The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition

by Larry Nemecek

  Meanwhile back at the lot, the series-ending hoopla was but a distant din when the show’s writers realized that the season was getting off to a surprisingly slow start—in part thanks to the creature that came to be called Star Trek Generations. Not only did its Thanksgiving 1994 release date push up the series’ shooting schedule a month and cut short everyone’s vacation, but Ron Moore and Brannon Braga, winning promotions to producer and co-producer respectively, took the month of May 1993 to go write the feature’s first draft in Hawaii while the rest of the staff veterans got things running a week or two later: Jeri Taylor, now assuming more responsibility than ever as a full executive producer; René Echevarria, who added “executive” to his official story editor’s title; and Naren Shankar, who got an onscreen credit as story editor. Replacing Shankar as science adviser was André Bormanis, a longtime fan, computer manual author, and onetime astronomy doctoral candidate with ties to both NASA and the needs of Hollywood, thanks to a partnership with screenwriter Steve Geller and past story pitches to Star Trek.

  “They definitely did their series jobs,” Echevarria said of Moore and Braga’s “distraction.” “But it was a priority for everybody to pull together and try to give them a little breathing room, if necessary, to get their job done.” Piller, still spending two-thirds of his time getting Deep Space Nine’s sophomore year rolling, felt TNG’s early season also suffered from a letdown of another kind. “The fact that it didn’t seem like there was a future took the wind out of our sails,” he said. “But I think the pride factor kicked in about a third of the way into the season and we started doing some really top-notch stuff.” At that point, he and Taylor discussed making the series’ wrap-up episodes special by tying up a few loose threads—the roots of the eventual Wesley Crusher and Ro Laren stories—while using TNG’s forum to introduce early backstory for Voyager, whose onrushing evolution was already well underway.

  The series’ finality also played at least a subconscious part as the seventh season evolved into sort of a family reunion with more of the regular cast’s backgrounds finally being revealed through the dangling threads of real or imagined relatives: La Forge’s parents, Tori’s late father, Crusher’s grandmother, Worf’s once-mentioned foster brother, and even Picard’s “son” and Data’s “mother”! “You know, you could almost recite every day of Worf’s entire life, and Geordi was the guy we knew the least about, so it became natural for us to flesh that out,” Moore said.

  “It was not our intent to answer every question and knit up every little mystery,” Taylor added, noting that details such as Jack Crusher’s demise would have to be left to future movies. “Still, I’m sure that underlying a lot of things was the awareness that it’s our last season, and that may have allowed us to take some chances and do some things that wouldn’t have been approved in earlier years.” As the architect behind beefing up the women with Troi and Crusher in command roles, she also noted how something finally came of the long-teased Pi-card-Crusher attraction as well as the controversial Worf-Troi-Riker triangle first hinted at during Season 5. “People always give us more credit than we deserve, as if we have a map for each season—it’s always so much more by the seat of our pants,” she added. “You know, the stories come along and we say ‘Aha! There’s the chance!’”

  The workload led to kudos from the bosses, with Piller again citing Taylor’s “nurturing” of her staff. With the Moore-Braga duo busy working at year’s end with the finale and Piller and Berman scrutinizing the last few episodes, Taylor again leaned heavily on the others and turned to other freelancers to help fill the bill. For instance, former staffer Joe Menosky’s three scripts for TNG’s last year were all completed, along with “Rivals” for DS9, without a trip back across the Atlantic from Italy. “We learned that it’s possible to break a story here, fax it to Joe, have a phone conversation to flesh it out, and then two weeks later he sends us a script!” Taylor laughed.

  The production side of the aisle had few shakeups as well—aside from brush fires and earthquakes—although visual effects producer Rob Legato’s departure from Deep Space Nine to join the new company Digital Domain allowed Trek cohort Dan Curry to assume oversight of both series, setting up greater continuity with two alternating visual FX teams. For TNG, veteran Ron B. Moore supervised with Michael “B.” Backauskas—an eighteen-year veteran who’d even worked on the first Trek feature in 1979 as well as the DS9 pilot—while supervisor David Stipes took on Joe Bauer as his coordinator. Both were joined by veterans Phil Barberio, moving over to become Curry’s “roving fielder” as series coordinator, and associate Eddie Williams.

