In the memoir, Stewart reveals that he wasn’t supposed to show up for the first day of filming because it was a scene between Frakes and Brent Spiner, who plays Data. Stewart went to set anyway to get a feel for how his new co-stars worked on set without having the pressures of acting his own part. He was impressed by the chemistry between Frakes and Spiner, and thought that if they could “pull off a scene with such ease and comfort” despite having just met that maybe things would work out for him as well. A day later, he got his shot, and it was a scene where he had to be pretty stern, leading to Frakes’ comedic relief:
“My first day of work in front of the camera came twenty-four hours later. It was a scene in which I am walking purposefully through a corridor of the Enterprise and I pass a turbolift, whose door opens. Out steps Commander Riker, who speaks to me. I look at him but do not reply, walking on.
When we completed the first take, Jonathan shouted out, ‘Wow! So that must be what they call British face-acting!'”
The whole set cracked up laughing, which could have really embarrassed or enraged Stewart, but instead he started laughing right along with them because it felt like he was one of the gang.