Mephistopheles

Vielen wird Patrick Stewart aus seiner Rolle als Captain Picard in “Star Trek” bekannt sein, oder auch aus diversen Kinofilmen wie “X-Men”. Patrick Stewart hat seine Wurzeln aber im Theater, und da gilt seine besondere Liebe dem “Barden” William Shakespeare. 25 Jahre lang war er Mitglied der Royal Shakespeare Company, und auch in Star Trek: “The Next Generation” gibt es immer wieder viele Shakespeare-Anspielungen. Der folgende Bericht wurde für die internationale Star-Trek-Fangemeinde geschrieben, die Geschichte trug sich im Januar 1999 auf einer Convention in London zu.

Preface: Unfortunately, audiorecording was not allowed during Patrick Stewart’s stage appearance, so I have to rely on my somewhat blurred memory.

When I went to London for the Wolf 359 “Insurrection” convention, I thought of adding a new T-Shirt to my collection, but was certainly not prepared for the things to come.

I was going to meet some fellow Brent Spiner fans, and to make sure we wouldn’t miss each other I had decided to wear an “Old Yellow Eyes” T-Shirt to make it easier for people to recognize me. Of course, I’m fond of OYE, so that was another reason.

We managed to get front row center seats, very close to the stage and decided not to go anywhere so we wouldn’t lose them. Jason Carter from Babylon 5 was the first speaker, and he gave a really funny performance, occasionally reciting humorous poems and convincingly proving that he’s nothing like the rather serious Marcus Cole.

Next one to follow was Patrick Stewart, Brent was scheduled to appear afterwards. This was the first time that I got to see Patrick Stewart in person, and I was impressed. Now there’s a strong personality with star qualities!

After the introduction, the Q&A session began, and I decided to ask him a question too. At this convention there were no question lines, but you had to get the attention of one of the stewards in charge of the mike in order to get one and to be able to ask your question. I finally got one, stood up and introduced myself and was just about to ask him when he gave me a very piercing look and said with his trademark Captain Picard voice: “You are sitting in the front row, wearing a BRENT SPINER T-SHIRT and have the nerve to ask me a question? Take it off, immediately!” I muttered that this would not be a good idea and racked my brain in the urgent need of a witty return.

“I will wear your T-Shirt once you recorded a CD singing standards like Brent did”, I said then because I couldn’t remember him having done any singing on a CD.

Hell hath no fury… it broke down on me like a thunderstorm: “DID HE EVER WIN A GRAMMY? What about “The Four Seasons”? “Peter and the Wolf” (the audience was throwing the titles at him, happily helping him out in remembering the numerous things he had done on CD), “A Christmas Carol”? It was a huge list, actually – I wonder if anybody believes me that I actually have his “Four Seasons” recording at home!

This is one of the moments where you wished that you could just beam somewhere or at least pass out silently. It got even worse when the sound engineer started playing Patrick’s lines from “It’s a sin to tell a lie” while the audience was cheering and clapping their hands. I must have worn this “caught deer in the redwoods” look on my face because he lowered his voice to a silky tone and said to me reassuringly “Don’t worry, it’s all in good fun” – and then turned his face into a really sardonic smile. Later, people told me they were afraid I wouldn’t get the joke and think he was really serious about it. Okay, frankly, I had my doubts and was even scared a little. After all, he proved that he was a brilliant actor.

To make up for this “fauxpas”, he told me I would have to wear a Patrick Stewart T-Shirt during Brent’s speech and asked Brian (the convention organizer) to get him one.

A while later, the T-Shirt came and was given to me. I stood up and showed it to the audience – and the whole hall went mad! It was a load roar in unison from about 1000 people, I’ve never experienced anything like this. All I could think was “Man, they really really love him.”

Then Patrick called for a pen and I was asked to return the T-Shirt to the stage where it was sitting patiently on the table, waiting for the master to sign it. While he continued telling little stories and answering questions, he tried signing the shirt. The first pen wasn’t working properly, so he asked for a second one.

