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What would Jean-Luc Picard do about COVID-19? More than Trump and
Boris, says Patrick Stewart

Social Sharing

[106]The Current

What would Jean-Luc Picard do about COVID-19? More than Trump and Boris, says
Patrick Stewart

Actor Patrick Stewart discusses how the themes of his show Star Trek:
Picard mirror today's political climate and shares how he thinks the
famous character would deal with our current world crisis.

Social Sharing

Actor calls delay in responding to outbreak ‘profoundly disconcerting,
worrying’

CBC Radio · Posted: Apr 01, 2020 1:54 PM ET | Last Updated: April 1
Patrick Stewart has returned to the ranks of Starfleet with Star Trek:
Picard, the first season of which ended last week. (Carlo
Allegri/Reuters)
(BUTTON)
comments
Listen13:17

[107]Read Story Transcript

Patrick Stewart thinks his fictional alter ego Jean-Luc Picard would
have responded to the spread of COVID-19 "very much quicker than either
the U.S. government or the U.K. government did."

"There were good examples around the world of how best to handle this
dangerous and difficult situation, and it wasn't taken up," he told
[108]q host Tom Power in an interview that aired on [109]The Current.

"I think that Picard would not have hesitated in finding, if not
solutions, at least ways of minimizing the risk and the danger to
individuals," he said.

In the U.S., the [110]White House played down the severity of the
threat early on, but has now [111]projected between 100,000 and 240,000
deaths from the virus.

While the United Kingdom government explored the idea of achieving herd
immunity by letting the virus spread in the hopes people who recovered
would become immune. This idea was [112]criticized as putting many
vulnerable people at risk of death and the country [113]switched to
social distancing strategies last week.
Stewart first played Starfleet Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. (YouTube)

Stewart called those delays "profoundly disconcerting [and] worrying,"
and said the fact that [114]U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has
tested positive for COVID-19 shows the virus "has no respect for
power."

But he said that it seems "the situation is now being handled as it
should have been from the beginning, and taken seriously, and not just
something to make political points with."
* [115]As Star Trek: Picard hits the small screen, writer Brannon
Braga reflects on the character's enduring appeal

The actor and director, 79, has played a broad range of roles on stage
on screen. He first played Starfleet Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in Star
Trek: The Next Generation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He
returned to the character this year in the series Star Trek: Picard,
which finished its first season last week.

Stewart said he wanted the new show to draw parallels to "the world
that we find ourselves living in now, because it's a very, very tough
world indeed."

"I wanted a different man in a different world with a different set of
values perhaps," he said.
Patrick Stewart, 79, returns to his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star
Trek: Picard, a ten-part series far from the utopian show fans know.
3:57

The show touches on contemporary humanitarian and political crises — in
Star Trek: Picard, the Romulan home planet has been destroyed, turning
billions into refugees — but he said he wouldn't encourage a
pandemic-themed plot in season two.

"This is a disturbing and frightening and sad time for many thousands
of people," he said.

"It is too sensitive, too upsetting, too frightening, I think."
The actor is currently staying home with his wife, singer-songwriter
Sunny Ozell, in Los Angeles. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

'A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away'

Stewart has been in isolation for three weeks with his wife,
singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, at their home in Los Angeles.

Recently, he recited a Shakespearean sonnet to Ozell, which she enjoyed
so much that she recorded and posted online.

It's led to a daily sonnet reading on his social media accounts, to
pass the time in isolation, and help others do the same.

Sonnet 12. I hope you’re ready for this. <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ASonnetADay?src=hash&ref_src=t
wsrc%5Etfw">#ASonnetADay</a> <a
href="https://t.co/B4v1leZ2qi">pic.twitter.com/B4v1leZ2qi</a>
—[116]@SirPatStew

"It suddenly occurred to me that there was this little saying that my
mother used to chant when I was a child: An apple a day keeps the
doctor away," he told Power.

"I thought, well, what if I did this thing where I said: a sonnet a day
keeps the doctor away?" he said.

"It's silly, and it's perhaps a little embarrassing … [but] I've been
enjoying it very much."
__________________________________________________________________

Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Catherine Stockhausen.
* [117]'Make the best of times': Meet the 10-year-old writing a
musical about coronavirus

More from this episode

* [118]Historian Yuval Noah Harari says we can choose what the world
looks like when the pandemic is over
* [119]Under The Influence host Terry O'Reilly on making a pandemic
PSA
* [120]Trumpets, window visits and virtual cards: How families are
connecting with loved ones in nursing homes
* [121]What would Jean-Luc Picard do about COVID-19? More than Trump
and Boris, says Patrick Stewart
* [122]Apr. 1, 2020 episode transcript
* [123]FULL EPISODE: The Current for April 1, 2020

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