Summary

  • Gene Roddenberry originally didn't want Patrick Stewart to play Captain Picard due to his appearance and age.
  • Roddenberry intended for a Captain more like Kirk, but Stewart's cerebral Picard helped TNG develop its own identity.
  • Stewart based his portrayal of Picard on Horatio Hornblower, embodying the character's determination and dedication.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard may now be considered one of Star Trek's best characters, but Patrick Stewart was not Gene Roddenberry's first choice to portray the Star Trek: The Next Generation Captain. Picard commanded the USS Enterprise-D for seven seasons of TNG, with Patrick Stewart's performance receiving near-universal praise. Still, there was a period during the filming of TNG when Stewart felt that Roddenberry didn't want him in the role. Roddenberry had reportedly changed his attitude toward Stewart by the time of his death in 1991, but why did the Star Trek creator hate Stewart's casting in the first place?

As the creator of Star Trek: The Original Series, Roddenberry had strong opinions about Star Trek, as well as a clear vision for the sequel series, which was set about a century after the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). TOS developed a strong cult following in syndication after the show ended in 1969, which Paramount leveraged into a series of successful movies, starting with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. Paramount officially announced it was developing a new television series for the franchise in 1986 that would introduce a new Starship Enterprise and crew, and Star Trek: The Next Generation was born.

Beginning in January 2020, Patrick Stewart reprised the role of Jean-Luc Picard for three seasons of Star Trek: Picard. Picard season 3 reunited Admiral Picard with his USS Enterprise-D crew, and became the most successful season of the show.

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Patrick Stewart Didn't Fit Gene Roddenberry's Image Of Captain Picard

Roddenberry didn't want a "bald, middle-aged Englishman" playing the French captain.

When it came to casting for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry certainly had input, but others were also involved in the decision-making. In a roundtable discussion with The Hollywood Reporter in August 2020, Patrick Stewart recalled how Gene Roddenberry did not want him cast as Picard. Stewart said that Roddenberry seemed to disprove of him on set, saying "It was clear he couldn't understand why I was there." He went on to say that the situation made him "a little uncomfortable." However, he does describe having lunch with Roddenberry once, which suggests the late TV legend had somewhat warmed up to the actor after production began.

With Picard's oratory skills and knack for diplomacy, he was undoubtedly the right kind of Captain for the show TNG wanted to be.

Had Gene Roddenberry gotten his way, another actor may have played Captain Picard on TNG. According to a Paramount memo posted to Letters of Note, the Belgian actor Patrick Bauchau was Roddenberry's personal choice to play Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Based on the other names listed in the memo, Picard was originally intended to be another handsome adventurer like William Shatner's Captain Kirk in TOS. Another Kirk-like Captain might have made TNG feel like a retread of TOS, and Stewart's more cerebral Captain Picard helped make TNG stand on its own. Picard may not have had the hand-to-hand fighting skills of Kirk, but, with his oratory skills and knack for diplomacy, he was undoubtedly the right kind of captain for the show TNG wanted to be.

Captain Picard Was Meant To Be Horatio Hornblower In Space

Fictional Royal Navy officer Horatio Hornblower was created by author C. S. Forester.

Riker Picard Generations

Patrick Stewart's anecdote about his lunch with Roddenberry further illustrates that Roddenberry wanted another Kirk-like character for Captain of the Enterprise. In the original pitch for Star Trek, the captain (then named Robert April) is described as a "space-age Captain Horatio Hornblower" — the same literary character Roddenberry would later tell Stewart to base his Captain Picard character on. Read Stewart's quote from the Hollywood Reporter roundtable below:

I had lunch with him only once, just the two of us and I said, 'So Gene, to help me: Where did the idea for the character spring from? Can you give me any connections that I could use and build on for this?' And he said, 'Oh yeah I’ve got it here with me,' and he pulled out a beaten-up paperback copy of one of the Horatio Hornblower books, and said, 'It’s all there.' So the character, it turns out, was based on Horatio Hornblower.

Ironically, Stewart's Picard would go on to embody the spirit of Horatio Hornblower arguably more effectively than Shatner's Kirk did. Hornblower, the protagonist of C. S. Forester's book series, is known not just for his skill and daring (traits that Kirk had in spades), but also for his determination, classical knowledge, and dedication to duty. These are all attributes that would come to define Captain Picard. Given the evidence, it's likely that if Gene Roddenberry had lived to see Star Trek: The Next Generation become the pop culture phenomenon it is today, he might have acknowledged that he had been wrong about Patrick Stewart's take on Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Patrick Stewart Spoke More About Roddenberry In His Memoir

Making It So: A Memoir was released in October 2023.

With the return of Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard, Patrick Stewart embodied an older, more world-weary version of the former Enterprise-D captain. Admiral Picard had lost some of his faith in Starfleet and had to confront the demons of his past to regain his sense of optimism. In Patrick Stewart's 2023 memoir, Making It So, the actor opens up about playing Picard at different points in his life, and reflects on the pop culture icon that the Enterprise captain has become. Stewart also opens up about his complicated relationship with Gene Roddenberry, saying:

In a way, I felt sorry for Gene where I was concerned. Jean-Luc Picard was his creation, and he had been pressured to cast someone who didn't jibe with his vision of the character. I thank Robert Justman and Rick Berman every day for prevailing in that particular struggle, but I do wish that Gene had lived long enough to see how 'Star Trek' and Picard himself have continued to deepen and grow.

Star Trek: The Next Generation and the character of Jean-Luc Picard embody Roddenberry's optimistic Star Trek philosophy more than any other Trek show after TOS. Reflecting on Roddenberry's 1991 death, Stewart remarks that he was thankful for Roddenberry's advice, adding: "For all his wariness of me, he had created the magnificent 'Star Trek' universe of which I was now privileged to be a part." Roddenberry unfortunately never got to see the heights Star Trek: The Next Generation would reach or the massive influence the show would have, but his legacy lives on in the wondrous vision of the far future he created.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter on YouTube, Letters of Note, Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart

Star Trek the Next Generation Poster

Seasons
7
Franchise(s)
Star Trek
Showrunner
Rick Berman , Michael Piller , Jeri Taylor