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By Chris Snellgrove
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Captain Picard made many crazy decisions throughout Star Trek: Next Generation which ranged from refusing to remove the Borg to letting a onerous teenager fly the venture. It is arguable, however, his wildest choice standing aside and doing nothing while Riker evaporated a relatively harmless murderer. Fans have spent years Trying to find out why Picard did not say or do anything at the highlight of “The Vengeance Factor,” but he turns out the real reason he stood so still while Riker killed a woman is that Patrick Stewart could not move or say anything to make a mess of Riker’s fatal blower optical special effect.
In this chapter, our smart crew discovers that a woman who appears young called Yuta is actually a murderer … one of the last of her kind, she is fully committed to eliminating the clan as a whole who killed her people. She progresses towards her target while Riker alternately warns her and shot her with even stronger phaser flavors, eventually evaporating while the captain is quiet. The lack of Picard’s response at the end of “The Vengeance Factor” is very strange, but the director of the Timothy Bond chapter later explained that he wanted the captain in the blow where Yuta is killed but the optical effect requires him not to move.
As recorded in Captain Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek CruisesBond was determined to get a picard in the most shocking scene of “The Vengeance Factor:” The moment Riker evaporates the murderer. He believed that the captain’s presence would be “very neat,” but taking everything away “meant to put several layers of elements in the shot, and for him to work properly, Picard had to stay still.” The director admitted late that there was a “good reason” for Picard to sit past and do nothing and “when I saw her, I really regretted the decision.”
Interestingly, Picard actor Patrick Stewart confused with the fans in the inaction of his character in this climatic moment of “The Vengeance Factor.” According to Bond, the actor was really amazing and asked “I’m supposed to sit here and do nothing?” While the Director of the episode had realized this bad call, he felt at first that this was the best course of action because “we knew that Riker had to kill the girl and we didn’t want a picard being shot by the phaser.”
Now if you are a fan of Picard who has spent decade Asking why he did nothing in “The Vengeance Factor,” this explanation is likely to be dissatisfied. Like, it made sense in terms of special effects, but it’s absolutely strange to watch Picard sitting there doing and saying nothing while Riker talked to Yuta and eventually killed Yuta over four minutes. Timothy Bond seems to agree, noting that “what I should have done is what you usually do – don’t get it in the shot” because “then the audience doesn’t think ‘why picard doesn’t respond?” “
What makes it all even more crazier is that Riker did not have to murder Yuta … as, as we see that the lowest location cannot be amazed, the first officer fired on it before the most phaser out. Perhaps there is a location between “stun” and “vapor” that may have been cast out? Also, she had a laser gun and had only glass, arguing that it was a clear and present threaten right Fuzzy at best.
Riker’s moral moment’s moral murkiness makes picard’s silence and inaction in “The Vengeance Factor” that much. Now we know, however, that this strange moment was caused by the need for the captain to stand perfectly still during optical effect. Unfortunately, this effect made more than killing Yuta… in the eyes of many fans, he also killed the character of Picard, making him appear unquestionably and completely passive in the face of his first officer murdering someone right before him.
