Star Trekis more popular than ever these days, thanks toJ.J. Abrams' hitStar Trekmovies, withStar Trek Beyondset to hit theaters next year. While the originalStar Trekseries only lasted three seasons, the 1980s spinoffStar Trek: The Next Generationtook the franchise to new heights, running for seven seasons over 176 episodes, between 1987 and 1994. That show’s star,Patrick Stewart, who brought Captain Jean-Luc Picard to life, recently held aRedditAMA session to promote his Starz seriesBlunt Talk, where he was asked what his favoriteStar Trekepisode is. Here’s what the actor had to say.
“My favorite episode is"Inner Light”. It was a beautiful script, which for me was almost entirely located away from the Enterprise-and it’s crew! And because I was given the chance to perform what Picard would have been like if his life experience had been different. But another important reason is that I had a son in that episode who was played by my son, Daniel Stewart."
The episode in question was written by Morgan Gendel and Peter Allan Fields, where Picard awakes to find himself living in a small village on a non-Federation planet named Kataan. He is a well-known member of the community named Kamin, who is suffering from a delusion of being a starship captain. Whenever Picard talks about his time on the Enterprise, others in the town think he is just suffering ill effects from a raging fever he is trying to recover from. Kamin ends up living out his entire life on Kataan, with scenes of Picard’s crew trying to wake him up spliced in throughout the episode.
The episode was quite a departure from the show’s normalsci-fiformat, serving as the second-to-last episode ofSeason 4.“Inner Light"is often cited as one of theTV series' best, with another series star,Wil Wheaton, also recently revealed it was his favorite episode as well.“Inner Light"went on to win a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation not too long after it aired.
After the show’s run,Patrick Stewartwent on to reprise his iconic Picard role in the feature filmsStar Trek: Generations(1994),Star Trek: First Contact(1996),Star Trek: Insurrection(1998) andStar Trek: Nemesis. Do you agree withPatrick Stewart’s choice for favoriteStar Trek: The Next Generationepisode?
