Patrick Stewart Reveals If He’ll Be In Uniform On Star Trek: Picard

Somewhere Sheldon and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory are ecstatic! Patrick Stewart is reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard, a new series for CBS All Access.

Patrick Stewart On Star Trek: Picard

The show is set a few decades after Picard’s most recent appearance in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. While he spent years surrounded by allies and friends, now Picard finds himself less in control.

In the digital series, Patrick says Picard will only appear briefly in his Star Trek uniform. “[That] was another one of the rather presumptuous conditions that I laid down,” Stewart told TV Critics in Pasadena last weekend, “that I didn’t want to wear a uniform in this, because I felt it very important that we put a lot of distance between [Star Trek The] Next Generation and what we are seeking to do here in this.

“Not ignore it, no, not at all. But so far as the character’s concerned, halfway through Season 3 of Next Generation, I no longer knew where Jean-Luc started and Patrick Stewart left off.”

The actor says Picard has never truly left him since the two melded. “So there was actually nothing that strange to be stepping into Star Trek: Picard because he’s never actually left me. He has always been there, and it’s a relationship that I am happy to continue with. That’s an understatement. I’m absolutely thrilled to continue.”

Man’s Best Friend

There’s an old show biz adage about not working with children or animals on-screen, however, watch for Picard to share screen-time with a pooch.

“[Picard is] troubled, disturbed, lonely, and with feelings of strange, unnatural guilt. To just see him with a dog seemed to me to write a lot of things that didn’t have to be said because the presence of the dog alone means that he’s looking for some form of comfort, which he cannot find anywhere else.  But he finds it in the dog.” Star Trek: Picard will be available on the digital platform CBS All Access starting Thursday, January 23.