Patrick Stewart auditions Stephen Colbert and explains why Picard had to have a pit bull
Aux Features Clips
With Sir Patrick Stewart joining the CBS family (well, the All Access branch), the legendary actor dropped by The Late Show on Tuesday to delight super fan Stephen Colbert. And while Stewart didn’t drop any spoilers or anything (not that the ever-genial Stewart probably cares about such things at this point), he did offer Colbert the opportunity to try out the captain’s chair, in the form of an impromptu audition for the 18-years-later return of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. (Okay, so Picard’s actually Retired Admiral Picard in Star Trek: Picard, but old habits die hard.) After dropping an offhand reference to Colbert doing some inter-network show-hopping with a guest role on this newest Star Trek series (premiering tomorrow), Stewart sat in generous judgement as Colbert steeled himself to give one of Picard’s most famous catchphrases a shot. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, Jean-Luc,” Colbert first said, joking-not joking about the offer, before uttering a Stewart-accented, “Number One, make it so.” Honestly, Colbert didn’t make it his own, but Stewart was effusive, so watch out for, perhaps, another geek-friendly, six-second Colbert cameo down the road.
Even more effusive was Stewart when talking about his recent dip in the wet cement outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Noting that he’d been there once before when, as a touring Royal Shakespeare Company actor in 1968, he’d marveled at all the famous digits pressed into immortality alongside fellow RSC bit player Ben Kingsley, Stewart marveled again at his inclusion. (And responded to Colbert’s question by admitting that, no, Sir Ben does not yet have his impressions in the concrete, although Kingsley got his Hollywood star before Stewart, so it’s a tie.) But, since Patrick Stewart is one of the true good things left in this universe, he spent most of the rest of the interview gushing about his best friend. No, not Sir Ian McKellen, but Number One, his Picard co-star, and Jean-Luc Picard’s trusty companion at the start of the series, a pit bull terrier.
Stewart has already made one pit bull, Ginger, “an international superstar” at this point, telling Colbert that his intended temporary fostering of the impossibly photogenic pooch quickly turned into life-long friendship. At least until the British government thwarted his attempt to adopt the dog, banning Ginger with so-called “breed-specific legislation” that brands all pit bull terriers as dangerous (sort of the Klingons of the dog universe), a label that Stewart isn’t at all happy about. Calling his canine friends “the sweetest, most empathetic, most sensitive creatures I have ever known,” Stewart pooh-poohed all the pooch-prejudice, noting that, in his expert experience, the dogs will do anything to please their human pals, and it’s those asshole humans who occasionally teach them that the best way to be loved is to fight other dogs. Stewart noted that, for the disillusioned Jean-Luc Picard of Picard, the stalwart Number One (played by a very good boy named Dinero) fills a similarly intimate role in the former captain’s life. Living otherwise alone in a French vineyard, Stewart says that Picard’s choice of pal in the years since he’d mysteriously left Starfleet “sets up certain emotional dependencies” that the series will be exploring. No word yet on what his former Number One, William Riker, will make of his namesake once Jonathan Frakes makes his widely publicized guest shot on Picard, but who wouldn’t be flattered?
27 Comments
I’ve done a good share of work for my local animal shelter. They take in/rescue a huge number of pitbulls so they make educating the public on the fact that pitbulls are not inherently aggressive one of their key missions. One of the good/funny side effects of that work is how many young women I see around my city with adopted pitbulls. There are four or five in my apartment building and everyone of them is a big love sponge.Sadly, I still dread the coming of “Picard.” It looks and sounds dreadful. I’m especially sick of the ongoing Kutzman/Abrams sci-fi aesthetic of everyone wearing black and everything being painted black. Oh, and then there’s that lack of basic storytelling skill thing…
Seriously I’ve never met a pitbull that wasn’t friendly. At worst they don’t realize they’re big dogs and try to sit in people’s laps.
A pit bull growled at me this morning! Granted, I was dressed as a hot dog for my side hustle, but still!
Michael Chabon is writing and showrunning Picard, so my hunch is a lack of storytelling skill will not be a problem.
For the life of me I can not understand how you are already taking issue with the story telling for a show you have not even seen and hasnt even premiered yet. I simply can not fathom the arrogance.
