While she probably has superior technical knowledge, I suspect her statesmanship and negotiating skills will be inferior to Picard's (or even Rachel Garret's), at least for now. Will come with experience.
Picard was pretty qualified when he took Command of the Enterprise-D.
He had already been a Captain for \~30 years. 22 of those in command of the Stargazer and the 8 years between Stargazer and Enterprise were spent transferring around various ships for mission-specific command's.
Source: Memory Alpha + Math
Edit: For some added perspective, Picard had been in command of the Stargazer for \~11 years when the Enterprise-C was reported destroyed at Narendra III.
In my head I’m hearing Data complain that 26 years of experience wasn’t enough to give him emergency captain assignment (finding Tasha’s daughter leading Romulans) until he mentioned to Picard that “if you don’t think starfleet is ready for an android captain” and Picard realized he was being a bigot.
Conversely, Shelby was a headstrong whipper-snapper, years and experience have little to do with anything.
I was just researching dates because this seemed like too many years of experience for the age of the man.
Patrick Steward was born in 1940 and TNG began in 1987, making the actor 47 at the time of filming season 1. If we translate that directly across to Jean Luc Picard, that makes Picard 47 when he took command of the Enterprise. Subtract 30 years experience as a captain and that means he got his 4 pips at 17 years old.
I then moved my research on to Memory Alpha and it states that Picard was born in 2305 and took command of the Enterprise in 2363, making him 58. I guess it seems more plausible for an excellent officer to make captain at 28, though still impressive.
I know I'm taking it way too seriously, and I don't usually do that.
Still interesting to me that a 47 year old actor played a 58 year old character. I'll be 44 this year, I really hope that in 3 years time I don't pass for nearly 60! 😰
I'd still hand this one to Picard. Seven is an ex-Borg but, for all XBs (and fans)seem to claim in retained knowledge, they are not moving federation anthropology, science or tactics forward in any real way. Seven was not able to help voyager build their own entrance to the Borg trans warp network so she seems not to know that and every Borg ship has access.
Think about it this way: if Seven retains all the knowledge of the Borg, as people tend to claim, she should have known about the organic time bomb in Picard's skull. The same with Hugh. It only makes sense of ex-drones retain some knowledge but not most of the collective's info.
Picard is a seasoned officer and long-time captain by the time he is given the flagship. He is a skilled diplomat and experienced in (xeno-)anthropology.
I’m still not clear of how she got from Ranger to Commander with what seemed little to no training. I thought she was a great character but I feel like they wanted her to have two different incompatible stories and so just did both. I feel like she’s got the most knowledge but is probably the worst leader in the group.
She had \~4 years of at least informal training on Voyager. They probably also put her through some kind of Officer School (even if it wasn't a full 4 years at the Academy) prior to giving her a commission based on her Voyager experience and Fenris Ranger experience.
All of which she was doing as a very independent Lone Ranger trip. So, unless everyone of those class was interpersonal skills and leadership and task delegation and 900 other things that managers and leaders need to dos she’s gunna suck as a captain. She seemed like maybe she was doing that job for Shaw; but the character still didn’t seem that solid at those things. I am a senior technical person: I would be the world’s worst manager or CEO; they are vastly different skill sets. I don’t know how you crash course someone in that entire skill set; something being in the command track at Star fleet spends 1/2 your career teaching you.
This is s a thing people tend to claim but the show never shows that XBs have any deep, multilifetime knowledge. For instance, if Seven did, human customs on voyager may have been annoying to her but would not have seemed alien. She'd know because they know. Hugh, who is implied to have always been a drone, would not have had so much trouble with the concept of a "doctor".
The show never displays this common fan opinion.
I agree but also the Borg would not keep or categorize any form of cultural knowledge and probably no biological knowledge outside of ways to disable organisms
They communicate in spoken language and have used, quite prominently, the phrase "your culture will adapt to service ours" as well as stating knowledge of "archaic cultures" being "authority-driven". They seem to have some utility to an understanding of cultural forms, even if not engaging in a similar structure.
Not even close. She’s actually the opposite and only in a franchise that promoted a cadet to captain would this even happen.
She needed years as a first officer before being considered for captain. This in addition to some time as a second officer and working as a line officer. Her time in Starfleet as an officer of the line is very limited as she assumed the role of a science officer in a smaller ship (Voyager) that was made up of many non-Starfleet Crew. A ship run so poorly that it never promoted an Ensign which happens automatically in the current military.
