Jean-Luc Picard: Excellence and Arrogance

Over at About.com's Star Trek Fans, Julia Houston has put up her new featured article, looking at the developments that led to the character of Picard as we know him now:

Since Ben Sisko and Kathryn Janeway first appeared, they've been compared most frequently, and sometimes quite unfavorably, to Jean-Luc Picard. James Kirk has been put in a special category, as it seems most people consider the captain to have been in "such a different time" and on "such a different type of show" that comparisons are unfair and unprofitable.

But when TNG debuted, comparisons to The Original Series were the order of the day, and Picard was compared up, down, and sideways to Kirk with an intensity that makes Tuvok/Spock and Picard/Janeway comparisons seem quite off-hand and abstract in...well...comparison.

The definition of Picard's character as being separate from Kirk's but still great in its own right is perhaps the greatest writing challenge Star Trek has ever faced, a challenge it took more than one season and more than a few different changes in that character to meet.

Also new at the site is a list, Most Popular Drinks at Quark's, with beverages such as 'Sisko's Spirit' and 'Vodka Martini -- molecularized, not stirred'.

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