The fact N°1 ears are clipped is beyond fucked tho…
You’d think in a post idiotic humanity society, animal cruelty would be gone…
Oh well.
probably a shelter dog that was put to work. sadly a lot of people still clip their ears. the practice needs to be banned outright.
Yeah, of course. And I’m glad this good boi is gonna have a good life, but canonically it makes no sense that there would be a clipped dog in star trek’s france. Maybe they’ll explain it or something, but it sucks for now…
ATREIDES WAR PUG
Also, it’s been over 35 years, and he has aged, what… 5 years?Somewhere, there is a picture that is looking REALLY bad.That picture is Jonathan Frakes.
There are no bad dogs. Only bad dog owners.
I couldn’t agree more. I had a pit bull when I was in high school and college. It was the most loving, loyal, and protective dog I have ever had. I worked a night shift during one college summer. When I would get home, usually around 3 am, I would go to my mom’s room to let her know I was home. Since our dog was jet black, I couldn’t see him. But, I would hear a deep throaty growl until I said his name. Next thing I know is two paws on my chest and face getting licked. I loved that dog. I miss that dog.
Amen
Patrick Stewart…explains why Picard had to have a pit bullIan McKellen, who voices the dog, insisted on it.
yep all pit bulls are killers just like all white people are racist, all black people are criminals and guns make us kill each other.
“It was no longer Star Fleet”
I had a feeling they were going to go this direction. I don’t know if it’s intended to be a meta commentary on the franchise since the end of Enterprise, but it is.There’s a fan theory going around that the pitbull is Q in disguise keeping an eye on his favorite meat sack. Probably not since the show’s tone seems pretty grim so far.
I think there’s room for complexity in trek, with DS9 doing a great job of exploring the edges of the Roddenberrian utopia.And I don’t know what I want from Picard, but I hope it’s about something. Discovery is basically just about explody-pew-pews.But I’m worried that this show will be all “Institutions like starfleet are garbage!” cynicism, which I don’t think would be a particularly helpful message now.
I can see them going with a post dominion war cynicism. The Existential crisis that it was as altered perceptions about what the Federation should be. Much like how nearly 19 years on the War on Terror has altered how politicians see the world and has in turn pushed a more radical viewpoint to the forefront of US politics, one that runs counter to everything the United States is SUPPOSE to stand for.
…and actually, I said that I don’t want “Starfleet is garbage,” but what I really don’t want is “The Federation is garbage.”Questioning starfleet, military imperialism, creeping fascism, and forever war should be exactly what Trek is about.But a septuagenarian brit railing on about all of the taxes and unfair regulations of the UFP would be less good.
But I’m worried that this show will be all “Institutions like starfleet are garbage!” cynicism, which I don’t think would be a particularly helpful message now.Did you skip DS9 or something? Institutions like Starfleet are garbage.
You’re not so big on reading there, huh champ?
So enlighten me, chief.
DS9 definitely held Starfleet up for intense scrutiny and didn’t just give it the utopian gloss that TNG mostly did. While TNG had a few episodes that showed Starfleet in a bad light, DS9 had the power hungry admirals (always the admirals) trying to oust an elected leader in a time of crisis, red squad kids being indoctrinated into plots against the government, the secret black ops torture section with an unwritten budget, Sisko forging documents and allowing assassinations for the “greater good” and so forth.
I don’t think the ultimate conclusion was that Starfleet is garbage, more like even the best intentioned governments have a lot of flaws, are build on secrets, and a utopian ideal established by flawed beings, human or otherwise, is never going to be completely accomplished. Though compared to the Dominion it was the lesser of two evils.
the dogs name in the show is number one??? that makes it so much better.
Pitbulls are the cutest, sweetest, most adorable breed of dog out there. Any law that discriminates against them as a breed needs to die in a giant tire fire.
Yesterday a one month old baby was killed at home by his family’s pit bull mix. https://www.chicagotribune.com/midwest/ct-nw-indiana-boy-dog-mauling-20200127-cj5p6jhzyvc4rl4g2wpyrlzeoa-story.html He was the 236th child killed by a pit bull since 1980. https://www.fatalpitbullattacks.com/children-killed-by-pit-bulls.phpStewart, Colbert, and the entertainment industry need to stop promoting an inherently dangerous kind of dog.