Patrick Stewart was unsettled by cursing in Picard

Star Trek: Picard changed things

Prior to any of the newer Star Trek series, you wouldn’t hear much cursing, especially not on the ones that were made for television back in the 1990s. And what you would hear was quite tame with what you get if you tune into Star Trek: Picard or Star Trek: Discovery today.  In fact, the first time the f-bomb was dropped on a Star Trek series, I’m sure many of the older fans were shocked. And Discovery isn’t the only show dropping the harsher words.

Patrick Stewart told TVguide.com that he thought his character had made the decision not to use language that would be abusive or unpleasant in some way. And throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, he stuck to that. Of course, that had a lot to do with network censors at the time as well. Not much was getting past them in the 1990s. So when Stewart read the first swear word in the Picard script, he was “deeply shocked.”

Patrick Stewart talked with the producer about the cursing

In fact, Stewart was so unsettled by seeing the cursing in the script that he had a conversation with Michael Chabon, the executive producer, to ask him about the use of the language and how comfortable the team was with it. And it wasn’t that Stewart was shocked at the actual use of the words as he grew up in a family where “swearing was second nature. Every other word was a swear word.” It was simply because this wasn’t commonplace for Star Trek productions.

Now, though, you can even hear words on Star Trek: Lower Decks, the animated series now in its second season, that you never would have heard even on Star Trek: Enterprise which ended in 2005. And is there a particular reason for the cursing? No. Other than just because it can be done now. As Aaron Harberts, the co-executive producer of Star Trek: Discovery said in an interview with the A.V. Club.

"Because we are streaming, so we could do whatever we want."

So the strong language probably isn’t going away anytime soon, and for those who have issues with it, they’ll have to hope the shows eventually make it to regular television where the stronger words will be censored.