Star Trek's Patrick Stewart Stole From William Shatner Once, And Only Once
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Trekkies of all stripes know that there's only one main quality that an actor needs when portraying one of the franchise's venerated captains: They need to bring their own unique flavor altogether. It'd be an impossibly tough task for anyone to try and fill the shoes of the titans who've come before, from William Shatner's James T. Kirk to Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard to Avery Brooks' Benjamin Sisko to, most recently, Anson Mount's Christopher Pike. So, in that light, it serves any new franchise actor well to put their own spin and bring their own sensibilities to the role instead.
But back when Stewart was a fresh-faced new addition to the franchise with the premiere of "The Next Generation" (albeit at the age of 47), he had yet to fully establish himself as one of the best and most beloved captains in all of "Star Trek." The pressure of bringing the franchise back to its episodic television roots for the first time since "The Original Series" and "The Animated Series" must've been unfathomable, but Stewart knew full well the dangers of trying to channel his inner William Shatner. With the benefit of hindsight, it's safe to say that Stewart fully succeeded in making Picard stand apart as his own distinct voice altogether ... but, by his own admission, he had no choice but to make one exception to his rule where he decided to blatantly take a page out of Captain Kirk's playbook.
In his new memoir "Making It So," Stewart opened up about the process of stealing from Shatner — not for any one scene or moment in "The Next Generation," mind you, but to record the famous opening narration that precedes every episode of the series.
'I basically did his version syllable for syllable'
There are few greater honors in all of "Trek" than the opportunity for an actor to perform the opening narration laying out the grand ambitions and idealistic journeys of the starship Enterprise. After William Shatner popularized the classic words before every canonical episode of "The Original Series" starting in 1966, "The Next Generation" brought this back in 1987 — though with one significant tweak, subbing out the concluding phrase of "where no man has gone before" for the much more inclusive "where no one has gone before." But when it came time to actually record his version, Stewart came to realize one major problem: There was simply no one-upping Shatner. So what was he to do? Simple! As he explains in his memoir:
And in one very specific aspect, I owe a debt of gratitude to William Shatner. There came the time when I had to record the famous 'Space, the final frontier' speech that opens each episode of 'The Next Generation,' as it did 'The Original Series' ... I carefully listened to Bill's voiceover in preparation to do mine, and realized that there was nothing I could do to improve upon it. He'd done it perfectly, the tone and cadences spot-on. So I basically did his version syllable for syllable — the only time I intentionally copied Bill's performance as the captain."
It's no secret that Shatner's theatrical, over-the-top line deliveries oftentimes lent themselves to meme-worthy clips and viral moments, but it was wise of Stewart to recognize that his predecessor's opening narration couldn't be topped. Listening to Stewart's take on the famous speech, the Shatner influence is undeniable. But even the most hardcore Trekkie would have to admit that, in this case, imitation really was the sincerest form of flattery.