498 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
498 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
From: fox@dcs.king.ac.uk (The Fox)
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Date: 30 Apr 93 07:58:09 GMT
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
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Subject: Patrick Stewart Interview on Radio 1
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Interview between Steve Wright & Patrick Stewart on BBC Radio 1 FM
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29/4/93
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SW: Well listen, I'm tempted to say "Welcome, Captain"
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PS: And actually, you know, that was not recorded appaluse, that was live.
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It's important to explain that because there's an awful lot of
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recorded applause these days, and I would like it to be known that
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there are at least six people here who actually put their hands
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together.
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SW: Listen, do you get fed up with all the Star Trek jokes, "Oh hello,
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Patrick. We expected you to beam down"?
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PS: Well, that doesn't qualify as a joke, that just qualifies as a
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banality. I did in fact hear my first Star Trek joke, my very first
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Star Trek joke yesterday. It was a joke about the ears. I won't
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repeat it will have heard it, but it was in fact my first. Any
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reference to "Beam me up", "Make it so", those things are no longer
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funny. You won't crack a smile from me with references like that.
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SW: How do you feel about being so famous as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and
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Mikey mentioned earlier, he mentioned you don't look French, by the
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way. So why did they give you that French name?
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PS: What is it in particular about me that doesn't look French, and how
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much of me have you seen to know that there isn't some part of me
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that looks French somewhere.
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SW: He's making a good point.
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Off_1: Yeah, I agree with him.
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SW: Okay, point taken. Can you live with it though? Can you live with
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the -
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PS: - with that part of me that doesn't look French?
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<laughter>
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PS: I'm the wrong person to ask.
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SW(laughing): You're very good today. I like you.
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PS: Can I live with the fame?
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SW: Yeah.
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PS: Yes.
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Off: Next question!
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SW: And...?
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PS: And it has its, as we say, its downside in that along with it goes
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a certain amount of, sometimes, uncomfortable harassment. Sometimes
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potentialy lethal harassment. But it's modest, compared to say,
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being a policeman, or being a solier in Bosnia, you know?
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SW: You're actually a Shakespearian actor.
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PS: Yes. Amongst other things.
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SW: And a 'Lovey' of the highest order, right?
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PS: And a what of the highest order?
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SW: A 'Lovey' of the highest order. You're a proper London Actor, aren't
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you?
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PS: No. Strictly speaking not. You know why? Because I've never
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appeared in the commercial West End, and I know of course there are
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a lot of West End producers listening to your show in the middle of
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the afternoon -
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SW: There are!
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PS: - sitting with their feet up drinking brandy, smoking large cigars.
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<laughter>
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SW: You're right! Everyone is!
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PS: So pay attention! Pay attention! Patrick is as yet a virgin so far,
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I beg your pardon? So far as the commercial West End is concerned.
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SW: Really?
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PS: I appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company for a couple of years
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at the National Theatre, and immediately before going to Hollywood,
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at the Young Vic, but never have I been paid a cent. Not even a penny
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for appearing commercially in the West End.
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SW: Would you do a musical or not?
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PS: Yes. I've auditioned a couple of times for musicals. I would like
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to flatter myself; I was reasonably short-listed for
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'Les Miserables' for when it opened. I certainly sang for
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Mr.Macintosh and Mr.Nunn.
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SW: Well...
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PS: Would you like me to sing for you?
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<laughter>
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SW: Later, later. Stay there, okay. We'll come back to Patrick Stewart
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a little later on.
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---------------------
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SW: Let me just talk about Star Trek because the episode that I saw last
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night on Sky was the episode where you are captured as the captain by
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the Borg ship, and those that watch Sky would have seen it last night,
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or maybe those that have watched it on BBC2 would have seen it, but I
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don't know whether to watch it or not because it's quite late,
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ten-thirty, quite late for me. How soon does the captain get rescued
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and what happens in that episode? Can you tell us?
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PS: Yes, indeed. Rest assured. The captain will return to the Enterprise
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in so far as we can see with everthing intact, but his injuries so far
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as his kidnapping by the Borg is concerned, are not all external.
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Many of them are internal. And in fact that episode, you understand,
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was recorded more than three years ago. In fact, I tell you it was
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July 1990. And the repercussions of that experience have gone on in
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that we have just finished recording another Borg episode, and so
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Picard's relationship, that is psychlogical relationship with the Borg,
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still remains somewhat tense. And to reveal all of the nuances of
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that particular tension to you would be to give too much away.
