Star Trek's Patrick Stewart Once Narrated A Prog Rock Concept Album

Prog ... The final frontier. No matter that Sir Patrick Stewart left us on October 28, 2026, to voyage to a realm far beyond the stars, his legacy and voice remain. That instantly recognizable, commanding voice remains in unexpected places, too, like on Rick Wakeman's "Return to the Centre of the Earth" from 1999. The extremely grand, symphonic prog rock album fittingly features Steward as narrator.

Listeners to "Return to the Centre of the Earth" can't mistake Stewart's voice for anyone else's. Stewart had already imprinted himself on popular culture by the time the album was released, five years after "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ended and one year before becoming Professor Xavier in 2000's "X-Men." By lending his substantial vocal talents to "Return to the Centre of the Earth," he contributed to a prog rock legacy spanning back to the late '60s and early '70s and albums that define the genre. That's when Yes released 1971's "Fragile" and the vibrant and virtuosic "Roundabout," a song that proves 1971 was classic rock's best year. That album was the first to showcase the legendary cape-wearing keyboard wizard, Rick Wakeman, who went on to have a prolific solo career that included 1974's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and its sequel, 1999's "Return to the Centre of the Earth."

While the original "Centre of the Earth" album featured English actor David Hemmings as the narrator (Stewart was in the Royal Shakespeare Company at the time, from 1966 to 1982), Stewart stepped in for the sequel. He opens the album along with an instrumental intro and shows up across its entire length, guiding its story step by step.

Patrick Stewart really didn't have much left to prove on the vocal or acting front by the time Rick Wakeman released "Return to the Centre of the Earth" in 1999. This might be why he came to Gilbert Hetherwick's mind, producer at EMI Classics, Wakeman's label. As the story goes, Hetherwick and other EMI folks were neck deep in discussions about the budget for Wakeman's album when Hetherwick suddenly remembered that they needed a narrator. Hetherwick suggested Stewart, encountered minimal resistance to Stewart being potentially expensive to hire, and then everyone agreed that the Enterprise D captain was good. That's all it took for Stewart to (mind) meld with prog rock history.  

For his part, Stewart seemed to really enjoy being involved in Wakeman's production. Footage available on YouTube shows a very engaged Stewart in the recording booth, asking questions about how he ought to read the narration at hand. "All my life I've believed in the power of storytelling, whether it's theater, film, radio," Stewart said, effortlessly sliding "Return to the Centre of the Earth" into his career. He did such a good job that Wakeman built his music around Stewart, rather than the other way around. This is quite the compliment coming from Wakeman, who always remained protective of his work and sometimes felt at creative odds with the powers that be. 

As for the story in question, it continued the narrative started in Wakeman's 1974's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth," which was inspired by the 1863 Jules Verne sci-fi novel (an author inspired by the same cave that inspired Pink Floyd). It's all as suitably epic and sci-fi as you'd hope to hear from Stewart.