difference. Thank you.
KIRK: It's the least I could do for the Captain of the Enterprise. ...It was ...fun. ...Oh my.

Ultimately, Picard wants to be an explorer, not an administrator, and while he is undoubtedly an accomplished diplomat, he is not interested in the mundane pleasantries of administrative diplomacy. We see this attitude expressed in Star Trek: Insurrection.

After a long conversation about traditional greetings and mission rescheduling:

RIKER: The diplomatic corps is busy with Dominion negotiations.

PICARD: Oh, so they need us to put out one more brush fire. Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers?

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...

Blog

Search This Blog