Pixie, help, I cannot stop thinking about Jean-Luc Picard/Katrina Cornwell with bonus Sarek mind meldy stuff. So I'm submitting it to Pixie Ships in the hopes that it's contagious.
Did you mean to imply that Sarek had at the least suppressed affection in regards to Katrina, and at the most a specifically romantic emotional and/or physical relationship with her, that Picard gets to experience when he takes on Sarek’s out of control emotions? Because that is what I infer and I am 1000% here for it! The possibilities!
I mean, to be quite honest I have been lowkey shipping Picard and Perrin since that episode first aired because they definitely flirt and then they all have to deal with emotional mind swap shenanigans. So I’m already into Picard’s complicated feelings about the women Sarek loves.
So. Sarek and Katrina were close. Close comfortable friends who shared an attraction they mostly ignored because he was married and Vulcan. There were a handful of instances over the years where the feelings were more apparent, even discussed abstractly. She laughed it off, he raised an eyebrow. He grew quiet, tense, she blushed and averted her eyes. A look, a touch, here and there. It was a facet of their long relationship. Initially awkward, eventually reassuring. An attraction, an emotional connection, a healthy fantasy life.
Flashforward some hundred years. Sarek, through Picard, has a breakdown about the people he loves not knowing he loves them. Aside: I’ve always interpreted that (GREAT) scene as Sarek’s misplaced guilt – because he’s been surrounded by over-emotional humans most of his life his quiet Vulcan ways of expressing affection don’t seem like enough, but of course they are for the people who know and love him. They might not be emotionally satisfied in every interaction, but his humans (and half-humans) knew he loved them.
Katrina is one of the people Sarek’s heightened and unfettered emotions are focused on. There is additional guilt involved in her case due to the extramarital aspects of their non-relationship. Extra guilt in regards to Amanda and his marriage (honestly, I don’t think Amanda would ever hold his feelings against him, and in certain circumstances/another scenario would encourage him to feel them and potentially even act on them BUT, Sarek has guilt about it) and extra guilt in regards to Katrina and their friendship (Katrina would also never hold any of this against him and would feel plenty guilty herself, but again, Sarek and his overwrought emotions).
But here’s the beauty of this. Picard would completely relate to this situation and the ensuing guilt and Beverly is right there. Ready to be a surrogate for anything all the way up to sex. She offers comfort on screen, and they already have a totally messy emotional and physical relationship that has some parallels to Sarek/Amanda + Katrina. Jean-Luc and Beverly should definitely not act out Sarek’s fantasy with Katrina, that would be a terrible idea, but what if they did.
If they acted on it – which they absolutely should not – it would be neither Sarek and Katrina being dismissive of Amanda nor Beverly and Jean-Luc being dismissive of Jack and also it would be both. And that is AMAZING and exactly the kind of messy, twisty, traumatic, tragic, beautiful relationship between two, four, six people that I LIVE FOR.
(This is also another one of those moments where I just find it necessary to raise a glass to Deanna’s not nearly celebrated enough ability to keep everyone emotionally stable because CAN YOU IMAGINE?)
So yes, you have successfully infected me with this terrible wonderful idea. Even just adding Katrina to the list of people Sarek!Picard thinks about in that scene is enough to sustain me for days. (And Michael, too.)
Send me a ship and I’ll give you my (brutally) honest opinion on it and/or write a scenario/give you a series rundown of my headcanons
