Sir Patrick Stewart may be seventy one years old, but he’s not even close to slowing down when it comes to acting or to living an active life.

Part of why he can keep going is his good health. Stewart is in better shape than many men much younger. “I remember years and years ago, working in rep in Sheffield or Liverpool, I heard an interview with Olivier, where he said that if you’re serious about acting Shakespeare, you’ve got to be as fit as an athlete,” said Stewart. “That really made an impression on me. I’d like to go on doing what I’m doing for as long as possible, and all the great roles, well, they’re marathons, not sprints.”

Although in good shape, Stewart realizes that time is marching on for him. The actor has coronary heart disease, diagnosed six years ago. “I’ve got to that point now,” he said, “where people say things like ‘This conjunction of the planets won’t be seen for another forty-five years,’ and I think, ‘hmm, there’s every chance that I won’t be around for that.’

“But the kind of wake-up call I got puts you in the frame of mind where you don’t want to waste a moment. And being an actor is like spending your life in the world’s most expensive nursery, especially when you’re doing something like X-Men. I can honestly say that I’m having more fun these days than I’ve ever had. A lot of it is to do with the work that I do, and a lot is to do with having got things sorted out better.”

Stewart is still living young, dating a woman in her thirties, and trying new physical activities one wouldn’t normally associate with a man in his seventies. “Two years ago I put on skis for the first time,” he said. “I’ve done it eight times now, and the last time I skied all the way down a … mountain. Going really fast. At seventy-one.”

Stewart will be appearing at the Young Vic in London in a revival of Edward Bond‘s 1973 play Bingo, in which he plays a depressed and drunken Shakespeare in semi-retirement in Warwickshire. Bingo runs from February 16 through March 31.

Fans attending the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo in Calgary, Canada, this spring will be able to see nine castmembers from Star Trek: The Next Generation in the same place.

The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo will be held from April 27-29 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In attendance will be: Sir Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn and Denise Crosby.

The TNG actors will be seen at various events at Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, including panels and discussions, autograph sessions and various photo opportunities.

On April 28, TNG EXPOsed will feature the entire TNG cast together on stage at the Stampede Corral.

Other guests at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo include: Adam West, Amanda Tapping, David Prowse, Robert Englund, Tom Feldon, John Noble, Hayden Panettiere, George Perez, Yanick Paquette and Dale Eaglesham.

Patrick Stewart is taking a break from the theater to pursue roles in the film industry.

Stewart began his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but moved on to television and movies, including his seven years on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and his roles on the X-Men movies.

“I felt it would be a good time to see if I could kick-start a film career,” said Stewart. “I never really had a film career, I had a franchise career, so I’ve made a decision to take eighteen months off and see what happens.”

In a new interview with the BBC, Sir Patrick Stewart admits that he didn’t think that Star Trek: The Next Generation would be successful as a series.

This belief was based on what he heard from those in Hollywood, including his own agent, when Stewart expressed concern about being signed to a long-term contract for the show.

“My agent, and everyone else I consulted in Hollywood, reassured me that I need not fear the six year contract I had to sign because not only would the series never make it for six years, it was unlikely to make it through its first season,” said Stewart, “because everyone said you cannot revive an iconic series; it’s impossible.”

“So come; make some money,” said his agent, ” and for the first time in your life; get a suntan, and go home.”

My commitment [to The Next Generation] was based on the fact that it was going to be a failure, said Stewart, “and then I could come back here and go on doing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

The short video featuring Stewart can be seen here.

In making Trek Nation, Rod Roddenberry interviewed those who worked with his father over the years, including industry professionals who knew Gene Roddenberry, family friends, and Star Trek fans.

Rod Roddenberry realized that his father was something out of the ordinary back in 1991 when he attended the 25th anniversary of Star Trek at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. When he helped his father to stand onstage, “the entire Shrine Auditorium got up to applaud him; chills went up and down my spine,” said Roddenberry. “That was almost the first smack in the face that there’s more to this guy who’s your father.”

In discovering who his father really was, Roddenberry heard some stories that were difficult for the son of a man who had been “put up on this pedestal throughout my life;” stories that revealed the complete man, not just the myth. “I found out a tremendous number of them that were extremely moving and powerful and painful,” Roddenberry said. “That allowed me, as a son, not just to connect with him, but actually love him.”