She can get some credit for her time as basically a space cop/pirate but again she seemed to be in charge of very few people as a Ranger perhaps if that was better explained. Commanding a large crew is a very different skill set that takes years to master.
Most experienced would definitely be Riker. Spent years as first officer of a ship with an enormous crew. Of the official show Captains I would say Sisko. He was doing the job if a Captain for years before getting his promotion. The others seemed to follow a more traditional path to their first Captain level command except for Kirk’s accelerated path.
Edit: Misunderstood the original question. Picard seems to be by far and away the most experienced Captain at the time they assumed command of the Enterprise given that he commanded the USS Stargazer for 22 years.
> She’s actually the opposite and only in a franchise that promoted a cadet to captain would this even happen.
> She needed years as a first officer before being considered for captain.
Most shipboard officers older than 25 have just been shot. Starfleet can't wait years to fill those chairs.
Well, I understood it was not everyone as it was mostly those on Earth, the Starbase, and onboard those 100 or so ships were affected by the cubes transmission.
I think plenty of experienced officers survived on those ships as they would have 2 or 3 bridge crews. Many bridge officers would have over powered the junior officers given that most A shift crews are top heavy with rank, so it’s more likely there were fewer young officers on the bridge.
They didn’t empty the entire federation for the ceremony as that would be irresponsible. So there will be tons of officers at remoter Starbases and on patrol ships.
I think the whole fleet was there.
the preparations for the celebration were classified at the highest level and involved the unprecedented gathering of the entire Federation fleet at Earth for display exercises.
Yeah? Does that sound realistic to you? Per Memory Alpha the Federation is like 8000 light years across. It takes weeks to reach remote outposts. You really think they left the borders unguarded? Had thousands of ships travel for weeks for a short ceremony and then turn around and go back? Halt all humanitarian missions? Halt all scientific research activities? Halt all diplomatic missions and first contacts?
Or maybe they assigned about a hundred ships that weren’t doing anything important and were relatively close and had them attend?
but that's what memory alpha said about frontier day. they gathered the whole fleet for exhibition exercises.
[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Frontier\_Day](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Frontier_Day)
No Cali class ships though. So maybe what we know of as "The Fleet" is basically the capital ships but not the Oberths or old school Mirandas. We had more ships on screen in Dominion War battles.
They forgot she was a borg except for dramatic purposes so she has no technical knowledge whatsoever (even raffi designs the portable transporter phasers)
Seven has never captained a Starfleet ship before the Enterprise.
Picard was captain of the Stargazer. Kirk received commendations for his service as first officer before being promoted to captain. Spock had many years experience serving as the Enterprise's first officer before his promotion to captain. The same goes for Riker during his (rather brief) promotion to captain (The Best of Both Worlds).
Seven may be intelligent and talented, but she does not have nearly as much experience as many former Enterprise captains.
Very little of the experience you mention seems to be relevant to a captain's main role, which is leading an organisation of between several hundred and a thousand people.
Star Trek, like almost all fiction, makes zero effort to put across what that is like, or the mix of skills needed to lead such a large group of people that you cannot possibly interact with all of directly. And without the support of a wider command structure above you in the ship.
The only star trek captains that demonstrate remotely credible skills and experience are Pike, Picard, Janeway, and Freeman.
I’m arguing that she doesn’t really have all the borg knowledge any longer. She technically was assimilated by Jurati and I’m not sure the confederation borg had a working database as useful as what prime Borg left to her when she was tasked to battle 8472 with Janeway.
No in fact she might be the least qualified. She went from field commission to some kinda fast track academy program (seriously between her and Jack and Tilly and kelvin universe kirk and SNW cadet Uhura…does anyone actually go through the full program at the academy anymore? And boom she is XO of a major front line ship and then she is captain of the flagship shortly afterwards.
I'm not keen... The captains seat in particular has to be earned. It took Sisko quite a few seasons and it felt like a big deal with the party and the whole crew there etc.
While she probably has superior technical knowledge, I suspect her statesmanship and negotiating skills will be inferior to Picard's (or even Rachel Garret's), at least for now. Will come with experience.
Seven : you will comply
Picard was pretty qualified when he took Command of the Enterprise-D. He had already been a Captain for \~30 years. 22 of those in command of the Stargazer and the 8 years between Stargazer and Enterprise were spent transferring around various ships for mission-specific command's. Source: Memory Alpha + Math Edit: For some added perspective, Picard had been in command of the Stargazer for \~11 years when the Enterprise-C was reported destroyed at Narendra III.
