Will miss the man who brought us iconic roles like Captain Pickard and Professor X.
As a kid, I had goosebumps everytime I heard his opening line in Star Trek TNG, “Space the final frontier…”. I felt like i was travelling with the crew on an epic adventure under the able command and responsible leadership of the Captain.
And as a young man, it was Professor X who inspired me. To learn, to not give up and to hold firm but kind in difficult times. Always the encouraging and wise teacher with his deep gentle voice that will lifr you up to your greatest potential.
Patrick Stewart’s casting as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation was a landmark in American television history. Up until that point Americans had never seen or experienced an actor of his caliber on television before.
People always think I’m being hyperbolic when I say that Patrick Stewart is the greatest television actor of all time. Partly because people tend to roll their eyes at Star Trek, but one really has to understand and be interested in what was happening in American television in 1987 when that show came on the air. It was nothing like today, and I would argue that we have been living in the post television era for at least 20 years.
I cannot even think of a 46 year old actor alive today who could pull off what he did in that series. Not only is there no one with his level of gravitas, but his temperament and the nature and quality of his being simply doesn’t exist anymore.
If you want to get a real sense of how good he is check out the “Playing Shakespeare” series from 1982. It was a series of instructional videos on how to play Shakespeare, created by the then head of The Royal Shakespeare Company John Barton. He used the actors from the company to demonstrate, and they included Patrick Stewart but also Ian McKellan, Judie Dench, Ben Kingsley, David Suchet and others. The whole series will blow your mind. You will see a very raw example of Patrick’s precision, flexibility, total comprehension and command on display.
He had a profound impact on me. I could write much much more… but I’ll leave it at this…
Man. TNG holds a very special place in my heart. @TheReturnOfFaust is not exaggerating – if you think TNG (or that entire era of Star Trek, for that matter ) is “green aliens go pew pew,” you are so sorely wrong. It is possibly one of the most quietly (and overtly, at times) beautifully philosophical shows you could ever watch.
I grew up in an atmosphere where I was not allowed to question the authority of the adults, especially when it came to ideology. TNG was my outlet. I used to pretend not to like it so that no one knew just how much it was influencing my inner philosophy.
So many episodes handling such rich, and almost spiritual themes at times. There’s an episode that many consider “minor,” but had an incredibly thought provoking scene that blew my young mind. It was the one where Lt. Commander Data broke the Prime Directive by responding to a distress call from a young girl that was part of a pre-warp civilization. Her planet was undergoing incredible seismic activity and was on the verge of destruction.
For those who don’t know, the Prime Directive is the Federation’s highest law, forbidding its members to interfere with the natural evolution of a species that hadn’t reached warp speeds.
When Data confessed to Captain Picard about what he had done, Picard called a meeting with the senior staff to discuss. What began as a simple conversation on the ethics of the Prime Directive evolves into a conversation about the nature of free will, karma, destiny and whether their presence at the planet, at that moment, justified using their technology to save that planet.
For young Saint Sovereign, I couldn’t get enough of this. Who remembers when Picard argued that the Crystalline Entity (for those who don’t know, a quite murderous being – think Galactus on a smaller level), being part of the natural expression of the Universe, had every right to exist and shutdown Commander Riker’s plans to destroy it?
… I dunno if I agree with him on that one, the Crystalline Entity was wiping out entire planets of ALL life, including plant life.
Nonetheless, the debates, the rhetoric, the philosophy, the image of what humanity could achieve… and it was ALL brought together by Patrick Stewart. I cannot think of another actor that could’ve pulled that role off with such conviction, such presence, and with such absolute skill.
At the end of the movie Star Trek: Generations, after the destruction of the Enterprise-D, Commander Riker lamented the loss of the ship, since it was only something like 9-10 years old. Picard remarked:
“What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived. After all, Number One, we’re only mortal.”
My dear Captain, I understand what you are saying, but I have to disagree. Now, I know Jean-Luc Picard is just a character. There is a man who is no longer on this planet – Patrick Stewart – and it is always wise (at least for me) to separate the man from the character, for there are many people who are very close to him that are more devastated than us as fans.
Nonetheless, the level of care, expertise and skill that he brought to this character really inspired people to believe that we can aspire to such grand heights that we can barely imagine it. There were times in my life when I metaphorically “lost my way,” or moved away from my core. And whether people want to believe it or not, or ridicule it, TNG always helped me find my way back.
And for that alone, I thank Sir Patrick Stewart so much. Rest easy, “Mon Capitain”. I hope the adventures of the undiscovered country inspires you as much as you inspired so many of us all.
It was (AFAIK) one of the earliest attempts of several shows and movies running concurrently in a shared universe. While Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the DS9 show was fighting the Dominion War. Brilliant.
