STAR TREK Featurette - What Makes Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard So Iconic?
While we all wait excitedly for the new Star Trek: Picard to be released, we have a great new featurette here for you to that explores the question, what makes Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard so iconic?
The video features members of the cast and crew of Star Trek: Discovery talking about their fondness for Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who made his debut in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Producer Alex Kurtzman says:
“Captain Picard, in some ways he is the ultimate captain and he is the ultimate captain because of his incredible decency, because of his incredible thoughtfulness, because he was always human, fundamentally, in the choices that he made even when the pressure was really, really high.”
Mary Wiseman, who plays Ensign Sylvia Tilly on Star Trek: Discovery added:
“Patrick Stewart, he’s just one of our greatest living actors. That’s so cool, the coming together of Patrick Stewart’s training and old school, Royal Shakespeare Company gravitas and the combination of that and this like sort of mythological franchise that is Star Trek, the coming together of that is so special.”
Wilson Cruz, who plays Dr. Hugh Culber on the series, went on to say:
“The Picard character, Patrick Stewart’s portrayal of it came with such confidence, right?And it was the kind of confidence that was earned. He never demanded respect from his crew. They gave it to him freely because of who he was and how he treated them. We root for him and we’re willing to go on whatever ride he takes us on because of that. He, for me, was the ultimate captain, the ultimate leader. I think right now, in this moment, we are all looking anywhere and everywhere we can for true signs of leadership and I think Picard is a great model for that.”
It’s hard to argue with anything anyone here says about Stewart and Picard. He’s easily one of my favorite Star Trek characters, which is why I’m so stoked about the upcoming series!
Watch the featurette below and let us know why you think Captain Picard is such an iconic Star Trek character.
When previously talking about the series and what we can expect from it, Kurtzman said:
“The mandate was to make it a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years. There are so few shows that allow a significantly older protagonist to be the driver.
What happens when circumstances have conspired to not give him the happiest of endings? Hopefully, it’s a reinforcement of [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry’s vision of optimism. He’s going to have to go through deep valleys to get back to the light.
It’ll be very different than Discovery. It’ll be slower, more meditative. It speaks to the rainbow of colors we’re playing within all these different shows.”
As of right now the series also stars Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, and Evan Evagora.