Why French?

[T'Girl]

Frakes is from Pennsylvania, did he "suck" playing an Alaskan?

In terms of the speaking accent? Yes.

 

[iguana_tonante]

And yet, I don't see endless threads about it. That's my point.

Actors play characters from different backgrounds all the time: sometimes well, sometimes bad, sometimes so-so. But I always see people obsessed with Picard's "Britishness". I guess that's because French people are different enough to be regarded as other, but familiar enough not to be really alien.

People are used to stereotypes, and get annoyed when their expectations are not met.

 

[TheMurph]

Picard was portrayed horribly as a Frenchman on the show. He didn't eat nearly enough cheese nor surrender enough to be a proper Frenchman...



---
Seriously, I didn't have a problem with his accent or mannerisms. I don't see why any nationality represented would have to speak or behave a certain way, especially in a show taking place centuries in the future.

 

[R. Star]

Picard was portrayed horribly as a Frenchman on the show. He didn't eat nearly enough cheese nor surrender enough to be a proper Frenchman...



---
Seriously, I didn't have a problem with his accent or mannerisms. I don't see why any nationality represented would have to speak or behave a certain way, especially in a show taking place centuries in the future.

He surrendered in the pilot. That forever cemented his French status.

 

[Push The Button]

Of course, the bottom line is that actors tend to influence how their characters are written, especially if they have skills that the producers want to showcase. Patrick Stewart was already an acclaimed 20-year veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company when he was cast as Picard...

...and therefore should have portrayed a "damned good Brit" as it was foreseeable that he would probably suck playing a Frenchman. (Maybe that's why Q referred to him as Mr. "Pickert" in "Tapestry" and not "Picard")

One of the best Q lines, ever.

 

[R. Star]

I always though it was John Luck Pick-erd. Not Pickert.

I remember a vid of de Lancie crashing a TNG convention yelling out that line. Was hilarious.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Patrick Stewart was already an acclaimed 20-year veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company when he was cast as Picard...

...and therefore should have portrayed a "damned good Brit" as it was foreseeable that he would probably suck playing a Frenchman.

I really don't see your point of Steward "sucking" playing a French. Frakes is from Pennsylvania, did he "suck" playing an Alaskan? Dorn grew up in California, did he "suck" playing a Klingon?

All I see is your insistence that Steward should have played Picard as you imagine all French people to be.

Stewart could have made a convincing Roman (or even Nazi) with his accent. French is too much.

 

[Tomalak]

I'll go with the theory that he was sent to prep and later a public (i.e. very expensive private) boarding school in the UK (some board kids as young as 5). If you spend that much time away from your parents, your accent will reflect that of the majority of the people around you (although to be fair, most second-generation immigrants speak the way the people around them speak, even if the native language of the immigrants is the same as that of their new country; I know a British couple who have retained their Yorkshire accents after 20 years in Sydney, but their teenage son speaks with a typical Aussie accent). It would also explain why Picard knows Shakespeare but not Voltaire and drinks tea rather than coffee, because if he was raised in the UK by British teachers and effective guardians, he might also pick up British cultural preferences and mannerisms.

Definitely a possibility. It's probably a family tradition, given that his father and brother both speak with the same RP accent. His mother never got the same treatment, marrying in from outside the family.

One thing that is a bit odd is his traditionalist father's dislike of Jean-Luc joining Starfleet, given that he comes from a family of Mars colonisers. Unless Maurice saw them as the black sheep of the Picard clan. Young Jean-Luc was drawn to them, much to Maurice's disgust. I'm thinking of the Martian Picards as the cool uncle and cousins he would only have seen a handful of times as a child, but who left a big impression on him.

Has anyone written a book about Picard's childhood?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Stewart could have made a convincing Roman (or even Nazi) with his accent. French is too much.

Of course, this makes absolutely no sense. The only reason Ancient Romans have some kind of Received Pronunciation on film is because of some weird Hollywood convention (taken from stage theater, I guess).

Ancient Romans wouldn't even sport a typical Italian accent, since Classical Latin pronunciation was pretty different from current Italian. So, if anything, Stewart's British accent would have made him an even worse Roman than a French.

 

[scotpens]

^^ And furthermore, during Roman times, there was no such thing as an "English" accent because the language we call English didn't exist yet!

The natives of Britain might have spoken Latin with a Celtic or Brythonic accent, though.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Those filthy barbarians. Stealing Roman jobs from Roman citizens.

 

[marksound]

Non-French people don't do the accent believably, and the only native French-speaking captain we've had walked out before the pilot was completed.

Ok, she was French-Canadian, but still.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Stewart could have made a convincing Roman (or even Nazi) with his accent. French is too much.

Of course, this makes absolutely no sense. The only reason Ancient Romans have some kind of Received Pronunciation on film is because of some weird Hollywood convention (taken from stage theater, I guess).

Ancient Romans wouldn't even sport a typical Italian accent, since Classical Latin pronunciation was pretty different from current Italian. So, if anything, Stewart's British accent would have made him an even worse Roman than a French.

One wonders why RP just isn't the sign of better acting, representing any accent.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Of course. But the attitude you mocked quite annoys me, so I guess I focused on that.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Of course. But the attitude you mocked quite annoys me, so I guess I focused on that.

Sorry, I changed my response. God save the princeps!

 

[Tomalak]

Stewart should have done the whole series in that Brummie accent he uses for Michael Williams in 'The Defector'.

 

[Christopher]

Stewart could have made a convincing Roman (or even Nazi) with his accent. French is too much.

Of course, this makes absolutely no sense. The only reason Ancient Romans have some kind of Received Pronunciation on film is because of some weird Hollywood convention (taken from stage theater, I guess).

I thought it was a joking reference to Stewart having played Sejanus in I, Claudius. I don't recall him having played a Nazi, though, so I wasn't sure.

 

[Nerys Myk]

^^ And furthermore, during Roman times, there was no such thing as an "English" accent because the language we call English didn't exist yet!

The natives of Britain might have spoken Latin with a Celtic or Brythonic accent, though.

And the "English" would be freezing their butts off in Scandinavia and Northern Germany.

 

[T'Girl]

I don't recall him having played a Nazi, though, so I wasn't sure.

There was the "Nazi" restaurant maitre'dhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitre_d' in the Steve Martin movie LA Story.

 

[Squiggy]

Those filthy barbarians. Stealing Roman jobs from Roman citizens.

What's your solution? Build a wall?!