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Why are bridge consoles always exploding?

Discussion in ' Trek Tech ' started by KhanSolo , Mar 10, 2016 .

KhanSolo Lieutenant Red Shirt

First, I get that this has probably been discussed before, but I just don't understand. I guess I don't fully comprehend how the Enterprises have been designed, it seems anytime something overloads or the ship takes a direct hit, a console or terminal explodes in a brilliant shower of sparks (and apparently rocks in "Yesterday's Enterprise" ) Why??  

Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

...The enemy death rays pierce the shields, after which the enemy transmits a devious assassination program that takes hold of the computers, bypasses all safeties, and reroutes power to key consoles until they explode? Timo Saloniemi  

Arrrrgggh Captain Captain

Fuse box technology was lost during WWIII, obviously.  

Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

I've yet to see a fuse that can stand pure electroplasma being shunted into it straight from a matter/antimatter reactor. Starfleet just doesn't believe in effecient or safe energy production, when you have infinite resources and 900 billion potential recruits, why bother with basic safety?  

Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

There is no surge protection. Kor  

SWHouston Commander Red Shirt

Par for the course for Fed Equipment. The writers like to cause sensationalistic occurrences, with things breaking down, blow up and at the first bump jutst falling apart over and over again. I guess it good "show", but it makes one think that anything with Star Fleet on it, is totally junk.  

Unicron Boss Monster Mod Moderator

Plus they need an excuse to build more starships.  

hux Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

If the ships systems are allowed to overload, they would cause massive, ship destroying explosions so the consoles are designed to overload instead to avoid this.  

Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

No-one's thought of wireless links to the terminals.  

STEPhon IT Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

This was a TNG thing to characters who were irrelevant. I'm not sure it that occurred on Yoy but these thing don't seem to happen to the main cast. The Captain of the Enterprise C was killed after her ship was attacked, but its surprising something similar didn't happen to Janeway with all the battles that super ship took.  

C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

Starships in general are not safe places to be, IMO. All that electroplasma running through every system...it's liking living in a powder keg and giving off sparks...  

Well, out of all the unlucky junior officers that have gotten killed by exploding consoles, at least none of them were as unlucky as alternate universe Riker getting pelted in the neck with chunks of asphalt from an exploding terminal. haha  

B.J. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Do we have any numbers on how many exploded and/or how many they killed?  

Ronald Held Vice Admiral Admiral

Surge protection exists but it is woefully short of what is needed in combat?  

They shouldn't need Surge Protection or even a Fuse for that matter. By this time in Fed experience, they should have improved Shielding to not let anything through. After having been exposed to other technologies for years, and the ability to change/reverse engineer, SF has obviously avoiding ANY improvements to their systems. And this slant toward a "stick in the mud" approach doesn't seem to be anywhere near progressive changes.  

How could you sleep, knowing a pipe of 120m degree kelvin material that could vapourise you and a portion of the ship instantly is running behind the bulkhead your bunk is against? And that there has literally never been a safeguard against it exploding other than crossing your fingers and hoping?  

stardream Commodore Commodore

When you think about it you could use it as a weapon. Just make sure the evil alien is standing in the right spot when someone surreptitiously causes a dangerous overload right there.....  

T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

Chemahkuu said: ↑ I've yet to see a fuse that can stand pure electroplasma being shunted into it straight from a matter/antimatter reactor? Click to expand...

Captain Rob Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

An optical conduit is just an optical fiber. there's no voltage going trough it at all. Just light. And last time I checked. Light doesn't explode.(Sorry photon torpedoes). There's nothing on that bridge that requires anything more than regular household current. Except of course, the artificial gravity (maybe), inertial dampers and structural integrity field. Which should all be built into the ship's structure. Maybe the ventilation system (life support) requires a little more power. But we've never seen one explode. Just stop working. Of course the later ships had force fields available everywhere. So that would take some power. Apparently the TOS Enterprise mostly used good old fashioned copper cable for most of it's power distribution system. As evidenced by the sabotage Ben Finney did in the Jeffries Tube. We saw just regular chunks of black insulated copper cable used as jumpers. Only the hyperpower circuits may have used electroplasma conduits. Such as between the main reactor and the warp nacelles. And the impulse system, auxiliary power and emergency batteries. And of course the weapons system and shields. And the all important navigational deflector.  

Captain Rob said: ↑ An optical conduit is just an optical fiber. there's no voltage going trough it at all. Click to expand...

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Divided We Stand

• Episode aired Sep 25, 2015

After an explosion on the bridge resulting from a failed attempt to isolate the ship's computer from a nano-virus, Kirk and McCoy wake up to find themselves in the middle of one of America's... Read all After an explosion on the bridge resulting from a failed attempt to isolate the ship's computer from a nano-virus, Kirk and McCoy wake up to find themselves in the middle of one of America's bloodiest conflict. After an explosion on the bridge resulting from a failed attempt to isolate the ship's computer from a nano-virus, Kirk and McCoy wake up to find themselves in the middle of one of America's bloodiest conflict.

• Vic Mignogna
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• Captain James T. Kirk

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• Trivia First appearance of the green shirt Captain Kirk wore in the original series.
• Goofs The battle depicted is Antietam (Sharpsburg) in Maryland in 1862. Some of the Confederate units are shown carrying blue and white "Hardee" style battle flags, which were only carried in the Western Theater (Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia), not at Antietam.

Captain James T. Kirk : Please tell me you can do something.

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• Apr 15, 2021
• September 25, 2015 (United States)
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Published Aug 11, 2023

RECAP | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 210 - 'Hegemony'

Sometimes a monster is just a monster.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

StarTrek.com

In  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' Season 2 finale episode " Hegemony ," when the U.S.S. Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy.

• Marie Batel
• Christine Chapel
• Christopher Pike
• Nyota Uhura
• Erica Ortegas
• Robert April
• Una Chin-Riley (Number One)
• La’An Noonien-Singh
• Dr. Joseph M'Benga
• Montgomery Scott

• U.S.S. Cayuga
• Parnassus Beta
• U.S.S. Enterprise

The U.S.S. Cayuga is orbiting Parnassus Beta, a colony located just outside Federation space whose founders drew inspiration from the small towns of the old midwestern United States. Led by Captain Marie Batel, the ship’s surface crew is stabilizing the settlement’s agricultural crop and providing necessary vaccinations. Having hitched a ride with the Cayuga , Nurse Christine Chapel finishes the inoculations and looks ahead to rendezvousing with Dr. Roger Korby for the much-anticipated fellowship . Batel thanks the nurse for the assistance, and Chapel beams back up to the ship.

"Hegemony"

Batel’s PADD chirps, revealing an incoming call from Captain Christopher Pike aboard the  U.S.S. Enterprise . The two captains engage in playful banter, with Pike expressing his appreciation for not bursting into song every ten minutes. Batel laments the situation on Parnassus Beta — Federation membership would protect the colony, but it would also make it a target. Pike admits he misses Batel, though she loses his signal before they can continue the conversation any further, leaving Pike to reflect over the Opelian Mariner’s Keystone his partner had given to him.

Batel checks with Ensign Appel regarding the interruption in communications, but the  Cayuga  doesn’t respond to his hail. A booming sound catches everyone’s attention, and the officers watch as a damaged Starfleet shuttlecraft streaks across the sky and plummets into the distance. Batel stands in shock as a massive non-Federation starship enters the atmosphere and casts a shadow over the entire settlement.

On the  Enterprise  Bridge, Ensign Nyota Uhura receives an emergency transmission from Batel, who has requested that any nearby Federation vessels come to aid in evacuating the colony — Parnassus Beta is under attack by the Gorn! Captain Pike tells Lt. Erica Ortegas to steer the ship toward the planet with “everything she’s got.” The captain heads to his Ready Room to converse with Admiral Robert April, and the two highlight reports that the Gorn Hegemony has been amassing forces along the border for quite a while.* Since the incident is occurring outside the Federation and could potentially spark a war with the Gorn, Starfleet only wants the  Enterprise  to gather intelligence. Responding to Pike’s assertion that the Gorn are “monsters,” April notes the term is often used to describe those who misunderstand us. The captain replies with a stern gaze, offering a chilling observation — “Sometimes a monster is just a monster.” The admiral expresses concern over Pike’s judgment being clouded by his closeness to Batel, though Pike denies it will impact him. 

The  Enterprise  arrives at Parnassus Beta to find a horrific sight — the  Cayuga ’s battered saucer section adrift amid an ocean of debris.** Pike hopes to detect life-signs or escape pods, but sensors, communications, and transporters are all down. Lt. Spock detects a counter frequency emanating from the planet, and Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh theorizes that the Gorn might have an interference field — a weapon to render their enemies blind during invasions. Unable to beam anyone off the  Cayuga  or the planet below, the crew turns to alternative solutions. Uhura suggests they still have line-of-sight communications, prompting Pike to order a search for any fires, lights, or smoke signals initiated by survivors. 

An incoming warp signature is detected, sending the  Enterprise  into a red alert. Spock identifies the vessel as a Gorn hunter ship, and Uhura receives a secure message from Starfleet. The Gorn have sent the Federation an image — a map with a demarcation line separating the  Enterprise  from the colony and the  Cayuga . Starfleet directs the crew to remain on their side of the impromptu border.

