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halflife • yesterday at 8:04 PM • 23 replies • view on HN

Watching him in Star Trek TNG made me reevaluate how management of people should be done, his character was assertive but compassionate. High morals coupled with grounded reason.

I also want to mention his hilarious role as bullock in American dad, the way he takes a role both so seriously and ridiculously makes him so fantastically hilarious.

I love him and will miss him.


Replies

stuxnet79 • yesterday at 8:18 PM

Star Trek TNG as a whole was a masterclass on how to effectively manage a high performance team. It's a favorite watch in tech leadership circles for this reason. Every now and then I re-watch this clip of Data taking over the enterprise and the inevitable hiccups he runs into [1].

Really high quality writing for its time.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlnZKTXKidU

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LeoPanthera • yesterday at 9:51 PM

TNG is a fine example of "competency porn", where everyone knows what they're doing and usually makes the best available choices. In today's world, that's even more compelling than it used to be.

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rapatel0 • yesterday at 11:21 PM

Picard was a model of ethics, integrity, and competence especially when the moments are dire and there are no good answers.

Patrick Stewart modeled how a good man should behave and you could tell that he acted from a place of wisdom he understood through experience.

Wonderful contribution to humanity and truly saddened by this loss.

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fouronnes3 • yesterday at 8:15 PM

Back when Twitter was good there was an account called "Picard Management Tips" that shared such things and it was really golden.

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maqp • yesterday at 8:21 PM

Also his guest appearance as Alistair Burke in Frasier episode The Doctor is Out (S11E3) is nothing short of hilarious.

The episode is classic sitcom "wrong conclusion escalates out of hands" so I highly recommend watching it in full instead of the clips but if it's not on your streaming platform, Stewart's scenes are cut together in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDnGJcDglw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhGQgbXWo4I

talon8635 • yesterday at 8:18 PM

His episode (the finale of season 1) of Extras is absolutely hilarious. I know he’s not primarily known for comedy, but he’s funny as hell.

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chasil • yesterday at 8:32 PM

I think that I liked him most as Sejanus in I, Claudius. That was before any of his major sci-fi roles.

I see him in this episode:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xA6QbwPGlgk

I've read both Suetonius and Tacitus on the subject of Augustus and the Julio-Claudian dynasty:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio-Claudian_dynasty

Those who lack this family knowledge would want to start with the first episode of I, Claudius.

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eldenbishop • yesterday at 10:33 PM

Damn. You nailed it with your epilogue. Some actors you respect, some you like, but I love him too. I really do, never met him, but he's important to me and was a father figure for many years of my life and while I am not part of his family, he is part of mine.

nickjj • yesterday at 9:08 PM

I only watched TNG end to end a few years ago and it was one of the best series I've seen on so many levels.

Ever since I watched it, I half jokingly suggested that it should be a mandatory watch before you're allowed to join the workforce.

razodactyl • yesterday at 11:19 PM

This comment reminds me of General Hammond from Stargate - it's refreshing when characters are written for competence and especially funny when they just do what a normal person would do.

Not to say they're comparable - both characters and actors are much loved.

scelerat • yesterday at 9:32 PM

"Competence porn," something I only heard relatively recently, is a great way to describe a significant component of my love for Star Trek. TNG was the top of the heap for that, and Patrick Stewart's Picard embodied it.

jasomill • yesterday at 10:17 PM

This perfectly describes his performance as a lecherous version of himself in Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's Extras:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za-y7mXqECE&t=174s

matwood • yesterday at 9:23 PM

TNG is the Star Trek I grew up with. I rewatch the entire series every so often and it’s always good.

savalione • yesterday at 9:27 PM

I didn't know that Patrick Stewart was the voice of Avery Bullock. Such an essential voice for the whole show. His voice will be missed.

RandyRanderson • today at 2:40 AM

I learnt the facts of life ... from watching The Facts of Life

jibalt • yesterday at 10:40 PM

Not to take anything away from his acting, but Patrick Stewart was not the author of his dialogue in TNG.

lo_zamoyski • yesterday at 8:33 PM

Leadership is service, not dominance. Today, some people throw around terms like "servant leadership" as if this is something new, as if something like the New Testament had never been compiled.

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roeles • today at 6:20 AM

> Watching him in Star Trek TNG made me reevaluate how management of people should be done

Has it made you disappointed of how people are managed in real life?

whycome • yesterday at 9:20 PM

> the way he takes a role both so seriously and ridiculously makes him so fantastically hilarious.

Don't forget he voiced the Poop emoji in that movie. If only we could tell his younger, Shakespeare-acting, self.

AdrianB1 • yesterday at 10:54 PM

As much as I like Patrick Stewart, the actor, I must remember that Captain Picard was a role in a script someone else wrote. Picard's management style is what you admire, not the actor's personal management style.

I have the same attitude with House MD lead actor Hugh Laurie: the actor played the role greatly, but the actor was not the fictional person of the role.

watwut • yesterday at 9:37 PM

Babylon 5 is equal or even better for that. More leadership styles, some more flawed, but ultimately showing various ways to be emphatetic while assertive.

holoduke • yesterday at 10:22 PM

Ah yes. Till you have to manage a real group of individuals with mixed qualities.

lirolero • yesterday at 9:21 PM

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