In Star Trek TNG, Captain Picard has a French name and yet he speaks with an English accent. Why can’t his character actually be French if he’s supposed to be from France?
Oh, c’mon - it’s a “universal society!!” And, Sean Connery played King Arthur - surely it’s not less plausible, a French starship captain speaking with a British accent, than a British king speaking with a Scottish brogue??
He speaks English with an English accent and French with a French one.
Faster than light travel, mind reading, aliens speaking English = plausible.
French guy speaking with a English accent = WTF?
I recall Patrick Stewart being asked this very question on a talk show once, many years ago. He replied that Picard is French, and speaks impeccable English. Works for me.
He had a British tutor teach him English.
If his British accent bothers you, why don’t all the aliens’ American accents annoy you? A Klingon with an accent from a planet several light years distant seems a bit less plausible than a Frenchman speaking in an accent of a country only thirty miles off its coast.
This is simply my own rationalization of this…
As far as Picard speaking with a British accent - I pretty much second what’s already been said. British tutor. Global society.
As far as the American accents - I think the production can claim simplicity’s sake on that one. I believe the ‘reality’ of the Trek universe is that the aliens are all speaking their native tongue and what we hear is the translation courtesy of the UT.
I don’t think Jean-Luc had a tutor in his home, because his brother Robert speaks English with a French accent. I think Jean-Luc went to some prestigious school in England, maybe a Junior Starfleet program of some sort.
According to past SDMB threads about this, the ‘real-life’ answer is that they decided the Patrick Stewart’s French accent was bad or distracting or some such. The character is definitely French; the script says so and he visits his family’s home in France at least once.
Wow, really? I heard that they wrote the part to be a Frenchman, but they really liked Stewart, and simply didn’t want to rewrite the character. I hadn’t heard that he ever actually attempted to play it with a French accent.
I’d have to search around here to find the thread. Actually, since I know it won’t crash in 45 minutes, that might not be so tough.
That is what happened.
They intended the character to be French all along but one of the producers, I can’t remember which, saw a Stewart stage performance and fell in love with him and gave him the role despite the obvious British accent which, as far as I know, they never tried to mask.
Y’know what would’ve been great? If he played it with an Inspector Clouseau accent: “I will be in my ready rheeum.”
Here’s one post to that effect, there may be others.
Aesiron’s explanation also makes sense. I can tell you it would’ve happened that way if I was an ST producer, too.
That would’ve been spectacular. “Wat are yeu deuing here, Kyuu? I em trying to inspect ze poole!”
I stand by my theory that Picard has been speaking French all along, and we only hear it as English due to the Universal Translator (which he reprogrammed to give him a British accent).
That doesn’t work because there were times in the show where he would utter a French phrase that was not translated for us. Merde, for example.
A Wizard did it.
The UT programming does not accept four letter words. Haven’t you noticed? Do you really think all those Klingons aren’t actually cursing their mouths off?
[obligatory nitpick]Scotland is part of Britain.