Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

Justice (1987)

Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

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Quotes 

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I don't know how to communicate this, or even if it is possible to do so... but the question of justice has concerned me greatly of late. And so I say to any creature who may be listening: There can be no justice, so long as laws are absolute. Life itself is an exercise in exceptions.

  Edo God (voice) : [CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR-LINE]  How can there be justice, unless laws are consistent? Was it not one of your own people who said, "Lawlessness anywhere endangers lawfulness everywhere"? Without absolute law, my people would be inundated with exceptions: appeals, plea bargains - I believe your people have a term for it - with "red tape". Nobody could be punished for anything anymore. Thus, if I yield to these requests of yours, what will you yield in return?

• Commander William T. Riker : When has justice ever been as simple as a rulebook?

  [the transporter activates, and the away team is beamed up] 

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Seems the Edo Lord agrees with you, Number One.

• Lt. Cmdr. Data : It was probably unwise of us to attempt to place a human colony in this area. Of course, there are 3,004 other planets in this star cluster in which we could have colonized. The largest and closest...

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Data, don't babble.

  Lt. Cmdr. Data : Babble, sir? I'm not aware that I ever babble, sir. It may be that from time to time I have considerable information to communicate, and you may question the way in which I organize it...

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Please, organize it into brief answers to my questions.

• Conn : Intruder relays do show something.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Why has everything become a "something" or a "whatever"?

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Whatever the object or vessel in orbit with us, it hangs there like a nemesis.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Capital punishment in our world is no longer considered a justifiable deterrent.

  Liator : [with sarcasm]  In other words... We are not yet as "advanced" as you are. I suppose, if somebody commits murder in your world, he is simply warned not to do it again and then sent on his way. Well, since you are advanced in so many ways, I suggest you use your superior powers to rescue the boy. We will record him as a convicted criminal out of our reach - one who luckily escaped the barbarism of this backward little world.

  [CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR-LINE] 

  Liator : Or you could show us how your people detect the seeds of criminal behavior, so that we can prevent such chaos by way of mandatory abortions.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR-LINE, appalled by this suggestion]  No. *I will teach you nothing of the sort, and that is final*.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : How do I explain my refusing to obey their laws down there, not permitting the Crusher boy... to be executed? And by so doing, do I endanger this vessel and more than a thousand other lives?

  Lt. Cmdr. Data : Would you choose one life over one thousand, sir?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I refuse to let arithmetic decide questions like that.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Let's just hope it's not too good to be true.

• [last lines] 

  Lieutenant Geordi La Forge : [after the Edo god ship vanishes]  Is that a signal?

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I suppose. I suppose it must be. I was hoping for more.

  Lieutenant Geordi La Forge : More of what, sir? I'm glad it's gone.

  Commander William T. Riker : Agreed, sir. Short and sweet. God-like efficiency.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I was hoping we'd learn more about it. But since we can't, take us out of here, Number One.

  Commander William T. Riker : Gladly, sir.