With two series (208 episodes between the two) and a good handful of movies (4, to be exact), Captain Jean-Luc Picard is one of the most mythical characters of all of Star Trek since it debuted more than 35 years ago on American television screens. And if his face is that of the great actor Patrick Stewart it is only for one reason: he was “tricked”.
This is recognized by the British, recalling how the opportunity to revitalize the science fiction franchise came into his hands starring in a new series, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ (ST: Next Generation). He had serious doubts, firstly because he did not want to leave the theater.
Second, because I didn’t know exactly what it was that of ‘Star Trek’… despite the fact that his children saw it, as he recounts for the Mirror:
“I remember coming home from the Royal Shakespeare after the matinee just in time to give them [a los niños] their dinner, read to them, and put them to bed before returning to the evening performance. And I would find that they were watching this thing on television with these guys in colored T-shirts. And that’s all I remember.”
Monetarily speaking, the offer was quite tempting (the equivalent of £12,000 a week compared to £140 at the theatre), but I had to sign a contract for six yearswhich ended any hope of doing his beloved theater in all that time and, specifically, he wanted to put on a cutting-edge version of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’.
“grabbed” deceived
However, his friends encouraged him and, above all, it was his agent who gave him the push by assuring him something that we would later find out was not the case: that the series would be an absolute failure. As he recalled this past April on the James Corden show:
«My agent told me, “Look, you know you can’t revive an iconic series. You can’t. It’s not going to work. So you come here, you do a dozen episodes, even less, you make some money for the first time in your life. …and you go home.” That was his prediction: six months, no more. »
Finally there would be seven seasons (1987 to 1994), which would be followed by four movies (and two decades later a new series). An evident success that immortalized him as Captain Picard despite the fact that almost refused to participate in the series.
And, to be fair, you have to break a spear in favor of the scriptwriter since Paramount saw them and wanted to get this new series off the ground. While they were quite hopeful of relaunching a franchise that had endured incredibly well for two decades, national American chains they were more than reluctant to the idea (how things change, huh).
ABC and NBC only promised to consider the script for the pilot; CBS wanted a miniseries and if that’s what they would talk about; the newly created FOX was more interested but they only wanted thirteen episodes but they would be forced to work against the clock. They finally opted for syndication: selling it to local chains, independents and affiliates of the “big three” for first-window broadcast. A risky move but, as we have already seen, it worked.
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