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However, I docome back. I am, there is -
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SW: I didn't get an answer at all there, did I? Have you ever thought of
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going into politics?
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PS: Yes.
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SW: Because you successfully evaded that question there.
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PS: Do you know of a safe seat?
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SW: No.
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PS: I tell you, I've already been guaranteed in the United States that I
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could run for congress and then after the gentleman who proposed to me
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says that he could raise enough money to me to congress in two years,
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having heard me doing some public speaking. However, unfortunately, I
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am not a citizen, and it is required and I have no intention of giving
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up my British citizenship. Labour Party, are you listening?
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SW: How did you actually get the Star Trek gig then? I mean, how did that
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come about?
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PS: By accident. It was an absolute fluke. It falls into the 'Soda
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Fountain' category. I was in fact in California in a break after a
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production at the National theatre. I was foing a series of solo
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performances and Shakespeare lectures in universities, and I was
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assisting a colleague of mine at UCLA who was giving a public lecture
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one month by reading extracts of Sheridan and Shakespeare and Oscar
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Wilde and so forth. And the following day I was called to
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Paramount for a meeting with Gene Roddenberry and the other Star Trek
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producers, and my agent had no knowledge why I should be called, but
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it happens that one of the producers was signed up for that course of
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public lectures, heard me read one of the extracts, and he claims, and
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he's an honest man, as I believe. There are honest producers! And he
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claimed that he turned to his wife and said "We've found our captain".
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Well six months later that became a reality because it took all of
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that time to finally get cast.
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SW: Did your friends in the business say "Look, Patrick. Why are you
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doing this?"
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PS: One did. One friend and senior colleague at the RSC said "You must
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not do this. This is a terrible mistake. You'll ruin your career."
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SW: But it hasn't obviously.
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PS: Well I'm on your show!
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<laughter>
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SW: Then you're at the pinnacle, obviously.
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PS: It's only downhill from now on.
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---------------------
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SW: Let me just ask you some questions on behalf of the trekkies,
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especially Greg Berdard and all the trekkies and so many others.
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We've got another letter here from Starfleet Command, Fleet Operations
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Center Sole Sector.
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PS: Solihol(sp?)
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SW: Yes it is Solihol.
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PS: Starfleet command has a major department in Solihol.
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SW: Okay, you're right. This is a letter from Cathy and Dominic, can you
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believe it? So what do you make -
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PS: You don't know what I'm joking about? That's the problem at the
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moment.
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SW: But how do you feel about trekkies and this whole kind of fanatic?
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PS: I think that our show has got the most incredible collection of fans
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in the history of fandom. It's largely due to the support of the
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serious comitted fans that the original series was kept on and that
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this series of ours has been so succesful. We range from
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vice-chancellors of universities, chairman of the Joint Chief of
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Staff. The predecessor of Colin Powell (sp?) was a big fan of the show
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and asked my permission to sit in the captain's chair. Right down to
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five, six year old kids in school. It's a show which crosses all
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social boundaries, all ages, all races and that particular instance
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makes it something of a phenomenon.
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SW: Let's talk about some of the characters in the show at the moment.
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The chap with the eyes.
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PS: The chap with the eyes? We have one chap without eyes and one chap
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with mechanical eyes.
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SW: Data. The mad staring one.
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PS: Data, the android?
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SW: Is he the guy that used to be in Benson?
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PS: Data, the android, known as Brent Spiner. Brent is in fact a Broadway
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actor. There's a number of musicals on Broadway, and he's on the
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original cats album of Steven Sonheim musical, "Sunday in the Park
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with George"
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SW: There's some interesting relationships, I mean, obviously the
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character Data is an android. Now what about with your first officer
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there. There's no kind of warmth between the two of you, I've noticed
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really.
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PS: How do you interpret warmth?
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SW: Well, I mean, you don't seem like very good friends.
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PS: Really? It's full of, well, it's interesting that you should say
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that, and it's also interesting that you've seen the first three
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episodes. Obviously you haven't seen the one where we get married -
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<laughs> - so that would be a surpise to you.
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SW: That will be a surpise! It'll be a surpise to him!
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PS: It's in the nature of the good captain that he is somewhat remote.
