Patrick Stewart to reprise role as Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard

[bigdirty]

Heck bring back a few from both ds9 and voyager to round it out.

 

[Blender]

I never watched Discovery outside of the pilot which I though was trash and wouldn't pay for CBS. With Stewart in it I will and if the show is good even if he leaves who knows. Just having him back would be good but let's not forget... many of the TNG movies were trash. Most would say all outside of First Contact but I didn't mind it. The banter and familiar crew with a bigger budget were always fun. They could never nail down a good story.

Yes most of the TNG movies were bad and I pretty much never re-watch them. That's kind of my point though, just having Patrick Stewart and the TNG nostalgia isn't going to make a good series, good writing is going to do that.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Yes most of the TNG movies were bad and I pretty much never re-watch them. That's kind of my point though, just having Patrick Stewart and the TNG nostalgia isn't going to make a good series, good writing is going to do that.

Yeah but at least we know he can act as opposed to the lead in Discovery

 

[LeafalCrusader]

As far as who else from that crew to bring back?

Heck bring back a few from both ds9 and voyager to round it out.

DS9 hell yes. Voyager hell no.

 

[Drytoast]

DS9 hell yes. Voyager hell no.

Harry, Chakote, Bilana, the doctor...and boobs of 9 for scientific purposes.

Nelix no
Kim no
Janeway...guest appearance so Piccard can pull rank and shut her the f up.
Tuvak no

Think that's about the lot of them, ya?

 

[LeafalCrusader]

Harry, Chakote, Bilana, the doctor...and boobs of 9 for scientific purposes.

Nelix no
Kim no
Janeway...guest appearance so Piccard can pull rank and shut her the f up.
Tuvak no

Think that's about the lot of them, ya?

I'd rather they just pretend that show never happened. Maybe The Doctor could make a cameo but even then I'd rather they not go all hologram heavy in the new show.

 

[Drytoast]

I'd rather they just pretend that show never happened. Maybe The Doctor could make a cameo but even then I'd rather they not go all hologram heavy in the new show.

I liked the doctor. don't really care that he's a hologram. if you have picard, then voyager is canon.

 

[johnjm22]

I love TNG, but based on what I've seen from Star Trek Discovery I have no faith that they're going to handle Picard well.

I do like the premise of seeing an older Picard though.

Please don't try and turn this into a big dumb action thing. It was ridiculous when they tried to do it with the TNG movies, it would be even more ridiculous now.

 

[The Nemesis]

Tuvok was fine.

He was probably the best depiction of a Vulcan in the franchise outside of Spock and Sarek (helped along by the fact that Tim Russ was a Star Trek fan and knew what he was doing rather than simply assuming that logical vulcans = play them like emotionless robots)

Seven was also a good character even setting aside the fanservice angle. Chakotay sucked (largely on the back of Robert Beltran hating doing the show from pretty much day 1), Kim sucked, Neelix sucked, Janeway sucked. The only good Voyager characters were the Doctor, Seven, Tuvok, Tom, and B'Lanna.

I assume that those being the 5 characters that had something resembling character growth/arcs over the course of teh series is totally and entirely coincidental

 

[johnjm22]

Tuvok was fine.

He was probably the best depiction of a Vulcan in the franchise outside of Spock and Sarek (helped along by the fact that Tim Russ was a Star Trek fan and knew what he was doing rather than simply assuming that logical vulcans = play them like emotionless robots)

Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis weren't bad, but I agree Russ along with Nimoy and Mark Lenard were the only men to portray Vulcans well.

I think most actors who play Vulcans portray them as smug which always gets on my nerves.

 

[LeafalCrusader]

Tuvok was fine.

He was probably the best depiction of a Vulcan in the franchise outside of Spock and Sarek (helped along by the fact that Tim Russ was a Star Trek fan and knew what he was doing rather than simply assuming that logical vulcans = play them like emotionless robots)

Seven was also a good character even setting aside the fanservice angle. Chakotay sucked (largely on the back of Robert Beltran hating doing the show from pretty much day 1), Kim sucked, Neelix sucked, Janeway sucked. The only good Voyager characters were the Doctor, Seven, Tuvok, Tom, and B'Lanna.

