News "Patrick Stewart - Jean Luc Picard, Captain of the Enterprise"

[Qonundrum]

Didn't know he had contributed to the scripts since the beginning. Makes a certain sort of sense, he really craft Picard. Despite not wanting to.

https://web.archive.org/web/2013092....uk/cult/st/interviews/stewart/printpage.html

Excerpts of some interest:

Nobody believed that the series would ever become the success that it did. In fact one of the reasons that I signed on was that I was assured that the six year contract that I was signing was meaningless, that this series would do one, perhaps two years at the most because nobody expected it to be successful.

Also the fact that I was encouraged and I was also interested in contributing to the scripts as much as possible, engaged me much more than I’d expected. But I was seven thousand miles away from home and I was often lonely and missed friends and family and aspects of my work too. I do remember once coming home quite late at night from the studio, driving along Beverly Boulevard and having to pull over because my eyes were so filled with tears because a piece of Elgar was playing on the radio.

We were well into our second season before all of us got that look in our eyes that maybe the predictions had been wrong and that it wasn’t going to end after two years or three.Even then we used to think only about maybe four years or five. The fact that it was to go on for seven – if I had known that I would never have been part of it in the first place.

No, no. NO. And looking back now it still frightens me a little bit to think that so much of my life was totally devoted to Star Trek and almost nothing else.

Creating a believable world on the ship was very important, and technically they got better and better and better at showing the ship too.

The first movie that we did, Generations when Marina Sertis crashed it, do you remember that, and she never got to drive ever ever again. It’s the last time we ever gave her the key to the Enterprise. When the Enterprise nose dived into a planet, it was absolutely spectacular.

To me they’re sets you see, and they’re insubstantial. So insubstantial that Jonathan Frakes once went right through the wall of the bridge. He was just being particularly physical and lively and the whole side of the bridge set crashed over and Jonathan with it.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Sir Patrick was always a big contributor, so big that he would call Rick Berman a zillion times about what he felt Jean-Luc would do here and there. It makes sense from his perspective tho - he's an actor who immerses himself in all of his characters. It's how he works. He likes to get into a character's head, and with Jean-Luc it got to a point where he no longer knew where he himself began and Jean-Luc ended. He didn't even really have to get into character by the 7th season because he and Jean-Luc had become so close.

And it's still there. When you talk to him you can't help but sense Jean-Luc's aura around him. It's right there. (He himself said in an interview a few days ago that "Picard never left me", so yeah, he knows it as well. It's a VERY unique actor/character relationship.)

 

[Noname Given]

Didn't know he had contributed to the scripts since the beginning. Makes a certain sort of sense, he really craft Picard. Despite not wanting to.

https://web.archive.org/web/2013092....uk/cult/st/interviews/stewart/printpage.html

Excerpts of some interest:

Creating a believable world on the ship was very important, and technically they got better and better and better at showing the ship too.

The first movie that we did, Generations when Marina Sertis crashed it, do you remember that, and she never got to drive ever ever again. It’s the last time we ever gave her the key to the Enterprise. When the Enterprise nose dived into a planet, it was absolutely spectacular.

To me they’re sets you see, and they’re insubstantial. So insubstantial that Jonathan Frakes once went right through the wall of the bridge. He was just being particularly physical and lively and the whole side of the bridge set crashed over and Jonathan with it.

^^^
This last one must have been prior to ST:Nem where Deanna took the helm and hit the 1701-E Head-On with the Romulan Scimitar...

 

[JesterFace]

^^^
This last one must have been prior to ST:Nem where Deanna took the helm and hit the 1701-E Head-On with the Romulan Scimitar...

Didn't he talk about their first movie, that's when Deanna crashes the D.

 

[Noname Given]

Didn't he talk about their first movie, that's when Deanna crashes the D.

Well he did say in that quote: "...and she never got to drive ever ever again. It’s the last time we ever gave her the key to the Enterprise. " <-- So again, must be prior to ST:Nem (or Mr. Stewart forgot. )

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Still tho, the second time the whole "Troi takes the helm and the ship takes 'a little bit of damage'" thing happens (Nemesis) it's on Jean-Luc's explicit text message orders. If anyone is to blame, it's him. Not Troi.

 

[Qonundrum]

If it helps, I too forgot who was in the Enterprise at the time. All 1000 of them, after a certain point:

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Because that ramming scene and the f/x were simply first rate and the music is the icing on the cake. (And Picard seems more like Picard than Jean-Luc McLean, too.) I wish the script was better, but that crash was good. (laws of physics aside but during that moment, I did not care and as a first, the ramming really did look cool. Almost looks like physical models for the exteriors, the interior explosion was CGI but the color grading helps pull it off and requiring a double-take.)

 

[Qonundrum]

Sir Patrick was always a big contributor, so big that he would call Rick Berman a zillion times about what he felt Jean-Luc would do here and there. It makes sense from his perspective tho - he's an actor who immerses himself in all of his characters. It's how he works. He likes to get into a character's head, and with Jean-Luc it got to a point where he no longer knew where he himself began and Jean-Luc ended. He didn't even really have to get into character by the 7th season because he and Jean-Luc had become so close.

And it's still there. When you talk to him you can't help but sense Jean-Luc's aura around him. It's right there. (He himself said in an interview a few days ago that "Picard never left me", so yeah, he knows it as well. It's a VERY unique actor/character relationship.)

Any actor that takes the time to know the character - that's generally a good sign. After rewatching that ramming clip I'm tempted to rewatch the whole thing as Stewart had a hand in its development and Picard's speech to Shinzon feels like classic Picard.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Any actor that takes the time to know the character - that's generally a good sign. After rewatching that ramming clip I'm tempted to rewatch the whole thing as Stewart had a hand in its development and Picard's speech to Shinzon feels like classic Picard.

Nemesis has a few good moments here and there, yes. They just get swallowed up by all the plot holes AND there aren't enough of them. But they're there, and I for one prefer to imagine that Sir Patrick helped to make sure they were done right.

 

[valkyrie013]

well, I'm 120% glad that he took the part.. an that the suits had him in a 6 year contract..
Having someone with is Gravitas espacially as captain.. is what made the show, and dare say, helped launch what star trek is today.. if Tng failed.. we'd probably have another movie or 2.. and.. thats it..
So, to me, The reason Star Trek is here, now is because of Patrick Stewart!

 

[SoM]

^^^
This last one must have been prior to ST:Nem where Deanna took the helm and hit the 1701-E Head-On with the Romulan Scimitar...

The clue wasn't when he said "This morning I was at a meeting discussing the script for the next Star Trek movie, Star Trek 10, and because we have a new writer, a non Star Trek writer this time, John Logan, a wonderful writer"?

 

[STR]

If it helps, I too forgot who was in the Enterprise at the time. All 1000 of them, after a certain point:

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Because that ramming scene and the f/x were simply first rate and the music is the icing on the cake. (And Picard seems more like Picard than Jean-Luc McLean, too.) I wish the script was better, but that crash was good. (laws of physics aside but during that moment, I did not care and as a first, the ramming really did look cool. Almost looks like physical models for the exteriors, the interior explosion was CGI but the color grading helps pull it off and requiring a double-take.)

It was a physical model. It was 18 feet long and weighted 500lbs. They covered it in foil to simulate the hull being pulled back after the impact.

They used a duplicate mold in ENG: Regeneration as a background prop.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sovereign_class_model?file=Enterprise-E_saucer_section,_regeneration.jpg

 

[Lance]

I recall this interview withSir Patrick, with the BBC website. It was circa 2000 or so. The original version actually featured both text transcript and video versions, but sadly I suspect the video version is lost to history.