Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart Enlists Jonathan Frakes For Socially Distant Sonnet Reading

Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart enlisted the aid of former first officer Jonathan Frakes for his latest sonnet reading. Stewart has been reading one of William Shakespeare’s sonnets each day and posting it online during the quarantine. With some quarantine restrictions lessening, Stewart met with Frakes and got Number One to deliver the reading of Sonnet 57. “Pleased to share that we have our first guest sonneteer today,” Stewart tweeted. “Socially distant yet always a close friend, @jonathansfrakes performs Sonnet 57.” The friends are practicing social distancing. They’re sitting on opposite ends of a long table and masks, while off for the readings, are visible in the video. You can watch the video below.

Before he was Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Stewart was best known as a Shakespearian actor. Reading these sonnets is a return to his roots. “When I was a child in the 1940s, my mother would cut up slices of fruit for me (there wasn’t much) and as she put it in front of me she would say, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away,’ Stewart said during his first video in the series. “How about, ‘A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away’?”

Stewart isn’t the only member of the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew contributing enjoyment for the quarantined. Before Stewart recruited Frakes to read this sonnet, LeVar Burton went live with his podcast LeVar Burton Reads. He’s been reading stories for different age groups three times a week.

Burton may soon reunite with his old Enterprise crewmates on Star Trek: Picard. He hinted at as much during a recent interview. “I think it is reasonable to assume that those people are still a part of Picard’s life,” Burton said “Sure what the hell. Yeah! Absolutely.” He went on to speak for the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew as a whole, saying, “You will see us all. Probably not all at the same time, although, never say never.”

He went on to say that nothing is final and that he hasn’t filmed anything for the show. He has given the producers some ideas about where Geordi could be at this point in his life. “I have suggested to the producers that we find Geordi in a position where he is teaching and passing that knowledge and information on to another generation. We’ll see. Alex [Kurtzman] and the folks are in charge and they are doing an amazing job. When they call and whatever they want me to do, I’m pretty sure it is going to be spectacular.”

All the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes and the first season of Star Trek: Picard are streaming now on CBS All Access.