Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

The Masterpiece Society (1992)

Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Photos 

Quotes 

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : They've given away their humanity with this... genetic manipulation. Many of the qualities that they breed out - the... the uncertainty, self-discovery, the unknown - these are many of the qualities that make life worth living. Well, at least to me.

• Commander William T. Riker : We've got a problem. Our core fragment is going to pass by Moab IV in six days.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Isn't that exactly what we anticipated?

  Commander William T. Riker : We didn't anticipate there would be someone living there.

• [last lines] 

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : If ever we needed reminding of the importance of the Prime Directive, it is now.

  Commander William T. Riker : The Prime Directive doesn't apply. They're Human.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Doesn't it? Our very presence may have damaged, even destroyed their way of life. Now, whether or not we agree with that way of life, whether they're Human or not, is irrelevant, Number One. We are responsible.

  Commander William T. Riker : We had to respond to the threat of the core fragment, didn't we?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Of course we did, but in the end, we may have proved just as dangerous to that colony as any core fragment could ever have been.

• Aaron Conor : Your arrival created this problem. Your departure solves it.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : That is simplistic.

• Doctor Beverly Crusher : There must be something we can do to help.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : We may have done too much to help them already, Doctor.

  Lieutenant Worf : But we saved them from destruction.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Did we?

• [Hannah and a few other colonists have asked to be allowed to leave their planet, but are facing strong opposition from their leaders] 

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [mediating]  In five days, you've seen only the most superficial evidence of what life is like outside this biosphere.

  Hannah Bates : Would you ever choose to live aboard a ship in a bottle, Captain? You are in command of a starship. You live to explore the unknown. We ask for that same privilege.

• [Troi has confessed her fling with Conor to Picard] 

  Counselor Deanna Troi : I should have walked away as soon as I saw what was happening.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : But you didn't, and that's human. We make mistakes. Genetic manipulation or not, nobody's perfect.