Star Trek: Picard

[Jokerz79]

The background certainly would have fit better. I think there were some legal issues and payment for use since Locarno was a TNG character. I am positive someone on here will have the actual story.

They would owe royalties to the writer of the TNG episode. It's why T'Pol was T'Pol instead of T'Pel from TOS. Although they did use T'Pel for the Surak storyline.

[nx01a]

[ChrisIII]

Just watched Patrick Stewart as Gurney in the original Dune movie (The role Josh Brolin plays in the current one). Kind of wonder if that had a part in him getting the Picard role (Even though the movie was a big flop)?


Couldn't help but think of THE INNER LIGHT when his hair grows later in the film.

[Jokerz79]

Just watched Patrick Stewart as Gurney in the original Dune movie (The role Josh Brolin plays in the current one). Kind of wonder if that had a part in him getting the Picard role (Even though the movie was a big flop)?


Couldn't help but think of THE INNER LIGHT when his hair grows later in the film.

Patrick was teaching Shakespeare for a month or so in LA and a producer saw him and brought him to Rick Berman's attention. Gene thought Patrick was a fine actor, but the Captain of the Enterprise could not be bald. It's really funny that for all his forward thinking that was the line in the sand for Gene. So, after seeing more actors no one was coming close to Patrick, so they had Patrick ship a wig he had in London to the studio, and they did another audition. A Paramount executive was there and it was between Patrick and another actor and the executive said "Hire the English guy just lose the wig" lol

[JT221]

Just watched Patrick Stewart as Gurney in the original Dune movie (The role Josh Brolin plays in the current one). Kind of wonder if that had a part in him getting the Picard role (Even though the movie was a big flop)?


Couldn't help but think of THE INNER LIGHT when his hair grows later in the film.

Sir Patrick was great in a movie called Excalibur, too. Small role that is wonderful, and might be another that got him noticed.

[Powerboy]

Patrick was teaching Shakespeare for a month or so in LA and a producer saw him and brought him to Rick Berman's attention. Gene thought Patrick was a fine actor, but the Captain of the Enterprise could not be bald. It's really funny that for all his forward thinking that was the line in the sand for Gene. So, after seeing more actors no one was coming close to Patrick, so they had Patrick ship a wig he had in London to the studio, and they did another audition. A Paramount executive was there and it was between Patrick and another actor and the executive said "Hire the English guy just lose the wig" lol

Yeah, Gene Roddenberry seemed locked into the idea that the Captain had to be a young swashbuckler ala Earl Flynn, that the audience wouldn't accept someone of a realistic age for a captain.

[ChrisIII]

Looking it up a bit more Patrick Baucha was a favorite (and had hair). Mainly know him as one of the henchmen in VIEW TO A KILL.

Another actor who played a Bond villain, Yaphet Kotto, was also considered.

[JT221]

Yeah, Gene Roddenberry seemed locked into the idea that the Captain had to be a young swashbuckler ala Earl Flynn, that the audience wouldn't accept someone of a realistic age for a captain.

In fairness to him (and that is sometimes hard for me given a lot of his personal behavior) that was kind of the industry standard of the time.

[ChrisIII]

It's kind of interesting that Roddenberry's take on Kirk often seemed more Picard-like at times than what the general pop culture reputation he had was as more of a maverick, rule bending captain.


In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Gary referred to him as a bookworm and academic; (Although the same story of course was the very first "torn shirt" fight too) and in TMP, the movie Roddenberry was most closely involved with, Kirk is the one who prefers exploration and diplomacy with V'ger (although he does put in self-destruct as a last resort) while Decker prefers an aggressive approach several times during the movie.

[Gray Lensman]

It's kind of interesting that Roddenberry's take on Kirk often seemed more Picard-like at times than what the general pop culture reputation he had was as more of a maverick, rule bending captain.


