By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
You don’t have to be a Star Trek fan to know that William Shakespeare is one of Captain Picard’s favorite characters. After all, Patrick Stewart is a Shakespearean actor, and his Enterprise captain often quotes the Bard in off-handed comments. It turns out, though, that the love of Shakespeare actually made Picard a better captain because he took some cues from Data’s Henry V performance to deal with some rascally Romulans in the TNG episode “The Defector.”
Shakespeare is actually part of this episode’s cold open, as we see Picard directing Data’s performance of Henry V. At first glance, this seems like nothing more than a fun way to start the episode by showcasing what huge nerds these two characters are. However, as recorded in Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, showrunner Michael Piller later revealed that this Shakespeare play influenced Picard’s subsequent decisions when dealing with the Romulans.
“There’s a scene where Picard and Data are talking about how the crew is holding up, and then Picard says a line or two that echoes the play,” Piller said. While the showrunner didn’t mention the exact lines, one of them is when Picard directly quotes Henry V to himself in his Ready Room.
Data had asked if Picard couldn’t see that his crew was confident about possibly fighting the Romulans, and the captain sardonically told him that “unlike King Henry, it is not easy for me to disguise myself and walk among my troops” to gauge their morale. After the android leaves, Picard quotes the play, saying to himself, “If these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it.”
While that Shakespeare quote represented Picard’s anxieties about the mission, Piller confirmed that the play also influenced the captain’s heroic actions during the climax. This is, of course, the crowd-pleasing moment when deceitful Romulans try to destroy the Enterprise after luring it into the Neutral Zone, and Picard reveals that he brought along some cloaked Klingon ships just in case his pointy-eared foes tried to fight dirty. According to Michael Piller, “in the confrontation with the Romulans, there are suggestions of Henry V in Picard’s stance, bravery, and decisions, and what the argument is about.”
Interestingly, this Shakespeare play wouldn’t have featured in “The Defector” at all if not for Picard actor Patrick Stewart. It was originally meant to open with Data playing Sherlock Holmes again, but legal issues kept that from happening. When Piller asked Stewart for replacement cold open suggestions, the Shakespearean actor suggested opening with a performance from Henry V.
What makes this even more impressive is that Stewart offered Piller this idea only two days before filming. Despite this tiny turnaround time, the producers were able to create not only a killer Shakespeare scene but also use the play as a kind of framing device for the entire episode. Piller was understandably proud of what everyone accomplished, and the musician-turned-showrunner compared Picard echoing Henry V to musical arrangements that “echo other songs and play on a melody that reminds you of something else.”
As for us, we can’t help but think all of these revelations about Picard and this Shakespeare play elevate what was already one of the most ambitious episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was an episode with intrigue, action, and major character development that helped us get a better idea of what makes the captain tick. Both Patrick Stewart and the immortal Bard teamed up to offer a surprising lesson to fans watching at home: all the galaxy’s a stage, and the men and androids in it merely players.
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