Sadly, Star Trek: Generations was just the first of many revisions to Picard, starting a transformation over four movies that would turn him into a far more boring character.

The Passion of Picard

According to the TNG series bible, Jean-Luc Picard “deserves the description ‘distinguished’ despite being in his youthful fifties.” He has an “unspoken but deep father-son relationship” with Riker. Against the more virile and swashbuckling Kirk, Picard was a diplomat who commanded with a powerful voice. Even as late as season 5, and the only thing that shook Picard was getting stuck in an elevator with a bunch of kids.

The final TNG movie Star Trek: Nemesis takes advantage of Picard’s august quality, at least in his first scene of the movie. After an opening sequence depicting an attack on the Romulan senate, we see Picard deliver a pitch-perfect toast to newlyweds Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Troi (Marina Sirtis), a speech full of humor and boldness—everything great about the character.

Six minutes later, Picard bursts from a runabout in a space dune-buggy to do some off-ship off-roadin’! Yee-haw! By his own admission, the dune buggy scene appeared in Nemesis because Patrick Stewart wanted it there. Thanks to his position as executive producer on the TNG movies, Stewart gained a stronger hand in crafting Picard. One wouldn’t think that much of a problem, as Stewart played the character for seven years before Generations. But Stewart saw Picard less as the type of guy who recites poetry to befuddle the Ferengi and more as a guy with ripped biceps and a rifle in his hands.

For all that Star Trek: First Contact does right, delving into the trauma that still lingers after his assimilation by the Borg in the classic two-parter “The Best of Both Worlds,” the one classic TNG movie still imagines Picard as an action hero. The script by Moore and Braga reserves the film’s sole one-liner for Worf (“assimilate this!”), but the screenplay still features a sequence in which Picard charges into a battle and leads his crew into a firefight.

The most outrageous bit might be in Star Trek: Insurrection, though, where Picard and his crew rebel against Starfleet to defend a planet that holds the secret to eternal youth. Like the rest of the crew investigating the planet, Picard feels those rejuvenating effects, so his spryness works on a plot level. And let’s be honest, it’s kind of wonderful watching Stewart dance a little mambo while wearing a deep-v shirt.