I assume that those being the 5 characters that had something resembling character growth/arcs over the course of teh series is totally and entirely coincidental

Seven and the Doctor were the only good characters. Tom was interesting but under-developed. B'Lanna and Tuvok were meh. Chakotay Neelix Harry Kessel Janeway were insufferable. The show had a great potential to show conflicting ideals between Macquis and Starfleet but they dropped that for the whole we're just one big happy Starfleet family.

 

[LeafalCrusader]

Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis weren't bad, but I agree Russ along with Nimoy and Mark Lenard were the only men to portray Vulcans well.

I think most actors who play Vulcans portray them as smug which always gets on my nerves.

They should give us a break with the Vulcans. Rather not have one in the new series. They've been done to death. Rather have an Andorian main character. One of the most under-used races in Star Trek.

 

[RandV]

So if Patrick Stewart is involved wouldn't that mean he would have some amount of creative control on the project? The cast of TNG was a really sharp bunch and would often write episodes themselves, so having Stewart there could be a good counter balance to long time Star Trek fans who aren't happy with the recent direction.

 

[Osprey]

There were rumors as recently as just a few years ago that Michael Dorn was trying to get a Worf series going. He'd almost certainly be willing to participate.

BTW, guys, to avoid double posting until the site is fixed, simply open the thread in another tab to check that your post posted before being tempted to click on the reply button a second time.

Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis weren't bad, but I agree Russ along with Nimoy and Mark Lenard were the only men to portray Vulcans well.

I think most actors who play Vulcans portray them as smug which always gets on my nerves.

So, you weren't a fan of the Sex in the City Vulcan?

(In her defense, it was more that the character was written that way)

 

[Drytoast]

Rewatching next generation now.

Barkley can come back.

 

[The Nemesis]

So if Patrick Stewart is involved wouldn't that mean he would have some amount of creative control on the project? The cast of TNG was a really sharp bunch and would often write episodes themselves, so having Stewart there could be a good counter balance to long time Star Trek fans who aren't happy with the recent direction.

So if Patrick Stewart is involved wouldn't that mean he would have some amount of creative control on the project? The cast of TNG was a really sharp bunch and would often write episodes themselves, so having Stewart there could be a good counter balance to long time Star Trek fans who aren't happy with the recent direction.

TNG actors didn't write episodes.

A bunch of them directed episodes, and some (Michael Dorn is the one that comes to mind immediately) had strong input on their own characters (things they would/wouldn't say, that sort of stuff), but IIRC they never actually wrote episodes themselves.

I don't think it would help anyway. Discovery's problems are high-level. Issues with tone, focus, direction of the plot, and clumsy integration of fanservice moments like references and callbacks. These are the sorts of things that come from a writers room before the actors would ever get involved.

 

[The Nemesis]

There were rumors as recently as just a few years ago that Michael Dorn was trying to get a Worf series going. He'd almost certainly be willing to participate.

BTW, guys, to avoid double posting until the site is fixed, simply open the thread in another tab to check that your post posted before being tempted to click on the reply button a second time.


So, you weren't a fan of the Sex in the City Vulcan?

(In her defense, it was more that the character was written that way)

I read somewhere that they intended for her to actually be half or wholly Romulan to help explain her character, but never actually got to the point of mentioning it.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

As far as who else from that crew to bring back?

Data? No
Counceler troy? No
Will riker? Yes
Worf? Yes. **** those new klingons btw.
Geordi? Yes
Crusher? On the fence
Wesley? No
Guinine? **** no.

Heck bring back a few from both ds9 and voyager to round it out.

Why not Troi? Isn't she and Riker still married and serving together on the Titan?

 

[LeafalCrusader]

I read somewhere that they intended for her to actually be half or wholly Romulan to help explain her character, but never actually got to the point of mentioning it.

They mention it in one of the deleted scenes that she's half-Romulan

 

[Osprey]

They mention it in one of the deleted scenes that she's half-Romulan

We're talking about Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. She's the one played by Kim Cattrall.

