When it comes to the most memorable characters from Patrick Stewart’s storied career, Jean-Luc Picard is undoubtedly at the top of the list. The captain of the Enterprise-D on Star Trek: The Next Generation remains one of the most popular characters not just within the franchise, but in all of sci-fi, despite a fairly rocky start at the series’ beginning. I’m one of many fans who weren’t as impressed with the character’s earliest years, and pleased to recently discover that Stewart himself feels the exact same way.
Patrick Stewart rewatched Star Trek: The Next Generation in order to prep for his recently released memoir, Making It So, and he had the same kinds of thoughts many actors have upon watching themselves on screen, though not about some of the WTF moments of the series. Rather, he found himself disappointed in the early portrayals of the character, and I’d wager those takes were largely warranted. Stewart explained it all in a recent interview with The New Yorker, saying:
I watched the first and second seasons, and I was disappointed with what I saw, particularly the first season, and specifically my work. I found it lacking intimacy. It was very authoritative, but there were few other qualities in him.
It turns out that Patrick Stewart saw what I and many others have seen when watching Star Trek: The Next Generation over the years. While Picard ultimately develops into one of the greatest sci-fi Captains of all time in the series, he starts things off on a real “authoritative” tone and doesn’t bring much else to the table.
Someone might say he’s a bit of an ass in the early seasons and doesn’t really focus on much more than ordering others around. He also isn’t too kind to Wesley Crusher, which, in my opinion, feels like the biggest betrayal of who Picard would become in later seasons. People who are mean to kids don’t have holidays named after them.
Those who fire up an early episode with Paramount+ subscription will see it plain as day, Picard just isn’t as multi-dimensional early on. Patrick Stewart said he talked about the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation in his memoir and a meeting with his co-stars that might’ve ultimately helped him switch up Picard in future seasons:
I tell the story of calling a meeting of my principal fellow cast members and telling them that I thought we were not disciplined enough, that we should not be fooling about on the set as much as we were but taking everything seriously. And one of the cast members said, ‘Oh, come on, Patrick, we’ve got to have some fun.’ And I thumped the chair and said, ‘We are not here to have fun.’ Which they have never let me forget. They taught me so much about loosening up and being freer. All this fed into the feeling I had about Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger. I think that the work that we did got better through the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh seasons.
The work certainly did get better, and Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s success ultimately led to more franchise shows, and even a revival series for the character decades after the show’s ending. Had Picard remained the same blowhard he was in Seasons 1 and 2, such continued success might not have happened.
For now, the ending of Picard appears to be the final story for the character, though Patrick Stewart indicated in his memoir he’s interested in making at least one more movie. Whether it will be factored into the plans of upcoming Trek projects remains to be seen. Other cast members like Michael Dorn have expressed a want to keep making content, so who knows what may happen.
All seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation can be found right now on Paramount+. While it likely won’t help many others write their memoir, it is a great way of seeing how the series evolved over time, and a reminder of why it remains the gold standard for episodic television across all genres.