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Which episode is this widely-used 'meme' picture taken from?

Picard making a "Engage" hand sign

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  • 12
    Every single one? :) Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 1:42
  • 1
    Third season or later; otherwise, who knows?
    – John Bode
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 2:17
  • 1
    @JohnBode I'm mildly ashamed to be asking this, but why >=S3?
    – Iszi
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 23:18
  • @user12433: Would you consider accepting Solemnity's answer?
    – bitmask
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 23:53
  • @Iszi His shoulders don't have the colored piping that S1-S2 TNG uniforms have.
    – user1027
    Commented Feb 21, 2013 at 0:27

1 Answer 1

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Season 3, Episode 11 - 'The Hunted', 42:34 mark:

VLC screenshot of the Picard picture searched

 PICARD: Number One, will you note in our report that if the government of Angosia
   survives the night, we will offer them Federation assistance in their efforts to
   reprogram their veterans. 
 RIKER: And if the government doesn't survive? 
 PICARD: I have a feeling they will choose to. Mister Crusher, set coordinates for
   Starbase Lya Three. 
 WESLEY: Coordinates set, Captain. 
 PICARD: Engage.

After my third show-skimming (I suspected it would be at the end of an episode), I determined that jumping to 42:10 of any particular episode would be early enough to catch the final remarks/gestures, late enough that the scene wouldn't change. So, at 42:10 — no bridge seen, I moved on. It wasn't labourous.

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  • Why 42:10? Was there some hint in the original image or question that pointed you to that time stamp?
    – user1027
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 2:52
  • 1
    After the first few episodes scanning, it seemed a consistent point close enough to the end where the scene-location would remain until credits, but far enough where I wouldn't miss his 'engage' gesture (incidentally, this was the first use I saw of his right hand to do it, episode-chronologically). I used a mouse rather than taking the time to figure out the shortcut-key to entering seek-location, so was never quite exact. The routine worked, in any case.
    – Solemnity
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 2:58
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    Erp, and the reason I was fairly sure it was an end-of-show marker was that Jean-Luc appears to have that slight jocular/smug look to his eyes that would have come with the end-of-an-adventure camaraderie trope that this show enjoys.
    – Solemnity
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 3:15
  • @user1027 Most TV series have a rhythm dictated by convention, length, and placement/duration of commercial breaks. Most shows, especially of about the era TNG was produced would have a "beat" punctuated by some dramatic moment at which there would be a commercial break; this beat is typically about 6 minutes. Each hour of programming would have a pretty well determined amount of break time, leaving a fairly consistent running time for the show, and a fairly predictable duration for the epilogue. From there, not too hard to predict a point at which a final bridge scene would occur.
    – Anthony X
    Commented Feb 18, 2019 at 17:39

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