Summary
- Patrick Stewart reveals that Jonathan Frakes loved to mock Captain Picard's famous line "The line must be drawn here!" from Star Trek: First Contact.
- Picard's iconic line became a pop culture trope, often quoted and parodied, proving Jonathan's recognition of its potential impact.
- The line was parodied in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, showcasing its lasting influence in the Star Trek universe.
Patrick Stewart reveals how Star Trek: First Contact director Jonathan Frakes hilariously loved to mock Captain Jean-Luc Picard's most famous line. First Contact was the most popular and successful Star Trek: The Next Generation movie, and its lasting impact factored heavily into the story of Star Trek: Picard season 3, which reunited the entire TNG crew to face the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) once more. But the heart of First Contact was Jean-Luc's relationship with Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodward), a 21st-century woman trapped on the USS Enterprise-E with an incensed Captain Picard hellbent on vengeance against the Borg.
In his autobiography, "Making It So: A Memoir," Sir Patrick Stewart discussed the pivotal scene in Star Trek: First Contact where Captain Picard loses control when Lily calls him "Captain Ahab" out to "hunt his whale." Stewart furiously utters Picard's pivotal line, "The line must be drawn here!", which Stewart says Jonathan Frakes loved to mimic. Read the quote below:
This scene shows Jean-Luc at his most vulnerable, his anger and frustration boiling over into frightening rage. Under the spell of these emotions and Alfre's intensity, I spat out the words, "The line must be drawn here!" like venom: "The line must be drawn h'yah!"
We all felt good about that scene after we shot it, but it was Jonathan who recognized instantly that my eccentric pronunciation was bound to achieve traction. He started saying, "The line must be drawn h'yah!" in my voice, in all sorts of situations. Sure enough, it became a pop culture trope, oft-quoted and parodied. I am all too pleased about it.
