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The Unauthorized Trekkers’ Guide to the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine
James van Hise
Your complete guide to STAR TREK’s most popular progeny – both spectacular series guidebooks complete in one volume!Originally published in 1997, this edition covers all seven seasons of The Next Generation and seasons one and two of Deep Space Nine.• Episodes detailed – plot setting, action, writers, directors, stars and special guests• Biographies of all major characters• Exclusive profiles of actors and actresses• Alien spacecraft and planet reports• Wormhole and Warp-speed travel tips• Starfleet ship descriptions• Trek-by-Trek series comparisons• Villains you have known and loved• The starship Enterprise connection• Behind-the-scenes beginnings and first steps• Special effects and make-up geniuses


Voyager

THE UNAUTHORIZED
TREKKERS’GUIDE TO
THE NEXT
GENERATION
AND
DEEP SPACE
NINE
BY JAMES VAN HISE




COPYRIGHT (#ulink_2272091c-3f1b-53d4-b1df-a43e94a8442d)
Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine are registered trademarks of Paramount Pictures Corporation. This book was not prepared, approved, licensed or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the Star Trek television series or films.
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Copyright © Pioneer Books, Inc. 1992, 1995
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780006482918
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008240288
Version: 2017-01-10
HOW ENTERTAINMENT BECOMES LEGEND
The phenomenal success of Star Trek inspired two spectacular spin-offs, both of which have gone on to join the ranks of the most-watched television shows of all time.
This unauthorized guidebook, two complete volumes in one, examines both of these shows in fascinating detail – the characters and the creators, the episodes behind the episodes, the actors, the make-up artists, the special-effect geniuses and the voyages that landed on the cutting room floor.
This complete guidebook to The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine is more than just a reference book. It is a behind-the-scenes look at how a success story continues.
Author James Van Hise, considered by many to be the world’s leading Star Trek expert, is also known for his work as editor of Midnight Graffiti magazine, where he brought to public attention such authors as Stephen King and Harlan Ellison.
DEDICATION (#ulink_a77ec206-ef39-5fb1-a7ee-4a473e8aa80c)
Dedicated to
Gene Roddenberry,
who started it all
CONTENTS
COVER (#uf53e9080-7d50-50cf-9c92-98e05e083c17)
TITLE PAGE (#u0e40a179-6a8c-5ca7-a59c-fc77339dd25c)
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_acc20713-ea38-522b-9bb9-1094b865405a)
DEDICATION (#ulink_86e40f15-1378-5b6d-857c-1132ea01fde5)
PART I: INTRODUCTION (#ulink_8bba475e-acea-5423-9e3a-6ec404b1e556)
THE ENDURANCE OF STAR TREK (#ulink_d0183a32-5792-59f9-ae8e-482896ad5e79)
PART II: THE NEXT GENERATION (#ulink_22442bfd-87e8-5a19-8f7d-40bec4942443)
CHAPTER 1: ENTER THE NEXT GENERATION (#ulink_6e5f6d50-5fca-528e-a43f-e501ed0f54b8)
Aboard the New Enterprise (#ulink_84d601c3-ee11-5fe1-95e0-686d8e0de844)
Special Effects (#ulink_1598dfc9-cd57-5146-a364-ec9d09fb0020)
CHAPTER 2: CHARACTERS AND CAST (#ulink_d2ed6687-fde3-59c8-ac5a-1a7ffaef4af1)
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (#ulink_f424fc28-8b1b-5897-89c3-9c2d425b7045)
Commander William Riker (#ulink_9a0d9ed4-ba0b-56a6-84a4-35e38fad9659)
Lt. Commander Data (#ulink_95c0458d-7ea7-520f-8c90-b16f3af54b72)
Lieutenant Worf (#ulink_baa8dd92-daa5-59de-a9ca-a92d115d2752)
Doctor Beverly Crusher (#ulink_7fb6a75a-1a4d-5e47-a837-2ed919ca09e1)
Lt. Commander Deanna Troi (#ulink_0cb56dd4-ae4a-5d9a-aec7-90be502fb915)
Lieutenant Geordi La Forge (#ulink_8a6f303c-60ab-577e-9155-74abda3d2fb2)
Security Chief Tasha Yar (#ulink_77ae4d3c-c725-5f02-8b76-afcc359a750d)
Guinan (#ulink_0a57916d-806f-58bf-9cb2-387f865b27ff)
CHAPTER 3: THE NEXT GENERATION OVERVIEW (#ulink_cfb5bf2f-42d1-5101-b2d1-966f521482b4)
Season One (#ulink_569176f3-0a80-57b8-baa8-830e10762094)
Season Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
PART III: DEEP SPACE NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
INTRODUCTION: THE THIRD GENERATION (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 1: THE BACKGROUND (#litres_trial_promo)
Behind the Scenes: The Creation (#litres_trial_promo)
Laying the Groundwork—From The Next Generation to Deep Space Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Special Corner of the Galaxy: The Realm of Deep Space Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Comparing Treks (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 2: CHARACTERS AND CAST (#litres_trial_promo)
Commander Benjamin Sisko (#litres_trial_promo)
Jake Sisko (#litres_trial_promo)
Chief of Operations Miles O’Brien (#litres_trial_promo)
Keiko O’Brien (#litres_trial_promo)
Major Kira Nerys (#litres_trial_promo)
Lieutenant Jadzia Dax (#litres_trial_promo)
Security Chief Odo (#litres_trial_promo)
Doctor Julian Bashir (#litres_trial_promo)
Quark (#litres_trial_promo)
PART IV: APPENDICES (#litres_trial_promo)
The Next Generation: Episode Guide Seasons 1-7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Season One (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Season Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Deep Space Nine: Episode Guide Seasons 1-2 (#litres_trial_promo)
Season One (#litres_trial_promo)
Second Season (#litres_trial_promo)
Brent Spiner—In Person (#litres_trial_promo)
Honors for Gene Roddenberry (#litres_trial_promo)
KEEP READING (#litres_trial_promo)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (#litres_trial_promo)
ALSO BY (#litres_trial_promo)
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER (#litres_trial_promo)
PART (#ulink_41d134c8-d3ab-5a55-b4d1-9b90df42a27e)

1 (#ulink_41d134c8-d3ab-5a55-b4d1-9b90df42a27e)

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_41d134c8-d3ab-5a55-b4d1-9b90df42a27e)
THE ENDURANCE OF STAR TREK (#ulink_2309d237-cf3b-5d19-ba71-03ad31d4b798)
“Like Spain’s Francisco Franco, Star Trek has been fatally dead for a long time. Now and then the mortuary shoots an electric current through the corpse, and the resultant spasm releases yet another manual or quiz or convention or novel or book of fan fiction or whathaveyou, but after nearly a decade there’s little life left in the old cadaver.”
—Gil Lamont & James K. Burk DeLap’s F & SF Review (March/April 1978)
This quote reflects the reception science fiction fandom gave Star Trek fans in the mid to late seventies. They looked down on Star Trek, and chose to dismiss it. These intemperate remarks ignored growing popular interests as fan interest attained a life greater than the TV image that inspired it.
This touched common chords in many individuals. Some went through life quietly enamored with the series, unaware they shared a common bond with countless strangers until they found a Star Trek fanzine or walked into a convention.
Before Star Trek’s fitful return to the screen in the 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a backlash of anti-Star Trek sentiment raged. It began with the attitude that “those people” were “invading” otherwise sedate science fiction and comic book conventions.
I wonder how many times those critics have watched the new incarnations of Star Trek in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. How quickly passion doth ebb and flow.
EMBRACED BY THE MASSES
Critics to any new series were reacting to a TV show that had perished in 1969. They thought it should be buried. Many of these detractors read novels by dead authors or comic strips by dead artists. They pursued interests without practical purpose and with no hope of continuation by their talented creators. But Star Trek, they felt, was just a TV show in reruns.
Reruns (or reprints) can still be appreciated. H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, E. E. “Doc” Smith, Edgar Allan Poe, Clark Ashton Smith, Rod Serling, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and many others, including H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, left books behind for fans to enjoy. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930, yet Sherlock Holmes is appreciated by more people today than ever before. Every year, it seems, someone is inspired to take pen in hand and create an “untold” tale of London’s famous sleuth.
“New” is not an easy word. Harlan Ellison is fond of pointing out that, “Any book you have not read is a new book.”
I raised these points in a reply when the remarks that opened this article first appeared. I had hoped for a reply befitting the stature of the magazine. Instead I witnessed the death of the publication. It ended in 1978 while the “corpse” of Star Trek looks amazingly healthy these days.
SURVIVAL TRAITS
Why did Star Trek endure? Its whole proved to be greater than the sum of its parts. A special spirit struck a responsive chord in many people. It delivered something people searched for and wouldn’t find again until Star Wars appeared in 1977, namely, optimism. They both offered a future in the stars, no matter what squalor lay at our feet.
When Star Trek premiered in 1966, the dream of reaching beyond the mortal confines of our world still seemed a dream. America was plunged deep into the quagmire of Southeast Asia. The future offered little when friends and relatives came home in bodybags.
Then Star Trek brought new hope. It proclaimed that not only would there be a future, but the future worked. The starship Enterprise astonished audiences with its futuristic design, giving us what appeared to be a window into a new, better world.
INSIDE THE ENTERPRISE
Then the noble captain of the ship, Captain Kirk, appeared; fearless, yet touched by every death. McCoy, the ship’s doctor and the captain’s close friend, acted as his devil’s advocate, offering the voice of traditional humanity. At the perimeter stood Spock, cool and austere, always logical. Spock was the enigma. He was second-in-command and possessor of an alien heritage.
The stories offered reality. People thought and bled; they made mistakes and expressed personal beliefs. Many episodes, including “The Naked Time,” forced deeply rooted doubts of the day to the surface. No other cast of science fiction characters had ever tried this before.
Space: 1999 arrived in 1975. Audiences waited for something good. It didn’t have to be Star Trek; it just had to be enjoyable. The dreadful series triggered a violent backlash. One critic aptly dubbed it Space: 1949. It was so relentlessly awful that audiences felt betrayed.
Much the same expectations and resentment would also accompany the arrival of Battlestar Galactica.
Star Trek characters, on the other hand, took on lives of their own. Each script added bits of characterization. Viewers felt they recognized the humanity of the characters on screen.
ALWAYS ETHICALLY CORRECT
Captain Kirk and his crew were idealizations. When push comes to shove, they do the right thing: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy don’t possess normal human foibles. They might get angry, but then they meekly apologize. They always make the right ethical choice.
In Harlan Ellison’s “The City on the Edge of Forever,” Harlan wanted Kirk to try to save Edith despite knowing the disastrous consequences of her continued life. Kirk would have failed but he would have tried. This was Harlan’s version for which he won the Writer’s Guild Award. Gene Roddenberry thought Kirk would do the right thing when the time came, no matter how painful. Ellison insisted that bringing Edith to the future would bring the same result as letting her be run down in the street. Roddenberry (with an assist from Gene L. Coon) rewrote Ellison’s screenplay. Captain Kirk deliberately prevented McCoy from saving Edith. Kirk experienced great anguish, but he did the right thing.
Although the characters in Star Trek are enduring, and certainly more believable than those on Lost in Space, Space: 1999, and others, they are still idealizations. Trek characters look like human beings only by comparison with other TV series from that period. They are noble and unblemished, but they agonize over decisions such as in the above example from “The City On the Edge of Forever.”
EARLY EVALUATIONS
After the cancellation of Star Trek in 1969, a revival wasn’t dreamed. Fans were grateful for any mention of their favorite show, however tepid. One example is the brief dismissal given it by John Baxter in his 1970 book Science Fiction in the Cinema, where he devotes only three paragraphs to the series.
Baxter praises “The Menagerie” but drop-kicks stock sets with formula situations, discussing “Patterns of Force” (Nazi Germany) and “A Piece of the Action” (Chicago in the thirties) while ignoring such key episodes as “City on the Edge of Forever,” “This Side of Paradise,” “Mirror, Mirror” and others far more representative of Star Trek. He singled out “Charlie X” for praise, but never mentioned the obvious inspiration of Stranger in a Strange Land.
Baxter never mentions the series’ characters, even though fifteen years before Hill Street Blues, and half a decade before M*A*S*H, Star Trek presented an ensemble cast representing wide interests and appeals.
A SAFE PORT
Although both the original Star Trek and its offspring, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, have been accused by some critics of science fiction of avoiding current social issues, the entire Star Trek family continues to express hope for the future, hope that mankind’s possibilities are endless. And this, if nothing else, leads to a safe port in a troubled modern world.
PART (#ulink_0fede0fe-3e5a-5fea-95e0-8a2b749473eb)

2 (#ulink_0fede0fe-3e5a-5fea-95e0-8a2b749473eb)

THE NEXT GENERATION (#ulink_0fede0fe-3e5a-5fea-95e0-8a2b749473eb)
CHAPTER (#ulink_274e05f2-0051-50b8-b5c1-5ff0cdb40335)