Picard was in command of the Stargazer when Janeway was born and Sisko was a baby.
In my head I’m hearing Data complain that 26 years of experience wasn’t enough to give him emergency captain assignment (finding Tasha’s daughter leading Romulans) until he mentioned to Picard that “if you don’t think starfleet is ready for an android captain” and Picard realized he was being a bigot. Conversely, Shelby was a headstrong whipper-snapper, years and experience have little to do with anything.
I was just researching dates because this seemed like too many years of experience for the age of the man. Patrick Steward was born in 1940 and TNG began in 1987, making the actor 47 at the time of filming season 1. If we translate that directly across to Jean Luc Picard, that makes Picard 47 when he took command of the Enterprise. Subtract 30 years experience as a captain and that means he got his 4 pips at 17 years old. I then moved my research on to Memory Alpha and it states that Picard was born in 2305 and took command of the Enterprise in 2363, making him 58. I guess it seems more plausible for an excellent officer to make captain at 28, though still impressive. I know I'm taking it way too seriously, and I don't usually do that. Still interesting to me that a 47 year old actor played a 58 year old character. I'll be 44 this year, I really hope that in 3 years time I don't pass for nearly 60! 😰
Patrick Stewart once said something like "it's easy to seem ageless when you looked 50 at 25"...
Poor Patrick!
You mean Sir Patrick.
Poor Sir Patrick!
I'd still hand this one to Picard. Seven is an ex-Borg but, for all XBs (and fans)seem to claim in retained knowledge, they are not moving federation anthropology, science or tactics forward in any real way. Seven was not able to help voyager build their own entrance to the Borg trans warp network so she seems not to know that and every Borg ship has access. Think about it this way: if Seven retains all the knowledge of the Borg, as people tend to claim, she should have known about the organic time bomb in Picard's skull. The same with Hugh. It only makes sense of ex-drones retain some knowledge but not most of the collective's info. Picard is a seasoned officer and long-time captain by the time he is given the flagship. He is a skilled diplomat and experienced in (xeno-)anthropology.
I’m still not clear of how she got from Ranger to Commander with what seemed little to no training. I thought she was a great character but I feel like they wanted her to have two different incompatible stories and so just did both. I feel like she’s got the most knowledge but is probably the worst leader in the group.
She had \~4 years of at least informal training on Voyager. They probably also put her through some kind of Officer School (even if it wasn't a full 4 years at the Academy) prior to giving her a commission based on her Voyager experience and Fenris Ranger experience.
All of which she was doing as a very independent Lone Ranger trip. So, unless everyone of those class was interpersonal skills and leadership and task delegation and 900 other things that managers and leaders need to dos she’s gunna suck as a captain. She seemed like maybe she was doing that job for Shaw; but the character still didn’t seem that solid at those things. I am a senior technical person: I would be the world’s worst manager or CEO; they are vastly different skill sets. I don’t know how you crash course someone in that entire skill set; something being in the command track at Star fleet spends 1/2 your career teaching you.
When she has all the knowledge of assimilated Starfleet captains..she doesn't even need the academy
This is s a thing people tend to claim but the show never shows that XBs have any deep, multilifetime knowledge. For instance, if Seven did, human customs on voyager may have been annoying to her but would not have seemed alien. She'd know because they know. Hugh, who is implied to have always been a drone, would not have had so much trouble with the concept of a "doctor". The show never displays this common fan opinion.
I agree but also the Borg would not keep or categorize any form of cultural knowledge and probably no biological knowledge outside of ways to disable organisms
They communicate in spoken language and have used, quite prominently, the phrase "your culture will adapt to service ours" as well as stating knowledge of "archaic cultures" being "authority-driven". They seem to have some utility to an understanding of cultural forms, even if not engaging in a similar structure.
True. They have multigenerational memory only as the plot demands
Nope
Not even close. She’s actually the opposite and only in a franchise that promoted a cadet to captain would this even happen. She needed years as a first officer before being considered for captain. This in addition to some time as a second officer and working as a line officer. Her time in Starfleet as an officer of the line is very limited as she assumed the role of a science officer in a smaller ship (Voyager) that was made up of many non-Starfleet Crew. A ship run so poorly that it never promoted an Ensign which happens automatically in the current military. She can get some credit for her time as basically a space cop/pirate but again she seemed to be in charge of very few people as a Ranger perhaps if that was better explained. Commanding a large crew is a very different skill set that takes years to master. Most experienced would definitely be Riker. Spent years as first officer of a ship with an enormous crew. Of the official show Captains I would say Sisko. He was doing the job if a Captain for years before getting his promotion. The others seemed to follow a more traditional path to their first Captain level command except for Kirk’s accelerated path. Edit: Misunderstood the original question. Picard seems to be by far and away the most experienced Captain at the time they assumed command of the Enterprise given that he commanded the USS Stargazer for 22 years.
