Quite frankly it seems that the days of awesomeness are suddenly well and truly over, leaving nothing but a kind of absolute darkness. I wrote yesterday that I was devastated to hear that Patrick Stewart had passed away, but I feel that perhaps I should explain just how much he meant to me as an actor. Of course, many are now praising his acting ability, and he was indeed one of the true greats of both stage and screen. His ability to deliver a monologue, to emote, to make an audience feel what he felt, was beyond comparison. Perhaps that was what made Jean-Luc Picard at once so relatable and so noble.

In the third chapter of my MA thesis I looked at some length at my relationship with what I call the Ahab Scene, the scene in Star Trek First Contact where Picard quotes Moby Dick, and realises that continuing to fight the Borg is folly. Out of all of cinema, I honestly think this is the scene that means the most to me. For a moment I think I glimpse in Picard’s eyes all the anger and frustration I feel at the injustices of the world: I read all the rage and hate that I felt about the death of my school friends. In that scene Picard releases such emotions on my behalf, so that all I need to do when the weight of the world becomes too much is to go back and rewatch it. It was just a seven or eight minute scene which had reverberated with me far more than any other since I had first seen it, which was why actually meeting Sir Patrick and telling him about my work meant so much to me. Yet now, the man I have derived such strength from for so long is no longer with us, and a day as incredible as that one in 2014 can never happen again; leaving what feels like a dark, empty, absolute void in which the bleak injustices of what I know to be reality echo louder than ever.