‘Star Trek: Picard’ Stars Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden And Jonathan Frakes On Returning To The Bridge Of The USS Enterprise: “An Emotional Experience”

deadline.com:

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard went out with a bang this year, reuniting the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and delivering a compelling conclusion to a story that started 37 years ago. Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden and Jonathan Frakes reflect on their earliest days, and describe the emotion they felt as they stepped back onto the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Do you remember your first meeting with one another, way back in 1986? JONATHAN FRAKES: I do remember the first time I met Patrick.

We’d been called into the makeup trailer to meet the great king of makeup, Michael Westmore. Patrick and I introduced ourselves to one another, and we got right into a cricket versus baseball conversation that eventually led to him becoming a big LA Dodgers fan [laughs]. GATES MCFADDEN: I was doing a play with Linda Hunt called The Matchmaker, down in La Jolla.

Patrick came down to see it. We went out to dinner and it was all very exciting; we found we had a lot of mutual friends who were in the Royal Shakespeare Company.

We talked all night. We both said, “I don’t know, I’m nervous about this whole thing…” PATRICK STEWART: I remember people telling me not to worry about signing a six-year contract.