You know, come to think of it, I seem to have a vague memory of a rumor that it was originally supposed to be Saavik who turned traitor. Maybe that's where the "half Romulan" rumor that The Nemesis mentioned came from. I also have a vague memory that that didn't happen because, as soon as Kim Cattrall showed an interest in being in Star Trek (or, knowing her, she might've... cozied up to the right person to get the role), they created a new character for her, instead.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

This is only loosely related, but recently I had been wondering how for a character with a French name they cast a classical British guy, so decided to look into it a little.

Looks like Gene Roddenberry wanted another Kirk type, his ideal was someone "masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair". Patrick Stewart was initially under consideration for the Data role, and Roddenberry's first choice for Picard was this guy Stephen Macht:

A young Patrick Stewart playing Sejanus in the 70s classic I Claudius

 

[Cloned]

We're talking about Valleris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. She's the one played by Kim Cattrall.

You know, come to think of it, I seem to have a vague memory of a rumor that it was originally supposed to be Saavik who turned traitor. Maybe that's where the "half Romulan" rumor that The Nemesis mentioned came from. I also have a vague memory that that didn't happen because, as soon as Kim Cattrall showed an interest in being in Star Trek (or, knowing her, she might've... cozied up to the right person to get the role), they created a new character for her, instead.

The rumour I read was that they wanted to make all the betrayals as personal and shocking as possible originally, to underscore how deeply the Klingon “specism” went. That’s why they made Admiral Cartwright - one of the supposed “good guys” from previous movies - one of the conspirators (also apparently because he was black as they wanted to underscore the irony of that - I think the actor who portrayed him had serious reservations about his role and almost refused the role entirely).

And in that vein, they wanted to have Saavik betray Spock and the Federation.

IIRC they scrapped the Saavik idea because Alley and Curtis were either unavailable or unwilling to film (don’t remember which it was), and they didn’t want to have a third actress portraying the same character in three straight movies, so they created the Valeris character instead.

 

[Drytoast]

Why not Troi? Isn't she and Riker still married and serving together on the Titan?

Her character was just bad.

Only had a few shining moments.

 

[Baby Punisher]

Um didn't watch Discovery due to having to sign up for another service and the ****ty pilot.

Picard.... take my money now CBS!. Patrick Stewart is the best lead the series ever had IMO. Please get a decent writer!

This is exactly why CBS is doing this. They found a way to get my money. Bastards. This better be great.

 

[Baby Punisher]

Her character was just bad.

Only had a few shining moments.

Today this is tame. Back then, I'm surprised it got past the censors.

 

[The Nemesis]

This is only loosely related, but recently I had been wondering how for a character with a French name they cast a classical British guy, so decided to look into it a little.

Looks like Gene Roddenberry wanted another Kirk type, his ideal was someone "masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair". Patrick Stewart was initially under consideration for the Data role, and Roddenberry's first choice for Picard was this guy Stephen Macht:

The other decision makers in producing/casting though immediately saw that Stewart was perfect for Picard, but took weeks to convince Roddenberry of this. What an alternate reality that would be where a guy like Macht was Captain Picard and Patrick Stewart played Data!

If you haven't seen it, watch William Shatner's documentary "Chaos on the Bridge" about the creation and first season of TNG. It's a really good peek behind the curtain.

There's a section discussing the casting of Picard and they had the story of Patrick Stewart coming into audition. He was apparently teaching an acting class at a university in California when someone on the production staff noticed him and thought he would be good for Picard. But knowing that Roddenberry wanted someone with hair (there was some mention of Gene's future utopia having no baldness anymore), Stewart had to have a toupee fedex'd from England. so he comes in with the toupee (which apparently looks awful) and reads and he isn't very impressive so they thank him and dismiss him. Stewart gets into the hallway and thinking he's just blown it, he pulls the hair off his head in frustration. But then someone in the room wants to give him another chance because he/she believes Stewart is the right choice and they bring him back in and for whatever reason he's much more impressive this time. Then Roddenberry's hair objection comes up again and one of the other execs says something like "wouldn't it just be that in the better future nobody cares about being bald?" or something like that, and Roddenberry's original objection is basically overwritten from there.