Pike gathers the command crew — Commander Una Chin-Riley, Dr. Joseph M’Benga, Lt. Noonien-Singh, Lt. Ortegas, Lt. Spock, and Ensign Uhura — in his Ready Room, relaying his intention to defy Starfleet and covertly extract any survivors from the territory claimed by the Gorn. The captain asks for volunteers, a plea that is greeted with resounding support from those seated around the table. Pike believes Una, Spock, and Uhura’s skill sets will serve them best aboard the  Enterprise , where they must try to avert a war with the Gorn. Lt. George “Sam” Kirk enters the briefing, eager to participate in the mission and overcome his past fears by “studying” the Gorn — with a phaser. 

Filled with resolve, Pike authorizes Transporter Chief Jay to conduct an in-ship transport, beaming Crate 32 out of storage and into the Ready Room. The captain places his hand on the container, unlocking its security measures and revealing an array of anti-Gorn weaponry. Ever since the Hegemony had begun building its forces near Federation space, Starfleet had started issuing such crates to every Starfleet ship in the event they ran across the Gorn. Or, as Ortegas wryly opines, “Break in case of Gorn.” Phaser harmonics adjustments, scanner recalibrations, and — to Uhura’s shock — nitrogen grenades are all included. Tricorders can now pick up Gorn life-signs, and the grenades will freeze anything within its ten-meter range. Ortegas revisits a burning question — can they even reach the planet?

Sitting at her Bridge station, Number One demonstrates the futility of alternate routes — they cannot use the gravity of the moon as a slingshot or utilize a geosynchronous orbit to take the  Enterprise  off the same plane as its Gorn counterpart. If the ship crosses the demarcation line, the Gorn will know about it. The map of the  Cayuga ’s debris draws Ortegas’ attention — the Gorn aren’t shooting at the wreckage because they already did. Perhaps the best way to cross is right in front of them. A subdued Pike praises the pilot’s brilliant plan, agreeing that posing as space debris might get them by the Gorn hunter. Citing Ortegas’ well-known desire to join a landing party, the captain tasks her with the job.

Now on one of the  Enterprise ’s shuttlecraft, the team — Pike, M’Benga, Noonien-Singh, Ortegas, and Sam Kirk — sit anxiously as the vessel is guided into position within the debris field. Its hull camouflaged by pieces of metal, the shuttle passes through the Gorn ship’s scanning range without being detected. On the  Enterprise ’s Bridge, Uhura compares the “space garbage” gambit to an old zombie movie trick, with Una concurring that survivors would dress up as if they were dead so the zombies wouldn’t notice them. Spock wears a confused expression, promising to conduct more research on the curious film genre. A beep chimes from his station, alerting him that the shuttle has entered the planet’s atmosphere.

Out of range and on their own, the landing party endures a rough entry and a death-defying plummet to avoid being spotted. The captain grits his teeth, but Ortegas — who pulled this maneuver a hundred times during the Klingon War — flashes a smile and delights in the adrenaline-fueled ride to the surface. Despite his history as a test pilot, a rattled Pike claims that Ortegas was born for “riding a bike” at the speed of light.

Number One approaches Spock’s Bridge station, where the science officer persists in his attempt to scan for survivors by seeking a frequency gap through the interference field. Recognizing Spock’s distress, Una quietly confides that she doesn’t believe anyone is alive on the Cayuga . Spectrometric analysis suggests there are pockets of oxygen on the derelict saucer section, but Spock’s desire to find Nurse Chapel — coupled with their recent fight — inspires resolve in the Vulcan. The wreck rotates every two hours, so Sickbay should soon be visible from their current position. Number One orders the computer to magnify the Cayuga on the viewscreen, revealing that the other vessel’s Sickbay is completely gone. Una places her hand on Spock’s shoulder, but he is too stunned to speak.

At the Parnassus Beta colony, Noonien-Singh informs Pike about a distant Gorn structure that is pulsating with a green glow. Something similar was on the breeding planet she was imprisoned on, and her brother thought it was a beacon designed to trap passersby. They speculate that it is what’s blocking their signals. The group moves through the darkness, their path lit only by sporadic fires. Strewn with rubble, the streets paint a grim picture of the colony’s fate, but Pike isn’t ready to give up on its 5,000 residents. An alarm blares from Kirk’s tricorder — a Gorn youngling is inbound.

The landing party takes cover, observing the reptilian lifeform until La’An rises to get off a kill-shot. The Gorn collapses in agony, proving that the phaser modifications are working. The security chief mentions that the Gorn spread their eggs to soften up planets for conquering, but the youngling’s hunger could signify that it had run out of food sources — perhaps the settlement’s survivors are hiding? Another tricorder alert warns the group that dozens of “bogeys” are converging on them. Pike leads them into a nearby barbershop, allowing Noonien-Singh and Kirk to block the door with a shelf. The officers extinguish their lights and watch as the Gorn investigate the youngling’s corpse.

Uhura catches up with Commander Pelia in one of the Enterprise ’s corridors, where the Lanthanite has been struggling to recalibrate the deflector shield’s power conduits. The ensign could use the engineer’s help with a theory pertaining to the Gorn’s interference field. Pelia acknowledges that she loves a “crazy theory,” and Uhura follows her as she continues her work.

Down on the surface, Pike’s team realizes that the younglings are gathering together rather than fighting for dominance. The captain wonders if they should be finding a way to reach them, responding to Noonien-Singh’s skepticism with one of his favorite sayings — " Sometimes hope is a choice ." Pike shows remorse over having brought his crew into this situation, but the security chief emphasizes that Batel is tough; if she can handle the captain, she can handle the Gorn. The younglings outside have moved on, and Sam delivers a report about an anomalous human signal emanating down the street.

Phasers drawn, the landing party enters the building in question to find bloodied walls, gory remains, and a mysterious device. Sam lifts the equipment, an action which activates a hidden force field and traps them within its confines. A Starfleet officer peaks in from another room, cautiously approaching his imprisoned colleagues. Speaking with a thick Scottish accent, the officer notes he had set a Gorn trap. He programmed the box to send out auditory and pheromonal life signs — as well as heat signatures — at regular intervals. Clearly pleased with his ingenuity, the officer drops the energy barrier and introduces himself as Montgomery Scott, lieutenant junior grade.

A crew member from the U.S.S. Stardiver , a solar research vessel that had been monitoring solar flare activity one system over when the Gorn attacked, Scott miraculously escaped by jury-rigging the engines on one of his ship’s shuttles to increase their capacity and learning how to hide in plain sight. Scott credits the presence of human-eating lizards with his ability to get creative. Pike steels himself to ask a pressing question — did any of the Cayuga ’s crew make it out?

Scott brings them into the remnants of an abandoned diner where Captain Batel and other survivors are hunkered down. Batel and Pike embrace, their palpable relief broken up by a brief disagreement about whether or not Pike’s rescue attempt was a wise decision. The Enterprise ’s commanding officer consults with Scott, who details the Stardiver ’s study of the red supergiant in the neighboring Shangdi system. The star released a dramatic series of CMEs — coronal mass ejections that are more violent than solar flares — which Scott believes attracted the Gorn to the region. 

Sam Kirk adds his thoughts, remembering that environmental factors can trigger a swarming instinct in locusts. What if CMEs in certain sequences set off a consumption cycle among the Gorn? Recalling Noonien-Singh’s revelation that the Gorn communicate ship-to-ship through light, Kirk surmises they might have evolved with a deep, ingrained sensitivity to it. Batel recognizes this as an important piece of intel, reinforcing Pike’s urge to escape the planet. The group turns back to Scott, who had assessed the Gorn’s scanning tech and built a transponder to replicate the signals the Gorn use to recognize one another. Harnessing specialized components from the Stardiver — including a Hubble K7C Stellar Assessment Array — Scott made his shuttlecraft appear as a Gorn vessel. Unfortunately, he would need the unique array to replicate the procedure on Pike’s shuttle.

As M’Benga treats a survivor, Ortegas offers to assist before asking if the doctor had inquired about Chapel. The nurse transported back to the Cayuga just prior to the attack, elevating Ortegas’ concern that her friend had been killed. The two share a nervous laugh, knowing their friend would be the first one to tell them to pick up the pace.

Back on the Enterprise , Spock’s scans sense the arrival of two more Gorn hunter ships. Uhura and Pelia rush onto the Bridge, and the four officers convene in the Ready Room. By adjusting their output, Uhura and Pelia had triangulated the interference field’s point of origin on the far side of Parnassus Beta — unbeknownst to them, this is the same structure that Pike and Noonien-Singh had spotted while scouting the surface. Destroying it would make comms and transporters functional again, but using the Enterprise ’s weapons would ignite a conflict with the Gorn. The ensign proposes they divert the trajectory of the Cayuga ’s derelict saucer section. With the right calculations and a few well-placed retro rockets, Pelia guarantees they can make it seem as if the ship’s hull is being pulled down naturally. Last-minute attitude adjustments will permit them to determine the saucer’s final landing spot. Convinced that no human could accomplish this, a defiant Spock announces he must be the one to enact the plan.

