1987.  The highschool cafeteria.

“Did you see the new Star Trek?” asked one of the guys.

“Yeah…the old captain guy…’get the hell off my bridge’…I didn’t like him.”

That was the exact conversation at school after Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted.

Patrick Stewart was in fact younger than William Shatner.  His bald pate gave him the air of elderly wisdom.  Perhaps a bit of frailty.  Star Trek: The Next Generation was to feature a captain that didn’t so much get into fist fights like Kirk did.  He now had a first officer to get physical.  This of course changed by the time we get to the movies, with Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard beating the crap out of F. Murray Abraham.

Picard was my introduction to Patrick Stewart.  I didn’t see Dune.  I didn’t see I Claudius.

When I dove back into Star Trek for the first time since childhood, it was 1991 and I was in university.  It seemed the university thing to do.  I shaved my sideburns into the Star Fleet dagger and I bought a communicator badge.

I became a huge fan of the show, and of Sir Patrick in particular.

There is no reason for me to list his many accomplishments.  You can google them yourself.  I’ll just talk about the ones that meant a lot to me.

Robin Hood:  Men In Tights came in 1993, another Mel Brooks parody, with Sir Patrick doing an end-of-film cameo as King Richard.  This spoofed Sean Connery’s end-of-film cameo in Prince of Thieves.

“Patrick Stewart does comedy?” I marveled.  “Coooool…”

Having dove into Star Trek, I had to see Dune.  To say I was disappointed would be incorrect.  I got what I expected.  There just wasn’t enough Sir Patrick!  Then there was the awful Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Sir Patrick as the bad guy.  I know I saw it, I just can’t remember it.

When Brian Singer cast Sir Patrick as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men, everyone universally rejoiced.  Paired opposite Sir Ian McKellan, we were treated to some of the greatest comic book drama between two characters ever filmed.  Sir Patrick earned a new generation of fans with that film.  I learned from younger co-workers that they saw Sir Patrick as Professor X, not Captain Picard.

Of course, long after their character arcs ended, Picard returned.  So did Professor X.  A new generation discovered Sir Patrick.  But what led to a completely new audience was a young upstart named Seth MacFarlane, who himself had cameoed on a Star Trek.  Seth MacFarlane cast his friend Patrick Stewart in several comedy roles, but none more beloved than Deputy Director Bulloch on American Dad.  The pansexual, cocaine driven Bulloch was the most unlikely of all the Stewart characters, but he clearly voiced him with naughty delight.

I hope Seth kills off the Deputy Director in a cocaine binge with hookers.  It’s how he’d want to go.

I won’t lie.  This one hurts even more than Leonard Nimoy did.  (And we just lost the beloved Walter Koenig last week!)  Because of Stewart’s imporant role in three of my favourite franchises, this one’s going to hurt a long time.

I watched him in Logan last night.  I needed those difficult feelings.

Stewart died after a brief battle with Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body Dementia.  This too hits close to home.

To quote a character from another rival franchise, “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

I’ll miss you Sir Patrick.  I really will.