This is Fresh Air. I'm Sam Brigger Infateri Gross.

Fans of Star Trek and Patrick Stewart were delighted to see the act of return to his most famous role, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in the series Star Trek Picard.

Season 2 has just begun streaming on Paramount Plus.

Stewart made his first appearance as Picard in 1987 and has since starred in seven seasons of the next generation and several Star Trek films.

It's hard to imagine now, but Patrick Stewart was a bit of a long shot to play the lead in a sci-fi TV show.

At the time he was best known as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He faced a lot of skepticism about whether he was right for the role, including from Star Trek's creator, Jean Roddenberry.

But Stewart went on to embody one of Star Trek's most beloved characters.

Stewart has continued to work on many other projects, including multiple Shakespeare productions, his one-man version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and several X-Men movies as Charles Xavier.

During the pandemic, Patrick Stewart provided a little relief on Instagram by reading sonnets to his followers.

We're going to listen back to my 2020 interview with him.

But first, let's hear a clip from the first season of Star Trek Picard.

Years earlier, Picard had resigned from his commission as Starfleet and retreated to his family vineyard in France to live out the rest of his years,

embittered that the United Federation of Planets had lost its way.

But a confused young woman named Daesh appears at his home, asking for help to figure out her identity.

It turns out she's an android and perhaps related to Picard's old friend, Data, who sacrificed himself to save Jean-Luc.

Daesh is killed by unknown assailants who also interpricard. Here he is recuperating, angry at himself for failing her and shoring himself up for one more adventure.

She deserved better for me. I owe it to her to find out who killed her and why you have too much of yourself.

Sitting here, all these years, nursing my offended dignity, rising books of history people preferred forget.

I never asked anything of myself at all.

No, I haven't been living. I've been waiting to die.

And that's a scene from Star Trek Picard, starring my guest today, Patrick Stewart. Patrick Stewart, welcome to Fresh Air.

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