The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition

by Larry Nemecek

  Others from Star Trek past and present had already worked in features and were asked aboard again. Production designer Herman “Z” Zimmerman took a sabbatical from DS9 to work on Generations. Zimmerman had not only created the look of TNG in the first place, he also worked on the fourth and fifth Trek films. Other TNG staffers with feature credits prior to Generations included make up guru Michael Westmore, visual effects supervisor Ron B. Moore, hair designer Joy Zapata, graphics scenic artist and Star Trek—film veteran Mike Okuda, and set decorator John Dwyer, who had worked on classic Star Trek the Star Trek films and the debut season of TNG itself. Executive producer Bernie Williams’ film and TV credits were particularly impressive, ranging from Ragtime to The Bounty to the classic British TV series The Prisoner.

  Captain James T. Kirk and his old friend Scotty on board the Enterprise-B.

  The TNG movie rumor mill had been working for years. But Berman recalled being formally approached by Paramount motion picture executives Sherry Lansing and John Goldwyn about the film in late 1992, four months before it was announced. Including the first Star Trek cast was not part of their original plan, but Berman and the eventual story developers ultimately agreed that including Kirk & Co. “seemed like a good way to pass the baton,” as he put it—despite that cast’s supposed swan song in 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

  In the interim, a period he recalled as the film’s “most delightful part,” Berman had begun working on stories with former TNG co-producer Maurice Hurley—who favored a plot in which Kirk alone is propelled forward to Picard’s time—as well as Ron D. Moore and Brannon Braga. (Berman’s fellow TNG executive producer Michael Piller turned down the opportunity, objecting to what he viewed as a “competition” for the assignment.)

  “Rick called Brannon and I over for a meeting,” Moore said, “And there was all this speculation—we thought we were being fired or the show was being cancelled; Brannon was convinced of it, and by the time this meeting came around, I started to believe it too. And we went in and sat down, and Rick got up and was very serious and started to pace a bit, and he said, ‘Well, I’ve just completed two months of negotiations with the studio …’ and I thought, ‘This is it! It IS being cancelled—I don’t believe this!’ And he went on, ‘… and I’ve just been asked to produce the next two Star Trek movies, and I want you boys to write one of them.’ And we just sat there and stared at him, and he went on, and we finally looked at each other out of the corner of our eyes—we were totally blown away, we had no idea…! We walked around the studio lot for twenty minutes just to get over our initial shock.”

  “We were prepared for the worst … and Rick Berman has a talent for making you squirm in anticipation,” Braga agreed. “But we were thrilled … it was like walking on air. And from that day on, it was a pure joy to work on.”

  With the simple direction to “make a good one” in their initial meeting with the studio’s Goldwyn and Don Granger, Moore recalled, he and Braga spent a few more weeks fleshing out their story with Berman. Then they took their TNG hiatus in May for a month-long working vacation in Hawaii. The writers completed a first-draft screenplay dated June 1 before diving back into the hectic series.

  Throughout that stage, the bare bones of the plot came together. The original series cast would be used in a prologue, bridged to the TNG era only by Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan and a mystery that engulfs them all. The script also called for the destruction of the Enterprise with a climactic saucer landing planetside. And finally, Kirk would die after he helped “save the galaxy” one last time. The writers received one studio directive: write for an audience who isn’t necessarily familiar with the TV series and its backstories.

  The saucer crash sequence, inspired by a drawing from the ST:TNG Writer’s Technical Manual, had first been proposed as the cliff-hanger for Moore’s original version of “All Good Things…,” a proposed sixth-season-ender. Kirk’s death came out of the early brainstorming between Moore, Braga and Berman. “We wanted to aim high, do something different and big, and set ourselves apart,” Moore recalled. “We knew we had to have a strong Picard story arc, so what are the profound things in a man’s life he has to face? Mortality tops the list.” But who? The idea of killing off a TNG cast member was nixed, and then someone brought up the notion of Kirk’s death. “I don’t remember who said it,” Moore added, “But we all sorta looked around and said, ‘That might be it.’”