1 (#ulink_274e05f2-0051-50b8-b5c1-5ff0cdb40335)

ENTER THE NEXT GENERATION (#ulink_274e05f2-0051-50b8-b5c1-5ff0cdb40335)
“We grew beyond the original show. We love the original and those actors, but we see the world differently now and our show reflects that.”
—Gene Roddenberry USA Today November 1, 1990
In 1987 something controversial was done. Star Trek was brought back to weekly television without any of the familiar faces who had graced the name since 1966. Gene Roddenberry was still at the helm, and the universe portrayed was not so different from what we had first been introduced to years before.
When Paramount announced that Gene Roddenberry was creating the first Star Trek spin-off series, and that it would be set seventy-five years beyond the Trek universe we were all familiar with, it was inevitable that this meant changes. How sweeping would those changes be? Clearly the technology would be updated, just as it had been for the motion pictures. Would the philosophy behind the show be retooled as well?
NOT AGAIN …
“When Paramount originally approached me to do a new series, I turned them down. I did not want to devote the tremendous amount of time necessary to producing another show. In order to keep the original series going, I practically had to disown my daughters. I had no time for them when they were school age. I did not want to do that to my life again. There is only one way I know to write and produce and that is to throw my energy at the project all the time. So when they began to think about a second series, I said I would not do it. Then they said, ‘Well, suppose we figure a way that it could be done so you would be in charge?’ I thought they were kidding. The studio said that I could be in full control of the creative standard. I asked a few questions, and they said, ‘Yeah, sure, you must know these things because you’ve been doing them anyway under network guidance.’
“I told the studio that if they went the syndication route I would go for it. Not only would I go for it, I would go for it full blast. I told them I would find ways of doing Star Trek that would give them extra elements. I think we have done that.”
A Star Trek series would be launched with an all new cast, set (somewhat vaguely) seventy-five years after the original series, and featuring the Enterprise of that farther future, the fifth of its line, NCC 1701-D. Paramount was banking that a syndicated show would generate revenues. It seemed impossible, but … it happened. Gene Roddenberry worked hard to produce a new Star Trek that would be true to the ideals of the original but still have its own flavor.
Not having to deal with network or studio interference was a major load off him, and he made certain that no one broke that promise. Early in the new show’s production, a group of junior executives walked into Gene’s office and began going over a script demanding changes. He pointed out they had no right to do this under the terms of his contract and threw them out!
In discussing what the most difficult aspect was of creating Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene quoted one of the original cast members who had commented on trying to create a new version of a classic. “The most difficult aspect?” Gene replied. “Leonard Nimoy said it. You can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice. I was thinking, yes, he’s probably right.”
RECAPTURING A DREAM
The thing that attracted Roddenberry to the new series was that he wouldn’t have to deal with networks. “And then they said, maybe you shouldn’t [try to do a new series] because it’s impossible, and my ears perked up over that. The most difficult aspect was to go against all of that and put a show together and believe you could do it, and collect people that could do it, and collect a cast that in its own way has the qualities of the old cast. It was the impossibility of it that was the most difficult.”
Roddenberry described what he hoped to accomplish with the new series when he stated, “What we want to do is to grapple now with the problems of the eighties and nineties and the turn of the century. I think we are going to surprise you on technology. You can only go so far in making things smaller and faster and more powerful. What other things should technology be worrying about? We’re going to be getting into those areas. There’s a reason to do another Star Trek now. We did the original Star Trek about the problems of the sixties. Many people forget that, in the mid-sixties, when we put on a multiracial crew, that was considered awful. People were shocked.”
When asked what he kept from the old Star Trek to please audience expectations when creating The Next Generation, Gene explained, “While I listen to the audience, one of the secrets of whatever success I’ve amounted to was that I never make shows for the audience. I listen to good advice, but the only person I make shows for is myself. I love any help you can give me, but I’ll be damned if I’ll make a show for you! I make it for myself and if you happen to like it I’m delighted that you do and great; we’ve got the best of both possible worlds. Writers and producers and directors and so on that create a show for specific audiences do schlock work. They should do selfish work; proudly selfish work, and that happens to be true about painters, and sculptors, too.”
THE NEW CREW
More worrisome at the time was resistance from old fans, although this turned out not to be the problem it could have been. Still, creating a new series when the original has grown to mythic proportions is a heavy proposition. As might be imagined, it took some doing. The characters took time to settle in. Once they did, they were believable.
First there was Captain Jean-Luc Picard. For this demanding role, Gene cast British actor Patrick Stewart, a noted Shakespearean with roles in films besides extensive stage work.
CAPTAIN AND COMPANY
Gene said, “Patrick Stewart was my first choice after looking at him hard and long because here I’m faced with a bald-headed man for a captain and I’m used to him being jolly with hair, and Bill was rather athletic. The longer I looked at Patrick Stewart and saw the actor who was there, and the power that was there that was a different kind than Bill’s, the more I became sure that he was the man. I’m so delighted to have him I cannot tell you! When you look at dailies, you always watch Picard even when he’s not doing anything! Because he is doing something here [points to his head] constantly! England produces great actors and he’s an example of that.”
Roddenberry wanted no one character to emerge as the star. A whole ensemble of players was created for the new Enterprise. Since Captain Picard would never beam down to an uncharted, possibly hostile planet in this modern version, Gene in essence divided the command function in two, providing Picard with an executive officer, William Riker. There has been speculation that Picard and Riker are the two aspects of Captain Kirk, split in half. It is conjectured this was done both for dramatic reasons and to prevent any single actor from attempting to dominate a true ensemble program. In a nod to the old show’s first pilot, as well as to nautical history, Riker is often referred to as “Number One.” Riker, a canny poker player, is not afraid to take risks. He weighs them carefully, assuring the safety of his superior officer.
The notion of having “Away Teams” instead of sending the ship’s executive officers on dangerous missions was suggested by David Gerrold.
THE COUNSELOR AND THE ANDROID
Gene also created a new position for The Next Generation, that of Ship’s Counselor, and a new alien race—the Betazoids. Although this position can be occupied by a member of any race, Picard is highly fortunate that his ship’s counselor is a Betazoid. Betazoids are extremely empathic, if not telepathic, and can read minds to varying degrees. Picard’s counselor, Deanna Troi, is a beautiful half-human woman, who can sense emotions with great acuity. Combined with extensive psychological training, this makes her a vital part of the captain’s decision-making process. “Captain, I sense …” has become as familiar a line to Next Generation fans as “I’m a doctor, not a …” was for those of the original series.
Deanna once had a relationship with Riker, but it seems to have mellowed into an abiding friendship. Only in season six when a transporter-created double for William Riker was introduced did the old romance again resurface. Marina Sirtis enjoys the irony of being a British actress playing an alien on American television.
Most controversial at the show’s inception was the android science officer, Data. Many saw him as a transparent Spock substitute. Indeed, there are many similarities between the two, but the differences have been developed more thoroughly. A much closer predecessor of Data is found in the android in The Questor Tapes. Gene cast Texas-born Brent Spiner as Data. He was very well prepared for his role by a strong belief in extraterrestrials.
THE DOCTOR AND THE ENGINEER
An Enterprise without a ship’s doctor would be unthinkable. Gene provided Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher. Dr. Crusher is the first regular role in a television series for actress Gates McFadden. The compassionate, dedicated doctor is the mother of a precocious youngster, Wesley Crusher. Not coincidentally, Gene’s middle name was Wesley. Wesley Crusher was played by Wil Wheaton, who left the series in its fourth season to pursue school and a film career. Because he left on amicable terms, an opening was left for him to return to the show at any time, even if only in guest star roles. He came back for one in season seven’s “Journey’s End.” Wheaton wanted to return to the status of being a regular on the final season, but what the actors called “studio politics” prevented that. Others connected with the show have stated that “Journey’s End” wrote a finish to the character of Wesley, who will apparently not be appearing in the Next Generation feature films.
McFadden was replaced by Diana Muldaur in the second season of The Next Generation and Roddenberry even issued a press release telling fans not to bother writing to him about the decision because his mind was made up—that is, until he changed it again and brought Gates McFadden back to the role in the third season.
Another new character, eventually to be promoted to the post of chief engineer, is Geordi La Forge. The role is named as tribute to the late Star Trek fan George LaForge, a cerebral palsy sufferer whose long survival was attributed to his strong identification with the show. Geordi contributes to the tradition of a multiethnic cast in Star Trek. He is blind, but due to the advanced technology of the twenty-fourth century, can see by means of an electronic visor linked with his nervous system. He can even see visual ranges inaccessible to most human beings. Geordi is a sincere, likable, confident man with slight insecurities. He always perseveres, communicating freely with others. The opposite of Picard, he affects an informal approach to life and is not hung up on protocol. Actor LeVar Burton, best known as the young Kunta Kinte in the classic miniseries Roots, plays the role. This character was reportedly created by David Gerrold.
A KLINGON ON THE BRIDGE
The biggest shock in The Next Generation’s crew roster was Worf … a Klingon. Since Kirk’s heyday, peace has finally been negotiated between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Negotiations were underway at the time of the events of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, a fact referred to by Commander Kruge in that film. This was further developed in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The two spheres of influence strive to get along and have established some mutual trust. There are no other Klingons in Starfleet.
Worf is unique. He was raised by humans after his family was killed in the massacre of their outpost during a surprise Klingon attack—an event that still haunts him. He is like Spock in that he is the product of two cultures, a warrior Klingon dedicated to his own culture but tempered by exposure to human ideals. Worf was added after the pilot for The Next Generation and does not appear in “Encounter at Farpoint.” For a time, he would be little more than a grouchy guy standing in the background recommending aggressive action. He would be featured in more and more episodes, eventually opening up a window on the fascinating world of the Klingons. The six-foot-five Michael Dorn was cast as Worf. Dorn was born in Liling, Texas, but raised in Pasadena, California, just minutes away from Hollywood.
With the cast set, The Next Generation got under way. Creator Gene Roddenberry handed the executive producer’s reins over to Paramount’s Rick Berman.
CREATIVE CONFLICTS
D. C. Fontana signed on as story editor, but soon left, unhappy with the treatment received by her script “Encounter at Farpoint.” Sadly, the episode kicked off the new series with less than a bang. Fontana’s initial story received a forced graft of Gene Roddenberry’s “Q” subplot and the two concepts didn’t cross over, much less merge. Instead of a genuine, two-hour movie, audiences received two separate stories. Like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, “Encounter at Farpoint” moved slowly, too enamored of its own special effects. It was no surprise that Gene Roddenberry’s name was on the screenplay. Roddenberry said, “In the first Star Trek [series], I rewrote or heavily polished the first thirteen episodes so that Mr. Spock would be the Mr. Spock that I had in mind. This was enormous labor, and then this began to catch on and we got some good writers on this.
“In Star Trek: The Next Generation I rewrote thirteen episodes. I don’t want to act out a big ‘I did this, I did that,’ but as far as the basic original writing, I had to do that again, with few exceptions. It is the way episodic television is. Now as the year’s gone on,” he said during the first season, “I’ve found some good people and I hope to find more. We got some good writing in the old series, and we’ve had some good writing in the new series. Most of the writing comes from very few, very good people who labor hard. Very often they are staff people.”
Special effects for the first season were provided by Industrial Light and Magic, but they soon proved too expensive. Other effects teams were sought out. With a per episode budget of over a million dollars, The Next Generation was a major gamble for Paramount. They had to use the budget to the best of their ability.
GROWING PAINS
The first season of The Next Generation was erratic. The actors had yet to settle into their roles, and the scripts, often rewritten by Gene, were uneven. Controversy ensued when both D. C. Fontana and David Gerrold felt they had contributed to the development of the series concept and neither received credit. Gene never acknowledged them. In fact, in regard to Gerrold, he went so far as to comment that “… Gerrold [had] been condemning the show, constantly. I had him on staff for many, many months, [and] he never wrote an episode we could shoot.” He had, but Roddenberry refused to approve it. This contributed to their professional break.
Fontana is harder to dismiss. She worked on a total of four scripts for the first season of The Next Generation. She left following a particularly ugly encounter with Roddenberry when he supposedly asked her to write an entire script and attach his name as cowriter so that he could meet the studio’s demand for his writing a certain number of scripts during the first season. When she refused because it would be a violation of Writer’s Guild rules, Roddenberry claimed that he was the one who got her into the business (which wasn’t true) and felt that she was ungrateful for not doing him this favor.
The dispute between Gene, Fontana, and Gerrold was settled behind the scenes for a monetary sum. No on-screen credit was given. Some regard this as more important than a lump sum payoff, because without screen credit there is no public acknowledgment of what a writer created. In spite of the settlement, Roddenberry may well have felt that he’d won.
The second season of The Next Generation showed marked improvement. Changes were evident. Jonathan Frakes now sported a beard. Some viewers, unimpressed by the first season, now use the sight of a clean-shaven Riker as their cue not to watch a rerun.
TWO NEW SECOND-SEASON ADDITIONS
Doctor Pulaski, ably played by Diana Muldaur, a veteran guest star of the original Star Trek, joined the cast in the second season. Despite Muldaur’s fine acting, this character didn’t work. Perhaps the problem was that the crusty, no-nonsense Pulaski seemed to be a female “Bones” McCoy. The character provided much-needed friction on the bridge, but never really came to bear on the plots much.
Another new character also came onboard in the second season, although she may have been there all along for purposes of continuity. Guinan is a mysterious alien woman of great age who functions as bartender and freelance counselor in the Enterprise’s open lounge, Ten Forward. She serves synthehol, a marvelous brew whose mildly intoxicating effects can be shaken off at will. Guinan’s background is intentionally shrouded in mystery. Although not featured on a weekly basis, she is a recurring presence.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS
