Patrick Stewart's Battle for Cable Saps His 'Will to Live'

He has fought aliens in "Star Trek," played a mutant mastermind in "X-Men" and been awarded knighthood by the queen of England.

But when Sir Patrick Stewart tried to get cable installed in his new apartment, he, the worldwide star of stage and film, found out he really is just like us.

Stewart, 72, became entangled with cable giant Time Warner Cable on Twitter last week while trying to get cable service installed in his new $2 million home in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood.

After battling with the company, well-known in New York City for its service delays, for more than a day, the actor, most famous for playing Starship Enterprise Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," took to social media to express his angst.

"All I wanted to do was set up a new account with [Time Warner Cable] but 36hrs later I've lost the will to live," Stewart tweeted under the handle @SirPatStew Thursday.

Time Warner, perhaps leery of getting on the wrong side of "Trekkies," responded on Twitter at warp speed to Stewart's plea, tweeting, "How can we assist you," from @TWCableHelp.

"If that question had been asked at any time in the last 36 hours it would have been of value. But now . . . ," was Stewart's only reply.

While perhaps a headache for himself, Stewart's cable feud has been a boon for his Twitter account. The actor, who has 109,069 followers and has tweeted a mere 58 times to date, saw his single reply to Time Warner re-tweeted more than 1,000 times.

His tweets also put the situation in reverse, with Time Warner now pleading to him and Stewart giving no reply.

"@SirPatStew I apologize for the frustration. If you change your mind we are here. ^SS," the company tweeted at 8:40 p.m. Thursday night, three hours after Stewart's first tweet.

"There's no doubt we have a lot of fans at the company, of the actor and 'Star Trek' in general," a Time Warner NYC spokesman told the New York Post. "But the truth is, any customer that reaches out to us . . . we're going to offer them help the exact same way."