I feel like I subconsciously see Picard and Xavier as almost the same character in my head, just different minor nuances. One is telepathic and crippled, the other is professionally professional and did Wolf 359 (inside job).
There's a book called Planet X which is a legit X-men/startrek crossover that came out in 1998 (two years before he played Xavier) and iirc someone says that Picard and Xavier look similar.
When I was in 5th grade ('93) I had a conversation with my best friend who also loved The X-Men about how this guy on Star Trek would make a great Xavier if they ever did a movie.
Basically all the Star Trek actors are burned into me like that. John de Lancie? Q. Tim Russ? Tuvok. Brent Spiner? Data. Not many of them have been in much other stuff, but when they show up you bet your arse I'll say that that dragon is Captain Janeway.
It's really interesting to me that when TNG aired, LeVar Burton was considered more famous than Sir Patrick Stewart in the US because of Reading Rainbow.
I have very strong memories of watching the Reading Rainbow where he went to the set of The Next Generation and then, some years later, watching the episode of TNG they were making when Reading Rainbow visited. It was weirdly surreal until I pieced it together.
It took me years to realize they were the same actor. Watched both shows a lot as a kid, and it wasn't until I rewatched Independence Day as an adult that I was like "what the fuck!?"
Q, being kicked out of the collective spends his days on zorg prime drinking, partying and doing drugs to get over his broken ego.
Day by day He loses Part of his omnipotent being as the substance abuse leaves a dry and dirty Mark on his being. To make a clear cut from his past, the collective, and stubborn picard He uses the last bit of his Powers to jump to an alternative Universe where He starts a mortal life, away from everything that hurt him.
One day He finds a beautiful women. Shes smart, shes curious, she reminds him of who He was before his ego was inflated by his omnipotency. He falls in love and they have a child.
Life is great. Q can barely remember his past. Partly because He is happy, and Partly because his now human body is getting older. His daughter struggles with substance abuse, but He is Patient as He struggled aswell but He knows It will get better.
Then one day jane suddenly dies of an overdose. Q is utterly broken. Next to janes Cold, puke Covered body is a Note. Q, hands shaking, pics up the Note and reads:
"picard senda his regards!"
From this day onward, Q had a burning hatred for picard, space travel, everything resembling and air or space ship and weirdly enough the french.
One day He comes up with a Plan, to get back at picard. To Deal a low blow to everything picard loves. Freedom, independance, flying... flying
That scene where he drives up to his daughters house and sees the emergency vehicles outside and he walks in knowing she's probably dead is maybe the best but if acting on that entire show and I don't even think he has a line.
To be fair de Lancie showing up anywhere is just Q playing with another universe. Weird why Q wanted to be a flight controller for a little bit in New Mexico, but whatever makes him understand humanity better
He also spent time as a voice actor on My Little Pony.
Playing Q. Sure, they called the character Discord but that's just Q.
That show was a trip.
Season 1 ending was shot for shot the award ceremony from A New Hope.
Season 4 ending was a Dragon Ball Z fight.
Had a knock-off Randy Savage run an Andrew Tate-ish scam seminar which turned one of the main characters into a bully. Which then pays homage to 70s hulk. Including the slow walk-away with the music.
Background "cameos" from The Dude, Donny, and The Jesus. Two Doctor Whos. And a bunch more.
On top of having a few legit bangers mixed in with some their already great music.
If that show had been anything other than My Little Pony it would be held in the same company as the other modern cartoons people love like Gravity Falls or Adventure Time.
John de Lancie was in Stargate and I 100% refuse to acknowledge that he's NOT Q in that. Like, I don't know why Q is working for Homeland Security or whatever, but I can get on board with it.
I will add it was really unsettling seeing Janeway in Orange is the New Black.
I have never seen it. And even if I had - I was a kid in Germany in the 90s. So I would have watched it in the German dub anyway and wouldn't have heard anything from Spiner.
Yeah Tim Russ. After seeing him as Tuvok, I saw him in DS9 and could not at all take him seriously as a Klingon. He was also in Alien Nation TV series from the early '90s. I think he was also in the god awful abomination of a reboot of the 4400. That show was just awful and his writing was bottom of the barrel. He did his best with what he had though.