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Somewhat removed from the rest of his crew, and it's part of his
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command style, I think. But in fact there's an enormous amount of
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mutual respect between those two.
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SW: He likes Riker then? He actually likes him?
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PS: Yes. I think it's interesting. All kinds of paraphanalia attach
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themselves to our show, but for instance, I learnt the other day
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that when civilian airline pilots have to go for their refresher
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course, which they do I think every year, two years, they watch
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sequences from our show that are edited together in order to
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illustrate the 'On the Bridge' / 'On the Flight Deck' command
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style of Picard as it's being an illustration of command at its
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best. And that, that - your producer is snorting! You see what I
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would recommend to you as producer that you initiate some of that
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command style right here in this studio.
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SW: Hey. We're on your side now!
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PS: And a lot of that has to do with the way the officer in command
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relates to and responds to his fellow crew members. I's a very
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different command style to that of Captain Kirk.
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SW: Yeah. We'll talk about the old series and compare this series, and
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also, the new series and also take a few questions from the possy
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here. Would that be okay with you?
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PS: Very good.
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SW: Thank you, captain. We'll be right back.
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---------------------
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SW: Do you speak any Klingon, by the way? You have a Klingon officer.
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PS: Oh yes. _Kapagh_, as I recall means goodbye. Until you've sat down
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to a dish of Bregitt Lung or Heart of Targ, or in fact the dish that
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the Klingons - this is all for real, by the way. I'm not making
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this up - the dish that the Klingons most like to serve to
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non-Klingons is Gagh, which moves around in the bowl.
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SW: Ah, it reminds me of the old canteen up here. What do you think of
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the old shows, and also the films that Bill Shatner and all those
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people are making now. Is there any needle between the two casts?
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PS: I have no personal experience of resentment. I do know that whilst
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we were in early production before this show had aired, that Bill
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on a television show had said that he felt that there could never
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ever be a replacement or substitute for the original show, which
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wasn't too encouraging for us. But I know of no animosity.
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Leonard Nimoy has done two very successful episodes with us.
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DeForest Kelley, who played Dr.McCoy made a brilliant appearance
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in our pilot episode, which was in a kind of a sense, a handing over
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of the baton.
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SW: Let;s have a question from Mick, the producer for Patrick Stewart,
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who is here today.
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PS: Mick is not actually the producer for Patrick Stewart. He's actually -
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SW: Could be, could be. He could work with you. He's a very gifted man.
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Mick: We're getting into semantics now, aren't we? When a new alien is
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introduced to the series, how detailed is the profile that is given
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to you. Do you get things like smells, heights, personal habits.
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SW: Do you check out the aliens first?
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PS: Uh-huh, yeah. Those are the things that you usually pickup in the
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first fifteen-twenty minutes on the set. In fact, the introduction
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of a new alien is always a very serious business. We've had several
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in the last two years. Most successfully a race know as the
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Cardassians, who have gradually developed in the last year or so as
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the principle threat to Starfleet, other than the Borg, whom you
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mentioned earlier. But a bible exists on every alien race, so you
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would have a detailed breakdown on that alien society, so although
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you may only see a brief appearance by one of them there will be a
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whole dtailed background.
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SW: You were talking about the character that used to play Dr.McCoy. I
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read the other day that he was once asked in a hospital, and they
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asked his opinion on something. "Can we get a second opinion from
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you, Doctor?"
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PS: Yes. A little of that pursues me. People assume that because I fly
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the most advanced piece of technology in the history of televison,
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that I can program my VCR.
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SW: I thought that you were going to say something like you come over
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on the plane and you're up there with the pilot and he looks round
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and says "This is nothing to you then, right?"
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PS: In fact, I have my own set of demographics for our show by
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profession. I mean, for instance, I've discovered that some of our
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fans are amongst the immigration authorities, which is very useful.
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Flight crew, both on the flight deck and the cabin staff seem to be
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big fans of the show. Musicians too. I think it's a lot to do with
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the hours that people keep.
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SW: But it's nice to be saluted when you walk through customs, isn't it.
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<laughter>
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PS: There are many times when actually a certain amount of notariety can
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be of value.
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SW: We'll come right back and round off with Patrick Stewart in a second.
