Truly a sad day for us nerds. Patrick Stewart, known to us as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, has died. He was 86. Stewart is the second Star Trek actor to die this week. Earlier, Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov on the original Star Trek died at 90.
I suppose that some younger Irreal readers may only vaguely remember—or perhaps not even seen—Star Trek and Star Trek TNG but for those of us who were there they were important cultural phenomena. All the nerds in my generation aspired to be like Spock. Stewart’s Star Trek TNG was actually the better series and a large part of that was due to Stewart. His portrayal of Picard was spot on.
The days of Star Trek are over now and Stewart, who was a well established Shakespearean stage actor moved on to other projects, including X-Men. Still, for many of us, Star Trek and Stewart were an important part of growing up. We’re going to miss him.