Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Making It So, paramount, patrick stewart, star trek, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Patrick Stewart on TNG S01: "I Had Failed to Read The Room"

Sir Patrick Stewart on how he "could be a severe bastard" and "failed to read the room," leading to Star Trek: The Next Generation S01 issues.

Patrick Stewart wasn't always the consummate professional he is today. In fact, the British actor, a byproduct of the Royal Shakespeare Theater, took his new job on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Jean-Luc Picard a little too seriously, appropriate for the role he's playing as Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, but not so much his co-stars in between takes when the Gene Roddenberry syndicated spinoff started filming in 1987. Stewart, who's coming off his 10th season of playing the role in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+, reflected on the nervousness he had during TNG's chaotic first season. Chronicled in Stewart's latest memoir Making It So (via The Hollywood Reporter), the actor discussed taking the job, doubting how it would last beyond its initial season.

Stewart was dead wrong about that, as TNG would go on for six more seasons and four theatrical films before the legacy sequel on the streamer. Stewart didn't exactly endear himself to his castmates initially. "I could be a severe bastard," he writes. "My experiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre had been intense and serious … On the TNG set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and that's when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosby's, 'We've got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick' comment by saying, 'We are not here, Denise, to have fun.'"

Crosby played the original security chief Lt. Tasha Yar, who was killed late in the first season with greater ambitions in mind. When that didn't pan out, Crosby would return in a recurring role as her Romulan daughter Commander Sela while also reprising her role for alternate timeline episodes as Tasha, including the series finale "All Good Things…" "In retrospect," Stewart continues, "everyone, me included, finds this story hilarious. But in the moment when the cast erupted in hysterics at my pompous declaration, I didn't handle it well. I didn't enjoy being laughed at. I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door."

Following Stewart's outburst, Jonathan Frakes (Riker) and Brent Spiner (Data) approached him for a "heart-to-heart." "People respect you," Spiner told him. "But I think you misjudged the situation here." Stewart recalled, "Brent and Jonathan acknowledged that, yes, there was too much goofing around and that it needed to be dialed back. But they also made it clear how off-putting it was — and not a case study in good leadership — for me to try to resolve the matter by lecturing and scolding the cast. I had failed to read the room, imposing RSC behavior on people accustomed to the ways of episodic television — which was, after all, what we were shooting."

For more, including Stewart revealing his reservations about the show, his initial feelings on Wil Wheaton (Wesley) on set, how he rewatched TNG to prep for his memoir, how TNG conflicted with his passion for the stage, his unfamiliarity recording an audiobook, and more, you can check out the interview here. Making It So is available at bookstores.

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