Star Trek Icon Reveals the Notorious Episode Patrick Stewart Couldn't Stand — and Fans Back Him Up
Beaming us to strange new worlds takes more than dazzling VFX. Star Trek runs on audacious performances and precision craft, and its most out-there episodes push both cast and crew to the brink—spotlighting the standouts who make the impossible feel human.
Even Patrick Stewart has his limits. And according to Gates McFadden, one Star Trek: The Next Generation episode pushed him right to the edge — for her sake.
Gates McFadden says Stewart called out 'Sub Rosa'
McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher) recently chatted with Tawny Newsome (Ensign Beckett Mariner on Star Trek: Lower Decks) about projects they knew were... not great. McFadden did not hesitate: she pointed straight at 'Sub Rosa,' one of TNG's most infamous, lowest-rated hours.
"When I saw the 'Sub Rosa' script, I was like, 'You are kidding me.' Patrick hated it. He was like 'This is absurd!' ... And when you read it, there are so many completely absurd things in it. And it's more like a little Gothic-horror or something."
For context: Stewart is a classically trained actor who usually soldiered through even the wildest sci-fi conceits with total professionalism. If he was throwing flags here, you can imagine how far off the Trek map this thing felt on set.
What actually happens in 'Sub Rosa'
- The Enterprise heads to the Scottish-themed Caldos colony so Crusher can bury her grandmother, Felisa Howard (played by Ellen Albertini Dow), and help the locals with their aging weather-control system — one of the Federation's earliest installations.
- The B-plot about the weather gear is standard Trek business. The A-plot veers hard into bodice-ripper territory: Beverly is seduced by her grandmother's secret lover, Ronin (Duncan Regehr), a supposed 'ghost ' who is actually an energy-based lifeform.
- Ronin has been 'bonding' with women in Crusher's family line for generations to maintain a physical presence. Cue swoony candlelight, period-y costumes, and a moody Gothic-romance vibe that clashes wildly with the show's usual sci-fi tone.
- It all builds to Beverly in a green-eyed trance during a climactic bonding scene, before she snaps out of it, gets help, and destroys the parasitic entity.
Why it rubbed fans (and Stewart) the wrong way
The episode leans steamier than TNG typically did — honestly, a little sleazier — and puts a major female character, a doctor, into a supernatural romance plot that feels wildly off-brand. Talk about tonal whiplash. McFadden says Stewart was vocal about how absurd the whole thing was and backed her up at the time.
McFadden now: if you can't beat it, laugh at it
She has long since made peace with the episode and even finds it hilarious now. She jokes about Crusher's infamous 'green-eyed orgasm' moment — her phrase — with a shrug that says, yep, that aired on network TV and we all lived to tell the tale.
If you want to revisit the chaos, Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, including 'Sub Rosa') is streaming on Paramount+.