Being like Jean-Luc Picard

Picard, more than any MMA star or rude podcaster, can teach people what a good man looks like

At such a time, Stewart’s performance matters, not least for those who strut as inventors of a changing world by “breaking things”.

2 min readOct 31, 2026 07:02 AM IST First published on: Oct 31, 2026 at 07:02 AM IST

On February 13, 1989, when AI was still science fiction, and the future a possible utopia rather than its evil twin, Captain Jean-Luc Picard taught viewers what it means to be human, and why decency and rights matter more than the utilitarian calculations of CEOs. In “The Measure of a Man”, the ninth episode in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), Patrick Stewart, who died this week at 86, elevated, as he would do throughout his screen career, a mainstream character on a “massy” show (or film, à la X-Men), to literary and artistic greatness. For all the characters he played, from King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company to Professor Charles Xavier, it is Picard that defined him.

In the episode, Picard, the captain of the starship Enterprise, must defend Commander Data, in a trial to establish whether the latter is “property” or a person. Data is an android, and a scientist wants to reverse-engineer an army of workers like him for the “benefit of humanity”. Stewart’s fight for his friend and colleague is an intellectual and moral one, unlike all-male icons who trade in blustering ego and loud proclamations. His is a passionate defence, grounded in empathy and reason.

There is, if commentaries are to be believed, a crisis of masculinity today — too much entitlement and insecurity, making aggression and anger a virtue. At such a time, Stewart’s performance matters, not least for those who strut as inventors of a changing world by “breaking things”. Picard, more than any MMA star or rude podcaster, can teach people what a good man looks like.