The death of British actor Patrick Stewart at the age of 86 has prompted an outpouring of tributes not only to his career but also to the fictional character that defined much of his public identity: Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In an analysis published by the German newspaper Die Zeit, the response to Stewart’s death is interpreted as reflecting something broader than the loss of a celebrated actor. Picard represented a political and technological ideal associated with the optimism of the years following the Cold War, when liberal democracy, international cooperation and scientific progress appeared capable of shaping a more peaceful world.
Stewart enjoyed a distinguished acting career beyond Star Trek, performing Shakespeare on stage, appearing on Broadway and taking roles in major films. But the emotional response to his death has also revealed the enduring influence of Picard and the fictional civilisation he represented. Readers responding to Die Zeit’s obituary described the character as an embodiment of humanism and recalled how the series had shaped their understanding of morality and the possibility of a better world. One reader wrote that the programme had demonstrated convincingly and inspiringly that good could prevail. Another described Picard, or Stewart, as the “personified utopia of humanism”.
The significance of the character is particularly evident in the fifth-season episode Darmok, which Die Zeit recommends as an example of the series’ underlying philosophy. Picard is stranded on a barren planet alongside the leader of an alien civilisation. Although a universal translator allows the two to understand each other’s words, they cannot comprehend their meaning. The alien repeatedly says, “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!”, while throwing a dagger at Picard’s feet. Initially, Picard interprets the gesture as a challenge to fight. He eventually discovers that the alien communicates through metaphors drawn from the historical experiences of his people.
The alien had intended to work alongside Picard to defeat a dangerous creature, believing that a shared struggle could create an alliance, just as Darmok and Jalad had become companions in an ancient story. As their understanding develops, Picard responds by recounting the human epic of Gilgamesh. Their encounter ends with the Federation and the Tamarian people becoming allies. The episode captures the series’ central belief that unfamiliar cultures need not be enemies, that communication can overcome profound differences and that diplomacy can achieve what force cannot.
When The Next Generation premiered in 1987, this outlook reflected the political changes taking shape towards the end of the Cold War. The original Star Trek series, centred on Captain James T Kirk, had been broadcast between 1966 and 1969. Its successor emerged during a period of political transformation that accelerated after Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985 and introduced glasnost. From 1990, as Soviet president, Gorbachev pursued arms-control negotiations with the United States. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Germany was reunified in 1990, and the Cold War came to an end.
The period also produced Francis Fukuyama’s influential writings on the “end of history”. Although his argument did not literally declare that historical events would cease, it reflected the conviction that liberal democracy was emerging as the dominant political system and would eventually prevail despite possible setbacks. International cooperation, respect for international law and collective efforts to address global problems appeared increasingly achievable. In 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals, targeting poverty, disease and social inequality.
The fictional United Federation of Planets provided a popular cultural expression of these aspirations. It was an alliance of different planetary civilisations operating through shared institutions, a common council, law and judicial structures while allowing considerable independence to its members. The Federation had existed in the original Star Trek universe, but The Next Generation portrayed it in a considerably more peaceful setting. Former enemies, including the Klingons, eventually became allies after earlier conflicts over the Neutral Zone.
Within this system, Picard embodied the ideal of a rational and principled leader. A highly educated Frenchman with impeccable manners, he relied on diplomacy rather than physical force, defended individual dignity and maintained a strong commitment to equality and justice. His authority rested on reason, moral discipline and an ability to understand those with whom he disagreed. The Klingon officer Worf, raised by humans despite his aristocratic origins in the Klingon Empire, further illustrated the series’ belief that individuals from different cultures could become part of a shared civilisation.
The Enterprise itself was presented as a military vessel whose principal purposes were exploration, scientific research and diplomatic engagement. Its guiding First Directive prohibited interference in the development of other civilisations, echoing principles of sovereignty and non-intervention associated with the United Nations Charter. The society it served was largely free from material scarcity, poverty and corruption. Its crew could obtain almost anything through a replicator, with Picard particularly fond of ordering “Earl Grey, hot”.
Technological progress was equally central to the series. Geordi La Forge, the Enterprise’s chief engineer, was blind but used a VISOR device that enabled him to see. The ship’s computer responded to spoken instructions and carried out complicated tasks with remarkable accuracy. Data, an android serving as Picard’s second officer and close friend, possessed extraordinary intelligence and an essentially benevolent nature, with his inability to understand humour providing one of his few limitations.
The series nevertheless recognised the dangers of technology and political power. The Borg, a collective of human-machine hybrids seeking to assimilate other civilisations, represented a threat to individual identity and freedom. Episodes involving artificial intelligence also explored the possibility of machines acting without ethical constraints. In one storyline, a crew member uses the holodeck, a computer-generated virtual environment, to create an idealised version of the ship’s psychologist, raising questions about manipulation and artificial relationships.
Die Zeit argues that these fictional concerns have acquired greater relevance as artificial intelligence develops. Contemporary debates about whether machines can be made to follow ethical principles, known as AI alignment, remain unresolved. Questions about employment displacement, the energy consumed by AI training and copyright disputes also have no equivalent in Picard’s largely idealised technological world.
The political contrast is equally pronounced. Russia’s war in Europe, the weakening of international legal arrangements and increased military expenditure have replaced much of the optimism associated with the post-Cold War period. The international cooperation represented by the Federation appears increasingly distant from contemporary relations between major powers. The article also challenges the idealisation of the 1990s, noting that the decade was not peaceful: wars and genocide occurred in the Balkans, while the apparent stability of the international system concealed significant tensions.
The series itself eventually acknowledged some of these contradictions. Towards its conclusion, negotiations between the Federation and the Cardassians produced a peace agreement that required Picard to remove settlers from their land. For the first time, established rules and diplomatic arrangements placed him in a position where following the system meant producing injustice. The episode exposed the limitations of an ideal built around the assumption that institutions and rules could reliably deliver moral outcomes.
Die Zeit also identifies a contradiction within Picard’s humanism: the universal values celebrated by the Federation were largely Western values, and the Western powers themselves later compromised those principles through their military interventions during the 2000s. The technological optimism of the series, meanwhile, may have contributed to an insufficient appreciation of the need to regulate artificial intelligence and social media.
William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk and is still alive, offered a concise assessment of Stewart’s legacy this week: “Captain Picard stood for the best in us.” The Die Zeit analysis closes by contrasting Picard’s measured, educated and selfless leadership with Donald Trump, arguing that the contemporary political reality has supplied a real-world opposite to the fictional captain.
