Star Trek skipper not so bold (but, then again, his character IS supposed to be French...)

Ananova ^ | Tuesday 3rd February 2004

[presidio9]

The captain of the USS Enterprise thinks people should stay on Earth instead of going into space.

Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series Star Trek, says he thinks interplanetary travel for humans is a bad idea.

"I'm a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to the whole business of space travel," Stewart told the BBC.

"I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out onto other planets - even though they may be utterly uninhabited," he said.

Stewart said he approved of unmanned missions such as Nasa's use of twin rovers to explore the surface of Mars. But he objected to manned trips, saying they were too expensive.

"As I get older, my unease at the time and the money that has to be spent on projects putting human beings back to the moon, and on to another planet, is so enormous," Stewart said. "And it would take up so many resources, which I personally feel should be directed at our own planet."

The BBC said Huddersfield-born Stewart made the comments in an interview with its World Service radio broadcast.

[TheBigB]

James Tiberius Kirk would kick Picard's froggy @ss.

[ambrose]

A bald French captain that needed to decide everything by committee and was too afraid to beam down to planets. What a joke. I can't believe people actually watched that garbage.

Kirk totally kicks butt. Picard isn't fit to shine Kirk's boots. </ geek>

[Paradox]

And I think we should stop wasting money on movies and theater until we get the real world working right...

Sheesh, what an ass...

[mewzilla]

"I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out onto other planets - even though they may be utterly uninhabited," he said.

Jeez, using that logic my ancestors would never have left for the New World all those generations ago. Best darn decision the family ever made :)

[Hank Rearden]

Stewart said he approved of unmanned missions such as Nasa's use of twin rovers to explore the surface of Mars.

Well, that's a relief. I wonder how long it took NASA to get him to sign off on the mission?

[prairiebreeze]

Stewart is actually a Shakespearean actor by training. Guess there's little demand for that these days.

He wants to save all that money in order to give it away to the poor, the hungry, the DNC.....

Prairie

[50sDad]

James Tiberius Kirk would kick Picard's froggy @ss.

And Jonathan Archer would cheer Kirk on.

Captain Kirk would be vaporizing Evil in twenty seconds, while Captain Picard would still be trying to talk it to death and "understanding" it's point of view while it ripped his head off. (Did you ever see the NextGen episode where Picard is trapped on a planet with some alien who only speaks in cliches (in English no less!) until the alien actually dies. Rotfl!)

[apillar]

Yep, he is a lefty...
I listened to him on the BBC-America coming into work this morning. He spent the first half of the interview trashing president Bush for violating the "prime directive" as he defined by invading Iraq without UN permission. He then went on to say how heartened he was to see President Bush's approval dropping below 50%.

[Rummyfan]

"I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out onto other planets - even though they may be utterly uninhabited," he said.

In other words, we should never go.

[Gefreiter]

I take his point but his argument is flawed.

We will never "get this place right" because we are people. People are flawed, and always will be.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't explore our universe.

[TheBigB]

There has only been, and will ever be, one true captain of the USS Enterprise.

[Kieri]

James Tiberius Kirk would kick Picard's froggy @ss.

And when Kirk finally gets his shirt ripped off, John Crichton and D'Argo will go in and finish mopping the floor with his rug!

[clamper1797]

Is it true that Archer is a poofter in real life ???? James Kirk is my role model ... actually with a little Spock rolled in. Capt Pricard is the role model that the socialists wish us to have. It may NOT be coincidence that he is also French

[Darksheare]

I'd have paid money to see Picard get womped on the head and fired out the photon torpedo tubes at something, anything..

[JoJo Gunn]

True human arrogance is in imperfect people thinking we'll ever find perfection.

Without struggle, we'd stagnate and die, no matter what planet we're on.

[billbears]

A bald French captain that needed to decide everything by committee and was too afraid to beam down to planets

If I'm not mistaken it was Starfleet protocol not to beam down. Seem to remember an episode where they covered that.

[Little Ray]

Actually, unlike Kirk, Picard stays at his duty station. Kirk would not have survived his first performance review: "And why, Captain, were you were on the planet's surface with the Green Orion Slave Women, while the Pirates were trying to destroy your ship?"

Star Trek the Neurotic Generation has better effects, and better acting; it even has a semi-logical (if scary - every time they say "Counselor" I hear "Commissar") command structure. Its just has really lousy scripts. They didn't have nearly as much fun as the old Trek.

[martin_fierro]

Rick Berman should burn in hell for what he's done to the ST franchise.

[rickmichaels]

Picard isn't fit to shine Kirk's boots.

How true. At least Kirk could slay the babes. How many times did the doctor chick try to get it on with Picard? He would just smile and bore her to death with some line from a Shakespeare play. What a man. He probably liked Worf or Data better.