The finale promised a LOT out of the movies that were to be made, said mostly of Q to Picard upon realizing the paradox and to paraphrase "that is what awaits you"... Which is a shame as even the best TNG movie (which I'll get to in a moment) is unimaginative "typical and unimaginative" crap. Even "Generations" had some potential with the Nexus but then they screwed up so many points in that movie that it all goes down the drain... First we have El Aurian refugees who never bother to tell anybody about what they were escaping from, thenb Guinan who tells Picard it's not possible to get back in, then she tells Picard that if he does go in he won't be able to get out, and then he gets out so quickly and unconvincingly... ugh. A great pity.
Oh, did Picard listen to Guinan when she told him HE was responsible for the events which led up to and included "Unification", what with allowing Tasha create a time paradox...? Picard didn't seem to care for the mess he put the Borg in either (I Borg, Descent) and he knew destroying them would have been more humane (as aptly demonstrated in "First Contact" where he redily kills even the very crew that risked their own necks to save him 6 years earlier! Given the Borg situation alone, Picard's a real twit who can't make up his mind!)
Now I definitely disagree with a few quotes from
this list, but there are people who've seen how Picard isn't always as wonderful as you've said. It's a long list, but they do make the occasional point. (but quite a few of those quotes are baseless...) But I've read them all and at least can be laughed at for the either stupid or camp value that they are! :evilgrin:
1592. When Kirk and Company were trapped in the past ("Tomorrow is Yesterday"), they agreed that returning to 1960's Earth was not an option. After all, there were 430 of them which meant there would be 430 chances of altering the future. Yet, when Picard and Company went back in time ("Star Trek: First Contact"), they seeming overly eager to blow up their ship and return to Earth of the mid-21st century. The Point? Kirk and Company care more about preserving the proper Timeline.
1579. Kirk is sociable with his crew. And it's often in public. You often see him hanging out in the rec room, or such as in "Charlie X", he seeks out a specific crewman who he obviously works out with. How often do we see Picard just hanging out in Ten Forward? The only times he ever shows up there is for some formal occasion where his presence is required (like O'Brien and Keiko's wedding), to talk to a member of his crew about boring business, or to bug Guinan for some advice relating to his work.
1575. Spock was so loyal to Kirk that he felt it was more important to serve his captain than it was to save his own father's life (see "Journey to Babel"). Worf, on the other hand, was far more loyal to his family and heritage than he ever was to Picard. Proof of that was seen in the two-part episode "Redemption" where Worf resigned from Starfleet after Picard refused to let him go fight in a Klingon civil war. As well, Worf's decision to return to Starfleet afterwards had nothing whatsoever to do with Picard, but was made because he did not have the guts to kill his enemy's twelve-year-old son, and so he feared being called a sensitive wimp if he stuck around.
1565. Picard is the ultimate jerk; when a helpless, terrified little girl is brought onto his ship to beg for help for her dying world ("Pen Pals"), all he can do is bitch and moan about a "child being on his bridge," and grumpily DEMANDS to get her out of there while he worries about the Prime Directive (as usual) as he prepares to sit and watch while billions of people are literally boiled to death when he could save them with a single command and no real risk or cost at all to him or his ship. Meanwhile, in "Miri" and "And the Children Shall Lead," Kirk goes all-out to save children who want to KILL him-- this pretty much says it all about who's the "BOSS" and who's just an "S.O.B."
1552. Kirk's inspires such trust in his crew that they believe that their problems are his problems ("Shore Leave"); Picard's crew believes that he IS their problem ("Hollow Pursuits").
1541. Kirk kept his 40-year old starship for her last 20 years, and felt remorse and had the decency to watch his ship go down. He kept Enterprise-A for another 10 years until Starfleet retired him and his ship. Picard had Enterprise-D for 7 years, and managed to lose a 7 year old ship to a 100 year old antique. And now he's crashing Enterprise-E into something in Nemesis. Kirk took care of his ship, because Kirk and the Enterprise were one. Picard...Isn't. Let's just leave it there.
1504. Kirk knew he was following a line of other great Captains for the Enterprise. Kirk worked hard to measure up to the standards set by April and Pike. Moreover, Kirk is aware of the legendary nature of the Enterprise and, like all great Captains, he has a special relationship with his ship- some would even call it love. This is true of all the Enterprise Captains (Harriman's esteem for Kirk was obvious, as was his fear he may not measure up) except for the arrogant Picard. He never makes any mention of the line of the prior Captains of the Enterprise, and never has any apparent trepidations about his ability to command the Enterprise- this is a sign of reckless arrogance. Further proof of his ignorance of the special legendary nature of the Enterprise, is his casual commentary after he destroys the ship ("plenty of letters in the alphabet").
1478. When Picard was told that the universal translator was not compatible with the Calamarain species ("Deja Q"), he did not make any further effort to establish communication and just sat around with the ship's shields up. This resulted in the crew being unable to continue its attempts to prevent a moon from falling out of its orbit and smashing into a populated planet. In other words, if Q hadn't got his powers back at the last minute and restored the moon himself, Picard's actions (or rather, his lack of action) would have caused an innocent planet to perish. Now, for evidence that Kirk would have handled the situation differently, let us look to back to the episode "Metamorphosis." In this episode, Kirk was similarly told that the universal translator was not compatible with a life force such as the Companion. But what did he do about it? He told Spock to redesign the darn device so that it WOULD be compatible! Once that problem was solved, Kirk was then able to talk to the Companion and eventually convince it to let everyone go -- just like he would have been able to talk with the Calamarain and work out some sort of understanding there.