Over 35 years, Sir Patrick Stewart gave audiences some of the finest acting moments ever filmed as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise. There are so many, in fact, it’s hard to whittle them down to a mere “ten best.” So we’re not going to rank them by quality, because let’s be honest, they’re all great. Instead, we’re going to count down from the most recent, on Star Trek: Picard in 2023, to Stewart’s earliest days of The Next Generation, back in the ’80s.
“Imposters” (Star Trek: Picard, Season 3, 2023)
Star Trek: Picard was all over the place creatively, until its stellar final season. But one of the greatest moments for Picard came when he faced an officer he mentored decades later. A friend who once bitterly disappointed him back in the TNG days, Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes). In his mind, she betrayed Starfleet when she left to join a rebel group he had placed her undercover in. Thirty years later, they face each once again. And years of Jean-Luc’s pent-up anger and betrayal at the woman he once mentored all come out. When he tells her “you broke my heart” on the verge of tears, you really feel it.
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Picard’s Borg assimilation marked the rest of his character journey. And although he’d repress his feelings for decorum’s sake, whenever he faced the Borg, Picard often lost his precious objectivity. But none more so than in the feature film First Contact. In this film, Picard goes full Captain Ahab (a role Stewart also played) on the Borg. And he’s unwilling to sacrifice his ship to fighting them, even if it saves the lives of his crew. Backed into a corner, he gives an angry speech about how he’s tired of retreating, and plans to go down fighting. When Picard says “The line must be drawn here, this far, no further,” he seethes with rage and resentment. And the audience feels every bit of it. This is Stewart’s best moment in the TNG movies by far.
“Chain of Command Part II” (Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, 1992)
Star Trek: The Next Generation delivered some truly amazing acting moments from Patrick Stewart, but his performance in season six’s Chain of Command Part II will always be the cream of the crop. In this storyline, Picard becomes a prisoner of war to the Cardassian Empire, and is tortured mentally and physically for weeks by a sadistic commander (the great David Warner). Part of his ongoing torture is that Warner shines four bright lights in his face, and tries to get him to concede that there are only three. Yes, Picard yelling “There. Are. Four. Lights!” once he is freed is a fantastic moment, and memed to this day. But the real acting triumph came when Jean-Luc, battered and beaten, sees the traumatized child within the monster who is torturing him, turns the tables on his tormentor, and throws it in his face.
“The Inner Light” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5, 1992)
Many fans consider “The Inner Light” not only TNG’s finest hour, but also Picard’s. In this episode, an alien probe scans Jean-Luc, projecting a scenario into his mind where he lives an entire lifetime on their long-dead world. Picard wakes up and discovers he’s Galen, a simple man with a wife and a family. In his memories, he spends decades living another life, yet never forgetting his Enterprise existence, no matter how hard he tries. Now an old man, he tells his daughter, “Seize the time… Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.” It’s a simple statement, but one everyone needs to hear. We tend to live in the past and the future, and ignore our present. But when Stewart delivers these lines, you take it to heart for the rest of your life. For the record, this was Stewart’s favorite episode of the series.
“The First Duty” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5, 1992)
As you can tell from all of these moments, Patrick Stewart simply excelled when giving an impassioned speech. One of the best comes from season five’s “The First Duty,” where a cadet training stunt from Wesley Crusher’s Starfleet Academy flight squad goes tragically wrong, and a student dies. Wesley’s squad tries to cover up their role in the accident, but of course, Picard finds out the truth. He gives Wesley (Wil Wheaton) perhaps the ultimate “disappointed dad dressing-down” in TV history. But Picard’s speech to Wes is filled with important principles about how the people who wear any kind of official government uniform must commit first to the truth above all else. It’s a speech we should all adhere to now.
“The Drumhead” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 4, 1991)
This season four episode is very much a Star Trek commentary on McCarthyism and political persecution. A decorated judge (Jean Simmons) boards the Enterprise-D to conduct an investigation into an on-board terrorist act. But it quickly turns into a political witch hunt aboard the ship, where even Picard finds himself under the public interrogation lights. Instead of giving in to anger at the false accusations, he gives a speech about truth and freedom that still resonates. Especially in our current political reality. “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” Yes, the writing is great, but it doesn’t work without Stewart selling it as he does.
“Family” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 4, 1990)
Perhaps Picard’s most famous storyline in TNG came at the end of season three, when the cybernetic Borg assimilated him, and he became Locutus. But in terms of his acting, what came right after these episodes is among his finest hours on the show. To recover from his recent trauma, Jean-Luc visits his childhood home in France and stays with his estranged brother. After an episode full of simmering familial tension, the two siblings get into a brawl in the mud. It ends in a full emotional collapse as the ever-stoic Captain grapples with what the Borg did to him, and what he did to others. We’ve seen actors deliver some great PTSD scenes before and since, but Stewart’s performance in “Family” remains among the very best.
“Sarek” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3, 1990)
This is one of the few episodes of TNG where a character from the ‘60s series appears; in this instance, Mark Lenard as the Vulcan Sarek, Spock’s father. Suffering from a form of alien Alzheimer’s disease, he must mind-meld with Picard to get through one last critical mission. Jean-Luc then absorbs Sarek’s lifetime of emotions and regrets and has a full meltdown, as he must express the repressed and violent emotions of a man who bottled them up for 200 years. Usually, Patrick Stewart remains buttoned up and measured as Picard, occasionally stern. But this episode gave him the rare opportunity to completely let go emotionally as an actor. It’s a true masterclass of a performance to witness.
“The Measure of a Man” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 2, 1988)
“The Measure of a Man” was the first indication that TNG could not only equal the original series, but surpass it. In this episode, android officer Data (Brent Spiner) is put on trial to determine if he was a living being, or Starfleet property. Captain Picard volunteers to become his de facto defense lawyer. Then, his friend Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) makes him realize this is really about slavery. He gives an impassioned defense of Data’s right to exist, and be a fully self-determining being. Over seven seasons of TNG, Picard wore many hats: diplomat, military commander, father figure. But one of his finest moments came when he was acting as a lawyer. “Your Honour, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there. It. Sits. Waiting.” It doesn’t get much better than this.
“Where Silence Has Lease” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 2, 1988)
The episode this monologue comes from isn’t a particularly great one. It’s a fairly standard “evil cosmic entity toys with the Enterprise” story. But in this episode, there’s a scene where Data asks Picard bluntly, “What is death?” (It’s not really Data, but don’t worry about that.) Picard then gives one of the most nuanced and thought-provoking answers I’ve ever seen to this question in fiction. When he says, “What we are goes beyond Euclidean and other practical measuring systems, and that our existence is part of a reality beyond what we understand now as reality.” This absolutely floored me as a kid watching TV. And whenever the question “what is death?” comes up in any conversation, it’s become my default answer. All thanks to incredible delivery from Patrick Stewart in a throwaway episode of syndicated ’80s sci-fi TV. From the jump, Patrick Stewart was showing everyone how it was done.
All seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard are available now on Paramount+.