Maurice Picard

Maurice Picard was a Human male, a native of La Barre, France on Earth. He was the husband of Yvette Picard, the father of Robert and Jean-Luc Picard, father-in-law of Marie Picard, and the paternal grandfather of René Picard. He continued the family business of winemaking under the label and placed importance on keeping the family estate in the same state without making changes to it. ()
Maurice Picard was a very traditional man who did not believe in technology. He was a strong believer in passing on those traditions and the history of his family. () He feared the loss of values and had frequent discussions with Yvette about whether or not to get a replicator. ()
Maurice and his wife Yvette often fought; this became a catalyst for their son, Jean-Luc, to become a stargazer. () Yvette suffered from psychotic breaks, to which Maurice implored Yvette to seek help, but Yvette refused, and Maurice came to accept that there was nothing he could do. Maurice would lock Yvette away whenever she had a psychotic episode. One such episode resulted in her attempting to take Jean-Luc away from Maurice through the underground tunnels of Château Picard, where she left him after his foot became trapped in a rotting floorboard. Maurice rescued Jean-Luc and locked Yvette away inside her bedroom. Eventually, Jean-Luc realized that his father was not being abusive or cruel, but was genuinely trying to help in the only way he could or knew. ()
Maurice opposed Jean-Luc's decision to join Starfleet, wanting him to remain home and tend to the family vineyards. The two grew estranged, and Maurice died before the two could reconcile, something which Jean-Luc regretted his entire life. ()
While his sons were young boys, Maurice's father, as Jean-Luc described, deteriorated "from a powerful, intelligent figure to a frail wisp of a man, who could barely make his own way home." ()
It was from Maurice that his sons inherited Shalaft's Syndrome, just as he had from his father before him. ()
In 2369, Jean-Luc came face to face with the late Maurice, who was briefly brought to light by Q in order to convince Jean-Luc he was dead. ()
Later that year, in a conversation with Beverly Crusher, Picard compared to his father, saying the former was like a father who understood Picard. ()
== Legacy ==
After Jean-Luc slipped into a coma following a hit-and-run attack by Adam Soong, he had visions of a Starfleet psychological evaluation in which the psychiatrist took the form of Maurice as Jean-Luc remembered him when he was a boy. During a visualisation of a story Jean-Luc was telling to the psychiatrist, with help from Tallinn, Jean-Luc realised that the psychiatrist was Maurice, who proceeded to impart the truth of Yvette's psychosis to Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc admitted to Maurice that he never really knew him. ()
== Appendices ==
=== Appearances ===
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=== Background information ===
Maurice Picard was played by actor Clive Church in The Next Generation, and by James Callis in Picard. 
The name Maurice was first mentioned in . According to the , the name was chosen by Star Trek writer-producer Ronald D. Moore.
In the first draft script of , Jean-Luc Picard recalled, "My father used to say, 'Nature is the best medicine for a troubled mind." However, later in the same scripted scene, he considered that his father may have been incorrect, concluding, "The best medicine for a troubled mind is a good woman."
=== Apocrypha ===
In the , this character was given the first name "Claude" rather than "Maurice".
=== External links ===
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Category:Humans
Category:Picard family
Category:Deleted and unused material in background