Play The scene ends, of course, with Hawking winning the hand, telling Einstein, “Wrong again, Albert.” Then Data has to hurry off for the next Star Trek adventure, deactivating the holographic program for now. When Newton starts to talk about the apple that fell on his head, Hawking responds in his computerized voice, “Not the apple story again.” (According to Memory Alpha, the ultimate online Trek wiki, “The perihelion precession of Mercury could not be explained by Newtonian physics alone, and was regarded as a major flaw of Newton's theory, but it later was explained by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.” I’ll buy that.) Newton is the real grouch of the scene, the guy invited to the party who doesn’t get everyone else’s jokes, but Hawking - in reality and in holographic form - is clearly having the time of his life alongside his fellow geniuses. Newton, however, is unmoved, the science of it all escaping him. It opens with Hawking telling a joke - I guess - about “the perihelion of Mercury.” I didn’t really understand what that was until I googled it (and still only kinda understand), but Einstein thinks it’s hilarious. As for the scene itself, it’s funny, charming, and as of today, heartwarming. Yes, he even sat in the captain’s chair at one point. (In fact, he’s the only person to ever play his or herself on the show.) As a fan of the series, Hawking was reportedly delighted to appear in the segment, and also participated in a set tour during his visit to Paramount.

Stephen Hawking on the set of Star Trek: The Next GenerationWhile Newton and Einstein are of course played by actors, Hawking appears as himself.

Of course, on the starship Enterprise this is totally feasible thanks to the holodeck, and Newton, Einstein and Hawking are actually holographic representations of their famed selves. The 1993 episode “Descent” opens with TNG’s resident android Data playing a game of cards with some of the greatest scientific minds of history: Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein… and Stephen Hawking.

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