Oh captain, my captain!
Jul. 27th, 2008 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakLufthansa is going on strike, starting tomorrow, so my flight to England this evening is rather fortunately timed. It's going to be first London, then Stratford, then London again in a mixture of work and pleasure. Stratford and the production of Hamlet being the leisure part, obviously. Looking forward to it also invoked a fit of nostalgia and Patrick Stewart fangirling, which I'm now going to subject you to.
Like many a non-English person, I first saw Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was obviously different from Kirk, which was a plus in my book. (I grew up with ST, but never was a Kirk fan, so was glad that the new captain was not a clone. As opposed to early Riker, who struck me that way.) I can still recall when this general approval became something definite, for both character and actor; the second season episode Sarek, which, old Trek girl that I was, I had been looking foward to because of Mark Lenard's return as Sarek, Spock's father. Mark Lenard was his dignified self and other than missing Amanda I enjoyed Sarek's return to the ST universe immensely; also, the metaphorical treatment of Alzheimer's was sensitively done. But to my surprise what really made the episode for me was that sequence where Picard, whom an illness-affected Sarek had mind-melded with in order to carry through the important negotiations he was on board for, was experiencing the raw force of Sarek's unsurpressed emotions plus his own. It was an intense scene and an amazing bit of acting on Patrick Stewart's part, and I sat there in front of my tv screen, riveted. One of the reasons why it was so effective was that Picard normally was such a controlled individual himself, but I think it would have worked even for first time viewers without background knowledge; it was that good a scene.
Afterwards, I was both a Stewart and a Picard fan. I liked the mannerisms ("tea, Earl Grey, hot"), I liked those occasions when we saw characters getting beneath Picard's skin (Q and Lwaxana Troi in different ways, and Vash), I liked when he kept his control. I liked the way his anger was there but reigned in and the way he used it in the "Data is a toaster" argument from Measure of a Man (which, btw, must have influenced Ron Moore long term, because the crucial argument here - if androids aren't treated as a sentient species and new life, then they are a slave race - was going to be ever so important for BSG), and the sense of curiosity and fascination with other cultures you got in episodes such as Darmok (if you've read a certain Heroes story of mine, yes, the way Picard works out a way to communicate did influence me), and the way Stewart could convey intelligence just by reaction shots and Picard listening. I liked that the show was fully aware that the good Captain did have it in him to be pompous, as dignified people often do, and pointed this out to him (Q's "Jean-Luc, Jean-Luc, sometimes I think the only reason why I come here is to listen to those wonderful speeches of yours" in True Q directly after a passionate Picard speech comes to mind); TNG often gets critisized for presenting its characters too perfect, without human flaws, but I never felt that was the case with Picard.
With tv being so very different today, it's hard to convey the full impact of the Best of Both Worlds two parter and the subsequent episode Family had on a first time viewer back then. In an age where, say, John Crichton in the four seasons of Farscape is subjected to a non-stop battery of mental, emotional and physical assaults, including one opportunity where he if not for a dea ex machina would have killed his beloved while under someone else's control, Picard being abducted by the Borg, transformed into Locutus, getting a lot of Star Fleet personnel killed and even after being liberated still feeling the effects probably doesn't seem to be a big deal. But if your basis of comparison is classic Trek where if our heroes were tortured, they manfully resisted, and no matter what trauma happened to them, they were okay at the start of the next episode, it is a big deal. Things like becoming Locutus just didn't happen to Kirk. And most crucially, episodes like Family where basically nothing happens except for the main character dealing with the aftermath of having been the instrument of destruction (and even the two subplots, one with Worf and his parents, and one with Wesley and his late father, are strictly character-focused, with no action scene in sight) had not existed. So seeing Picard visiting his family and finally losing control and crying in the French vineyards over what happened was unprecedented (and again fantastic, performance-wise; also, I'll always love RDM for that script which allows Picard to show a gentle, dead-pan humour when dealing with his nephew along side of exploring the Borg aftermath). It made Picard real to me in a way few tv characters before had been.
Once TNG was over, I came gradually to the point where I decided my favourite Star Trek show was in fact DS9, which is still the case. But if you ask me that age-old Trekker question about favourite captains? No question about it. Jean-Luc, I'm still yours. As for Patrick Stewart in regards to Picard, I'll never get tired of reading his awesome smackdown of a reporter who indulges in stupid clichés about sci fi fans:
Q: When you're onstage, aren't you worried about weird Trekkie fans in the audience?
A: Oh, come on, that's just a silly thing to say.
Q: But they are weird.
A: How many do you know personally? You couldn't be more wrong. Here's the thing: if you say the fans are weird, that means there is something essentially weird about the show, and there is nothing weird about it. I'm very passionate when people like you snigger.
Things like this, ladies and gentlemen, would be why I am a fan.
Like many a non-English person, I first saw Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was obviously different from Kirk, which was a plus in my book. (I grew up with ST, but never was a Kirk fan, so was glad that the new captain was not a clone. As opposed to early Riker, who struck me that way.) I can still recall when this general approval became something definite, for both character and actor; the second season episode Sarek, which, old Trek girl that I was, I had been looking foward to because of Mark Lenard's return as Sarek, Spock's father. Mark Lenard was his dignified self and other than missing Amanda I enjoyed Sarek's return to the ST universe immensely; also, the metaphorical treatment of Alzheimer's was sensitively done. But to my surprise what really made the episode for me was that sequence where Picard, whom an illness-affected Sarek had mind-melded with in order to carry through the important negotiations he was on board for, was experiencing the raw force of Sarek's unsurpressed emotions plus his own. It was an intense scene and an amazing bit of acting on Patrick Stewart's part, and I sat there in front of my tv screen, riveted. One of the reasons why it was so effective was that Picard normally was such a controlled individual himself, but I think it would have worked even for first time viewers without background knowledge; it was that good a scene.
