I was watching some old episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION the other day. The whole series popped up on Netflix, and I haven’t looked at an episode since the 90s, so I was curious. Patrick Stewart was an acquaintance, way back when – Sir Patrick Stewart, now, and rarely was a knighthood for craft better deserved. And I was reminded of this:
One night, I went into London to have dinner with Patrick. We were working together on a project at the time. My daughter, then very young, woke from a nap to ask where I was. STAR TREK TNG had just come on the television. Her mother pointed out Patrick on the bridge of the Enterprise and said, he’s gone to see this man – they’re going to work together. And my daughter got incredibly excited. Her mother assured her that, yes, really, Daddy’s going to be working with that man.
There was then, I was later told, a painful couple of minutes when it had to be further explained to my little girl that, no, I wouldn’t actually be working on the bridge of the Enterprise with him…
I have been a disappointment to her ever since.
Originally written 12 August 2016