By this time, Gene had developed a stable of writers he could trust. His production team was learning to work the way Gene worked. On future plans for The Next Generation, Roddenberry stated, “We have a lot in store, and a lot of things we want to talk about. We can no longer claim we’re brave because we have mixed races. Twenty-three years ago, that was very exciting. We had women in jobs other than secretaries. People were saying, ‘My God, how far can they go!’
“Now we want to talk about hostage situations. I am amazed to see the hostage (takers) treated as bad guys always. Many of these people have legitimate complaints. The world is not as simple as we lay it out—good guys here, bad guys there. I am very concerned and want to find a way to get into the fact that most of the warfare and killing going on in the world is going on in the name of religion: organized religion. Not that I’m saying that there are not great plans and that we are not part of some great thing, but it is not the type of thing you see preached on television. I don’t hold anyone up to ridicule. My mother is a good Baptist and she believes in many great things. I cannot sit still in a series of this type and not point out who’s killing who in the world.”
Roddenberry did do an episode questioning religion, “Who Watches the Watchers?” in season three. On a primitive planet, an off-world survey team is accidentally discovered by the inhabitants, who come to regard the Enterprise crewmen and their miraculous feats (appearing and disappearing) as the actions of gods. “I’ve always thought that, if we did not have supernatural explanations for all the things we might not understand right away, this is the way we would be, like the people on that planet,” Gene explained. “I was born into a supernatural world in which all my people—my family—usually said, ‘That is because God willed it,’ or gave other supernatural explanations for whatever happened. When you confront those statements on their own, they just don’t make sense. They are clearly wrong. You need a certain amount of proof to accept anything, and that proof was not forthcoming to support those statements.”
HARD WORK BUT FEW REWARDS
The one thing that did disappoint Roddenberry about doing The Next Generation was the little recognition it first received. Even though it did achieve a Peabody Award for the first season episode “The Big Goodbye,” it remained largely ignored thereafter, in spite of episodes like “Who Watches the Watchers?” and “Justice.”
“It is a source of considerable amusement to me that we can do shows like this and get little or no public reaction. If these things were to be done on Broadway or in motion pictures, they would have stunned audiences. The audiences would have said, ‘How wild, how forward, how advanced.’ Because these subjects are done on a syndicated television show, in our time slot, no one really notices them.
“I thought several times that the world of drama would have stood up and cheered us, but no, only silence. There is one advantage. All of these episodes are brought back and rerun every year. What will happen with Star Trek: The Next Generation is almost identical to what happened to the original Star Trek as larger and larger audiences become acquainted with the program. The original Star Trek audience now says, ‘Hurrah, what fine shows!’ This has brought us considerable pleasure that they would notice it. Star Trek: The Next Generation is on that path now and more so. The time will come when the second series will attain its true stature. I just hope some of it happens while I am still alive. I’m not jealous that I don’t have praise. This happens very broadly in contacts with humans. The world is not necessarily poorer because a painter or playwright is not recognized in his or her lifetime.”
NEW BUT FAMILIAR
Since Gene Roddenberry understood his audience, he did not stray far when he re-created Star Trek. Andrew Probert, who had contributed to the redesign of the Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was tapped for the job of redesigning the Enterprise for its new and far more advanced version. Although looking more sleek with a slightly squashed appearance, it was still quite recognizable. The biggest change was internal, such as the addition of the holodeck. The kinds of recreation areas on the original Enterprise were rarely referred to outside of the first movie. The only one that comes to mind is a reference to the “bowling alley” in “The Naked Time,” and it has never been established whether or not this was a joke. After all, with the way the original Enterprise would periodically hurl its crew back and forth, the thought of bowling balls having similar violence done to them could only cause one to imagine large holes in the bulkheads on a fairly regular basis.
The other design alterations on The Next Generation extended to the expected: the uniforms, hand weapons and other items such as the tricorder. Just as they had been redesigned for the Star Trek movies, they were redesigned for the TV series. Again, the designs were superficial and seemed to have been done mostly for purposes of merchandising: more new Star Trek toys could now be licensed by Paramount.
Although set seventy-five years after the original series, the technical changes were not as major as they could have been. By making the changes so slight, Roddenberry insured that the old Star Trek fans would more willingly accept this new version in spite of the completely new cast.
FINE-TUNING THE STAR TREK PHILOSOPHY
In describing the future life he envisioned for Earth in the twenty-fourth century, Roddenberry stated, “I do not perceive this as a universe that’s divided between good and evil.”
For The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry chose to expand the Trek philosophy, and perhaps he went a little too far. Roddenberry decided that his crew of the Enterprise-D would, frankly, be perfect. He decreed that they would get along without complaint and never have the kind of personality clashes experienced by Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The only time disagreements appeared on TNG was when someone who was not a part of this tightly knit inner circle came aboard, such as when Ensign Ro stepped aboard in the fifth season (about the time Gene Roddenberry died).
Otherwise the main crew members, consisting of Picard, Riker, Data, Dr. Crusher, Geordi, and Troi were always in harmony. Worf was the only wild card, but then he’s allowed to be—he isn’t human. Tasha Yar seemed to have the makings of a character with spunk and personality, but she was quickly dispensed with.
Roddenberry remained the eternal optimist, in spite of all the failures, disappointments, and difficult times he had endured during the years between the cancellation of Star Trek in 1969 and its return to life in 1979. Roddenberry continued to promote his philosophy of life that consisted of bold optimism (there will be a future and it will be wonderful), a belief in social progress, the benefits of technological advancement (he did not equate progress with the diminishing of the quality of life), the pursuit of knowledge, life affirmation (he objected to Captain Kirk’s casual killing of the Ceti Eel in The Wrath of Khan), the tolerance of other cultures, and secular humanism (the dominance of reason and experience over supernatural deities and mysticism).
MAKING THE OLD WAYS BETTER
It is because Roddenberry’s basic Star Trek philosophy had been reinterpreted and sometimes altered in the motion picture treatments that he made certain that all of his beliefs for the Star Trek universe were firmly in place for The Next Generation. With that as an underlying philosophy, the shows therefore exhibit a point of view and occasionally moralize.
There were some contradictions in the original philosophy, though, which Roddenberry himself sought to correct in The Next Generation. Instead of having the Klingons dismissed as being just the bad guys, he rewrote them as a proud warrior race with a culture as deep and diverse as anything seen on the other worlds in the Federation.
The Next Generation continued the use of the transporter with little alteration other than in visual effects and the sound. This is explained by the difference in technology. For instance, in The Next Generation episode “Relics,” when a ship is found with the old-style transporter in it, the old-style sound effect is used when the transporter beam materializes. The transporter is perhaps the prime example of Star Trek magic. Created for the convenience of scriptwriters, it allows for the characters to move from the ship to a planet and back again instantaneously, thereby dispensing with scenes of ships landing and taking off again.
REWRITING THE RULES OF REALITY
Which brings us to another device of magical technology: the holodeck. The holodeck that Roddenberry introduced on The Next Generation clearly alters our views of what is possible in reality in any number of ways. The computer can be programmed to create virtually anything in the holodeck, from the lush surface of a planet with jungles and a waterfall to London in the 1890s. The holodeck creates images of substance. In “The Big Goodbye” those images strike back with potentially deadly force. In that Peabody Award-winning episode, Captain Picard creates a realm in the holodeck based on his favorite detective stories. Set in the 1930s, Dixon Hill is clearly based on the hard-boiled detective thrillers of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Like Sherlock Holmes, they are archetypes that are very much a part of their era.
It’s not unusual that a science fiction series should be so captivated by images from detective stories. Mystery fiction tends to be very popular among screenwriters and science fiction writers. Using this to create a film noir setting, The Next Generation created a tech noir in which the holodeck world became a reality. The people projected by the computer evidently are not just images that move according to a design but have a sense of self, which as time went on was enhanced, as shown in “Elementary, Dear Data.” In “The Big Goodbye” the hologram people debated whether they were real and struggled to prove their individuality. One of them, who possessed memories of a wife and family, even questioned what would happen to all of them when the program was ended. This question would ultimately be addressed in the sixth-season episode “Moriarty.”
AIMING FOR THE STARS
Although Roddenberry was intensely involved with the creation and development of The Next Generation, the show had problems from the start.
In spite of a series bible that established who all the regular characters were, no detailed background had been worked out for them. Their personalities were largely being established during filming by the actors and their various directors, with a result that the characters were often inconsistent from one episode to the next, particularly Captain Picard. Worf was a late entry in the character roster because initially Roddenberry didn’t want to bring the Klingons back. It was only when he decided to give the Klingons a real background and make them richer characters that he agreed to include them.
Although episode twelve of The Next Generation, “The Big Goodbye,” won the coveted Peabody Award for television excellence, far too many of the first-year episodes suffered from a distinct lack of excellence. One of the other few exceptions is “Heart of Glory,” the episode that established Worf as being more than just a fixture on the bridge.
The second year improved consistently, demonstrating that all involved had learned from their mistakes (and the mistakes of others) and were ready to finally get down to work.
Seasons three through seven continued the process of fine-tuning the characters and establishing them as individuals with distinctive personalities. Picard went from being an inconsistent leader to a seasoned starship captain worthy of the position as commander of the flagship of Starfleet. Episodes were done which spotlighted the many facets of Jean-Luc Picard while capitalizing on the fine acting abilities of actor Patrick Stewart.
Riker was the steadiest of the crew from the beginning, and subsequent seasons insured that he became even more firmly established as the finest first officer in Starfleet.
Data, who has no emotions, has been at the center of some of the most moving stories told in the series, including “Pen Pals” and “Hero Worship.”
By year four, even the female characters, Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher, were getting episodes that spotlighted them in powerful stories such as “Remember Me” and “Power Play.”
LOOKING FORWARD
While all too many series have run out of steam long before they complete seven seasons, and start repeating themselves endlessly, The Next Generation continued to search for ways to grow and strengthen itself. The series carries with it a proud legacy. It is not just a Star Trek spin-off: it was shepherded by the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry. The dream Roddenberry first brought to life in 1966 has been revised and expanded as Gene looked on like a proud parent.
The dream called Star Trek has lasted for more than twenty-eight years—The Next Generation gave it new life and exploration in new directions. It’s evident Roddenberry’s dream will never die.
ABOARD THE NEW ENTERPRISE (#ulink_535ed05e-557e-59a1-ab36-6118b0a17c2c)
The Enterprise NCC 1701-D is the fifth starship to bear that name. It is twice the length of Captain Kirk’s ship and has nearly eight times the interior area to house the crew. The basic structure is the same, even though the vessel looks more sleek and cohesive.
While the first starships to bear the name Enterprise were designed to represent the Federation in political and military matters, the 1701-D was designed for exploration, de-emphasizing the importance of being a battle cruiser. This Enterprise serves as home to 1,012 people, which is two and a half times the ship’s complement of the Enterprise 1701. This is the result of a century of technological evolution emphasizing human interaction with the hardware they use.
This new class of Starfleet vessel enables families to stay together. As the first captain on this bold new experiment in human exploration, Picard is uncomfortable with the idea of dealing with families. He’s accustomed to a crew of professional, Starfleet-trained men and women who know their duty and understand their jobs thoroughly. The concept of children and other non-Starfleet personnel running around unnerves him even though he understands that it contributes to the morale.
The sophistication of the new Enterprise includes a variety of single and group family modules, various levels of schools, study facilities and other features designed so that children and spouses can live lives as normal as possible aboard what is practically a colony ship. Recreation has always been important on starships and now takes into account children.
THE HOLODECK
There is a large selection of entertainment, sports, and other recreational forms, but the most elaborate is the holodeck. The holodeck, as seen in “Encounter at Farpoint,” can simulate almost any landscape or sea world complete with winds, tides, rain or whatever is needed to make the illusion convincingly real. The special reality of the holodeck helps prevent the crew from feeling a sense of confinement from their prolonged voyage onboard the starship. The holodeck can also be used for purposes of exercise, as an opponent can be conjured up who is capable of responding to various modes of self-defense, as shown in the episode “Code of Honor.”
The living and working areas of the Enterprise reflect an emphasis on the quality of life, being brighter and designed more for comfort than utilitarian compromise. Gone is the clutter and profusion of gauges, instruments, and control buttons. Instead the consoles feature black panels with touch-activated controls and voice-activated displays. This enables swifter activation of the necessary controls that could be crucial in emergency situations.
This new technology is especially important for the bridge. The new bridge is much larger and combines the features of ship control, briefing room, information retrieval area, and officers’ ward room. Much the same kinds of things happen here as on the old bridge, but with less emphasis on the mechanics of steering the starship. It is a place where the starship officers can meet, check information, make plans or just catch up on what has been happening.
The control of the starship is handled by two bridge duty officers assigned to the tasks designated command and control. These are designated as CON (command and vessel control, including helm and navigation) and OPS (vessel operations, including some duties formerly performed in Engineering).
The center of the bridge consists of the Command Area, which is the focal point of all bridge activities. The captain, his Number One, and close advisors are located here. Just in front of this area are the previously described OPS and CON. Geordi La Forge and Data are in charge of these stations when not assigned to an Away Team. Their backups, who assume these duties when either Data or La Forge is unavailable, are simply referred to by the designations of their duties: OPS and CON.
At the rear of the bridge is a raised semicircular area separated from the Command Area by a railing, behind which is another set of console stations. This is the Tactical Control for weapons, defensive devices (such as the shields), and the internal security of the Enterprise.
MORE CONSOLES
On the rear wall of the bridge are the Aft Consoles. These five stations are generally unsupervised functions unless specifically needed. Viewing them from left to right, they are as follows:

