Oh Captain, My Captain

It was with surprise and much sorrow that I heard of the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart today.  He found success late-ish in life, and was known for his role as Charles Xavier in the Fox X-men (and two MCU)  films, Gurney Hallack in the 1984 DUNE, the CIA guy in "American Dad," and the Poop Emoji.*

But come on.  Captain Jean-Luc Picard.  That was The role.  How I first encountered him as an actor, how I remember him, and how I came to love him.

All of these guys were younger than you are now.

My dad and I would watch "Star Trek" (The Original Series) together when I was a child, but starting in September of 1987, my Captain was Picard. For six seasons, I watched TNG every week, sometimes twice, and it was my home series, even though I watched and enjoyed most of what came later.  If you argued that "Deep Space Nine" was the better show, I wouldn't disagree with you, but it's the Enterprise-D crew that's my favorite, and that's the group (even Pulaski and Barclay and Guinan) that feel like family to me.

This was the poster I had on my wall, while you had John Elway or Heather Locklear or Ted Bundy on yours.

In 1994, the series ended, and the movie GENERATIONS came out, and it was that film that showed me I had a Picard impression in me ("You are a Starfleet officer.  You will NOT be deactivated!"), and between us both, it's still pretty good.

I saw Stewart in several films after that, the three Trek films that followed, the one where he tortured Mel Gibson, the one where he was Bambi's father, the one where he played a psychotic Donald Trump supporter, and the one where he was naked.  He went on to play Professor X in the X-men films--some of them good, some of them not so good . . . though he always was.

Picard seemed so old to kid me (Stewart was forty-seven when the series began), but the character grew and changed as the years went on, and eventually, I looked in the mirror and I was older than Captain Picard had been at the start of the show.

Do you know the name of the character who replaced Wesley Crusher at the Conn? 
Oh, it's not a trivia question--I honestly don't know.

Besides Picard, though, my favorite Stewart performance was his one man show of A Christmas Carol, which I'd purchased a cassette of in school.  I used to listen to it often, admiring how he gave personality to all those characters using only his voice (it's possible that had an effect on my semi-professional life as well).

Despite being a fan and sharing a birthday, I only met the man once.  It was at a local comic convention a few years back.  But I came close decades earlier.

A lifetime ago, though it doesn't feel that way, I was a second assistant at a production company in LA**, and the other assistant would tell me when other positions were open. He urged me to go interview at Clive Barker's office. I was deathly afraid of going there and being asked what I thought of Barker's books or movies, and not being able to lie. But when an opening at Flying Freehold Productions opened up, I put on a tie and drove to Paramount to interview.   It was my first trip to Paramount, and I liked having a pass to show the guard out front . . .like you see in the movies.

I was in his office, in front of posters for his Moby Dick and Christmas Carol adaptations, and while I made my best pitch that I was the boy for the job (well, man, technically), I could immediately tell that I didn't get it.  Knowing I probably would not be invited back, I asked the staffer, "Is Mr. Stewart here?"  He shrugged and said, "No.  He's filming.  Wendy's here, though."  And then our time was done.

I didn't get the job (the interviewer asked me what I thought of the TNT Dickens mini-series and I said I thought Stewart as Scrooge was too young for the part.  He then told me that, if I'd ever read the book, I would know that Ebenezer Scrooge wasn't old, and I told him it was my favorite book and I'd read it multiple times . . . a mistake in retrospect***), but I did walk around Paramount for a while.  It was something I'd do whenever I was at Warners or Paramount or Fox, hoping that one day I'd be working there, telling stories for a living.

I went to my first (and only) Trek convention in 2002, where I was lucky enough to see the crew on stage together.  Unfortunately, I also saw STAR TREK NEMESIS that same year (at the Grauman's Chinese Theater), the worst of all the films.  That was a long time ago, and even then, he was able to meet and hear from people that loved him and his work, not just a handful of people, but thousands, maybe even millions over the years.  And that's a big deal.

I was fortunate enough to absolutely love the third season of Picard, where all the "Next Gen" crew got back together, and even though its detractors say that it's just blatant fan-service and nostalgia-baiting, it totally worked for me.  Hell, I'd like to watch it again right now.

You are still older than all of these guys.

Captain Picard was my "Star Trek" captain, and I admired his strength, his wisdom, his attempts to talk rather than fight (less so in the movies, of course), his voice and theatricality, and his palpable decency.  In every interview he gave--and he was one of those performers who told his stories over and over again with the exuberance of having told it for the very first time--it became obvious that the most positive traits of Professor Xavier and Captain Picard were carryovers from the man who played them.

It has been impressive and moving to see so much outpouring of admiration, love, and appreciation for Sir Patrick since his sudden death (from Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia) was announced (it was sudden enough that he did press for THE SHEEP DETECTIVES earlier this year, and probably did some AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY interviews we'll be seeing in a month or two).  Other people felt the way that I did--a lot of them.  Impressive, though not really surprising.

"I like to believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment . . . because it will never come again."

Jean-Luc Picard

*In writing this, it occurred to me that a lot of young people would know him from this famous meme:

**Very likely my least-favorite job of all time.  One I didn't get fired from, but still 

***Not in retrospect, actually.  The second I said it, I saw the man's reaction, and realized I should've just agreed with him and admitted I'd never read the book I'd read just the year before.