  Surprisingly, the studio had few qualms about this turning point in Star Trek history. They only asked if William Shatner had been consulted about Kirk’s demise. “We first met with him, and he only brought it up once,” Moore said, referring to the point that would cause controversy when news of it leaked out to the fans. “We explained how it worked into the story, the theme of mortality, and giving Kirk his final moment … He nodded his head and said ‘I see that’—and that was it! We kept waiting for him to drop the other shoe, but he never did.”

  Story development was fun. Production was work. Berman found himself addressing one problem after another. “There were a lot of budgetary battles that had to be fought in the early stages, people I was not used to working with,” he recalled. After initial budgets had been run, the huge scope of the picture—with a wish list of true-life location shooting in Hawaii, Idaho and the Midwest—was soon pared down from well over $30 million to about $25 million.

  Then there was fallout from negotiating with two eras of Trek actors. Early headlines jolted many fans with the news that Leonard Nimoy had not only turned down an invitation to direct the feature, but would not even appear as Spock. Soon afterwards DeForest Kelley also declined to appear. While Moore and Braga had provided for all seven of the ’60s crew in the initial prologue, only Shatner’s Kirk figured into the plot. “The way the story evolved had nothing to do with Leonard—it was just the way we put the story together,” Berman said. “In the case of Leonard and De Kelley, they each thought they had made appropriate goodbyes in Star Trek VI and there was no reason to bring the characters back for this prologue.” As Nimoy told the Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine, “I told him [Berman] what my concerns were with the story and the script, and he told me there wasn’t enough time left to do what I was suggesting … My response was ‘I am sad about that; I wish I had been brought in earlier.’” The TNG cast also trod a bumpy road to the negotiating table. “All the actors wanted to do the movie,” Berman recalled. “But here was a 130-page script with their character all throughout, and it put them in a very good position in terms of negotiating. It was very traumatic in terms of the pressure that went on both sides … It was a tense time for a while until all those deals were wrapped up, all the emotions and the pressures of the season and series wrapping up. But I always predicted they would all sign to make the movie, and of course they did.”

  Captain Kirk greets Commander Chekov.

  Meanwhile, as of March 16, 1994 the script reflected not only budget and cast changes but producer, studio, director and actor notes as well. In the prologue of the first draft, an admiral presiding over 1701-B’s commissioning ceremony warned Captain Harriman not to let the legend “get you in trouble out there.” After a cute sequence during which older officers get trained by their “B” counterparts, the Lakul’s distress call forces Harriman to remind the oldsters that the ship is really his.

  The writers felt that version of the scene was charming, but Shatner was concerned that the joke went too far. In response Moore and Braga devised another opening. This version featured the original cast crammed into an interminable turbolift ride. McCoy mutters to Spock, “I haven’t been this close to you in years” and their onetime captain reminisces about his strenuous outdoor pursuits … again.

  In the final script, Kirk was joined by only two former crewmates, Scotty and Chekov. James Doohan and Walter Koenig got to split the lines intended for others. McCoy’s bit about an unstaffed sickbay went to the Russian, while Scotty’s “I have a theory” exchange with Kirk
was originally Spock’s. Sulu’s two lines were inherited by his daughter, Demora, who was originally envisioned as Chekov’s daughter. In response to Shatner’s notes about Kirk’s overage exploits, the January 28 fourth draft had an even earlier scene depicting McCoy and Spock retrieving the orbital skydiver in an Iowa wheatfield. The location scene was shot, but dropped later due to editing problems.

  Among the TNG characters, Picard’s personal tragedy was initially limited to Robert’s heart attack. But then Patrick Stewart suggested that a horrific fire killing both brother Robert and nephew Rene (“Family” /78) would add emotional impact. Picard’s initial Nexus sequence then became a Christmas fantasy, rather than a clandestine meeting with a 12-year-old Robert at home.

  As for Data, Moore said the team had done “so much with him” over the series’ course that they had to take the next logical step. “It is the movies; we don’t have to worry about protecting the character on a weekly basis anymore. And giving him the emotions chip opens new doors for us,” he explained. “It’s Pinocchio moving a big step forward, but he’s still not quite human.” A sequence the writers considered but dropped before the third draft revealed Data giggling during a holodeck version of Romeo and Juliet’s suicide scene while Geordi tried to adjust the quirks of the chip.

