Why Patrick Stewart had the way Captain Picard's brother died in Star Trek: Generations changed

Star Trek: Generations opened with both a triumph and a tragedy for the crew of the Enterprise as Worf is promoted to lieutenant commander and Captain Picard learns that his brother and nephew have died in a fire. It's not until later that he has the conversation with Counselor Troi that reveals the true depth of his pain with the realization the Picard family line would not continue. And he was the one who'd asked for such a horrible fate to befall his character's family.

Recorded in The Fifty-Year Mission The Next 25 Years From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams, Ronald D. Moore said that originally they [Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Moore] had written that Robert Picard had died of a heart attack in his vineyard. The scene were Picard learns about his brother's death was poignantly painful as he realizes that he could battle the biggest foes in the galaxy, but death was the enemy he couldn't fight.

"I can fight off the Klingons, and I can do this and that, but there is one enemy out there waiting for me that's going to get me eventually. It gets everybody, no matter what kind of job they have."

- Unused line for Captain PIcard

Stewart had his own idea about how the death of both his brother and his nephew would impact him when he realized not only had he lost them both, but the Picard family line ended with him. So wanted a "tragic, horrible death."

"And it should be a tragic, horrible death. If the captain is going to react in a way he's never reacted before, this one better really hit him between the eyes. You know, burn him to death."

- Patrick Stewart

And the scene where Picard broke down was emotionally impactful and one of the best of Star Trek: Generations. In a film that included the unwelcome and decidedly unheroic death of Captain Kirk, we get this beautiful piece of acting by both Patrick Stewart and Marina Sirtis. It ties in wonderfully with Star Trek: Picard when Picard learns that he has a son as all of us remembered how devastated there would never be another Picard. Even though Jack Crusher didn't go by the Picard family name, he was still a part of the familial line, and who knows? One day, he might even add his father's last name to his own.