In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Gary referred to him as a bookworm and academic; (Although the same story of course was the very first "torn shirt" fight too) and in TMP, the movie Roddenberry was most closely involved with, Kirk is the one who prefers exploration and diplomacy with V'ger (although he does put in self-destruct as a last resort) while Decker prefers an aggressive approach several times during the movie.

Kirk was also influenced by the 50s science fiction hero archetype of "the competent man" which was basically really good at just about everything. The archetype itself doesn't quite reach Mary Sue levels since it typically doesn't reach the level of being g better than the specialist in his or her own field. Think of a toned down Mr. Terrific. One of the best examples might be the protagonist of The Minervan Experiment (Inherit The Stars is probably the best known of the three) , as he is put in charge of research of an ancient spaceship crash not because he is the smartest, but because he is the only one who has enough understanding of all the scientific fields involved to coordinate the project.

[ChrisIII]

TMP also has him be somewhat more cold and distant as well (Although not nearly as much as Spock), like Picard is very early on.

He doesn't do much for example to reassure the crew after watching Epsilon 9 get destroyed except issue another order (Although the director's cut does add a slightly more emotional "Viewer off!" to the scene)

[sunofdarkchild]

Kirk got his reputation as a rule-breaking maverick mainly from cheating to beat the Kobyashi Maru and from stealing the Enterprise to find Spock, neither of which is representative of how he actually operated as a captain. When he disobeyed orders or went against the book it was always in exceptional cases where Picard would most likely have done the same thing. In their youths Picard seems to have been even more of a troublemaker than Kirk, ending up with an artificial heart as a result, and Picard disobeyed direct orders in his 4 movies more than Kirk did in his 6 - that's the plot of First Contact and Insurrection. It's the nature of fiction to present incredible circumstances where the hero stands out and saves the day by not following the book. In the end Picard developed the same reputation in-universe that Kirk has out-of-universe, which Shaw calls him out on multiple times in the final season of Picard. Even in TNG, Captain Jellico thought that Picard gave his crew too much leeway to break from regulations and should have been more by the book in his command style.

There are 3 main differences between Kirk and Picard that account for Kirk being thought of as disobeying orders and regulations whenever it suited him and Picard as a no-nonsense by-the-book officer. 1 is that Kirk would always go on away missions while Picard would stay on the bridge, which is where the commanding officer is expected to be on a naval vessel. 2 is that Shatner is more of an action star and Stewart more of a character actor, so Kirk would naturally have many more fight scenes than Picard. And 3 is that TOS and TNG had very different focuses. TOS was more likely to present situations where Kirk would have no choice but to resort to force after diplomatic options had been exhausted and failed, while TNG was written to send the message that violence is never the answer and Worf's purpose as a character was to show how violence wouldn't solve anything to allow the crew to find a non-violent solution. There were exceptions in both cases like Kirk choosing not to kill the Gorn and the Borg having to be destroyed, but those exceptions stood out in their respective series. The person who gets into constant fist-fights in which his shirt gets ripped seems like more of a troublemaker than the guy constantly drinking ear grey tea in his room, even if he did everything by the book and the fight was forced on him.

[ChrisIII]

Picard of course had fewer love interests than Kirk as well, although I think the intention at first was for Rand to be his main interest but that changed quickly when Grace Lee Whitney left. Carol of course from the movies but there's no indication they resumed their relationship, and Gillian never really went anywhere beyond some light flirting and poetry.

There was of course Beverly, Vash, Anij in Inssurection and some older flings from his younger days like Marta, Phillipa, Jenice etc. not sure Eline counts as he was kind of "programmed".

Then of course there was Laris who was written off almost immediately in season 3. Although like Carol there didn't seem to be any resumption of the romance.

[Jokerz79]

Well Kirk was only 33 to 36 during TOS vs Picard being 59 to 66 during TNG one was in his prime and one wasn't that too will affect their love lives.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of interesting that Picard is 12 years older than Patrick Stewart; then again Stewart kind of has always had an 'old' look. He went bald in his late teens and was fully gray by his late 30s.