5 Times Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard Proved He Was Star Trek’s Greatest Captain

The late, great Patrick Stewart brought Captain Picard to life. The captain of the USS Enterprise-D on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was, on the page, a resolute and principled character, meant to resemble Horatio Hornblower, a note that show creator Gene Roddenberry gave to Stewart during the show’s development. Stewart, however — a classically trained actor – drew on several classical and personal sources to properly create Picard, including Hornblower, Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, and one Regimental Sergeant Major Alfred Stewart, Patrick’s stern and glowering father. 

The character emerged not just as stern and authoritative, but also possessed of deeply held values and very, very high standards. Picard feels like the college professor you hope to never disappoint. He’s not fatherly, but he can be kind. He knows how to make good decisions quickly, but is always careful to listen to input from his crew. He trusts the experts around him, and rarely suffers a crisis of confidence. He may be aloof, but that aids his command style; Picard attracts respect through his almost unshakable competence. If you are in any position of authority — from a government official to an assistant manager at a Sephora — you can look to Captain Picard for inspiration. 

All of the above qualities make Picard a great captain of a giant space-faring vehicle. There were, however, several times when the already stalwart captain went above and beyond and proved that his command skills were not merely excellent, but exemplary. Picard would go to bat for his crew, stand up for his principles, and even push himself beyond his comfort zone to ensure he was being the best commander he knew how to be. 

The five following examples prove that Picard is greatest captain in “Star Trek.” 

The episode “Disaster” is essentially the disaster movie “The Poseidon Adventure” in space. The USS Enterprise is hit by a quantum filament and rendered adrift. The crew becomes trapped in various areas of the ship, and communication is not operational. Without communication, each group of characters has to deal with a miniature crisis, e.g., a baby is being born in Ten Forward, and radioactive barrels are leaking in the cargo bay. 

When the disaster strikes, Captain Picard is in the middle of hosting a walking tour for three children, Jay (John Christian Graas), Marissa (Erika Flores), and Patterson (Max Supera), who won the tour as a prize in a recent science fair. Picard is very uncomfortable with children and has no idea how to be a warm and understanding tour guide. The disaster traps Picard and the three kids in a turbolift, and leaves the captain with a broken ankle. This appears to be one of Picard’s worst nightmares. 

What seems like a sitcom scenario, though, eventually proves itself to be an opportunity for him to continue plying his skills as a command officer. He begins to intuit that the children require a gentler approach than hardened Starfleet officers, and turns their survival into a mission they can all go on together. He assigns imaginary ranks to the kids, and manages to keep them all calm, even as they have to exit the turbolift and climb a shaft ladder to escape. He doesn’t become fatherly, but manages to parlay his captaining into that of an attentive elementary school teacher. And he does this while having to face his own discomfort with youngsters. It’s an inspiring piece of leadership.

“Q Who” was the first episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to feature the Borg, a species of soulless, tech-absorbing cyborgs who forcibly and unthinkingly add ship parts and people into their machine collective. The Enterprise encounters the Borg after the trickster god Q (John de Lancie) hurls it many, many lightyears in an instant. Q was inspired to bring the Enterprise to the Borg after Picard, in a perhaps-haughty fashion, declared that humans were quite capable of facing any threat the cosmos had to offer, and didn’t require any of Q’s magical help in their galactic trekking. Q wanted to show them a threat they couldn’t handle. 

The Borg proved to be a formidable threat. After one invader drone is killed by a phaser, another immediately appears, now immune. The Borg can adapt to any attack. They are also capable of self-repair, and possess weapons and technologies the Enterprise cannot repel. The Borg neatly slice a cylindrical piece out of the Enterprise’s saucer section. 

Picard tries to remain calm throughout this experience, but the Borg are very much unlike anything he has previously encountered. Eventually, Q reappears to Picard to point out that the Borg will pursue the Enterprise relentlessly, behaving like a machine and incapable of being negotiated with. Q asks once again if he truly needs help. Picard, previously so confident, admits that he is scared, and finally confesses that, yes, he needs Q’s help. Q smugly rescues the Enterprise, returning it to its previous location. It’s one of Q’s best moments in the franchise. 

