THE NEXT PHASE
* * *
Production No.: 224 Aired: Week of May 18, 1992
Stardate: 45092.4 Code: np
Directed by David Carson
Written by Ronald D. Moore
GUEST CAST
Ensign Ro Laren: Michelle Forbes
Mirok: Thomas Kopache
Varel: Susanna Thompson
Transporter Chief Brossmer: Shelby Leverington
Parem: Brian Cousins
Ensign McDowell: Kenneth Messerole
* * *
Picard offers aid to a wrecked Romulan science ship, but the rescue mission ends in tragedy when Ro and La Forge apparently die in a transporter accident.
The two rematerialize on board the Enterprise but somehow remain unseen. Ro thinks she is dead when she discovers that she can pass through walls and that others can walk through her.
She locates La Forge, who wants to find a reason other than death for their state, and they learn their presence causes chroniton particles, a harmless by-product of cloaking devices. They soon deduce the truth: thanks to an ill-fated test by the Romulans, they are cloaked!
As the Enterprise delivers an energy beam to the Romulan vessel to help it power up, Data attempts to clear the ship of a series of puzzling chroniton fields using an anyon beam. The android is puzzled, however, when new fields keep popping up all over the ship. Ro and La Forge are trying to get Data’s attention by leaving lots of “tracks” so they can warn him of the Romulans’ plan to cause a residual feedback in the energy beam and blow up the starship once it goes into warp. Their task is made considerably more difficult, though, when they encounter a Romulan who is also cloaked. Finally La Forge and Ro discover a way to leave enough chronitons to force Data into using a maximum-level spray of anyon, causing them to reappear—right in the middle of their own memorial service, and in the nick of time to save the ship.
This was supposed to be a money-saving bottle show, but like “Power Play” (215), it turned into one of the year’s most expensive—with characters actually running through the walls! Actually, the walk-through effect of the cloaked characters was straightforward but time-consuming, Rob Legato reported. The actors and set pieces were filmed in second-unit shooting before a blue screen backdrop and then carefully animated into the live action.
Lots of background bits adorn this stay, including the fact that Picard first met Geordi during an unspecified inspection tour and that Geordi has known Riker longer than anyone aboard. We also learn about the two-hour Bajoran death chant, and we are given their word for spirits and souls, borhyas. At the same time it is revealed that Worf’s people view an honorable death as joyful. Riker also gets another chance to play his trombone, and Picard delivers a rare reference blooper in the script, saying Ro’s troublesome incident occurred at Garon IV instead of Garon II, as in “Ensign Ro” (203) and “Conundrum” (214).
The Goddard is the shuttle’s name here, for American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, while the Romulan science vessel miniature is a re-dress of Jarok’s scout ship from “The Defector” (158). The Romulan ship ejects its off-line reactor core through the top instead of the bottom, as the Galaxy-class starship does. And for the truly trivial: for the first time since “The Defector” (158) two Romulan terms of measurement are given: melakols, a unit of pressure, and kolems, a unit of engine flow or frequency. And though no captain’s log is heard establishing a stardate, the one listed on Ro’s death certificate is 45092.4.
Ensign Ro and Geordi regain their solid form.
THE INNER LIGHT
* * *
Production No.: 225 Aired: Week of June 1, 1992
Stardate: 45944.1 Code: il
Directed by Peter Lauritson
Teleplay by Morgan Gendel and Peter Allan Fields
Story by Morgan Gendel
GUEST CAST
Eline: Margot Rose
Batai: Richard Riehle
Administrator: Scott Jaeck
Meribor: Jennifer Nash
Nurse Alyssa Ogawa: Patti Yasutake
Young Batai: Daniel Stewart
* * *
While traveling between missions, the Enterprise encounters an unassuming-looking probe. It begins transmitting a nucleonic beam that manages to penetrate the shields and then lock directly onto Picard. The captain collapses to the deck, unconscious.
As Dr. Crusher works over him, the captain awakens to what seems to him a dream: he is on the drought-stricken planet Kataan, where he is an iron weaver named Kamin married to a young woman named Eline.
