The engineer opts to press on with his Raman mission, noting that the device is designed to work with his unique anatomy. Just as he finds the crew of seven all dead, a fire flash leaves him with severe hand burns—even though the flash was merely relayed from the remote probe’s inputs.
After Dr. Crusher adjusts the interface to prevent a reoccurrence, La Forge tells his father via subspace that he refuses to believe his mother is dead. Even so, he’s startled to “find” her on the Raman during the probe’s next run. “She” asks him to take the ship lower in the atmosphere, where her vessel is supposedly trapped.
Despite suffering neural shock in the exchange, La Forge, with Data’s help, risks one more contact—countering Picard’s direct order and the beliefs of his friends, who feel he’s in hallucinatory grief. This time, he learns that his “mother” is really one of many fire-based lifeforms who were trapped on the ship and will die if not returned to their home lower in the atmosphere—and he does so. Initially angry, Picard later relents and shares his sympathy.
Though it became the first installment of what writer-producer Ron Moore dubbed TNG’s “Year of Lost Souls,” Geordi’s background finally comes to life in onetime staffer Joe Menosky’s fifth-season pitch, whose heavy special effects portray a sometimes confusing point of view. “Using Geordi in place of the camera/probe was a difficult convention to establish,” said director Wiemer, who noted it would have been “emotionally unrewarding” to show the reality of filming the remote probe with “Silva” while cutting back to Geordi in the lab for reactions.
The high-profile guest stars include Sinclair (the Saratogd’s unnamed captain in ST IV) flying in from Jamaica and Vereen, whom Le Var Burton helped attract to the show, buying out a day of his Broadway show.
Originally Menosky had Riker in the virtual-reality suit, troubled by the deatti of his father and glimpsing scenes of their Alaska cabin, but Geordi was made the focal character because of Riker’s mind trip late last season (“Frame of Mind”/247) because of the logic of the VISOR implants. Rene Echevarria did a late polish, while Riker’s consolation of Geordi was a rare scene added for time and penned by Taylor, not filmed until three shows later. For his part, though, staff writer Naren Shankar wondered if the story’s concept wasn’t futuristic enough, and science adviser André Bormanis agreed: “There are prototypes of that kind of thing already, although tying it straight to the brain will take much longer.”
Menosky coined the names of Geordi’s sister Ariana and his mother Silva, although the name “Alvera K.” was on a bio screen briefly glimpsed in “Conundrum” (214); Taylor thought “Silva” was more “interesting” and didn’t consider the other visible enough to change it. His father, addressed as “doctor,” is not named here, though the earlier screen called him “Edward M.” and the script gives his rank as commander. Both parents had already been referred to as an exozoologist and a command officer (“Imaginary Friend”/222).
Ben Vereen appears as Geordi’s father.
The suit itself, designed by costumer Bob Blackman, carried “a prop man’s nightmare,” Alan Sims recalled: “blinky” sensors that each ran off its own watch battery and switch, requiring ten minutes in all to turn on or off between takes. “If I have any legacy it’s the teasing from the actors—‘Oh God, let’s save Alan’s batteries,’” he laughed. “But it’s not the cost of the batteries—it’s what happens when they run down and you have that delay to open ’em up and put in new ones.”
Background fans: The Raman, named for a Nobel Prize—winning Indian physicist, has a gaseous rather than forcefield fire-suppression system (“Up the Long Ladder”/144) and carries Starfleet registry number NCC-29487 but has a crew dressed in “civvies”; Riker missed his mother and acted out when he started school; roller coasters are still known in the twenty-fourth century; Deep Space Three, in contrast to DS9, is headed by an admiral and is apparently near the Breen (“The Loss”/184, “Hero Worship”/ 211, Generations) and Ferengi; and the Hera had a mostly Vulcan crew, a century-old Starfleet practice (1967’s “The Immunity Syndrome”). Also seen again is the oft-used biolab lift (“The Offspring”/164, “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2”/175, Generations) dubbed by set decorator Jim Mees as the “Rocky Horror elevator” after the cult classic.