  The coming of Generations meant further opportunities, with Peter Lauritson getting involved and reverting to a consulting producer’s title on TNG as midseason on “Genesis” (266), leaving veteran Wendy Neuss to take on more overall post-production chores and move up “above the line” into the opening credits where residual fees are paid. Visual effects supervisor Moore also left to work on the feature at the same time, with his alternating slot split up among the rest of the staff late in the season. Also, with everyone doing triple duty costume designer Bob Blackman got help from Abram Waterhouse as co-costume designer. But by now, as TNG prepared to sail off into the rarefield subspace of the silver screen, the series’ caretakers no longer worried much about the impact of the day-to-day changes; indeed, since DS9’s launch—and especially during the protracted Viacom/QVC buyout war for Paramount in 1993—no one ever questioned the future of the Trek “franchise,” as some perhaps ruefully had come to call it. “I said facetiously once that Star Trek was bigger than Paramount,” Majel Barrett Roddenberry once said, “and since then I’ve started to think back on that, because it’s true: we’ve had three new groups (of owners/managers) come in, but they’ve changed and we’re still here—we’ve been the ones to keep a roof over everyone’s head!”

  DESCENT, PART II

  * * *

  Production No,: 253 Aired: Week of September 20, 1993

  Stardate: 47025.4 Code: d2

  Directed by Alexander Singer

  Written by René Echevarria

  GUEST CAST

  Hugh: Jonathan del Arco

  Ensign Taitt: Alex Datcher

  Lieutenant Barnaby: James Horan

  Crosis: Brian Cousins

  Transporter Technician Salazar: Benito Martinez

  Goval: Michael Reilly Burke

  * * *

  With Dr. Crusher commanding the Enterprise, Picard and fellow captives Troi and La Forge hear Lore explain how their release of Hugh a year ago left a faction of the cyborg race in a vacuum of purpose that he and now the “emotional” Data can fill.

  When Troi realizes that Data is showing only negative feelings, La Forge guesses that Lore must be using that part of Dr. Soong’s emotion chip (actually intended for Data) as his means of control. But before La Forge can build a device to block Lore’s control, he is led away by Data for more of Lore’s attempts to transform organic beings into full androids—then wins a reprieve when Data’s conscience kicks in.

  In orbit, a Borg attack forces Crusher to leave behind some more of the crew, Riker and Worf are found by Hugh’s Borg-in-hiding, who ditched Lore when his crude tests left many born mutilated. Meanwhile, Beverly uses metaphasic shielding and a daring plan to destroy the Borg ship in a star’s corona.

  Hugh, at first bitter about being left adrift by the Enterprise crew, helps the group infiltrate the Borg complex. He leads a revolt just as Lore orders Data to kill Picard. Once bested, Lore is finally deactivated by his brother, who later keeps the emotion chip intact only at La Forge’s insistence.

  Despite producer Jeri Taylor’s best intentions, this last cliffhanger wrap-up was not ironed out until after hiatus, and she and Echevarria both regretted having “too much story” so that not all of the plot lines, especially Hugh’s (“I, Borg”/223), could be developed as much as desired, However, the shipboard plot with Beverly in command grew as it became more interestin
g.

  “Part I left many balls in the air and I had to catch them,” Echevarria observed, “We had a better idea of what this Part II was going to be like, but nothing turned out quite as simple as it had seemed,” The first draft had Data shoot Lore in self-defense in an extended phaser battle, but Michael Piller wanted to avoid such an overt means and so the dismantling did the job instead, Taitt was Barclay in an early draft, but was dropped due to availability, expense, and the logic—as the writer pointed out—that “he’s quite senior and would have been down there—foolishly—with everybody else!”

  Director Singer, only the third to helm both segments of a TNG two-parter, easily recalled the one-day location shoot back at the distinctive Brandeis-Bardin Institute in 100 degree Simi Valley, “Those Borg extras were dying,” recalled visual FX producer Dan Curry. “They had to wear black longjohns under those rubber suits.” The Borg Hall interiors—actually a narrow three-wall set multiplied optically, as were the extras—were left standing over hiatus on Stage 16, but the caverns were built anew.

