I didn’t know much about Patrick Stewart until Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) came into our family, and we watched the DVDs multiple times (though I did know Stewart had been a Shakespearean actor).  And after 7 TNG seasons plus the movies, I didn’t follow his career into X-Men, Star Trek: Picard or his stage career with The Royal Shakespeare Theater (RST). Still I was interested enough to pick up this memoir after Christopher told me he was reading it. 

Stewart has accomplished a LOT on stage, film, and TV, and as such, there’s much to cover; however, he could have been more discerning in his details, perhaps not spending over 200 pages getting from boyhood to his first day at the RST, including every place he lived, every girlfriend, crush, and date, every actor he’d ever worked with (from their clothes to their mannerisms), and every role he’d landed. 

I found the 2nd half of the book far more engaging as he delves into his time with RST, with his seven TNG seasons plus the movies, and with his return to the stage in between TV and film. I kind of want to go back and re-watch TNG all these years later now that his book offers commentary on the script, the other actors, directors, etc. I laughed when he described seasons one and two as cringe-worthy, remembering that it wasn’t until season three when the show hooked me. 

I also laughed when he admitted to having never seen the original Star Trek series as he was approached about playing the captain in TNG and when he tells of meeting the musician Sting for the first time while filming Dune and telling Sting how “marvelous that he plays with a police band,” having no understanding of Sting, The Police, or pop culture. 

Between stage and screen–from his earliest years in small town productions to the present–he offers insightful interactions with so many greats: Vivian Leigh, Paul McCartney, Ian McKellen, Kirk Douglas, Al Gore, and David Lynch to name a few. 

He’s more sparing with details about his three marriages, his two children, and his parents, who have an oversized role in the first half and then drop out of the story. In this sense, Stewart puts a bit of an emotional wall between himself and the reader. While he’s self-deprecating about some of his acting insecurities, he gleans over some of the more challenging relationships in his life. 

I enjoyed this memoir, though I did skim read at times because I found the level of detail a bit too slogging. Mostly, I’d like to see Stewart in some of his RST lead roles to get a better sense of the myriad Shakespearean characters he played.