Afterwards, I was both a Stewart and a Picard fan. I liked the mannerisms ("tea, Earl Grey, hot"), I liked those occasions when we saw characters getting beneath Picard's skin (Q and Lwaxana Troi in different ways, and Vash), I liked when he kept his control. I liked the way his anger was there but reigned in and the way he used it in the "Data is a toaster" argument from Measure of a Man (which, btw, must have influenced Ron Moore long term, because the crucial argument here - if androids aren't treated as a sentient species and new life, then they are a slave race - was going to be ever so important for BSG), and the sense of curiosity and fascination with other cultures you got in episodes such as Darmok (if you've read a certain Heroes story of mine, yes, the way Picard works out a way to communicate did influence me), and the way Stewart could convey intelligence just by reaction shots and Picard listening. I liked that the show was fully aware that the good Captain did have it in him to be pompous, as dignified people often do, and pointed this out to him (Q's "Jean-Luc, Jean-Luc, sometimes I think the only reason why I come here is to listen to those wonderful speeches of yours" in True Q directly after a passionate Picard speech comes to mind); TNG often gets critisized for presenting its characters too perfect, without human flaws, but I never felt that was the case with Picard.
With tv being so very different today, it's hard to convey the full impact of the Best of Both Worlds two parter and the subsequent episode Family had on a first time viewer back then. In an age where, say, John Crichton in the four seasons of Farscape is subjected to a non-stop battery of mental, emotional and physical assaults, including one opportunity where he if not for a dea ex machina would have killed his beloved while under someone else's control, Picard being abducted by the Borg, transformed into Locutus, getting a lot of Star Fleet personnel killed and even after being liberated still feeling the effects probably doesn't seem to be a big deal. But if your basis of comparison is classic Trek where if our heroes were tortured, they manfully resisted, and no matter what trauma happened to them, they were okay at the start of the next episode, it is a big deal. Things like becoming Locutus just didn't happen to Kirk. And most crucially, episodes like Family where basically nothing happens except for the main character dealing with the aftermath of having been the instrument of destruction (and even the two subplots, one with Worf and his parents, and one with Wesley and his late father, are strictly character-focused, with no action scene in sight) had not existed. So seeing Picard visiting his family and finally losing control and crying in the French vineyards over what happened was unprecedented (and again fantastic, performance-wise; also, I'll always love RDM for that script which allows Picard to show a gentle, dead-pan humour when dealing with his nephew along side of exploring the Borg aftermath). It made Picard real to me in a way few tv characters before had been.
Once TNG was over, I came gradually to the point where I decided my favourite Star Trek show was in fact DS9, which is still the case. But if you ask me that age-old Trekker question about favourite captains? No question about it. Jean-Luc, I'm still yours. As for Patrick Stewart in regards to Picard, I'll never get tired of reading his awesome smackdown of a reporter who indulges in stupid clichés about sci fi fans:
Q: When you're onstage, aren't you worried about weird Trekkie fans in the audience?
A: Oh, come on, that's just a silly thing to say.
Q: But they are weird.
A: How many do you know personally? You couldn't be more wrong. Here's the thing: if you say the fans are weird, that means there is something essentially weird about the show, and there is nothing weird about it. I'm very passionate when people like you snigger.
Things like this, ladies and gentlemen, would be why I am a fan.
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Date: 2008-07-27 01:01 pm (UTC)It was during that summer I went to a con in Phoenix where Patrick Stewart was a guest and he ended up talking about everything but TNG. Most of it was about Shakespeare and the audience was transfixed. Finally, he caught himself and told us, "Essays are due on Monday, single sided, typed or handwritten." None of us minded, and it was great to see a fannish audience understand when he said, "Star Trek is my job; this is my passion."
Funny, but he always seemed to bring the passion to TNG. If he didn't, we didn't notice. Have a wonderful time.
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Date: 2008-07-27 03:21 pm (UTC)Patrick Stewart: cons and other tv stuff like I, Claudius aside, I was lucky and saw him in The Masterbuilder, The Tempest and in Antony and Cleopatra. So very different roles, each of them, and he was superb every single time.
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Date: 2008-07-27 04:48 pm (UTC)As for the quote, I don't think I have been as awed by Patrick Stewart since I saw him in Jeffrey. Just incredible.
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Date: 2008-07-27 05:31 pm (UTC)I too love Picard, for all the reasons you mentioned, and I think it's erroneous to say that the characters on ST:TNG were ever presented as perfect. They all clearly had their flaws. There's a stronger case for the idea that the society they lived in was supposed to be perfect, but not the individual protagonists. And I don't even think the society was perfect--it was quasi-utopian, because the political system was fundamentally sound and the structure of the fictional universe favored happy endings, but we did see quite a few blind spots. (A truly perfect society would never even consider treating Data as a toaster, would it?) I can see how it would still be too saccharine for a lot of people, but that's not the same as being perfect.
As for "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family," they had a huge impact on me despite the fact that my TV expectations were formed by shows of the late 90s and early 00s. So I think they really do stand the test of time even beyond the novelty of the lack of a reset button.
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Date: 2008-07-28 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 11:21 pm (UTC)And that, ladies and gentlemen, is pure class.