Patrick Stewart was convinced to come back to Star Trek by ‘16 pages’ of story ideas

Everyone’s favorite bald figure of sci-fi authority, Patrick Stewart, is coming back to Star Trek with a new series from Alex Kurtzman to debut on CBS All Access. But, after years and years of dodging cameos and otherwise protecting the legacy of Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise, why did the actor decide to come back to the role? Well, according to him, it was all about the script.

Speaking to Yahoo!, Stewart explained that while he was initially wary about the show and only took the meeting in order to politely explain why he was turning them down, the ideas from the writers intrigued him.

“I said, ‘Listen, would you ask them to put something on paper?’,” the actor said. “So I can really have time to look about and study what they want to do. Well, they did and I think I got about 16 pages. To say I was hooked wouldn’t be quite true, but I was extremely interested.”

Stewart, whose fears that the show would be “jokey” were dashed by the writers and their scripts, also offered up a tease for Trekkies keen to gather details about the new series. Referencing The Next Generation finale episode “All Good Things...” in which Stewart grew a beard and was made up to be old, Stewart explained that he “looked older then, 18 years ago, than — I don’t think I’m saying too much — I will in the upcoming series.” He also declared that “Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick Stewart are the same age."

If fans can't get enough of that Trek fix, hot on the heels of these teases comes news from Deadline about a Star Trek-centric episode of Let’s Make a Deal, which will feature Trekkie prizes, props, and costumes — plus a special appearance by Discovery’s Mary Chieffo. And yes, some of the surreal crossover will even be in Klingon.

The long-running game show’s first pop culture-branded episode will air on Feb. 4, while Stewart’s untitled show is set to debut sometime near the end of 2019.