Patrick Stewart is “convinced” that King Charles is a Star Trek fan

If you weren’t aware, Patrick Stewart — the guy who played Professor X in the X-Men movies and Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek for the last three-and-a-half decades — has a new memoir out on shelves: Making It So, a callback to one of Picard’s catchphrases.

Obviously, there are lots of Star Trek tidbits in there, including Stewart’s speculation about which members of the British royal family did (and didn’t) enjoy the long-running sci-fi franchise.

Apparently, Stewart thinks that King Charles III, who was coronated as the new king of England earlier this year, was a fan, although it sounds like he’s going mainly on vibes. “I am convinced King Charles is a Star Trek fan,” Stewart wrote in his book. “I’ve met him several times when he was the Prince of Wales and, though he never broached the topic, I got a sense he was familiar with the show.”

Does the king go on message boards in the wee hours of the morning to debate whether Picard or Kirk was the better captain? We can’t know for sure, but absolutely yes he does. The Daily Mail also mentions that Charles attended the 1996 premiere of Star Trek: First Contact and requested Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) accompany him. Is that proof or what? Or what?

As for Charles’ late mother Queen Elizabeth, it’s less likely that she was a Trekkie. Stewart remembers when she knighted him in 2010. “She was as gracious as I had imagined she would be, though I am not entirely sure if she knew who I was.”

Patrick Stewart auditioned for Star Trek: The Next Generation wearing a hairpiece

Another shocking revelation from Making It So: Stewart auditioned to play Picard with a hairpiece. That’s a surprise given that Stewart may be one of the most iconically bald actors alive, and Picard one of the most iconically bald characters.

Stewart remembers that after he boarded a plane to leave for Los Angeles to audition for the part, his agent reached out to his wife Shiela at home, asking if Stewart could bring a rug to Los Angeles. “Sheila diligently retrieved my ‘audition wig’ from its space in my wardrobe and boxed it up, whereupon a British Airways representative collected it and placed it on a later flight to Los Angeles,” Stewart wrote.

And that’s how Stewart first auditioned for Star Trek. According to him, it didn’t go well. When three executives visited him later in his trailer, after he’d removed his piece, he thought it was to tell him that he hadn’t gotten the job, but his hairstylist Joy knew better. “’You know why they did that? They wanted to see what you looked like without the hairpiece. And I think they liked what they saw!’”

Obviously everything worked out. We don’t have any images from that audition, but there is a pic of Stewart in his Starfleet uniform with a full head of (fake) hair that made the rounds a while ago:

"Picard with hair? No way. byu/Protuhj instartrek"

Oh, it looks weird. Blessed are the bald.

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h/t The A.V. Club