Last Updated on: 8th November 2026, 11:24 pm
I have learned that the video above looks disturbing. I don’t quite know why. Something about the guy making himself look like Data and dancing around his living room? Apologies if it’s distracting. But I really couldn’t help but use it. What could be better than a video with clips of Data and Picard?
A week and a half or so ago, Sir Patrick Stewart died. I know he had done a whole lot of things, but for the longest time, I only knew him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard from “Star Trek: the Next Generation”. I loved that show. I didn’t watch it all the time when I was 8 and it was brand new, but I got attached to it pretty quickly.
Captain Picard was an awesome character, but it is interesting to watch the evolution of how he was played. He looks so very stiff at the beginning, and then eventually he becomes what we’re used to. I think every time I have some Earl Grey Tea, I will think of him.
Our whole family would watch the show, and Mom would comment that she thought his bald head suited him. She used to say she thought he looked kind of cute. I watched every episode of the show, but I don’t think I really understood some of them until much much later. Something I didn’t know at the time was in “The Inner Light”, the episode where Picard lives a whole lifetime in 25 minutes, his son is being played by Stewart’s own son.
I thought about trying to name a few episodes that were some of my favourites, and it was hard to settle for a few. I decided on three, but there are many many more. Of course “Inner Light” is up there, and it’s also one that I didn’t truly understand until I was older. It’s funny. When I was a kid, the quiet scenes with the family felt so boring because I felt like he was being kept from commanding the ship, but those are the ones that make me cry now. Darmok is another deep one. His determination to learn an entirely different kind of language is touching. I know that “Tapestry” is basically “Star trek” does “It’s a Wonderful Life” but it’s an episode that makes me think about life choices and the impact that they have on the future. He was just so good at them all.
I heard his voice so much that I would totally recognize it in other contexts. In a way, I guess that could be a curse because once it became associated with Captain Picard, it was hard to be other things. I was so happy when he showed up in “the Simpsons”.
I didn’t know this until after his passing, but Sir Patrick Stewart was a strong advocate for survivors of domestic violence and The LGBTQ community. No wonder he could play such a good Picard. He was a good guy at heart.
I was sad to hear that at the end, he was dealing with both Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia. I was also amazed that he managed to film Star Trek Picard all the way into March of 2022 as well as shoot his scenes for “Avengers: Doomsday” into 2025 while all of this was on the horizon.
I should really stop. I mean, it’s not like I knew the guy. But I had to put something down because I watched him for so many years. Here’s one last video that he apparently made as a birthday surprise for Gene Roddenberry in 1991.
I laughed when he got to Q.
I guess Q was right after all. All good things must come to an end. Rest in Peace.