Patrick Stewart, who died Wednesday at the age of 86, had dozens of credits to his name on screen and stage over a more than 60-year career, but for many people he will always be Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D.
Many Reddit threads and YouTube comments marking Stewart’s death are mourning Picard as much as the real man.
“RIP Captain,” one Reddit user posted. “You helped change my life for the better.”
“Picard was an incredibly well-written and well-acted character that Stewart made real,” replied another.
Though Picard had his moments in four movies and on the recent sequel show Star Trek: Picard, the very best moments of the character are all within the 176 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran from 1987 to 1994.
Here are five of Stewart’s best Picard performances to seek out. (Warning: Spoilers in the descriptions.)
‘Make now always the most precious time’
‘The Inner Light,’ Season 5, Episode 25
Often argued for as the best Star Trek episode of the almost 1,000 made so far, “The Inner Light” is a Stewart tour de force.
When an alien probe knocks the captain unconscious, he wakes up as a villager on a dying planet. In what passes for 25 minutes on the Enterprise, the childless Picard lives for four decades as a man named Kamin, aging before our eyes and raising two children to adulthood.
The entire episode is a masterpiece, but Stewart imbues simple moments of family with a ferocity and humanist integrity that has made many Trek fans weep.
“Seize the time, Meribor. Live now,” he tells his adult daughter as they contemplate the imminent end of their planet. “Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.”
‘There are four lights!’
‘Chain of Command,’ Part II, Season 6, Episode 11
Stewart prepared for this episode, where Picard is brutally tortured, by reviewing tapes provided by Amnesty International, a group Stewart supported and spoke for.
Much of the episode is him alone in a room with another esteemed British actor, the late David Warner. Their scenes crackle with intensity as Cardassian officer (read: space Nazi) Gul Madred attempts to brainwash the captain into thinking there are five lights shining in the room, when there are in fact only four.
The episode offers a brutal depiction of suffering that Stewart throws his full body into. It also contains maybe the biggest “Hell yeah!” moment in the series when Picard refuses to break, yelling, “There are four lights!”
But even better is Stewart’s haunted face in the final scene, when he admits the torture had worked, that he would have told his captor anything, and that “more than that, I believed that I could see five lights.”
Patrick Stewart, the British stage actor who famously played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, has died. The 86-year-old died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles after ‘a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia,’ according to a statement on his social media page.
‘Shaka, when the walls fell’
‘Darmok,’ Season 5, Episode 2
Picard is captured on a planet by an alien race that cannot communicate clearly with humans.
Over the course of the episode, Picard and his crew come to realize that the Children of Tama speak entirely in metaphor, using phrases like “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” to mean “co-operation” and “Shaka, when the walls fell” to mean “failure.”
Stewart shines twice: first, in a campfire scene, where he tells his alien counterpart the story of the Epic of Gilgamesh; second, when he saves the day by communicating with the Children of Tama’s ship, speaking an invented language in a way that is nevertheless commanding and affecting.
Stewart signs a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine banner in Las Vegas on Aug. 14, 2005. Stewart played Picard in that spinoff’s pilot. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
‘There is nothing left but dry bones … dead friends’
‘Sarek,’ Season 3, Episode 23
This episode features Mark Lenard as the Vulcan Sarek, the father of Mr. Spock from the original 1966 Star Trek series.
Sarek is dying of the sci-fi equivalent of Alzheimer’s disease and Picard joins minds with him so that the Vulcan can carry out one last mission. The mind-meld makes Sarek more stable, but floods Picard with a lifetime of repressed emotion.
In an almost four-minute scene, Stewart screams, rants, smiles, cries, fights, longs, regrets, embodies Sarek as portrayed by Lenard — and finally, crumples. It’s impossible to look away.
Stewart in 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection. (Paramount Pictures/Getty Images)
‘I would rather die as the man I was…’
‘Tapestry,’ Season 6, Episode 15
In Star Trek‘s take on It’s a Wonderful Life, a dead Picard is visited in the afterlife by recurring guest antagonist Q, who offers him the chance to do his life over.
Stewart gets to play Picard as his usual self, as a brash, young ensign, and as an uncertain, middle-management version of himself that happens in Q’s alternate reality.
Stewart caps it off by getting stabbed through the heart (as needs to happen in the “right” reality), looking at the blade and laughing. A scene that could have been hokey is not just believable, but exhilarating.
Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation are available to stream on Paramount+ in Canada.
