30 Reasons Why Captain Picard is Better than Captain Kirk

Picard made Patrick Stewart a better person

"It echoed my own feelings at the time as well. Why would they cast a middle-aged bald English Shakespearean actor in this iconic role as captain of the Enterprise? It made no sense. But I guess Gene Roddenberry had some sort of instinct for it, and his producer Rick Berman was a champion of mine. Even so, it all felt borderline lunatic back then. It took me a good while to grow comfortable in that role. I know that my experience with classic Shakespeare was a great help to me in finding this heightened language that was larger than life and utterly epic."

Patrick Stewart didn’t understand his casting. It made no sense to him. He was a Shakespearean actor who was now going to captain the U.S.S Enterprise. Why? But in the end, the role changed him and made him a better actor and person.

Stewart explains that he had to grow comfortable in the role because he wasn’t used to playing parts like Picard. After all, a lot of Shakespeare’s men were pretty terrible. (Looking at you Macbeth.)

But the role made it easy for us to love Stewart. And it made Stewart realize things about himself. Playing someone like Picard would change any of us. He is a decent man who works towards making the universe around him a better place. So of course Stewart ended up being a better man because of it all.

Shatner just got to sleep with women a little easier. (I don’t know, I’m sure Shatner got better because of the role but also like come on, this one is easy to see why Picard is better.)