Watch Whoopi Goldberg lose it as Patrick Stewart asks her to join Star Trek: Picard season 2
Guinan could soon be coming back to the Star Trek universe.
Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of The View, Star Trek: Picard actor Patrick Stewart made a surprise ask of the talk show’s moderator, Whoopi Goldberg, who previously played the El-Aurian bar hostess across 28 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation between 1988 and 1993.
“I’m here with a formal invitation, and it’s for you, Whoopi,” Stewart said, interrupting fellow View host Joy Behar with the unexpected announcement. “Alex Kurtzman, who is the senior executive producer of Star Trek: Picard, and all his colleagues, of which I am one, want to invite you into the second season.”
Seemingly shocked, Goldberg embraced her former Star Trek costar as the studio audience erupted with applause.
.@SirPatStew officially invites @WhoopiGoldberg to join season two of #StarTrekPicard: “It was wonderful having you, and we cannot wait to have you with us again one more time.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/mxOtyJxF63
— The View (@TheView) January 22, 2020
“I’ve said this on the show before, but Star Trek was one of the great experiences, from the beginning to the end,” Goldberg said, choking up as the segment went on. “I had the best, best, best time ever.”
Stewart added that “it was wonderful” working with Goldberg on the original series, and that he “can’t wait to have you with us again one more time.”
The 79-year-old British actor, who returns to the Star Trek franchise to front CBS All Access’ upcoming Picard series as the titular (now retired) Starfleet admiral, also spoke about revisiting the character for contemporary audiences.
“It’s easy…. Picard has aged 18 years, fictionally, and Patrick Stewart has aged 18 years actually. And I don’t have to work at it because it’s just me, it’s who I am now!” he joked. “We have such a team of writers on this show, it’s astonishing, and I wanted to show that Picard’s world had changed because Patrick’s world has certainly changed, and we are no longer now living in the same kind of society we lived in 18 years ago.”
When Goldberg’s fellow View panelists asked Stewart if she’d have to dye her hair to age for her return as well, Stewart said she “doesn’t have to do anything” to qualify for another day on the set.
“She’s Guinan, and who knows what Guinan’s history really is,” he observed. “That could be one of the excitements down the road!”
Stewart recently told EW he wasn’t initially game for reprising the role of Picard.
“I’m very proud of the work we did on Next Generation — most of our work — but I felt I had said and done everything I could about Jean-Luc Picard and didn’t see any point,” he said, while Kurtzman added: “That’s when he understood we were dedicated to exploring a new chapter in a way that hadn’t been done before.”
Star Trek: Picard premieres Thursday on CBS All Access. Watch Stewart’s appearance on The View above.
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