As the colony’s survivors sleep in the diner below, Batel catches Pike in his attempt to sneak out and recover the device from Scott’s shuttle. Unwilling to let him go alone, Batel volunteers to join them. Having overheard their conversation, Scott — who promises he didn’t mean to eavesdrop — notes they will need his help to uninstall the transponder. Pike tosses him a phaser, and the three officers set out on the dangerous excursion.

A wounded Christine Chapel awakes in a corridor aboard the Cayuga ’s saucer. An automated computer message announces that oxygen is running out in this section, so Chapel musters her strength and rewires a panel. An hour’s worth of life support is restored. The nurse rummages through supplies until she spies the Enterprise through a nearby window, but she becomes frustrated when a faulty flashlight prevents her from manually signaling the ship.

Outfitted with a spacesuit, Spock jets across the divide separating the Enterprise from the Cayuga ’s saucer. The Vulcan sets foot onto the Cayuga ’s hull and initiates the scheme to attach maneuvering rockets. During this process, he floats by the room Chapel is in, but she is unable to get his attention from inside the ship. Buoyed with hope, Chapel visits a corridor and opens a locker containing a spacesuit of her own.

At the fiery crash site where Scott’s shuttle went down, the engineer enlists Pike to assist him in removing the makeshift Gorn transponder. As Batel shifts equipment around, she is confronted by a Gorn youngling that instigates a face-off with the three Starfleet officers.

Back aboard the Cayuga ’s saucer, Chapel has donned her environmental suit and hears someone entering incorrect command codes into the ship’s computer. Expecting a joyous reunion with Spock, Chapel is stunned to find an adult Gorn exploring the Cayuga ’s systems. Horrified, she steps back into cover and eyes a potential escape route — a Jefferies tube frosted over by space’s icy temperatures.

In Scott’s shuttle, Batel boldly takes a stand and positions herself between the Gorn and her two colleagues. The Gorn growls, coming eye-to-eye with Batel before retreating into the night. Batel blocks the entrance, leaving Pike to insist on learning why the youngling didn’t attack them. Batel brushes off the inquiry, but Pike stares at her with curiosity and concern.

Spock places the final rocket within the shattered remains of the Cayuga ’s Bridge and activates the thruster sequence. As he does so, the Vulcan notices the reflection of a Gorn emerging from the ceiling behind him. Chapel walks onto the deck, exchanging a glance with Spock just as the Gorn launches its assault on him. An arduous battle ensues, with the Gorn wrapping its tail around the Vulcan’s throat. Chapel manages to secure Spock’s phaser, firing a shot that distracts the Gorn and allows Spock to jab a metal shard into the Gorn’s helmet. Its seal broken, the Gorn’s mask vents atmosphere and sends it into a brief — but agonizing — death spiral.

As Scott focuses on his shuttle’s control panel, Pike pressures Batel for an answer. Rolling up her sleeve, Batel reveals a web-like pattern on her wrist — the telltale sign that she has been infested by Gorn eggs. The Cayuga ’s captain confesses she was infected the day before, so the eggs will likely mature within the next 12 hours.

Flames engulf the Cayuga ’s saucer as it falls through Parnassus Beta’s atmosphere, so Spock and Chapel depart the wreckage in their EV suits. The two watch as the starship’s remains head toward the planet, holding hands at the beautiful-yet-tragic sight. On the ground, Batel is adamant that she cannot put the Enterprise at risk by returning with Pike. Batel’s alternative? She will fly the shuttle into the Gorn tower to disrupt the interference field and enable the Enterprise to beam Pike and the other survivors aboard. Pike’s emotional plea is interrupted by a thunderous sound — the Cayuga ’s saucer slices through the Gorn structure and produces a bright explosion!

Sensors on the Enterprise ’s bridge indicate that the field is down, meaning the comms and transporters are operational once again. Spock and Chapel are beamed aboard, and Pike contacts Number One to request she lock on to the surviving colonists. In the meantime, Pike — along with Batel and Scott — must be beamed directly to Sickbay. Number One calls for Chapel, who shares a moment with Spock before heading off to help Pike.

In the diner on Parnassus Beta, the survivors — including M’Benga, Noonien-Singh, Ortegas, and Kirk — are also gripped in an energizing beam. Pike materializes in Sickbay, surprised and delighted to discover that Chapel has survived. Following a friendly hug, Pike informs Chapel about Batel’s situation. While Batel wants Chapel to “take her out” if there’s any sign the eggs cannot be stopped, the nurse vows she won’t give up on her. The captain turns around to find Scott awkwardly holding the transponder, introducing the lieutenant to Pelia as she arrives on the scene. Recognition washes over Scott’s face, and Pelia offers her own greeting — “Hello, Scotty.” Scott responds with a less-than-enthusiastic, “Professor!” The Lanthanite describes him as one of her best students... who sadly received some of her worst grades. The captain tasks the two engineers with fixing the transponder.

Pike returns to the Bridge, barely having time to get situated into the captain’s chair before finding out a Gorn destroyer has warped in — the Enterprise now faces four enemy ships, with more on the way. The Federation flagship prepares for evasive maneuvers, but sensors do not detect any human lifesigns on Parnassus Beta. Pike assures Spock there are hundreds of survivors below. The Vulcan investigates, ultimately reading residual transport signatures from a non-Starfleet vessel in the center of the town — the colonists and the landing party must have been beamed up by the Gorn.

Incoming fire rocks the ship, momentarily distracting Pike. Three Gorn hunters strafe the Enterprise , causing sparks to erupt throughout the vessel. On the Bridge, Uhura receives a priority message from Starfleet — Admiral April has ordered an immediate withdrawal. The captain’s facial features harden, his determination seemingly wavering as he contemplates the danger his crew is up against. Pondering his next move, Pike peers out the viewscreen, where local space is filled with enemies and energy blasts.

TO BE CONTINUED…

* " Bound " - In this  Star Trek: Enterprise  episode, the Orion Harrad-Sar offers Captain Archer and Lt. Reed a meridor drink he acquired from the Gorn Hegemony, which is the first time their government body is referenced.

** " Arena " and " Memento Mori " - The Gorn's interactions with the Federation have been aggressive and hostile. In the  Star Trek : The Original Series episode, Kirk and the  Enterprise  arrive at an outpost on Cestus III only to find the colony destroyed, and the invitation a ruse to lure them there. The Gorn are adamant in their belief that this colony lies in their jurisdiction, and they were acting in accordance of staving off any invading force. However, the attack on the colony of Finibus III in the first season  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  episode confirmed the Gorn's raid now has targets in Federation space.

• Written by Henry Alonso Myers
• Directed by Maja Vrvilo

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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

How ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Resurrected an Iconic Set

By Scott Mantz

Scott Mantz

• ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Team Built a ‘Museum Quality’ Enterprise D to Make Things as ‘Cinematic as Possible’ 11 months ago
• How ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Created the High-Tech Bridge of Its Newest Starship 1 year ago
• How ‘Babylon’s’ Cocaine-Snorting Opening Sequence Came Together 1 year ago

SPOILER ALERT:   This story discusses major plot developments in Season 3, Episode 9 of “ Star Trek: Picard ,” currently streaming on Paramount+.

All season long, the producers of “ Star Trek: Picard ” have boldly pulled out all the stops to make the third and final season one for the books. To that extent, it seemed like only a matter of time until we finally got to see the Enterprise — that is, the Enterprise-D, the Galaxy-class starship that made its first appearance in 1987 with the premiere episode of “ Star Trek: The Next Generation .”

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Executive producer Terry Matalas went through hoops to make sure history never forgot the name Enterprise. Speaking with Variety, and sharing photos of “The Next Generation” cast on the ship, Matalas says, “Everyone tried to talk us out of doing this, because financially it’s a nightmare, and the timing was tight. To the moment we started filming, we were still gluing pieces together. But you can’t have a ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ reunion without one of its major characters, which is the Enterprise.”

As for how it was even possible for the Enterprise-D to exist after it was virtually destroyed in 1994’s “Star Trek: Generations” (only the top saucer section was still intact after crash-landing on the planet Veridian III), it turns out Geordi La Forge took it upon himself to completely restore it for the Starfleet Museum.

However, despite the prominent presence of the Enterprise-D bridge on seven seasons of the TV series that ran from 1987 to 1994 (as well as the 1994 “Generations” feature film), construction guidelines were scarce for production designer Dave Blass and art director Liz Kloczkowski, who spearheaded the project.

Blass pivoted to another invaluable resource when he recruited “Star Trek” legends Mike Okuda and Denise Okuda (from Herman Zimmerman’s “Next Generation” production design team) as consultants.

“The Enterprise from ‘The Next Generation’ was the first Enterprise on which I was the principal graphic designer,” Okuda says. “I got to work with [‘Star Trek’ creator] Gene Roddenberry on making that bridge come to life.”

But even with that deep-dive knowledge and experience, finding the source materials to reconstruct the bridge still proved to be a daunting challenge.

“The first thing we did was to go in the garage and dive into boxes and see what we still had,” Okuda says. “We had some original drawings and art, but large chunks of it disappeared. You realize you’re going to have to reconstruct a lot of this from scratch.”

It took three months and a team of around 50 people to completely rebuild the bridge, which was a physical build and not done on a green screen or in VFX. It measured exactly the same as the original set: 50 feet wide and 100 feet long.

