Why Picard Never Played Poker
Star Trek has been going for around four decades but disappeared from production years ago. The execrable Enterprise finally killed the franchise although many maintain that JJ Abrams gave it CPR with the movie Star Trek, a prequel to the original 1966-1969 television series. There were references to poker in many previous episodes and series, but it wasn’t until Star Trek: The Next Generation that poker became an integral part of the plot.
Life imitated art when Wil Wheaton (who played Wesley Crusher) subsequently become a formidable poker player in his own right and for a time took advantage of Pokerstars rakeback with Team Pokerstars. There was no need for poker room facilities aboard the 24th century Enterprise and poker games were used a plot device to introduce character traits and story lines. In an early episode titled “The Measure of a Man”, Data (played by Brent Spiner) the “sentient” android uses a poker game to explore whether he is just a machine or could be regarded as human. Data’s familiarity with poker proves handy in “Time’s Arrow”, when he slips through a time portal and ends up in San Francisco in 1893. Stuck without money, he is able to acquire sufficient funds to build a communications device in a poker game without the advantage of any rakeback deals.
Confirming the significance of poker in ST:TNG, the final episode of the series concludes with one last game. This is the only time when the captain Picard is seen to join in. In the closing scene, the lead characters are shown around the poker table one last time. Riker is once more dominating the game, while the Klingon Worf (who never seems to win) asks how he does it. “I cheat,” says the bearded no. 1. Poker was used to explore ideas about life and humanity, gender roles, and relationships, but in this very last episode, it’s clearly connected to the idea of friendship.
