Sunday 05 February 2012

Behind the scenes on Star Trek: The Next Generation

"Twenty years ago, the genius of one man brought to television a program that has transcended the medium. We are enormously pleased that that man, Gene Roddenberry, is going to do it again. Just as public demand kept the original series on the air, this new series is also a result of grassroots support for Gene and his vision." With those words spoken by Mel Harris, the president of the Paramount Television Group, the long-awaited second Star Trek television series at last became official on October 10, 1986, seventeen years after the first series had been canceled.

But this time there would be something different in the revived series. The fight to bring back Kirk and his crew that had been waged throughout the seventies was no longer a battle that could be won. The Star Trek films and the individual careers of the key cast members were too succesful for the original series' crew ever to be lured back to the weekly grind of episodic television production. So with a grand leap of faith, Paramount had agreed to the concept of setting the next series a century ahead of the first, and going forward with an all-new cast of characters.

At the time, this attempt to "catching light in a bottle," as Leonard Nimoy called it, carried considerably risk for Paramount. The networks the studio had approached with the new series had recognized that risk as well. Though all were interested in broadcasting an updated Star Trek series, none was willing to commit to a full-season order. At best, the networks would buy only six episodes. And the potential revenue from only six episodes was not enough to cover Paramount's investment in new sets, costumes, props and models.

Thus Paramount made the groundbreaking decision to make the series directly for the syndicated market. It had been in the syndicated market that the first series had found its audience, and where it continued to thrive almost two decades later. Paramount executives ran the numbers and determined that at the very worst, they would end up with twenty-six new episodes, which they could add to the ongoing syndication orders for the original seventy-nine. They could not be certain if the series would succeed, but at least they knew the studio wouldn't lose money.

With that critical business concern taken care of, Gene Roddenberry once again began the task of gathering together a production team that would match his passion for the Star Trek universe, and take it boldly into its next century. In Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season, its crew of veterans from the original series included producer Robert Justman, William Ware Theiss as costume designer, set decorator John Dwyer, and special-effects supervisor Dick Brownfield. And this time, Roddenberry had his own second generation of Star Trek personnel to draw from–veterans from the successful movies. In the first season, these included makeup artist Werner Keppler, illustrators Andrew Probert and Rick Sternbach, scenic artist Michael Okuda, and the visual-effects wizard of Industrial Light & Magic.

Among the new faces added to the Star Trek crew that year, production designer Herman Zimmerman, makeup supervisor Michael Westmore, visual-effects coordinators Robert Legato and Dan Curry, and unit production manager David Livingston would go on to make significant and ongoing contributions to The Next Generation, as well as to the following series and the next stage in the evolution of Star Trek movies.

Despite the varying consistency of the first-season episodes, and the rapid turnover of staff, one aspect of The Next Generation was unchanged from The Original Series—many stories addressed the issues of the day. Three episodes specifically dealt with disease, reflecting the growing impact of the AIDS epidemic. The Iran-Contra affair inspired the arms-for-hostage story element in "Too Short a Season," and was even the starting point for Tracy Tormé's initial thoughts on the nature of the conspiracy within Starfleet in the episode "Conspiracy".

As LeVar Burton explains, "Gene always knew that the important issues of today are best presented in terms of the future or the past, where they are at a safe distance for the audience to consider." For all that was new about The Next Generation, at its heart it was still the Star Trek millions of people had come to appreciate, enjoy, and love.

Ten months after the cameras had first rolled on "Encounter at Farpoint," production wrapped on "The Neutral Zone," and Season One. The confidence displayed in that last episode was unmistakable. Secure in the knowledge that the audience had accepted Picard's crew as a new version of Star Trek and not retreads, Roddenberry felt comfortable in bringing back a favourite alien race—the Romulans. The incidents that brought them back into Starfleet's scrutiny was the mysterious disappearance of several of their outposts near the Neutral Zone—an ominous story point that was deliberately inserted to set up the appearance of a new alien threat for the second season. But the most telling element of that episode was the Romulan commander's final line to Captain Picard. "We're back."

