Captain Picard's 10 Smartest Decisions in Star Trek: TNG
Captain Picard was one of the smartest starship captains in Starfleet, and his intelligent decisions changed the tide in TNG countless times.
Jean-Luc Picard didn't get to be Captain of the Enterprise by playing it safe, but he tempered his ambition with plenty of historical and philosophical knowledge. As such, he was well-armed for the task of exploring strange new worlds and encountering situations that required both diplomacy and quick thinking on his own part.
When faced with a number of difficult scenarios, Picard exercised his moral compass and intellect to find inventive, ingenious solutions. These smart decisions helped avert one catastrophe after another, even if they came with a cost. He succeeded where many Starfleet captains might have failed, making him a legendary figure in his own right.
Picard was faced with the difficult task of removing a group of settlers from a planet controlled by an inhospitable species known as the Sheliak Corporate. They forced the Enterprise into an ultimatum - remove the settlers within days, or they would wipe them off the face of the planet.
With no time to get the estimated 15,000 people off the planet, Picard dug deep into the extremely complex contract and found a clause that allowed a third party to arbitrate their dispute. He exercised his right to choose the Grizzelas, a race currently in suspended animation for six more months. The Sheliak relented, granting Picard the time he needed to evacuate the colony.
When Picard died in sickbay after suffering a traumatic injury, his spirit was spared by none other than the God-like Star Trek entity known as Q, who sought to give him a second chance at life. Picard was so regretful over the impulsive and reckless decisions of his youth, that he desired to go back and do things differently.
Q granted his wish, but in so doing, Picard's life turned out far worse. He eventually ended up back on the Enterprise as a junior grade Lieutenant, having lived a life devoid of risk, passion, or ambition. A distraught Picard begged Q to let him set things right, by dying as the man he once was. Q granted his wish, but also decided to spare his life in the process.
It seemed too convenient that Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge managed to survive a planet-wide assault on a Federation world by an unknown alien force, and Picard wasn't buying it. Their specific plot of land - and their lives - remained untouched during the bombardment, and Picard suspected the Uxbridges.
A series of incidents culminated in a super-powerful alien starship obliterating the Uxbridge home from orbit, but Picard suspected it was a ruse. He made the decision to return to the planet, finding Kevin and Rishon very much alive. When they were caught, Kevin revealed his true identity as an immensely powerful alien intelligence who created a copy of his wife Rishon from memory to deal with her loss.
Picard was forced to take drastic measures when Spock's legendary father Sarek came on board the Enterprise, seeking to mediate a crucial dispute between two peoples. The renowned ambassador was losing his grip on his own mind due to a rare Vulcan disease known as Bendii Syndrome.
Unable to control the tidal wave of emotions, Sarek began slipping into fits of frenzy and anger, which projected telepathically outwards to the rest of the crew. Picard made the brave and dangerous decision to mind-meld with Sarek, granting him emotional stability while simultaneously taking on the burden of his emotions for a short time. This allowed Sarek to complete his task, while Picard suffered through a lifetime of horrible regret, anguish, and pain.
After saving two hapless Onarans from destruction, Picard beamed both of them, two Brekkians, and special cargo on board. Dr. Crusher quickly determined that the Brekkians had brokered a deal that essentially hooked the Onarans on a rare narcotic, which they mistakenly believed was medicine for a plague.
The Prime Directive prevented Picard from interfering, but he wasn't going to allow them to get away with their scheme. He refused to give the Onarans a set of electromagnetic coils needed for their broken-down ships, which were required to transport the drug. This would force the entire Onaran race to kick their addiction cold turkey and learn how to take care of themselves.
When Data's rights as a sentient life form came into question, Picard was faced with the unenviable task of representing him in a court of law to determine his freedom. When Commander Riker was forced to present a devastating case against Data, Picard thought he had lost.
A conversation with Guinan helped change his perspective, however. He re-entered the courtroom and delivered a powerful counter-argument that switched the focus of the trial away from Data. Either Starfleet would lead with a righteous example by giving Data his rights and freedoms, or it would doom an entire race of future androids to slavery, one of the darkest chapters of humanity's existence.
The Enterprise and her crew were turned into lab rats in order to satisfy the scientific curiosity of an entity known as Nagilum, one of the Enterprise's most powerful foes. He used his powers to put the crew in stressful situations, simply to test their reactions to various stimuli. However, when Nagilum revealed that he wanted to slaughter a third of the crew in different ways for the sake of research, Picard had enough.
He set the ship's auto-destruct sequence, claiming that he was unwilling to allow his crew to be subjected to that kind of cruelty. Nagilum assumed Picard was bluffing, and tested him to see if he'd stick to his guns. When it became clear that Picard wouldn't budge, he released them rather than let the crew die.
Picard delivered one of his best "boss" moments in The Next Generation when he decided to take the helm of the Enterprise in order to escape a thousand-year-old booby trap laid during an ancient war. It involved exiting an asteroid field littered with devices that would sap the ship's energy and turn it into lethal radiation which would then be used against it.
Picard greenlit Geordi's recommendation that they shut all power down and rely on two thrusters, but when it became clear that the ship did not have enough momentum to clear the trap, Picard used the gravitational pull of a large asteroid as a slingshot to hurl them out.
After a Romulan Admiral defected to the Enterprise with information about a secret base along the Neutral Zone, Picard suspected that it was just a ruse designed to spark an intergalactic incident. He eventually confronted the Admiral and forced him to commit to divulging information not just on the base, but the layout of the entire Romulan battle fleet.
Picard then ordered the Enterprise to the supposed base, but it did not exist. Realizing they were played for fools, Picard tried to steer a path out, but was intercepted by two Romulan ships led by the sinister Tomalak. Just when it seemed the chips were down, Picard uttered one of his most heroic quotes before revealing his hand, and signaled for three Klingon Birds of Prey to decloak and surround the Romulans.
When the Enterprise-C fell out of its own time period and ended up in the 24th century, a new temporal timeline had been created where the Federation was engaged in a brutal war with the Klingon Empire... and losing.
Only Guinan suspected that things weren't right, and she urged Picard to send the Enterprise-C back to its own era, where it would fight a hopeless battle that would inspire the Klingons to cease hostilities. He wisely decided to follow her advice, defending the Enterprise-C from destruction in one of Picard's most heroic moments.