Seriously though, the whole documentary is extremely fascinating. It's a lot better than Shatner's other doc where he just interviews the various other leads from the different series (aka the one with the segment where Avery Brooks seems like he's higher than a space shuttle and they just dick around on a piano the whole time)

I've said it before, but Gene Roddenberry's contributions to the success of Star Trek are vastly overstated, in no small part thanks to his own engineering of events. He created a great framework, but a lot of the things that people love most about the series have come from the minds of others that worked on the show (Gene Coon, Bob Justman, DC Fontana, Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Brannon Braga, Ron Moore, etc). In fact, it seemed like a lot of times people had to fight against some of Roddenberry's more outlandish, backwards, or straight-up bizarre ideas just to keep Star Trek from doing something that could sabotage its success.

A young Patrick Stewart playing Sejanus in the 70s classic I Claudius

This looks wrong beyond compare.

We're talking about Valleris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. She's the one played by Kim Cattrall.

You know, come to think of it, I seem to have a vague memory of a rumor that it was originally supposed to be Saavik who turned traitor. Maybe that's where the "half Romulan" rumor that The Nemesis mentioned came from. I also have a vague memory that that didn't happen because, as soon as Kim Cattrall showed an interest in being in Star Trek (or, knowing her, she might've... cozied up to the right person to get the role), they created a new character for her, instead.

The rumour I read was that they wanted to make all the betrayals as personal and shocking as possible originally, to underscore how deeply the Klingon “specism” went. That’s why they made Admiral Cartwright - one of the supposed “good guys” from previous movies - one of the conspirators (also apparently because he was black as they wanted to underscore the irony of that - I think the actor who portrayed him had serious reservations about his role and almost refused the role entirely).

And in that vein, they wanted to have Saavik betray Spock and the Federation.

IIRC they scrapped the Saavik idea because Alley and Curtis were either unavailable or unwilling to film (don’t remember which it was), and they didn’t want to have a third actress portraying the same character in three straight movies, so they created the Valeris character instead.

I do remember that they wanted Saavik to be the traitor for impact purposes. I believe that Alley was unavailable (I can't remember if this was in the middle of her run on Cheers or not) and that someone on the production staff (Nicholas Meyer? Would make sense given he directed Alley in STII) wasn't a fan of Robin Curtis' performance in STIII. I think there was also discussion that someone (it might have been Roddenberry, though given his health at that point in time perhaps not) was hesitant to pull the trigger on traitor-Saavik out of fear of fan reaction given how popular the character had become.

I swear I also read somewhere that the romulan angle was intended to be transported over to Valeris when they crafted the new character as a replacement, but now I can't find any evidence of that and I might just be combining elements of the two character stories into one.

Regardless, it would've made Cattrall's performance a lot more understandable

 

[The Nemesis]

Give me an anthology type series involving the various alien/secondary characters from assorted series. Garak, Martok, Quark/Rom/Nog (but with less comedy focus), find a way to bring back Weyoun, Tomalak (probably not doable given that Andreas Katsulas is dead), Hugh, hell go back to Enterprise era and do something with Shran. A series that's not focused on a ship of unlikeable characters like Discovery and instead is free to explore 5-10 stories a season (of <=20 episodes) of the various nooks and crannies of the Star Trek universe would be infinitely more interesting.

The issue would be that it would likely be a hard sell because it would mostly cater to existing fans and have a hard time drawing in new viewers who don't have the back-story and history on all the characters and concepts they would use without an explanatory introduction.

 

[johnjm22]

Her character was just bad.

Only had a few shining moments.

She was fine as a side character. It's whenever they tried to make her the focal point of an episode it turned out bad.

 

[Blender]

She was fine as a side character. It's whenever they tried to make her the focal point of an episode it turned out bad.

Troi was also much better when they toned down the gimmicks with her as the series went on as well. Her early character serves no purpose other than to talk about what people are feeling, except when she can't.