That wasn't just the Romulans talking. That was Gene Roddenberry and the entire Star Trek family. Lightening had been caught for an unprecedented second time, and now, in the best tradition of science fiction, it was time to see what the future would bring.

After its first season, The Next Generation was a solid hit—not only in syndicated ratings, but in international video sales also. The not-so-good news was that no one really knew why. To the people working on the show, The Next Generation had yet to live up to its promise of matching and exceeding the best episodes of The Original Series. But the hunger of the audience for more Star Trek in any form had given The Next Generation the ratings push it needed to bypass the studio's potential thirteen-episode cutoff and set the production team's sights on three full seasons. What would happen next, when the series had the sixty-five episodes it needed to be stripped in syndication, was a decision that lay in the unknowable future. The task at hand was to move beyond satisfying the needs of a forgiving group of diehard fans to producing consistently good television that would hold the interest of general viewers.

To that end, Paramount increased the average per-show budget. For example, episodes that required extensive visual effects, or more than the usual number of alien extras, were permitted to have the cost of their production go over the usual amount spent in those areas, on the understanding that other episodes would spend proportionately less. In practice, this strategy could lead to the final few episodes of a season being left with minimal funds for production—a situation that had a direct bearing on the final episode of the second season.

But as that season began, to Rick Berman the greatest challenge the show faced was "to take the seven or eight characters we developed in the first season and find ways to make them interact in more entertaining fashions." Notice the lack of specificity—seven or eight characters. That was indicative of the changes afoot.

Unlike several other Star Trek characters in the past, the late Tasha Yar remained dead and Denise Crosby would not be returning to the series... at least not for the second season. But Gates McFadden was also gone. Dr. Beverly Crusher was said to have taken a new position as the head of Starfleet Medical, improbably leaving her young son, Wesley, to fend for himself on the Enterprise. Both women had left the series, in part, because of disappointment over the way their characters had failed to develop, though in hindsight there was very little character development for anyone in the first season. Replacing Dr. Crusher was Dr. Kate Pulaski, played by another veteran of The Original Series, Diana Muldaur. In talking about her character, Muldaur confirmed the direction in which the new doctor would go. "I think Kate Pulaski's closer to our old crusty McCoy from the early days. She's very opinionated, so hopefully we'll stir up some hornets' along the way and get people upset with her. It should be fun." Muldaur also believed that the intent to involve Pulaski in an ongoing argumentative relationship with Data was deliberately based on the popular feud that had developed between Spock and McCoy.

The other newcomer to the Enterprise's crew had not been crafted with such calculation. Instead, the impetus came from the actor herself, a self-proclaimed "Trekkie from way back," Whoopi Goldberg. Goldberg had always had an interest in being part of The Next Generation but when she learned that Denise Crosby had decided to leave the show, she felt the door had been opened for a new female character and pursued that interest with determination. Initially, there was a good reason why no one in the production office ever returned her calls or acknowledged her interest. They just didn't take her offer seriously. Why would a movie star want to become involved in an ongoing role in a television series? But the reason for Goldberg's interest was even better—it was yet another legacy of Gene Roddenberry's earlier work.

As a child, like so many others, Goldberg had been touched by Star Trek's vision of the future, and for her the series would forever be more than just another television show. In the round of publicity that attended her joining the show, she recalled that in her childhood the only time an audience ever saw black people in the future was on Star Trek. In particular, Goldberg credits Nichelle Nichols as being a key source of childhood inspiration.

When Rick Berman finally met with Whoopi Goldberg, the timing for het arrival was perfect, and fit in perfectly with Roddenberry's inclusive future and a new component of the series. In order to create an additional setting in which the crew of the Enterprise could interact, plans had already been made for the construction of Ten Forward, a combination lounge and bar. The name came from its location on the ship, in the forward section of deck ten.

