Oh, Captain, My Captain! Patrick Stewart's Making It So by Theresa Gauthier

 Making it So by Patrick Stewart

    There are some people who, when they write their autobiographies, are guaranteed to sell a copy to me. Patrick Stewart is at the top of that list. I’ve adored him a long time, and, yes, my introduction to him was Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it’s his voice that really got to me. That voice. The man could read the phone book and I’d buy tickets to see it.  

One of my prized possessions is an audio copy of him reading A Christmas Carol (albeit an abridged version) by Charles Dickens. He uses his voice to convey so much more than just the story, just the words. Each character is perfectly voiced bringing it all to vivid, joyful life. 

His autobiography, bearing the appropriate title, Making it So, is as much of a delight. Here is a man who has a remarkable story to tell, and he shies away from none of it. The reader is invited in to see how he coped with a less-than-ideal childhood, and his long struggle to his eventual “overnight” success and beyond.

From his upbringing in the Northern England growing up during World War II, his father’s return from war as a terrifying stranger to the five-year-old Patrick, and the good luck that conspired to get him into an acting career, Stewart bares it all and dives deep into his memories, sharing details of his early jobs, his time as a reporter, a furniture salesman, and his eventual acceptance to acting school.

The amusing anecdote as he admits he didn’t know who Sting was when they first met on the set of Dune, and the by now famous mention of how he lectured the cast of ST:TNG that they were not on set to have fun, show he isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself.

I was fascinated to learn that he did sit down and rewatch Star Trek: The Next Generation as research for the book. His take on their beginnings, their growth as a show as they found their footing and became a close-knit family, and their support of each other, was riveting. 

As a devotee of Shakespeare, Patrick Stewart’s introduction to the Bard and his longtime work with the Royal Shakespeare Company was fascinating. Coupled with my earlier reading this year of Judi Dench’s Shakespeare, the Man Who Pays the Rent, I’ve felt a strong need to start watching or reading those plays again.

It was the details of how his one-man show that graced stages in the Nineties that had my rapt attention. I’ve always wished I’d been able to see him perform A Christmas Carol live, or that at some point someone might unearth a video recording of the brilliant show, but alas, I’ve got to content myself with the brilliant CD recording. Learning about how the show came about, and who he’d consulted in trying to interpret Dickens’s prose was a (partial) compensation for my missing the show.

The stories are full of vibrant detail and it’s impossible not to hear Patrick Stewart’s distinctive voice as you read every word. It’s a volume I’m certain to read again.