Patrick Stewart, who died on Wednesday, defined Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. When he first stepped onto the bridge in 1987, the Berlin Wall still stood. The Soviet Union would not fall until the show's fourth season.
Picard’s generation anticipated both events, portraying a post-Cold War world just as the Cold War ended. It became the quintessential show for an age of American hegemony. For those unfamiliar, Star Trek follows Starfleet, the military arm and diplomatic corps for the United Federation of Planets.
In the Original Series, the Federation mirrored the powerful but harried Cold War United States. Picard’s Federation became the sole dominant power, with former enemies like the Klingons joining as allies. The Enterprise spent more time rescuing people from environmental catastrophes or shuttling ambassadors than battling aliens.
Picard used the ship's armaments to distribute vaccines. In its best moments, The Next Generation was a meditation on the just use of power. Picard was the voice of 1990s liberalism, known for eloquent defenses of universal rights and tactical prowess.
The decision to cast Stewart, a preeminent Shakespearean actor, was inspired. Though burdened with heavy-handed dialogue, he delivered lines with aplomb and gravitas, such as in The Measure of a Man, where he defended Lieutenant Commander Data's right to refuse dissection. The turning point came when Picard realized he was preventing an entire class of people with no more rights than a toaster. "A single Data," Picard says, "is a curiosity, a wonder even.
But thousands of Datas, isn't that becoming a race?".
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing