The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition

by Larry Nemecek

  Construction Forepersons: Steven Monroe and John Clayton (101-102)

  Construction Coordinator: Al Smutko (103-126)

  Special Visual Effects: + Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) a division of Lucasfilm Ltd.

  Video Optical Effects: The Post Group

  Special Video Compositing: Composite Image Systems

  Editing Facilities: Unitel Video

  Post-Production Sound: Modern Sound

  Casting: Junie Lowery

  * * *

  [*] denotes a veteran of the original Trek series; [+] indicates a veteran of one or more Star Trek films.

  Second-season group portrait. Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) is gone, replaced by Diana Muldaur’s Dr. Pulaski.

  SECOND SEASON

  Its shakedown season over, TNG was on its way as not only a worthy successor to its namesake but also a commercial hit, ending its debut year as the number one first-run hour-long series in syndication and the number three syndicated show over all, behind game show kings Wheel of Fortuneand Jeopardy.

  Unfortunately, what precious momentum had finally built up during the stretch run of season one would now be lost through no fault of the staff: a strike by the Writers Guild went unsettled for six months through spring and summer, delaying the TV industry’s fall 1988 schedule. Having already caused problems during the tail end of the premiere year, the strike forced the studio to cut TNG’s second season back from twenty-six shows to twenty-two, and even at that the writing staff had to dig out the decade-old scripts in storage from the abortive Star Trek II series to see what might be usable (see “The Child”/ 127).

  Many changes were made for the show’s sophomore year. A new doctor, Diana Muldaur’s Katherine “Kate” Pulaski, came aboard to replace Gates McFadden’s Beverly Crusher. Also added to the cast was longtime fan Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan, hostess in the new Ten-Forward lounge; her character was named for the popular Prohibition-era nightclub owner “Texas” Guinan. Commander Riker gained a beard when the one Jonathan Frakes sported over hiatus caught the fancy of the producers, and Wesley got a new, West Point—inspired uniform. Geordi was promoted to chief engineer, ending the revolving door of guest roles there, and Worf’s promotion to security chief was made permanent. The Klingon also got a new, twenty-pound baldric sash, and Troi finally got a much-welcomed wardrobe and hairstyle change, ending her affectionate cast nickname of “old bunhead.”

  McFadden’s departure was said to be no reflection on her as an actress. “There were those who believed at the end of the first season that they didn’t like the way the character was developing, vis-à-vis Gates’s performance, and managed to convince Mr. Roddenberry of that,” Rick Berman said years later, adding: “I was not a fan of that decision.” By way of contrast, the new doctor, Kate Pulaski, was created somewhat in the image of Bones McCoy, as crusty and transporter-wary, and the second-season writers’ guide even gave her three children by three different men. But while the sparks she brought were welcome, the handling of the change angered many fans and fired up the show’s first real protest letter-writing campaign.

  In addition to having guest-starred as two doctors on the original series—Dr. Anne Mulhall in “Return to Tomorrow” and Dr. Miranda Jones of “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”—Muldaur had most recently spent one season in a recurring role on the short-lived but highly acclaimed series A Year in the Life. Although she’s no stranger to Broadway and film, she is perhaps best known for her TV work: regular stints on McCloud and Born Free and guest spots on series such as Murder, She Wrote, Hart to Hart, The Master, Charlie’s Angels, and a Gene Roddenberry pilot, Planet Earth. She was also the first woman to be elected president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the organization that awards the Emmys. Runner-up for the part of Kate Pulaski, a choice that Berman recalled as “a very tough decision,” was Christina Pickles, a regular on St. Elsewhere.

  But while the switch in doctors got most of the fans’ attention, the world at large was taking note of the new Enterprise bartender. The addition of Goldberg, a longtime Trek fan, to the cast was even more serendipitous. The news of Denise Crosby’s departure prompted Goldberg to let the producers know—through her friend LeVar Burton—that she’d like to join the cast. Disbelieving, they ignored her until she finally called the TNG office and said, “Hey, I know I’m no blonde, but …!”

  A 1991 Academy Award winner for Ghost and an Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner for The Color Purple, superstar Goldberg also has an Emmy nomination and a Grammy on her résumé. She credits Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, original Trek’s communications officer, as a childhood inspiration for her. In addition to the acting awards, she has been honored in many ways for her devotion to causes. Those honors include the 1989 Starlight Foundation Award as Humanitarian of the Year for her work in behalf of children, the homeless, human rights, and AIDS.

  Both Diana Muldaur and Whoopi Goldberg received “special guest appearance” billing at the end of the opening guest credits. Muldaur declined the offer to be listed with the regular cast in the opening title.

  Meanwhile, there were further changes in the writing staff as the series tried to generate some energy once the writers’ strike finally ended. Robert Lewin left the series over discomfort with GR’s constant writer rewrites and a perceived drift away from character-driven shows. Hannah Louise Shearer also left, though she contributed a story during each of the next two seasons (“Pen Pals”/141, “The Price”/156).

  Along with Gene Roddenberry, of course, the returning team included Rick Berman and Maurice Hurley, Peter Lauritson, David Livingston, and, also on the writing side, Tracy Tormé, who later relinquished his title of co-executive story editor for the looser status of a “creative consultant” after a clash with Hurley over the script for “The Royale” (138). Meanwhile, Burton Armus began the second season as a producer, but relinquished that role for the season’s last nine segments to Robert L. McCullough after overlapping with him on “Time Squared” (139).

  That episode was also the last show for staff newcomers John Mason and Mike Gray, who had served as writing coproducers for the first thirteen shows of the year. Beginning two episodes later with “Pen Pals” (141), two positions for executive script consultants were created and filled by Hans Beimler and Richard Manning, longtime Trek fans who had been story editors for the last eight shows of season one. In addition, Leonard Mlodinow and Scott Rubenstein worked as story editors from “The Outrageous Okona” (130) onward until Melinda Snodgrass, a science fiction novelist, was added in that capacity after selling the impressive script for “The Measure of a Man” (135). After four more shows, Mlodinow and Rubenstein left, and Snodgrass, another original series fan, carried the title alone for the rest of the season.

  Whoopi Goldberg on the set with her “inspiration,” Nichelle Nichols.

  By Season Two a moving “star field” was added outside the windowed sets.

  Around the sets modifications took place as well: the bridge was fitted with new, swiveling Conn and Ops chairs that had a less severe backward slant; the captain received a more distinctive command chair that better fit Stewart’s body, with armrest panels permanently mounted open instead of hinged; and, to allow the new chief engineer an occasional piece of the bridge action, the aft stations were also redesigned. From portside inward, the outer three stations were now Engineering, Environment, and Mission Ops rather than Environment, Emergency Manual Override, and Propulsion Systems. The custom-built observation lounge now included built-in viewscreens, and Sternbach contributed the painting behind the bar in the new Ten-Forward lounge: an abstract portrait of the Milky Way galaxy.

  As TNG settled in and found its stride, confidence rose in all quarters, including those of hardworking art staffers Sternbach and Michael Okuda. Both enjoyed inserting in-jokes, homages, and occasionally pure double-talk into a TNG graphic or design when they could get away with it. In particular, Sternbach turned his interest in animé, or Japanese animation—
an adult, well-crafted genre that has its own large following of fans—into innocuous and barely visible references in graphics and props.

  Among other staff changes here, Zimmerman recommended as his successor veteran production designer Richard James, who worked temporarily at first until Zimmerman opted not to return after Star Trek V. James, who had prior genre work on Battlestar Galactica as well as other series and films like Silkwood and Local Hero, brought along set decorator Jim Mees to replace John Dwyer, who left with Zimmerman. Breaking in with the Norman Lear sitcoms, Mees had jumped to Paramount with The Bronx Zoo.

  Worf received a literal facelift when Westmore simplified his forehead ridge piece, heeding actor Michael Dorn’s plea for an application change to help end a forehead skin rash. The actor began wearing a headband under the head piece and the “forehead” was glued down only around its edges—although that cut down the facial expressions that could be reflected in the prosthetics.

  THE CHILD

  * * *

  Production No.: 127 Aired: Week of November 21, 1988

  Stardate: 42073.1 Code: tc

  Directed by Rob Bowman

  Written by Jaron Summers & Jon Povill and Maurice Hurley

  GUEST CAST

  Lieutenant Commander Hester Dealt: Seymour Cassel

  Ian Andrew Troi: R. J. Williams

  Transporter Chief: O’Brien: Colm Meaney

  Miss Gladstone: Dawn Arnemann

  Guinan: Whoopi Goldberg

  Young Ian: Zachary Benjamin

  Engineering Ensign: Dore Keller

  * * *

  The Enterprise is ferrying samples of a deadly plasma plague for study when Troi stuns the crew by announcing she’s pregnant.

  What she describes as a glowing white light impregnated her during sleep. According to new chief medical officer Kate Pulaski, the fetus will grow full term in just thirty-six hours. As Picard and his officers debate the security concerns raised by the “invader,” Troi announces flatly she’s having the baby.

  The counselor has a remarkably easy birth—her son, Ian, appears completely harmless but continues his unusual growth rate, aging eight years in twenty-seven hours.

  Almost oblivious to all of this is young Wes Crusher, who seeks counsel from the mysterious new Ten-Forward hostess, Guinan, about whether to join his mother, who has left to head Starfleet Medical. He finally decides to stay on board.

  Meanwhile, one of the plague samples inexplicably begins to grow—threatening to break its containment and infect the crew within two hours.

  It turns out that Ian—or at least, the life-force that took the form of the human child to learn more about humans—is a stimulus for the viral sample’s growth. A tearful Troi watches Ian revert to his real form; the virus stops growing, and the ship’s mercy mission can be finished.

  During the writers’ strike, “The Child” was chosen from among the old unused Star Trek II series scripts to be turned into a season opener, although Hurley stated his rewrites proceeded from premise, not from the original outline.1 Instead of Troi, of course, in the original tale the “immaculate conception” happens to the first Trek movie’s Deltan navigator Ilia—yet another parallel between the two female characters, who already share an empathic trait and similar onetime love interests, Decker and Riker. That original final draft story of January 9, 1978, opened with the same glowing light that was used here, but in that case the fast-growing baby was causing the ship’s hull to turn to powder. Overseen by a nearby probe via an “umbilical” scanner beam, the child was being made to develop through its race’s past stages of evolution prior to noncorporeality.

  Director Rob Bowman got permission to film this season opener with extra cameras and equipment, including the impressive opening shot, and he praised Marina Sirits for rising to the challenge of an expanded role. With Troi naming her son after her father, we learn that Mr. Troi was Ian Andrew—finally depicted in the final season (“Dark Page”/259).

  Wesley asks Guinan whether he should join his mother at Starfleet Medical.

  Epsilon Indi, a star spied by Wesley out Ten-Forward, was home to extinct pirates in 1968’s “And the Children Shall Lead”—and to the Andorians in fan nonfiction. Cited on the Okudagrams as four associates working on the mutated strain are “Drs.” Bowman, Hurley, Summers, and Povill (the latter pair the writers of the original story), and a likeness to the “Legato infection” or “Hutzel infection.” Seymour Cassel’s familiar face was lately in the films Dick Tracy, Honeymoon in Vegas, and Indecent Proposal.

  Overlooked later, Guinan in her debut answers Wesley’s direct question about knowing Picard during his Stargazer days (“The Battle”/110) by saying she “never knew the captain until I came on board”—and doesn’t seem to be misleading him (see notes, “Time’s Arrow, Part II”/227).

  WHERE SILENCE HAS LEASE

  * * *

  Production No.: 128 Aired: Week of November 28, 1988

  Stardate: 42193.6 Code: ws

  Directed by Winrich Kolbe

  Written by Jack B. Sowards

  GUEST CAST

  Nagilum: Earl Boen

  Ensign Haskell: Charles Douglass

  Transporter Chief: Colm Meaney

  * * *

  En route to the Morgana Quadrant, the Enterprise suddenly finds itself inside a black void without form or dimension—a void that is unending and inescapable, no matter which direction the ship turns.

  A sister ship, the USS Yamato, appears in the void, and Riker and Worf investigate. But the ship is part of the trap, and the men find themselves in a maze of repetition that nearly drives Worf mad with its illogic.

  Finally the presence behind the void appears: Nagilum, an entity who wants to study humans’ reaction to death.

  The superalien, who appears on screen only as vaguely humanoid facial sections separated by darkness, announces he will use from one-third to one-half of the crew for his experiments. After much soul-searching, Picard regretfully begins the autodestruct sequence with Riker, and later outwits images of Troi and Data sent by the alien to argue against the move.

  With just two seconds to spare before autodestruct, the soft-voiced entity suddenly frees the ship, saying he has learned enough about human nature by watching the crew’s preparation for death. In one final debate, a relieved Picard tells Nagilum that they do have one trait in common: curiosity.

  Trapped in Nagilum’s void, Picard’s officers weigh their options.

  TNG newcomer Winrich Kolbe, whose distinctive accent earned him a nickname, “the Baron,” on the set, put his years of directorial experience to good use in fighting the claustrophobia of this budget-minded “bottle show.” Penned by Star Trek II coauthor Jack Sowards, the only scenes that take place off the Enterprise are aboard a sister ship!

  According to Hurley, this superalien’s name is the reverse spelling (minus one /) of Mulligan. The name was chosen because actor Richard Mulligan, the star of Soap and Empty Nest, was originally sought to play the role.

  This episode also introduces Worf’s soon-to-be-famous holodeck combat-calisthenics program, which will be seen later in “The Emissary” (146) and “New Ground” (210). The autodestruct sequence seen in “11001001” (116) is repeated here, but with a flexible countdown time; the device has not been used since. Whether included as yet another homage to the original Star Blazer’s flagship or even its namesake, the World War II Japanese battleship, the starship Yamato’s NCC number given here was 1305-E. In a rare continuity error, the number was changed nine shows later, in “Contagion” (137) to 71807.

  ELEMENTARY, DEAR DATA

  * * *

  Production No.: 129 Aired: Week of December 5, 1988

  Stardate: 42286.3 Code: ed

  Directed by Rob Bowman

  Written by Brian Alan Lane

  GUEST CAST

  Moriarty: Daniel Davis

  Lestrade: Alan Shearman

  Ruffian: Biff Manard

  Prostitute: Diz White

&n
bsp; Assistant Engineer Clancy: Anne Elizabeth Ramsay

  Pie Man: Richard Merson

  * * *

  After the Enterprise arrives three days early for a scheduled rendezvous, La Forge persuades Sherlock Holmes fan Data to use the extra time playing the role of the detective on the holodeck, with the engineer as Watson.

  But Holmes’s original cases are no challenge to Data’s memory, so Dr. Pulaski—who has yet to accept the android as anything more than a machine—challenges him to solve a new, computer-generated case. La Forge obliges by programming a case that’s a challenge match for Data: a Professor Moriarty who takes on consciousness. Holmes’s archenemy not only kidnaps Pulaski in a bid to become real, but also threatens to take over the Enterprise with a Victorian gadget that can control the ship from within the holodeck.

  In top hat and tails, Picard enters the program to confront Moriarty and convinces him his plan is useless because of the construct’s true nature. A mellowed Moriarty, already transcending his character’s fictional bounds, relents but asks to be recalled if a process for solidifying holodeck creations into real matter is ever found—and the captain agrees.

  Data’s initial fascination with Sherlock Holmes (“Lonely Among Us” /108) goes a step further here, as does the planned Pulaski-Data friction. The ending originally filmed was dropped from the version aired: the paper with Moriarty’s sketch of the Enterprise is significant not because of what he’s drawn but for the fact that it exists off the holodeck. Picard is then aware that the character can somehow be saved, as opposed to the gone-awry holodeck images of “The Big Goodbye” (113), and so his explanations to Moriarty were seen as a lie by Gene Roddenberry, who didn’t want Picard to stoop to deception. The climax leaves the ship’s fate purely up to the captain’s persuasiveness and Moriarty’s newfound good sense.