Picard is a stalwart leader, but it takes true leadership skills to admit when one requires help. The ship was Picard’s first priority, and his pride took a back seat. In showing his fear, in this case, Picard became a better commander.

On “Star Trek,” the Prime Directive dictates that no Starfleet officer may interfere with the natural evolution of any world. The Directive was put into place to ensure that Starfleet never takes on a colonialist mindset, merrily enforcing their own values on another world. The Prime Directive also dictates that any society that hasn’t yet invented faster-than-light space travel should not be contacted under any circumstances. 

That second part was violated by accident in the episode “Who Watches the Watchers.” A low-tech agrarian species called the Mintakans, hovering in its own Bronze Age, was being studied by a hidden Federation lookout when an accident caused its camouflage to drop, revealing everything. A Mintakan named Liko (Ray Wise) is electrocuted by the uncovered outpost, and he is taken on board the Enterprise to be treated. Liko seems to remain conscious, and, in a haze, glimpses Picard giving orders. When Liko returns to his people, he declares that “The Picard” is a deity. A new religion threatens to begin. 

Of course, accidentally inspiring a religious movement is the worst kind of cultural contamination, and Picard is horrified to learn that a mere accident may unwittingly alter the evolution of the Mintakans. In order to prove that he is not a deity, Picard resolves to introduce himself to a panicked Liko, who is armed with a bow and arrow. Picard aims to prove his mortality to Liko, and if he needs to be shot with an arrow to prove that, so be it. Picard was willing to sacrifice his life in order to preserve the culture and ensure that a religion would not be founded. That is a deep devotion to Starfleet principles and an impressive adherence to cultural non-contamination. 

The episode “The Drumhead” contains what might be Captain Picard’s greatest speech, and /Film’s Nina Starner has written about how educational the episode is.

The plot of “The Drumhead” surrounds an explosion in the Enterprise’s dilithium chamber, and the ensuing investigation that follows. The explosion appears to be an act of sabotage, perhaps instigated by a visiting Klingon named J’Dan (Henry Woronicz), and may also be connected to a Starfleet medical technician Simon Tarses (Spencer Garrett). The matter is being investigated by a special prosecutor named Norah Satie (Jean Simmons), who is notorious for her hard-line tactics, and who is living up to the legacy of her legal expert father.

As the episode grinds on, Satie begins seeing enemies everywhere. It’s revealed that J’Dan was collaborating with the Romulans, and that Tarses once lied on his Starfleet Academy application about his species; he is secretly half-Romulan himself. Neither of these things, however, prove who caused the sabotage, and Satie begins probing deeper, questioning Tarses’ loyalty. She is very eager to rout out Starfleet’s enemies, and is able to find cracks in every argument. Picard tries to stop her investigation, but that only makes Picard her enemy as well. It’s not long before Picard is also on trial. 

Picard can only point out that Satie has gone mad with intolerance and quotes her father: “With the first link,” he says, “the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” The entire affair reminds Picard that humans are not as enlightened as they thought, and are still prone to prejudice and paranoia. It takes confidence, insight, and moral tenacity to reach that conclusion. There is still hard work to be done.

The episode “The Measure of a Man” is one of the five most essential episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” displaying the careful consideration of life, right, and humanity that the franchise has become known for. In the episode, the android Data (Brent Spiner) draws the attention of a cyberneticist named Maddox (Brian Brophy) who wishes to dismantle Data to better learn how he ticks. Data refuses, of course, which causes Maddox to declare Data to be the property of Starfleet, and not an autonomous being with a consciousness and free will of his own. 

Picard had worked directly with Data closely for about two years at that point, and had come to know Data as a person. A hearing is instigated to figure out if Data is actually conscious, and Picard takes on the role of his defender. Picard argues that Data is allowed to determine his own fate, while Maddox, via William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), argues that Data is little more than a glorified machine. In a conversation Picard has with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), she points out that there will always be people like Maddox, who long for a class of “disposable people” who can be forced to labor for free. The captain immediately recognizes that she’s talking about slavery. 

Picard realizes that the soul of Starfleet is at stake, and uses all of his mental acuity and emotional outrage to stand up for Data. A captain willing to go to bat for his crew is a great captain indeed, but Picard has to go so far as to argue for Data’s very humanity. He is very willing to defend people he cares for, and also what is right.