Hello! Hi! It’s #PicardPositivity’s Clancy day, a character I love a perfectly normal amountlot.
Yes, she has, generously speaking, only three scenes, plus the HQ front desk clerk’s chipperness about her and Oh’s knowledge that Clancy is holding back information from Oh (which, to me, suggests Clancy is possibly aware that Oh is not to be trusted). Yet there is so much in those three scenes!
CLANCY: There is no “we,” Jean-Luc.
Boundaries. Clancy isn’t going to let Picard presume to be part of Starfleet’s obligations when he left fourteen years prior (in the midst of a crisis he contributed to causing) and he had just slandered Starfleet on a galactic news show.
CLANCY: You think you could just waltz back in here and be entrusted with taking men and women into space?
Values. To me, “entrusted,” speaks to the value Clancy places on the lives of those “men and women” that aren’t in the room with her and Picard, but for whom she is responsible. (And I love that Clancy sees people, not “officers” or “personnel” — individuals.)
Clearly, I’ve analyzed every line associated with this character. With post length in mind, though, I’ll skip to:
CLANCY: You want an apology?
Humility. It’s not her fault that the show is Star Trek: Picard, not Star Trek: Clancy. Picard was right that Bruce Maddox was part of Data’s technology being used to to create new synthetics with the Romulans somehow involved — and, like any good leader, Clancy owns her (quite reasonable) error. To me, her offer to apologize, which I believe is stated more sincerely than it may appear in text, is admirable, and the fact that Picard ignores it and starts lecturing and insulting her is not very nice of him.
Oh, and in terms of how things are stated, this is out of chronological order, but her iconic line also is important to contextualize:
To me, Clancy’s eyebrow furrow on “hubris” indicates confusion — after what he did and said, Picard should be better than his own, tone-deaf request. Clancy listened to him, which she most certainly didn’t have to do, and now she’s angry and confused and proceeds to remind Picard of the facts he’s ignored as he nursed his hurt feelings.
Anyway, I could plunge further down the rabbit hole (please send me an ask if you want more), or I could go ahead and share links for some results of my analysis of this character and what she signifies for the Star Trek universe.
The Autobiography of Kirsten Clancy (T) — the arc of her life, from her childhood on Mars to her rise through the ranks of Starfleet, her family, her service, her triumphs, her failures; it’s all here
Through Another’s Eyes (T) — other people’s insights on Clancy: Jean-Luc Picard when interviewing her for a pilot’s post on the Enterprise-D, her best friend Sonya Gomez when drinking together one evening during the Dominion War, her onetime commanding officer Edward Jellico, and her fellow Martian Simon Tarses
In Bed (E) — a half-dozen(ish) vignettes that dip into the autobiography timeline from the point of view of Clancy’s very loving spouse
The Point (T) — a friendship ficlet in which Clancy and Tom Paris meet at a Starfleet Academy party; she’s a senior and he’s a freshman who needs the good advice she provides (though, of course, he starts out trying to hit on her, to which she immediately replies, “Fuck off”)
To me, Kirsten Clancy — the first, onscreen, female Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet — is a powerhouse of achievements and ideals who owns her mistakes and achieves greatness. She’s also sassy and smart, gets to exhibit righteous anger, and is pretty fucking fantastic.
Thank you for coming to my Trek Talk about this character I love so much.
Hello! I’d like to share with you a character work game! I call it “Six Secrets” and honestly it’s a work in progress but I’m sharing it anyway
List six secrets that your character has.
1 is an open secret
2 is a secret the people close to your character know
3is a secret that your character wouldn’t really care about getting out
4 is a secret exactly one person knows anything about
5 is a secret no one knows about but they sort of want to come out/to tell someone
6 is a secret no one knows and they desperately don’t want anyone to know about.
You can also decide who knows and how
The secrets don’t have to have anything to do with your actual plot! The secrets can have super low or super high stakes! It doesn’t matter! But you will absolutely have a better idea of your character’s intentions and state of mind, and you may wind up coming up with some new plot points/obstacles to play with
Six Secrets: Kirsten Clancy
Okay, so Picard season 2 is gearing up and I have no idea what (if anything), will happen to Admiral Clancy, so I’m doing this now, even though if something does happen to her that’s just one timeline and my headcanons can stay relevant in the world I created (because fic is for fun, not expectations of canon).
