By the time the opportunity to audition for Star Trek: The Next Generation rolled around, Stewart had already appeared on both the big and small screens in films and shows like Coronation Street, I, Claudius, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Excalibur. He didn’t actually care for science fiction and even once questioned Doctor Who actress Lalla Ward about why she would work on such a property.
It was when he was performing in a reading at UCLA that Bob Justman, Supervising Producer of the original Star Trek, saw him and knew he’d be perfect as the lead in a new version of Trek that was being produced. Once he’d been convinced to audition, Gene Roddenberry needed to be convinced to cast him.
As the story goes, Roddenberry was completely against having a bald captain, so asked that Stewart wear a wig for his audition. Stewart called England, had a very good wig made and sent over to Los Angeles, and put it on right before going into the audition room. The actor got the job; the wig did not.
Stewart spent the first year of the series living out of a suitcase, convinced that the show would get canceled at any moment. It must have been quite a shock, then, when it was the role he became known for, with seven seasons, four movies and now, the spinoff series based on his character, Star Trek: Picard, just having completed its second of three seasons! By 2011 he had changed his tune, however, when he said in a 2011 interview that Star Trek: The Next Generation was the biggest highlight of his career because “After that series was such a huge success, which it was immediately, everything was changed for me.”
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