People often deride this aspect of the character, but I always liked it. IMO, the strength of Picard is his wisdom and intellect, which to me makes him a good leader. Some may think it makes him preachy, but I believe it's just an offshoot of this facet of the character. My favourite is in his hearing in The Drumhead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh_t2fFF3B0 - this is an example lol..
Doing Shakespeare probably trains you up to do speechifying really well. Stewart always manages to sell even the weaker-written soliloquies.
I agree. I loved his interactions with Armus in Skin of Evil. Leadership styles are different but I would find his presence calming when things are going badly.
Well Picard was the diplomat, so he'd need to be good at the big speeches (plus Patrick Stewart has a great voice, I could listen to him all day long). Not everyone can manage to be so eloquent, you just have to listen to one of Archer's to see how badly speeches can be given.
I grew up on TOS in the 70s. It is still my favorite Trek series but TNG is close behind. As I have grown older I find that Kirk was a bit of jerk at times with his hard headed attitude. Now Picard could be tough but he also was a polished professional and that came across in his dealing with people.
They do? I've seen Picard derided for delegating command by the old fogies, but I'm not sure I ever heard Picard derided for his speeches...which actually are shorter, fewer, and far between compared to Kirk's speeches.
Picard delivered the best speeches out of all the Captains, at least so far. The British thing definitely gives him an edge in that area.
The one at the end of The Wounded was like a cool breeze blew in the room. I expected to see the steam from his breath by the end. I'd have to take issue with anybody who criticized that man's ability to give a speech
I still find it hard to believe that the producers actually debated whether to include this line or not:
Yeah, Picard was definitely the best captain in regards to speaking ability. He had a calming presence that just projects confidence. It really was a shame and silly that they started trying to turn the character into an action hero later on in TNG and especially the movies.
Hearings. One of the few places NuBSG exceeds TNG is the comparison of the hearing of Picard and the hearing of Adama. After a relatively short period of time, Adama said "enough of this" and started to leave the room. When the proscuter told him to stop, he had her thrown into the brig. It was never made clear over the next few years if Adama ever let her out.
With a voice like Stewart's, well, you have to write long speeches for him. I swear to God the way that man speaks is pure music.
having Picard act more like a tyrant would have improved TNG? No thanks. Adama could be a despot, and I didn't like the character all that much. Also, Satie outranked Picard, he couldn't have thrown her in the brig.
If Starfleet is similar to the US Navy (as I and others believe), Captain Picard actually could have placed Admiral Satie in confinement. Her being of superior rank wouldn't have stopped that all by itself. If her offense warrented the brig, then she would have been placed there. True, more likely her confinement would have been in her quarters with communications and computer access restricted. But if she refused to co-operate, then throwing Satie into the brig wouldn't have been out of the question. RHIP only goes so far.
on whose authority or what charge would be confining her on? The investigation she was conducting was authorized.
the fact that picard might have a speech is about the only thing that gets you through the bad episodes
Responding specifically to your ascertain that "Satie outranked Picard, he couldn't have thrown her in the brig," I reponded that the statement wasn't true. Satie's rank by itself would not pervent her incarseration.
Yeah, going crazy qualifies. Even the look on that other Admiral's face just said "You drug me out here for this crap?"
To be fair, every single person in the fleet who didn't have a major recurring role acted like a dangerous undeservedly stubborn and entitled lunatic all the time. If Starfleet personnel acted like that, Picard would have had to act like a despot to keep Earth from exploding.