Visually, Wiemer and FX supervisor Ron B. Moore were disappointed that the elaborate probe miniature by veteran modelmaker Brick Price was only seen once; producer Peter Lauritson regretted not getting to depict the trapped Raman. The hardest FX shot, Silva’s transformation to flame, used torso-shaped shells of flash paper that live FX man Dick Brownfield had formed and dried around a mannequin; two were butted together so the flames would go the same direction. Geordi’s walk-in wall of fire used the same effect as the Bersallis III firestorms (“Lessons”/245), although many of the flames were shot live—but not too close.
GAMBIT, PART I
* * *
Production No.: 256 Aired: Week of October 11, 1993
Stardate: 47135.2 Code: g1
Directed by Peter Luritson
Teleplay by Naren Shankar
Story by Christopher Hatton and Naren Shankar
GUEST CAST
Arctus Baran: Richard Lynch
Tallera: Robin Curtis
Vekor: Caitlin Brown
Narik: Cameron Thor
Yranac: Alan Altshuld
Admiral Chekote: Bruce Gray
Ensign Giusti: Sabrina LeBeauf
Bartender: Stephen Lee
Lieutenant Sanders: Derek Webster
* * *
When Picard disappears on an archaeological pleasure trip, the senior staff discover he was apparently vaporized weeks earlier by ruffians in a bar. Riker, who refuses to accept Picard’s death until justice is served, forces a Yridian source to reveal the attackers’ next likely stop, Barradas III.
There, La Forge finds the same kind of micro-crystalline damage found in the bar. Suddenly the group is ambushed by Picard’s “murderers,” who kidnap an injured Riker in a quick beam-up.
The “pirates” escape, but Data chooses to look for clues rather than pursue. Coming to, Riker discovers he is wearing a pain inducer, used for forced discipline by Baran, the leader of a mercenary band.
Riker is shocked to find Picard alive and posing as renegade archaeologist “Galen,” who’s at odds with Baran. Taking a cue from Picard, Riker assumes the air of a Starfleet “black sheep” and then repairs an engine problem that Picard had secretly caused so Riker could win the trust of Baran and the crew.
Data soon realizes the raiders have been hitting the ruins of a Romulan offshoot race and pursues them to Calder II, where he’s surprised to hear Riker order the Enterprise’s shields lowered. He does so as Picard, who won a reprieve against attacking the Starfleet outpost there, is forced by Baran to open fire on his own ship….
Captain Picard is trapped aboard a pirate vessel.
This story, born from a sixth-season spec script from Iowa college student Chris Hatton, not only bore an all-star cast but truly went where no TNG story idea had gone before: breaking Gene Roddenberry’s thirty-year ban on so-called “space pirate” stories. First Michael Piller and then Jeri Taylor mulled over the impossible, attracted by the premise of Riker seeking vengeance for Picard’s death and the promise of an offbeat, less “talky,” romp. As they warmed to it and Piller suggested it could hold up as an expanded two-parter, and finally Rick Berman called Taylor in to talk.
“Rick has a little bust of Gene Roddenberry on his desk,” she recalled, “and he’d tied a little red bandanna around Gene’s eyes and said, ‘Gene always said he’d never do space pirates, and this is a space pirate story, and I don’t want Gene to see this, or hear it!’” “I just blindfolded it as a joke one day,” Berman added. “Whenever they come up with a story I don’t think Gene would like I blindfold him when we discuss the story…. I take it on and off, depending on who’s in here.”
“We say we’ll never do the ‘rodeo’ sho
w and ‘A Fistful of Datas’ comes along,” agreed writer Shankar, who acknowledged the show’s popularity while still doubting it had had the “legs” to be expanded. “To me, it’s one of the classic television problems: If you start off the show by saying the captain’s dead, no one’s buying it … and you’re just marking time until the captain’s revealed”—in contrast to “The Best of Both Worlds,” which occurred over hiatus when there were “legitimate” doubts about Patrick Stewart’s return. Hatton, who beat the odds with a second story sale after this one (“Thine Own Self”/7268), moved to Hollywood for a time to pursue writing but then returned home to finish his degree first. His original spec script followed Picard’s point of view and didn’t involve Riker.