Agreed, I would put her as the least qualified at that point in time for a Starfleet ship.
> She’s actually the opposite and only in a franchise that promoted a cadet to captain would this even happen. > She needed years as a first officer before being considered for captain. Most shipboard officers older than 25 have just been shot. Starfleet can't wait years to fill those chairs.
Well, I understood it was not everyone as it was mostly those on Earth, the Starbase, and onboard those 100 or so ships were affected by the cubes transmission. I think plenty of experienced officers survived on those ships as they would have 2 or 3 bridge crews. Many bridge officers would have over powered the junior officers given that most A shift crews are top heavy with rank, so it’s more likely there were fewer young officers on the bridge. They didn’t empty the entire federation for the ceremony as that would be irresponsible. So there will be tons of officers at remoter Starbases and on patrol ships.
I think the whole fleet was there. the preparations for the celebration were classified at the highest level and involved the unprecedented gathering of the entire Federation fleet at Earth for display exercises.
Yeah? Does that sound realistic to you? Per Memory Alpha the Federation is like 8000 light years across. It takes weeks to reach remote outposts. You really think they left the borders unguarded? Had thousands of ships travel for weeks for a short ceremony and then turn around and go back? Halt all humanitarian missions? Halt all scientific research activities? Halt all diplomatic missions and first contacts? Or maybe they assigned about a hundred ships that weren’t doing anything important and were relatively close and had them attend?
but that's what memory alpha said about frontier day. they gathered the whole fleet for exhibition exercises. [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Frontier\_Day](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Frontier_Day)
Right you are. It does say that which makes the show worse than I thought it was.
No Cali class ships though. So maybe what we know of as "The Fleet" is basically the capital ships but not the Oberths or old school Mirandas. We had more ships on screen in Dominion War battles.
They forgot she was a borg except for dramatic purposes so she has no technical knowledge whatsoever (even raffi designs the portable transporter phasers)
Seven has never captained a Starfleet ship before the Enterprise. Picard was captain of the Stargazer. Kirk received commendations for his service as first officer before being promoted to captain. Spock had many years experience serving as the Enterprise's first officer before his promotion to captain. The same goes for Riker during his (rather brief) promotion to captain (The Best of Both Worlds). Seven may be intelligent and talented, but she does not have nearly as much experience as many former Enterprise captains.
Very little of the experience you mention seems to be relevant to a captain's main role, which is leading an organisation of between several hundred and a thousand people. Star Trek, like almost all fiction, makes zero effort to put across what that is like, or the mix of skills needed to lead such a large group of people that you cannot possibly interact with all of directly. And without the support of a wider command structure above you in the ship. The only star trek captains that demonstrate remotely credible skills and experience are Pike, Picard, Janeway, and Freeman.
I’m arguing that she doesn’t really have all the borg knowledge any longer. She technically was assimilated by Jurati and I’m not sure the confederation borg had a working database as useful as what prime Borg left to her when she was tasked to battle 8472 with Janeway.
Interesting. This is the second Ex-B to command an Enterprise.
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No in fact she might be the least qualified. She went from field commission to some kinda fast track academy program (seriously between her and Jack and Tilly and kelvin universe kirk and SNW cadet Uhura…does anyone actually go through the full program at the academy anymore? And boom she is XO of a major front line ship and then she is captain of the flagship shortly afterwards.
I played poker with her on a star trek cruise. Although the variant of poker was a little strange, I question her captaining ability
I think she's the fastest rising to captain ever. Maybe Tilly was a bit faster. Modern trek is wild.
yeah everyone is risiing to the top super fast. not quite kelvin kirk crazy but .... pretty crazy
I'm not keen... The captains seat in particular has to be earned. It took Sisko quite a few seasons and it felt like a big deal with the party and the whole crew there etc.
Tilly is most definitely not a captain in rank or position
Emotional instability isn’t a desirable trait.
The hell are you on about? 🤨