Star Trek's Patrick Stewart Admits He Copied One Thing From William Shatner
There's no question that when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" debuted in 1987, the series had some gargantuan shoes to fill following the groundbreaking success of the classic "Star Trek" series two decades before.
Naturally, Patrick Stewart didn't want to give fans a virtual repeat of what they got from William Shatner and his castmates in the late 1960s. However, he made an exception when it came to a crucial element that came to define Gene Roddenberry's mission in the original series — its opening voiceover.
"In one very specific aspect, I owe a debt of gratitude to William Shatner," Stewart wrote in his 2023 autobiography, "Making It So: A Memoir." "There came the time when I had to record the famous 'Space, the final frontier' speech that opens each episode of 'The Next Generation,' as it did 'The Original Series."
With that enormous chore in his sights, the actor said he didn't want to give Captain Jean-Luc Picard's narration a new interpretation but instead looked back to the original series and Shatner's iconic opening words as Captain James T. Kirk. "I carefully listened to Bill's voiceover in preparation to do mine, and realized that there was nothing I could do to improve upon it," Stewart wrote in his memoir. "He'd done it perfectly, the tone and cadences spot-on. So I basically did his version syllable for syllable — the only time I intentionally copied Bill's performance as the captain."
Stewart and Shatner eventually teamed up on Star Trek: Generations
Before "Star Trek: The Next Generation" began its syndicated run in the late 1980s, the cast of the classic "Star Trek" series moved into the feature film realm. For seven films, William Shatner's James T. Kirk commandeered the Starship Enterprise on the big screen, with the seventh being his and his crew's final voyage.
By 1994, it was time for the original "Star Trek" cast to hand over the reins of the franchise to the cast of "The Next Generation," since the follow-up series was coming to an end. The result was a crossover movie — "Star Trek: Generations" — where most of the classic "Star Trek" cast co-starred along with their "Next Generation" successors. The film was a definitive change of guard, especially when it came to Shatner passing the baton to Patrick Stewart via Kirk's death in the film.
Naturally, Shatner and Stewart were featured in scenes together, which the "TNG" star admitted to being a bit apprehensive about at first. In "Making it So," the actor recalled how Shatner appeared cold toward the newer show, claiming in press interviews that he watched little of the series. Instead, working with Shatner on "Star Trek: Generations" ended up being a pleasant surprise.
"Bill was a pleasure to work with, open and generous, and his death scene is moving," Stewart wrote. "In the film, Picard and Kirk team up to foil a plan by the movie's villain, Tolian Soran, who was played by Malcolm McDowell, a long way from his days as a Royal Shakespeare Company walk-on background actor." In the end, the pair worked together to stop Soran's diabolical plans, with Shatner's Kirk making "the ultimate sacrifice" and leaving Picard as the Enterprise's sole captain.