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---------------------
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SW: We really appreciate you staying with us all afternoon, and it's been
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a fascinating afternoon. We could go on forever because there's
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just so much to ask about Star Trek. Where you work, for example,
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on the set there. I mean, don't spoil it too much, but there is no
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ship right? It's a studio, isn't it? It's just a studio isn't it,
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Patrick?
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PS: (mock horror) No ship!? Will you get me Commander Riker, please?
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<laughter>
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PS: Actually, in fact, it's a major operation. We have three permanent
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sound stages at Paramount, and Deep Space Nine as three more. It is
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a massive undertaking and it is not known as 'the franchise' for
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nothing at Paramount studios.
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SW: Is this series the last, the series that you're doing now? Because
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you said that this was the sixth and with DS9 coming on -
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PS: Let's not confuse series with season. This is American studio
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terminology. We've just completed the sixth season.
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SW: But my question is are you going to continue to make it?
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PS: Yes, there will be a seventh season.
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SW: Okay.
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PS: And beyond that, I can also tell you that this time next year I would
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expect us to be in production of the first feature film of the
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Next Generation.
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SW: Brilliant.
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<cheers from background>
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PS: Remember, you heard it here, ladies and gentlemen.
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SW: ..from the captain. Okay, we have a question here from Richard for
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Patrick Stewart.
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Richard: This is a fax that has come in since we've been on
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air. This is from Steve Close of Bridgend:
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Could you please settle a long running arguement between myself
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and my girlfriend. She claims that Patrick Stewart stayed at a
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caravan site in Gowering, Swansea. About ten or twelve years ago.
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He had long hair, was reading Shakespeare and had just appeared on
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Jackanory. I, however, don't believe that Jean-Luc Picard would
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choose to spend his shore leave in a caravan. Would you please help?
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This is important stuff, so where you in Gowering, Swansea about
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12 years ago on a caravan site?
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PS: Abosolutely, categorically...yes!
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Richard: So now you know, Steve Close! You lose!
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SW: And had you just done Jackanory?
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PS: Yes I had.
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Richard: Well there you go. Glad to be of service.
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SW: Do you work now in America exclusively or will you work anywhere?
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PS: Well the series takes 10 months a year to film, so I don't have much
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opportunity. But while we were off-air just a moment ago, you
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mentioned a film called 'Death Train' which was made in conjunction
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with YTV, and we were filming that just 11 months ago in Croatia
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and Slovenia. I think that we were the last film company to pass
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through those troubled lands.
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SW: I wonder if we'll get to see that here?
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PS: Yes. Actually, it has not been seen here. In fact, it just aired in
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the US very successfully. It's an Alistair MacClean story about
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a United Nations anti-crime organisation, which I head, and I am told
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that there are another five stories, five novels to be filmed, so I'm
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looking forward to this becoming a mini-series of its own.
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SW: Okay. I've had so many calls from trekkies, and I've had so many
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faxes and so many letters. Would you please say something to them?
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PS: Yes, to our fans here in England. I;ve had a number of requests
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during the last five years to attend conventions here, to attend
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British conventions. It's impossible for me to attend. I give
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an absolute guarantee, that once I am released from this series,
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and this has to be the deal, then I will attend some of the
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conventions here in England. And actually, and it's always a mistake
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to mention particular items, one of the reasons that we were a little
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late arriving here was that I had just raided the BBC shop, on the
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corner, of cassette tapes, and fans here, from time to time, hearing
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that I've been a big BBC radio fan since I was a child,
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"Childrens' Hour" and all of that, they send me archivel tapes which
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I appreciate very much. However, I have just now raided the store
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and got my own collection.
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SW: What've you got? 'Round the Horne' and all that?
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PS: No. I was picking up, actually, a lot of cricket archivel material.
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Oh, and two Alan Bennett tapes, because I'm a big Alan Bennett fan.
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So that will keep me company on the freeways of Los Angeles in the
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weeks ahead.
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SW: And just taking you back into Loveydon just a little -
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<laughter>
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PS: - Sweetie.
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<more laughter>
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SW: Listen, Patrick Stewart. Thank you very much for coming in. We
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enjoyed talking to you. Thank you very much.
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PS: I've had a grand time. Thank you.
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---
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/^^\____________ The Fox
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\~~/ __ \ <fox@dcs.king.ac.uk>
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\/\____,<^ / \ |
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/ \ \/| \|
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