A Clueless Patrick Stewart Turned To His Kids To Learn About Star Trek
In his new autobiography "Making It So: A Memoir," Patrick Stewart stresses multiple times that he was not the least bit familiar with "Star Trek" before being approached to play Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He tells a story of being in Los Angeles for a gig in 1986 — he was to read Shakespearean dialogue while a colleague gave a lecture on the Bard's text — expecting nothing more than $100 and a dinner at T.G.I.Friday's in exchange. After the gig, however, he was contacted by a producer about a meeting with Gene Roddenberry ... a name that was completely alien to Stewart. At that point, he admitted, "Star Trek" was something other people in his home once watched in the background while he passed through the room on his way to more important theater gigs.
The story went that Gene Roddenberry actually didn't want Stewart for the role, but that the actor remained at the top of multiple casting directors' lists as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" came together. It wouldn't be until early in 1987 that Stewart would sign his contract and begin to prepare for his role.
Even then, however, Stewart knew nothing about "Star Trek," other than it was a massive commercial enterprise (pun intended) that he was to become involved in. Stewart had to turn to his children Daniel (about 20 at the time) and Sophie (about 15) to explain everything he might need to know about Roddenberry's sci-fi franchise before filming began in just a few months' time. He was told about the original series, about the show's syndication throughout the '70s, and how it had become a global phenomenon. The way Stewart saw it, after his kids' explanation, "We were the next phase of Gene's globe-conquering plan."
Reveling in befuddlement
Naturally, Dan and Sophie took every available opportunity to mock their father for his cluelessness. It seems that Stewart's kids were less than impressed with their dad's ability to stride the boards of an old theater, speaking Shakespearean dialogue with the utmost acumen. They saw his work as completely boring and amused themselves by dropping "Trek" references they knew Stewart wouldn't get. He wrote:
"I should add that my children [...] also took the opportunity to rib me about my 'Trek' cluelessness. They would trade lines of dialogue between William Shatner's Kirk and Leonard Nimoy's Spock in front of me, knowing that I wouldn't catch the references, and reveled in my befuddlement. But they, of course, were thrilled. They couldn't believe that their boring old dad who spoke blank verse onstage would be doing something that they could connect with."
In terms of actually watching old "Star Trek" reruns, Stewart felt that the original series wasn't a good place to start. The original 1960s television vibe looked and felt much different from modern shows, as the style, the acting, and the sensibility had evolved greatly. In 1987, he had three seasons of the original series, one season of the (obscure) animated series, and only four feature films to fall back on for research. Stewart admitted that, as research objects, the "Star Trek" feature films helped him understand the series better, merely by dint of their more professional production values and their recency. The first four "Trek" movies were made in 1979, 1981, 1984, and 1986 respectively. That's a far cry from the old 1966 Desilu days.
The search for Trek
Of his Trek research, Stewart wrote:
"To that point, there had been four 'Star Trek' feature films made that starred the cast of the Original Series. [...] I watched them in order in preparation for my new job. The films struck me as a better reference point than the TV episodes from the '60s, because they were more up-to-date in terms of sensibilities and production values, and because I knew that actors are likely to deliver sharper performances in movies than they do on series television, which can become a monotonous grind."
The films, a Trekkie might hasten to add, were much better about employing every member of its ensemble, whereas the original TV series focused more heavily on Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley). "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would also be a fuller ensemble that focused on the team and not just the captain.
In 1987, Stewart would find a place in Los Angeles and live there for extended periods while filming "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He recalled that he and his wife Sheila would struggle a bit living so far apart for so much of the year, but his kids were excited by the prospect. "[T]hey were simply excited to go to Los Angeles for their school holidays," Stewart wrote. It's also entirely likely that Dan and Sophie would be invited to the "Next Generation" set occasionally to see their dad work. One might at least partially credit them for Stewart's ease on the sci-fi series.