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Patrick Stewart returns to Star Trek and the role of Jean-Luc Picard in a new CBS streaming show, but the reason it exists at all is, unsurprisingly, political. The liberal actor told Variety this week that Picard is “me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump.” He also said that the United States (under Trump) and Britain (under Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson) are “completely f****d.” Talking to Variety’s Daniel Holloway, Stewart explained why his character is getting a revival: Trump seemed to be responsible for a lot of old TV shows coming back. In 2018, the creator of...

It’s really truly happening: Patrick Stewart has been cast in a new Star Trek series. Stewart will reprise his iconic character, Jean-Luc Picard, for a CBS All Access series that “will tell the story of the next chapter of Picard’s life.” Stewart himself just announced the news in a surprise appearance at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention. “I will always be very proud to have been a part of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but when we wrapped that final movie in the spring of 2002, I truly felt my time with Star Trek had run its natural course,”...

William Shatner wants to boldly go where he's only pretended to go so far. The "Star Trek" star is among more than 7,000 people who have told Richard Branson they would gladly pay him $210,000 (£115,000) for a trip aboard his planned spacecraft, the entrepreneur said Friday. Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro has signed up for a ride, and a Hollywood director who was not identified has booked an entire ship. Trevor Beattie, chairman of the ad agency TBWA -- responsible for campaigns such as the "Hello Boys" Wonderbra campaign with Eva Herzigova -- offered to send...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - "X-Men" star Patrick Stewart is recovering at home after undergoing an angioplasty procedure earlier this week to widen an artery, his publicist said Friday. Angioplasty involves the use of catheters to place a small balloon in a narrowed blood channel. When the balloon is inflated, the artery flows more freely. The 64-year-old Stewart - who played Professor Xavier in "X-Men" and its sequel, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" - went in for an annual physical on Monday, according to his publicist, Kelly Bush. Doctors detected a blood-flow problem and recommended "pre-emptive...

The esteemed Mr. Eastlund will, no doubt, attempt to spin his argument into one weighing the merits of Star Trek: The Next Generation against those of “classic” Star Trek. This is not an argument about the firepower of NCC-1701 versus that of NCC-1701-D or whether a Shakespearean actor who gave a great portrayal of Charles Xavier is a better actor than the toupee-wearing star of Kingdom of the Spiders. No, the issue at hand is simply whether the character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the 24th Century was a better Starfleet captain than the character of Captain James Tiberius Kirk...

The captain of the USS Enterprise thinks people should stay on Earth instead of going into space. Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series Star Trek, says he thinks interplanetary travel for humans is a bad idea. "I'm a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to the whole business of space travel," Stewart told the BBC. "I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out onto other planets - even though they may be utterly uninhabited," he said. Stewart said he...

Court battle resumes between tribes, scientists over ancient remainsWILLIAM MCCALL; The Associated Press PORTLAND - The definition of "Native American" is at stake in deciding whether the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man belongs to scientists or Indian tribes, lawyers for both sides told a federal appeals court Wednesday. The Interior Department has fought with scientists since the bones were discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick. A group of eight anthropologists who want to do research on the skeleton went to court to seek permission. But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled three years ago...