The Gospel Of Jean-Luc

Star Trek: Picard is here, and our hailing frequencies are open…

STARDATE: 2020 AND RED ALERT HAS beamed an Away Team to the swank, distinctly non-hostile environs of London’s Corinthia Hotel.

It’s the day of the Star Trek: Picard premiere and we’re detecting some quote-worthy life forms: stars Sir Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Raffi), Harry Treadaway (Narek) and Evan Evagora (Elnor), along with producers Michael Chabon and Alex Kurtzman. Our mission? Get the inside word on Star Trek: Picard. More Earl Grey? Don’t mind if we do…

How much do you relate to the Picard we meet in this series?

Patrick Stewart I relate very strongly to it. People have, in recent years, asked me about retirement. It’s inconceivable to me that I should retire. I was a stage actor for many, many years before I saw a camera. Being on stage, I discovered, was the safest place for me to be. I had a rather kind of perilous childhood in some respects. And finding that safety on stage, where I didn’t have to be myself – I was being someone else, in a different environment than the one that I was being brought up in – has never left me. My wife has even expressed concern about what should happen if I have to stop doing this job, because I think she’s anxious that I should turn into a monster or something!

How did the writing team decide which characters should return to the fold?