  Here we learn, as Picard must have when he was Locutus (“The Best of Both Worlds”/174-175), that a tube carrying a silver liquid can disable a Borg when pulled from their headgear. “Of course, you don’t want to imply that you can pull out any hose and they’re down like an old car,” Echeverria mused. Also, it is clarified that Hugh’s local unit of Borg are the only ones affected by the “individuality” concept, and, via an Okudagram, that they are thought to originate in the Delta Quadrant. Data would later discover the memories on the emotion chip (“Brothers”/177) that Lore spoke of (“Inheritance”/262), and it all would become a major point again (ST: Generations); Data’s “evil twin” uses his left index nail for a covert control switch, rather than his left thumbnail seen earlier (“Brothers”).

  Crusher’s skills at bridge command would be explained later (“Thine Own Self”/268). Ironically, tactician Barnaby is played by James Horan, the same actor whose character almost killed her the last time the metaphasic shield came up (“Suspicions”/248); the solar-flare optical is the latest retouched reuse of an earlier element (“Redemption II”/201). Actor Burke later appeared on DS9 Cardassian pacifist Hogue in Season 2’s “Profit and Loss,” the unseen Lieutenant Powell speaking to Riker as a comm voice later becomes Ogawa’s fiancé (“Lower Decks”/267) and husband (“All Good Things…”/277-278).

  Lore and one of his loyal Borg.

  Once again, reflecting the confusion over O’Brien’s initial pips and what a “chief” is (“Real of Fear”/228, “Man of the People”/229, et al.), Crusher refers to Salazar as one though he’s clearly a pipless NCO. And the adhesion strip formerly seen used to attach Starfleet comm badges (“The Naked Now”/103, “The Survivors”/151, “The High Ground”/160) is absent here—a likely advance in quartermaster and/or studio techniques.

  LIAISONS

  * * *

  Production No. 254 Aired: Week of September 27, 1993

  Stardate: Unknown Code: ii

  Directed by Cliff Bole

  Teleplay by Jeanne Carrigan Fauci & Lisa Rich

  Story by Roger Eschbacher & Jaq Greenspon

  GUEST CAST

  “Anna”: Barbara Williams

  Ambassador Voval: Eric Pierpoint

  Ambassador Loquel: Paul Eiding

  Ambassador Byleth: Michael Harris

  Young boy (Eric Burton): Ricky D’Shon Collins

  * * *

  As part of a cultural exchange, Picard greets two Iyaaran ambassadors aboard ship before departing in their shuttle to meet with their leader.

  Worf, already uncomfortable in diplomatic settings, is upset to be chosen as a host by Byleth, a surly type who comes to blows with the Klingon over poker. In contrast, Troi finds herself escorting the gentle Loquel, who seems to be gorging himself on pure sensations of food and drink.

  En route to Iyar, Picard’s shuttle crashes on a hostile world, and the Iyaaran pilot Voval is knocked out. After stumbling outside and collapsing outdoors, Picard awakes to find a human woman, Anna, caring for him inside a downed freighter. Apparently a crash survivor for seven years, a moody Anna ruins the shuttle’s com panel when sent to retrieve it and then confides she loves Picard.

  Initially sympathetic, Picard rails at the woman after he realizes he is not injured badly and that she seeks to keep him captive. She flees into the murky night just as Voval, very much alive, shows up at the freighter shelter and they set out after her.

  Not until the “lovesick” Anna appears and threatens to jump off a cliff does Picard discover the truth: Voval took Anna’s form to learn about love, a concept alien to the Iyaarans—just as his shipboard cohorts wanted to study pleasure and antagonism.

  Anna (Barbara Williams) saves Picard’s life, then won’t let him leave.

  Sixth-season interns Fauci and Rich took this teleplay out of the season’s most arduous break session, building on Eschbacher and Greenspon’s straight homage to Stephen King’s Misery. “She” initially became a very balanced Starfleet officer, but Braga suggested hiking the character’s angst a few notches to create more tension.

