What�s so good about playing a character for such a long time?

To be connected with a role for over a period of years, continuously connected, meant that you had a choice really, either the character stood still and you kind of stagnated and repeated the same things, or as all of us determined we would try to let these characters develop and grow.

I made a promise to myself, I don�t know, round about year two or three, that I would try to introduce something unexpected in every single episode of the series. It was largely to amuse myself as much as anything in thinking of these things,but I didn�t ever want the audience to feel that they knew everything.

I certainly wanted to maintain some sense of mystery about Picard and that�s why we never allowed certain situations to fully evolve, like the relationship between Picard and Beverly Crusher. That was never allowed to evolve in the way that many of the fans wanted it to, simply because it was far more interesting for it not to. For the tension to remain there about all of that.

It�s a novel experience for an actor, very few of us get the opportunity to develop someone over many many years and � and it�s still happening now. This morning I was at a meeting discussing the script for the next Star Trek movie, Star Trek 10, and because we have a new writer, a non Star Trek writer this time, John Logan, a wonderful writer, I find myself talking a lot about Picard and one of the things that I�ve come to understand is that as I talk a lot about Picard what I find is I�m talking about myself.

There was a sort of double action that occurred. In one sense Picard was expanding like this and at the same time he was also growing closer and closer to me as well and in some respect I suppose even had some influence on me. I became a better listener than I ever had been as a result of playing Jean Luc Picard because it was one of the things that he does terrifically well.