First Contact involves other patriarchal texts, from the canon of American literature. Lily implies that Picard is like Captain Ahab, who abandoned reason and chased the white whale at the expense of his life and the life of his crew. Lily’s allusion recalls to Picard’s mind a quote from the novel Moby Dick:
He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it. (204)
Picard’s connection, through allusion, to Ahab, suggests he is only one more stubborn, male Captain, at the helm of a dominant humanist ideology. Although Picard nearly relents to Lily’s plea that he destroy the Enterprise, ultimately, Picard’s super-masculinity overrides Lily’s more passive humanism, and he remains on the Enterprise to face the Borg Queen himself.Yet unlike Ahab, Picard is successful in accomplishing his goal. At the risk of his own life, he desires to save Data from the manipulation of the Borg Queen. Picard is rewarded in a hu/man-centered universe for adhering to the humanist agenda: he risks his life to promote and protect individual autonomy.
Picard might seen as a type of Ahab, but he is not Ahab. In fact,Picard redeems "Ahab" by risking his life to save Data, the Enterprise, and Earth. In this way, Picard, through his act of sacrifice and redemption, is identified with Christ, who redeemed "his whole race from Adam down." First Contact, through liteary allusion, truly does represent Picard as the measure, if not soul/sole defender of humanity.
Return To Science Fiction As Metaphor