Emergency Manual Override: In the event of main computer failure, many of the ship’s primary functions can be operated from this station.
Environment: This can adjust the life-support systems and related environmental engineering functions anywhere on the ship. A similar system was employed against the bridge crew in Kirk’s time in “Space Seed” as well as against Khan’s cronies during the same encounter. No doubt this is to prevent the vessel from being used as a weapon against its inhabitants.
Propulsion Systems: This is a backup system to OPS and CON that ties in directly to Engineering and the control of the warp drive and impulse engines.
Sciences: This is essentially a research station. It is used by the Science Officer and various mission specialists and can also be accessed by the Chief Medical Officer.
Sciences II: This is a second console identical to the Science station next to it so that more than one researcher at a time can access information and interact.
The stage-left side of the bridge has two turbolifts and a door leading to the Captain’s Office (also called the Captain’s Ready Room). This has an auxiliary turbolift as well as the Captain’s private head and washroom.
On the right side of the bridge is a door leading to the bridge head and washroom, something they didn’t seem to have on the original starship. A running joke at the time of Captain Kirk was that the Klingons didn’t have a head anywhere on their ships, which is what made them so mean.
WINDOW INTO SPACE
Continuing the overview of the bridge, the forward section contains a huge wall-sized holographic view screen. This viewer is almost always activated and dominates the bridge, giving the impression of a window into space. The view screen has magnifying capabilities and in some cases can lock into equipment on another vessel and send back an image of the other vessel’s bridge.
Behind the bridge, but not immediately visible from inside the bridge proper, is a room filled with comfortable furnishings and lined with actual windows facing to the rear of the vessel. This affords an awesome view of the aft portion of the Enterprise saucer section as well as of the nacelles of the starship. This lounge is completely equipped as an observation deck and contains food units and often serves as a retreat from the pressures of duty by bridge officers. Access to it is a privilege.
The Transporter Room is more colorful than the plain battleship gray of the old Enterprise. Although people to be beamed out usually go to stand on the transporter pad, site-to-site transportation is also possible, and people can be beamed directly to the bridge or elsewhere in the ship. Communicators, now a part of the gold-plated chest insignia, can be locked in on by the Transporter when needed. The transporter beam has a range of 16,000 kilometers (roughly 10,000 miles). The transporter is also designed to filter out viruses, bacteria, and other alien matter that might be picked up on the surface of a planet. It can also be used to detect and, if necessary, deactivate weapons.
QUICK ESCAPE
A special feature of the new Enterprise is the ability of the saucer section of the vessel to separate from the main hull in emergency situations. The only drawback to this escape procedure is that the warp engines are located in the main hull while the saucer section contains only impulse power from an engine located at the rear of the saucer.
There are also shuttlecraft aboard the Enterprise that are used when the transporter is malfunctioning or should the starship become disabled and evacuation in deep space become a necessity. This new Enterprise 1701-D is the most amazing in a proud heritage of ships bearing that title.
SPECIAL EFFECTS (#ulink_e11ad94e-8b44-562c-9c9f-b8b1d5429e03)
Special visual effects are those shots done separately from any live-action shooting. Some special effects shots, such as on-set explosions, are done by a different crew entirely. Optical effects are done after live-action shooting is completed.
In the 1960s, when the Enterprise was first given special-effects life, the process involved was difficult and time consuming. Thus new and extensive special effects didn’t appear on the old series often, and shots of the Enterprise flying from left to right, orbiting a planet, or warping through outer space were reused over and over again. The audiences of the eighties and nineties, accustomed to the extravagant special effects of motion pictures in the post–Star Wars era of motion pictures, expect more.
In the fifteen years since Star Wars revolutionized special effects and the science-fiction film, television has found itself in the unenviable position of having to compete or look pathetic by comparison. While motion pictures can take days to get one shot right, television technical crews have only days to get upward of fifty shots done right. What has made this possible are the strides in video and digital technology.
When Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987, much was made of its tie-in to Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic. But while ILM did contribute the dazzling special effects for “Encounter at Farpoint,” they performed little for the series thereafter, because Lucasfilm was geared toward the more time-consuming schedules of motion pictures, not the rapid pace of television production.
Industrial Light and Magic produced some fifty special effects shots for “Encounter at Farpoint,” but a new team of specialists was hired by the time the second episode was in production. In fact, two teams have worked on the series producing its special effects since 1987. One team consists of Robert Legato and coordinator Gary Hutzel, the other of Dan Curry and Ron Moore.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
They began with a weekly special effects budget of $75,000, only $25,000 more a week than the old Star Trek had for its FX shots twenty years before. But the modern technology surrounding both videotape and motion control gave them the advantages of speed unavailable to the old series.
For The Next Generation, special effects are shot on film and then transferred to videotape for both editing and composition purposes. This gives a sharper resolution to the image, which is why the new Enterprise never looks grainy or fuzzy the way the old TV Enterprise often did. While the special effects on the sixties series are still often impressive even twenty-five years later (particularly if you’ve seen one of the old shows projected on a large screen), the new generation of effects has opened the show up to more possibilities.
Originally the producers of The Next Generation had thought they could use the same approach that the sixties series did. They believed that from the shots ILM did for “Encounter at Farpoint” they’d be able to create a stockpile of special effects shots to use as needed.
Battlestar Galactica did this in the seventies, with the result that the show was already reusing effects shots even before it reached the conclusion of the pilot episode. It made for a less than satisfying effect overall. But upon cataloguing the special visual effects shots in “Encounter at Farpoint,” it was discovered that most of them were so specific to the needs of that story that stock scenes for transitions and set-ups just weren’t there. Few shots from that episode have been reused since.
A DIFFICULT MODEL TO WORK WITH
The special-effects technicians brought in after ILM had done its work on the pilot had been led to believe that about ten new shots would be needed for each additional episode. This quickly escalated to an average of sixty to a high of one hundred new shots per show. Even in the first season the producers were hoping to find stock shots to match the demands of certain scripts. But there were no scenes available that could show the edge of the universe (“Where No One Has Gone Before”) or the Enterprise being knocked end over end through space at warp speed (“When the Bough Breaks”).
Complicating this was the fact that the new effects teams inherited the Enterprise model built by ILM. It was six feet long and was lacking in the kind of detail necessary for close-ups. Furthermore, at six feet in length it was too large to do a true long-shot, as the camera couldn’t pull back far enough to make the Enterprise look very small. But since they also had a two-foot model available, they were able to make use of that one as well. A four-foot model was built for season three, which has been used for the new special-effects shots of the Enterprise ever since.
The lighting on the six-foot Enterprise was also difficult, as it involved wiring that had to be strung through the model. When the four-foot model was built, Gary Hutzel developed a neon transformer that enabled him to change the lighting scheme on the Enterprise model with the flick of a switch. By contrast, each lighting change on the old six-foot model took an hour.
Because only the six-foot ILM model of the Enterprise was built to have saucer separation capabilities, this model was brought out for Robert Legato’s team to shoot in “The Best of Both Worlds,” and the cumbersomeness of it made for a difficult time. It just reinforced all of their feelings about why a smaller model worked better for their specific needs.
TIMING IS IMPORTANT
“The Best of Both Worlds” featured a higher than normal amount of optical effects, plus many that were more than normally complicated. In the scene where three Martian probes attack the Borg ship, that shot involved several elements—the starfield, the three probes blowing up, the planet Mars, and the Borg ship flying toward the camera and then away. Ten seconds of screen time for something that complex can take four to five days to shoot.
The head of whichever special-effects unit is working on an episode supervises the on-set effects filmed during the normal principal photography schedule of seven to eight days. The film editors then spend two weeks assembling the footage and deliver the final cut of the live-action part of the show to the special-effects team. The special-effects teams get the script for a show and plan out their shots, but are unable to do any real work on it until the live-action footage has been shot and edited.
From that they’ll know how much time is allotted for the demands of the visual effects, and they generally then have from eight to ten days to deliver the needed special visual-effects shots. The special visual effects involve from five to nine days of shooting the Enterprise and other ships, with five or six days to composite all of the elements together into the finished shots. Specific instructions are then given on where to edit each scene into the episode.
Due to modern computer animation techniques, a phaser beam can be drawn right on the frame of film when it’s being edited on videotape. Other previously used visual effects can be sometimes combined to create something new, such as a cloud image or a water pattern, which can be used to create an unusual-looking force field. Stock footage can be employed, such as using the orbiting space station first seen in The Search for Spock, wherein the new Enterprise is substituted for the old Enterprise. This has turned up in The Next Generation on an average of once a season since 1987.
INGENUITY CAN GO A LONG WAY
Not all optical shots are time consuming or expensive. In the season-one episode “When the Bough Breaks,” Robert Legato’s team had to create a shot of the power station seen near the end of the episode. They built models and shot them against a black wall that was heavily backlit, and then matted that into a miniature, which created an effect of looking at a ledge that appeared to be a hundred feet off the floor. The shot cost only about $3,000 to do. Had they farmed it out, the shot would have cost $35,000 to accomplish. Ingenuity won out.
Some technical shots are more than ordinarily demanding. In the fifth-season episode “A Matter of Time,” they had to show the Enterprise cleansing a planet’s atmosphere of smoke and ash particles. This required shooting liquid nitrogen and dry ice in a tank in order to get the equivalent of cloud movements, which could then be manipulated in the context of the Enterprise.
While The Next Generation is filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, the special-effects teams work across town in Santa Monica at Digital Magic. There the optical effects are shot on film and then sent out to a video transfer lab to be transferred to D-1 digital videotape, where the special-effects technicians can later combine various effects to create a single image.
For instance, the Enterprise is filmed separately from its lights as the use of motion-control cameras allows a separate pass to be made of the model with its lights glowing to be superimposed on the previous shot of the Enterprise now on videotape. The engine lights will be a brighter exposure with some diffusion while the cabin lights, filmed on yet another pass, will be dimmer. When composited in one shot, it’s impossible to tell that it’s multiple shots combined into a single image.
SHORT ON TIME
Working on videotape allows color correcting and even light balancing to be done, which could not be as easily accomplished working with an effect on film. When effects are combined on film in an optical printer, the work goes down a generation in quality each time, thereby resulting in the grainy appearance of some special visual effects seen in past motion pictures.
After five years, some five hundred special visual effects have been created for The Next Generation, which allows the reusing of some shots and even compositing shots together. For instance, a scene of the Enterprise can be combined with a previously recorded image of a Romulan ship to create a completely new shot of the two ships in the same frame.
The now famous shot of the new Enterprise stretching as it enters warp speed (seen in the opening credits of each episode) was created using the slit-scan process pioneered in 1968 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. ILM created three such shots for “Encounter at Farpoint,” and Robert Legato’s effects team later created two additional ones for an episode that Legato directed. Legato has directed two episodes, “Menage a Troi” and “The Nth Degree,” the latter involving considerable effects work, which the director had to oversee after directing the live-action portions of the episode.
The special visual effects achieved on the series are often based on what can be achieved in the limited amount of time available. In an interview in Cinefantastique magazine, Robert Legato stated, “I get a big kick out of the fans who send letters and come up with reasons why things on the show look the way they do. You get letters from people telling you how brilliant this concept is because of the structural dynamics and design and air flow. In reality, you just thought it was a neat idea and it’s the best you could come up with on the spur of the moment.”
CHAPTER (#ulink_13123f6e-8d5b-5171-9436-9c9ff2144981)

2 (#ulink_13123f6e-8d5b-5171-9436-9c9ff2144981)