The days pass into years for him, and Picard finally accepts his new life as reality. Eline bears two children by him, the drought continues to get worse, and despite the support of his friend Batai, people laugh at his high-tech plans to provide relief.
Back on the Enterprise bridge, though, only a few minutes have passed, though Picard still lies unconscious. Growing more concerned for his captain’s safety, Riker orders Data to break the beam. Its disruption nearly kills Picard, and it must be restored as the crew waits in frustration.
Meanwhile, the aging “Kamin” watches his children grow, his wife and friend die, and his planet dry up. Finally the truth is revealed: the Kataan sun is going nova, but without the means to evacuate, the planetary leaders have decided to gain immortality by launching records of their world in a probe and thus revealing their story to some future historian. The probe, Picard realizes, is the very same one the Enterprise encountered what now seems to him like years ago. And he is the historian the Kataan were looking for.
Like father, like son: Kamin and Batai (Patrick and Daniel Stewart).
To his bridge crew’s relief, Picard awakes to the staggering realization that he has lived over thirty years in less than half an hour.
Combining the warmth of “Family” (170) with a science fiction plot twist worthy of “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (163), this story proved to be one of the simplest and at the same time most mind-boggling episodes TNG would ever attempt. Here Picard experiences all the things Starfleet could never give him: a wife and children, stability, and a home.
The warm cinematography, designed to subtly imply the oncoming supernova of the Kataan sun, almost rivals that of “Family.” What’s amazing here, though, is that the exterior scenes of the Ressick community were all filmed on Stage 16 indoors; Marvin Rush’s lighting can be credited for the beautiful illusion. There is one brief moment of location shooting, however, a pickup scene filmed after principal photography had closed: Picard’s hiking scene, augmented by a matte-painting vista, was shot in nearby Bronson Canyon, also seen in “Darmok” (202) and in “Ensign Ro” (203).
Some appropriate casting was employed in this episode: Stewart’s own son, Daniel, played the young Batai, Picard’s Kataanian son, after several auditions for the show. Another piece of trivia: Margot Rose’s résumé includes her role as one of two prostitutes in the film 48 HRS.: her partner was Denise Crosby.
TIME’S ARROW
* * *
Production No.: 226 Aired: Week of June 15, 1992
Stardate: 45959.1 Code: ta
Directed by Les Landau
Teleplay by Joe Menosky and Michael Piller
Story by Joe Menosky
GUEST CAST
Samuel Clemens: Jerry Hardin
Bellboy: Michael Aron
Doorman: Barry Kivel
Seaman: Ken Thorley
Joe Falling Hawk: Sheldon Peters Wolfchild
Beggar: John M. Murdock
Gambler/Frederick La Rouque: Marc Alaimo
Scientist: Milt Tarver
Guinan: Whoopi Goldberg
Roughneck: Michael Hungerford
* * *
Called to the scene of excavations under San Francisco to investigate evidence of alien visitors in Earth’s past, the Enterprise crew is amazed to find Data’s head among artifacts dating back to the late 1800s. Triolic wave traces in the cavern point to Devidia II as the source of the relics.
After journeying there, Picard sends an away team to investigate. The team discovers a time rift and traces of life-forms that are invisible to them.
Deliberately left off the team in an attempt by Picard to cheat fate, Data must now beam down to deal with what he theorizes is a slight time shift in the life-forms on the planet below—a shift that renders them invisible. Using a mobile forcefield that he sets to match the aliens’ time shift, Data begins reporting back to the ship on what he sees. Then another time vortex opens up and sends the android to nineteenth-century San Francisco.
Thanks to poker winnings and a friendly bellboy, he quickly adapts and begins building a device with which to contact the Enterprise. Surprised to see Guinan in a local newspaper, he arranges to run into her, only to find that she has no recollection of him. She is not surprised, however, to learn that the two of them serve together in the future. Unfortunately, she is overheard by one of her guests—Samuel Clemens.
To uncover the suspected aliens’ threat to history, the crew rig a large phaseable forcefield, just as Data had done. Then Picard, unnerved by cryptic words from “his” Guinan, leads the team into the vortex….
