Obviously the idea in TNG was for Jean-Luc Picard to be French – but once they’d cast Patrick Stewart, and noticed that he delivered his lines exactly like an Englishman who quotes Shakespeare and dresses up like Robin Hood and sings a merry little Gilbert-and-Sullivan tune when he isn’t requesting yet another hot cup of Earl Grey tea, why the heck didn’t they just change the character into, say, “Derek Bradbourne,” or whatever?
(Yes, I know: we can all make the cute quips about how France got annexed by the UK in the 22nd century and We Do Not Discuss It With Outsiders, and so on. But I’m genuinely curious: after hiring someone who simply wouldn’t stop talking like a London stage actor, did it occur to anyone to just rename the guy?)
Roddenberry intended to base the character on Jacques Cousteau, since he was supposed to be more of an explorer than a military man. Apparently, they couldn’t find anyone suitable to play the part, and Bob Justman happened to catch Stewart in a play one evening in Los Angeles. He was invited to audition, and the rest, as they say, is history. Gene went along only reluctantly at first, as he still had his heart set on a “hairy Frenchman” rather than a bald Englishman, but I guess Patrick grew on him.
I always loved it whenever Picard spoke French, but I was baffled as to how he picked up the lyrics to Heart of Oak. At the Academy, he says… :rolleyes:
There’s no reason to rename him. I’m sure at some point a Frenchman moved to England and a few generations later, perhaps even the very next generation, you had someone named Picard who was culturally English.
I always figured it was another way of showing how far Earth had advanced from tribalism and into a single cohesive society – you could have a British person named Jean-Luc Picard, and no one would bat an eye.
Ah, but he was born and raised in the family vineyard in France. I don’t know if they ever specifically identified the locale, but it was pretty clear that’s where it was.
According to the entry on the episode (“Family”) in Memory Alpha, it’s La Barre, France. He indicates that he hadn’t been back home in nearly 20 years, but the episode makes it clear that it’s where he grew up.
Amusingly, the actors who played his brother (Jeremy Kemp) and sister-in-law (Samantha Eggar) in the episode were also both British.
On a tangent, in the Maigret TV series, why were a bunch of Scotland Yarders, under the leadership of the stunningly British Michael Gambon, the main constabulary unit of Paris?
Actually, Picard always spoke French, but the universal translator just converted it to English. Why’d it give him a British accent? Because it’s a naughty little program, that’s why.
Yeah, that’s my theory too. The Universal Translator is why every single species on the Enterprise - Human, Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, Frenchman - speaks perfect English.
And he tried again in Voyager, casting Genevieve Bujold as the captain. Unfortunately, petite, fey and understated just doesn’t cut it in the center seat.