CHARACTERS AND CAST (#ulink_13123f6e-8d5b-5171-9436-9c9ff2144981)
CAPTAIN JEAN-LUC PICARD (#ulink_8d7b0dc1-7cde-533b-ab93-5fe217102475)
At the time of the voyages chronicled in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard has recently completed a twenty-two-year mission as captain of the deep-space-charting starship Stargazer and is legendary in Starfleet. With only eleven percent of the galaxy charted, the Stargazer contributed important information to these chronicles. Tragedy was no stranger during those two decades of exploration, as it was near the end of the mission that Jack Crusher was killed saving the life of Picard. Jean-Luc accompanied the body when it was returned to the family, thereby meeting Jack’s wife, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and the very young Wesley Crusher. Beverly requested posting with Picard on the Enterprise, even though she subliminally blamed him for her husband’s death.
Picard feels some guilt himself, and in the episode “Justice” found himself having to weigh the Prime Directive against the life of Wesley Crusher when the boy violated the inflexible laws of a planet. Picard would have been troubled with any crew member thus endangered, but the dilemma took on added weight when the person in question was the son of the man who had saved his life. The inherent unfairness of the situation led Picard to confront the entities responsible, thus saving Wesley, whose progress since then has been watched by Picard with growing pride.
PICARD’S ROOTS
Picard was born on Earth, in Paris, France, in the twenty-fourth century. His lack of ethnic accent is explained by advanced forms of language instruction. Picard betrays his Gallic background only in times of deep emotional stress. He uses French on rare occasions, as when he bade farewell to Dr. McCoy in “Encounter at Farpoint,” or when he visited his ancestral home in “Family.”
The young Picard was a far cry from the disciplined commander of the Enterprise. In “Samaritan Snare,” he reveals to Wesley that he has an artificial heart since losing his original one in an ill-advised brawl. Still, his career has been an exemplary one; a young and awestruck Lieutenant Picard was in attendance at the wedding of the legendary Spock, an incident referred to in “Sarek” but not yet shown in any of the motion pictures.
Captain Picard can be very tough and pragmatic, but he is also a romantic who believes sincerely in honor and duty. He is a philosophical man with a keen interest in history and archaeology. He still accesses information in the old-fashioned way, from books, and is especially fond of Shakespeare and 1940s hard-boiled detective fiction. The past, to him, is as vast a storehouse of knowledge as the future, and must not be disregarded or forgotten. His gift to Data, the complete plays of Shakespeare, is a fitting guide to the various aspects of humanity, and is much cherished by the android officer.
Although baldness had been cured generations before the twenty-fourth century, the men of this time find the natural look appealing, and Picard is content to remain so. He is not vain, and has no interest in cosmetic surgery or other artificial enhancements of his external appearance. With the advanced medicine and extended life spans of his time, Picard in his fifties is just entering his prime and would be comparable to a man of thirty in the twentieth century. Active-duty Starfleet males and females are in prime physical condition through their seventies.
While still relatively young by twenty-fourth-century standards, Picard remains content with a “starship love,” a personality attribute accented by his twenty-two-year duty on the Stargazer. But on the Enterprise 1701-D, with its ship’s complement of over a thousand crew and family members, Picard is facing new challenges to his skills, experience, and intellect, learning along the way that life is more complex than he ever imagined.
PATRICK STEWART
Patrick Stewart reveals that he was “compelled” to become an actor “as a result of an argument.”
At age fifteen, Stewart left school and landed a job on a local newspaper. He also happened to be an energetic amateur actor—the two vocations didn’t mix.
“I was always faced with either covering an assignment or attending an important rehearsal or performance,” he explains. “I used to get my colleagues to cover for me, but often I would just make up reports. Finally, I was found out. I had a terrific row with the editor, who said, ‘Either you decide to be a journalist, in which case you give up all of this acting nonsense, or you get off my paper.’ I left his office, packed up my typewriter, and walked out.”
There followed two years of selling furniture. “I was better at selling furniture than I was at journalism,” Stewart observes good-naturedly. He also enrolled in drama school at the Bristol Old Vic to bring his skills up to the level of his enthusiasm.
The actor used to see his roles as a way of exploring other personalities and characteristics, but nowadays it has become more of a means of self-expression. “When I was younger, I used to think in terms of how I could disguise myself in roles. Now I want my work to say something about me, contain more of my experience of the world.”
A FAMOUS BRIT
Patrick Stewart has become a highly regarded actor in Great Britain from his roles in such BBC productions as I, Claudius, Smiley’s People, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, all of which have aired in America. His face is also known to American filmgoers from roles in a variety of motion pictures. In the David Lynch adaptation of Dune, he played Gurney Halek, one of the more prominent roles in the film. In Excalibur, he played Leondegrance.
More recently, he was seen in the strange science fiction film Lifeforce as the character Dr. Armstrong. On stage, he starred in London in a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which garnered him the prestigious London Fringe Best Actor Award. As an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stewart is considered one of the leading talents of the British stage. His impressive list of stage credits includes Shylock, Henry IV, Leontes, King John, Titus Andronicus, and many others. In 1986, he played the title role in Peter Shaffer’s play Yonadab at the National Theatre of Great Britain.
Patrick Stewart moved up to directing in The Next Generation in the fifth season, and his work includes the excellent episode “Hero Worship,” as well as ‘In Theory.”
After supervising producer Robert Justman saw Stewart onstage at UCLA, the actor was cast as Captain Picard. “A friend of mine, an English professor, was lecturing and I was part of the stage presentation,” he recalls. A few days later he was called to audition for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Since then, he has become a well-known face, although occasionally fans get confused. One woman accosted him at a party and racked her brains until she recognized him. “You fly the Endeavor,” she told him triumphantly, when her memory finally clicked, “and you play William Shatner!”
But Patrick Stewart got his biggest surprise when the July 18, 1992, issue of TV Guide revealed that in a poll of readers, he was voted the sexiest man on television with 54% of the votes, beating out Burt Reynolds, A. Martinez, John Corbett, and Luke Perry. He responded to the award by expressing, “Surprise … puzzlement … and pleasure.” He said that it would have been nice had it happened when he was nineteen, which is when he lost all his hair and thought no woman would ever look at him again. Stewart had worn a series of wigs over the years and even wore one when he tested for the part of Captain Picard. The producers decided he looked fine without it. Apparently a lot of female viewers agree with them.
COMMANDER WILLIAM RIKER (#ulink_c2ca0447-87d0-5136-8f3d-bd7af7501908)
Not since the first starship Enterprise 1701 was under the command of Captain Christopher Pike has the executive officer been called “Number One.” William Riker has been given this honor by his commander, Captain Picard, to whom he is responsible for vastly important duties. When a landing team, or Away Team, is assembled, Riker is generally in charge of the team. Although it is not strictly prohibited for the starship captain to head up the team, Riker correctly recognizes that too much depends on the captain remaining safe to guide and protect his vessel.
Sending the most experienced officer down into an unknown situation is deemed too dangerous by Number One until he checks out the status of the planet and its culture for himself. Picard isn’t entirely happy being forced to remain behind, but he understands and respects his executive officer’s viewpoint.
Riker is also in charge of overseeing the condition of the vessel and the crew. When a Federation propulsion expert came aboard in “Where No One Has Gone Before,” Riker would not allow him to run tests on the system until they had been fully outlined to him and approved by the ship’s chief engineer.
“Number One” is an expression whose meaning has not appreciably altered since Earth’s seventeenth century, when the second-in-command of a sailing ship was generally known as a “first lieutenant” (hence “Number One” is used in the sense of “first”). The term also implies executive officer and captain-in-training.
THE CAPTAIN IS NOT EXPENDABLE
In those bygone days, the executive officer was also generally in command of shore parties for the same reason Riker takes such tasks upon himself now—the life of a ship’s captain is not considered to be expendable. But even though Number One is in charge of the Away Team on the ground, Captain Picard retains final authority over their actions.
William Riker joined the Enterprise crew when it picked him up at the Farpoint Station, which is where he also met some other crew members for the first time, including Beverly and Wesley Crusher, and Geordi La Forge.
Riker regards his captain with a mixture of awe and affection, but is also privy to Picard’s self-doubts, such as his annoyance at having to deal with children and families in a starship setting. As time passes, Riker has seen the captain adjust to this new situation.
While Riker has a lively interest in women, he considers it a point of honor never to let it come between himself and his duty. He is intellectually committed to sexual equality and tries to live up to that. This was put to the test in “Justice,” in which the people on Edo proved to be extremely affectionate and greeted the opposite sex with deep hugs and kisses instead of a bow or a handshake. The whole truth is that, at thirty, Riker is still young and hasn’t learned yet how completely different the two sexes can be.
Number One was surprised to see Deanna Troi after beaming aboard the Enterprise. They had been in a previous relationship and had a strong attraction for one another. Riker is slightly uncomfortable thrown into a situation where he deals with Troi every day, but each treats the other with respect, and they seem to have put their past relationship behind them.
ACCEPTING DATA
While Riker can accept Troi, and even the Klingon Worf, Lt. Commander Data posed some problems at first, but Riker has come to accept the android as an equal. He agonized when he was obliged to act as prosecutor in “The Measure of a Man,” but carried out his duty, perhaps too well for his conscience. Data helped him cope with this by pointing out that if he had declined to fulfill that duty, the judge would have made a summary judgment against Data, but the full hearing gave Picard a chance to mount his most persuasive arguments.
While Riker is called Number One by the captain and crew alike, this distinction is reserved for starship personnel and not for people who are not a part of the ship’s complement.
JONATHAN FRAKES
“I knew this was a real part, a big one,” says Jonathan Frakes regarding the six weeks of auditions he went through for the role, “and I had to get it.”
The actor credits Gene Roddenberry with giving him the needed insight into the character that eventually became his.
“Gene was so very non-Hollywood and quite paternal. One of the things he said to me was, ‘You have a Machiavellian glint in your eye. Life is a bowl of cherries.’ I think Gene felt that way, which is why he wrote the way he did. He’s very positive and Commander Riker will reflect that,” states Frakes.
The actor sees Riker as, “strong, centered, honorable, and somewhat driven. His job is to provide Captain Picard with the most efficiently run ship and the best-prepared crew he can. Because of this he seems to maintain a more military bearing than the other characters in behavior, despite the fact that salutes and other military protocol no longer exist in the twenty-fourth century.”
While Frakes cannot help but regard this role as “a real step up in my career,” he’s had recurring roles on other series such as Falcon Crest, Paper Dolls, and Bare Essence. For a year he was even a regular on the daytime drama The Doctors. Other television appearances include a role in the made-for-TV movie The Nutcracker and critically praised roles in the miniseries Dream West and both parts of the extended miniseries North and South. The actor has also appeared both on and off-Broadway and in regional theater productions.
FRAKES’S ROOTS
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Frakes did undergraduate work at Penn State before going to Harvard. He also spent several seasons with the Loeb Drama Center before moving to New York.
“I gave myself a five-year limit,” he reveals. “If I wasn’t making a living at acting in five years, I would find something else to do. After a year and a half of being the worst waiter in New York and screwing up my back as a furniture mover, I got a role in Shenandoah on Broadway and then landed a part in The Doctors.”
Frakes spent the next five years in New York City and then moved to Los Angeles in 1979, at the suggestion of his agent. “I really have been very lucky. There’s a cliché in this business that says the easy part of being an actor is doing the job. The hardest part is getting the job.”
Jonathan Frakes resides in Los Angeles and is married to actress Genie Francis, who appears on Days of Our Lives. He’s also started directing episodes of The Next Generation, including “The Offspring,” “The Drumhead,” “Reunion,” and “Cause and Effect.”
LT. COMMANDER DATA (#ulink_c2b282ca-75a3-55c5-928c-8d1a8902a67c)
Data is an android so perfectly fabricated that he can pass for human. It was thought that he was the product of some advanced alien technology until the discovery of an earlier model, Lore, revealed him to be the work of Dr. Noonian Soong, a human cyberneticist believed to be dead.
Much of the information given by Lore may be false, as is learned in “Brothers,” when a homing signal brings Data face-to-face with his creator, who in fact created both of his androids quite literally in his own image, with his own face.
The only clues to Data’s true origin are his peculiar yellow eyes, pale skin, and encyclopedic memory comparable to that of a Vulcan, but actually more extensive. It takes a skilled biologist to detect that Data is composed of artificial tissues instead of real flesh and blood. Although he only uses it in extreme circumstances, Data also possesses superhuman strength.
Data was discovered by a Starfleet Away Team investigating the disappearance of an Earth colony. The colony was completely destroyed, but the android was near the site, deactivated, and programmed with all the knowledge and memories of the lost colonists—except for the memory of what eradicated them so utterly. All this was rediscovered later, when Lore was reassembled.
At the time of his discovery, Data had no memories of his own, and was impressed by the humans who rescued him. He chose to emulate them, hoping to become more human in the process. His remarkable abilities do not give him a superiority complex. In fact, he seems to feel a bit less than human, as he cannot feel emotions, but he seems somehow to overlook the truth that his loyalty and actions toward others would actually qualify him as an exemplary human being.
He excelled in the Starfleet Academy entry tests and has never received a mark against his performance. Data benefited from the Starfleet regulation that prevents the rejection of a candidate so long as it tests out to be a sentient life form. This was later put to the test by Commander Bruce Maddox, whose efforts to classify the android as a possession of Starfleet were thwarted by Jean-Luc Picard. Picard’s spirited defense of his colleague also served to strengthen Data’s rights and liberties.
DATA CAN DO IT ALL
Data was created in the male gender, is fully functional (see “The Naked Now”!), and seems incapable of falsehood. While he speaks a more formal brand of English and does not use contractions, he tends to ramble on a bit because of his vast knowledge. He does learn and adapt, however, and discontinued calculating times to the exact second because he learned that this often annoyed humans.
He has difficulty understanding humor and idiomatic language, although he can learn vast glossaries of slang, such as that of the 1940s (“The Big Goodbye”), when he deems it relevant to the situation at hand. He also involves himself in amateur acting. Picard has shared his interest in Shakespeare with him, and Data’s researches in theatrical history have led him to become an adherent of Stanislavsky’s Method approach to acting, although his reasons are peculiar. The Method is rooted in drawing on deep emotions to bring characters to life; Data hopes to reach emotional depths through creating characters onstage, in essence reversing the original Method concept.
While Data appears to be an adult in his late twenties, he has probably existed a much shorter time than that. Because Data was never a child, he seems particularly interested in children such as Wesley Crusher, as they mark an aspect of existence he has never experienced and represent another example of his goal of being human.
In fact, his older “brother” Lore was given basic emotions, but Dr. Soong had overreached himself in this attempt and did not try to give emotions to Data after they went seriously awry in Lore. Years later, Soong developed circuitry to remedy this, but was fooled by the jealous Lore, who obtained the implant himself. Soong died soon afterward, leaving Data much the same as before. Data, despite his misgivings, continues to learn and grow as a sentient, and certainly very human, being.
BRENT SPINER
“I’m one of those people who believes that mankind will find all the answers out in space,” says Spiner, “but the first step is to get off this planet. The sun is going to burn out eventually and we better be somewhere else as a race of people by the time that happens. I think that’s why everybody digs Star Trek, because they know it’s a part of all of our futures and represents a vision of home.”
