Jean-Luc Picard is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise, most often seen as the commanding officer of the Federation starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D).

[5] In the early 1970s, UCSB professor Homer Swander had recruited Stewart to help teach American college students about William Shakespeare.

As a character in the Star Trek franchise, Picard appears in various books, comics, computer games, and films throughout the 1990s and a variety of merchandise.

[17] He is portrayed as being deeply moved by a desire to explore the universe and with a strong sense of duty; however, he has misgivings about not having a family and difficulty interacting with children.

Picard is also occasionally depicted as having subtle romantic tension with the ship's head doctor, Beverly Crusher, widow of his former crewmate and best friend Jack.

[18] Notable episodes featuring the Jean-Luc Picard character include "The Best of Both Worlds" (Parts I and II), "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Family", "All Good Things...", "Tapestry", and "The Inner Light".

[19] Actor Patrick Stewart noted of the character "During these past years, it has been humbling to hear many stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership..."[20] Jean-Luc Picard was born to Maurice and Yvette Picard in La Barre, France, on July 13, 2305.

[21] Shortly after graduation, Picard was stabbed in the heart by a Nausicaan,[22] leaving the organ irreparable and requiring replacement with a parthenogenetic implant; this proved near-fatal later.

Depicted as deeply moral, highly logical, and intelligent, Picard is a master of diplomacy and debate who resolves seemingly intractable issues between multiple, sometimes implacable parties with a Solomon-like wisdom.

[26] The pilot episode shows the ship's mission to investigate a problem at Farpoint Station, which becomes sidetracked when an entity known as Q makes Picard "representative" in a trial charging humanity with being a "dangerously savage child-race".

Another aftereffect is the (fictional) parietal lobe disorder Irumodic syndrome, revealed in Star Trek: Picard's third season to be caused by Borg alterations in his genome.

[34] Picard joins forces with the 23rd-century Enterprise captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek Generations to fight the film's villain Dr. Tolian Soran.

[35] His retirement was brought upon by his failure to save the Romulans from the Hobus supernova depicted in Star Trek (the 2009 film), the planned evacuation being the reason he joined the admiralty, and also ruined the life of another of his protégées, the Starfleet officer Raffi Musiker.

In the first season, a mysterious woman, Dahj Asha, comes to his estate seeking sanctuary, and Picard learns that she may be a Soong-type android, created from Data's remains.

At the end of season one, Picard's human form expires on Coppelius due to his Irumodic syndrome, and he encounters Data's consciousness, still alive in a simulated matrix.

Data informs Picard that scientists "were able to scan, map and transfer a complete neural image of your brain's substrates"[36] into a synthetic body, specifically configured to only give him the lifespan he would have lived if he did not have his previous disease.

Picard and crew, with the help of the young version of his future friend Guinan and Renée's Romulan "guardian angel" Tallinn, adventure throughout Los Angeles, fending off the Borg-aligned eugenicist Adam Soong, and convince Renée to overcome her mental illness and go on the mission, thereby restoring the timeline and completing Q's challenge.

In doing so, Picard also makes peace with realizing his father Maurice was not abusive, and with having unwittingly helped his mother Yvette commit suicide due to mental illness, when he was a small child.

Picard successfully negotiates with the Borg, forming an alliance aimed at researching the anomaly, and kindles a romance with Laris, one of his Romulan servants.

[38] In the third season, set later that year, Picard has deepened his relationship with Laris, but receives a distress message from Beverly Crusher, whose ship is under attack by a shadowy conspiracy of criminals just outside Federation space.

[39] Picard and Riker's confrontations with the conspirators, combined with the efforts of his protégées Worf, Ro, and Raffi, reveal that a rogue faction of Changelings have infiltrated the highest levels of Starfleet and are interested in restarting the Dominion War.

[40] Picard captures the faction head, Vadic, and learns her motives, but is unable to prevent her escape, until she is killed by a resurrected Data.

In 2402, Picard and Beverly, who have just bid Jack farewell before his first assignment for Starfleet, are last seen playing poker in the Ten Forward bar in Los Angeles, with the rest of the crew of the Enterprise-D, finally content with their lives.

[46] In a more lighthearted take on the debate, the cover of a 1994 Mad magazine Star Trek special features both Kirk and Picard wrestling childishly to fit into the Enterprise's captain's chair, while Scotty and Worf watch their respective commanders with looks of astonishment.

[47] In his parody song "White and Nerdy", satirizing nerd culture, "Weird Al" Yankovic sang the lines "Only question I ever thought was hard/Was do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?"

[52][53] In 2012, IGN ranked Picard, as depicted in The Next Generation series and films, as the 3rd top character of the Star Trek universe, behind Spock and Kirk in first and second place respectively.

[55] In 2017, Screen Rant ranked Picard the number one most attractive person in the Star Trek universe, ahead of Nyota Uhura (#2), Benjamin Sisko (#3), and Seven of Nine (#4).