Best of both worlds (Part 2.5?) seems a bit odd they didn’t explore more of Picard recovering from the Borg Implants.l
Posted by handlerofdrones@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 128 comments
He went from a full on assimilated Borg and was the. in his uniform in his ready room 5 (show) minutes later. Pretty much all healed up. I feel like they could have done 1 if not 2 more episodes on Picards recovery, Picard thanking them for their attempts to rescue him, etc… just seems like a missed opportunity to go in depth on the main characters physical recover
Aptronymic@reddit
Literally the next episode is about Picard taking time off to visit his family in France, to recover from the trauma he experienced.
PermaDerpFace@reddit
And it's almost the only time they followed up anything
sarcasticbaldguy@reddit
Ok, you had a fight with your brother. Back in the chair, cleared for duty.
BeerandGuns@reddit
Annoys me if I focus too much on it. Imagine Halsey was captured by the Japanese and brainwashed into commanding the Japanese fleet, using his knowledge to inflict a significant defeat on the Americans. He’s eventually saved by a special forces unit, goes home for a bit and then gets put in back of command of an American aircraft carrier.
In First Contact, Starfleet supposedly has enough doubts about Picard that they leave their premier vessel out of the fight because of them.
sarcasticbaldguy@reddit
As long as the special forces unit was The A Team, I'll allow it.
I agree. Same with post "4 lights" Picard. They actually gave the ship to another captain, Picard is captured and tortured to his breaking point, reacued and all good, shop is yours again. Maybe have a couple of sessions with Troi.
Same with Riker turning down promotions and transfers. Usually they just promote you and tell you what your next job is going to be.
What the hell ever happened to the bug aliens that almost took over the federation? We just put a bow on that and never mentioned it again.
I love the show, but they do some goofy things with how Starfleet acts.
BeerandGuns@reddit
Ugh, you had to go there….! Riker not being moved to captain is another one where you have to just block it out or it becomes intolerably irritating. First officer or XO is a position for training officers to be captains so even if Riker has that much control over his career that he can decline promotions or lateral movies, he’s stopping other officers from being trained on the Enterprise to be captains. That said, after Wolf 359 when Starfleet would be rebuilding, Riker wouldn’t have had a choice, the Federation caring about their officers feelings or not. Starfleet was gutted and needing experienced officers in command positions.
sarcasticbaldguy@reddit
Totally agree. On top of all that, Picard would be doing his job poorly if he didn't kick Riker's butt into his next job.
The way they portray Starfleet organizationally is bizarre.
Fabulous-Sea-1590@reddit
Well, and Insurrection, and Picard seasons 1&3.
dvsmith@reddit
And “I, Borg” and “Descent I & II”
Frymanstbf@reddit
First Contact.
ADiestlTrain@reddit
I like to think that the reason Picard goes kinda batshit in FC is because he didn’t process the trauma properly. I imagine that in his stoicism, he didn’t let his crew, his family, help his work through the pain. He just pushed it all down, and that’s why he’s so unhinged until Lily, an outsider, is willing to call him out on it.
dantheplanman1986@reddit
And hhhIIIIIII....will make them PAY for what they have done
frozenseasofjono@reddit
I disagree. Tng was pretty good with this stuff.
atxceo@reddit
Geordi and Dr. Leah Brahms.
TheJohnnyFlash@reddit
Vash.
Yayzeus@reddit
Lore
South_Front_4589@reddit
That was so well done. It seemed early at the time to explore that sort of thing, but now with AI it looks decades ahead of its time.
And it was all so human how they all reacted.
MaintenanceInternal@reddit
That scene is heartbreaking, they used me to kill! I should have been able to stop them!
His brother is such a prick.
Shadow3397@reddit
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, you don’t need a soft hand to hold you to help you get through trauma. It’s the rough kind of love the brother was showing, knowing how Jean Luc was, having grown up with him, knew him better than anyone else.
I doubt Jean Luc would have opened up and *cried* talking to Troy, or Beverly. Guarded men like Picard would only do that around the closest of family. And even then only when pushed like his brother did.
Choice_Chocolate5866@reddit
Truth.... the only people who've ever seen me cry are immediate family.... oh, and two people who were afraid of me afterwards.
HariSeldonsIntern@reddit
But also just the person he needed.
Physical-Name4836@reddit
Yep. Seems a bit odd they didn’t explore that.
