Summary
- Star Trek TNG allowed Patrick Stewart to showcase his Shakespearean roots, which helped shape Captain Picard's character.
- Lt. Commander Data explores humanity through Shakespeare with Captain Picard's guidance.
- TNG's "The Defector" beautifully intertwines Shakespeare's Henry V themes with Picard's character.
Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3 gave Patrick Stewart a chance to embrace his extensive history as a Shakespearean actor. Before taking on the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart had been a longstanding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and had starred in numerous Shakespearean productions. Patrick Stewart made Captain Picard one of the most beloved Star Trek characters of all time, and Stewart's own love of Shakespeare was incorporated into Picard as a character. Although Picard regularly quoted the Bard, one TNG episode gave Patrick Stewart the chance to deliver a true Shakespearean performance.
Throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, the android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) explored what it meant to be human as he sought his own form of humanity. Captain Picard turned to Shakespeare to help Data with this endeavor, telling him that "there is no better" way to learn about the human condition "than by embracing Shakespeare." Through fictional characters like those of Shakespeare's plays, and others like Sherlock Holmes, Data could act out scenes as a human and feign emotion even if he wasn't experiencing the real thing.
Patrick Stewart Appears As A Holodeck Shakespeare Character In Star Trek: TNG
Data performs Shakespeare with two Patrick Stewarts.
Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 10, "The Defector," opens with a scene on the holodeck in which Captain Picard coaches Data through a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V. In the scene (Act IV, Scene 1), Data portrays Henry V, who has dressed up like a common soldier to anonymously mingle with his soldiers in the field. Nearly unrecognizable in heavy prosthetic make-up and with a thick accent, Patrick Stewart portrays the character of Michael Williams, one of the king's soldiers. Aside from the obvious changes in appearance, Patrick Stewart feels like an entirely different person in this scene.
A film version of Henry V, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, had recently been released when "The Defector" was filmed, and Data cites Branagh as one of the actors whose performances he plans to study.
There is nothing of the confident and assured Captain Picard in the soldier Michael Williams. Of course, this is not at all surprising coming from Patrick Stewart, but it is fun to see such a different kind of performance from him in Star Trek. Although Data attempts to model his performance on that of famous actors' portrayals, Picard encourages him to "discover" his humanity through his own performance. Data's performance is interrupted when Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) contacts Captain Picard to tell him that an unidentified ship has been detected in the Neutral Zone.
Star Trek: TNG's "The Defector" Echoes Shakespeare's Henry V
There are themes from Henry V woven throughout the episode.
Not only does the opening scene in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Defector" serve as a nice shout-out to Patrick Stewart's Shakespearean career, but it also foreshadows several of the themes of the episode. At one point, Picard asks Data about the crew's spirit, considering the Federation could soon find itself in another war with the Romulans, remarking that he cannot "walk among his troops" in disguise like Henry V. When Data departs, Picard quotes Henry V directly, saying: "Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it."
Shakespeare's Henry V follows the titular king as he leads his army to defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War.
Captain Picard makes a rare admission that he feels the heavy responsibility of someone who must make decisions that could lead to war and death. Later, when two Romulan warbirds arrive to confront the Enterprise, the scene intentionally echoes Henry V. According to TNG executive producer Michael Piller (quoted in Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman): "There are suggestions of Henry V in Picard's stance, bravery and decisions, and what the argument is about." Patrick Stewart's clear familiarity with Shakespeare popped up several times throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it's never more obvious than in "The Defector."