Trek Nation will reveal Gene Roddenberry’s legacy using interviews, archival footage and home movies. For those eager to hear more before tomorrow’s television airing, Trek Nation‘s YouTube page features seven “Director’s Logs,” including the one below which features Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer Michael Piller. Other “Director’s Log” entries include exclusive Star Trek clips, deleted scenes, interviews with Patrick Stewart, Nichelle Nichols, composer Brian Langsbard, and an interview with Trek fan Lydia Chilton.

The Director’s Logs can be seen here.

http://youtu.be/Bc4ZtX4SWWU

Zach Muhn and his girlfriend Tabitha were at the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con last week when Muhn decided to pop the question. He dropped down onto his knees and proposed to her, beginning with “I love you so much,” and finishing with “Will you marry me?”

Tabitha, or Tabs as he referred to her, accepted the proposal, put on an engagement ring and kissed her new fiancé. Then, they turned to the left where a Star Trek: The Next Generation actor sat at his table, having watched the proposal take place in front of him, and got a handshake from him. The actor said…well, just watch the video for his response to the proposal acted out in front of him.

http://youtu.be/3QIsHQfKZ4g

As is usually the case with the Mondo poster offerings, the Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, offered earlier today, sold out within an hour. That poster was artist Whalen’s second poster in the series; the first one was based on the original series Journey to Babel episode. The Stewart poster is expected to sell out quickly as well.

Titled “Away Mission: Orlando,” and featuring Sir Patrick Stewart (Click on the thumbnail to see the larger-sized photo), the latest Whalen poster available for pre-order from Vulcan Events for those who have will be in attendance at the convention in October and who have ordered their tickets to the event. Stewart will be the guest of honor at this year’s Vulcan Events, which will be held Oct 28-30th at the Hilton Orlando Resort Lake Buena Vista in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Other Trek guests of note at Vulcan Events will include Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Armin Shimerman and Max Grodénchik, Jennifer Hedrick (The Next Generation‘s Vash), Sherry Jackson (Andrea in the original series’ What Are Little Girls Made Of?), Hugo Award-winning illustrator Rick Sternbach and Phil Morris (child actor in Miri).

In addition, Jewel Staite (Firefly/Serenity) and David Nykl (Stargate Atlantis) will also be appearing at Vulcan Events.

The Stewart poster, Away Mission: Orlando featuring “The Many Faces of Patrick Stewart” is a limited edition screen print by Tom Whalen. The poster is 18″ by 24″, and is hand-signed and numbered by the artist (limited edition of 125). Away Mission: Orlando is printed by D&L Screenprinting.

For further information on Vulcan Events, head to the link located here. The poster can be pre-ordered (Vulcan Events attendees only) here.

Photos, clips and interview excerpts are beginning to emerge ahead of next week’s Shatnerpalooza extravaganza, which will air on EPIX and kick off next Thursday with Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet. An exclusive photo is shown here in a thumbnail-sized edition and the full-sized photo can be seen by clicking on that thumbnail.

The Captains features “in-depth interviews and vintage Star Trek footage with actors Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko), Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), and Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek 2009).” Shot on location in Toronto, London, New York, Princeton and Los Angeles, so that “Shatner could capture his fellow Captains and peers in their home environments, the HD film exposes the Captains in all their “humanity”, stripped down to the barest of earth-bound qualities and heavenly thoughts. [The Captains] offers a rare and candid glimpse into the inner sanctum of each actor. The film is grand in its sincerity and reflective of the passion and compassion each Captain demonstrated over the last forty-give years on both small and large screens. The Captains is all about the working challenges and personal rewards each actor garnered from the groundbreaking role of Starship helmer.”

“My hope is to delve deeply into these actors’ psyches, find out more about them so you can… see what common denominator there is among us as actors that brought [us] to this worldwide renown as part of Star Trek,” sad Shatner.

The Captains was based on hours of interviews with the Star Trek actors. They spoke about why they got involved in acting and Star Trek and what working on Star Trek meant to them. “I remember a play I did in a camp that my mother ran,” said Shatner. “I was in a play about the Holocaust. I played a kid [saying goodbye to his dog], because the Germans were taking me. When the play was over, I looked out there and the audience was crying – and I took my bow and my father came and held me and praised me. I’m convinced that was the moment I thought hey, this is fantastic. This has got me places with my father and the audience that I’d never dreamt of. I’m convinced that’s what started me on my acting thing, this moment in time.”

