Patrick Stewart said saying goodbye after Star Trek: Nemesis was both "agonizing" and "terrifying"

Goodbyes are never easy, especially when the people you're saying goodbye to have become your family. That's how the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation feel about one another, and it was never more evident than after filming wrapped on Star Trek: Nemesis. For Patrick Stewart, who'd played Captain Jean-Luc Picard since 1987, alongside Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, and Wil Wheaton, knowing that Nemesis was the end of their time together was especially difficult.

In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross [via Gamerant], the final moments, where Stewart knew he was saying goodbye to a character who'd become loved the world over as well as the cast and crew, was overwhelming. So much so that the actor broke down and collapsed in Johnathan Frakes' arms.

" I will say that at the end of the film, I’m saying goodbye to Riker and I found myself completely caught up in the moment. I broke down. Out of the clear blue sky, my emotions overwhelmed me. I collapsed in Jonathan’s arms and felt such a fool. The entire crew watched me cry and then started muttering, 'What’s going on? Has he been drinking or something?' But in that moment, absolutely everything coalesced—the feelings that I had for these people over the years. Saying goodbye was absolutely terrifying and agonizing for me."

- Patrick Stewart

At the time, Stewart had no way of knowing he'd return to the character in 2019 to begin filming the first season of Star Trek: Picard. To him, it obviously felt like the end of an era, and for fans, it felt the same. Watching the credits roll on Star Trek: Nemesis, a film that left many of us disappointed, we had a hard time believing that would be the last time we saw The Next Generation cast together.

Thankfully, Star Trek: Picard changed all of that, and the cast was fully reunited in the final season of Picard for ten stellar episodes that encompassed everything we loved about The Next Generation. And their time together was so well received that there is hope for continuing adventures for the crew. As much as Stewart wasn't ready to say goodbye to his friends in 2002, fans don't want 2023 to have been our last goodbye.