Did Patrick Stewart contribute this as part of his character development, a producer, an insightful writer, or just someone anonymous who we’ll never know?
And how about the little “engage gesture”??
It seems that Gene Roddenberry (the creator, head writer, producer,) wrote it into the script for the TNG pilot, and that he may have been familiar with the phrase from his Air Force service. It’s apparently a time-honored naval expression.
I have never been in the service and I didn’t know that. That is somehow disappointing to me–I thought it was unique to Picard. If Gene Rodenberry came up with that from the Air Force, I wonder why he didn’t have Kirk saying it on TOS.
It apparently shows up in fictional naval accounts in Kipling and Melville.
I spent 11 years in the Navy and never heard this expression. Then again, I was never on a ship, nor did I spend any time around the big honchos. I was mostly a peon. No one in the trenches ever said it. 
In my time in the Navy (on a submarine), all orders for things like course/speed changes were given clearly – “Helm, right 15 degrees rudder, steady on two-seven-zero”; “Helm, all-ahead flank”; etc. The OOD (Officer of the Deck) gave the vast majority of course changes; the Captain only took the Conn (having the Conn means you’re the one giving orders to the Helm) during battle stations and similar, which for us only included drills.
Meanwhile, back in Engineering, the Engine Order Telegraph would indicate to the Throttleman the OOD’s desired speed. The Throttleman would call out the order to the EOOW, who responded “Make it happen.”
This was in 1986.
Trenches…in the Navy?
You mean like…the Marianas Trench?
“Make it so” video.
StG
I loved the rigorous CoC sometimes followed on TNG. A hostile alien appears on the bridge.
Picard: Mr Riker…
Riker: Mr Worf…
Worf: Mr Underling, shoot him.
It was a small bridge, or there woulda been more layers. I think Underling was a CPO.
It appears several times in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Ruddigore, as part of spoken dialogue. The show has little to do with the navy, and the character who is a sailor doesn’t have any of those lines, but I think Gilbert was a navy man at one point.
The “engage” gesture was most likely Stewart - it also appears in his stage work and his other films when he’s in kingly or commanding roles.
I also like that the “commanding jacket tug” that they all did upon standing was apparently in response to the tunics everlastingly riding up - they didn’t make them of stretch material, and when they were washed, they tightened and shrunk up, so that they didn’t QUITE fit properly, and were always riding up when they sat. So now whenever I see that I think about a bad costume maker being memorialized in every single episode.
On set, that was referred to as “The Picard Maneuver.” 
Infinitely superior to the original Spandex jumpsuits they had. Not only were they extremely uncomfortable to wear, they also absorbed BO like an insatiable sponge.
Since the woolen uniforms were dry-cleaned, I don’t think shrinkage was an issue; more likely the intrinsic design of the garments themselves. The velour used in the first two years of ***TOS ***was another story, however… 
Thank you for that. 
I still despise the third season ones. They look like the kind of material that would dry your hands out all the time. Plus they make people look puffy.
I think I remember it from Hornblower and the Aubrey/Maturin books, too.