They literally did it the next episode.
Wait, pretty sure they made a movie about it.
And then a TV show later on.
IolausTelcontar@reddit
Jean-Luc, blow up the damn ship.
dantheplanman1986@reddit
NO!
NOOOOOO smash
CrazyAlfalfa4298@reddit
"you broke your tiny ships"
uroborous01@reddit
I think he means the physical rehabilitation. His eye was removed. Did bev regrow it? Parts of his brain were also removed. Again did bev regrow grow or work around/ incorporate them back into his natural brain?
Aptronymic@reddit
Yeah, I suppose is probably what the OP meant. I guess I don't find that all that compelling. The narratively interesting part of physical rehabilitation is the psychological component that comes with it, and we got that.
If there's not a better hook, it doesn't need to explored, and it can just be handwaved as Future Medicine.
LnStrngr@reddit
It is a fantastic episode.
EmperorMittens@reddit
In the end, he just needed a heart to heart chat/fistfight with his brother to start getting past it.
MilsYatsFeebTae@reddit
I like that. Heart to heart fist fight. I wonder if that’s on tv tropes yet.
jasonite@reddit
Yep, and I Borg had him coping hard too
CharlemagneAdelaar@reddit
https://i.redd.it/khhdq034212h1.gif
FragrantExcitement@reddit
I know you tried, but you slipped in the mud. It was an accident. You can go back to the house and change clothes. You won't get in trouble.
drunksquatch@reddit
Not until the wife gets home.
Admirable-Ad-5026@reddit
And got so far
SirStocksAlott@reddit
But in the end, it doesn't even matter.
uroborous01@reddit
He had to fall to loose it all.
Slartibartfast39@reddit
That was a fantastic seen. Very good acting.
Irishwol@reddit
Mentally yes, but physically, no.
Freeagnt@reddit
This.
tyme@reddit
Just upvote the comment, man.
mikefrombarto@reddit
This.
Jazz8680@reddit
That
yunus89115@reddit
The other
Freeagnt@reddit
Oh goodie. Someone new to block. Just mind your own business, man.
bebopmechanic84@reddit
Algorithm likes extra commenta, too
Hoongoon@reddit
🤦♂️
technerdswe@reddit
The episode that made me a trekkie!
ReallyGlycon@reddit
Which is more than we ever got before on this show.
opusrif@reddit
It was essentially a three part episode as it was. Berman, like Roddenberry before him, was obsessed with strip syndication. Therefore he didn't want too many continuing storylines incase episodes were shown out of order or viewers missed an episode.
Choice_Chocolate5866@reddit
they do later.
MikeyB_0101@reddit
But…they did, very next episode
Greyhaven7@reddit
I think they’re saying more than just the one ep where they explore the emotional impact only.
bob13908@reddit
I thought they did do more episodes about his issues from the Borg. They definitely bring it up in the movies, being sent out on patrol when the Borg attack.
Party-Fault9186@reddit
It was an episodic show; that we got an entire episode devoted just to his emotional recovery was remarkable enough at the time.
CosmicBonobo@reddit
They did briefly toy with the idea that the Borg would amputate Picard's arm, and that after his recovery he'd receive a prosthetic replacement.
man_vs_cube@reddit
Honestly, I don't think BoBW has aged all that well, and the breakneck pace is part of that. Picard is captured, assimilated, used to destroy the fleet at Wolf, captured back, used to defeat the Borg ship, and is un-assimilated in 80-90 minutes of screen time. I don't hate the episodes but I was a bit underwhelmed when I rewatched recently.
Nof-z@reddit
They also almost completely ignore the emotional aftereffects of “the inner light,” so…..
lyon9492@reddit
Troi is just THAT GOOD.
KC-Slider@reddit
Picard has been through some shit. The Inner light would almost be torture.
Meatloafxx@reddit
Speaking of torture and lights, don't forget Cardassians took him in as a hostage.
IolausTelcontar@reddit
That never happened.
ReallyGlycon@reddit
Not quite as much as O'Brien but still...
kaaskugg@reddit
Union men need to suffer. It's a constant in the known universe
AncientLights444@reddit
He learned to play flute at least
low_amplitude@reddit
Well kinda. He kept the flute and was essentially a master after that lifetime of practice. He also explained what happened to him when he dated Nella Daren in "Lessons" and expressed how his music makes him feel and why it's so important to him.
