This is something that unites people all across the world and across broad age gaps. I first saw Stewart in London doing the most athletic Hamlet I ever saw. He was magnificent then in his youth (and mine) as he was in everything he did later. As Picard, he shaped the souls of generations toward a better outlook. In understatement as was his habit and greatness. Much of it was Roddenberry's idealism, the better spirit of America, a vision which we very much are in need of now, and has gone; but the rest of it was Stewart and the way he adapted to something he had no clue about and made it his own, delivering that spirit in every line.
He had a great and good life. In mourning, we should remember his lessons. We are together in this, but soon you will have to carry it alone on your shoulders, because my generation, as you can see, is dying out.
I'm more of a Sisko stan the older I get, but Stewart's contribution to the golden age of Trek cannot really be overstated. He brought it from a cult fandom into mainstream consciousness. I know literal rednecks who can quote TNG with encyclopedic knowledge. It's as you say, the paragon he held up was a compelling vison and kind of typified 90s techno-optimism.
Wow. I have honestly had zero interest in Star Trek throughout my life (apart from the odd Klingon joke), but you may have convinced me to give it a try just with this post.
TNG was the first show I ever watched that wasn’t a kiddie show. The waters that new vessel first contains, behind them leave a taste that long remains. I can trace my unshakeable faith in humanity and belief that today’s woes are but another passing storm to those episodes I watched so much of as a kid.
I thought the ability of the Enterprise crew to cooperate so flawlessly was more a product of Starfleet’s careful selection and training of recruits than a change in our nature, but you may also be right about this: maybe the people of the Federation found a way to really make themselves better, to shift the bell curve of morality in the right direction. We should expend more effort on that.
Thank you so much for saying more than I could say myself about what TNG meant and still means to us Millennials who grew up on it. Godspeed, Sir Patrick. Raise a glass.
Other more dedicated Trekkies will point this out, but TNG itself said that the road to techno-utopia would be bumpy. Even in the bright sunlight of the ‘90s, the writers thought it would be more believable to imagine our world backsliding into conflict and authoritarianism before circling back to the enlightenment of Picard’s day. Gives me some hope.
Not the point of your beautiful tribute, but because of the reasons underpinning your beautiful tribute, you *really* ought to watch Friday Night Lights.
I'll say one thing I liked DS9 so much because it lived in that space between where we are and where TNG showed us we could be. I've heard people describe DS9 as dark and cynical, but it's not. It just shows the hard journey to a better world. Honestly, I think it's an antidote to the cynicism of the 2020s.
Totally agree that non-Trekkies have an impossible time of understanding our attachment and reverence! But I was shocked that you somehow perceived the initial series as being about technology rather than about humans dealing with technology and all that it brought to that story’s universe, besides often a reflection of mid 20th century life cast forward into the future. A rare wrong take from you.
Because you grew up with the second series, I’m guessing you watched the first series later, and that may be why you somehow mistook it as being about machines. It wasn’t about technology at all. Give the first series another try sometime.
Also, hard disagree that it would be a good thing for humans to disappear into some computerized haze of AI. True, we can see now there will be no Captain Kirk or Picard. We’ll send technology out into the universe instead. If anything, though, the imminent ubiquity of deathless AI agents makes the uniqueness of actual finite biological beings all the more special and valuable, just as we are, just as flawed as we are. Which is really a message I learned from watching reruns of the first Star Trek as a little kid who didn’t understand much beyond Spock having pointy ears.
My mom, who was a teenager when the original series aired, has told me many times that the multiracial crew of Kirk’s Enterprise was radical at the time. Here were Americans from the North and South, European, African, Asian, Russian and even a weird-looking half-alien all working together as if their ethnic backgrounds were no impediment at all. All the conflicts that were so intense and acrimonious in the present were, in Roddenberry’s future, just plain over and done with and we were all exploring the stars together. That had never been seen on TV before and it meant a lot to a great many people.
It’s easy for us to lose sight of this now, as multiracial crews are just standard in sci-fi today. But in 1967 it was revolutionary!
The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth: whether it's *scientific* truth or *historical* truth or *personal* truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based. And if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform.
On the other hand, there's Goblin Musk and an uncontrolled outbreak of Bolsonari. I've always assumed that a test of whether humanity had permanently improved its nature was passed when we abandoned public executions, and perhaps we have.
This is something that unites people all across the world and across broad age gaps. I first saw Stewart in London doing the most athletic Hamlet I ever saw. He was magnificent then in his youth (and mine) as he was in everything he did later. As Picard, he shaped the souls of generations toward a better outlook. In understatement as was his habit and greatness. Much of it was Roddenberry's idealism, the better spirit of America, a vision which we very much are in need of now, and has gone; but the rest of it was Stewart and the way he adapted to something he had no clue about and made it his own, delivering that spirit in every line.