All this work was in addition to every other set built for Seasons 2 and 3, which were shot back to back. “We were doing all the interiors of the starship Titan – like the bridge, the transporter rooms, the crew quarters, the hallways and sickbay – as well as [the enemy ship] the Shrike, Daystrom Station and the Borg,” says Blass. “So, all that all on top of each other.”

The goal was to re-create the look of the LCARS panels, as closely as possible to their appearance in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

“We took advantage of the huge advances in real-world computer display technology to make a few subtle upgrades to the displays,” Okuda says. “In a scene where one of our officers is using the science equipment, if the director wanted to show the scan itself, we would have had to insert the animation in post-production, back in the day. Now, it’s easy to do the animation and have it play back on the set, so the cast could see it in real-time.”

When it came to challenges, Blass says, the wood archway was one of the hardest pieces to recreate. “It’s a complex curve that arches and changes thickness,” he explains. “You can only get so much information off a blueprint. The construction team printed out a full-size paper plan to lay it out and then used a number of templates to shape the final piece.”

The chairs were another set piece in recreating the Enterprise-D that needed to be taken into consideration. “We had to sculpt the right shape based on the basic form, then do a deep dive on the right materials that have the right color and texture,” Blass says. “Each chair has four different materials.”

Blass adds that the infamous carpet, referenced by Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard in the episode, “was very hard to find as it’s a pattern that has been out of stock for decades.”

“That was tricky because you’re talking about lighting that was much more intrinsic to the 1990s,” Matalas says. “Now we have different cameras in a different cinematic style to the show. We had to find a hybrid of the old style and the new with our director of photography, John Joffin, and I think we found a really great sweet spot.”

When the cast saw the bridge for the first time, they got right down to business.

“This season was so ambitious, and we only had two days to shoot on this thing,” Matalas says. “It was literally, like, get everybody on, you got your four minutes of nostalgia, and then we have to boogie. But it was all very natural for them. It was like being back on Stage 8 at the Paramount lot. Patrick Stewart even did the ‘Picard maneuver,’ which he was very proud of.”

And what of the ship today?

Their work remains intact. “There were lots of interested parties who wanted to save the set,” Blass says. “Luckily it has a home in the Star Trek archives.”

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‘Star Trek’ Fans Can Now Virtually Tour Every Starship Enterprise Bridge

An interactive web portal explores the vessel’s evolution over nearly six decades

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For decades, many “ Star Trek ” fans have imagined what it would be like to work from the bridge of the starship  Enterprise , the long-running franchise’s high-tech space-exploring vessel. Through various iterations and seasons of the series, created by  Gene Roddenberry in the ’60s, the bridge has remained a constant, serving as the backdrop for many important moments in the show’s 800-plus episodes.

Now, die-hard Trekkies and casual watchers alike can virtually roam around the Enterprise’s bridge to their heart’s content, thanks to a sophisticated and highly detailed new  web portal that brings the space to life.

The site features 360-degree, 3D models of the various versions of the Enterprise , as well as a timeline of the ship’s evolution throughout the franchise’s history. Fans of the show can also read detailed information about each version of the ship’s design, its significance to the “Star Trek” storyline and its production backstory.

Developed in honor of the “Star Trek: Picard”  series finale , which dropped late last month on Paramount+, the portal is a collaboration between the Roddenberry Estate, the Roddenberry Archive and the technology company OTOY. A group of well-known “Star Trek” artists—including Denise and Michael Okuda , Daren Dochterman, Doug Drexler and Dave Blass—also supported the project.

“Through new technology, we can bring audiences back in time as if they were there on set during the making of ’Star Trek,’ providing a window into new dimensions of the ‘Star Trek’ universe,” says Jules Urbach, OTOY’s CEO, in a  statement .

The voice of the late actress  Majel Roddenberry , who played the Enterprise ’s computer for years, will be added to the site in the future. Gene Roddenberry  died in 1991 , followed by Majel Roddenberry  in 2008 ; the two had been married since 1969.

The portal’s creators also released a short video , narrated by actor  John de Lancie , exploring every version of the Enterprise ’s bridge to date, “from its inception in  Pato Guzman ’s 1964 sketches, through its portrayal across decades of TV shows and feature films, to its latest incarnation on the Enterprise-G , as revealed in the final episode of ‘ Star Trek: Picard ,’” per the video description. Accompanying video interviews with “Star Trek” cast and crew—including William Shatner , who played Captain Kirk in the original series, and Terry Matalas , a showrunner for “Star Trek: Picard”—also explore the series’ legacy.

The interactive, 3D bridge models contain a surprising level of detail, right down to the consoles and turbolifts. The site, however, has so far been hit or miss for users, suggesting that the team behind it may still be working out a few of the technical kinks, reports the  Verge ’s Sean Hollister. And as Kyle Barr writes for  Gizmodo , one big downside is that the models don’t contain any “Star Trek” characters, who he says are “the beating heart of the show and its ideals.”

“Sitting in the captain’s chair, with all the stations empty beside you,” he writes, “is enough to make one wistful.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Recap: Did La’an and Kirk Alter an Infamous Villain’s Future?

Keisha hatchett, staff editor.

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This week’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds asked a provocative question: What would you do if you had the opportunity to go back in time and kill a mass murderer before they grew up to commit such atrocities?

Kirk and La’an were stranded in the past with only the clothes on their backs, and Kirk knew just what to do. Gambling via chess games with strangers, he won enough money for hot dogs and a nice hotel room for the night. And yes, he slept on the couch while La’an took the bed. The future Enterprise captain was a gentleman, after all. Related Stories The Masters 2024: How to Watch the Final Round Online Billy Joel 100th Concert Special: How to Stream the Performance Online

A massive bridge explosion the next morning provided the first clue for this mystery mission. The technology used in the terrorist attack was far too advanced for the time, and they knew well enough to track where the debris was being taken for more answers. But they needed wheels, so Kirk carjacked a guy using the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. Cue a car chase in the flashy red Dodge Charger, and the pair nearly getting arrested before an activist named Sera intervened.

Sera believed in aliens, which made her an outcast in this timeline since otherworldly beings were considered science fiction. However, she was strikingly close to the truth. Kirk recognized a UFO in her photos as a Romulan ship, and remembered that the Romulans staged their first act of war with a cold fusion reactor explosion.

With help from Pelia, who was confused about why La’an knew her (given that they’d never met in this timeline), La’an and Kirk built a cold fusion detector out of an old watch. This led them to the Noonien-Singh Institute, and La’an realized her family was somehow involved.

Kirk, recognizing the tight security in place, dared Sera to shoot him (which would trigger the alarms). She called his bluff and fired anyway, and the Enterprise captain bled out. In his last breath, he asked La’an to say hi to his brother Sam.

Forced to change her plans, Sera used La’an to get inside, stopping right outside of Khan’s door. And when she tried to convince La’an to help her open it, La’an revealed her connection to the future homicidal maniac. Sera in turn laid out a convincing argument: With Khan’s death (and because La’an held a device that protected her from any changes to the timeline), the Starfleet officer could be free of her criminal ancestor and live whatever life she wanted.

But that meant killing a child, something La’an was unwilling to do. Instead, she killed Sera and then sat down with a young Khan. When the boy asked if she was there to take him away, she told him, “You are right where you need to be.”

With that, La’an completed her mission — which was to stop Sera from murdering her ancestor — and was sent back aboard the Enterprise in her correct timeline. Agent Ymalay from the Department of Temporal Investigations (a future division in the Federation tasked with repairing damage to the timeline) thanked La’an for filling in for her dead colleague, and warned that telling anyone about what transpired would undo everything.

When they hung up, she sobbed. The security head had no proof of her journey with Kirk, except for the cold fusion reactor detector they built together.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Are you now ‘shipping La’an and Kirk? Sound off below!

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I nominate Christina Chong for Performer of the Week!

I think Pelia will remember her and that watch!

I agree. The branch point of the timelines occurred AFTER they met in Vermont. The real mind-bender is this: has Pelia ALWAYS known about La’an and Kirk coming to visit her? Are they the reason she decided to become an engineer in the first place?

In the TOS timeline, Khan left Earth in the late 90s after the Eugenic Wars. In the timeline we witnessed, Khan was a child in the 2020s. The Khan we saw in TOS was in his late 30s/early 40s. We also know that in season 2 of Picard, which took place in the 2030s, one of the subplots dealt with the illegal use of genetic engineering that had been banned because of the Eugenic Wars.

In summary, what we witnessed was part of the temporal cold war and the events that we saw had to be erased, reverting to events of the original TOS timeline similar to experience the crew of the TV series when it fought alien allies of the Nazis who had won WW2 in an altered timeline.

No, don’t think she did. Expecting the watch to be mentioned at some point down the rd. If the timeline had been reset to an alternative future then the sceen with the time agent at the end was pointless.

IU saw this scene as the same old argument, if you could go back in time and kill Adolf Hitler would you. That was the same choice she had in this case., but chose not to.

Going back to the watch, Well it seems she was always destined to go back in time to put the engineer of her path to join Starfleet. In which case she had always gone back in time, just no one know new about it.

