Senator Cory Booker Reveals His Favorite Star Trek Captain

Senator Cory Booker, one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls in the 2020 election, is a known [...]

Senator Cory Booker, one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls in the 2020 election, is a known Trekkie. His office bookshelf is full of Star Trek reference materials. He also toured the Star Trek booth at this year San Diego Comic-Con. His love for Star Trek was the centerpiece of a new interview with The New York Times.

During the interview, Booker talks about how his father introduced him to Star Trek, and how Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of the future informs his 2020 presidential campaign. He also reveals the Capt. Jean-Luc Picard is his "favorite captain by far." He goes onto explain why that is.

"Besides his great haircut, I do love how profoundly intellectual he is and how reasoned and thoughtful," Booker says. "I was just rewatching the episode with him and Wesley Crusher, basically the one where Wesley is leaving and they get trapped and Picard is injured [Season 4's "Final Mission"]. He is incredibly affectionate toward him in a very restrained, British way. You could still see that he is still a nurturing leader. There's something about his style that I've just found compelling."

As for Captain James T. Kirk, whom Republican Senator Ted Cruz has said would be a Republican while Picard would be a Democrat, Booker remarked, "Kirk is from Iowa. It's so hard for me to answer that question because in the same way, if you look back 50 years ago, blacks were Republicans. So I'm trying to think if you want to look at the classical ideas of the party. I really think where the Republican Party has jolted, that it is now the party of Trump, I definitely do not think either of them would be that."

Picard was played by Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stewart returns to the role in the upcoming CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard. Set decades after the end of The Next Generation, Picard may be changed from the leader Booker admired.

Producer Alex Kurtzman said in an interview that "There are many things that haunt Picard," Showrunner Michael Chabon added, "He's a lot older and we're not shying away from that at all — we're dealing with a man who's in a very different place in his life."

Who is your favorite Star Trek captain? Are you looking forward to Picard's return? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Picard debuts on CBS All Access in 2020.

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