Star Trek veterans William Shatner and Patrick Stewart are both well-known for playing Starfleet captains in their own respective shows in the franchise. It was different working with each one, as Robin Curtis can attest.

In the franchise, Curtis made her debut by taking over the role of Lt. Saavik from Kirstie Alley in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, going on to return as the character in the following sequel, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Curtis would take on a different role as the character Tallera in the two-part "Gambit" story of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Per Screen Rant, Curtis was on The D-Con Chamber where she recently compared working with Shatner and Stewart with her forays into Star Trek, and she observed how the former was so very busy at that time, she rarely saw him beyond what he was there on set to film on any work day.

"What I saw was a lot of respect and deference to [William Shatner], what I didn’t know at the time, [I] learned later, was that I think Bill was off doing another film," Curtis explained. "There was pressure on him to wrap things up, and then he needed to go to someplace else. So unlike all the others [actors] who were very available and hanging out on set… Bill was removed. Like, he wasn’t a part of that as the other actors were. It’s a shame. I don’t know if I ever had more than two minutes of small talk with the man. Which is okay, I’m not complaining."

"So unlike all the others [actors] who were very available and hanging out on set… Bill was removed."

On how things were with Stewart, she added, "It was almost the same way with Patrick Stewart, but for a different reason… He really was engaged. They changed scenes one day, and I marveled at how this man took a whole scene of dialogue - you know the Star Trek dialogue, the multisyllabic, high-techy, gobbledy-gooky words - [Patrick] wraps his brain around it in a matter of minutes."

Kirk and Picard Would Meet for the 1994 Crossover Film

Kirk and Picard would later meet in the 1994 movie Star Trek Generations. After the Kirk character was killed in the film, Shatner never again reprised the role, though he recently teased that he's open to revisiting Kirk one last time. As for Stewart, he brought Picard back to life with three seasons of the Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Picard, which wrapped up its run in 2023.

Source: The D-Con Chamber, Screen Rant