A was really nice callback. It served as a reminder that he was still traumatized by the experience and only opened up about it after becoming intimately close with someone, which fits his character. Picard is an extremely private man.
DayamSun@reddit
Serialized television wasn't really that big of a thing back then. Honestly you could probably have counted on one hand the number of shows that were doing it or had ever done it at that point.
The fact that the very next episode addressed it at all was almost miraculous. In those days, TV shows had to be episodic and the status quo had to be returned to normal by the end of every episode unless it was a rare two-parter.
The main reason being that most shows were syndicated once they made enough episodes, meaning they could be purchased and re-aired on smaller market local stations who May or May not air them in their original release order. Because of this, it was believed that audiences needed to be able to discover a show and watch any episode as their very first experience without the baggage of needing to know any prior story arc. TNG was unique in the fact that it was the very first hour-long scripted drama to be syndicated from the very start and not have a home network at all, which meant it truly needed to be able to be shown out of order.
DS9 was the very first Star Trek show to produce long running plot threads and continuing complex character arcs and the showrunners had to fight tooth and nail with the studio over it the entire time. To be fair though, DS9 had a much harder time finding an audience initially in part because of all subplots and continuity. It took years after it ended to be as popular and as highly regarded as it is now.
Sea_Violinist3328@reddit
They were like, he went to France…NEXT
handlerofdrones@reddit (OP)
THIS!
conditerite@reddit
The reset button requires that all character must return to their default conditions at the end of each episode or two-parter.
Witty-Lawfulness2983@reddit
They could’ve had him ordering his Earl Grey tea, hot, in his robot Borg voice.
LillithTheGoon@reddit
The episode wasn't about him anyway.
MetalSufficient9522@reddit
I wonder if he kept the suit. It was pretty cool. Could dress up for the ship Halloween party in 10 forward or something.
Tasty_Information_22@reddit
LOL. It's in everything with Picard after, which got tiresome. He's not the only Starfleet member that we see that has had traumatic things happen.
charlie_marlow@reddit
I'll concede that we would have lost some truly excellent episodes, but there are times I wonder what it would have been like had Patrick Stewart not come back for Season 4. The rumor was that the cliffhanger was written so that Picard could be written out of the show.
I think having Riker in command of the Big D back then would've been pretty interesting, but I'm not sure about Shelby as his Number One. I would've rather seen Data in that role. I'm not really sure if it would've worked, but I do think it would have been interesting.
technerdswe@reddit
Well, you're both right and wrong.
TNG was made at the tail end of classic episodic TV, where story threads were usually wrapped up within the episode (or, in this case, episodes) and then rarely mentioned again.
However, The Best of Both Worlds was ALSO the continuation, and culmination, of a series of episodes spread across three seasons, including "The Neutral Zone" and "Q Who".
And in my opinion, the fantastic "Family" heavily explored Picard's trauma. A trauma that lingered in the background throughout the rest of TNG, the movies, and later Picard.
In some ways, Starfleet never fully trusted Picard again when it came to the Borg. That's even why the Enterprise-E was kept away from the battle in First Contact. Picard had to brake an direct order when he engaged.
So the assimilation absolutely had consequences, both for Picard and for the crew, throughout the rest of TNG's run.
ValosAtredum@reddit
I’m glad you made the point about classic episode tv. A lot of people don’t realize how different television was. The fact that they revisited it at all was notable. The fact that they had reverberations of it through the rest of the series was basically the equivalent of doing a deep dive on it today.
charlie_marlow@reddit
They don't know what it's like to miss an episode, or block of episodes, because you had to work or whatever. Sure, you could program your VCR to record something, but you had to hope that the power didn't go out or that a sporting event or breaking news didn't run long or pre-empt what you wanted to watch.
Even then, that only bought you a couple of episodes if you were going through a particularly busy time. You could find that your tape was full before the last episode you recorded even finished.
That says nothing about people who came to a show later. That could really suck. Your only hope was that there'd be a marathon weekend or something like they used to do with Lost so you could catch up. That, or hope the, "Previously on X", segment actually filled in enough.
I think that hurt DS9 and Babylon 5. They were both pretty serialized and B5 had a kind of rough first season. Word of mouth about DS9 started really picking up with the Dominion War, but there was just no really easy way to jump into a series like that back then.
technerdswe@reddit
Yes! It was one of the very reasons I became a trekkie! How fresh it felt with these revisits.