"Your whisper from the dark has now become a plea.
…We cannot turn our backs."
Well done.
I was about 15, I think. Sometimes I would watch with my father; a lover of a good Shakespearean soliloquy, himself. I grew up loving fantasy novels and Marvel comics. My father wanted me to be reading Ivanhoe instead; and being disciplined. TNG was a place where we could share something.
Such an awesome time for sci-fi fans. The Dominion War had me on the edge of my seat in every episode, and really made you think about the price of protecting a utopia. Captain Sisko did some things that Picard would’ve lost his mind over. One of the best episodes in all of Star Trek was DS9: In the Pale Moonlight. Absolute masterpiece.
EDIT: Or the time the time Sisko poisoned an entire planet to catch an alleged “terrorist” that betrayed the Federation. Such a wtf moment, even Worf (who was quick to fire phasers) questioned it.
That era of Star Trek ruined science fiction for me, because I was always seeking those deeply philosophical stories – it’s one of the reasons NuTrek doesn’t quite appeal to me. In fact, I haven’t watched much of Discovery or Strange New Worlds. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was a little too teen CW for me (though, there were a few oddly beautiful episodes). The only show I enjoyed was Star Trek: Picard, Season 3 – while it was full of fan service, it felt like a love song to Trek fans.
Honestly, I haven’t watched much sci-fi since the Battlestar Galactica remake, which was… another marvel of television.
Agreed. Profoundly spiritual. It took you to a place where science and rational thought press up against spirit, the nature of mankind, and his dilemma in relation to the cosmos.
But let’s talk about the spirit behind the show for a second:
There are two shows that aired within the first decade of this century that were very abruptly canceled without much explanation, leaving audiences in the lurch in the midst of incredible unfinished story arcs. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, and my thought was they must have been flying too close to the sun. They were touching on too great of truths to be allowed to continue to air.
In 1988 the girlfriend of a young Cornell dropout and aspiring writer noticed the Captain Kirk posters on her boyfriend’s wall. She worked in production, and recognizing his life long love of Star Trek she was able to arrange a tour for him of the Star Trek: The Next Generation set. While on the set he managed to hand off a script he had written to one of Gene Roddenberry’s assistants. The encounter led to the production purchasing his script and hiring him to write the season opener for season 3 of ST:TNG. His childhood dream came true, and he was subsequently brought on the show as a writer, and later a producer. He worked on the show all the way to the end, even writing the Emmy nominated final episode.
The writer’s name is Ronald D. Moore.
Ronald was brought on to STNG shortly before Gene Roddenberry had to step away somewhere near the end of season 2. So he managed to slip in and touch base with the creator right before the show was put in the hands of others.
After The Next Generation, the producers went on to make two seasons of Deep Space Nine without Ronald, before hiring him on as a writer and executive producer on season 3. I tried watching the first season of Deep Space Nine and could not get into it at all. The few times I’ve ever talked about that series with people who liked it my sense was that it was always later seasons they were referencing, but I don’t know much about it.
Ronald wrote the screenplays for the Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact movies, somewhere in here developed Mission Impossible 2, and after DS9 was brought onto Star Trek: Voyager as a writer and co-executive producer by his writing partner. There was a massive betrayal. Ronald had what was probably a much more interesting vision for the show, and my guess is that his partner felt like he was in a position to take all the glory and was maneuvering behind the scenes to cut Ronald out of the process. He walked away after working on Voyager for only two weeks. After watching the Voyager pilot I was pretty much done with Star Trek. The whole thing began to feel empty and the style passé.
After Voyager he worked on a couple of smaller productions before being hired as the showrunner for the HBO series Carnivàle.
Carnivàle is the first of the two shows I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
It was around this time that Ronald D. Moore was also creating the new Battlestar Galactica series. He left Carnivàle after the end of the first season to run Battlestar, and Carnivàle was canceled out of nowhere at the end of it’s second season.
Let that sink in…
In my opinion the animating spirit that was inspiring Star Trek through Gene Roddenberry found new life and ground in Ronald D. Moore. Ever since Ronald walked away from Star Trek the studio has been hoping that nobody notices they are playing with the corpse of Star Trek, animated by some other spirit masquerading in it’s skin.
Battle Star Galactica is Star Trek resurrected.
The timing of that show, and everything it was bringing right at the beginning of the century… what a deed by Ronald D. Moore.
We want things to always stay the same, but nothing ever does. Life evolves, and being able to tolerate, discern, and follow the evolutionary metamorphoses beneath the surface of history is not only a survival skill, but touches on the deepest potentials of humanity. Things are not always what they appear, and the the thing we are looking for may not appear the way we are expecting it to.
I’m using three right now. Attuned, Renaissance Man, The Stabilizer.
