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▷▷▷▷▷▷ Follow My Threads Account ◁◁◁◁◁◁ A Star Trek Captain's Memoir ABSTRACT: This is a slightly expanded collection of my posts on Threads, all about English actor Patrick Stewart's Making It So ‒ A Memoir. To be more specific, it's exclusively about the part of the Memoir I'm interested most and have read, about Stewart as a Star Trek Captain ‒ as Jean-Luc Picard.
When asked about why he wrote a Memoir, Stewart said it was never his intention, because he was too familiar with great books (he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed numerous roles based on great books) and he knew he couldn't do that. No intention of writing a Memoir because he couldn't write on par with great books? This is my favorite part in his modesty. Ultimately however, against all odds and modesty, he wrote the Memoir because there was nothing else to do during the pandemic. ******** 「In the meantime, absolutely nobody knew where I was, nor could they reach me. It’s all so unimaginable now, so tethered are we to our phones, but in the late 1980s one could simply vanish from the radar at will.」 (by Patrick Stewart, while nervously waiting for interview result regarding his role as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation.) It is very true that we who tethered to our phones can no longer vanish from the radar, but perhaps more so because we are obsessed to see other people in our radar rather than the other way around. ******** Here's another piece that was well expressed in Stewart's Memoir: 「I had an anxious desire not only to work seriously, but to be seen as working seriously」. There was a dramatic story in relate to that which he talked about not only in the book but in interviews, but what impressed me most is the "to be seen as" part. Almost everyone from time to time does something for the sake of to be seen as doing rather than for the thing itself, and it is acute and philosophical to point that out. To use an analogy in mathematics and science, "doing something" vs "to be seen as doing something" is like mathematics vs metamathematics or science vs metascience ‒ the former being the object/subject to be observed or studied by the latter. ******** Among all the Star Trek: The Next Generation stories, one of my favorite is "The Inner Light". In that story, Captain Picard was knocked unconscious by a device from a civilization that was extinct 1,000 years ago. But during the seemingly unconscious period of a mere 25 minutes, Picard's inner mind experienced a full family life on the planet that once harbored that civilization. The memory Picard thus retained is the way that civilization designed to have their culture and legacy live on. I'm glad to see that Stewart singled out this story in his Memoir as "perhaps the most moving" episode of all. He also introduced the origin of the story (a little bit vague though) and a fun fact that his real world son played his son in the episode. The story is not only moving but also philosophical, since it touched the question of what constitutes the essence of a self. In my view, it is the memory, in the sense that if my body is substituted, as long as my memory remains, I'm still myself ‒ no less myself than if I had a series of organ transplants. ******** I used to think that the Star Trek stories were selected from existing and independently written novels, and as such, I was, from time to time, surprised by how coherently connected many of the stories are. It was through Stewart's Memoir, that I realized the creation of the Star Trek stories was a far more dynamic (and in a sense more logical) process, done by the so called "writer's room" ‒ a term I first heard during the recent WGA strike but was not aware of its full scope at the time. One example of the dynamic nature of the creation process, which Stewart described in depth in the Memoir, was an episode called "Captain's Holiday". It was triggered by Stewart's complain that Will Riker (his first officer) got all the romance in the series, and it was to pacify him that the episode was created ‒ as can be expected with a "writer's room" at his disposal. What was unexpected though, was that Stewart fell into a real world romance with the actress in the episode and it eventually led to the break down of his first marriage... ******** Star Trek: The Next Generation was one season longer than Stewart was originally contracted for, and the last scene of the last story ("All Good Things...") of the last season (season 7), in which Picard gazed around his crews who had supported him with their lives in three different timeframes in that story, was particularly touching and memorable. I was a bit surprised though, to see Stewart mentioned in the Memoir that Paramount might go with a few more seasons but he wanted the series to end. I was also a bit surprised that among the total 25 chapters of the Memoir, only 5 (chapters 16-20) are dedicated to Star Trek: The Next Generation. It reminded me of Matthew Perry, whom to most people is just Chandler Bing in Friends, said in an interview that when he dies, he doesn't want Friends to be the first thing that's going to be mentioned. I'm not sure whether Stewart had similar wish, wish his other achievements not outshined by Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it seems consistent with him wanted to end Star Trek: The Next Generation before Paramount depleted its ideas and interests, and consistent with him dedicating only 1/5 of the chapters to Star Trek: The Next Generation, disproportionally small compare with its contribution to his fame. ******** 「I can't quite believe that I am in my eighties, even though I know it to be true. How on earth did that happen? For a long time I’ve felt more like mid-forties ‒ as if I were already middle-aged when I was young and remain so now.」‒ thus spoke Stewart in his Memoir. This feeling of psychological age dragged behind biological age is very true, and is not a wishful thinking (favorable and beneficial though it is), but a real effect of the aging process during its luckily slow and smooth phase. ******** It is amusing to see how the "relativity" of fame unfolded itself in Stewart's Memoir: When first approached by the opportunity to be Captain Picard, Stewart was nervously ardent (though not without hesitation due to the possibly multi-year commitment that might be required by the series). But when asked to do Star Trek: Picard about 30 years later when he has already become THE Captain Picard, it was the screenwriters who were planning the new series that were nervously ardent to confront Stewart's "No, definitely not interested. Sorry." reaction. Eventually, however, Star Trek: Picard did take off, but only after screenwriters agreed to three conditions Stewart unilaterally laid out: 1. The series would not involve a reunion of Star Trek: The Next Generation characters; 2. Picard would not serve in the Starfleet; 3. The series would not exceed three seasons. But of course, screenwriters are no rookies to be manipulated, and bit by bit, they corroded through Stewart's conditions and ended up closing the series with a full Star Trek: The Next Generation character reunion ‒ the exact opposite of Stewart's condition 1. :-) ******** Near the end of the Memoir, Stewart said he wish he could time-travel to 1987 and inform that perpetually worried English actor that was about to become Captain Picard: "I know that he is inside you already, Patrick. All you have to do is let him out." This is probably the deepest secret behind the success of Stewart's Captain Picard: Stewart is Captain Picard, and although never informed by a time-travelled future self, he nevertheless has let him out. Stewart has taken the "Stewart is Captain Picard" sentiment so far that he proposed an ending scene for Star Trek: Picard that completely mixes the two: Dusk is falling, Picard is in his vineyard, a woman's voice "Jean-Luc? Supper's ready!" is heard, and when Picard turns around and heads to the house, the scene fades out... The identity of that woman will predictably ignite guess and Stewart has no intention to let the answer be found among Star Trek characters ‒ because the voice would belong to a woman none other than Stewart's real world wife. This witty and nostalgic scene, unfortunately, was never shot. completed on November 25, 2023 |
A book I plan to read: