Not On The Bridge Of The Enterprise

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