Favorite TV Speech

This is my favorite speech in all of TV history. It comes from Star Trek: First Contact. You really need to have some understand of the Star Trek Universe to fully grasp the meaning of this speech. For me, it shows how "human" Captain Picard can be. Even though he lives in a world without greed, revenge, etc; deep down those feelings linger and can be brought back to light in the right circumstances. Picard is the captain of the Enterprise, a moral guide for his crew and for Star Fleet sometimes, and yet he still falls prey to the "ancient" feelings of revenge. It's just such a great speech!

Lily is a human from the year 2064. Humans are about to make First Contact with an alien race and the Borg attempt to stop them. Lily is transported to the enterprise, escapes from Sick Bay and runs into Captain Picard. They spend most of the 2nd half of the movie together and begins to gain some knowledge of Picard's world, the enemy they are facing, and Picard himself. When Picard refuses to blow up the Enterprise (thus destroying the Borg) she confronts his decision and thus begins the speech below:

(Please pardon the language...I took it straight from the movie)

Lily: You son of a bitch!

Picard: This really isn't the time.

Lily: Okay, I don't know jack about the 24th century - but everybody here thinks staying here and fighting the Borg is suicide. They're just afraid to come in here and say it.

Picard: The crew is accustomed to following my orders.

Lily: They're probably used to your orders making SENSE.

Picard: None of them understand the situation... no one can

Lily: What's that supposed to mean?

Picard: A few years ago I was captured by the Borg. I was assimilated into their collective. I was part of their hive mind. Every peice of my individuality erased. I was part of them. So you can imagine, my dear, I have a unique perspective on the Borg and I know how to fight them. Now if you'll excuse me I have work to do.

Lily: I am such an idiot. It's so simple. The Borg hurt you and now you're gonna hurt them back.
Picard: In my century we don't succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility...

Lily: Bullshit! I saw the look your face when you shot those Borg on the Holodeck. You were almost enjoying it!

Picard: How dare you?

Lily: Oh, come on, Captain. You're not the first man to get a thrill out of murdering someone! I see it all the time!

Picard: Get out!

Lily: Or what? You'll kill me; like you killed Ensign Lynch?

Picard: There was no way to save him.

Lily : You didn't even try! Where was your evolved sensibility then?

Picard: This is not about revenge.

Lily: Liar!

Picard: This is about saving the future of humanity!

Lily: Jean Luc blow up the damn ship!

Picard: NO! Nooooooooooooo!
[He smashes the models on the conference room wall]

Picard: I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!

Lily: You broke your little ships.See you around, Ahab.

Picard: 'And he piled upon the whale's white hump, a sum of all the rage and hate felt by his own race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.'

Lily: What?

Picard: 'Moby Dick.'

Lily: Actually, I never read it.

Picard: Ahab spent years hunting the white whale that crippled him. A quest for vengeance, ...but in the end it destroyed him and his ship.

Lily: I guess he didn't know when to quit.