Ten Forward was the last set designed by departing production designer Herman Zimmerman, and he remembers it as his favourite. "Gene wanted a place where the crew could socialize with each other," Zimmerman recalls, "without having to do it in a very intimate setting in their living quarters, or in a very formal setting in the observation lounge or on the bridge. So Ten Forward became the place where ordinary crew and the officers could co-mingle, and where aliens who were not allowed on the bridge could interact with other crew members. "It was a very important set for the telling of stories." As a place of socializing, Ten Forward would need a bartender, though not in every episode, and Whoopi Goldberg, who was not available for every episode, was a perfect choice for the role. Thus, the character of Guinan was created to appear in six episodes of the new season.

By the time the third season began, the chaotic forces of evolution could at last be seen shaping The Next Generation's production team into a stronger and more stable entity. True, many producers and writers left, but those who remained did so for a reason—they worked together efficiently and cooperatively. Tellingly, the core group of producers who began that season—Rick Berman, Peter Lauritson, and, though not quite a producer at the time, David Livingston—continued as key members of the Star Trek team for the duration of The Next Generation's run. Continuing in his role as executive producer, Gene Roddenberry was pleased to serve as a passionate guide to the twenty-fourth century, with his advice and direction sought after and appreciated by all levels of the production team. With the lessening of the turmoil of the first two seasons, the next talent attracted to the series found a nurturing and dynamic home. The result would be the strongest season of The Next Generation yet, one which would see the production of many solid episodes, including two destined to be voted by fans as among the five best episodes ever made. One episode in particular would stand out as a real sign of growth when it presented something that Roddenberry had initially intended to avoid—a direct link to The Original Series.

There were changes in front of the camera as well, most notably the return of Gates McFadden in the role of Dr. Beverly Crusher. Though she had been disappointed when her contract had not been renewed after the first season, McFadden had been sought after for a number of roles, including that of Jack Ryan's wife in the blockbuster Paramount film The Hunt for Red October.

Perhaps one of the most pivotal people to join the series in its third year was Michael Piller. Piller had initially on intention of staying longer with The Next Generation than one season and also had no illusions about his abilities as a writer of science fiction. "I had been writing television for four or five years at that point, and had become fairly entrenched in what I felt made good television shows. I didn't know yet if it was going to work on Star Trek, but when I came to the show I told Gene [Roddenberry] and Rick [Berman] what my strengths and weaknesses were. I did not have a pocketful of Star Trek ideas. I didn't really feel I knew science fiction all that well. But I said, 'I understand character. I can help your characters grow'."

Another influential writer who joined The Next Generation that season was Ira Steven Behr, whom Piller calls "my saving grace. When he came on board in the middle of the season, he knew what we needed to do, and helped me on half the last dozen or fifteen shows." Surprisingly, one of the best episodes of that or any other season, according to numerous fan polls, was written under the worst of conditions Piller describes. "Yesterday's Enterprise" had its beginnings in one of the rejected stories Piller came across which had been pitched the previous year. Piller made some suggestions, and the "storybreaking" session—a group meeting in which the story is broken into dramatic beats by the writing staff—continued over a withering eight days. The final script, which is credited to six credited writers, was ultimately turned out by having each act written by a different member of the staff, in order to finish it within three days so that Guinan's crucial scenes could be filmed during Whoopi Goldberg's limited window of availability. The episode also marked the first return to Denise Crosby to the series, reprising he role as Tasha Yar in an alternate timeline in which she did not die as shown in the first-season episode "Skin of Evil".

The last episode of the third season is consistently called out as one of the series' finest—"The Best of Both Worlds, Part I". In it, Captain Picard is captured by the Borg, and assimilated by the Collective to become Locutus. The power of that character would return in pivotal roles in both the pilot episode of Deep Space Nine and the second Next Generation film, Star Trek: First Contact. Intriguingly, that episode was a season-ending cliffhanger, and its unsettled ending also reflected what was going on in the real world.

Michael Piller wrote it without knowing how the story would be resolved, without even knowing if he would be back for the next season to complete it. Of course, he did return, and like so much else in Star Trek, one of the people responsible was Gene Roddenberry himself. "At the end of the year," Piller recalls fondly, "Gene walked into my office and he said, 'Look, this show's just beginning to come around. It needs one more year and it's going to be on top of the world. Please come back next year. This show is really going to make it next year.' And," Pillar concludes, "as usual, Gene was right."

There was a reason why Michael Piller's approach worked so well within the Star Trek universe. As he said, he wanted to tell stories that were about something—stories that families could discuss over breakfast. And since fully eleven of the first thirteen episodes of the new season were concerned with families and family issues, his influence was definitely being felt. Which was exactly what Gene Roddenberry had had in mind in the first place.

The first storytelling task in the fourth season was, of course, the conclusion of "The Best of Both Worlds". Over hiatus, Michael Piller had decided to return to the series, but had not thought about how he would resolve the story until he physically returned to the lot. He only came up with the strategy used to defeat the Borg two days before production began. Though rumours had flourished over the summer, suggesting that Picard might not be rescued from the Borg because Patrick Stewart wanted to leave the show, or that the popular Lieutenant Commander Shelby, played by Elizabeth Dennehy, would become a new regular, the fourth season was the first to begin with no cast changes. However, there were several comings and goings behind the scenes.

Ira Steven Behr left the series to work on a feature project. But he was missed and eagerly invited back to the Star Trek family when Deep Space Nine began production. At the time of The Next Generation's tenth anniversary, Behr now shared executive-producer credit for the series with Rick Berman. Richard Manning and Hans, a writing/production team who had written for the series since the first season under a variety of on-screen credits, left in the fourth season to develop a science fiction series of their own—Beyond Reality. In addition to Jeri Taylor, who had joined the show as supervising producer, new writers for the fourth season included producers Joe Menosky and, briefly, Lee Sheldon, and the talented team of David Bannett Carren and J. Larry Caroll, who came on staff as story editors.

A major element introduced into the Star Trek universe this season was the Cardassians, first seen in "The Wounded". With eerie and elaborate makeup designed by Michael Westmore, matched to ominous, militaristic uniforms designed by Robert Blackman, the Cardassians became on the most visually striking alien races seen thus far. They would also go on to become a critical part of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

As the fourth season came to an end with The Next Generation continuing to set recrods as its ratings climbed, Ron Moore took up the challenge of writing a season-ending cliffhanger that centred on the threat of a Klingon civil war. No only did "Redemption, Part I" introduce the deadly Duras Sisters, it also ended with a tantalizing glimpse of a blond Romulan who looked surprisingly like Tasha Yar. After four years, The Next Generation had at last gathered a writing team that was every bit as strong as its cast, its production staff, its technical crew, and its ratings, while never straying from what Gene Roddenberry had first put into place, and what Piller and Taylor so clearly understood.

"At the core of Star Trek is people," Taylor says. "Stories about the human condition. Stories about relationships. Stories about the struggles that we all have. The science fiction aspects are those sort of wonderful, provocative, intriguing kinds of veneer, but I believe if you look at the core of most of our stories, it's all about us, and that's important to me."

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In October 1991, Star Trek was poised to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary. A sixth Star Trek film was ready for release. The Next Generation was on the brink of achieving its highest-ever ratings. And on October 26th, at the age of seventy, Gene Roddenberry died.

It was a moment that brought sadness to those who loved him and his visionary work. For Gene Roddenberry had, through talent, hard work, and not a little luck, been blessed with a lifetime achievement that few creative people attain. Like Walt Disney, Rob Kane, George Lucas, and a mere handful of others, Roddenberry had been fortunate enough to see one of his creations spring from his imagination to become part of the lives of tens of millions of people, effortlessly transcending national boundaries, generations, and decades. Death is inescapable for us all, but for a parent, how reassuring to know that a child will continue on past one's own lifetime, thriving, protected, and secure. So it was with Gene Roddenberry and his child—Star Trek.

Just as for season four, there were no cast changes for the fifth season, and only a relatively few comings and goings in the production staff. The most influential addition to the Star Trek family that season was Brannon Braga. To the simultaneous delight and consternation of different groups of viewers, Braga's stories are most often characterized by a fascination with the disruption of flesh and mind. He has fun maintaining his image as "Star Trek's bad boy," as he was depicted in an interview published in Details Magazine at the time of First Contact's release. Perceptions of notoriety aside, Braga's ongoing success as a writer and producer for a franchise known for its family appeal clearly comes from working within the nurturing environment of the Star Trek family, and it is that element more than any other that is most strongly reflected and appreciated in his work.

The most important instalment of the fifth season, perhaps on the entire series, was, of course, the two-part episode “Unification”. In season three, long hours of debate had centred on a single word in “Sarek”—the mention of Sarek’s son, Spock. Now, two years later, there was no debate, only eager anticipation at the prospect that Spock would actually appear on The Next Generation. In “Unification”, Rick Berman and Michael Piller developed a story that drew not only from Star Trek’s history—the schism between the Vulcans and the Romulans—but recent, real-world events as well: the reunification of Germany. With Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country also reflecting the collapse of the Soviet Union with its tale of a faltering Klingon Empire, an elegant interweaving of history, real and imaginary, took place within Star Trek, on both television and movie screens, solidly linking the two generations so that at last, there was no distinction between the two—only an ongoing continuum that fans of both series could enjoy. In true Star Trek fashion, there were no longer differences between them. Though this was the season in which the dreamer had died, his dream lived on, a legacy to the world.

Gene Roddenberry was gone, but he was not forgotten. On the Paramount lot, in every storybreaking session that followed, in every creative meeting, the question constantly asked was: "Is this true to Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek?" The deference was not lip service. It was policy. And as The Next Generation entered its distinguished sixth season, the question was asked just as thoughtfully, as when Roddenberry had been working in his office down the hall, and had been available to answer it himself. Fortunately, the question had been addressed often enough during his lifetime that many other people involved with Star Trek already knew the answer. Chief among them were The Next Generation's executive producers, Rick Berman and Michael Piller.

For all the changes reflecting the realignment of staff to encompass the production of two series, the core of The Next Generation remained intact and the series' ratings kept it the top-rated syndicated drama throughout the season, a category marked by much more competition than in 1987. Where once Paramount executives had feared that only one person would ever know what gave Star Trek its appeal, it was clear now that Rick Berman had assembled an entire team of people who understood the secret. Which meant it wasn't a secret anymore. In fact, it never had been.

Seven years earlier, The Next Generation had been an audacious gamble—an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle. Up to that time, syndicated television drama was almost non-existent. Star Trek had consisted only of the adventures of a single starship crew, and only one person knew how and why it worked. But now, seven years later, Star Trek was a machine. An unstoppable phenomenon, almost Borg-like in its ability to assimilate production facilities at the Paramount lot. By the end of the seventh season, as the final episodes of The Next Generation were being made side by side with second-season episodes of Deep Space Nine, and planning began for a still-under-wraps fourth Star Trek series, more than five hundred people on the lot were working directly for the franchise, with hundreds more working off the lot for outside suppliers.

But as the saying—and the title—goes, all good things must come to an end. And once again, The Next Generation was denied the chance to have just an ordinary season. In addition to everyone's usual responsibilities, for producer Ron Moore and co-producer Brannon Braga there was a feature script to write; for the rest of the writing staff, there were loose ends to tie up; for the cast, movie negotiations to be suffered through; and for Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jery Taylor, a new series to create.

In technical terms, the sevenths was one of the best seasons yet. But on the stages and behind the scenes, as the season moved toward the final episode and the demands on everyone's time and energy increased, tension mounted. Fortunately, the strong sense of family and very real friendship among The Next Generation's company of players helped insulate them from what might have been a year of nerve-racking distraction.

Finally, on March 31, 1994, six years and ten months since the first day on principal photography on "Encounter at Farpoint", the cast of The Next Generation gathered together in the same set for the final scene of the episode, the final scene in which they would all appear together on the television screen. Then, for the first time, Captain Picard joined his crew in their regular poker game, first introduced in season two. And as the captain dealt his first hand, he spoke the episode's and the series' final words. Words full of promise for all that was still to come... "The sky's the limit."

 

N. Ottens
20 June 2007

Sources for this article include:
• Reeves-Stevens, J. & G., Star Trek: The Next Generation—The Continuing Mission (1998)
• Images courtesy of Dexler, D., Drex Files & Trekcore.