Pelia would have to have known La’an from the past.The timeline diverged when Sera killed Khan. Before Khan was killed La’an and Pelia had the same timeline and if Khan wasn’t killed then the both of them had a common timeline.

As the temporal investigator said La’an restored the timeline and Pelia’s life proceeded as it should have. Therefore La’an and Pelia met in the past and both should remember the meeting.

Pelia on the Enterprise knew she had met La’an in the past because she remembers it happening. Therefore Pelia told La’an about the stolen painting and where she stole it from and practically gave La’an instructions on her location in Vermont so the Pelia of the past would know La’an was the genuine article.

More importantly. How did she do her hair without a brush. And makeup?

Did anyone else notice that La’an left the gun on Khans bedside table? She’s the Chief of Security on the USS Enterprise, and she left a gun with an unsupervised child – right after using it to kill someone in front of him.

Yes! Great episode, but yes.

Yes, it was very weird that she left the loaded gun in the child’s room.

And it was a Dodge Challenger — not a Charger.

Yeah. And not any child, it’s Khan. I was kind of expecting a scene at the end addressing that. At the same time now I don’t think that will become “canon”. I think they’d chuck it as a “scene error”. Otherwise they’d need to address the fact that as you said “the Chief of Security on the USS Enterprise left a gun with an unsupervised child”.

I liked how Kirk said it was New York City when it was clearly Toronto (from the big Toronto Eaton Center sign) and La’an just looks weirdly at him and tells him its Toronto. It was a nice change from Toronto or Vancouver being some other place like Seattle when it is clear that are not that place.

Is this a cross-over with Disneys Marvels Loki? Temporal Investigations? Are these Sci-Fi, Superhero-Shows are written by the same person? These “alternative timelines”- and “multiverse”-stories will be the end of these Hollywood cash cows. We see it in the movies and the series will follow.

They (writers/showrunners/producers) can change anything. Oh spoiler Kirk is dead in this timeline, his brother not…what’s the point? Why bother, if you have no story to tell. It’s a waste of all the great acting skills of everyone involved. I’m sorry, but I hate these stories. All of them. It’s all the same…in another timeline and in another universe I maybe like them..here not.

This guy is watching Star Trek for the first time.

Actually no, I am aware of some of the alternative timeline episodes of Star Trek series (Long live Tasha Yar) I did not see Enterprise or DS9 in full, so I wasn’t aware of the TempInv’s first appearance

I just find the increasing numbers of similar storylines a bit boring. Discovery, Picard, now this..The Flash, SpiderMan, Doctor Strnage, Avengers, Loki, soon the Kang movie..it’s all the same..they can do anything everywhere to anyone..isn’t this frustrating at times?

I suspect that Pelia will remember her yet to be revealed in a future episode.

The department of Temporal Investigations was first shown in Star Trek in 1996 on an episode of Deep Space Nine

Thanks Ryan, I wasn’t aware of this. I only mentioned Loki because it came first to mind

You don’t have to kill baby Hitler to stop him. Crippling him physically or mentally would be just as effective. Hell, if you gave baby Hitler RFK Jr’s voice that would be probably be enough to prevent his rise…

Great episode. Christina and Paul were both great. But was I the only one saying , when they kissed , “ what is it with you?” to quote Bones in Undiscovered Country?

There were some odd gaps. Why, exactly, did the Department of Temporal Investigations agent go to the Enterprise when he was wounded? Why did he involve La’an, instead of keeping it inside his own department? They evidently knew what was going on, since they showed up at the end to tell her not to talk about it. And Khan was exposed precisely because La’an was uniquely capable of getting into his quarters, and she wouldn’t have been there if the Department hadn’t sent her back. Either the Department had some deeper plan, or the writers were just eager to have everything revolve around La’an. . Which is exactly what writers should do, anyway, and I don’t really care about the details. One of the nice things about SNW is that it has actors and characters who deserve that kind of focus, and get it. . Though I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes about it, I’m not a fan of the Kirk character. He’s always struck me as too “on,” and I can’t think of any instance in TOS where he expressed a single emotion that didn’t looked staged. I think Paul Wesley does what he can with a thankless role, and cuts down on the emoting, but still has to play someone who’s always managing his appearance. I just wasn’t convinced that La’an would have any chemistry with him. . Cold fusion was never a real thing, and it would be better if everyone would forget about it. .

At least three instances of honest emotion from TOS: leaning over the body of a dead crewman in The Devil in the Dark and watching Edith die on The City on the Edge of Forever. How about watching Spock die in The Wrath of Khan? If you don’t see honesty in these scenes, I don’t get that.

I just can’t get the thought out of my head that it’s Jim Carrey playing Kirk. Still a great show.

So I made a mistake in the comments when the trailer aired. I got mad that they acted like Kirk wouldn’t know how to use a revolving door from (as he says) “growing up in space” – but that was only partially true as his family moved to space by the time he was a teenager but his younger self would have surely used a revolving door. Now that the episode has aired, I know it was an ALTERNATE Kirk who truly did truly grow up completely in space and who likely did indeed never see such a door. I was glad to see it correct at the end with the Riverside mention! Iowa proud.

Also, I am kind of bummed we know proper timeline Kirk’s romantic future because there was definitely some chemistry there

Of course Kirk and La’an should be shipped. For such a space Romeo, Kirk had very little to show for it.

Just getting into Star Trek strange new world. Didn’t know the connection to Khan for La’an. Being an original Trekie, I thoroughly enjoy any episodes that jump back and forth between the different series. Tying them together like this, makes this new series more enjoyable. Besides I am on team Kirk every chance I get.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Bridge Crew Actors Share Secrets Behind Acting On The Enterprise, And Losing Themselves In The Roles

The actors shared a lot of cool information.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is almost here and is set to bring some new elements to the long-running franchise. Fans will get to see a bridge crew of both new and familiar characters on the Enterprise navigating space amid a five-year mission. The bridge is where most of the Trek franchise’s most exciting scenes often happen, so what’s it like to inhabit a Starfleet vessel set while trying to also act in a scene? Well, the actors who play the crew of the starship have discussed their keys acting while on the bridge and how they even lose themselves in the roles. 

I had the honor of speaking to Christina Chong, Melissa Navia, and Celia Rose Gooding ahead of the premiere of Strange New Worlds (which will be streamable with a Paramount+ subscription ) and asked them about the ins and outs of acting on the Enterprise bridge. Chong, who plays Chief of Security Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh, talked to me about how she prepares for tense scenes that take place at her station and noted the importance of buttons:

I have, whenever some things like irregular or whenever there’s some kind of attack or happening, or the Gorn are coming or whatever. I endow the buttons, it’s a different button every time but maybe I’ll endow a certain button with the emergency and the energy of…‘If I press this button, then something terrible is going to happen in my own life,’ or, ‘Press the button and stop something terrible happening in my own life.’ So I kind of, in that way, tried to make it real to me.

So anyone watching the show over the next few weeks may want to keep an eye on La’an and those buttons. It’s certainly interesting to hear the actress' process of endowing importance to buttons while still navigating a scene and making sure to balance everything seamlessly. 

Melissa Navia plays conn officer Lieutenant Erica Ortegas, and she takes that role very seriously. In fact, Navia confessed to CinemaBlend that she'll sometimes miss a cue because she’s so caught up in pretending to fly the ship and referencing the additional materials she gets from the graphics team:

Well, for me, I’m actually flying the ship. That is how I go into it. The console, the helm for me, is like just the real deal. I have everything that’s in front of me. I get the graphics guys, who are wonderful, and they like build in evasive maneuvers that nobody on-screen will ever see, but I see it. So I laugh sometimes because I’ll completely forget a line because I’m like [imitates flying ship] here, and they’re like ‘Melissa,’ and I’m like, ‘Sorry guys! I’m like focused. We’re doing stuff.’

While Melissa Navia gets caught up in flying the ship occasionally, that’s not something I dislike hearing as a Star Trek fan. It's honestly great to know that Navia is so immersed in the experience, as it indicates just how passionate she is about her work within this fictional universe.

Hilariously enough, she takes so much care when it comes to pretending to fly the ship that she tends to notice when other members of the crew are in her spot. The actress further revealed that there have been a few times in which she’s seen other cast members in her position on the conn and weren’t doing things to her liking:

I’m in awe of all the other stations, and they all have buttons. I have less buttons to play with. There have been a few times I’ve been in the Captain’s chair, and they have someone else sitting in at my helm, and they’re doing things, and I’m just like cringing because I’m like, ‘That’s the wrong thing, you don’t know.’ So, I just have to [accept it]. I just take it very seriously, and then also I’m having a great time too.

Melissa Navia had a bit of button envy and, given the myriad of buttons on the walls, it isn’t hard to see why. There are a lot of options for people working on the different corners of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ’ bridge and a lot of buttons to press. Celia Rose Gooding knows that about as well as anyone. Since she plays the role of Cadet Nyota Uhura, she has a lot of buttons to handle as a communications specialist. Gooding shared the secrets behind that, as well as what she’s actually up when filming bridge crew scenes on the show:

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I have a lot of buttons. I have a whole console to myself. It’s great. I try to touch everything. I think of my style of communication as like sonar. So, I’m constantly opening and closing frequencies, hailing frequencies, I’m trying to like listen in to see if there’s communication happening around us that like maybe our shields aren’t picking up on or sensors aren’t picking up on. I’m constantly like putting my ear to a bunch of imaginary doors, and that’s how I try to look busy when really, I’m just listening to how talented my cast is saying a bunch of words that don’t make sense in any universe besides ours.

