‘Picard’ Star Patrick Stewart Says He Had ‘Significant Hesitations’ About Getting ‘Next Generation’ Crew Back Together

thewrap.com:

This story about “Picard” originally appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.In 1994, after its seventh and final season, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was nominated for its lone Best Drama Series Emmy.

Patrick Stewart, who anchored the show as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, remembers the nomination well. It was the same year he got a SAG Award nomination.“Those two were the only two (above-the-line) nominations that we got,” Stewart said. “Next Generation” was nominated for several Creative Arts Emmys—for crafts like makeup, cinematography, sound mixing and more—but was otherwise consistently overlooked. “The fact that Brent Spiner was never acknowledged in that way for his extraordinary work playing an android for seven seasons.

And Jonathan (Frakes) and LeVar (Burton) and Marina (Sirtis). We got used to it. We knew there was going to be no acknowledgment…until the very last season.” Which is exactly what happened.But in the three decades since “The Next Generation,” its follow-up series, Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Picard,” exists in a much friendlier landscape, in which genre storytelling is no longer an outsider to the awards conversation. “Picard’s” third and final season has been critically acclaimed and warmly embraced by fans—though it’s still a long shot to pull off the same coup as its predecessor and score an Outstanding Drama Series nomination.

Awards recognition or not, Stewart is excited about the culture shift.“What is happening is long overdue. And there are now acknowledgments for work—actors, directors, as well as designers and writers.