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By Dukat (Andreas Rheinländer)
 - Gamma Quadrant
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1E European Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
1E German National Runner-Up 2024
#574282
In ST Nemesis, when the monster ship uncloaked, Picard said: 'She's a predator'.
That moment felt like it should tell me something specific.

Can anyone explain what exactly Picard meant in that moment?

I have never understood what he wanted to tell me, the viewer, in that moment.

(Perhaps except for the fact that it's a ginormous ship ...)
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By Danny (Daniel Giddings)
 - Gamma Quadrant
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2E British National Runner-Up 2021
#574284
I always took it at face value, considering it comes directly after the lines:

"Tactical analysis, Mister Worf."
"Fifty-two disruptor banks, twenty-seven photon torpedo bays, primary and secondary shields."*

I mean, it's a ship just bristling with guns. It's designed for only one thing - hunting (and killing). So, it's a predator.

* For context, the Enterprise-E had 12 phaser arrays, 6 torpedo bays, and deflector shields.
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By Iron Prime (Dan Van Kampen)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
Moderator
#574298
I agree.
I think they just wanted to drive home this was a massive warship - and it wasn't pretending to be anything else. No exploring with this, no diplomatic envoy - if it shows up you're dead.
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 - Beta Quadrant
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#574302
I agree that there's no additional meaning to it other than its power, and I also agree that Stewart delivered the line a little oddly.
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Second Edition Art Manager
By edgeofhearing (Lucas Thompson)
 - Second Edition Art Manager
 -  
Community Contributor
#574334
I think commenting on the nature of the ship is intended to also comment on the nature of the leader who has chosen it as his flagship. They're there to meet Shinzon, and that ship is their first impression (and not a good one).

That's if I recall correctly and they see the ship before Shinzon. I'm not 100% sure of the sequence, and you can't ever make me watch that train wreck again.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Community Contributor
#574338
I agree with what everyone else has said. I post only to add one more thing:
"Tactical analysis, Mister Worf."
"Fifty-two disruptor banks, twenty-seven photon torpedo bays, primary and secondary shields."
When you're a Trekkie, you hear this line and you go, "Oh s**t that ship will wreck my face."

But when you're a general moviegoer, this line is meaningless. "52 disruptor banks? Is that a lot? Didn't the Death Star have a lot more disruptor banks than that, Harold?" Picard's follow-up line confirms it for the general moviegoing audience: this ship will wreck your face.

This happens a lot in science fiction. The movie must the capabilities of everything on-screen in terms of the story's own universe and must explain what that means in layman's terms a layman audience can understand. and they have to do it cleverly, so the audience doesn't notice they're being condescended to. This is one reason why so many Star Trek Science Puzzles (TM) involve visual aids or painfully strained analogies that the characters (highly trained scientists) almost certainly wouldn't need. And it's why sometimes Jean-Luc Picard summarizes something ominously for no apparent reason.

This generalizes to the broad problem of exposition and the "as you know, Bob" trope, but sci-fi has to do WAY LOTS of exposition, so it deals with it a lot more than other genres.
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