Originally, TNG’s “top two”—Rick Berman and Michael Piller—had decided not to end season five with a cliff-hanger, but the planned Trek spinoff series, Deep Space Nine, changed all that. “Because of all the attention Deep Space Nine was getting and the rumors that Next Generation would be shutting down, we wanted to send a message that this show was alive and well and continuing to grow,” Piller said.
Surprisingly, “Time’s Arrow” marked the first real time-trekking for this crew, holodeck and Q-fantasies aside. At first Piller said he wanted to bring the crew to the 1990s, but he discarded that idea because it had been done in Star Trek IV. The staff discussed the 1960s and the 1930s before deciding on the turn of the century. Piller said that before Joe Menosky went on sabbatical, he left notes on the concluding segment that would open TNG’s sixth season come fall.
Three TNG veterans were among the guest cast: Ken Thorley had played chatty Bolian barber Mot (“Ensign Ro”/203, later “Schisms”/231); Jerry Hardin, sans the Mark Twain makeup, had led the sterile childnappers of Aldea as Radue (“When the Bough Breaks”/118); and Marc Alaimo, finally playing a human, followed his other alien stints (“Lonely Among Us”/108, “The Neutral Zone”/ 126, “The Wounded”/186); he would soon be DS9’s Gul Dukat.
Trapped in the 1890s, Data hopes Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) will be the key that gets him home again.
The San Francisco exteriors were shot on location at historic Pico House and along Olvera Street, the restored area near the first mission in old Los Angeles. Data’s hotel room and gambling table were shot on a re-dress of a Stage 9 area and in the Planet Hell caves and caverns on Stage 16.
Troi’s quote from Data regarding friendship is straight from his good-bye speech to Tasha’s sister Ishara Yar in “Legacy” (180), and the marker beacons used to erect the large forcefield were seen before in “Power Play” (215).
As in the past two season-enders, few clues were provided for what a conclusion might bring. But a role seems assured for Hardin’s Clemens character, who appears to be the owner of the pocket watch found among the artifacts, engraved “To S.L.C. with love, 30 November 1889.”
Notes
1. Starlog No. 143, June 1989, p. 30.
PRODUCTION STAFF CREDITS—FIFTH SEASON
* * *
(In usual roll order; numbers in parentheses refer to episode numbers. Emmy nominees and winners not known at presstime.)
Casting: (*) Junie Lowery-Johnson, C.S.A.; ****Ron Surma
Main Title Theme: (*) Jerry Goldsmith (*), Alexander Courage
Music: ***Jay Chattaway (202, 204, 206 and all odd-numbered episodes 209-225) (*); Dennis McCarthy (201, 203, 205, 207 and all even-numbered episodes, 208-226)
Director of Photography: ***Marvin Rush
Production Designer: **Richard D. James
Editor: Tom Benko, A.C.E. (202, 205, 208, 211, 214, 217, 220, 223, 226); **J. P. Farrell (203, 206, 209, 212, 215, 218, 221, 224); **Robert Lederman (201, 204, 207, 210, 213, 216, 219, 225); ****Steve Tucker (222) Unit Production Manager: ***Merri D. Howard (+)
First Asst. Director: ***Brad Yacobian (all odd-numbered episodes, 201-225); ****Doug Dean (all even-numbered episodes, 202-226)
Second Asst. Director: * Adele G. Simmons
Costume Designer: ***Robert Blackman
Set Decorator: **Jim Mees
Visual Effects Supervisor: (**) Robert Legato (+) (all even-numbered episodes, 202-226) (**); Dan Curry (+) (all odd-numbered episodes, 201-225)
Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant: (*) Rick Sternbach
Scenic Artist Supervisor/Technical Consultant: (*) Michael Okuda
Makeup Designed and Supervised: (*) Michael Westmore
Visual Effects Coordinator: ***Ron Moore (all odd-numbered episodes, 201-225); ***Gary Hutzel (all even-numbered episodes, 202-226)
Set Designer: ***Gary Speckman
Assistant Art Director: (****) Andy Neskoromny
Original Set Design: (*) Herman Zimmerman
Original Starfleet Uniforms: (*) William Ware Theiss
Script Supervisor: (*) Cosmo Genovese
Special Effects: (*) Dick Brownfield