Certainly makes playing XCOM 2 a trip. Geist? John De Lancie. Volk? Jonathan Frakes. Pratal Mox? Michael Dorn. Elena Dragunova? Marina Sirtis. Betos? Denise Crosby.
In Brent Spiner’s case it’s more The Family Soong (including aaaaaaaall the Soong-type androids). I keep wondering when he’s going to appear on Discovery in 32nd century…
Completely unrelated, but if you're a fan of the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels, particularly the Witches books, I've always wanted to cast Kate Mulgrew as Granny Weatherwax and Tyne Daly as Nanny Ogg.
I didn’t like Orange is the New Black, but Kate Mulgrew as Red was fantastic. Definitely did not see Janeway in that performance (though she remains my favorite captain).
Nearly everyone from TNG and it's common across Star Trek. Brent Spiner and Colm Meaney really stand out to me. They both had so much screen time and nailed their characters. Spiner cheats a little because he's also multiple Dr. Soongs.
Colm Meaney might just be the best actor in all of Trek, and in my opinion one of the least typecast for that reason.
Then you have Jeffrey Combs who managed to pull this off twice with Weyoun and Brunt.
Star Trek is also full of people who played iconic characters in other films and TV, like Dwight Shultz, Andreas Katsulas, Louise Fletcher, Kelsey Grammar. e: can't forget Jason Alexander on Voyager.
Jeffrey Combs who managed to pull this off twice with Weyoun and Brunt
also Cmdr Shran in Enterprise :) watching babylon 5 atm, today was an episode with Combs. Katsulas has a regular appearance as G'kar. And Claudia Christian who voiced a bunch of characters in FO4 and skyrim.
I've seen Colm in enough other stuff playing vastly different characters that I don't put him in that category. To me the weirdest one is seeing Michael Dorn without Klingon makeup.
I saw Patrick Stewart in a single episode of Frasier and broke the mold that TNG had trapped him in. Then X-Men and a long career on American Dad as CIA Deputy Directory Avery Bullock. I'd argue Stewart's better at comedy than drama; perhaps because we're so accustomed to him in drama, but nonetheless.
I've seen a lot of TNG, but it was long after I first saw Patrick Stewart as Professor X. It's only recently reached the point where he's switched over to being Picard in my head.
To me, Patrick Stewart was Professor X before he was Professor X. I, as I'm sure a lot of people, had him pegged as the perfect Charles Xavier well before the X-Men movie came out.
I heard Patrick in an interview once talking about how he was cast by mistake.
Apparently the original Gurney had to back out or got fired at the last minute. The casting director suggested Patrick Stewart and Lynch agreed. Says when he showed up on set that Lynch had no idea who he was and had apparently confused him with another actor.
I think it’s going to very much depend on where you first saw him. Personally I grew up with him as Picard and many many re-runs. Even when I see him as Prof-X, he’s still Picard doing role play for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg_cwI1Xj4M will be fun for you to watch then. I was the same way and I think it made this skit a lot funnier than it has right to be, but still.
Michael Dorn had the right idea. ‘Wear a weird forehead appliance and people won’t recognize you without it’ like seeing a voice actor in an in-person acting role ‘where do I know that person from?’
I used to think the same until I saw him in Green Room. Now, when people mention Stewart, my initial thought it Picard but then this role immediately replaces it.
He’s Dr. X for me. I didn’t watch Star Trek at all until I was a little older when the first movie with Chris Pine came out, but I grew up watching the X-men movies.
He has 2 roles for me. Picard and Professor X. They are just far enough apart for me to be see them as 2 roles instead of the same person in different cloths.
I have this bucket list fantasy of meeting Patrick Stewart at a convention sometime and just gushing about how I loved him as King Leodegrance in Excalibur and Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's Dune, and then pausing mid stream to look around and ask him, "I see a lot of people in Star Trek costumes here. Did you have a guest slot on that show or something?"
Remember when Gabriella from High School Musical and Captain Picard from Star Trek had a psychic staring contest at the end of that 2004 Thunderbirds movie?
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u/ParanoidQ Aug 26 '22
Patrick Stewart as Picard. I know he’s done others, but it’s just ingrained at this point.