With the return of Jean-Luc Picard to the small screen, the Planet 8 crew decided it would be a good time to reminisce about the former starfleet legend and the great actor who plays him, Sir Patrick Stewart. We'll go over the casting process that brought Stewart to Star Trek, and our initial impressions of Captain Picard. And here's a hint - we weren't exactly in love with him at the start!
But with time, the good captain won us over. We'll offer up some of our favorite episodes and moments featuring the captain of the Enterprise-D. What made Picard so special as a character? What were the qualities of the Captain that we admired? And how did he differ from the only other starfleet captain we knew at the time, Captain Kirk?
We recorded this episode just before the Star Trek Picard show premiered, so we'll also share thoughts about what we hope to see from this new show too.
For the Sensor Sweep this time, Karen shares two excellent Star Trek books: The Fifty Year Mission: The First Twenty Five Years:The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized, Oral History of Star Trek, and its sequel, The Fifty Year Mission: The Next Twenty-Five Years, by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. You might be thinking, "More Star Trek books? I know everything about Star Trek!" But believe us, these books peel away so many layers to uncover hidden stories that will surprise even long-time fans. You can find them in major book stores or, of course, on Amazon. And Altman also hosts a terrific Star Trek podcast called Inglorious Treksperts -check it out.
Listeners, we also want to say a big "Thank you" to all of you who got out and nominated Planet 8 for Best Multimedia Site for the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards (https://rondoaward.com/). It is such an honor and a thrill to get on the Rondo ballot! We really appreciate you getting out there and pushing Planet 8. Now we want to ask if you will go one more step and vote for us on the actual ballot! The link above will take you to the Rondo ballot. It's been a blast putting the show together for you every other week, and we always enjoy your feedback. We hope we can continue to entertain you in the many years ahead!
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Thanks for Listening!
Great topic! Always love a good discussion of Capt. Picard.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to hear about your initial reactions to the character back when TNG first aired, i.e., that you were all cool and/or reserved about him and he had to grow on you. For my part, I can say that Picard was probably the only character in TNG that I liked immediately - he's what kept me interested in the show given that shaky first season.
Characters that only grew on me later were, for example, Riker, Troi and even Data - he seemed too much like an obvious Spock stand-in to me at first.
- Edo Bosnar
Greetings Edo! You know back when Next Gen came out we had just watched the film Star Trek IV The Voyage Home and all was well again with Captain Kirk and company, they were the crew I was familiar with and it took me a while to get used to a new crew aboard the Enterprise... and like you others grew on me after some watching. I often wonder how good or bad an animated version of the Next Gen would have been? I love the Filmation Star Trek animated series. I’ll end by saying I am very much enjoying the Star Trek Picard series thus far!
DeleteCool episode, though I expected it to be longer.
ReplyDeleteThat first season of Next Gen was hard to stay with. They threw so much at the wall to see what would "stick" was almost too overwhelming, but got interesting enough to give their second season a go. With my feelings about Picard, Karen had me at: "We Surrender!" When I heard this, I was like "WTH?!?" I knew they wanted to get past Cowboy Kirk style, but a Captain that surrenders as his his first choice??? Inconceivable! But as the writer's got in their groove with fleshing out Picard, his character grew on me.Data-Spock was annoying at first too, and Poor Glass Jaw Worf. He got his lumpy butt handed to him constantly.
Bob, Even though Picard never fought a Gorn on screen, in the Next Gen novel: Requiem, not only do you find out he helped out in the early diplomatic negotiations with The Gorn, but on their way back to the Gorn Home world, for closing negotiations, there is a time travel incident that puts them in the time of the Cestus 3 encounter. There is also a cool little bit where Riker is running holodeck simulations of Kirk's battle with the Gorn, in which he has lost every time either by the Gorn Captain, or being killed by his makeshift canon exploding. Fun Times!
All in all, I started looking forward to seeing Picard episodes more so than any other STTNG Character. I can barely wait to hear what You all think about the Picard series. I have only seen the first two episodes, but I'm really liking it.
Kevin
Hi Kev, you know we could have given each season an hour or more easily, getting into each charters arc and development... but we decided to focus and key and or favorite Picard bits in the series and movies. When we recorded we were in anticipation of the Picard series. At this point I’ve watched 4 episodes and love it! On a side note I give kudos to Will Wheaton and his taking over hosting the ready room. The discussions are lively and informative. I’ll have to check out that book. One of the things I am enjoying about the Picard series is that we get a little glimpses of his life on the stargazer, before his tenure on the enterprise and also what he did after he gave up the Enterprise.
ReplyDelete