Christina Chong and Celia Rose Gooding also shared their nicknames for everyone’s station in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , and they're absolutely hilarious. For those curious, Uhura does “words,” La’an handles “pew-pews,” Ortegas is “Google Maps,” and Spock (whose portrayer, Ethan Peck, spoke to us about finding the role through understanding Leonard Nimoy ) runs “thermostat or air-con.” If it isn’t apparent by now, this cast loves to have fun, which might be why I found them so immediately likable. And on top of that, the show is a great entry point for new viewers . Here's to more fun times for the cast and crew on the set!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres on Paramount+ on Thursday, May 5th. Tune in for the latest installment in the franchise, and be sure to keep tabs on the other new Trek shows that are coming in 2022 and beyond. 

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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Redesigning the Enterprise Bridge for the Silver Screen

Matt Jefferies, the designer of the original Enterprise bridge, was intimately involved in recreating the set for what would become Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

In the summer of 1977, Jefferies was working as a technical advisor on the planned second Star Trek television series, Phase II . He revisited Pato Guzman’s very first proposal for the Enterprise bridge, which he had rejected more than a decade earlier as impractical to built. The idea was to put the crew around a single table — an idea Andrew Probert would explore another decade later , when he designed The Next Generation bridge.

Jefferies and Art Director Joe Jennings decided against such a radical overhaul, however. It was Mike Minor’s more modest proposal that was accepted for Phase II . It clearly marked an evolutionary step between The Original Series and what would become The Motion Picture .

When it was decided in late 1977 that Star Trek would after all continue as a motion picture, Harold Michelson was hired by Director Robert Wise as production designer, replacing Jennings as head of the Art Department. He didn’t like the fact that almost all the bridge stations were facing the wall.

“Every section looks too much like every other,” he told Starlog magazine. “To make the set more interesting to the camera, we turned Chekov’s station 90 degrees from the wall,” which put him in line with the viewscreen. “Chekov’s cubicle does a lot toward breaking up the scenes — and there are lots of them — shot on the bridge.”

Another change Michelson made was to the chairs, from the simple pedestal swivel seats reminiscent of The Original Series to girdle clad, multifaceted, ergonomic seats with automatic, switch-operated bracing devices.

Busy, but not too busy

Lee Cole was already working on the set when Michelson joined the production. She had been working with Minor and Jennings on the bridge consoles. She later told Star Trek: The Magazine that one of the things the Art Department did was give the new version of the bridge fully animated screens.

When I was designing the bridge, they were just going to do static things with backlit negatives and a few little mechanical devices that moved. I said, “You know, I just don’t think that’s going to do it. I think we’re going to have to project some things here.”

Cole put 23 screens on the bridge, and film was projected onto them from behind. At the time, she had no idea how much work she was making for herself.

About a week or so before filming, when we were walking the sets, they said, “Well, Lee, we can’t wait to see what you’re going to put on those screens.” I had no idea I was going to do that!

Gene Roddenberry didn’t want the consoles to look too busy, though. Cole remembered him saying, “I want it really plain to try to be futuristic. Cut out all this detail and simplify things.”

“We did that,” she told Star Trek: The Magazine , “but it got a little too plain, I think.”

Darker colors

For Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , many of Cole’s original plans made it back as Director Nicholas Meyer’s thinking ran opposite to Roddenberry’s. He didn’t have the budget to construct a new set but recalled, “The least I thought we could do was revamp the bridge and make it twinkle.”

Meyer also had the bridge painted in darker colors, giving the set a more dramatic look. This was reverted back to a bright color scheme in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .

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The animated film screens caused problems in production. To do another take of a scene, the film(s) would have to start over and play all the way through again, and the take would then have to be picked up at the point in the film where they left off. By the time The Wrath of Khan was made, the films were transferred to video, and the film screens converted to video screens, making retakes easier and simpler. Instead of playing the films from the beginning, the crew would just need to rewind the video back to the point where they left off and pick up from there.

Also, the film projectors for the bridge displays made a lot of noise, requiring the dialogue to be looped at a later point in time.

Matt Jeffries’ full name was Walter M. Jeffries. Sometimes he gets confused with automotive designer Dean Jeffries. According to the Reeves-Stevens book about Phase II , Jeffries was on loan from the TV series Little House On The Prairie . Series producer Michael Landon had no problem with him working on Trek, but when one interfered with the other, Jeffries would have to make a choice as to which series he would stay with.

What did the Phase II corridors look like before the movie transformation? Anyone know?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture. But they must have been similar to the TMP look.

They were dreadful from the behind-the-scene photos that Richard Taylor shared with me. I have one of the photos up from those shots , in part of an interview I did with him recently, where he talks about how bad the Phase II sets were.

Dreadful? Looks like a re-creation/update of the original corridor, and the photo you posted shows it unfinished and unpainted.

If you’re talking about the article at the link, you’re distorting the gist idea the article.

Not looking to thread-jack, but I interviewed Richard Taylor, the lead designer with Robert Abel and Associates, who were the original effects team on TMP. He actually handsome design inout on the bridge sets (since they were involved in doing the practical lighting gag of the energy probe, and did the wormhole effect scene before Robert Abel and Associates was fired for the project). It was actually his suggestion and perseverance to get Roddenberry to accept the seat restraining devices being built into the seats. There were also a ton of suggestions from touch screen interfaces to a single wrap-around screen/wall that Taylor proposed of the bridge, which were rejected by Roddenberry . There is a lot of good stuff in the six-part interview, which begins here .

I wasn’t born when TMP or even TWOK came out, but I can honestly say I loved both bridge concepts with the exception of the chairs. The chairs were terrible, but I guess expected from the Aqua Net era of big fluffy things.

I wonder if there is any information on the design work undertaken by Frank Israel ? I seem to recall reading some years ago that he contributed to (among other things) the design of the TMP bridge, but I cannot find that source now and I may be incorrect.

There are a number of errors on this page. 1. The Jefferies concept art on blue appears to be from Roddenberry’s Starship proposal, as the spherical side compartment matches the external feature on on the side of the nose of that ring ship (seen in the rec deck illustrations of vessels called Enterprise ). 2. The photo captioned “ Star Trek: The Motion Picture floor plan” is the TWOK floor plan (note where Spock’s station has been moved). 3. The photo captioned “Bridge set during production of Phase II ”… um, there was no production of Phase II ; the series was snuffed several weeks before shooting was to commence. Only tests were shot. Furthermore, that’s Robert Abel on the set, who was hired for TMP, so it’s TMP pre-production, regardless of whether or not the announcement had been made.

Hi, Maurice, thank you for your comments! 1. I’m not sure you’re right. The Hollywood Auction site where I found the sketch and Memory Alpha both claim it was a Phase II design by Jefferies, based on Pato Guzman’s. Another website claims it was a design for The Original Series , but I don’t think that’s right. 2. You’re right here. Good catch! I’ll change the caption. 3. I don’t know the date this photo was taken, but judging from the uniforms and the console I’d say it must have been from when they were still officially making Phase II , not TMP. (You may know, the decision to make a motion picture was made several months before the production was officially changed. This photo could be from that period — but in that case, the people building that set were officially working on Star Trek: Phase II .)

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Cause And Effect (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production history
• 3.2 Story and script
• 3.3 Production
• 3.4 Visual effects
• 3.5 Continuity
• 3.6 Reception
• 3.7 Apocrypha
• 3.9 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.5 Stand-ins and photo doubles
• 4.6.1 Library computer references
• 4.7 External links

Summary [ ]

The USS Enterprise -D is in dire straits, with the starboard warp nacelle having suffered extreme damage from an impact. As casualty reports flood in and the ship's systems start failing, Commander Riker orders all hands to proceed to escape pods as La Forge tries desperately to shut down the warp engines. At that moment, the nacelle completely blows out, sending the Enterprise into a helpless spin. Data reports that the engine shutdown failed, ejection systems are off-line, and a warp core breach is imminent. As a fire engulfs the bridge , Captain Picard orders all hands to abandon ship. Alas, it is too late, as the Enterprise explodes, killing everybody aboard.

Act One [ ]

Despite its previously depicted destruction, the Enterprise , intact and undamaged, is traveling at impulse through space.

Dr. Crusher wins the hand

Data, Riker, Worf , and Dr. Beverly Crusher are in the first officer 's quarters to play a game of poker . Data shuffles the cards very fast, and because of his android nature, Riker and Worf question whether Data is truly randomizing the deck. Data deals the cards and Worf has the highest hand. The four officers play and eventually a standoff occurs between Riker and Crusher. Crusher calls Riker's bluff and wins the hand, somehow knowing that she would win. After winning, she is called to sickbay by Nurse Ogawa . Upon arriving at sickbay, La Forge tells her that he is feeling dizzy . Crusher finds that although he has the symptoms of an inner ear infection, there is nothing physical to suggest that he has such an infection. After examining him, she prepares a hypospray of vertazine when she has the odd feeling that she has already performed this examination. La Forge has no recollection of it and suggests that she was talking about another patient but Crusher is insistent that it was La Forge whom she treated. She shrugs off her déjà vu and administers the hypospray. Later that night, she gets ready to go to bed and shortly after she does, she starts to hear a voice and that voice soon becomes many voices, which are completely undecipherable. As Crusher puts the light on, the voices stop and she accidentally breaks her wineglass, which was next to her light switch.

