Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Jean-Luc Picard
7. Let's Talk About Yvette
Yvette Gessard-Picard, mother to Jean-Luc and Robert, changed forms through Star Trek. The audience first met her in Where No One Has Gone Before. There, she was an elderly French woman, inviting her son to tea. However, by the close of Star Trek: Picard's second season, we learned slightly more to add context here.
First, both Picard's mother, and nephew, took their names from a star in George Pal's The Time Machine, a 1960 adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic, Yvette Mimieux, and her father René, respectively. Mimieux would go on to describe herself, as she believed directors and casting agents saw her:
I suppose I have a soulful quality. I was often cast as a wounded person, the 'sensitive' role.
Herta Ware originated the role of Yvette in TNG, while Madeline Wise took on the part in Picard. This version of the character was revealed to suffer from a severe mental illness, one for which she refused to seek treatment. Though this storyline was not handled with, in our opinion, sufficient delicacy, it does add a deeper layer to her relationship with Jean-Luc, who forever blamed himself for her death, having freed her from the confines, imposed by Maurice Picard.
Ultimately, Yvette Picard was seen as the progressive parent of the two, though this left her at odds with her husband Maurice. It would take many years for Jean-Luc to resolve his generational trauma, though arguably, despite some questionable storytelling choices, it made for a compelling narrative.