''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' readies for last episode

It's midnight on Stage 18, where Patrick Stewart is filming his final scene as a TV spaceman. Several days have passed since his blowup on the bridge, and he seems to have loosened up considerably. Between takes he chats warmly with the crew, sips tea in his director's chair, and leisurely peruses a newspaper.

There have been rumors that Stewart is the reason that Next Generation is going off the air-that he had grown bored of the role and wanted to leave. ("Totally untrue," says Rick Berman.) There have been rumors that Stewart has been less than cooperative in some aspects of filming this last episode, supposedly refusing to loop segments on weekends. ("Totally untrue," Berman insists.) There have been rumors that other cast members are getting fed up with Stewart's supposed prima donna-ism on the set. ("Totally, totally untrue," Berman says.)

"This last episode is very complex and demanding," the producer says. "That's why Stewart's been less patient with outside stuff. He's been working 14-hour days in three different wardrobes and three different makeups. He's in every damn shot. He's totally fried."

Stewart himself offers his own burnt-out take on the end of the series. "For me, the timing is perfect," he says in a phone interview (on-set, in- person interviews with him are strictly verboten). "I had been increasingly feeling that I'd given the best of my work on the series. The last two years especially have found me feeling an intense restlessness. I needed to go on to something else.

"This is the toughest job I've ever done," he continues, "except maybe when I worked on a building site unloading cement blocks-that was marginally more difficult. And the last three months have been especially tough, culminating with this epic two-hour special. There were moments when I thought I wouldn't be able to finish the episode, I was so tired. And yes, it did lead to some outbursts like the one (with Entertainment Tonight), for which I apologized personally to everyone concerned. It was turning into a three-ring circus with press on the set every day."

But tonight on the soundstage, as he puts the finishing touches on the space age of his television career, Stewart looks downright mellow. When the scene is finally finished and the camera clicks off for good at about 12:30 a.m., he stands on a scaffold above the bleary-eyed production crew and delivers a surprise farewell address.

"I've been cleaning out my trailer, and I found a piece of paper," he tells the crowd in his inimitable "Make it so" brogue. "It's a quote that I read at (the late Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's) memorial, and it suddenly seemed really appropriate.

"'To walk, we have to lean forward,'" he reads from the writings of British psychotherapist Robin Skynner, "'lose our balance, and begin to fall. We let go constantly of the previous stability, falling all the time, trusting that we will find a succession of new stabilities with each step. Our experience of the past, and of those dear to us, is not lost at all, but remains richly within us.'"

A bit cryptic, perhaps, but-if Shatner et al. are any indication-Stewart surely knows he'll probably be stuck walking together with his Next Generation colleagues for a long time to come.