 |
| From eBay |
I remember when Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek", held the press conference to announce that his sci-fi magnum opus would come back to television. This was surfing on the fact that at the time, the 1986 film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" starring the original cast had been a major hit which finished with Captain Kirk and company manning a new starship called the USS Enterprise-A to major cheers from the audience (yep, I was there).
However, the caveat was this: this new TV series would take place several decades after Kirk and would feature the USS Enterprise-D with a totally new cast. And I (and presumably millions of other Trekkies) went: How could they replace Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the main bridge crew?! That's absolutely scandalous! But Roddenberry and a new production team plowed through with the plans and several months later, I bought the above "Starlog" issue showing the new Enterprise crew (my copy has long since disintegrated).
The crew was different alright. The only actor I could recognize was Levar Burton as Geordi LaForge because of his acclaimed time in "Roots" and "Reading Rainbow". Everyone else was new. And the new captain: he's bald and French? I would think that in the 24th century, baldness would have been cured. In any case, I had no idea who this Patrick Stewart was, although before "Star Trek: The Next Generation" premiered in September 1987, I'd heard that he was this Shakespearean actor who had appeared in "Excalibur", "Dune" and "Lifeforce", none of which I'd seen.
Well, the premiere episode "Encounter at Farpoint" showed up on CITY-TV here in Toronto, and my initial impression was that it was OK...interesting...a bit hammy at points. But Roddenberry and the writers made sure that all of us knew what Captain Jean-Luc Picard was like: definitely not the relatively easygoing James T. Kirk. He was stern, tense and didn't suffer fools gladly. He kept a very frosty distance even from his closest officers and hated kids. And as the first season progressed, I was wondering if Captain Le Grumpy and the show would survive. There was a certain 80s cheesiness in the early episodes to the extent that when the final episode of the season, "The Neutral Zone", played out, I internally remarked "Well, nice try, Gene...guess you can't capture lightning twice in a bottle".
I'm glad that I was wrong. TNG would continue for another six seasons to great acclaim especially in the middle. And soon, the camera and the interest would start to focus a lot on Captain Picard (although of course, Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Worf had their time in the spotlight) because of Stewart's portrayal of him. Shakespearean training, eh? Season 2 showed the series and cast gradually gelling with Picard himself slowly losing some of that frostiness although he still maintained that very commanding presence. "The Measure of a Man" from that season was the first time that I truly realized that the man could act everyone else off the stage. He actually moved me.
I think it was from the third season that TNG finally came out of the original series' shadow, and we all got to know Stewart's abilities, especially in episodes like "Sarek" where he was more than willing to show off his vulnerabilities as well as his strengths. His speeches were always things to look forward to and I have to admit looking at the below scene from "The First Duty", it was the first time that I'd wished I could actually get reprimanded by Captain Picard!
By the time TNG had ended, Stewart's reputation had become even more well known in Hollywood although of course, he'd already fashioned a successful career on stage long before. But a few years later, a likeness of him appeared as Professor X in an "X-Men" graphic novel; the illustrator knew who his Charles Xavier should be like. I guess the fans locked onto this brilliant idea which then transferred to the producers at 20th-Century Fox and Stewart was now truly the leader of the X-Men when it premiered in 2000. I saw the first movie at a theatre only a couple of stations away from my apartment on the Tozai Line. Although there have been a few good movies in that franchise, I have to say that the only scene that I return to regularly on YouTube is the one where we see Xavier and Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr meet briefly in what is actually Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. After that scene, I was convinced that Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen could spend a night on stage in front of a captivated audience reading an old-fashioned phone directory and make millions.
I would have thought that such an actor with a formidable presence on stage and screen was arrogant and self-absorbed. But from what I've heard over the years, Stewart was just the opposite. He was kind and generous, and I've seen some of the outtakes from TNG where he got all muggy with the camera. Moreover, I think that what got him even more admiration and respect was that he didn't hesitate to take the piss out of himself and his roles as starchy heroic leaders. I've seen the above scene from "Extras" and of course, he's shown up on "Family Guy" and "American Dad" fairly regularly. I also heard about his love for "Beavis and Butthead".
I heard about the actor's passing about twenty minutes after the bulletins had first come out online yesterday. And I just couldn't believe it! I knew that in the years to come that the passings of the original and perhaps even TNG crew would eventually happen but I just wasn't expecting to find out about Stewart's passing so soon and only a few days after Walter Koenig's death. I first assumed that it was some sick joke but when I checked up on it, it was sadly true. "Star Trek" and Marvel and Hollywood had lost one of the best. I would be seeing a lot of Trek-based YouTube channels put out videos in tribute of the man.
Of course, Sir Patrick Stewart was even more of a star on the stage doing all of those Shakespearean roles, but I can only speak from where I've known him from...as a dignified and tough starship commander and an idealistic leader of mutants, and I was truly fortunate to have seen and heard him from even those roles. His final role is in the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" movie in a couple of months' time. I can't imagine what the reaction will be like when we see him one last time.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.” -- As You Like It
Yes, this is still a special ROY article and as was the case with Walter Koenig, I'll show a few Japanese singers who shared the same birthday as Stewart: July 13th!
(1945) Teruko Hino (日野てる子)
(1965) Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）
(1966) Hidemi Ishikawa（石川秀美）
.jpg)
