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Apr 18, 2023

Picard’s Jack Crusher Was Right About Starfleet Academy Being Unfair

Jack Crusher completed an accelerated course at Starfleet Academy at the end of

Jack Crusher completed an accelerated course at Starfleet Academy at the end of Star Trek: Picard season 3, highlighting unfairness in the system.

Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) was right about his unfair advantage at Starfleet Academy at the end of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Picard season 3 wrapped up the series, bringing the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation back for a final farewell and introducing Jack as the son of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Although Beverly keeping Jack from Jean-Luc led to a fair amount of tension between the three for most of the season, the last few scenes of the finale showed the family enjoying a new-found amicable relationship with each other a year after saving the Starfleet from the Borg.

Star Trek: Picard's finale also revealed that Jack had completed an accelerated course of study at Starfleet Academy during the one-year time jump, earning the rank of Ensign and his first posting extremely quickly. While this fast-tracking meant that he could be posted to the newly minted USS Enterprise-G under the command of Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), it was surprising to learn how fast Jack had been able to graduate. In fact, Jack himself stated that he thought nepotism and his status as Picard's son had something to do with it, despite both his parents reassuring him that it was simply a testament to his own skills.

Related: Picard's Jack Crusher Did What Wesley Never Could

Realistically, however, it is hard to imagine that Jack's parentage had nothing to do with his unprecedented success at Starfleet Academy, especially given the sway that Admiral Jean-Luc Picard has there. Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard revealed that Jean-Luc was actually the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy as of 2401. The first episode of season 2 showed Picard addressing a new class of cadets and speaking with Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) about how he wanted to make changes to the famous Kobayashi Maru training simulation.

Seasons 2 and 3 of Star Trek: Picard are set back-to-back in the timeline, so it's fair to assume that Picard was still Chancellor of Starfleet Academy in season 3, and held the position while Jack was enrolled. If that is the case, then Jack's fast-tracking is almost certainly due at least in part to nepotism. While Jack's skill set from his time working as a smuggler and con artist is undoubtedly impressive, it's hard to imagine it's enough to earn him a commission within only a year of study. The fact that Jack is the son of not one but two very powerful Admirals in Starfleet likely did the rest.

Even if Admiral Picard contributed to Jack's success by simply being his father, whether he directly helped Jack with his schooling is not completely clear. However, the same scene in Star Trek: Picard's finale that revealed Jack's Academy success also made the possibility unlikely. After Jack stated that he believed nepotism helped him get ahead, Picard told Jack that "names mean almost nothing" and that all of Jack's success was down to him alone. This statement at least suggests that Picard didn't do anything to help Jack directly during his time at Starfleet Academy, although since Jack's year there took place off-screen, it's hard to say for sure.

However, even if Picard tried to let Jack make his own way at the Academy, he was unfortunately incorrect in his assessment that names mean nothing. Star Trek: Picard season 3 demonstrated that Jean-Luc is one of the most well-known and well-respected Admirals in Starfleet as of 2401, and Beverly Crusher was seemingly achieving the same status after her promotion to Head of Starfleet Medical Branch. Jack was completely right about the influence his parents had on his success, even if Picard and Crusher couldn't see it themselves.