Watching Stewart just completely own CoC2 is like watching a gaming phenom doing a speed-run on ultra-hardcore mode: you're witnessing a master at his craft, creating something unimaginable, & wondering if he knows how to do anything else at all. I am left with the odd impression that the person that we know as…

C. J. Cherryh is a good example.

I agree wholeheartedly. He was rough in the first season, but so was EVERYONE else, Stewart included (I chalk it up to Roddenberry's influence & a poor stable of writers unsure about the tone of the series). Spiner later owned the role of Data, & proved that he could not only do sympathetic Pinocchio-style stuff about…