“As the series opens, we don’t know much about Data, only that he was constructed by beings on a planet which no longer exists. He’s the only thing left. His creators programmed him with a world of knowledge—he’s virtually an encyclopedia—but only in terms of information, not behavior. He’s totally innocent. However, he does possess a sense of question and wonder that allows him to evolve. His objective is to be as human as possible.”
Brent Spiner was born and raised in Houston, Texas, where he saw an average of three movies a day between the ages of eleven and fifteen. “At fifteen I was already a major film buff. I could quote lines from movies, tell you who was in it and in what year it was made. I always fantasized about being an actor. I was also lucky enough to have a brilliant teacher in high school named Cecil Pickett, who was capable of seeing potential, nurturing it, and making me aware of it.”
SPINER’S EARLY DAYS
Spiner did a lot of “gritty, ugly plays” off-Broadway after college. “The one that finally pushed me over into the serious-actor category was a Public Theater production of The Seagull for Joseph Papp.” The actor went on to roles in the Broadway musical productions of Sunday in the Park with George, The Three Musketeers, and Big River, based on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.
Since moving to Los Angeles in 1984, he’s appeared in such plays as Little Shop of Horrors at the Westwood Playhouse. His feature-film credits include the Woody Allen film Stardust Memories. On television he has appeared on such series as The Twilight Zone, Hill Street Blues, Cheers, and Night Court.
One could say that he was very well prepared for his role as Data by his belief in extraterrestrials. “Obviously I’m from another planet.” He laughs, but adds that he seriously does believe in beings from other planets and will continue to do so until such things are disproven.
LIEUTENANT WORF (#ulink_db3fc276-a90a-5df3-8361-f57af8c421c3)
The prediction made by the Organians nearly a century before has come to pass. The Klingon Empire and the Federation are at peace. Even so, Worf is unique as the only Klingon officer on a Starfleet ship. When his family was destroyed in a treacherous Romulan attack on a Klingon outpost, Worf was rescued and raised by humans of Slavic extraction, who did their best to keep their adopted son in touch with his Klingon roots. He joined Starfleet and is treated with the same courtesy and respect shown any other bridge officer—possibly even more, since the Klingons still have a remarkable reputation for violence.
Although Worf is still very aggressive by nature, he is able to control his anger even when he feels he has been provoked. As a bridge officer, and the third in the line of command after Picard and Riker, Worf takes his duties very seriously. In combat situations, when the Enterprise or its crew is threatened, Worf instinctively wants to respond in kind and confront the menace head-on. The Klingon Empire does not stress cool deliberation as the preferred method for problem solving.
Worf rarely talks about himself and his culture, but in “Justice” Riker inadvertently gets Worf to talk about Klingon sexual attitudes. When Riker wonders why Worf is not enjoying the pleasures offered by the sybaritic Edo, Worf explains, quite casually, that only Klingon women could survive sex with a Klingon male. When Riker wonders if this is simply bragging, Worf is confused. He was merely stating a simple fact of Klingon life.
Eventually, Worf did renew a long-unconsummated relationship with the half-human K’Ehleyr, who came back into his life as a Federation emissary. Their encounter in “The Emissary” produced a son, but unfortunately K’Ehleyr was murdered in “Reunion,” a crime that provoked Worf to a bloody and time-honored Klingon revenge. His son now lives with his Earth grandparents, since Worf’s status in the Klingon Empire had at one point become a precarious one.
UNFAIR BLAME
Years after Worf’s rescue, the Klingons captured a Romulan ship whose records revealed the identity of the Klingon who betrayed the outpost. This Klingon was a member of a very powerful family, and his son was an important Klingon, so the Klingon High Council decided to avoid societal disruption by altering the records and blaming Worf’s father for the crime.
They did not believe that Worf still kept the Klingon ways, or that he would even learn of this dishonor. They were unaware that he had a younger brother who had been secretly raised by another family. Worf’s brother contacted Worf, drawing him into the Machiavellian intrigues of Klingon power politics. Ultimately, Worf underwent discommendation rather than let his brother be killed. This act corroborated his father’s guilt to outside eyes, but also gave him time to set matters right. He had already scored one victory, for his enemy in this matter was also the killer of his mate. Worf’s family honor was restored in “Redemption I & II” when he aided Gowron in a Klingon civil war.
It seems that Worf may turn out to be a key factor in Klingon-Federation relations. Klingons as a rule do not feel comfortable with humans, often holding them in contempt, and there may be a faction (see “The Drumhead”) that favors improved relations with the Romulans. Even though Klingons have a deeply ingrained hatred of Romulans, they understand them better than humans, whose manners and motivations often must seem strange to the warrior Klingons. Worf occupies a unique position between these two cultures, and may provide the key to future developments between them.
MICHAEL DORN
As a longtime Star Trek fan, Dorn says that this role “was a dream come true. First, because I’m a Trekkie, and second, I’m playing a Klingon, a character so totally different from the nice-guy roles I’d done in the past. Worf is the only Klingon aboard the Enterprise. That makes him an outsider, but that’s okay by me because Worf knows he’s superior to these weak humans. But he never lets the other crew members see that, because he’s a soldier first and second.”
The actor gives enthusiastic praise to series creator Gene Roddenberry for having the “genius and vision” to depict an optimistic future in which a peaceful alliance could be struck between Earth and the Klingon Empire. “Gene believed there is good in everybody—even Klingons!”
But the actor enjoys playing very different kinds of characters, and knows what it’s like to appear in a series after playing a regular on CHIPS for three years. “I love doing cop roles, and as a highway patrolman I got to drive fast and never got hurt.”
Dorn hails from Liling, Texas, but he was raised in Pasadena, California, just minutes away from Hollywood. He performed in a rock band during high school and college and in 1973 moved to San Francisco, where he worked at a variety of jobs. When he returned to L.A., he continued playing in rock bands until a friend’s father, an assistant director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, suggested the young man try his hand at acting. Dorn can be seen in the background, as a newswriter, in episodes from that classic comedy’s last two seasons.
“I had done a little modeling by this time and had studied drama and TV producing in college. Once I started, I caught the bug.”
THE HUMBLE START
His first acting role was a guest spot on the series WEB, a show based on the satirical film Network. Dorn was introduced to an agent by the producer of the show and began studying with Charles Conrad. Six months later Dorn was cast in CHIPS. Following that series, Dorn resumed acting classes. “I worked very hard; the jobs started coming and the roles got meatier.”
Dorn has made guest appearances on nearly every major series, most notably Hotel, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest. He has also had recurring roles on Days of Our Lives and Capitol. His feature film credits include Demon Seed, Rocky, and The Jagged Edge.
Dorn hopes eventually to direct, but for now, “I want to take one step at a time and do the best work I can do.” He’s still interested in rock music, plays in a band, does studio work as a bass player, and writes music in his spare time.
DOCTOR BEVERLY CRUSHER (#ulink_13a497dc-6653-5c7f-adae-829a64cbb1c2)
Beverly Crusher worked long and hard to secure her posting aboard the Enterprise, where she is stationed along with her brilliant son, Wesley. Beverly’s husband, Jack Crusher, was killed while serving under Captain Picard aboard the USS Stargazer. Jack Crusher died saving Picard’s life, and to show his respect for the man, Picard accompanied the body back to Earth when it was returned for the funeral.
While Beverly knows that it is not logical to blame Picard, she associated him with her loss and was not, at first, certain how she would react to working with Picard. When Picard offered to have her transferred if she so desired, she declined, since she wouldn’t have been there if she hadn’t requested the position. Any initial misgivings have given way to mutual respect and understanding.
Dr. Crusher chose to sign aboard the starship commanded by Picard because she had an enviable Starfleet record that had earned her this prestigious assignment. As demonstrated by the position held by Dr. McCoy on the Enterprise commanded by James T. Kirk, a starship’s chief medical officer is in no way regarded as a rank inferior to that of Captain. In fact, outside of a court martial, the CMO is the only force capable of removing a starship captain from his or her post.
Beverly is an intelligent and strong-willed diagnostician. She has a profound sense of medicine, the kind of skill that takes years to develop. Often she uses her diagnostic skills to confirm what she has already seen and sensed about a patient’s condition. First and foremost she is a brilliant ship’s doctor.
THE TRUTH REVEALED
In “The Naked Now” there were many truths revealed about various crew members. In Crusher’s case it was revealed that she is interested in Picard, and certainly no longer harbors the suspicion and resentment she feared might affect her job performance. Being in her late thirties to early forties, the attractive Dr. Crusher has not escaped the notice of Captain Picard, but it is doubtful that this could develop into anything, as any good officer knows that complications arise when key personnel become involved.
Dr. Crusher’s most difficult moments on the Enterprise generally involve Wesley, as in “Justice,” when Wesley was sentenced to death for an inadvertent crime, only to be saved by Picard’s intervention. She has also been trapped in a false reality inside a static warp field, which she narrowly escaped from, and recently found romance only to have it shattered by the bizarre secrets of the alien humanoid she’d fallen for in “The Host.”
Her most difficult time with Wesley occurred in “The First Duty,” when Wesley narrowly escaped death in a training exercise off Saturn, in which another cadet did die. Her son admitted to participating in a coverup of the accident. While Wesley Crusher did the right thing at the end, he was humiliated in front of all of his Starfleet Academy peers and was forced to repeat his final year at the Academy.
GATES MCFADDEN
Dr. Crusher is the first regular role in a television series for actress Gates McFadden. Her character is presented with more background than most of the others, as she is the mother of Wesley Crusher, and the widow of the man who died while saving Picard’s life on an earlier mission.
Gates trained to be a dancer when quite young, while growing up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. “I had extraordinary teachers: one was primarily a ballerina and the other had been in a circus. I grew up thinking most ballerinas knew how to ride the unicycle, tap dance, and do handsprings. Consequently, I was an oddball to other dancers.”
Her interest in acting was sparked by community theater and a touring Shakespeare company. “When I was ten, my brother and I attended back-to-back Shakespeare for eight days in a musty, nearly empty theater. There were twelve actors who played all the parts. I couldn’t get over it—the same people in costumes every day, but playing new characters. It was like visiting somewhere but never wanting to leave.”
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Brandeis University while continuing to study acting, dance, and mime. Just prior to graduation she met Jack LeCoq and credits the experience with changing her life.
“I attended his first workshop in the United States. His theatrical vision and the breadth of its scope were astonishing. I left for Paris as soon as possible to continue to study acting with LeCoq at his school. We worked constantly in juxtapositions. One explored immobility in order to better understand movement. One explored silence in order to better understand sound and language. It was theatrical research involving many mediums. Just living in a foreign country where you have to speak and think in another language cracks your head open. It was both terrifying and freeing. Suddenly I was taking more risks in my acting.”
A WOMAN OF MANY TALENTS
McFadden lives in New York City, where she has been involved in film and theater both as an actress and director-choreographer. Her acting credits include leads in the New York productions of Michael Brady’s To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, Mary Gallagher’s How to Say Goodbye, Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, and, in California, in the La Jolla Playhouse production of The Matchmaker with Linda Hunt.
Gates was the director of choreography and puppet movement for the late Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and assisted Gavin Miller in the staging of the fantasy sequences for Dreamchild. “Those films were my baptism by fire into the world of special effects and computerized props,” Gates reveals.
Following the first season of Next Generation, Gates was inexplicably dropped from the cast and just as inexplicably returned in the third season, after her role as ship’s doctor had been played for one season by Diana Muldaur. During her absence from the series, among other work Gates had a small role in The Hunt for Red October as the wife of the main character. She did not repeat this role in Patriot Games, the second film to feature the Jack Ryan character, as a younger actress was chosen for the part in the 1992 sequel.
LT. COMMANDER DEANNA TROI (#ulink_c2565c32-4f76-501c-8096-b80e3b6ebeb4)
Deanna Troi is the ship’s counselor. This position didn’t exist during the time of the first starship Enterprise seventy-five years before. In the twenty-fourth century it has been realized that the success of a starship’s mission depends as much on efficiently functioning human relationships as it does on the vessel staying in one piece and having fully functional warp drive.
Counselor Troi is fully trained in human and alien psychology. When a starship encounters alien life forms, the counselor is crucial to the captain and Number One.
While twentieth-century psychiatry and psychology are considered to be more arts than empirical science, in the twenty-fourth century, solid evidence and medical research have radically changed things. Psychiatry has become a field of applied science in which hard evidence has replaced guesswork, supposition, and mere practiced insight. Command ranks aboard starships both respect and actively make use of the skills of the counselor in much the same way that they solicit advice from the medical officers, chief engineer, and other shipboard specialists. With the commissioning of the Galaxy-class starships, with the added complexities of families and the presence of children, the Counselor is in even more demand.
A Starfleet graduate, Deanna is half human and half Betazoid. Her father was a Starfleet officer who lived on Betazed with one of that world’s humanoid females. Her mother Lwaxana is an aristocratic eccentric who provides Deanna with acute embarrassment whenever she appears onboard the Enterprise. She is insistent on pursuing Captain Picard (she thinks he has great legs), or whatever other male she sets her eyes on.
While Lwaxana and all other full Betazoids are fully telepathic, Deanna has telepathic abilities limited to the emotional range; she can “read” feelings and sensations, but not coherent thoughts. Another extreme example of Betazoid ability is the hypersensitive Tam Elbrun, who vanished with the space-faring being dubbed “Tin Man” by the Federation. While most Betazoids develop their full telepathic abilities during adolescence, Elbrun was born with them fully functional, which led him to seek the solitude of space. He was, in fact, Deanna’s patient at one time, but she was not able to do much for him.
OFTEN AWAY
Due to her particular training and inherent abilities, Counselor Troi is often selected as an Away Team member, as she can provide important insights into the motives and feelings of the beings they must deal with.
(Some beings, notably the Ferengi, are impervious even to full telepaths. While some races may be able to intentionally block their minds, the Ferengi probably are resistant due to peculiarities of their brain structure.)
Generally, when dealing with alien life, Deanna can sense something of the moods or attitudes that a being harbors toward Federation representatives. In the case of the Traveler (“Where No One Has Gone Before”) she could detect nothing from him, as if he wasn’t even there. With humans she is able to sense more when it is a person she has some sort of rapport or relationship with.
For instance, Troi was acquainted with William Riker before either was posted to the Enterprise. Neither knew the other had been assigned to this starship until they first encountered one another on board. While Troi did no feel she could become deeply involved with Riker again, she did find their affair meaningful and pleasant. It has not progressed any further, as each feels honor bound to maintain a disciplined and professional status while aboard ship.
MARINA SIRTIS
A British actress, Marina Sirtis worked in various roles in England for years before she decided to give the colonies a try. She landed the continuing role of Deanna Troi after being in America only six months. “It’s taken me years to become an overnight success,” she quips. “I had a six-month visa, which was quickly running out. In fact, I got the call telling me I had the part only hours before I was to leave for the airport to return home.”
Marina enjoys the irony of being a British actress playing an alien on American television But viewers won’t notice a British accent coming out of an alien being, as she’s devised a combination of accents for the character to use. Sirtis states, “In the twenty-fourth century, geographical or national barriers are not so evident. The Earth as a planet is your country, your nationality. I didn’t want anyone to be able to pin down my accent to any particular country, and being good at accents, the producers trusted me to come up with something appropriate.”
