Patrick Stewart was the best thing to ever happen to Star Trek.
Forget Leonard Nimoy’s pointy ears and the time-travelling hijinks of the USS Discovery, Captain Pickard entertained the world for almost 200 hour-long episodes and four feature films. And now he’s back!
Stewart will reprise his role as Picard on January 23 on Amazon Prime, in a new series dedicated to his character and dubbed simply Star Trek: Picard.
And I am not the only one excited about this, Patrick Stewart seems overjoyed too. Having bid farewell to the character that brought him international fame, the Shakespearean actor – who turns 80- later this year – couldn’t wait to get back into the Trekkie universe:
“It has been 17 years since I said ‘au revoir’ to Jean-Luc. It was my absolute intention not only never to go back to that world, but to assume that everything that could be said had been said — that there was nothing more to say.”
Evidently, there was more to say. Showrunner Alex Kurtzman talked Stewart back into the role after explaining that the new series would take the captain to places he had never been before. They also attracted some top screenwriter Michael Chabon, who has previously won a Pulitzer Prize (and is also a big Star Wars fan).
According to Stewart, “I found that they had ideas that were unexpected and that we were in a different world from the one that ‘The Next Generation’ created. It feels like a new beginning because Picard is in a completely different situation from the one that we saw in him for four movies and the 178 previous episodes.”
Star Trek: Picard will revolve around the ageing Captain, now no longer in Star Fleet, who is dealing with the death of his Android Data.
“There are one or two characters who have a history with ‘Star Trek’ (in the new series) but the world around them is transformed — it is not the same world,” said Stewart.
Star Trek: Picard kicks off on January 23, on Amazon Prime.