He had a great and good life. In mourning, we should remember his lessons. We are together in this, but soon you will have to carry it alone on your shoulders, because my generation, as you can see, is dying out.
Keep remembering Picard.
I'm more of a Sisko stan the older I get, but Stewart's contribution to the golden age of Trek cannot really be overstated. He brought it from a cult fandom into mainstream consciousness. I know literal rednecks who can quote TNG with encyclopedic knowledge. It's as you say, the paragon he held up was a compelling vison and kind of typified 90s techno-optimism.
Wow. I have honestly had zero interest in Star Trek throughout my life (apart from the odd Klingon joke), but you may have convinced me to give it a try just with this post.
TNG was the first show I ever watched that wasn’t a kiddie show. The waters that new vessel first contains, behind them leave a taste that long remains. I can trace my unshakeable faith in humanity and belief that today’s woes are but another passing storm to those episodes I watched so much of as a kid.
I thought the ability of the Enterprise crew to cooperate so flawlessly was more a product of Starfleet’s careful selection and training of recruits than a change in our nature, but you may also be right about this: maybe the people of the Federation found a way to really make themselves better, to shift the bell curve of morality in the right direction. We should expend more effort on that.
Thank you so much for saying more than I could say myself about what TNG meant and still means to us Millennials who grew up on it. Godspeed, Sir Patrick. Raise a glass.
Other more dedicated Trekkies will point this out, but TNG itself said that the road to techno-utopia would be bumpy. Even in the bright sunlight of the ‘90s, the writers thought it would be more believable to imagine our world backsliding into conflict and authoritarianism before circling back to the enlightenment of Picard’s day. Gives me some hope.
IDK, if the AIs really do the whole Golden Age of Science thing we might well get warp drives by the 22nd century…
My favorite Captain! May he live long in our memories.
I've met you once in real life Noah, you were just as delightful as I imagined you would be.
It will be interesting to see what is written here when Shatner passes.
Not the point of your beautiful tribute, but because of the reasons underpinning your beautiful tribute, you *really* ought to watch Friday Night Lights.
I grew up watching my high school team play against Odessa Permian, sir...I LIVED Friday Night Lights 😉
Well said!
I'll say one thing I liked DS9 so much because it lived in that space between where we are and where TNG showed us we could be. I've heard people describe DS9 as dark and cynical, but it's not. It just shows the hard journey to a better world. Honestly, I think it's an antidote to the cynicism of the 2020s.
Totally agree that non-Trekkies have an impossible time of understanding our attachment and reverence! But I was shocked that you somehow perceived the initial series as being about technology rather than about humans dealing with technology and all that it brought to that story’s universe, besides often a reflection of mid 20th century life cast forward into the future. A rare wrong take from you.
Because you grew up with the second series, I’m guessing you watched the first series later, and that may be why you somehow mistook it as being about machines. It wasn’t about technology at all. Give the first series another try sometime.
Also, hard disagree that it would be a good thing for humans to disappear into some computerized haze of AI. True, we can see now there will be no Captain Kirk or Picard. We’ll send technology out into the universe instead. If anything, though, the imminent ubiquity of deathless AI agents makes the uniqueness of actual finite biological beings all the more special and valuable, just as we are, just as flawed as we are. Which is really a message I learned from watching reruns of the first Star Trek as a little kid who didn’t understand much beyond Spock having pointy ears.
My mom, who was a teenager when the original series aired, has told me many times that the multiracial crew of Kirk’s Enterprise was radical at the time. Here were Americans from the North and South, European, African, Asian, Russian and even a weird-looking half-alien all working together as if their ethnic backgrounds were no impediment at all. All the conflicts that were so intense and acrimonious in the present were, in Roddenberry’s future, just plain over and done with and we were all exploring the stars together. That had never been seen on TV before and it meant a lot to a great many people.
It’s easy for us to lose sight of this now, as multiracial crews are just standard in sci-fi today. But in 1967 it was revolutionary!
The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth: whether it's *scientific* truth or *historical* truth or *personal* truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based. And if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform.
It remains our job to boldly create the life and civilization that Patrick Stewart portrayed so well for us.
On the other hand, there's Goblin Musk and an uncontrolled outbreak of Bolsonari. I've always assumed that a test of whether humanity had permanently improved its nature was passed when we abandoned public executions, and perhaps we have.