IndependenceMean8774@reddit
As much as I love First Contact, I do think it's a dumb plot contrivance that Starfleet doesn't have Picard lead the battle against the Borg in the first place.
Storywise, you'd want a guy who had first hand experience with the Borg and might know their weaknesses to be in the battle, even in an advisory role. It would be like not sending Ripley to LV-426 because she might be infected/influenced by the aliens. Plus, that plot thread and Picard's insubordination literally go nowhere and is never brought up again.
And from a movie point of view, it's Star Trek and Picard is the main hero of the movie. Of course he's going to fight the Borg. Duh! 🤦♂️
GoatApprehensive9866@reddit
I suppose the events of I, Borg and Descent may have had the Federation making a revised decision on Picard. But then the thanks go to the bridge crew clique for telling him not to use the terminal fractal image (which wouldn't have worked anyway) in favor of letting Hugh go back having been partially deprogrammed to give everyone else emotions... amazed they all fell apart, instead of easily reintegrating Hugh as easily as taking and old emotional being and assimilating them. Like Picard.
lifegoodis@reddit
I think Starfleet may have stopped trusting Picard in terms of the Borg when he unilaterally released Hugh, despite having devised a plan that may have delivered a crippling blow to the Borg.
Moser319@reddit
they live in a far advanced technological age. He doesn't even have a real heart because his was destroyed when he was a cadet. The implants wouldn't bug him as much as the being unable to control himself, being a captive in his own body, which they explored the next episode.
Dear_Discussion_4083@reddit
Absolutely. They did have “Family” shortly after that, but Picard and the rest of the crew dealing with the events and aftermath of the Borg invasion was not handled very well. I am glad “Picard” season 3 dealt a bit with the trauma, but PTSD does not go away after an event. For many people it is something that a person carries with them for years, decades and even for life. Having it wrapped in one episode was disappointing.
jasonite@reddit
Family was all about that, what more did you want them to do? They also had him coping hard with I Borg
Upbeat_Leader_7185@reddit
Episodic tellivision. We're lucky it got 2 parts and we're super lucky it got an epilog.
RadiantTrailblazer@reddit
That? That's just microsurgery.
What no one explained is HOW THE HELL DID THEY REGROW A WHOLE ARM FOR HIM before the end of the episode. He got chopped off by the Borg, fixed a new robotic one which Data then broke.
ClintBarton616@reddit
Beverly is a miracle worker
HariSeldonsIntern@reddit
Both takes on this are right. "Family" and some subsequent Picard content explored this way more than TV and movies liked to do at the time. AND a well-written TV show today would extend the story of his recovery across a much longer arc.
IMHO the best use of the consequences of BOBW was in the introduction of Sisko. It gave us immediate backstory, differentiated Sisko from Picard, differentiated DS9 from TNG. Way better than if his wife had been killed in a transporter accident or whatever.
RealLars_vS@reddit
The borg wasn’t as fully developed as it is today. We later see 7 of 9 and other liberated borg people who still have implants, but I feel that’s mostly a story-thing that came in a point in the shows when the borg were more fleshed out (no pun intended).
The in-universe explanation might be that Picard was a borg for way shorter, thus having less physical scarring when he recovered, contrary to other liberated borg we see.
Commodore8750@reddit
Ummm hit the next episode button.
handlerofdrones@reddit (OP)
Did people even read my description? I’m referring to a physical recovery. I’m well aware of the 2nd episode of the season.
mwonch@reddit
You have to keep in mind that the Episode "Family" happened over several weeks in universe. Picard had time with Enterprise in for extensive repair to physically recover. That kind of damage, plus upgrades, would take months. He stayed to oversee the repairs. That would be, in effect, long term light duty. Once his injuries healed, he had to determined if he even wanted to remain in Starfleet. He was so stuck deciding he went home so his older brother could literally slap him into line.
During that visit, he was gone long enough to have an old friend drop in with a job offer. People noticed outside of the house, which means it was a long time.
With Enterprise nearly ready to relaunch, he had to decide. He decided to leave Starfleet. He wasn't totally comfortable with that, and his brother knew it. His bro bullied him until they threw fists...and that's when Picard's pain was released. Big bro advised little bro...Picard returned to Starfleet.