Property Master: (*) Joe Longo (201-205, 207, 209, all odd-numbered episodes from 217-225); (*) Alan Sims (206, 208, 210-215, all even-numbered episodes from 216-226)
Construction Coordinator: (*) Al Smutko
Scenic Artist: (***) Cari Thomas (+)
Hair Designer: Susan Carol-Schwary (201-216); *Joy Zapata (217-226)
Makeup Artists: **Gerald Quist, ***June Abston-Haymore
Hair Stylist: Gus le Pre (201-209); Patty Miller (210-226)
Wardrobe Supervisor: ****Carol Kunz (+)
Sound Mixer: *Alan Bernard, C.A.S. (201-213, 217-226); Bill Gocke (214-216)
Camera Operator: Joe Chess, S.O.C. (214-226)
Chief Lighting Technician: ***Buddy Bowles
1st Company Grip: ***Bob Sordal
Key Costumers: **Amanda Chamberlin (all odd-numbered episodes from 201-223); **Kimberly Thompson (202, 204, 206 plus all odd-numbered episodes from 209-225); ****Maurice Palinski (207 plus all even-numbered episodes from 208-226); Jerry Bono (all even-numbered episodes, 202-224, except 214); Mary Ellen Boché (203, 205, 225); ***David Velasquez (201); ****David Roesler (214); Phil Maldonado (226) Music Editor: *Gerry Sackman
Supervising Sound Editor: (*) Bill Wistrom
Sound Editors: James Wolvington; Wilson Dyer; Dan Yale
Post Production Sound: (*) Modern Sound
Production Associate: (*) Susan Sackett (201-212)
Production Coordinator: (*) Diane Overdiek
Post Production Coordinator: (***) Wendy Rosenfeld (+)
Visual Effects Associate: (****) David Takemura
Production Associate: ***Terry Martinez (+), ***Heidi Julian (+)
Pre-Production Associate: (***) Eric Stillwell (+)
Casting Executive: (*) Helen Mossier
Stunt Coordinator: (***) Dennis Madalone (+) (201, 205, 207, 210-212, 214-217, 221-224)
Research Consultant: (*** Richard Arnold (201-214); (uncredited first two seasons)
Lenses and Panaflex Cameras: (**) Panavision
Monitors: (**) Sony Corp. of America (201, 202, 205, 206, 209-211, 214, 216, 219, 222)
Special Visual Effects: (*) Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) a division of Lucasfilm Ltd.
Motion Control Photography: (*) Image “G”
Video Optical Effects: (*) The Post Group
Special Video Compositing: (*) Composite Image Systems
Editing Facilities: (*) Unitel Video
Prosthetic Electronics: Michael Westmore II (218)
“Soliton Wave” Animation: Stokes/Kohne Assoc., Inc. (210)
* * *
The number of * denotes a returning company or staffer’s initial season of credit in that position
; ( ) denotes they are an original credited or co-credited person in that position; a (+) following indicates prior TNG work in another position
SIXTH SEASON
If the Great Bird’s death the year before had loomed as perhaps the end of an era, the sixth season of TNG—the last of the regular cast’s original contract options, back when a “new Star Trek” was still a shaky idea—sure enough saw the birth of two events that would finally set the future of the Star Trek franchise in the post-Roddenberry era. And longtime fans of GR’s vision and philosophy soon saw they had little to fear.
There had been a few raised eyebrows when early press reports described the new spinoff series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, announced midway through TNG’s Season 5 for a January 1993 debut, as carrying a “grittier, darker tone” than the usually bright Starfleet look of TNG. Michael Piller, who had always reported to Rick Berman on TNG even after he shared the title of executive producer, entered this new series with equal billing as creator and executive producer—and both let fans know they’d merely put GR’s humanistic universe in collision with other cultures to see once again how it holds up.
DS9’s debut had also been primed to quench Star Trek fans’ never-ending thirst for more TV adventures in the Great Bird’s mythos so the TNG cast could be readied for its certain future in theatrical movies. Piller, Berman, and even Roddenberry himself had long been peppered with questions as to Picard and Company’s future on the silver screen—though they’d always noted that no feature would follow until the TV series had run its course, following the cast that blazed the trail a “generation” before them.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 35