Patrick Stewart admits he was a severe bastard in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation

The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation got off to a rocky start, and Patrick Stewart had a big issue with his cast members. 

By now, most fans have heard the story of Patrick Stewart’s displeasure with the “goofing off” on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As an actor from the Shakespearen stage, he wasn’t accustomed to how the crew acted, both off and onscreen. They joked around and even ad-libbed some of their lines to make them funnier during rehearsals. So he took it upon himself to “educate” them about the proper way to handle themselves onset. In the narration of his memoir, Making It So: A Memoir, Stewart reveals how well that went over. [via Trekmovie]

At the end of his lecture, Stewart recalls that the “in the moment when the cast erupted in hysterics as his pompous declaration,” he didn’t handle it well. He stormed away and into his trailer, smarting over being laughed at.

Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner played intermediaries on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While inside his trailer, Stewart heard a knock on his door, and it was Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner, who wanted to talk out the issue. He said they were so “wise and tactful in educating him.” Spiner told him that everything was okay and that people respected him there, but he thought Stewart had misjudged the situation.

While Frakes and Spiner admitted there was too much goofing around that needed to be dialed back, they also told him how off-putting his scolding of the cast had been. Basically, it wasn’t beneficial. And this was the first lesson of many lessons as Stewart goes on to talk about how much he has learned from his Star Trek friends over the years, including acting for television and how to be a good colleague. And now, he considers them family.