When the T-Shirt was signed (he wrote “To Olivia, Patrick Stewart”), he kind of casually threw it down the stage where I caught it. Obviously he didn’t hear my stunned “thankyou” (could be because he didn’t stop walking to the other side of the stage), because he stood still, faced me and said “We still say ‘thank you’ over here, dankeschön!”

There went my reputation. I stood up once more and repeated my “thankyou, danke, danke”, and it was graciously accepted. I sat down, covering my face with the shirt while everybody around me was laughing and applauding once more.

Of course the story doesn’t stop here.

When Patrick had finished, I went to my room and changed T-Shirts. When returning to the lobby, people would recognize me and the T-Shirt and I suddenly felt like a little celebrity. Well, a very little one, to be honest, but anyway …

I expected Brent to comment on the T-Shirt (I’m sure Patrick told him to watch out for it), so I planned to ask him a question as well. FOBS, the mailing list, had written a letter explaining their collection of charity for Christmas, and this had to be given to Brent together with Shirley’s book “Memories of 1776″ which was also meant to raise money for charity. Since we knew it was not easy to get the mike, we agreed that each of us would try to get it and then ask Brent if he would be willing to accept the donation.

Pen from BDFT was the lucky one. After she got her question answered (I was waiting there with baited breath, hoping she would ask him), she told him that there were a few people who wanted to give him a memento.

“A memento?”, he echoed, imitating Pen’s british accent. “I suppose that’s something I have to keep then?” The audience laughed.

Meanwhile, we were raising from our seats and moving to the stage, and since we were spread all over the room, it took some time. Brent looked at us very curiously and said “This is going to take longer. They are doing a number from ‘1776′ – the famous ‘Sit down John’”.

While the others were still on their way, I used the opportunity to give him a special edition of the “OYE II” compilation on CD which some of you might know from the website. He looked at me with his head tilted a little, I could almost hear the tiny wheels working and then he said “Olivia – right? What’s that T-Shirt you are wearing!”

The audience went wild. He went on, not the least impressed, as if he had expected that reaction, “When you are here to see me I expect you to wear a Brent Spiner T-Shirt! Take it off!” “It was not my fault”, I defended myself, “Patrick forced me to do it! I was wearing an OYE T-Shirt and he would tell me ‘How dare you to wear a Brent Spiner T-Shirt while I’m on stage!’”

“Naah, Patrick would never do that!” was Brent’s very convincing response. “I have witnesses!”, I returned, and a 12 year old boy from behind me shouted repeatedly “He did, he did!” (That was the same boy who had asked Patrick why Picard didn’t settle down and have a family.)

“I can’t believe that”, Brent continued. “He always encourages people to wear me on their T-Shirts!”

Then he started commenting on the CD, asking if it was for sale and almost sounded disappointed when I said ‘no’ because he was ready to tell people “Get your OYE II”. I will cut the story short here to keep it on topic, you’ll read the rest in the convention transcript.

I played with the thought of wearing a William Shatner or Michael Dorn T-Shirt on the third day, but then decided to settle with a simple black turtleneck pullover (the same kind Brent wore that day, and I kid you not, I had the pullover with me already). Mainly because there were no Shatner or Dorn T-Shirts for sale.

I was curious if he would continue with the running gag if given the proper cue, and he didn’t disappoint us. During his second appearance, on Sunday, a girl wearing an OYE T-Shirt stood up to ask him a question. He said “hello”, paused a little and then continued: “By the way, nice T-Shirt you are wearing – not like that HORRIBLE Patrick Stewart T-Shirt from yesterday!” He looked at the spot where I had been sitting the day before, and I waved to get his attention since that day we were sitting in the second row. I explained to him that I decided to wear nothing at all that day – which he picked up immediately: “Did you hear that? She just said she would wear nothing at all!” to which I quickly added, “nothing with a picture on it!” “Aah, nothing with a picture on it”, he said in relief. “You know”, he continued, Patrick asked me yesterday during dinner if you were wearing that T-Shirt, and I answered, yes, she did, it was horrible.”

Now, that’s how you get a free signed Patrick Stewart T-Shirt and some good laughs. A really memorable experience, it was almost like doing a sitcom and gave me an idea of the kind of fun the TNG crew must have together.

Olivia, 5. Januar 1999

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