Quick answer: On Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny, in a story also used in a Viral Podcast Shorts clip, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes recall a Star Trek: The Next Generation day that, in their telling, started with a lecture and ended with a song. "We got in trouble as a cast," one of them says, "like bad children." They place it "very early on," "maybe the fourth or fifth episode." Producer Rick Berman, they say, called them into "the Captain's quarters or his ready room" because a director had said, "I'm not going to direct anymore. I'm not coming back," as "these guys just won't stop and they're so loud." When Denise Crosby said, "Come on, Patrick. We're just trying to have fun," they recall Patrick Stewart answering, "Fun? We're not here to have fun. We're here to work." "The same day," they say, they "moved to Planet Hell at lunch," for a hillside eulogy after "Denise's character Tasha Yar had died." Stewart "started whirling around and he goes, 'The hills are alive.'" "From that moment, he was one of us." "Turned out you could have fun at work."
Clip: Viral Podcast Shorts YouTube Short from the full source linked below.
The official YouTube title, uploaded about 6:10 p.m. Eastern Time on November 13, 2026, is Brent Spiner & Jonathan Frakes Remember Patrick Stewart. The episode is a farewell. BBC News, in a report dated October 30, 2026, said Sir Patrick Stewart had died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 86, and that he died on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, with the death announced the next day. RealNameOf does not yet have a live real-name or biography page for Stewart or for Frakes. Its Brent Spiner page gives his name as Brent Jay Spiner. That fuller name is not spoken in the clip.
"We're not here to have fun. We're here to work"
They introduce the story by saying "Patrick actually tells it in his book." This article follows their telling on the podcast, not the memoir. In their account, Berman told them they had "to pull it together." Stewart "got really mad," "forceful," and, as they remember his tone, "I've never in my career." Crosby's line, and Stewart's reply, are quoted as Spiner and Frakes remember them, not from a tape of that meeting. They say they "were all just kind of looking down," and that Berman then "let us all go" so they could "get back on the set and finish the work."
"The hills are alive," the same day
One of them says, "It was the same day." They "moved to Planet Hell at lunch." "Planet Hell" is their name for the hillside set. There, "Denise's character Tasha Yar had died," and there was "a bucolic hill." Stewart "was on the top of the hill and he did this eulogy for Tasha Yar." Then, "all of a sudden, he started whirling around" and delivered the Sound of Music line. Official auto-captions on the full episode render it as "thy hills are alive." The Short, and the lyric, is "The hills are alive." This article uses that wording and notes the caption variant.
"I promise you from that moment, he was one of us," they say. "He was as bad as we were. He was as silly on the set as we were, as misbehaved."
They place the day "in the first" season, "very early on," "maybe the fourth or fifth episode," and also say it was the same day as Tasha Yar's hillside eulogy. StarTrek.com, in an April 24, 2023, look back, identifies Skin of Evil as the first-season episode in which Lt. Tasha Yar is killed, and says it premiered on April 25, 1988. That air date sits late in the first season, not at episode four or five. The episode number they guess is their memory. This article does not treat it as a production record.
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FAQ
Who is telling this story?
Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes, on their podcast Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny. The words from Stewart, Denise Crosby, and Rick Berman are given as the two hosts remember them.
What does Patrick Stewart say, in their telling?
"Fun? We're not here to have fun. We're here to work." Later the same day, they say, he broke into "The hills are alive" during Tasha Yar's eulogy.
When do they say this happened?
They say it was in the first season, "very early on," "maybe the fourth or fifth episode," and that the ready-room meeting and the hillside eulogy were "the same day." StarTrek.com dates Skin of Evil, the episode in which Tasha Yar is killed, to a premiere of April 25, 1988, later in that season.
Why is the episode framed as a remembrance?
The official title is Brent Spiner & Jonathan Frakes Remember Patrick Stewart. BBC News reported that Sir Patrick Stewart died at his Los Angeles home at 86 on October 28, 2026.