The guest cast boasted many familiar faces: a return to Trekdom for Robin “Saavik II” Curtis after her ST III and ST IV appearances; veteran Richard Lynch, who had previously worked with Stewart onstage; and Sabrina “Sondra” LeBeauf of the eighties Cosby Show, whose character Giusti was named for a friend of Shankar. “Sabrina was a fan, and though she’s a professional, I think sitting down at the controls of the Enterprise kinda unnerved her a little bit, but she picked it up and did fine,” recalled post-production producer Peter Lauritson, here directing his second TNG outing. Also, Altshuld was terrorist Pomet in “Starship Mine” (244), Brown had played Ty Kajada in DS9’s first-season “The Passenger,” Gray reprised Chekote from an earlier shot on DS9’s “The Circle,” and Lee had played Chorgan (“The Vengeance Factor”/157).
In contrast to his Hugo-winning directing opus (“Inner Light”/ 225), Lauritson noted the outdoor/action scope and visual FX team planning required in this segment. “I was really whipped after this one!” he laughed. “Directing is a tough job, and I really respect the guys who do a lot of it.” Set decorator Jim Mees remembers the shoot too: his crew had to lug real rocks up from the studio in the heat and “build” the ruins.
Lauritson and Taylor praised Stewart’s portrayal of Picard while she joked that Lauritson must have “saved up all the favors ever owed him” to afford the show’s most extended phaser fight ever with over seventy phaser shots. All the explosions were done in post-production due to the fire-season ban on live explosive “squibs” at the location site at Griffith Park’s Cedar Grove. In fact, his boss David Stipes noted that the fire ban meant all damage “stains” had to be painted on digitally, as did a fake rock blown up in front of Geordi’s face—actually, on a blue screen set by live FX man Dick Brownfield and matted in. For orbital shots, the “Miradorn raider” from DS9’s “Vortex” was seen over what began as four-by-five NASA Earth slides, used to provide more detail for closer shots.
Trivia fans will note: the first TNG use of DS9’s gold-pressed latinum; Riker’s serial number, only the second given for the regulars in the series, is SC 231-427, and his time on the Hood (“Encounter at Farpoint”/101-102, “Tin Man”/168, “The Pegasus”/ 264) and the Minos Korva crisis (“Chain of Command”/236-237) are recalled; Picard’s alias “Galen” was his mentor archaeologist (“The Chase”/246); the Yridians (“Birthright, Part 1”/242, “Suspicions” 248, and DS9) are readable by empaths, unlike Ferengi and others (“Ménage à Troi”/172); there’s a UFP “Science Council” (repeated in “Force of Nature”/261) as well as an “Archaeological Survey”; and the Argus sector (“Nth Degree”/193, “Parallels”/263).
GAMBIT, PART II
* * *
Production No.: 257 Aired: Week of October 18, 1993
Stardate: 47160.1 Code: g2
Directed by Alexander Singer
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by Naren Shankar
GUEST CAST
Arctus Baran: Richard Lynch
Tallera: Robin Curtis
Vekor: Caitlin Brown
Narik: Cameron Thor
Koral: James Worthy
Ensign Giusti: Sabrina LeBeauf
Commander Setok: Martin Goslins
* * *
Facing the defenseless Enterprise while posing as part of a mercenary crew, Picard and Riker play their parts by firing a low-level phaser burst that leaves the Enterprise unharmed but impresses the mercenary leader, Baran.
Data plays a hunch and lets the pirate ship escape but finds a coded message from Riker that details their next heading. Meanwhile, the Romulan Tallera forces Picard to reveal his true identity while explaining that she is actually a Vulcan agent sent to grab the crew’s target: an ancient psionic superweapon wanted by Vulcan isolationists who wish to rid their world of its leaders and off-worlders.
At the rendezvous site, Baran sends a raiding party aboard the Enterprise to retrieve the last psionic resonator piece from a Klingon contact who’d been detained there. Riker, whose act has fooled Baran, is ordered to kill “Galen” but instead is “shot” on stun by Picard.
Learning that Tallera is actually among those who want the weapon, she and Picard expose each other to the crew. He is taken hostage while others go with both of them down to Vulcan for their money, where Tallera kills them with the resonator just as Picard realizes its power source is negative thought. He then alerts his would-be Enterprise rescuers. Left useless, the weapon is destroyed by the Vulcan government and Tallera is detained.
