Sir Patrick Stewartis an iconic actor, perhaps most known for his role as Professor Charles Xavier fromX-Men.He started in Shakespearean acting on stage, but his breakout role, and perhaps the role of his lifetime, is as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise, star of the showStar Trek: The Next Generation.It is also his longest running role,with season three of the showPicardcoming out next year.
At that time, in the late ’80s, Stewart was not well known. He was described by theLos Angeles Timesas an “unknown British Shakespearean actor”, and was reluctant to transition into television. He didn’t like the long hours, the “technobabble”, and the lack of strict discipline in his fellow actors. He even continued living out of his suitcase because of his lack of faith in the show.
Yet Stewart would later call this role the highlight of his careerin an interview with the BBC, because it changed so much for him. The gravity that he gave the role, and the seriousness that he brought to his work, elevated the other actors around him by example. Fellow castmember Marina Sirtis (who played Counselor Troi) even credits Stewart with 50% or more of the show’s success, because of his professionalism and the effect he had on the rest of the cast.
Andto the delight and respect ofStar Trekfans, Stewart never looked down on his role on the sci-fi show. He later said in a 1997 interview:
“The fact is all of those years in Royal Shakespeare Company - playing all those kings, emperors, princes and tragic heroes - were nothing but preparation for sitting in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise.”
Stewart would even later reflect that his role as Picard came to shape who he was, sayingin a 2007 interview with The Times, “It came to a point where I had no idea where Picard began and I ended. We completely overlapped. His voice became my voice, and there were other elements of him that became me.”
With such respect for this role that elevated sci-fi on television, what are Patrick Stewart’s best moments as the esteemed Captain Jean-Luc Picard?
7TNG-“Encounter at Farpoint” - Season 1, Episode 1
It was clear from the very first episode what Stewart was bringing to the role of Picard, and to the show. In this premier episode, the entire tone ofNext Generationis set, when the mysterious and highly entertaining character Q arrives to challenge Picard to the near-impossible task of defending humanity itself. With admirable and passionate sincerity, Picard articulates how far humanity has come from our violent past, and all of the good there still is. Stewart steps into the challenge of the role as naturally as Picard steps up to Q’s challenge, and the result is everything that makesStar Trekgreat.
6TNG-“Chain of Command” - Season 6, Episodes 10 and 11
This episode ofTNGcan be hard to watch. As perhaps the darkest in the entire show, this two-part episode follows Picard after he is captured and tortured at the hands of a brutal regime leading the alien race known as the Cardassians. Torture is a difficult subject for a TV show to tackle, to say the least. And it was an especially dark place to go forTNG.We see Picard, a captain who was well established in respectability and strength by this point, brought low and pushed towards the furthest limits of a mental break. Stewart really puts his all into the hard-to-watch scenes, and his performance is riveting.
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5Star Trek: First Contact(1996)
This is the secondTNGmovie, and the first one directed by Jonathan Frakes (who played the suave Commander Riker). It is considered one of the bestStar Trekmovies in the entire franchise. The story centers around the revelation of the Borg queen (which earned an Academy Award nomination), and Picard’s self-destructive hatred of the Borg. Picard’s irrational refusal to destroy the Enterprise is very Ahab-like, and we watch him get worse, until in a triumphant moment, he lets go of his hatred and puts down his phaser, symbolizing his triumph over his own self-destruction.
4Picard - “Et in Arcadia Ego” - Season 1, Episode 10
The showPicardis a chance to revisit not just Jean-Luc, but also the other characters fromNext Generation, and to learn where their lives end up. It is a show full of beautiful reunions that tug at the heartstrings, and bring many stories to their conclusion. Seeing Stewart revisit this powerful role again decades later is a treat, and it’s hard to pick the best moment so far. But perhaps the most personal, and beautiful, is Picard and Data’s final reunion at the end of season one.
In it, Picard is dying, and has a vision of himself and Data sitting together. The two were always very close, with a mutual respect between them, and, to an extent, a shared understanding of each other. So it feels only right that Data’s final request is for Picard to terminate his consciousness, telling him, “Mortality gives meaning to human life, Captain. Peace, love, and friendship - these are precious because we know they cannot endure.” Picard, in his old age, understands this, and respects it, honoring his wish.
3TNG - “Family” - Season 4, Episode 2
The Borg had a lasting impact upon the psychology of Picard. After he was freed from the Borg’s oppressive hive mind, he struggled with his own sense of individuality. In the depths of his disorientation, he traveled back home to Earth and spent time with his brother on their family’s vineyard. He warred with himself over whether or not to retire from Starfleet, and argued with his brother, until finally they got into a physical fight and fell into a large puddle of mud. Picard breaks down, finally voicing his fear: “They took everything I was.” The deep personal aspect of the trauma he’s going through is well communicated in a genuine way by Stewart.
Related:James McAvoy Would Rather Play Young Jean-Luc Picard Than Professor X Again
2TNG- “Tapestry” - Season 6, Episode 15
Tapestry is one of those episodes that can be common in some TV shows, and even movies, about the longing to go back and correct a previous regrets and mistakes in a person’s life. Picard, experiencing a mental hallucination as he is on the verge of death, sees that one of his regrets about his past is also the reason he might lose his life in the present moment. Q is with him, and offers him a chance to correct that past mistake, which was a bar fight during Picard’s years at Starfleet Academy.
Picard makes a different, more pacified choice, and the bar fight doesn’t happen. Q then brings Picard back into the present, where his life is very different, and entirely unremarkable. Because of this one change on the result of the bar fight, Picard becomes less bold, and less driven, leading a life that is by all accounts, uninspiring. He realizes that, even if it means his own death, he would rather have lived his life as the intrepid and adventurous Captain. The best scene of this episode is watching Picard almost get killed in the bar fight - and laugh about it, joyously, knowing that it wasn’t the mistake he thought it was.
1TNG-“The Inner Light” - Season 5, Episode 25
This episode is perhapsthe best episode of the entire showNext Generation.It is also Patrick Stewart’s personal favorite, and it is easy to see why.
This episode is what is known as a “bottle episode.” It is self-contained, requiring little to no context before and after watching it. The episode follows Picard as he is pulled into a lengthy dream, in which he experiences the lifetime of a man named Kamin. He lives through decades, with a wife, children, and eventually grandchildren. He watches the planet he is on wither and die away under the relentless radiation of a nearby sun, and realizes, at the end, that this experience was only meant to teach their civilization, and their way of living, to whoever found the remnants of an old satellite. That person was Picard.
It is especially personal for Stewart, whose real son actually plays Kamin’s son in the episode. With hardly any glimpse of the rest of the cast, this episode is almost like a mini-play, starring Stewart alone. And, perhaps drawing on his old Shakespearean training, he manages to perform it perfectly, making this episode one of the most touching, heartfelt, and philosophically interesting episodes of the entire show - as well as the best of Stewart’s performance as Jean-Luc Picard.
