Stewart To Bush: You Have A Choice

Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) talked recently about the similarities between current events and 'Nemesis,' and called upon world leaders to follow the lesson taught in the latest Trek film.

"Of course you can't fail to draw parallels between the latest events in the world and certain aspects of our story," Stewart told the German magazine TIP.

"Shinzon throughout the film displays a certain similary with Saddam Hussein. Primarily, 'Nemesis' asks the question, are we helpless victims of our surroundings? Or do we have, and this is what I myself believe, a choice? When you live in America, you get the feeling that George Bush is firmly decided to wage war against Iraq. I would like to remind Bush, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder that they have a choice."

Stewart said that as the story for 'Nemesis' had been complete long before 9/11, those events hadn't been able to directly influence the film's story. But he felt the ability of human beings to make a choice has always been a major theme in Star Trek. "Yes. I think I've also benefited personally from my role as Captain Picard. I used to be much more impulsive and intolerant. But nowadays, the sentence that's most likely to pass my lips is 'Let me think about that, before we rush into something.' Another aspect of him I value is his habit to request of others, 'Tell me what you think, I'd like to hear your opinion.'"

'Nemesis' was far from successful at the box office, something he attributed to shifting audience tastes. "The success of fantasy films is a sign that people are trying to escape reality. And science fiction bases itself on reality. The Next Generation is apparently not what people want at this time."

"I was able to see 'Nemesis' four times in ten days," Stewart continued. "I began to realise that we'd said it all. And that this is a really appropriate closing for The Next Generation. Recently I said in London, I'd hate it to be the last guest at the Star Trek party [and have to turn out the light.] It would be much better to let the curtain drop after delivering a really good work. That's why this could be the right moment to end The Next Generation.

But Stewart gave fans a glimmer of hope when he laughingly said, "Luckily we won't have to do anything with the Star Trek franchise for a long time. And it won't be our decision whether it will continue, but the studio's."

The full article can be found in German magazine TIP's second issue for 2003. Thanks go out to Tino Herrmann for sending this in! Please note that the above interview appeared in a German translation in the magazine, the quotes in this TrekToday news item have been translated back to English. Any errors should be blamed on your TrekToday writer.

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