Sirtis initially auditioned for the role of Security Chief Tasha Yar. “After my third audition for Tasha, I was literally walking out the door when they called me back to read for Deanna. While I was looking at the script, director Corey Allen came in and said, ‘You have something personally that the character should have … an empathy, so use it.’ I love being able to play someone who is so deep with that kind of insight into people, particularly since I usually get cast as the hard 1980s stereotype.”
Born to Greek parents in North London, Marina demonstrated an inclination toward performing at an early age. “My mother tells me that when I was three, I used to stand up on the seat of the bus and sing to the other passengers.” However, her parents wanted their daughter to follow more “serious” pursuits, so after finishing high school, Marina had to secretly apply to the Guild Hall School of Music and Drama, where she was accepted. “My first job after graduating was as Ophelia in Hamlet for the Worthing Repertory Company.”
A BIG MTV FAN
Following that, she worked for a few years in British television and musical theater, and in other repertory companies throughout England and Europe. She landed some supporting roles in features, such as The Wicked Lady with Faye Dunaway and Deathwish III opposite Charles Bronson.
She decided to stay on in the United States and has settled in Los Angeles, where she watches “far too much MTV” and keeps track of her local soccer team in London, in which she owns a few shares. Her brother is a professional soccer player.
Marina has always been interested in the stars and space exploration and believes that she once saw a UFO. “I was working with a repertory company in Worthing, a seaside town in England. One night as I was walking down the street, I saw this huge orange thing in the sky. At first I thought it must be the moon, but it was very off color. It was very close, but too high to be a balloon. Apparently a lot of other people saw it too.”
LIEUTENANT GEORDI LA FORGE (#ulink_2f78857d-fd14-593f-89c4-2099078be9e4)
Geordi is trained to work on the bridge and as an Away Team member. His unique prosthetic eyes allow him to perform some of the functions of a tricorder and are actually a visor-like device worn on his head, which can detect the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves, all the way from raw heat to high-frequency ultraviolet. Other crew persons seem blind by comparison, although Geordi often wishes he could see the way they do, since he has been blind since birth.
Although in his early twenties, Geordi has the maturity of a seasoned Starfleet graduate and has the highest respect for Captain Picard, hoping to emulate the captain when he gets older. His best friend aboard the Enterprise is the android Data. Each aspires to be “fully human,” because even though they have traits that make them superior in what they can achieve compared to their normal counterparts, neither asked to be different, nor wants to be.
LEVAR BURTON
Due to the longevity of the original series, the new crew has more than one actor who was a Star Trek fan before landing his role, and LeVar Burton is one of them. He states that he has long “appreciated Gene Roddenberry’s approach to science fiction. Gene’s vision of the future has always included minorities—not just blacks, but Asians and Hispanics as well. He’s saying that unless we learn to cooperate as a species, we won’t be able to make it to the twenty-fourth century. I think that by projecting that image, we’re actually creating a reality for today.”
Philosophy has long been an interest of LeVar Burton. At thirteen he entered a Catholic seminary, with the ultimate goal of becoming a priest. But after two years he discovered an interest in existentialism and by fifteen was reading Lao-Tzu, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
“I began to wonder how I fit into the grand scheme of things. The more I thought about it, the less sense it made that the dogma of Catholicism was the be-all, end-all, of the universe,” Burton explains. Following what Burton describes as his “pragmatic search,” comparing the things he did well with the things that excited him about being a priest, he decided to pursue an acting career.
“What attracted me to the priesthood was the opportunity to move people, to provide something essential. I was drawn by the elements of history and magic. As a priest, you live beyond the boundaries of the normal existence. It’s like joining an elite club. You see, it’s not that different from acting, even the Mass is a play, combining these elements of mystery and spectacle.”
NIGHT AND DAY
After he left the seminary, Burton won a scholarship to USC, where he began working toward a degree in drama and fine arts. But the contrast between the sedate, introspective life in a small-town seminary and the USC campus, which he calls “Blond Central,” was startling. “I’d never had so much freedom, and it was difficult to concentrate the first year.” It was during his sophomore year at USC, while only nineteen, that he auditioned and landed the pivotal role of the young Kunta Kinte in the award-winning miniseries Roots.
“I think the producers had exhausted all the normal means of finding professional talent and were beating the bushes at the drama schools,” the actor ventures. The role would win him an Emmy nomination and subsequent acting roles, which prevented his return to college.
Burton starred in a number of made-for-TV movies, such as the Emmy-nominated Dummy; One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story; Grambling’s White Tiger; The Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones; Battered; Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid, and the miniseries Liberty. The actor has also been the host of PBS’s highly acclaimed children’s series Reading Rainbow since its inception in 1983. Among his film credits are Looking For Mr. Goodbar, The Hunter (with Steve McQueen), and The Supernaturals (with Nichelle Nichols).
The actor was born in Landsthul, West Germany, where his father was a photographer in the Signal Corps, Third Armored Division. His mother was first an educator, then for years a social worker who is currently working in administration for the County of Sacramento Department of Mental Health. Burton is single and resides in Los Angeles with his German shepherd, Mozart.
SECURITY CHIEF TASHA YAR (#ulink_72453f69-875f-5182-bbdc-3142e5fcf09c)
Tasha grew up on a failed Earth colony where law and order had broken down and the survival of the fittest became the order of the day. An orphan, she spent her nights and days foraging for food and fleeing the roving rape gangs. The colony broke down due to being comprised largely of renegades and other violent undesirables who were being given a second chance. Instead, violence ruled. A sample of what life there was like was briefly seen in “The Naked Now,” while later developments were seen in the episode entitled “Legacy.”
In her teens, Tasha escaped to Earth, leaving behind a sister who remained by choice, and discovered Starfleet. She worshiped the order and discipline of Starfleet because it was the exact opposite of the chaos she grew up fighting.
At the age of twenty-eight, she achieved the rank of security chief and was handpicked by Captain Picard. She was one of the few crew members who performed the same duties on and off the ship. When an Away Team was selected to investigate a landing site, whether for a possible shore leave or for a conference that Captain Picard was being called to attend, Yar, as Security Chief, was always a part of the initial contact team.
The young security chief satisfied her need for peace and order in her chosen occupation, and held the Starfleet officers embodying this quality of devotion to duty and decency in the highest possible regard. She came close to worshiping them. This is particularly true in her attitude toward the commanding officers of the Enterprise. In her youth, figures of authority had been brutal and deadly.
Captain Picard, having visited Tasha’s homeworld—her “hell planet”—understood what she went through and became her mentor. He taught her to apply the cushioning of history and philosophy to her almost obsessive need to protect the vessel and crew.
TOUGH AND BEAUTIFUL
Natasha was of Ukrainian descent. This, combined with her own strict exercise regimen, gave her a quality of conditioned, subtle beauty that would have flabbergasted males from earlier centuries. With fire in her eyes and a muscularly well-toned and very female body, she was capable of pinning most crewmen. She was also an exciting sensual and intellectual challenge to men who enjoyed full equality between the genders. Neither Number One nor Picard was blind to these qualities in Tasha, but she could never bring herself to view these “saints” as mere mortals.
In “The Naked Now,” Tasha revealed a previously concealed interest in Data. She even went so far as to take him into her quarters and seduce him! When the judgment-inhibiting effects wore off, Tasha realized that she had completely violated her personal sense of decorum, and told the literal-minded android, “It never happened.” Since she didn’t specify what “it” was, Data was a bit confused as to what, exactly, had never occurred.
Tasha’s death at the hands of the creature Armus was a senseless tragedy that left her comrades stunned and bereaved. Oddly enough, it seems to be the emotionless Data who cherishes her memory the most; he keeps a holographic snapshot of her among his most cherished possessions.
The Enterprise crew later encountered Ishara Yar, Tasha’s sister, when they went to rescue a Federation freighter’s crew from captivity on Tasha’s hellish homeworld. She reminded them of Tasha, but she was using them to get help for her political faction. Perhaps she was as capable of loyalty and friendship as Tasha, but Ishara’s loyalties were bound up in the ongoing struggle of her world, and she lacked the courage to turn her back on the chaos and follow her sister’s path.
In “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” a temporal anomaly gave Tasha a chance to die a meaningful death, sacrificing herself to go back to a certain doom in order to restore reality to its proper balance. As it turned out, the doom, while certain, was somewhat delayed.
In the fourth-season cliffhanger “Redemption I,” we see a Romulan commander who looks exactly like Tasha Yar. In “Redemption II,” we learn that the woman’s name is Sela and Tasha Yar was her mother. In this alternate timeline, Tasha Yar had been captured by the Romulans due to the events set in motion in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and taken as a Romulan’s wife. Sela was her daughter from that union. When Tasha attempted to flee Romulus with her young daughter, they were stopped and Tasha was executed. Sela does not miss her mother and believes that Tasha deserved her fate.
DENISE CROSBY
Denise Crosby described the character she played with this thumbnail sketch: “She comes from an incredibly violent and aggressive Earth colony where life was a constant battle for survival. She can fight and she knows her job, but she has no family, is emotionally insecure, and somehow feels that she doesn’t quite belong on this ship of seemingly perfect people.”
As the granddaughter of the late legendary crooner Bing Crosby, Denise enjoyed the part and even related to it to some extent. “My grandfather was a Hollywood legend. Growing up with that wasn’t exactly normal or typical either, and I think that helps me understand Tasha’s imbalance and insecurities,” explained the actress in a first-season interview.
Prior to getting involved in developing an acting career, Denise went through what she describes as her “European runway model thing. I hated modeling, but I was taken to Europe by three California designers who were trying to launch their fashions there. I loved London, so I just stayed on.”
When she returned home for the Christmas holidays, she was almost tapped for an acting role. “Toni Howard was casting a movie called Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker and had seen my picture in a magazine. I looked wild. My hair was about a quarter of an inch all the way around. I wore army fatigues and no makeup.” While she didn’t land that role, Toni Howard encouraged her to enroll in acting classes. The roles soon followed.
Her feature film credits include 48 Hours, Arizona Heat, The Eliminators, The Man Who Loved Women, Trail of the Pink Panther, and Miracle Mile.
The TV credits for Denise also include L.A. Law, Days of Our Lives, The Flash, and the made-for-TV movies O’Hara, Stark, Malice in Wonderland, and Cocaine: One Man’s Poison.
Denise has also appeared in some local Los Angeles theater productions, including the critically well-received Tamara, in which she had the lead, as well as the controversial one-act play Stops Along the Way, directed by Richard Dreyfuss.
Needless to say, Denise Crosby reprised her role as Tasha Yar in “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” and returned to the show in its fifth season. The form this character took was revealed in the final episode of the fourth season, “Redemption I.” A clue about this occurs in the episode “The Mind’s Eye” in which Denise Crosby plays one of the Romulans on the ship that kidnaps Geordi, although her identity in “The Mind’s Eye” is obscured unless you look closely. In the fifth season Denise Crosby turned up periodically, such as in “Redemption II,” and “Unification I & II,” in the latter appearing with Leonard Nimoy in his guest-starring role of Spock. She is one of the few Next Generation regulars to ever play opposite Leonard Nimoy or appear with Mr. Spock.
GUINAN (#ulink_6caff348-af2e-520c-9d4a-18e04541bfb7)
The mysterious Guinan serves exotic drinks and meals in Ten Forward, but her most important role seems to be that of counselor, as she is also a fount of wisdom, giving advice and support, sometimes unsolicited but always needed, to members of the Enterprise crew. She has Captain Picard’s complete trust, as when she alone sensed that something was amiss when the time lines shifted in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and Picard believed her. Their shared background has never been revealed. In “The Best of Both Worlds,” she says that she was “more than family and more than a friend” to Picard, and elsewhere it is revealed that the two met before the Enterprise-D was commissioned (“Time’s Arrow, I and II”).
What is known is that Guinan is thousands of years old, and that her homeworld was destroyed by the Borg and her people dispersed. She was not there at the time, however, and did not witness the destruction. She is an old nemesis of Q, who obviously fears her. She undoubtedly possesses powers that have never been revealed. Her encounter with Q, two centuries ago, is another mystery, deepened by Q’s revelation that she wore a different form at that time. Supposedly, her relationship with Q has something to do with her presence on the Enterprise, but, as usual, revelations about the character only deepen the mystery that surrounds her.
More about Guinan’s background was revealed in “Time’s Arrow,” the fifth-season cliffhanger. Here we learned that she had met Data and other Enterprise personnel hundreds of years before on Earth in San Francisco in the nineteenth century. She has kept silent about this incident, never speaking of it until she urged Captain Picard himself to pursue Data, who was lost in the past, because his presence was necessary there, as she knew this to be a fact.
Still, to most crew members who encounter her, Guinan is the twenty-fourth-century equivalent of the classic bartender, who not only serves up just the right variety of synthehol, but also lends a caring ear and freely gives a touch of humane wisdom wherever and whenever it is called for.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG
Whoopi Goldberg describes her character Guinan as “a cross between Yoda and William F. Buckley,” but freely admits that she’s put a lot of herself into the role as well. Growing up in New York, young Whoopi was inspired by the harmonious message of the original Star Trek, and especially by Nichelle Nichols.
When Goldberg learned that her friend LeVar Burton would be on a new Star Trek series, she asked him to tell Gene Roddenberry that she wanted to be on the program, too—but the producers of The Next Generation thought he was joking. A year later, Goldberg took matters into her own hands and contacted Gene Roddenberry; the two worked together to create the mysterious alien bartender who runs Ten Forward, a popular gathering place for the crew of the Enterprise.
Although Whoopi’s first showbiz experience took place at the age of eight, there was a large gap in her career as she raised a child and, at one time, contended with a heroin addiction. She worked at a variety of jobs, including one in a funeral parlor whose owner had a curious sense of humor, and “initiated” his employees by hiding in a body bin and playing “zombie,” scaring them witless in the process. Whoopi was not amused.
By the time the 1980s rolled around, however, she was active in theater and comedy, working in southern California with the San Diego Repertory Theater and putting on a number of one-woman shows. (She also washed dishes at the Big Kitchen restaurant, where the menu still carries a special named after her.) In 1985 she got her big break, in Steven Spielberg’s film of The Color Purple, in a role that earned her an Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe Award. Since then she has starred in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Burglar, Fatal Beauty, Clara’s Heart, and Homer and Eddie.
Her role as psychic Oda Mae in Ghost netted her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and she continues to work in such films as The Long Walk Home (with Sissy Spacek), Soapdish, the hit film Sister Act, and Corrina, Corrina. She won an Emmy for her 1986 guest appearance on Moonlighting, and starred in the CBS sitcom Baghdad Cafe with Jean Stapleton.
She is concerned with the plight of our nation’s homeless and has, with Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, been a prime force behind the annual Comic Relief benefit concerts. In 1989, her various charity projects resulted in her being named the Starlight Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year.
Still active on stage, Goldberg has performed in Moms, The Spook Show, and Living on the Edge of Chaos, as well as returning to the San Diego Repertory Theater, a.k.a. The Rep, to take part in fund-raising performances (along with Patrick Stewart) for that organization.
Goldberg continued to reveal new aspects of Guinan in The Next Generation, but, as always, each new revelation only raised more questions than it answered—and that’s the way Whoopi Goldberg likes it.
CHAPTER (#ulink_de58c0c1-1aee-546d-a7ba-6e0e8185769c)