The following morning, the senior staff (except for Worf) are briefing each other on the vast undertaking of charting the Typhon Expanse in the observation lounge . As they are about to return to duty, Dr. Crusher reports the voices that she heard the previous night. The other staff are curious about her report and they are interrupted when Worf reports from the bridge unusual sensor readings in the vicinity of the Enterprise .

The staff return to the bridge, where Worf reports that there is a localized distortion in the space-time continuum. Picard orders Ensign Ro to back the Enterprise away slowly but she can't as the maneuvering thrusters fail to respond. The distortion begins to fluctuate and power levels drop. Counselor Troi warns the captain that they must leave the area immediately.

A starship emerges from the temporal distortion

Data reports that something is emerging from the distortion and an unidentified starship emerges. The ship is on a collision course with the Enterprise , just thirty-six seconds from impact and the helm still fails to respond. There is no response when the Enterprise hails the other ship. Picard asks for suggestions. Riker (standing closely to the left of Data) suggests decompressing the main shuttlebay allowing the explosive reaction to push them clear while Data alternatively suggests using the tractor beam to alter the other ship's trajectory; Picard opts for the latter. The Enterprise emits a tractor beam but it is insufficient as the ship collides with the Enterprise 's starboard warp nacelle , causing it to explode. The events portrayed earlier repeat themselves and again the Enterprise is destroyed by a warp core breach.

Act Two [ ]

Once again intact, the Enterprise is traveling at impulse through a familiar region of space.

Data, Riker, Worf, and Dr. Crusher are in Riker's quarters playing a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards very fast and because of his android nature and Riker and Worf question whether Data is truly randomizing the deck. Data deals the cards and after the second card Crusher has the highest hand. Each player bets and as Data is about to deal another round, Riker now feels déjà vu and eyes Crusher, having a strong feeling about the outcome of the game and he folds, telling her that she will call his bluff. Crusher eyes Riker back in surprise and asks him how he knew. Riker replies that he "just had a feeling", as did Dr. Crusher. Crusher is called to sickbay and, upon arriving there, La Forge tells her that he is feeling dizzy. Crusher finds that although he has the symptoms of an inner ear infection, there is no physical evidence of one. After examining him, she prepares a hypospray of vertazine, but she has the odd feeling that she has already performed this examination. When she asks La Forge if she did this examination before, La Forge says he too has the feeling that she has, but they cannot remember when it occurred. Crusher checks the medical logs on La Forge and finds that although La Forge recently had complaints about headaches with his VISOR , he had none regarding dizziness. La Forge suggests that it was déjà vu but it was unlikely, since both of them had the feeling.

Picard and Dr. Crusher share their recent feelings of déjà vu

Later that night Crusher is in her quarters getting ready for bed and as she does, she hears whispers becoming louder and more frequent. She gets up and calls Captain Picard and at the same time, breaks her glass which was next to the light switch. In the captain's ready room , Picard and Crusher share their recent feelings of déjà vu ; while reading, the captain started to feel as though he had read certain paragraphs before but dismissed it (assuming he must have read that same book years ago). Picard orders a ship-wide diagnostic with a report to be made in the morning. At 0700 hours, the senior staff (except for Worf) discusses the results and finds no anomalous readings in the diagnostic, although Crusher discovers that ten other people aboard the Enterprise heard voices at the same time of the night as she did. Worf interrupts from the bridge and reports that there is a distortion in the spacetime continuum in the vicinity of the Enterprise . The staff returns to the bridge. Picard orders Ro to have the Enterprise back off slowly but maneuvering thrusters fail to respond. The distortion begins to fluctuate as power levels on the ship drop.

The fate of the Enterprise is sealed once again

Counselor Troi warns Picard that they have to leave now. Data says that something is emerging from the distortion and a starship appears. The ship is on a collision course with the Enterprise , just thirty-six seconds from impact and the helm still fails to respond. There is no response when the Enterprise hails the other ship. Picard asks for suggestions. Riker suggests decompressing the main shuttlebay allowing the explosive reaction to push them clear and Data suggests using the tractor beam to alter the ship's trajectory; Picard opts for the latter. The Enterprise emits a tractor beam but again it is too late – the ship collides with the Enterprise 's starboard warp nacelle, causing it to explode. The previous events replay themselves once more and again the Enterprise is destroyed by a warp core breach.

Act Three [ ]

The Enterprise is traveling at impulse through space.

Worf experiences nIb'poH

Data, Riker, Worf, and Crusher are in Riker's quarters to play a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards very fast because of his android nature and Riker and Worf question whether Data is truly randomizing the deck. Data deals the first set of cards, face down, and Worf is agitated, having the feeling of having done this before, quoting nIb'poH , the Klingon equivalent of déjà vu . Riker says that they have done this before, last Tuesday for the previous poker night but Worf means déjà vu and Crusher has the same feeling. Data now deals the cards face up and Crusher predicts that she will get a queen; she does. She then predicts that Data will get a four; he does. She then tells Data to deal the cards and she, Riker and Worf are overcome with feelings of déjà vu , flawlessly recalling the order of the cards that would be dealt. They all wonder how they knew. Crusher interrupts the puzzlement and calls sickbay asking if La Forge is present but is told he isn't. La Forge soon arrives in sickbay and Crusher leaves. Picard arrives in sickbay seeing Crusher and La Forge – La Forge's VISOR is being examined with a diagnostic tool while a test is being done on his visual receptors. Crusher asks Picard if he has been experiencing déjà vu as of late; he has, as have many other people aboard the ship. Crusher has foregone running a standard test on La Forge in favor of running an optical diagnostic where the results came back positive for a phase shift in his visual receptors, which caused his dizziness as the phase shift was projecting images that didn't exist. Small distortions were found in the surrounding dekyon field and La Forge's VISOR was converting these distortions into the images that he was seeing, causing his dizziness.

" Then I wasn't just hearing things. " " The sound itself appears to have been real. "

Later that night, Crusher is getting ready for bed (dressed in her uniform) and puts her glass on a table rather than next to the light switch. As she goes to bed, she starts to hear voices again. She immediately gets up, prepared with a medical tricorder and records the voices. She calls La Forge, reporting the voices and La Forge reports that the ship's sensors had recorded something strange as well. As she goes out, her coat hits her glass which falls and breaks. Crusher joins La Forge and Data in main engineering . La Forge reports that there was a distortion in the dekyon field. They analyze Crusher's six-second recording, and Data discovers that there are over one thousand voices, all coming from the crew of the Enterprise .

Act Four [ ]

Crusher calls all of the senior staff (Worf is now present) to the observation lounge early in the morning with a suggestion as to what was causing all of the unusual events that happened recently on the Enterprise .

La Forge describes the causality loop

La Forge reports that the Enterprise has most likely been caught in a temporal causality loop , where they have been repeating events over and over again but they have no knowledge of how many times they have repeated events or how long they have been stuck in the loop. Crusher feels that if La Forge is correct, then the voices that she heard may be "echoes" from previous loops. Picard inquires how the Enterprise may have been caught in the loop. Data hypothesizes, from the recording, that the Enterprise had encountered a disaster so serious that the captain would order all hands to abandon ship and replays three segments of the recording – Worf's report of the distortion, Data's report on the collision course and Picard's call for all hands to abandon ship. The staff are clearly disturbed by what they just heard. La Forge suggests that if the distortion was a temporal distortion then the destruction of the Enterprise may have caused a rupture in the space-time continuum, catching them in the loop. Worf suggests that they reverse course to avoid the disaster, but Riker points out that reversing course could be what causes the disaster. Picard decides that they cannot start second-guessing themselves; he orders them to remain on course. La Forge warns that if the disaster is not averted they will forget everything that they learned in this loop. La Forge and Data suggest modulating a dekyon emission which, if done correctly, would set up a resonance in Data's positronic subprocessors, leaving a message. However the message would have to be very short (a few characters or a word at most) and Data would not know what the message is immediately; it would be more like a post-hypnotic suggestion. Picard orders that the steps be taken to find a way to send a message and dismisses the senior staff.

Data and La Forge perform the modifications

La Forge, Data, and Crusher are in main engineering where La Forge is making some modifications to the circuitry in Data's head, and he attaches an emitter to Data's right arm. Neither La Forge nor Crusher recall having done this before so they feel encouraged. La Forge tests the modifications and finds an active dekyon field. Red alert is called and the three officers return to the bridge. The distortion is present again and the same events happen like before but this time Data is able to input a message on the emitter on his arm just before the Enterprise is destroyed.

