New Trek show...

[Anomalocaris]

I don't know how famous Stewart was across the pond before TNG, but in the states he was just a dude who had small parts in that crappy Dune movie and that trippy Excalibur movie.  TNG offered him a way to increase his fame and bank account with very little risk (he could always simply go back to theater and small movie roles).  That the role became iconic is a testament to both the writers of that era, and his performances (especially season 3 forward), but I neither doubt nor begrudge him for taking the role because he wanted to get paid for his craft.

I have no problem with people wanting to make money, but, after encountering the visionary Gene Roddenberry, I would have thought that Mr. Stewart would have had something a little "deeper" to say while on national television.

It is better to just admit one is in it for the money, then to take the money and bite the hand that gave it, as William Shatner did by making fun of his audience on Saturday night live.

[Jehanne]

I have no problem with people wanting to make money, but, after encountering the visionary Gene Roddenberry, I would have thought that Mr. Stewart would have had something a little "deeper" to say while on national television.

Eh, it was a statement made on Leno. I'm 99% sure he was just joking.

No, he was completely serious, but, then again, who cares? He is just an actor playing a part. I do remember him from Excalibur, though; he appears not to have aged too much since then!

---

I have no problem with people wanting to make money, but, after encountering the visionary Gene Roddenberry, I would have thought that Mr. Stewart would have had something a little "deeper" to say while on national television.

It is better to just admit one is in it for the money, then to take the money and bite the hand that gave it, as William Shatner did by making fun of his audience on Saturday night live.

Absolutely unpardonable, even 30+ years later. I remember that episode, also; although, Bill Shatner did give a "disclaimer" just before the sketch.

[The Valkyrie]

I remember hearing a story from when Patrick Stewart was younger and belonged to a Shakespearean company, another member of the company was excited because she got a role in a TV show called Doctor Who as one of the companions (I don't recall which one).

Patrick Stewart's response was "There's no future in science fiction."

She still gives him grief about that statement.

[Kernel Sohcahtoa]

I don't know how famous Stewart was across the pond before TNG, but in the states he was just a dude who had small parts in that crappy Dune movie and that trippy Excalibur movie.  TNG offered him a way to increase his fame and bank account with very little risk (he could always simply go back to theater and small movie roles).  That the role became iconic is a testament to both the writers of that era, and his performances (especially season 3 forward), but I neither doubt nor begrudge him for taking the role because he wanted to get paid for his craft.

I have no problem with people wanting to make money, but, after encountering the visionary Gene Roddenberry, I would have thought that Mr. Stewart would have had something a little "deeper" to say while on national television.

From my vantage point, I also don't have a problem with it.  However, I must admit that I enjoyed it when Picard would comment about how the main purpose of living in his time was to improve oneself and the society in which one lives; life was no longer about the acquisition of material things.  IMO, this is a pretty cool vision.

[Anomalocaris]

I remember hearing a story from when Patrick Stewart was younger and belonged to a Shakespearean company, another member of the company was excited because she got a role in a TV show called Doctor Who as one of the companions (I don't recall which one).

Patrick Stewart's response was "There's no future in science fiction."

She still gives him grief about that statement.

There is not much future in science fiction, given his age.

[Jehanne]

I have no problem with people wanting to make money, but, after encountering the visionary Gene Roddenberry, I would have thought that Mr. Stewart would have had something a little "deeper" to say while on national television.

From my vantage point, I also don't have a problem with it.  However, I must admit that I enjoyed it when Picard would comment about how the main purpose of living in his time was to improve oneself and the society in which one lives; life was no longer about the acquisition of material things.  IMO, this is a pretty cool vision.

I remember that episode, also!  (I think that there were, in fact, several different episodes where that theme was expressed.)  If anything, proves that Stewart is a great actor!  I, for one, could not utter such a statement with a straight face without actually believing it in my heart to be true.  But, I suppose that is what actors do.

[KevinM1]

Man, I thought the Shatner SNL bits were great.

[Kernel Sohcahtoa]

I appreciate members mentioning the Tuvix episode in Voyager; I watched it today and enjoyed it.  Did anyone enjoy "living witness", "distant origin", or "blink of an eye", which are also Voyager episodes?

[vulcanlogician]

"Blink of an eye" and "Living Witness" are two of my favorite episodes.

[Ravenshire]

To be honest I learned to appreciate Voyager over the years, including Tuvix episode.
It was a goofy episode, with somewhat gay undertone, that you could sit back and chill out watching. There wasn't anything dark about it, no torture, no screaming, they weren't pounding you over the head with some mysteries which you will be hoping they answer in the last episode, but just some science.
Almost all episodes of Voyager and TNG had the same premise and that was that they had encountered some problem which they tried to make to look unsolvable, but then at the end everything comes to status quo.
Especially in Voyager because they were so isolated from the rest that they really had to concentrate on individual characters and their individual problems, they couldn't exactly do as they did in TNG where some character is being visited by an old friend who turns out to be a foe, or being visited by sibling, parent, teacher - I mean they could do it very sparsely.

TNG never had anything like "Tuvix." The closest one was the episode that introduced the Trill, and it was a pretty progressive episode essentially dealing with transgenderism.

The biggest flaw with "Tuvix" was that, IMO, Janeway's final decision was utterly immoral. Tuvix was a new life form. Completely unique. Exactly what Starfleet purports to be about. And, it's not like Tuvok and Neelix were somehow in pain. They were simply merged into something new. A life that begged and pleaded to live.

And she, for all intents and purposes, killed him for no real reason.

I dunno... I just found the entire thing distasteful.

Had it helped Neelix and Tuvok grow as characters it still would have been bad, but not as bad.

The scary part is that Enterprise handled a similar situation much better in the episode where the doc grows a clone of Trip and it turns out that to save Trip, the clone has to die.