Aye, Sir: Captain Picard To Be Knighted in New Year

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Aye, Sir: Captain Picard To Be Knighted in New Year



Patrick Stewart - known to geeks as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier - will be called "sir" in real life now: The 69-year-old actor will be receiving a New Years' knighting from Queen Elizabeth II.

Though we of great nerddom may recognize the 69-year-old native of Yorkshire, England for his work on Star Trek as well as being one of the only real good things in the third X-Men movie, Patrick Stewart [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_stewart] has been acting for most of his life. A man of the stage, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966 until 1982, though he remained (relatively) unknown until he sat in the Captain's chair on the bridge of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Just being Captain Picard didn't mean Stewart had to stop acting elsewhere - he's done Dickens as well as Shakespeare, too. He played Ebenezer Scrooge in a 1999 TV movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol as well as producing a one-man stage version of the classic story in which he played all of the 40+ characters himself. He's been Captain Ahab, Prospero, and Othello (in a race-inverted production, of course). He's been King Claudius in Hamlet, he's been Antony (of and Cleopatra fame), and he's done voice work in animated productions like The Prince of Egypt and games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

In short: Patrick Stewart has done a hell of a lot of (pretty damn good) acting, and that's the reason why he's at the top of the list to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year. Knighthood rewards excellence and service in all fields, and is considered one of the highest honors a British citizen (or noncitizen, even) can achieve. Soon-to-be-Sir Patrick Stewart will be joining his good friend (and enemy, if you're counting him as Magneto) Sir Ian McKellen in knighthood, and there's a joke in there somewhere about mutant rights but eh, make it yourselves.

Other names on the list include "designers, restaurateurs and two famous names from Formula 1 racing," but none of them were ever a captain of the Enterprise, huh? Didn't think so.

I think I speak for everyone here when I say: "Oh, hell yes."

(CNN [http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/30/patrick.stewart.knighthood/index.html])

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Jadak

New member
Nov 4, 2008
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I have no respect for royalty, but I can't argue with this...

On second thought, the fact that mere race car drivers are also getting Knighted takes all the prestige out of this. Picard deserves something better than being grouped with those nobodies.
 

solidstatemind

Digital Oracle
Nov 9, 2008
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Well deserved, for many reasons. And you guys failed to mention his voice acting work in 'American Dad'.

"Make it so..."
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Emperor Uriel Septim gets knighted!

Kinda backwards, huh? An emperor getting knighted...
 

leviathanmisha

New member
Jun 21, 2009
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Awesome, the man deserves it!
Onyx Oblivion said:
Emperor Uriel Septim gets knighted!

Kinda backwards, huh? An emperor getting knighted...
Yeah, but we'll forgive 'em on that slight technicality.
 

Sulu

New member
Jul 7, 2009
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Finally somebody gets knighted who deserves it. Well he deserves it more than Chris Hoy who got one just for cycling round in a circle. I reckon knighthoods should be reserved for actors like Patrick Steward, scientists and military leaders. Sportsmen and women don't require this.
 

Mstrswrd

Always playing Touhou. Always.
Mar 2, 2008
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And, along with all of those things, he's apparantly the narrator for the new Castlevania game being made in conjunction with Kojima productions.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.
 

Cherry Cola

Your daddy, your Rock'n'Rolla
Jun 26, 2009
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CantFaketheFunk said:
HUBILUB said:
A little slow on the news, but still, I am happy for Picard.
It happens tomorrow. It's time-relevant :p
What if all the world thought like that? What if Activision decided to announce that they where dropping Brütal Legend to the development team at the exact same time as they announce it to the publi-Oh wait.
 

Murlin

I came here to laugh at you
Jul 15, 2009
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Patrick Stewart - known to geeks as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier - will be called "sir" in real life now: The 69-year-old actor will be receiving a New Years' knighting from Queen Elizabeth II.
Seems logical to me.
 

yeah_so_no

New member
Sep 11, 2008
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Oh, now that's awesome. He deserves it, especially with how lately he's been doing work for fighting domestic violence and talking about how abusive his father was when he was a child (and that was what lead him to acing).