Star Trek: The Next Generation
Summary
Celebrated physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking made a brief cameo as himself onStar Trek : The Next Generation , and executive producer Rick Berman explain how Hawking ’s appearance descend to be . One of the most brilliant thinker to ever live , Stephen Hawking not only revolutionized the means scientists consider about smutty maw and relativity , but also sought to make theoretical physical science and cosmology more apprehensible to the average person . look at Hawking ’s legacy , it ’s not surprising that Lt . Commander Data ( Brent Spiner ) would set him alongside the like of Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein .
InStar Trek : The Next Generation , season 6 , installment 26 , " Descent , Part 1 , " Data inflict the holodeck to run a biz of poker with Hawking , Newton , and Einstein . ThroughoutTNG , Data seek to better understand humanityand his poker biz is a elbow room for him to , in his words,“see how three of chronicle ’s greatest minds would interact in this mount . “In theStar Trekoral chronicle , The Fifty - Year Mission : The Next 25 Yearsby Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross , TNGexecutive producer Rick Berman reveal how Hawking ’s cameo get about . Read his full quote below :
I fetch a phone call that Stephen Hawking was outside Stage 8 of Paramount and wanted to come in and see the Star Trek set and was it okay ? I straightaway tell it was okay and go down to the phase . I was introduced and asked him if he ’d wish to see some more of the sets and he , with that computerized voice synthesizer that he has , said he would . We took him around , and when we beat to the bridge of the Enterprise , he started punch in something that he was go to say to us …
Out of the computer come a sentence that I will never forget , and it was , “ Would you lift me out of my chair and put me into the headwaiter ’s seat ? ” The people who were there with him did it and he was get up up and put into the maitre d’hotel ’s derriere . It was a pretty amazing quite a little to have perhaps the greatest mind of the latter half of the twentieth century in apply mathematics and theoretical purgative , wanting more than anything else at that moment to sit in Picard ’s chair .
The next forenoon I got a call from Leonard Nimoy , who said that Hawking had mentioned something about want to be on Star Trek . So I cry his people , and it turn out that he was interested , and with the help of Ron Moore , we came up with an idea for a aspect in which Data operate to the holodeck to play a little poker , and he conjures up image of Sir Isaac Newton , Albert Einstein , and Stephen Hawking . We told reset the throat that we wanted him to give us some bank bill on the script , and he loved it and agreed to do it .
observe scientist Stephen Hawking was something of a pop culture icon in his lifetime , and he even had a little use on Star Trek : The Next contemporaries .
Several Other Real-Life Historical Figures Have Appeared In Star Trek
But Stephen Hawking was the only one to play himself.
Despite its setting in the far future , Star Trekhas feature severalappearances from famous historical build . WhileStar Trek : The Next Generationand laterTrekshows could use the holodeck to recreate historical figures , Star Trek : The Original Seriesdidn’t have that luxury . Still , TOSmanaged to include appearances by the Earp Brothers and Doc Holiday , as well as Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan .
Star Trek : The Next Generationhad the two - part episode , " Time ’s Arrow , " which featured Mark Twain ( Jerry Hardin).Star Trek : Voyagergot in on the fun , too , with sojourn from Amelia Earhart ( Sharon Lawrence ) and Leonardo Da Vinci ( John Rhys - Davies ) , among others . Still , Stephen Hawking ’s show as himself inStar Trek : The Next Generationremains one ofStar Trek’sbest cameo .
Star Trek : The Next Generationis usable to stream on Paramount+ .
Source : The Fifty - Year Mission : The Next 25 Years : From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams : The Complete , Uncensored , and unauthorised Oral History of Star Trekby Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
