Star Trek: 4 Actors Who Almost Played Picard Before Patrick Stewart

1987 was a hell of a year. Arnold Schwarzenegger was ordering people to get to the chopper, Whitney Houston wanted to dance with somebody, and Patrick Stewart was telling his crew to "make it so" aboard the all-new Enterprise in a daring revitalization of the "Star Trek" franchise that to this day is ranked highly by fans.

When "Star Trek: The Next Generation" entered our airspace, no one knew just how much of an icon Captain Jean-Luc Picard would become. While not quite held to as high a status as the original Kirk (William Shatner) or Spock (Leonard Nimoy), there's no doubt that Stewart's stoic and cerebral Captain carved out enough of a place in the franchise to make each of his returns a welcome one. There was a point in time, however, where Picard came close to not looking like the future Charles Xavier. According to a Paramount Studios memo, there were four diverse and drastically different options that were considered to beam us up before Stewart was ultimately cast.

From familiar faces of the big and small screens at the time to even more alternative choices than the one "Star Trek" fans ended up with, Jonathan Frakes and company would've had a very different captain to report to had the brains behind the Enterprise's crew gone in a different direction. So order yourself a Jean-Luc favorite of Earl Grey tea, and while it's cooling down, just imagine what the other possible Picards might have been like.

Not only dabbling in iconic staples of pop culture, Yaphet Kotto was present at the foundation of a major franchise. He might also be one potential Picard that we truly wish we had experienced (sorry, Mr. Stewart). Besides playing Parker in the groundbreaking sci-fi horror "Alien," Kotto also portrayed one of the best Bond villains ever, Dr. Kananga, in "Live and Let Die." Unfortunately, one role he regretted not saying yes to was being at the helm of Enterprise-D, and even in the years that followed, it was a chance he truly wished he had taken.

In an interview with The Big Issue in 2015, Kotto stewed over getting the chance to join the "Star Trek" universe and his decision not to join the five-year mission. This offer also came after he was considered to play Lando Calrissian in "The Empire Strikes Back," which went to Billy Dee Williams instead.

"I think I made some wrong decisions in my life, man. I should have done that, but I walked away. When you're making movies, you tend to say no to TV," he explained. "It's like when you're in college and someone asks you to the high school dance. You say no." Thankfully, though, Kotto will always be remembered for fighting to the death with a xenomorph, which is something Patrick Stewart can't make a claim to.

You wish to find a Captain, yes? You wish to get someone to seek out new life and new civilizations, yes? Well, at one point before Stewart stepped in, the man behind "Lethal Weapon" villain General McAllister, Mitchell Ryan, was in contention for the lead role in "The Next Generation."

Boasting a career with over 150 acting credits on the big and small screens, Ryan acknowledged the talent he found himself competing with, regardless of his experience. In an interview with StarTrek.com in 2018, Ryan admitted, "It's true. I was. I was pretty well considered until they ran across that incredible British actor... Patrick Stewart." Ryan added, "I don't know how close I came, but I was told (at the time) I was really being considered and it was looking good."

Thankfully, there was still enough space for Ryan to be placed elsewhere in the franchise as Kyle Riker, the father of Picard's Number Two, William Riker (Frakes). Appearing in Season 2, Episode 14, "The Icarus Factor," the actor joined the franchise for a story where father and son settle their differences over a good old round of Anbo-jyutsu, Ryan's appearance was, unfortunately, a one-time thing, much to his surprise. "Who wouldn't want to do more? What's funny, though, is I only ever saw the episode the first time it showed."

Another potential leading man who tapped into science fiction just about everywhere but "Star Trek" was Roy Thinnes. Appearing in shows like the original "Battlestar Galactica," an adaptation of "War of the Worlds," and "The X-Files," one of Thinnes' most notable career points was in "The Invaders," which shares a legendary connection to "Star Trek." While he was on Paramount's short list of actors to take on the role of Captain Picard, he never joined the beloved franchise filled with warp drives and transporter rooms. One of his co-stars from "The Invaders," on the other hand, certainly did.

Created by Larry Cohen, "The Invaders" followed Thinnes as David Vincent, an architect who discovers aliens are already among us and are in the middle of a plot to take over the world. Appearing in the show on two separate occasions was Susan Oliver, who just two years earlier had played the Orion slave girl in the pilot of the original "Star Trek" series. Oliver stands out in "Trek" history to this day, given that her character had green skin and has been an often revisited trope throughout the franchise.

When putting Patrick Bauchau next to Patrick Stewart, it's almost easy to see what kind of Captain Gene Roddenberry was going for. A Brussels-born actor who studied at Oxford, Bauchau appeared in both French New Wave and New German cinema. In regards to his English-speaking roles, one of his notable gigs, like Kotto, was as a bad guy in the James Bond movie "A View To A Kill," another entry from the Roger Moore era.

According to the Paramount memo that listed these actors along with Stewart for the role of Picard, Bauchau's was an audition that went well but, unfortunately, never went further. It went so well, in fact, that he and Stewart were the clear favorites for the part. It seemed that diving into that world was a dream that Bauchau continued to cling to years later, when, during a fan event, the actor admitted that he'd still love to head out into space. Speaking with BondFanEvents, Bauchau said, "I'd love to do STAR TREK. I'm interested in that and I think they are interested in me." Unfortunately, much like a transporter on the fritz, nothing has energized — yet.

Want to learn more behind-the-scenes facts about the classic sci-fi franchise? Get the untold truth of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" here.