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Comment by tempestn | Hacker News Reader

Like everyone else here, Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard was a foundational part of my childhood. As it happens, I'm currently on bag 27/30 of the Lego Enterprise D right now. I've actually had the thought a couple of times over the past few years that this day had to be coming, and that it'd likely hit me hard when it did, especially after my dad's passing in 2024. (They're not particularly alike, aside from the hairline, but there's still a strong association in my mind, as my dad also loved TNG and was the one who got me into it.)

Anyway, it's a sad day, but I do appreciate that both his work and the influence he's had on people like me live on.

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People too young to remember the 1990's might not know that Patrick Stewart's Picard was a sex symbol.

I was surprised by how many of my friends considered the character 'hot'; on paper, one would expect young people to write him off as a balding goody-two-shoes.

To have a character whose main traits included compassion and reason was a good influence on my generation of men.

> To have a character whose main traits included compassion and reason was a good influence on my generation of men.

I agree and although the prestige TV era has produced some wonderful TV it’s also been overflowing with antiheroes. I hope todays younger generation gets to see another character like Picard.

I have started to wonder if anti-heros are generally bad at a social level. If you train people to believe that bad people are not that bad and good people are not that good, and you should never believe the name on the tin, then people start carrying over those lessons to the real world, and encouraging antipathy since anyone who esposes good ideals is lying, and anyone who esposes bad ideals is playing 4d chess, or is not that bad - so what's the difference?

I feel like the rise of "virtue signaling" as a critique is a symptom of all of this: if I see someone visibly doing something good then it isn't actually good, rather they're just showcasing how much better they are than other people. Somehow a positive trait becomes a negative one.

My wife and I met through OKCupid, and one of the things that most caught my eye on her profile was that she had a crush on Picard as a teenager. I knew then that she was a woman of impeccable taste.

As I heard it, Germany refused to carry the Usenet channel alt.sexy.bald.captain because the thought it was porn. It was a Picard fan club.

It's interesting how he was part of everybody's childhood. I watched TNG for the first time when I was over 40. And that series became something really special in our family and we all love Stewart, Frakes, Spiner and the gang.

Some of the best television ever made if you ask me.

> and we all love Stewart, Frakes, Spiner and the gang.

I think I’m at that point the characters and their actors feel like dear friends I have grown up with. Sir Patrick will be missed. I’m glad we had a chance to say goodbye to Picard on his own series.

To me, I’ll repeat to myself he was just recruited into Section 31.

I also lost my father in 2024, and have a similar link in my mind. Like Patrick, cancer did what cancer does.

My condolences.

Thanks, to you as well.

Similar, except my grandfather. He also went bald young, and was a space enthusiast. (Among various other nerdy hobbies.)

I've got fond memories of visiting in the summers as a kid and watching TNG episodes he'd taped on VHS.

I watched TNG the first time around, every night, with my dad. It made me the man I am today in many ways.

TNG was comfort food for many of us nerdier Xennials. And this man is in the Mount Rushmore of Sci Fi actors.

R.I.P. Captain.

I'm sorry for your loss :(, wishing you healing

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