All of that would have been at very least 6 months. Probably longer. He had time to physically recover while working in dock, and then to finally deal with the hardest part.
AxMurderSurvivor@reddit
Enterprise had 5-6 weeks of repairs, seems like Picard was gone a decent part of that, and was back before repairs were finished, just as Worf's parents were leaving. You think Worf could handle his parents for 6 months?
mwonch@reddit
4-6 weeks, I'd say, is the time Picard would have actually spent at the family vineyard. Repairs and upgrades of the kind Enterprise needed would have taken months longer.
Not sure why you would think Worf's parents would have styed on board for half a year. LOL Once repairs were nearly complete, do you not think they decided to visit their boy one more time before he was years away from home again?
Alolan_Cubone@reddit
He's actually a perfect specimen so the tech stuff were there just for show
Darkling183@reddit
Once the Borg implants were removed, Picard's recovery would have been just the same from any other invasive operation. What, did you want a whole episode of him sitting in bed eating Jello and getting visitors?
Leopold_Darkworth@reddit
Television in the 1990's was far less serialized than it is today. Each episode—of which there were about 22 in a season instead of 10 or less—was more or less self-contained. Even with Star Trek, the idea of a "story arc" wouldn't show up until several years later in the second season of Deep Space Nine. The fact that the very next episode, "Family," elaborated on the aftermath of Picard's assimilation would have been unusual in itself.
bobj33@reddit
Michael Piller pushed for the episode Family right after. Roddenberry hated it. Berman accepted it after a sci-fi storyline was added.
You wanted more but we are lucky that we even got this episode
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Family_(episode)#Story_and_script
aaronjm47@reddit
Why can't they use the transporters in medical procedures? Would you like us to place an exact copy of what was supposed to be growing there?
Mass-Effect-6932@reddit
That was the whole point of Picard taking shore leave. Labarre France to recover and be with his family while the Enterprise-D being repair at McHenry Station in Earth’s orbit.
RolandDeepson@reddit
McKinley*
Mass-Effect-6932@reddit
Thanks
MainDisk9184@reddit
We were lucky we got the follow up episode cuz at first they weren't even gonna be allowed to do that!
SMc1701@reddit
Originally Michael Piller wanted it to be three parts, but he was vetoed. We're lucky we got the episode following up on his emotional turmoil. I just imagine that a lot of the stuff we did to see because his uniform was covering it.
But beyond that, as others have stated, episodic television at the time didn't really allow for a long recovery. We just assumed that it happened between episodes and then if they mentioned it a couple episodes later or a year or two later for story purposes, then they would.
Honestly, the bigger issue is a Starfleet letting him get right back to work. He was assimilated. He caused the deaths of thousands of fellow Starfleet officers and crew. Every death that happened after his assimilation is on him. He should've been relieved of command and put under observation and psychological reevaluation.
But, that's TV for you.
iXenite@reddit
TNG didn’t take much time to let things simmer like that, or develop too many storylines hat would would carry forward forever. DS9 would be the one to start doing that, which I think that shows an example of the perfect blend of episodic and serialized storytelling. If they had taken the time, a lot of the crew of the Enterprise would honestly have a lot of emotional trauma. Picard especially honestly.
TeacatWrites@reddit
They just didn't have the wherewithal to imagine it'd be as important as it would become then. This was not a several-season-long, planned drama, this was "what we have is the season we get and we'll plot out what we have, and then move on". From the perspective of season 4, all we had was Star Trek: The Next Generation, an episodic series where the season premiere just concluded. Great! Let's wrap it up and go to the next episode.
It was a Paramount/CBS thing. Compare it to modern Ghost Whisperer or NCIS or even adjacent-Paramount joints like the Arrowverse. It wasn't really intended to be part of Star Trek legend. It was the equivalent of Barry Allen jumping into the singularity at the end of The Flash season 1 or the Ghost Whisperer plane crash; there to be there, and then let's move on and be done with it.
Later shows build on it as more than it was because we realistically realize it would logically have been more than that, but imagining that those episodes should accord to those ideas is denying the reason those episodes exist. Conveniently, it's also the reason fanfiction exists, and that provides a unique avenue through which you can smooth out the gaps in the original media which were not able to have been so smoothed-out by the original media, for just such an occasion.
jayrishel@reddit
By the 24th century, treatment for PTSD was VERY good. People get over their trauma in about 42 minutes. Picard took extra long compared to most.
spike-prime@reddit
...
