Patrick Stewart Still Carries Regrets About His Relationship With Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry
Throughout his autobiography "Making It So: A Memoir," Patrick Stewart repeatedly emphasizes how Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," didn't really think too much of him. Stewart relates, in detail, the extended process he went through to audition for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Next Generation," and how Roddenberry routinely ignored him and remained non-communicative. One of Stewart's first meetings with Roddenberry was at Gene's house in Brentwood, California, and the actor recalled getting the cold shoulder. The Paramount staff and casting directors all liked Stewart, but Roddenberry was unimpressed. In William Shatner's informative, hour-long 2014 documentary "Chaos on the Bridge!," Roddenberry was said to have once proclaimed, early in the "Next Generation" casting process, that he never wanted to hear Patrick Stewart's name again.
Ultimately, Paramount and Stewart got what they wanted, and the actor would ultimately play Jean-Luc Picard for seven seasons of "Next Generation," in four feature films, and in three seasons of "Star Trek: Picard."
Roddenberry passed away in 1991 at the age of 70, right at the beginning of the fifth season of "Next Generation." It seems that he was never entirely satisfied with the way the show turned out, and there was a lot of bitterness — at least in the early seasons — over who should be in charge of the show and how much influence Roddenberry could assert. The casting of Stewart was a sour compromise.
Stewart, of course, knew this and had something of an ambivalent relationship with Roddenberry as a result. He was grateful for the job, and was happy to play the role of Jean-Luc Picard, but he was never able to get around Roddenberry's dislike of his version of Picard. In "Making It So," Stewart elucidates.
Roddenberry's wariness
Gene Roddenberry, it seems, cut an impressive figure and hovered over production of "Next Generation," even after his involvement became less active (for health reasons) after the end of the second season. When Roddenberry passed, Stewart admitted some regret, pointing out that the man did usually offer advice and guidance. Stewart wrote:
"When Gene Roddenberry died suddenly in October 1991, shorty after his seventieth birthday, I was deeply saddened. And a we continued with TNG, I found myself missing his presence. For all his wariness of me, he had created the magnificent 'Star Trek' universe of which I was now privileged to be a part, and his guiding hand offered me reassurance."
The actor was also aware of his casting controversy and sensitive to the fact that Roddenberry had never wanted him. Stewart knew that something had been compromised to get him on board, but was confident that Roddenberry, had he lived longer, would have come to love Stewart's Jean-Luc.
"In a way, I felt sorry for Gene where I was concerned. Jean-Luc Picard was his creation, and he had been pressured to cast someone who didn't jibe with his vision of the character. I thank Robert Justman and Rick Berman every day for prevailing in that particular struggle, but I do wish that Gene had lived long enough to see how 'Star Trek' and Picard himself have continued to deepen and grow."
The third season of "Next Generation" saw a few massive personnel changes behind the scenes, and Rick Berman and Michael Piller became the active showrunners. Bob Justman, meanwhile, was considered Roddenberry's right-hand man going back to the 1960s. An old friend and a new hotshot had changed Roddenberry's mind on Stewart, but the actor was still never Roddenberry's friend. Stewart seems to regret that.