  Moore also thanked TNG collegaue Jeri Taylor for early notes that led to the entire holodeck boat scene. Originally, the film’s 24th century era opened at the observatory with two Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern type ensigns lamenting their boredom. Their ennui is shattered as a Warbird decloaks and its crew invades the station. Just as one ensign is about to be killed by a Romulan soldier, Picard’s Enterprise emerges from behind the sun’s corona, and the cavalry comes to the rescue again. “Jeri felt it wasn’t charming enough—just another big action sequence,” Moore said. He recalled that she suggested an opening with “something fun”—such as “Picard pushing an egg across the floor with his nose in some crazy games in Ten-Forward.”

  Berman agreed on the light approach, and the co-writers brainstormed again, coming up with the nautical setting that harkens back to Star Trek’s roots. Worf’s promotion was conceived as the reason all were gathered on the ship. In early drafts he was merely made to walk the plank and was pushed in, but TNG’s cast grew concerned about their characters’ dignity and the current version was added. Worf was still wearing his 19th century outfit while he dispatched a Romulan until the third draft; Riker was accidentally stepping on Spot in the holodeck through the fourth draft.

  A ten-page sequence that followed the crew after the saucer crash was not trimmed until the fourth draft. The well-armed Duras sisters and a few surviving henchmen turned up to demand a shuttle after they fled their ship in escape pods. Riker responded to the theft by sending Data to deal with the sisters, since only an android could survive their sexual omnivorousness. A bedraggled Data finally emerged to announce that “I believe I have opened negotiations” just as one of his arms fell off. He is later disassembled to help repair the shuttle systems and computer. Though he and Moore were sorry to lose this story arc, Braga noted that its demise paved the way for more mountaintop introspection between Soran and Picard, the screened and cloaked launcher, and Lursa and B’Etor’s supposed “death.” “In the end, everything helped fine-tune the script,” he said. “I feel real good about it.”

  Meanwhile, Nimoy’s decision to pass up the chance at directing allowed Berman to offer Carson his first shot at a theatrical feature. Carson’s Star Trek resume already included the two-hour DS9 pilot “Emissary” as well as prior stints with TNG characters Guinan (“Yesterday’s Enterprise”/63) and the Duras sisters (“Redemption II”/101). He also had experience in theater, documentaries, news, music videos, and dramatic programs in both his native England and the U.S., including Sherlock Holmes, L.A. Law, and Northern Exposure. “My guess will be that David Carson is probably going to have a major film career available to him very, very soon, based on what he’s done with this picture,” Berman predicted. Carson enlisted Berman’s aid to talk the studio into backing his costly choice for cinematographer—John Alonzo, the Oscar-nominated Hollywood veteran of Chinatown, Scarface and Blue Thunder. Alonzo was a self-professed late convert to Star Trek fandom. “My wife and I sat down one weekend to watch about 15 episodes of The Next Generation, and I really got hooked!” admitted Alonzo, who called the two lead captains “Billy” and “Patty” around the set.

  The two worked well with Zimmerman, who was given total control over all visual elements “except the actors,” he said. “It’s been a real treat for me,” Zimmerman commented. “I’ve had more freedom to design this show, the seventh feature, than I’ve had on any of the other features, or even on the original designs for The Next Generation.” Prior to Generations, he had been working with leftover sets from the previous Star Trek films. This time, he and illustrator John Eaves were allowed to design the solar observatory and the Lakul from scratch. They also customized the Enterprise-B by adding teal-green accents.

  From the start, both the writing and the design teams aimed to stay true to the feel of TNG. At the same time, they wanted to make a film that could stand on its own for an audience that included people unfamiliar with the series. To maintain that balance, they took several visual liberties with the sets, which no longer needed less realistic and flatter light colors to speed the work of time-conscious TV lighting crews. 1701-D’s main bridge received a copper ceiling and darker brown walls with silver metallic accents. The facelift also included the aft consoles’ extension over the emergency wall storage bins. Wide ramps were installed at those points, halved to provide two more seated consoles. In addition, the ready room received a wider window and a bigger aquarium.

