Doctor, you're not attending the dinner with the rest of us this evening?
Well I've already eaten, but thanks Captain.
And Picard is, is my favourite Captain.
*Applause*
You had 2 Captains,
but I'm not going to ask you to declare which one is your favourite.
Go ahead.
Picard was or is my favourite Captain,
and I gotta say uhm, because at first we all kind
of knew Avery you know, we didn't know Patrick Stewart.
Right.
Just a little bit, just a you know little when we first started, but we did a show and I,
I, I don't remember the name of it, but it was the first season, maybe the second or
third show, and I was still looking at, at him 'well this is an interesting choice',
you know I didn't judge it, but...
The bald British guy.
Yeah, you know I mean OK, but he did this one speech
and I went 'Ohhh yes he's'.
I get it.
I get it, yeah so.
He, he doesn't suck.
He does not suck.
Come.
Oh ho ho hoo, ah that could get me in trouble, who is, Picard or Sisko?
I have been made aware by Starfleet of your objections to this assignment.
Uhm, I think, I think they eh, you know
and I'm being politic here I guess, but, but eh not really, it's the truth eh, the
I think they were both uhm, they both have extraodinary capacities and,
and abilities, and eh Avery, I, I mean I'd follow Avery anywhere you know.
Avery, Avery was extraordinary, he, he eh, he, he's like a renaissance man you know.
Avery's a great pianist you know, Avery's a great, a wonderful singer, he does a one
man show on Paul Robeson, eh he was an athlete, uhm an extraordinary man Avery you know, so
he's the kind of guy like as I say you'd follow anywhere.
Enough of that, all that gushing.
When I uh was taken in to the production office,
into the casting director's office when I was cast in the role,
she showed me a picture of Patrick and said "Aren't you excited?
That's our Captain",
and I went "That old English guy?
Really? After Captain Kirk
you got an old bald guy?" Anyway uhm...
One of the things I'm been most proud of has been the casting, I think that
eh forgetting the Patrick Stewarts and the Brent Spiners
and the people who get all the acolades.
Sounds like they're not ready.
Your job is to do everything short of violating the prime directive
to make sure that they are.
Eh,
well no let me, let me go back even further.
And now I have the privilige of introducing eh Sir Patrick Stewart.
*Applause*
Gene would come down to the set mm 2 or 3 times during the week and he would sit in
the director's chair and watch what we were doing,
and occasionally I would catch him looking at me and I know, I know that
he was thinking 'What the Hell is this guy doing in my show?'
And eh Sir Patrick uhm it was the third episode of Voyager being filmed, and you were visiting,
you were sitting with the director at the time in the director's chair, so I walked
up on the set not knowing, I didn't see the memo that you were gonna be there, you just
showed up, so I walked on the set, I was 'Aah he's here, he's here', so I walked up to you
and I said uhm, I said "Hello Mister Stewart", I said eh "I'm Garrett, Ensign",
"I know who you are".
*Laughter*
at which point I was like 'What! he knows me?'
We had done three episodes right,
and so then he said "I had a chance to watch your pilot episode Caretaker".
and he said eh "Excellent work", and at that point I went 'Aaaah'. *laughter*
I felt like I had been knighted by Patrick Stewart.
*laughter*
I knight you Sir Harry of Kim.
*laughter*
Do you remember that?
I couldn't be myself when I was doing TNG, that I had to tone it down, and behave myself,
because Patrick was all about the work, and he was very serious, and he took it all very
seriously, which was true, 'cause when we started he was so far up his own bum
it was not even funny.
Denise Crosby and Marina Sirtis
came in & read for the roles of Tasha and the role of... ehhh...
Tasha Yar... and
ha haha.
You get these names suddenly start slipping out of your eh out of your head.
I am proud to say that it took about 6 months, and we beat it out of him,
and now he's the silliest one of all of us, and I say that with great pride.
It has been one of the blessings, and honours of my life
that I got to work with Sir Patrick Stewart.
I didn't even know when we started how much I was going to learn from him,
just watching him, working with him,
seeing the greatness that's in him,
and hoping that some of it would rub off on me.
I remember once Patrick and I having a discussion, and it might be a very common theme with actors
that one day we were gonna be caught out, that people were gonna find out that we were frauds.
Patrick you were never a fraud.
You are probably one of the most talented people on the planet.
I'm making myself cry, uhm
it has been the honour of my professional career to work with you.
I'm investigating the possibility of returning to Earth for civilian service.
Perhaps Starfleet command should be considering a replacement for you.
Haha, uhm a few words about Patrick uhm,
cucumber soup.
When we did our very first press for Next Generation some 33 almost 34 years ago,
I watched this man sit down and talk to the press, and I was so impressed when, when he
finished I walked up to him and I said "Cucumber soup,
you are as cool Patrick as cucumber soup".
Does that mean something to me?
or... To you or do you feel like wow this is actually a big deal,
I'm getting to do something that I think is important.
Oh no, I didn't think that at all. OK.
No I'm just talk... *Laughter*
No, if everyday I wake up, and I say to myself
'OK I'm gonna do a brown male thing today.
*Laughter* You know, people, people say
"What was it like being you know, a black Captain?",
You can't play that.
*Laughter* Dude. I'm in Star Trek, and guess what colour I am.
You can't play that.
Come on.
How do you play a colour?
You can't do that, what I can do is wake up in the morning like I told you.
As Samuel, and who is that?
A human being, and brown and male and American, and all these things.
That's what I bring, and they saw that and they decided they were gonna do that.
There was nothing in, in, in what I did at least which identified him as such.
Have we met before?
Yes Sir we met in battle.
A Avery, oh Avery, Avery, Avery, Avery,
you know Avery, oh Avery you know,
uhm so it's a tough call, a tough call.
But I apologize Patrick, it was horrible of us.
*Laughter*
Very funny, but really, really horrible, and you were a good sport.
*Aww aww laughter*
I'm sorry too.
*Laughter*
You know if you hadn't done that what the heck would we be talking about now?
Pitbulls are the sweetest dogs yeah.
You've alway...
You know that's what was missing in your life Patrick, (What?) a dog.
I, I had a dog when I was young.
Yeah, well that was a long time ago.
*Laughter* You haven't had one *Laughter*
What?
The other day wasn't it?
It wasn't recently, not recently, no.
*Oohs* What?
*Oohs* Oh they're gonna turn on me in a minute.
Dismissed.