For some actors, acting took priority over everything, even family. “I remember once sitting around a dinner table with colleagues, actors, directors and hearing one of them say ‘I love my job, but my family always comes first, always,’” said Stewart. “And a voice inside my head said ‘not me.’”

Brooks spoke about being the only black Star Trek Captain, paying homage to those who went before him. “Without Paul Robson, I [wouldn't be] on Star Trek,” he said. “That is to say I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be here without Brock Peters. I wouldn’t be here without Muhammad Ali, I wouldn’t be here without Sidney Poitier, I wouldn’t be here without William Warfield. I could go on and on. That’s the fact of the matter and I’m not fooled.”

For Mulgrew, acting came with a price, as she had two very important jobs to do at once and inevitably, as many women find out, in that case, one will suffer. “I think that the great difference is that the female is wired once she has her young to take care of them and to raise them, and I couldn’t do it well,” she said. “You know, there were sixteen to eighteen-hour days on that set for seven years, and I had two little kids. Believe me; they resented it to this day. They never watched it, they disdained it, they had nothing but dripping contempt for it. And I don’t blame them. So the woman cannot have it all. But I’ve watched you guys and you guys can.”

Bakula spoke of aging and his gratitude for his acting career. “The longer I’m here and the more I see, the less I think about [growing older], because so many people don’t get to have what I’ve had as long as I have,” he said. “So many people don’t have as much as I have, and so I think as you get older, you know people talk about perspective, but I think you get more grateful about it every day.”

Pine, the newest Star Trek captain, spoke about his love for theater, a love shared by many actors. “What I love about theater is that there’s an ephemeral quality to it,” he said. “It happens, it comes together, it exists and then it goes away.”

The Captains airs next Friday on EPIX at 8 PM. For those whose cable systems don’t carry EPIX, a free two-week trial (details in a future article as the time gets closer) is being offered which requires no credit card and will enable U.S. visitors to watch The Captains and other Shatnerpalooza events online. For fans outside of the U.S., word is that a DVD of The Captains will be released this autumn.

The War of the Worlds game will be coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game is a “is a dark and breathtaking new vision inspired by the classic H.G. Wells novel, retold as a single player, 2D action-adventure.”

“The gameplay narrative parallels the timeline and events from the 1953 movie adaptation, but introduces a new story arc, characters, locations, and sub-plots. With gameplay paying homage to classic cinematic platformers such as Flashback and Out of This World, players follow the exploits of an unknown everyman struggling to escape the Martian invasion of London and rescue his family. Forced to think through insurmountable odds, players will outsmart an army of alien tripods, spiders and drones as they make their way through a landscape of total devastation.”

Stewart will be providing narration for The War of the Worlds game. “As a young boy, I remember watching The War of the Worlds so many times I was quoting the lines,” said Stewart. “The alien invasion both terrified and fascinated me and the movie has stuck with me since then. Now, being part of this project will provide a new way for gamers around the world to experience a fresh new take on a classic.”

The War of the Worlds is expected to be released in the third quarter of this year.

The tunnel through Chambers Wharf would cost £3.6, but the cost is not the problem, the location is. Local residents are against the possible impacts of the new super sewer.

“Of course Thames Water are addressing environmental, health and living concerns for all Londoners,” said Stewart. “What they seem to have overlooked in focusing their attention on Chambers Wharf is that those very same concerns, environment, health and living conditions may be unimaginably damaged, restrained and blighted for a significant number of years. There will be a period of time where Thames Water is planning to work 24/7 for three years – you don’t need to have an actor’s imagination to know what this would mean to us as individuals and to the neighbourhood as a whole.”

According to Thames Water, the tunnel is needed to capture thirty-nine million tons of untreated sewage which is discharged into the Thames yearly.

The sewer is not yet a done deal. “There is still a lot more work to be done, including further discussions with local communities, before we make any final decisions about the construction sites we need,” said Phil Stride, Thames Water’s head of London Tideway Tunnels.