As we all know (and are used to), the Frenchman Captain Picard has a British accent. When TNG first aired, did that bother a lot of the fans?? Does anyone remember?
Not a lot. I mean, I did notice it but wasn't distracted by it. He could have spent a lot of time in Britain or is just putting on the accent like Baltar in BSG.
I thought it was kind of dumb. Why not just make the character british? A frenchman with a british accent really made no sense. It's not like Picard's french ancestry was vital to the story any more than british ancestry would have been. Or, why not have Stewart do a french accent? Then I guess his brother and his brother's family also spent a lot of time in Britian, meanwhile keeping the family vineyard going in France.
He probably learned English from a Brit so of course he spoke with a British accent. So that never bothered me.
My personal canon is that somewhere amidst the post-apocalyptic horrors of late-21st century Earth, Britain conquered France.
I always sort of retconned it having him be so eager to get into the Academy that he managed to convince his family to send him to schools in England, prestigious universities and boarding schools where having spent most of his formative years he formed a British accent.
A lot of French people speak English with an English accent. It's not surprising since they learn their English in the UK. I'm surprised you think it's surprising.
This is what I thought also. My French teacher (who was from France) spoke with a British accent when speaking in English. I figured that was commonplace. J.
Universal translator - he was speaking French all the time. What? you think all those aliens spoke with American accents?
That's always been my theory. And, of course, the French offered very little resistance to the British invasion forces.
^I was going to offer that in all the chaos, they surrendered proactively when they hadn't even been fighting the British...but I didn't want to insult any of our posters from France.
Which still doesn't explain why Picard's brother, brother's wife, nephew all spoke with a heavy british accent. Even Picard's old friend (Louis?) didn't speak with a french accent.
There's not a lot of water separating the two countries in the 21st century, and there's a tunnel ("the Chunnel") connecting the two. People go shopping "over the Channel" for the afternoon. Seems to me that by the 24th century - even without the transporter - there could be parts of France where British accents are the norm, and parts of UK vice versa. One could raise grapes in a French vineyard, yet socialize and be educated in Britain, or a British-dominated French university. Easily.