So, for the Clancy in my mind, pulled from canon but who became much more:
1. An open secret: She has strong boundaries (“There is no ‘we,’ Jean-Luc.”) as sometimes over-correction for a childhood that included being used as a political prop by her loving but jingoistic mother.
2.A secret people close to her know: She wishes she could hate Picard because anger can be easier than disappointment.
3. A secret she wouldn’t care about getting out: While she didn’t know that Oh bugged her office, Clancy is proud that her instincts to keep Oh at commodore — stuck at headquarters but outranked by actual decision-makers — proved correct.
4.A secret that exactly one person knows anything about: Only Sonya Gomez knows the Martian-upbringing-induced terrible things Clancy said about Earth and people from Earth, which Clancy inadvertently told her at the Starfleet Academy party at which Clancy found out that snakeleaf makes her paranoid.
5.A secret no one knows but she sort of wants to come out/tell someone: Edward Jellico doesn’t want her to share how much his mentorship and friendship have meant to her — under his command and after the destruction of Mars. She respects that’s what he wants, but wishes he would let her tell more about how much his trust in her has bettered her life.
6.A secret no one knows and she desperately doesn’t want anyone to know about: Starfleet can be dangerous (“You think you could just waltz back in here and be entrusted with taking men and women into space?”) and, when she gets nervous, she tracks the commbadges of people she cares about to check if they’re safe.
I love this!
If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend @curator-on-ao3 ’s amazing fic:
Hello! I’d like to share with you a character work game! I call it “Six Secrets” and honestly it’s a work in progress but I’m sharing it anyway
List six secrets that your character has.
1 is an open secret
2 is a secret the people close to your character know
3is a secret that your character wouldn’t really care about getting out
4 is a secret exactly one person knows anything about
5 is a secret no one knows about but they sort of want to come out/to tell someone
6 is a secret no one knows and they desperately don’t want anyone to know about.
You can also decide who knows and how
The secrets don’t have to have anything to do with your actual plot! The secrets can have super low or super high stakes! It doesn’t matter! But you will absolutely have a better idea of your character’s intentions and state of mind, and you may wind up coming up with some new plot points/obstacles to play with
Six Secrets: Kirsten Clancy
Okay, so Picard season 2 is gearing up and I have no idea what (if anything), will happen to Admiral Clancy, so I’m doing this now, even though if something does happen to her that’s just one timeline and my headcanons can stay relevant in the world I created (because fic is for fun, not expectations of canon).
So, for the Clancy in my mind, pulled from canon but who became much more:
1. An open secret: She has strong boundaries (“There is no ‘we,’ Jean-Luc.”) as sometimes over-correction for a childhood that included being used as a political prop by her loving but jingoistic mother.
2.A secret people close to her know: She wishes she could hate Picard because anger can be easier than disappointment.
3. A secret she wouldn’t care about getting out: While she didn’t know that Oh bugged her office, Clancy is proud that her instincts to keep Oh at commodore — stuck at headquarters but outranked by actual decision-makers — proved correct.
4.A secret that exactly one person knows anything about: Only Sonya Gomez knows the Martian-upbringing-induced terrible things Clancy said about Earth and people from Earth, which Clancy inadvertently told her at the Starfleet Academy party at which Clancy found out that snakeleaf makes her paranoid.
5.A secret no one knows but she sort of wants to come out/tell someone: Edward Jellico doesn’t want her to share how much his mentorship and friendship have meant to her — under his command and after the destruction of Mars. She respects that’s what he wants, but wishes he would let her tell more about how much his trust in her has bettered her life.
6.A secret no one knows and she desperately doesn’t want anyone to know about: Starfleet can be dangerous (“You think you could just waltz back in here and be entrusted with taking men and women into space?”) and, when she gets nervous, she tracks the commbadges of people she cares about to check if they’re safe.
