Headscratchers / Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E14 "Conundrum"

• If "MacDuff" could edit the ship's computer and insert himself as a high-ranking officer, why wouldn't he just go ahead and make himself captain? The crew, even Picard himself, seem perfectly comfortable following Worf as captain just because he's wearing a baldric.
  • Because his people want a bonafide, verifiable, legitimate and unarguable, Starfleet captain to commit a Starfleet act of aggression. A first officer is high enough to guide the situation, but would not attract the same level of scrutiny when it comes to the consequences. They need Picard to take the fall for it to work.
    • Does anything in the episode support that conclusion? I don't recall any suggestion of what MacDuff planned for the fallout to be once the Lysians were destroyed, much less that he thought he could cover his tracks and pin it all on Picard. How would that even happen? The ship's computer is filled with false data, and a thousand passengers can testify to losing their memories. And if an alien agent seized control of the ship, mind-wiped the crew, and manipulated everyone under false pretenses, what difference would it make to anyone whether the captain gave the order to fire or the agent himself?
  • A major reason why MacDuff couldn’t just replace the entire crew was because he needed their knowledge of the Enterprise systems and their skills, something which he himself lacked. Aside from technical knowledge this also means things like how to set a course, organise repairs and which maneuvers are/aren't safe for the ship to do. He wouldn’t have known how to command the ship himself and risked being exposed if he tried. His role as first officer allowed him to act as an advisor to the captain, and to move freely around the ship, without having to display the same level of knowledge the captain required.
    • It seems like he'd need to know fewer technical skills and details as the captain than at a lower rank, since the captain is responsible for high-level decisions and can simply ask his subordinates to fill in the practical details based on their knowledge. For example, he merely needs to tell someone to set a course rather than operate the navigation computer and create a safe flight path himself. A first officer would be doing more and deciding less than the captain.
    • Plus, look at the nature of the memory wipe he used, where the crew retained certain technical skills and personal characteristics, such as Worf initially assuming command and being immediately ashamed at his assumption when he learnt the real chain of command. It's possible that MacDuff doubted his ability to actually erase/edit the crew's memories to the extent that he would be able to seamlessly take Picard's place in their memories, whereas his disguise looks enough like Commander Riker that it might be easier for the crew's already-vague dormant memories to associate MacDuff with the more familiar tall, dark-haired man that serves as the actual first officer.
    • The problem with that idea is that his "MacDuff" appearance is a fabrication, with his true form apparently being a skeletal-looking alien. The idea that his disguise had similar build and hair color to Riker and thus even if the suppressed memories started to leak back he'd be less suspicious seems weak. Heck, if he had any worries about the crew's memories starting to come back, he could've just leaned into being an outsider by assuming a fake identity of an Admiral Kieran MacDuff who's there to supervise the mission.
    • This could be justified depending on the nature of the disguise and their knowledge of Starfleet. Concerning MacDuff's physical appearance, when we don't know how he created it he may have been working from a specific template that he couldn't change, so he adapted his plan based on the aforementioned resemblance to Riker. As to why he couldn't make himself an admiral... considering how Starfleet officers have often shown a willingness to defy an admiral's orders if they truly believe the admiral is wrong, MacDuff may have decided it would be better to establish a cover identity as a regular part of the crew so that the others would be more inclined to trust one of their own over a relative "outsider".
    • It might really just have been part of the plan. As the First Officer, if Picard loses his nerve he can try to relieve him of command as is the First Officer's ability and duty if the Captain seems unable or unwilling to do his job which is exactly what he attempts at the end. He also attempted to seed the potential for a mutiny as a third option. Meanwhile if he just gave himself the role of Captain and started barking orders "Commander Picard" would have gotten suspicious all the same and he would have relieved him as First Officer instead. Making himself not the absolute authority actually gave him more options if his initial plan of hoping they'd just carry out the proposed orders without question didn't work.