10 Star Trek Actors Who Became Directors

Patrick Stewart's first go behind the camera was in the fifth season of The Next Generation. In Theory is a relatively simple episode, with a starring turn from Brent Spiner and guest actor Michelle Scarabelli as Jenna D'Sora. Though another Data-centric episode, A Fistful Of Datas, may be the more iconic episode, it is this one that Stewart chose as his favourite overall.

Stewart recalled being grateful that the episode was close to a bottle show, featuring scenes on the ship only. There were no 'shoot em ups' or scenes on Qu'nos, which made life much easier for the newbie director. He was also incredibly grateful that Spiner was the focus of the episode, as he felt the man was both strong enough to carry the episode easily, but was also very open to Stewart's direction.

He would go on to direct other episodes like Hero Worship and Phantasms, but the aforementioned ...Datas and the penultimate episode, Preemptive Strike, stand out the most. Imposters, the recent episode of Picard's third season, picks up beautifully from those final scenes of Strike, giving the audience a pay-off from Stewart's direction - thirty years in the making.