To flesh out Hatton’s original hour-long story, Part II expanded upon the reason for the mercenaries’ looting, the Vulcan subplot, and the appearance of Koral, the galaxy’s tallest Klingon. Director Singer, who had done his continuity homework by visiting Lauritson’s set during Part I, took his turn at enjoying the show’s tone: a thankful change of pace that “took the onus off of being deadly earnest, deadly serious, and deadly complicated.”
Star Trek fan and NBA star James Worthy’s unforgettable appearance began with a chance meeting with the top Klingon of them all, Robert “Gowron” O’Reilly (“Reunion”/181, “Redemption” I and 11/200-201, “Rightful Heir”/249). He confided he’d always wanted to be on the show while they jokingly signed each other’s trading cards during an airline flight. At O’Reilly’s urging, Worthy met with Berman and Piller, who in turn asked Taylor about any suitable cameo parts—and the stoic, intimidating Koral was a perfect fit. “They asked if James Worthy could be written in and I said, ‘Who?’—‘cause I’m not a big sports fan,” Moore laughed. “And then—‘Oh! He’s a Laker!’ … We were looking for little filler plot elements to do anyway.” Worthy’s showing was a lighthearted lift for everyone, Singer said, and he noted that athletes are usually comfortable before the camera: “They’re in show business, they don’t freeze, and they take direction well.” Still, prop man Alan Sims recalled that he seemed to be humorously intimidated by it all: “To him, the pressure of basketball was nothing compared to what it’s like here.”
Despite his mixed feelings about the show, Shankar enjoyed fleshing out the Vulcan subplot—in part based on Spock’s admission in 1967’s “Journey to Babel” that a Vulcan was quite capable of killing for a logical reason. “We went for people who very logically felt that Vulcan’s ‘problems’ were linked to contamination by illogical people,” the writer observed, “so in a logical sense you say ‘Get rid of them.’ … I just thought it was a very logical way to arrive at racism being the answer to your problems. It was a different but very believable tone for the Vulcans.”
Captain Picard works with Tallera (Robin Curtis), a Vulcan agent.
Reusing place names to increase believability, Shankar reprised Draken IV from his own script (“Face of the Enemy”/249) and intended to name Yadalla Prime “Yonada Prime” as the destination of the people in 1969’s “For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky” but it was changed due to the presumed Romulan origins required. Likewise, Barradas III was an homage to “Beratis,” one of many names for the Jack the Ripper entity from 1967’s “Wolf in the Fold.” Moore named the Stone of Gol after the plateau of the Vulcan Masters where Spock studied in the first feature—leading Shankar to quip that the weapon might colloquially be referred to as the “Gol stone.�
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With Vulcan so little mentioned in much of TNG, Moore had a chance to tie up a few loose ends regarding the planet, such as its “founding” UFP status, the governing “Vulcan council” (a cut line) titled ministers, and the myths of Vulcan gods. Surak’s Vulcan reformation of logic (from 1969’s “Savage Curtain”), referred to here as the Time of Awakening, is definitely dated for the first time with a two-thousand-year-old time frame, but with the Debrune of Part I described as “a Romulan offshoot” and their Barradas III outpost dated to the same era, the Vulcan-Romulan schism would appear to predate Surak by several generations, at least. In any case, it confirms that all three races had starflight well before Earth did—curious, given that Romulans had no warp drive in their first televised appearance (1966’s “Balance of Terror”) and are said to have lost their twenty-second-century war to Earth because of it.
The psionic resonator was another late-developed detail but was scaled back from early plans to make it a killer of millions at one stroke. Prop man Alan Sims recalled that the Vulcan god of death (to the right on the back) was bald-headed until Rick Berman ordered that hair be etched on to avoid any resemblance to Patrick Stewart in the insert close-up! Its effect shot was completely computer generated, reported FX supervisor Ron B. Moore, whose initial was switched to “D.”—as with the writer-producer—in a rare end-credits typo. The budget-minded cavern set won more praise from the director: “There’s more invention in that show per dollar and per hour of labor than almost anything else I’ve ever seen,” Singer said. “It is so extraordinary that the industry at large doesn’t know that or appreciate that: Richard James is in a class with anyone in the world.”
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 47