116: Sex and Shooting

Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

Captain Picard and Indiana Jones.

Wise, measured, and distinctly unromantic, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was conceived from the start as very different from his predecessor, James T. Kirk. But for Patrick Stewart, the lack of physical drama felt creatively unsatisfying. In October 1988, he wrote a letter to Gene Roddenberry outlining his desire for Picard to get some “action”—in more ways than one.

It would be over a year before Stewart’s request was granted, in the third-season episode “Captain’s Holiday.” As writer Ira Steven Behr recalled, the instructions he was given were, “Just get the Captain laid.” This he accomplished, somewhat incongruously, by marrying the normally cool captain with a contemporary action-adventure hero: Indiana Jones. The curious melding stuck, and in episodes such as “The Chase,” “Gambit,” and “QPid,” Picard’s passion for archaeology—along with his swashbuckling heroism—added an extra arrow to the good captain’s quiver.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, recorded last year when the fifth Indiana Jones movie was filming in Glasgow, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Indy super fan Carlos Miranda to compare and contrast these adventuring archaeologists, both returning for their latest escapades well into their golden years. Is the staid life of a university professor—or a Federation diplomat—really compatible with the thrills and spills of derring-do? And what might these two men’s fascination with the lives of their ancient forebears reveal about their relationships with the fathers who went before them?

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Carlos Miranda

Production Duncan Barrett (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)