I am a big Star Trek Next Generation fan and a medium X-Men fan, so part of my science-fiction-loving nerd heart beats for the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart. It still wasn’t a done deal that I was going to read his book because I seldom pick up memoirs but when I found his book (and his face) staring me down at my local library, I submitted to my literary destiny.
It was in many ways, an eye-opening experience for me to read, but he didn’t do anything to shake up the genre. This book was a (mostly) standard linear memoir format, but when talking through his youth and early theater career he drops just enough references to his future in Star Trek and X-men work to keep you engaged (intentional Star Trek pun. You’re welcome).
All told it’s apparent that this memoir was written with deep reflection over a well-examined life. For me, he spends more time than I’d like on the Royal Shakespeare days (and name-dropping there, which is completely lost on me) and criminally less time dishing on TNG and X-Men, but I think that’s because, for him, those projects are all equally relevant. The television and film roles are what made him a household name, and for that, he is as perplexed as he is grateful, but he mostly enjoyed reminiscing about the old days and his humble roots.
Reading it made me realize how much I think of him as Picard: wizened, visionary, highly intelligent, and possessing an unwavering moral compass. But like, he’s just a regular dude who worked hard, had some lucky breaks, and cheated on two of his three wives, a fact which he discusses plainly and with some remorse.
It blew my mind that he had no interest or passion for sci-fi, and just ended up in two iconic science-fiction franchises. Though his children watched the original series Star Trek show, he knew little of it and in fact, they schooled him on it when he was auditioning for the next iteration. When his American agent asked him “Why the f*** does Gene Rodenberry want to meet with you?” after Stewart had a chance encounter in California with a producer of the still-being-cast TNG, his response was, “Who is Gene Rodenberry?”
(I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that it does give me a bit of the ick that at 41 I think of him as a grandfather figure and his current wife is only 4 years older than me (and about a decade younger than his children from his first marriage, buuuut at least he met her when she was 30, at which point you are a fully formed human, and if a 68-year-old man is who you wanna wed, well, so be it).
All this said, the man and his works have had a great impact on me, and if it turns out he isn’t immortal, when that fateful day comes I’m going to need a sick day because the loss of Patrick Stewart will be a big blow to weather.