Sir Patrick Stewart’s brow ripples ever so slightly, furrows deepening. He has seen the future. And all is not well.

The U.K. has voted for Brexit. Donald Trump is building walls. Everybody is trying to keep out refugees. And now there is a potential for war in the Middle East.

So what would Captain Jean-Luc Picard think?

“These are very difficult times. What happened recently with the airliner that was shot down was such a tragedy with so many, including Canadians on it,” the 79-year-old British actor said in an interview in Toronto this week. “Accident or not, and we don’t know for certain, it was nevertheless an appalling situation that such weaponry could be pointed in the sky like that toward civilians.”

We are sitting on a contemporary white couch in the Queen Street West offices of Canadian broadcaster CTV that would not be out of place on a starship. Stewart is in jeans and a grey-hued twill blazer. Outside there is a giant billboard for his new television show, “Star Trek: Picard,” which debuts Thursday on CTV Sci-Fi Channel.

But, despite the fact he could simply look out the window, Stewart says he hasn’t seen his visage dominating downtown Toronto.

“To tell you the truth, they still slightly unnerve me,” Stewart says of the billboards in that famously authoritative baritone. “Really, I haven’t seen advertising on this scale before. Not where it involved just me. It really makes me a little uncomfortable.”

If that’s the case, Stewart will have to get used to it, since his show has already been renewed for a second season. CBS thinks it has a winner with “Picard” and is spending lavishly to promote the series. London’s Piccadilly Circus tube station was recently renamed “Picardilly Circus.” Meanwhile, the companion show “Star Trek: Discovery,” which is shot in Toronto, is already the most watched original program on streaming service CBS All Access. But, “Picard” — at least from the three episodes I have seen — is a better, more finely wrought product.

The “Star Trek” franchise has always reflected geopolitics and “Picard” is no exception. In this bleaker world view, the United Federation of Planets has turned its back on refugees and is looking far more inward in a new age of isolationism. The Romulans are refugees and the universe is in chaos.

“There are echoes and references to what’s going on today. And I hope we haven’t been too heavy-handed,” says Stewart. “But, certainly one of the biggest issues in the U.K. and elsewhere was about immigration and refugees.”

If the European Union could be viewed as the first fledgling steps toward a federation of nations, a utopian world where everyone mostly gets along, well, that future seems in doubt to Stewart.

“Brexit was a very grim thing, it was very sad for me,” says Stewart, who was knighted in 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II.

The actor’s antidote is an act of thespianism: to show what could happen in a world of authoritarian self-interest.

While Stewart’s last series, “The Next Generation,” was more of an ensemble, the new show rests on his capable shoulders. And that’s a good thing, because he is in outstanding form.

TV Guide once pronounced him the best dramatic actor of the 1980s. Given that his competition was “The A-Team” and “Knight Rider,” it wasn’t a contest.

Still, with apologies to that other Starfleet captain (and yes, Canadian) William Shatner, Stewart is the finest actor to ever don the uniform. No one wore Lycra with more gravitas, a Shakespearean heft to his every command.

In “Picard,” it is decades later and the captain may be physically a little more shrunken. He now takes his Earl Grey tea decaffeinated. But his presence remains Horatio Hornblower large.

The show is beautifully cinematic, with a storyline starting in the Picard vineyards in France, decades after “The Next Generation” series. Stewart’s sombre delivery has words to match, with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon as the showrunner.

“I haven’t been living. I’ve been waiting to die,” Stewart says in the pilot when he is confronted by his past thanks to a young woman named Dahj (English actress Isa Briones).

“The one element they share is vulnerability. What they have both gone through is horrific,” Stewart says of their characters. “Picard has just gone through one of the biggest mistakes of his career. And he continues to have grievances over the death of his friend and colleague Data. So I think we both recognize something in the other person. It’s impossible to identify or articulate. But I believe what that is, is extreme vulnerability.”

“What you might be expecting is this younger lost soul to seek help from this older wiser person,” says Briones in an interview. But what is amazing is that they both help each other in unexpected and amazing ways.”

Briones, like Stewart, has her roots on the stage — most recently, in the touring production of “Hamilton,” in which she was the youngest lead cast member. As of this week the 21-year-old had 2,600 followers on her Twitter account compared to Stewart’s 3.3 million. But that will soon change.

“I think I’m just scraping the surface of what this all means,” says Briones. “The fact that I get to be a part of this legacy is incredible. Just how important this show has been for so many people, making them feel seen and represented.”

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“Picard” picks up where the 2002 movie “Star Trek: Nemesis” left off, with a reminder of the death of the synthetic humanoid Data (Brent Spiner). The film was a box-office flop, essentially ending the “The Next Generation” movie franchise.

Stewart, at the time, was content to put his character to rest. After all, he never expected the show to last. When he first took the role, he thought it might endure a season.

“I thought I could go back to stage acting,” says Stewart. “I was a little naive about the Hollywood thing.”

Stewart would likely hope to be remembered for his work on the stage; he is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. But he has become an indelible part of pop culture as Picard and, for a younger generation, as Professor X of the X-Men.

When producers approached Stewart about the “Picard” spinoff, he immediately told them no.

“I had really done all that I thought was possible with the character,” says Stewart. “But then they presented me with a different world. They put together a 35-page statement of what they were interested in and we discussed it in detail. And by the end, I knew I was hooked.”

There is much irony in the fact that the original “Star Trek” series — which debuted in 1966 — is the granddaddy of genre science fiction, creating the kind of fandom that is common today, but has been largely overshadowed by Disney’s bigger and slicker “Star Wars” and Marvel franchises.

The relatively sunny disposition of the “Star Trek” universe has rendered it unfashionable in a world of dark, genre series.

In a “Game of Thrones” world where cruelty and guile rule, “Star Trek” has always taken the opposite tack.

True to creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision, it has been about hopefulness, resolutely rejecting the trend toward nihilism. “Picard,” despite the bleak rendering of the future, is also about what could be.

Much rests on the success of “Picard.” The “Star Trek” universe, which has seen more than a dozen films and seven live-action TV shows, is in expansion mode. There is a still untitled “Discovery” spinoff to come starring Michelle Yeoh.

Before I leave, I revisit the question of Brexit with Stewart. This time, I suggest, the refugees from Britain to Canada are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who apparently now have to work for a living.

“I thought they heard there was a second season of ‘Star Trek’ and they both felt certain there would be roles for them, and that’s why they left,” he says with a twinkle. “I have a sneaking suspicion Meghan might know something about ‘Star Trek.’”

Meghan Markle as an alien perhaps, I ask, representing her alienation from a ruthlessly hierarchical society?

“Yes, yes, sure!” laughs Stewart. “Let’s do it!”

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