It has been an EXCEEDINGLY busy few days – as you can probably tell, given the total lack of poasting for the entire week – but I am now in the process of catching up on the various things that happened. One of the saddest of those “things” was, of course, the passing of one Sir Patrick Stewart – better known to all of us as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, or Professor Charles Xavier.

Yet those were very far from his only roles. Sir Patrick was a classically trained actor who excelled in adaptations of Shakespeare. Some of his roles were great, and some were AWFUL, but one thing never, ever changed – that epic, amazing, beautifully calibrated voice, with such perfect diction:

The amazing thing about that voice, and its perfect calibration, is that you cannot tell, at least at first, that he was from t’North, as it were. That’s right – he was a man of Yorkshire. Indeed, he remained a lifelong supporter of something called “Huddersfield Football Club”.

(For those who have never been to Huddersfield… you are not missing anything. Just trust me on this one. The single best thing about Huddersfield, is an epic IRON MAIDEN B-side that takes the absolute piss out of Rod Smallwood, the band’s manager, who is from that town.)

On top of that, Sir Patrick was an avid JAAAAAG fan, as his legendary appearance on TOP GEAR – y’know, back when it was GOOD, with the original Three Wazzateers as the hosts – shows us very clearly:

Not gonna lie… this bit of news hurt. Like most of my readers, I grew up watching old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. While I was never a true “Trekkie” – the whole setup always struck me as somehow absurd, to some extent, and I was always more into STAR WARS, especially after I turned 11 – I always liked that series.

Hell, I even liked the Trek movies that starred him – which were a DECIDEDLY mixed bag, it must be said.

This one was awful:

This one was LEGEN – wait for it – DARY:

I never even watched this one:

And this one, I have to admit, actually grew on me over time – even though most of the Trek fanbase HATED it back then:

When you get to the age where your childhood icons and heroes start dying off in real life, it reminds you of your own mortality, and of the need to do something useful that leaves a profound and lasting legacy. Sir Patrick Stewart certainly did that – for all of his failings in his personal life, and for all that he was basically an avowed liberal and socialist. (He was from Yorkshire, after all.)

Clear skies, Captain.