I am splitting them up throughout the week. The first on Monday, second on Wednesday, third on Friday. I do this for recon management, and to see the integrated results from each. Remember, everyone – going down in exposure is ALWAYS okay, especially if you are skilled at seeing subtle results and how they grow into larger ones.
This is an incredible stack for creativity AND getting things done. I run The Stabilizer on Monday, since I handle administrative tasks – taxes, paperwork and all that boring, but vital stuff – at the beginning of the week. Wednesday is the Creative Engine. Midweek is when I start to work on titles and tech. Friday is Attuned, to prepare for the weekend and the various social events.
I am considering swapping Attuned for PEACE or Summertime again, as The Stabilizer does seem to activate my “shadow” – chronic overworking. That being said, things are getting DONE. Leaks are being sealed, and all the stuff I normally have to force myself to do is completed much faster, leaving much more time for creative work.
Speaking of which, I have a song that I’ve been working on for over a year. Could never quite finish it, or get it to where I wanted. I was using this song particularly to figure out what my “style” is, as I am a fan of all kinds of music across the board, drawing inspiration where I can, but it never felt quite cohesive. “Who am I in terms of a musical artist,” type of vibe.
Two days after the first loop of the Creative Engine, I nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. Sent a demo out to some colleagues who normally wouldn’t like this genre and received nothing but positive feedback. The inner critic has finally started to quiet, as I recognize that I don’t have to make everything I do palatable to a wide audience, which was something that struggled with. My natural instinct is to universalize and harmonize, which is good for things like titles – it’s always been my position that you want a subliminal producer to take that stance, people who respects everyone’s unique journey and beliefs.
It’s not so good for something like music. I realize that many of the tracks I’ve made, including my private collection, I was subconsciously evaluating commercial value and collective receptivity, which put a “block” on what I’d actually like to produce – music inspired by familiar genres, but with my own unique spin. Creative Engine tore through that block like it was never even there in the first place.
The Creative Engine works best if you have something creative that you’re working on. You need to push that creativity into something, or otherwise it expresses in the form of “life as art.” You may notice that your tongue becomes a bit loose (as @bombayduck reported), as the inner blocks to your expression are cleared. I experienced this on both Creative Engine and Attuned. The solution is to be as creative as you can possibly be. Create stuff even if there’s no immediate monetary value (that’s Stage 2’s job, help you monetize what you’ve created).
Stage 1 is all about self-expression, synergizing across unrelated domains, seeing deeper into the self and reality, then using that internal wisdom to create something that can transform others.
I love the fact that I can experience the customer journey first hand. I am understanding why it’s so hard for people to express their results, the struggle of building the perfect stack, etc. It has left me with some good news / bad news. Bad news is, I’m delaying the release of the “ZPU docs.” The good news is, I’m rewriting it to be even more informational for the customers, since I have new insight into the topic.
I relate to this so hard. It sucks to finish a song and it’s not bad and it does have the small essence of me. But then still feels like I somehow made it for someone else. And I know there’s more there and untapped creativity but the next project the cycle repeats.
I’m curious to know. Did that block manifest with initial ideas or refinement? I often find if I work fast enough it can’t creep in. For me I have the initial burst but it’s very easy for that initial idea to kind of be picked apart and become more “palatable” I guess
Glad you were able to put it succinctly, I’m feeling all of what you’ve said as well but am still in the “shut up and let me experience it” phase. The life as art thing still tends to express a little even when I’m working on something, which I could be attributed to Stage 2’s outward facing nature. I’m still getting that creative boost and focus on literally everything though.
It’s a block that I’ve had for quite some time and didn’t quite realize it, because it was masquerading as something positive: “Universalizing your personal art means more people can enjoy it,” but it was stifling creative expression that didn’t require this. Our titles do require this by necessity, but there’s no need to crush the full expression of the creative impulse across things that don’t need this level of universality.
The refinement stage is what broke that pattern, sparked by Stage 1. I was working on the song and had a completely different vision of it and just started wild. What started as a sort of lo-fi soft sample based jam became something… different. Trip-hop would be the best way to explain it. Interestingly enough, I didn’t like what was coming out, but I forced myself to keep going and afterward was quite impressed. There was another block that eliminated – I didn’t mention it because it doesn’t seem that important or impressive, but perhaps I should.
I love flipping samples. Absolutely love finding interesting samples and creating something new out of them, but society likes to look down upon that, even though the late great Daft Punk used samples in pretty much all of their major hits. Yeah, don’t care anymore, rofl. I will express myself in whatever way I see fit.
This stack as a “IDGAF” feel to it, exactly why I say that it needs to be funneled into something creative, because it helps you break through inner barriers. I’ve also noticed that finishing something creative feels absolutely incredible. You feel accomplished.
