Patrick Stewart's Love Of A Classic Mystery Writer Led To Several Classic Star Trek Episodes
When it comes to storytelling devices that allow for some truly wild creativity, the holodecks of "Star Trek" certainly rank among the best. They gave the writers the opportunity to take characters from a utopian sci-fi future and put them into a wide variety of stories and situations. Holodeck episodes really helped pad out the season back when seasons were 26 episodes or so, giving a little break from the starships and space exploration, but they also gave the actors a chance to really let loose and have fun. After all, who wouldn't want the chance to play their character playing Robin Hood or King Arthur? Sometimes the holodeck episodes could feel superfluous, but sometimes they ended up creating whole new storylines for the series. Just imagine the later seasons of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" without Vic Fontaine (James Darren)!
On "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the writers took inspiration from star Patrick Stewart's love of a series of detective mystery novels to create a fictional detective for him to play in the holodeck, and it led to several classic, fantastic episodes. In his new memoir, "Making It So," Stewart shared the story behind how his holodeck character Dixon Hill came to be, and it sounds like a tremendous amount of fun.
Bringing an actor's fantasy to life
While the holodeck has become a "Star Trek" staple, some fans forget that it didn't exist on "Star Trek: The Original Series," but that apparently didn't stop creator Gene Roddenberry from trying to get the actors into period outfits. According to Stewart, the advent of the holodeck in the franchise led to even more period costume silliness, including his own "dream come true":
"In 'The Original Series,' Gene often conspired to get Bill Shatner and company into period costumes, and when word got around that I loved Raymond Chandler's detective novels, the writers came up with an episode for me titled 'The Big Goodbye.' It created a scenario in which Picard, in the holodeck, gets to play a noirish character named Dixon Hill, not unlike Chandler's Philip Marlowe. This was one of those episodes where Picard's fantasy role-play was virtually indistinguishable from my own. To find myself, in my late forties, walking onto a Paramount Pictures soundstage in a trench coat and trilby was almost too 'dreams come true' for me to bear."
Stewart clearly relished playing Picard playing Hill, and it started connecting the tissue between Stewart and Picard. The two would be forever intertwined by the time "Star Trek: Picard" bowed out and gave the character his official goodbye, but Dixon Hill was just the beginning.
A little help from an intimidating guest star
Dixon Hill was a fun spin on Marlowe and let Stewart play a very different kind of character within the show's constructs, as Hill was a little more morally ambiguous than Picard by the sheer nature of his noir setting, but he needed an equally interesting villain. Thankfully, the producers brought in Lawrence Tierney, who was in some of the very 1940s films they were riffing on and more than understood the gangster setting. The only problem was that he was a little intimidating, and Stewart's co-stars Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes even warned him that Tierney "walked it like he talked it."
Stewart was friendly and welcoming toward him regardless, though Tierney didn't return it initially and questioned Stewart on his nationality, recognizing his accent. When Stewart confirmed that he was, in fact, British, he said that Tierney grinned and said that "the Brits" were good actors, breaking the tension between them. The two had great onscreen chemistry and Tierney helped make the Dixon Hill world feel appropriately gritty, just like Picard and Stewart would want it.