  “I remember David and Herman talking about changing the bridge and someone said, ‘Gee, the Trekkies are used to it this way,’” Alonzo recalled. “And I said, ‘Maybe the Trekkies when they see it in big scope will say, ‘So that’s what it’s supposed to look like!’” Zimmerman echoed that view, noting the new level of detail added to the bridge and a resculpted ceiling frame required by cinema cameras’ higher level of resolution. “I hope the fans will say, ‘Oh that’s what I’ve been seeing on that little TV screen all these years!’”

  One unintentional change on the “D” bridge was the captain’s chair—after crews discovered, 50 hours before filming, that it had been stolen! With no time to lose, shop crews worked 18 hours straight to fashion a new chair out of fiberglass molded over foam built on an old first-season frame. Luckily, the thief had left behind the chair’s cast-iron base.

  The budget played a big role in the sets’ design—but not always in a negative way. As director Carson recalled, the deflector room scene actually benefited from financial constraints: the long horizontal set Zimmerman had envisioned was turned on its end into a two-story area. “That gave us the most wonderfully interesting camera angles,” Carson said. “Making the approach different, from horizontal to vertical, meant dealing with the budget in a creative way like that.” Dwyer added, “Herman had a good time designing that; he ran through it about four times by himself just to make sure he had plenty of stuff for Shatner to do.”

  Likewise, the solar observatory’s Ops area was designed to be built from the shell of the “B” bridge, itself redressed from the old Excelsior bridges. The spacedock foyer had its windows filled in and wall logo removed to become the “B” sickbay, featuring all-new biobed designs and a return to futuristic thermal materials for linens instead of Nick Meyer’s wool blankets from Star Trek VI. The gunner’s chair and a few wall pieces were all that remained of the Star Trek V Klingon bridge, which featured a captain’s chart for each Duras sister and ten feet more forward space. This set also included the same floor grating used in the walls of the Enterprise transporter room and Q’s court. The bunkroom support columns, with a new paint job and graphics, became small probes at the observatory.

  Scotty finds a way to save the Enterprise-B from the Nexus.


  Along with Dwyer and Sandy Veneziano, reprising her role as TNG’s first-season art director, Zimmerman also benefited from the work of graphic artist Mike Okuda. “We had more video monitors on the bridges in this movie than in all of Star Trek V and VI combined,” he noted. Some 35 monitors lined the “B” bridge conoles alone.

  That bridge’s design, Zimmerman noted, incorporated many touches intended to indicate the concept evolution from Kirk’s first Enterprise through to Picard’s. For example, weapons control was placed behind the captain for the first time, and there were refinements in the split Ops and Con stations as first seen on the Excelsior in Star Trek: VI.

  Zimmerman said he conceived the new, enlarged stellar cartography lab—trimmed from three to two stories in the early planning—as the “jewel” of the Enterprise-D. “It’s only one scene, but it’s where we discover all the astronomical facts that we have to know to understand the end of the picture,” he noted. “The story has great scientific appeal, and it needs visual support—and where it gets that support will be here.”

  Coordinating with visual effect supervisor Ron B. Moore, Zimmerman also put series illustrator Rick Sternbach’s cosmic art on display, as well as three huge panels sporting Okudagram star charts that hung from the stage rafters with the lights. The panels would easily switch out when the huge bluescreen panels required for optical animation had to be used. “We shot that sequence in three days,” recalled Ron B. Moore. “Nobody thought we’d be able to do it, but with these lights and rigging it just worked!”

  With energetic FX house ILM handling the exterior space scenes under the direction of John Knoll, Moore was able to oversee nearly half the film’s opticals at the series’ regular vendors like CIS—even on a tight five-month schedule—thanks to the sophistication of the processes developed for the TV series. Along with stellar cartography, the non-ILM “routine” effects included a new 3-D transporter, the various phasers, cloaks and forcefields, the Picard Christmas ornament, and a subtle enhancement of Data’s emotion program.