I Stayed, and Have Relished Every Moment: Patrick Stewart, 1940-2026

It’s not being a good month for fans of science fiction. I actually wrote about him before, nearly ten years ago, but there are some people you have to talk about all over again. Even though I was already having a stressful day; when I got home from my daughter’s parent-teacher conference and picked up on the other thing I was supposed to be doing that I’d missed some of for it, I saw the “breaking news” notification on my computer and nearly burst into tears. We talk a lot about celebrities here, and frankly some of them seem like better people than others. But Patrick Stewart seemed like a really good guy, and this one hurts.

Weirdly, I just ordered a copy of the oral history of the David Lynch Dune, and it should be here Wednesday. I hope it includes the delightful story of how he didn’t know who Sting was and thought that he played upright bass in an orchestra at first. I’ve always felt that must have been very restful, to have someone just treat you like a normal person when you were one of the biggest stars on Earth. Hard to say with Sting, really. At any rate, from everything I know, he stayed fairly down-to-earth even when he was pretending to be flying through outer space.

He was such a talent. I’ve seen some of his dramatic stuff, but even if all you’ve seen is Star Trek, you’ve seen some of what he was capable of. There are several episodes of that which really let him shine. “The Inner Light,” of course, wherein he lives an entire life as a projection. “Chain of Command Part II,” wherein Picard is tortured. “Family,” where he takes leave to the family vineyard to process his time as Locutus. Any fan of the series can name others; I’ve a weakness for watching him deal with minor frustrations and therefore adore Q episodes and Lwaxana Troi episodes.

He was a defender of the abused, speaking out for battered women. His mother had been one, and he was firm that she had never done anything to make his father treat her that way. He was a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, and I doubt it was just because of his best friend, Sir Ian McKellan. He wanted to be a concert pianist. He was a socialist who believed in fairness and equality. And, like my mother, he was a member of the Silent Generation, meaning people who cite age as a reason to be a bigot have no excuse.

Obviously, people aren’t going to post messages on social media saying, “I worked with him and he sucked.” That said, it’s clear there is very real grief from the people who worked with him. And, of course, from Sir Ian. He seems to have been a little stand-offish at the beginning of TNG, but I wonder how much of that is from his conviction that he was going to get fired at any minute. What a horrible mistake that would have been.