Hey BBCAmerica, Picard is French!!!!

[Satyrquaze]

Patrick Stewart is a National Treasure, thats all that needs be said.

 

[darkshadow0001]

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.

Haha, I saw that too I was like, Picard is French not British... although Patrick Stewart is British... hmm...

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Maybe Star Trek takes place in an alternate universe where Prime Minister Guy Mollet's proposal of 1956 was actually accepted.

 

[Cicero]

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.

The 18th Century innovation of nationalism had historical precedent. At the very least, nationalism was known to the Romans, who actively (and sometimes less actively) fostered it through a number of policies and infrastructure programs.

The Roman transportation system - the rival of which was not seen until the 19th Century (not coincidentally) - was a key requirement of the breadth of this nationalism. (A letter to a Roman legionary stationed in Britain illustrates the routine effectiveness of this system. It describes the contents of the latest package from home: “socks, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants.”)

The Romans also undertook political policies that favored the development of central identity: settlement policies that encouraged intermarriage between Roman and local populations, substitution of Roman government for local in routine affairs (which most empires avoided) and of Roman law for local law, a military organization that was indifferent to tribal affiliation, policies that enfranchised allied populations (to the extent that Romans themselves were), etc.

Unfortunately, the fall of Rome eliminated nearly all of these advances, and nationalism was slow to redevelop. There is some excellent research on this subject dating from the early 20th Century, but interest (in either comparison or contrast) seems to have died out during the Depression.

(Interestingly, the American revolutionaries whom the Encyclopedia Britannica credits with the development of nationalism were fascinated by Rome. George Washington, for instance, was known to regularly quote the play Cato, a highly popular work among educated 18th Century Americans that was steeped in Roman ideas of citizenship and responsibility. The Roman influences on the United States Constitution and on our military structure from 1792 forward are obvious.)

 

[Kelso]

Picard is as French as I am.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Personally, I view Picard as of being of French ancestry--his earliest ancestors were French--but his actual nationality being more European than anything else due to a lot of mingling going on in the Picard family over the past few centuries.

As far as BBC America, if it's got a British actor in a lead role, then it counts...

 

[Commodore_Rook]

Imagine if they made Patrick Stewart use a French Accent all thru the series. Would he have been as "commanding" with it? Or would he more come off as a Peter Sellers Inspector Clouseau bit?

 

[Red Ranger]

You know, it's really too bad they didn't fit the character to the actor, like Rodenberry did with James Doohan and Scotty. At that point, they simply wanted the chief engineer to have a foreign accent. They had Doohan do several accents (including French) and they asked him which type he preferred. He then said the engineer should be Scottish, as an homage to Scottish engineers (and his ancestry) and Scotty was born.

It's too bad Patrick Stewart wasn't given that chance. I wonder what his name would've been if he were English? John something-or-other? Maybe Drake, to honor Sir Francis Drake?

I do prefer thinking that Picard, while French and obviously proud of his heritage, is what would eventually arise as the European Union becomes, in the future, an actual cultural as well as political entity.

I would've liked seeing Picard quote Descartes and Camus from time to time, though -- hell, even have his favorite heroes be from Alexandre Dumas novels!

 

[Nerys Myk]

You know, it's really too bad they didn't fit the character to the actor, like Rodenberry did with James Doohan and Scotty. At that point, they simply wanted the chief engineer to have a foreign accent. They had Doohan do several accents (including French) and they asked him which type he preferred. He then said the engineer should be Scottish, as an homage to Scottish engineers (and his ancestry) and Scotty was born.

Doohan's Scottish accent is pretty bad. Perhaps even approaching the lows of Dick Van Dyke's Cockney one.

I think Doohan is an Irish name.

They probably put more thought into the leads than the supporting roles. So characters like Picard and Kirk are given more intial background work than one like Scotty. As has often been noted Kirk doesn't really become the Kirk we know (he's more like Pike as envisioned by GR) until the latter part of the first season of TOS, after Shatner and the writers begin to tailor him to fit Shatner. Similarly Picard became more like Stewart.