Hey BBCAmerica, Picard is French!!!!

[Nerys Myk]

Its great that BBCA shows TNG. But they really need to watch the show. When they have "British Heroes Week" should a Frenchman be included? It would be like TBS having "American Heroes Week" and including Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves as part of the programming.

 

[od0_ital]

Yeah, it would be exactly like that, since Patrick Stewart is British and Kevin Costner is an American.

 

[Capt_Pickirk]

They are clearly talking about patrick stewart. There's a thread about how awesome he is. Although they spelt his name 'Robau'

 

[Christopher]

When they have "British Heroes Week" should a Frenchman be included?

By that logic, they shouldn't have included Superman II in their British Villains Week because General Zod was Kryptonian. They base it on the actors, not the characters.

 

[Red Ranger]

BBC America is being droll. Hey, it's a British channel!

 

[Nerys Myk]

When they have "British Heroes Week" should a Frenchman be included?

By that logic, they shouldn't have included Superman II in their British Villains Week because General Zod was Kryptonian. They base it on the actors, not the characters.

Then explain how Kevin Costner is British. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was part of the "British Heroes" line up.

At least they have King Arthur played by Brit Clive Owen. (Though hes shown to be a half-celtic Roman officer in that particular film)

 

[Christopher]

Then explain how Kevin Costner is British. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was part of the "British Heroes" line up.

Okay, that's a fair point. But the bottom line is, a network isn't going to schedule on the basis of strict accuracy or consistency; it's going to schedule on the basis of what will bring in ratings. Like so many other cable networks, BBC America is airing whatever popular productions it can even tenuously link to the network's identifying theme. They're not going to avoid showing something that brings them good ratings just because it doesn't fit some precise definition of their nominal theme.

 

[RAMA]

Stewart has been knighted by the Queen, nuff said.

I noticed that the BBC-A forums are really up in arms about STNG, but if that's so why does it rate so highly?

RAMA

 

[od0_ital]

^

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

 

[BillJ]

Its great that BBCA shows TNG. But they really need to watch the show. When they have "British Heroes Week" should a Frenchman be included? It would be like TBS having "American Heroes Week" and including Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves as part of the programming.

Do they even know that he plays a French character?

 

[RoJoHen]

Its great that BBCA shows TNG. But they really need to watch the show. When they have "British Heroes Week" should a Frenchman be included? It would be like TBS having "American Heroes Week" and including Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves as part of the programming.

Do they even know that he plays a French character?

I don't think they care. All they know is he occasionally quotes Shakespeare.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

British accent
Earl Grey tea
Shakespeare
Stiff upper lip

I think the only time he was French was that episode in the vineyard.

 

[sonak]

British accent
Earl Grey tea
Shakespeare
Stiff upper lip

I think the only time he was French was that episode in the vineyard.

Yeah, what was up with making the character French? Since Patrick Stewart is British, and for the various qualities like the ones mentioned above, wouldn't it have been easier to just make the character British? Other than a change in the character's name, what difference would it have made?

 

[Nerys Myk]

British accent
Earl Grey tea
Shakespeare
Stiff upper lip

I think the only time he was French was that episode in the vineyard.

Yeah, what was up with making the character French? Since Patrick Stewart is British, and for the various qualities like the ones mentioned above, wouldn't it have been easier to just make the character British? Other than a change in the character's name, what difference would it have made?

Or maybe they shouldn't have added those elements to the character. Remember the character came first, the casting of Stewart second.

 

[RoJoHen]

Meh, it's several hundred years from now. Maybe Britain and France were enemies (for some reason) in World War III, and Britain won. Or maybe France lowered property taxes and a bunch of British decided to move there.

 

[PianoWizzy]

Meh, it's several hundred years from now. Maybe Britain and France were enemies (for some reason) in World War III, and Britain won. Or maybe France lowered property taxes and a bunch of British decided to move there.

That sounds reasonable.

 

[Tom Riley]

I don't remember the episode, but if I recall correctly, a season one or two episode where Data mentions "an obscure language called French" and Picard being taken aback, saying, "The French language once represented an entire civilization" or something to that effect. Makes it sound like by then France had indeed been taken over by someone else at some point. I vote WW3.

 

[Capt_Pickirk]

Maybe in world war three france and britain decided to invade each other at the same time and as a result swapped countries?

 

[Christopher]

Who needs to postulate an invasion? I just assume that the European Alliance of the 24th century is like the present-day US: the various countries have simply become "states of the union" and there's more of a unified, pan-European cultural identity than a mosaic of nationalist identities. The difference between France and England in Picard's time may be no greater than the difference between New York and Pennsylvania today.

Remember, nationalism is not a universal norm. For most of human history, people didn't define themselves as members of unified nations, but simply as members of their own particular villages, cities, churches, language groups, etc. Upper-class types would tend to conquer or absorb a bunch of smaller communities and call them an empire or kingdom or league or whatever, but the allegiance of those who willingly followed them would be more to the rulers themselves than to some abstract notion of national identity -- which is why so many empires and kingdoms were ruled by people of varying different origins over time, like the Greek Ptolemys ruling Egypt. The concept of nations as distinct geographical and cultural entities that are the primary basis for personal identity is a fairly recent innovation, a product of the 19th and 20th centuries, when improved travel and communication let all these disparate little communities become more united. So there's no reason to assume the same kind of nationalism we have today would continue to exist 3 or 4 centuries in our future. Especially since ST has consistently depicted a politically and culturally unified Earth.

 

[Capt_Pickirk]

^ I was being silly