Patrick Stewart Refused To Wear Tights: Star Trek Writers Reveal Rejected First Contact Time Travel Ideas

The writers of Star Trek: First Contact considered setting the film in several different time periods before deciding on the mid-21st century, and Patrick Stewart himself nixed one idea by refusing to “wear tights on the big screen.” After the conclusion of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1994, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D made the jump from television to feature films. While their first big-screen adventure, Star Trek Generations, received mixed reviews, Star Trek: First Contact is often considered to be the best of the TNG films.

Star Trek: First Contact finds the crew of the USS Enterprise-E traveling back in time to stop the Borg from changing the past. In the final version of the film, the Borg visit Earth in 2063, just before Zefram Cochrane’s (James Cromwell) historic warp flight that ushers in a new era for humanity. Before choosing Earth’s First Contact with the Vulcans, writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga considered other time periods, from the Renaissance to the Civil War. In the Star Trek oral history, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Star Trek: First Contact’s writers discuss the “lame” ideas they threw around when conceptualizing the film. Read their full quotes below:

Brannon Braga: I was eager to do time travel again, because I was stinging from that Nexus crap in Generations. Also, we were waiting for First Contact to really dip back into the Borg. But I have to say, our initial ideas for the movie were pretty lame. We were talking about the Borg traveling back to medieval times, the 1500s. It was just insane. We talked about that for a few weeks, and Patrick got wind of it through Rick, and he refused to wear tights on the big screen. That was his quote. But it was a dumb idea to begin with.

Ronald D. Moore: We went through a variety of time periods during the development process, from the Italian Renaissance to the present to the Civil War. Nothing really got that far, but we talked about a lot of different periods in terms of what would be interesting, where the Borg would go and why, and what we could do there. We realized fairly quickly that there’s been a lot of time travel done. Almost any period you go to has been done in one way, shape, or form. Then we came up with the idea of doing the near future and to involve what is essentially the birth of Star Trek.

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10 Ways Star Trek: First Contact Improved The Franchise

Released to celebrate 30 years of the Star Trek franchise, First Contact laid the groundwork for its next 30 years from Enterprise to Picard.

Patrick Stewart Has A Long History Of Wearing Tights On Stage And Screen

Membership in the Royal Shakespearean Company means wearing tights.

Patrick Stewart may not have wanted to wear tights again for Star Trek: First Contact, but the celebrated Shakespearean actor was no stranger to wearing tights. Not only did Stewart appear in Robin Hood: Men in Tights as King Richard, but he has also acted in numerous Shakespeare plays, many of which likely required wearing tights. Captain Picard also donned tights in the Robin Hood-themed TNG episode, “Qpid,” which sees the TNG crew cast as Robin Hood characters by the god-like Q (John de Lancie). However, wearing tights on a stage or even in an episode of television is considerably different than appearing in tights on a massive movie theater screen.

Patrick Stewart obviously wanted something different and exciting for Captain Picard’s second big-screen adventure. In a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter celebrating the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: First Contact, Ronald D. Moore mentioned that Patrick Stewart had particularly enjoyed playing the more action-oriented version of Captain Picard seen in the TNG season 6 episode, “Starship Mine.” Star Trek: First Contact made Captain Jean-Luc Picard a true action movie hero (with no tights anywhere in sight).

Star Trek: The Next Generation & Star Trek: First Contact are available to stream on Paramount+.