...did you bother to watch Family, or I Borg? Because both of those do that. Also First Contact, to mixed results.
Brilliant-Leave-8632@reddit
A Picard lo asimilan los borgs, pero logran recuperarlo. De allí en adelante cada vez que trata con los borgs busca eliminarlos, no recuperarlos. Porqué?
pakrat1967@reddit
Despite what you think on it. A whole episode, let alone several, dedicated to removing the Borg implants and such. Would actually be rather boring. Even with other episodes that have someone spending most of the episode in Sickbay. There isn't really that much screen time in Sickbay. There is always some other situation going on. The Enterprise really wasn't in any condition to deal with the typical situations that they encountered. So overall it was better to do all the implant removal off screen.
Felho_Danger@reddit
41 minutes
MechanicCautious6945@reddit
Michael Piller vetoed Picards arm being amputated by the Borg saying “Picards arm is his own”.
Personally I think they should have done it to show the permanent impact assimilation had on Picard. They still could have had Crusher grow a replacement in 2 minutes to solve the production issues.
GoatApprehensive9866@reddit
That would have been interesting. I do think it sort of works that the Borg would introduce an exoskeletal framework when convenient instead of replacing organic parts as efficiency. Let it all rot from within as the mechanical and technological elements take over. I'm more amazed the Borg apparently prefer a temperature of 102F and with 90% humidity, something many species wouldn't find comfortable at all. Never mind technology as we know it (but most would be sealed off). Or even metals that could be prone to rust or corrosion inside an oxygen environment, and slippery floors (perhaps sealed, and yet they don'tdp anything about the flesh... Definitely interesting to think into. )
GoatApprehensive9866@reddit
"Family" was a whole episode covering it as an episode. Then came other TNG episodes that didn't have Starfleet concerned and Picard wasn't deemed a risk. Then came Fiest Contact where he was but he flew to the battle and everyone jumped to every order he barked out anyway, instead of him telling the fleet to fire at a known coordinate (despite the Borg previously decentralizing and having redundancies to prevent what the movie quickly allowed...)
MercuryJellyfish@reddit
That's not how sci-fi was back then. You could do practically anything you liked in an episode, but the toys had to go back in the box where you found them so the next writer along could write from the writers bible without reference to anything that you did. An episode back at Picard's brothers place was all you got, then we were back on the Enterprise for season 4 making episodes where the writers didn't necessarily even know Picard had been assimilated when they wrote it.
RealCreativeFun@reddit
First Contact (cough cough). They made a whole movie about it.
TrainResponsible9714@reddit
That's nothing, they had Janeway do it like it was a fun day out.
Redwingedblackbird81@reddit
Although the next episode (Family) explored his recovery, it was barely touched on again. Even worse was after The Inner Light, they never touched on how Picard living another life on an alien world for 35 years (to him) would affect him.
krampaus@reddit
did he have any memories from that life after he woke up?
Redwingedblackbird81@reddit
Yes, he remembered the whole thing. At the end of the episode, he plays the flute as he did in his other life as Kamin.
krampaus@reddit
I feel like one reason why it wasn’t explored was to give the impression that it was just too complex for anyone to understand, even to picard. maybe he blocked some of it out but it was also intentionally shrouded in mystery as a signal to viewers. the latter is a fairly common trope I think
l008com@reddit
I'm more curious why they never mentioned Rikers demotion? He was a Captain in these scene and yet in the next episode, he was a commander.
RuralfireAUS@reddit
Field promotion. Wasnt permanent
l008com@reddit
Field promotions ARE permanent. Its a real promotion. He wasn't just "taking the bridge" while Picard was in the holodeck.
ironeagle2006@reddit
Bervet promotion plus starfleet more than likely wanted him close to Picard just in case he wasn't 100 percent after the crap he went through with the Borg. This way if he went bonkers they had a capable commander in place in Riker.
Mongobearmanfish@reddit
Not 100% sure if it’s true but I heard that Patrick Stewart’s contract was up any they weren’t sure if he would return. So once they knew he was coming back, they quickly returned him to the status quo
Commodore8750@reddit
Well they wrote part one to end on a cliffhanger cause of this. Once he re-signed, they wrote part two and began development of season 4. But yeah they did explore his trauma the very next episode. In fact the first half of season 4 was an arc of everyone trying to get over those events.