Most of the individuals who pursue careers in pop culture journalism tend to be those who were obsessed with pop culture as they were growing up, and I am no exception to this rule. That obsession can be a bit of a double-edged sword, however, when it comes to interviewing the figures who were part of the fabric of your formative years, and it forces you to develop the ability to shove aside the instinct to go “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” in favor of being a professional journalist and doing your job.

In January 2010, I was at the Television Critics Association press tour, standing outside a hotel room in Pasadena, California, and definitely not feeling like a professional journalist.

That’s because I was about to interview Sir Patrick Stewart .

To offer a bit of back story, I’d been a Star Trek fan since sometime in the ‘70s, when I was on an out-of-town visit with family to see one of my father’s cousins and “Who Mourns for Adonais?” came on their TV.…