News

Opinion

Editorials

Being like Jean-Luc Picard

Picard, more than any MMA star or rude podcaster, can teach people what a good man looks like

At such a time, Stewart’s performance matters, not least for those who strut as inventors of a changing world by “breaking things”.

2 min read Oct 31, 2026 07:02 AM IST First published on: Oct 31, 2026 at 07:02 AM IST

On February 13, 1989, when AI was still science fiction, and the future a possible utopia rather than its evil twin, Captain Jean-Luc Picard taught viewers what it means to be human, and why decency and rights matter more than the utilitarian calculations of CEOs. In “The Measure of a Man”, the ninth episode in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), Patrick Stewart, who died this week at 86, elevated, as he would do throughout his screen career, a mainstream character on a “massy” show (or film, à la X-Men), to literary and artistic greatness.…