I know Picard is the captain but can we please stop giving him episodes where he shows off the zero skills and general interest he has in the field? I am particularly speaking of communication with other races that we have little to no contact with.
He never reads the dossiers (he is always asking Data or Troi on the go about the race in question and their culture), he doesn't even try to adapt his language or his gestures when he encounters other races, he clearly wasn't paying attention in the Starfleet classes of How to Deal with a First Contact or Xenoanthropology or Xenolinguistics to the point that Troi had to explain to him, plainly, that if she shows him a mug of tea and say a word, it could mean anything from mug to hot to brown to god knows what. Basic stuff really.
And they still chose Picard for the Dormak episode. They had Troi right there who not only can read minds and emotions, she has proven that the can communicate with other races and has some basic diplomacy skills.
I'm not even speaking on how there is NO communications officer in that bridge. Nobody ever thinks of alternative communications systems, switching off the UT and see how we go from there or even taking a deep breath before deciding that any and all actions are a sign of agression.
And it's too bad because the aliens in this episode are actually very interesting and the questions on how to communicate with them, how to translate their language, etc. are excellent. But you have to have a little interest in how communication actually works. Maybe have a team of xenolinguists in that exploration ship of over 1000 people would be a good idea. But what do I know? I'm only a girl.
