The gut-wrenching news that Patrick Stewart died after a “brief and poignant battle with Alzheimer’s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia” sent shockwaves of grief across the globe on Thursday. It had been a little while since the actor had been seen in public,
but he appears in the trailer for the upcoming Marvel movie Avengers: Doomsday, and his health setbacks had not been made public.
Stewart was one of the greatest actors of his generation, onstage and on screen, and he could play a tremendously wide range of parts, from Prospero in The Tempest to a skinhead gang leader in Green Room. But his two most iconic roles were Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men cinematic universe and, of course, Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
When a new Star Trek series was announced in 1987, many OG fans found the very idea blasphemous. William Shatner’s Kirk had been the only captain they’d known for the previous 20 years, and the film franchise was still going strong with the original Enterprise crew. But Stewart quickly won them over with his portrayal of Jean-Luc Picard, who expertly helmed the Enterprise D across all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and four motion pictures.
The character seemed like he’d remain part of Patrick Stewart’s past forever after the disappointing box-office returns of 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. But in 2018, word came down that Paramount+ had ordered a new series called Star Trek: Picard that was going to take place two decades after the events of Nemesis.
They were very clear from the start that this was not a reboot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but rather a brand-new series largely set on Earth rather than aboard a starship. And in the first two seasons, very few characters from TNG appeared besides brief appearances by William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Data (Brent Spiner), and John de Lancie (Q).
But for the third and final season in 2023, the show’s creative team decided to open up the floodgates of nostalgia by inviting back the entire cast of The Next Generation for one final space adventure. In one particularly satisfying episode, the old Enterprise D ship, which hadn’t been seen since the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations, was put back into commission with everyone back at their old command stations.
The series ends with the Enterprise D crew all sharing laughs at a bar. As Captain, Picard is asked to deliver a toast before everyone separates. “There is a tide in the affairs of men,” he says, quoting Brutus in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. “Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.”
It was a perfect melding of Patrick Stewart’s talents since he’s literally reading Shakespeare as Captain Picard. But it wasn’t the final moment of the series. That took place about a minute later when Picard proposes a game of poker. In an echo of the last scene of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we last see Picard and the crew laughing together around a poker table. The final time we see Patrick Stewart as Picard, he’s beaming with joy.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation film series ended with the twin duds of 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection and 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. It would have been a great disservice to the fan community to end the franchise on that note.
The death of Patrick Stewart is devastating, but at least he was given the chance to end his time on Star Trek in dignified fashion. And X-Men fans will be able to see him play Charles Xavier when Avengers: Doomsday lands on December 18. He was likely dealing with significant health issues when he shot those scenes, but it’s doubtful there’ll be any sign of that onscreen. He was a professional to the very end.
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