Sir Patrick Stewart Dream

I was in a room with a long table. I was standing up at the end of the table furthest from the door. There were two people in the room other than me, both seated at the table. My Mum, sitting at the table on the far side from me; and, sitting on my side, Sir Patrick Stewart.

For some reason, I wanted to ask him a question about Star Trek: The Next Generation and specifically, to Captain Jean-Luc Picard's stint on the Stargazer before he became the Captain of the NCC-1701-D, and how there was this whole back story of 22 years which was never really explored, apart from the one incident where Picard lost the Stargazer at the Battle of Maxia.

So what happened during those 22 years? Did anyone write up any adventures from that era? Does that indicate that humans were longer-lived in the 24th century than we would expect?

Then I asked Sir Patrick what he thought would have happened between the Stargazer and Stardate 41152.7, when he took up the Captaincy of the USS Enterprise. I mean, there could have been years between those two postings, depending on the board of inquiry which was automatically set up after the loss of any Starfleet vessel (and Philippa Louvois turning up in Picard's life for the first time). Did Picard have time to explore other career options, like Jack London?

Did he cut fish in a cannery? Did he become a tribble pirate? Journalist? Author?

Headmaster of a school of gifted mutants in Westchester, New York?

At that point, I woke up grinning for some reason ...