3 (#ulink_de58c0c1-1aee-546d-a7ba-6e0e8185769c)

THE NEXT GENERATION OVERVIEW (#ulink_de58c0c1-1aee-546d-a7ba-6e0e8185769c)
In 1987 something controversial was done. Star Trek was brought back to weekly television, as Star Trek: The Next Generation, without any of the familiar faces who had graced the name since 1966. Now, seven years later, it has graduated to the big screen, but how did this series fare in quality over those seven years?
SEASON ONE (#ulink_66a9c924-2d00-5def-bd79-956d6988de5d)
During the first year of The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry was asked what he thought of the scripts for the show, and if he felt it was really working out. The creator of the show replied, “We got some good writing in the old series, and we’ve had some good writing in the new series. Most of the writing comes from a very few, very good people who labor hard, and very often they are staff people.”
May of 1988 saw the broadcast of the final original episode of the first year of Star Trek: The Next Generation. While it went into reruns and fans caught up with episodes they had missed, it was possible to sit back and look at all twenty-five stories and see how they shaped up. One could determine what patterns could be seen which perhaps weren’t apparent at the time an episode first aired and judge just how the year of stories held up.
While an average TV series sets up a premise and repeats it week after week, with little variation in character or structure, ST: TNG was not your average show. With an ensemble cast, on a superficial level it could be compared with shows like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, or L.A. Law, where we could see many characters vying for attention as the series sought to achieve balance. Early on it seemed that while all the characters were getting some attention, it didn’t always hold together, as though they needed a focal point. This was finally achieved when Picard and Riker emerged as the main characters, filling out enough so that shows spotlighted them, sometimes to the virtual exclusion of the other cast members (such as in the first year’s “11001001”).
THE GROWTH OF THE NEXT GENERATION
This series surpassed the original Star Trek in the sheer number of episodes, and shows an evolution much different from that found in the Star Trek of the sixties. While the first season of the original show is considered the best, with the second a close second and the third a distant third, the opposite has occurred in Star Trek: The Next Generation. This series has had growing pains, but grew appreciably better each season.
However, things got off to a rocky start.
The series started off with episodes that were often fair to mediocre, until by the end of the first year, it felt as if one had reexperienced the third season of the old Star Trek, when the episodes lurched around in strange directions as though searching for a focal point. Amid the chaos, the first season of ST: TNG did manage to produce a handful of gems out of the otherwise undistinguished first cluster. At the time many fans refused to acknowledge this and vociferously defended the new series, but looking back now from the point of view of a hundred and seventy-eight episodes, the weakness of the writing for most of the first year is quite apparent.
ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT
The series was launched with the two-hour story “Encounter at Farpoint.” Originally written by D. C. Fontana, it was rewritten by Roddenberry and expanded to include the character of Q. This is apparent simply from the internal structure of the episode as there are two parallel stories which are forced to touch at only one point. Q was obviously a character Roddenberry liked very much, but the sad fact is that this omnipotent alien, who was a virtual clone of Trelane, the “child” being in the original Star Trek episode “Squire of Gothos,” didn’t work and wasn’t written well at all until his third outing, in the second-season episode “Q Who?,” which also introduced the Borg.
Launching the series with a much ballyhooed two-hour adventure was a good idea. Unfortunately the script wasn’t entirely up to the challenge. The story careened back and forth between two virtually unrelated plotlines—the intervention of the obnoxious, self-important Q and the mystery at Farpoint Station. When I later learned that Fontana had written a script dealing with the Farpoint mystery and Roddenberry added the Q storyline himself and forced them together, I could see why I felt as I did when watching it. The story tried hard to introduce all the characters while really revealing little about them, other than Picard’s willingness to surrender in situations where Kirk would have defied the odds in an attempt to depict Picard’s more diplomatic and temperate nature.
Unfortunately, it forced a comparison that was not in Picard’s favor. The story introduced new ideas, such as families living on the Enterprise, and then demonstrated what a horrible idea that was when the ship had to perform a dangerous saucer separation to protect the families in the main vessel from threats by Q. While the ending with the interplanetary jellyfish was touching and wrought with some beautiful special effects, it seemed to be an attempt to distract us from what led up to it and leave us with a warm feeling about the show.
THE NAKED NOW
In hindsight, the early episodes of the first season show a distinct lack of direction and forethought. The second show, “The Naked Now,” is an acknowledged remake of the original Star Trek episode “The Naked Time,” in order to give the characters some dimension, unfortunately forcing a direct comparison between the two episodes: the strengths of the original story cause it to far outweigh its reworking in The Next Generation.
“The Naked Now” was written by J. Michael Bingham, from a story by John D. F. Black and J. Michael Bingham. Black worked on the original Star Trek episode “The Naked Time,” but while the original story examined hidden motives, with many of the character traits revealed having dramatic as well as tragic overtones, the sequel carried little of the original’s sense of drama. The characters in “The Naked Now” don’t act uninhibited, but simply irrational.
Some of the actors on the show, such as Jonathan Frakes, felt that it was too early to have the characters act out of character since the viewers still weren’t sure who the characters were. The point of “The Naked Time” was never to have characters act strangely but rather to have them reveal what they are really like inside and the extent of their private demons. In this way, the characters were to be broadened and deepened through a lack of inhibitions. In “The Naked Now,” they acted crazy.
A QUESTION OF HONOR
The third episode, “Code Of Honor,” has structural elements from “Amok Time” in both the climactic fight and its resolution. Using Arabian Nights-style costuming and an all-black culture is an interesting idea for the episode, particularly the matriarchal angle (which would repeat in “Angel One”), but it’s sacrificed to stage a fight that has obvious parallels with “Amok Time” in the resolution as the one who dies is revived aboard the Enterprise.
Picard makes a lot of angry noise over the kidnaping of his security chief, but in the end seems impotent to really accomplish anything. Why he must follow the alien culture’s bizarre protocol while they can flagrantly violate the Federation’s at will without reprisal is unclear. In this writer’s opinion, the story played like a first-draft script in need of several rewrites.
ENTER THE FERENGI
Since the Klingons are now in the Federation (just as the Organians predicted in “Errand of Mercy”), a new villain was called for, or so someone thought. The villain must be vile and despicable, but maybe a bit amusing as well. Enter the Ferengi, the midget merchants of space; capitalists of the lowest order. In “The Last Outpost” another old plot is borrowed, this time from “Arena,” when a superior alien intelligence sees the Enterprise

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