Ed Speleers reveals what Star Trek episodes and films he watched to better understand Jean-Luc Picard’s journey

Star Trek: Picard’s Ed Speleers apparently watched some good Trek to prepare for his role.

Playing Jean-Luc Picard’s son can’t be easy, not even for Ed Speleers. Speleers, who played Jack Crusher on Star Trek: Picard, had a big role to fill. Not only was the final season of the Picard series essentially all about him, but he had a lot of scenes with vaunted franchise legends like Jonathan Frakes, Alice Krige, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Jean-Luc Picard himself; Patrick Stewart.

Turns out, the folks behind the series wanted Speleers as prepared as possible and gave him a laundry list of things to watch so he could better understand who Jean-Luc was before the events of Picard.

Apparently, he was told to watch every film from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to Star Trek: VIII: First Contact. I’m not sure why he had to watch Original Series content, but that’s what Star Trek.com said he had to watch for the role.

But that’s not all.

Ed Speleers had to watch a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation for his role on Picard

Not only was he asked to watch a bunch of films, but according to Star Trek.com, he had to watch a lot of episodes from The Next Generation as well. It makes sense, Picard is a spiritual sequel to The Next Generation, so it’s a solid idea to bone up on what came before.

But what did he end up watching?

"“The Measure of a Man”“Yesterday’s Enterprise”“The Best of Both Worlds, Part I and II”“Darmok”“I, Borg”“The Inner Light”“Chain of Command, Part I and II”“Tapestry”“All Good Things…, Part I and II”"

What’s interesting is that Speleers apparently resonated with Tapestry the most, citing his character’s own journey, which mirrors that of Jean-Luc Picard and William Riker in the episode.

But what about you, if you had to bone up on the quintessential Jean-Luc Picard episodes of Star Trek, which ones would you watch to better understand the character?