  Originally the script had Taylor’s B-story about Troi earning her commander’s pips, but when the two plots didn’t gel that line was ejected and saved for later (“Thine Own Self”/268), while Braga created the aliens’ “testing” events in an uncredited rewrite done in just eight days. Taylor was surprised Braga’s odd humor didn’t make the episode more popular, but for veteran director Bole the episode was “just flat not my favorite show,” citing the many rewrites as deadlines loomed.

  Actor Pierpoint became the second regular from the onetime Fox SF series Alien Nation to guest on TNG (“In Theory”/199)—his craft being the redressed “alien shuttle” (see “Birthright, Part 1”/242 note)—while “Eric,” who appeared twice again (“Masks”/269, “Firstborn”/273), was named for Braga’s nephew. Propmaster Alan Sims recalled how, after he had bought chocolate-covered raisins for Loquel’s poker-game snack, actor Eiding confided he was allergic to chocolate and caused a wee-hours run to an open candy store for an alternative snack. “He said he broke out in red hives but offered to eat it anyway,” Sims said. “Now there’s an actor who’s grateful to be working!”

  Braga also conjured up one of TNG’s infamously confusing “T”-aliens, the Terellians, with Picard’s comment that Anna could not be of that race “unless you’ve lost two of your arms”—indicating it’s possibly the species of bar pianist Amarie (“Unification II”/207), since a two-armed Tarellian was filmed but cut from the finale for time (“All Good Things …”/277-278). The plagued Tarellians (“Haven”/105) and warrior Talarians (“Heart of Glory”/120, “Suddenly Human”/176) are confusing enough, even without Dathon’s Tamarians (“Darmok”/202), but Braga would later concoct the Terellian “death syndrome” (“Genesis”/271) and “plague” (“All Good Things…”).

  After seven years, Worf, Deanna, and Beverly are finally seen in their dress uniforms; Worf’s added Klingon sash scene evokes both Scotty’s dress kilts and McCoy’s dress-blues fussing (1967’s “Journey to Babel”). Continuity hounds will also notice references to the Ktarians (“The Game”/206, “Birthright, Part I”/242, “Timescape”/251, “Phantasms”/258, Generations); Troi’s chocolate habit (see notes, “The Price”/156); papalla juice, red here instead of clear (“Imaginary Friend”/222); a Tarvokian powder cake, rather than “pound cake” (“The Game”); Worf’s battle “calisthenics” (“Where Silence has Lease”/128, “Emissary”/146, “New Ground”/210); Deck 12’s stellar cartography (“Lessons”/245, “Homeward”/265, Generations) and Deck 8’s unfinished nature, taken from the TNG Technical Manual. In a cut scene, Byleth had awakened Worf at 0500 for a tour of the arboretum, while later in a minor blooper he actually takes three poker chips during their game—not two as Worf claims.

  Built by modelmaker Tony Doublin, new to TNG but a longtime associate of FX supervisor David Stipes, the freighter exterior scene was a six-by-si
xteen tabletop model with crash-skid furrows and forced-perspective mountains only five feet away; Richard James’ live interior featured a slanted “crashed” floor. The cliffs were another Doublin model, combined at Digital Magic with a Dan Curry computer matte painting and the filmed actors, smoke, and stage—with Picard being a late addition to clarify the scene. Anna’s transformation to Voval came from an unused test element Curry had shot years before: the end result of a laser beam shot through melted plastic and bounced off white cardboard.

  INTERFACE

  * * *

  Production No.: 255 Aired: Week of October 4, 1993

  Stardate: 47215.5 Code: in

  Directed by Robert Wiemer

  Written by Joe Menosky

  GUEST CAST

  Captain Silva La Forge image: Madge Sinclair

  Admiral Marcus Holt: Warren Munson

  Commander Edward M. La Forge, Ph.D.: Ben Vereen

  * * *

  After successfully testing a new interface that transforms remote sensor data into hands-on “reality” via his own VISOR inputs, La Forge is ready to take on the retrieval of the lost U.S.S. Raman trapped low in the atmosphere of gas giant Marijne VII.

  But the mission is threatened when Picard breaks the news that the Starship Hera has been lost with all its crew—including its captain, La Forge’s mother, Silva.