I was watching TNG 4x21 - The Drumhead last night, and after hearing Picard’s speech I was reminded of just how many interesting monologues we’ve gotten over the years.
Sisko’s saint in paradise speech from The Maquis Part 2, his speech to the Changelings in The Emissary Part 2, Garak’s stories in The Wire, Marritza’s speech in Duet, (can you tell I like DS9?) Spock’s words to Ston in Amok Time, Kirk’s risk is our business speech in Return to Tomorrow, Picard’s speech in The Measure of a Man, and many others have stuck with me over the years.
However, my favorite is from the end of the TOS episode A Taste of Armageddon.
All right. It’s instinctive. But the instinct can be fought. We’re human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands, but we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes. Knowing that we won’t kill today. - James T. Kirk
The quote works very well in the context of the episode, but I think it has many applications in life as well.
What are your favorite monologues in Star Trek?
So many good ones from Picard. From yelling at Starfleet Cadets about what it means to wear the Starfleet uniform when they were in a trial trying to figure out the cause of an accident due to performing a banned stunt, to defending Data’s rights as a sentient being. I can’t even choose any one specific monologue, because every monologue given by Picard is just muah! 🤌
He certainly could do a good monologue! Even in the Picard series he did good in the interview on the first episode.