Act Five [ ]

Data, Riker, Worf, and Crusher are in Riker's quarters playing a game of poker. Data shuffles the cards in his typically fast android fashion and Riker and Worf question whether Data is truly randomizing the deck. Data deals the first set of cards face down – however Worf is agitated – feeling as if he has done this before. Riker says that they did last Tuesday, but Worf means déjà vu – and Crusher reports having the same feeling. As Data is about to deal the next set of cards face up, Crusher attempts to predict the order of the cards (the way she did in the previous loop) but this time they are all threes. Crusher is surprised, as she was certain she knew which cards would be dealt. Worf shared the same surprise and the same conviction . Data deals three more rounds and this time all four officers are dealt three of a kind. They are all surprised with the improbability of what just happened. Crusher is then called to sickbay by Nurse Ogawa. When she arrives at sickbay, La Forge complains of dizziness and she performs an exam and the results came back negative. She then runs an optical scan and calls Captain Picard down (while he experiences his déjà vu while reading), reporting to him her findings as she did previously. La Forge then leaves and returns to engineering.

One of many anomalous occurrences of the number three

Data and La Forge are in main engineering and Data runs a diagnostic on the warp subsystems. When he finishes the diagnostic, the results come up entirely as threes. Data says that he has encountered the number three "an inordinate number of times" in the past two hours. La Forge receives an alarm of a distortion in the dekyon field on Deck 9. Crusher (from her quarters) calls La Forge and reports the voices while La Forge reports the dekyon distortion. Crusher leaves her quarters and heads for engineering. As she leaves, Data and La Forge hear a glass shatter, and after asking if everything is okay, Crusher reports that she is fine and continues on her way.

Some time later, the senior staff is in the observation lounge, half-way through discussing the theory of being caught in the causality loop. La Forge and Data report the many sightings of the number three occurring all over the Enterprise , knowing that it is more than a coincidence. Nothing was wrong with the ship, but a diagnostic revealed that there was a dekyon field modulation in Data's positronic subprocessors. They didn't know what caused it, but La Forge said that if he wanted to send a message, he'd do it in a similar fashion. The staff discuss the significance of the number three. Riker asks that La Forge perform a level 3 diagnostic when they are interrupted by Ensign Ro on the bridge. The staff return to the bridge and once again the distortion is present. As before, Picard orders the Enterprise to back off slowly but maneuvering thrusters fail to respond. The distortion begins to fluctuate and events begin to repeat themselves yet again as the unidentified starship emerges on a collision course. Also as before, Picard asks for suggestions and Riker suggests decompressing the main shuttlebay while Data suggests using the tractor beam . Picard opts for the latter but just before Worf engages the tractor beam, Data's gaze is caught by the sight of Riker's rank pips and the android is struck by a moment of realization. He deduces that using the tractor beam will not succeed and instead follows Riker's suggestion of decompressing the main shuttlebay. The bay door opens with gas violently rushing out, successfully pushing the Enterprise out of the path of the other ship and saving it.

Data realizes the significance of the number three

Power is restored and Picard asks Data what happened. Data speculates that "three" referred to the number of rank insignia found on the collar of Riker's uniform, indicating that his suggestion would be the successful course of action. Red alert is canceled and Picard orders Worf to access a Federation time-base beacon to ascertain how long they have been in the causality loop. The beacon confirms that the Enterprise 's chronometers are off by 17.4 days and Data has them reset accordingly. The Enterprise is then hailed by the other ship, which the Enterprise identifies as the USS Bozeman , a Soyuz -class starship, a class which had been out of service for more than eighty years. The Enterprise opens a channel and the Bozeman 's Captain Morgan Bateson offers assistance while Picard was going to offer assistance as well.

Captain Morgan Bateson of the Bozeman

Bateson is unfamiliar with the configuration of the Enterprise and he explains that they found a temporal distortion inside the expanse, then the Enterprise suddenly appeared with the Bozeman stuck on a collision course with it. Picard tells Bateson that the Enterprise was caught in a temporal causality loop and suspects that something similar happened to the Bozeman . Bateson dismisses Picard's suggestion, claiming that the Bozeman left starbase only three weeks previously, but when Captain Picard asks Bateson what the year is, Bateson replies saying that it is 2278 . Realizing the Bozeman has been thrust a full ninety years into the future, Picard suggests that Bateson should beam aboard the Enterprise as there is much to discuss.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" All hands abandon ship! Repeat: all hands abandon… "

" Still no help for the Klingon. "

" My Aunt Adele cured a lot of sleepless nights with this steamed milk. "

" Sometimes I wonder if he's stacking the deck. " " I assure you, commander, the cards have been sufficiently randomized. " " I hope so. "

" I am experiencing nIb'poH , the feeling I have done this before. " " Yeah, last Tuesday night. " " That is not what I mean. " " I've been having the same feeling. "

" How'd you know I was bluffing? " " I just had a feeling. " " I guess it's better to be lucky than good. " " It's the way your left eyebrow raises when you're bluffing. " (Riker looks shocked) " Just kidding, commander. "

" I'd like to run an optical diagnostic. " " For an ear infection? "

" This is highly improbable. "

" This is going to sound pretty wild. "

" Must be déjà vu . " " Both of us? About the same thing? "

" Back us off, ensign. Nice and slow. "

" Somehow we've entered what seems to be a temporal causality loop . We think we're stuck in a specific fragment in time and that we've been repeating that same fragment over and over. " " Is this what's causing our déjà vu?" " Yes, but it's more than that. In déjà vu , you only think you're repeating events. We actually are. " " Our theory is this: every time the loop begins again, everything resets itself and starts all over. We don't remember anything that happened before, so each time we go through the loop, we think it's the first. "

" To date, we have encountered 2,085 conspicuous examples of the number three. "

" The tractor beam will not be successful. I am decompressing the main shuttlebay. "

" Captain… do you know what year this is? " " Of course I do – it's 2278. " (pause) " Perhaps you should beam aboard our ship. There's something we need to discuss. "

Background information [ ]

Production history [ ].

• Final draft script: 2 January 1992 [1]
• Production meeting: 7 January 1992
• Filmed: 15 January 1992 – 23 January 1992
• Second unit insert footage filmed: 14 February 1992
• More second unit insert footage filmed: 21 February 1992
• Premiere airdate: 23 March 1992
• First UK airdate: 19 April 1995

Story and script [ ]

• Writer Brannon Braga came up with the story of this episode while thinking of ways to avoid standard time travel cliches. " I love time travel stories and I don't know who doesn't. We wanted to do a time travel story that had never been done before, " Braga recalled. " Being trapped in a time loop is one I've never seen before. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 241)
• Braga noted that while time loops are often associated with the film Groundhog Day , the episode was written and aired before the movie. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 249)
• The story was still missing some elements. According to Braga, " I came up with the poker game while I was eating pancakes and pouring syrup. I had no idea how it happened – because it was before the sugar rush. I knew then that the poker game would somehow be utilized for once, and lay it in so the viewer thinks it's just a poker game and it turns out to be the key to saving their entire existence. " Ronald D. Moore added, " The poker games for a while was the cliche padding. If the show was short, it was time to write a poker game. Because we had written it so much, we stayed away from it and now it got used for a reason. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 241)
• Initially, Riker was going to win the hand in the final loop with three aces, as an additional indicator that Riker's suggestion should be followed. Rick Berman nixed the idea, arguing that Data could program in "three", but not give Riker three aces. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 241)
• Due to the nature of the episode, the production staff were careful to make each iteration of the loop unique. Braga commented, " In a way, doing the same scenes over was comforting; it was fun to come up with different takes and to think how I could get that glass to break each time. It wasn't until I got to the final draft that I thought to have the glass break over the intercom on that final loop through. So it was finding those little nuggets and pathways and weave through as we were structuring it. That was a terrific challenge. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 241)
• Taking the decision to incorporate the Enterprise 's destruction as the climax of each time loop enabled Braga to begin the show with, as he described it, "the ultimate teaser." ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 195))
• Herb Wright noted, " It's a helluva challenge because when the audience has seen it once and you show it to them the second time, the temptation for them is to jam the button on the remote. The challenge is how do you keep them excited, motivated and involved and wondering what the fuck is going on. And in the teaser you're starting off and you've destroyed the ship so if that isn't going to get you to tune back in, I don't know what will. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 242)

Production [ ]

Director Frakes with two cameras rolling at the same time

Frakes, Stewart, and Sirtis on set

• Director Jonathan Frakes recalled, " When I got the script to 'Cause and Effect', I thought it was joke from Brannon Braga. I read Act One. I read Act Two. I read Act Three. I read Act Four. I read Act Five. And I said, 'You guys are screwing with me! C'mon!' " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 249)
• To ensure that the episode would not be misinterpreted as a clip show , Rick Berman instructed Frakes not to reuse any footage and ensure every loop was filmed in a different way. As such, some of the scenes in this episode were shot using multiple cameras in order to prevent having to shoot the same shot twice at different angles. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 242) Frakes recalled that it was a great challenge, particularly for scenes set on the bridge. " I'd watched a lot of directors by then, and directed a few episodes, so I knew all the possible bridge angles – and I think I used all of them. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 249)
• The TNG staff wanted Kirstie Alley , who played Kelsey Grammer 's Cheers co-star Rebecca Howe , to reprise her role as Saavik as the female bridge officer standing next to Captain Bateson on the Bozeman , but scheduling conflicts prevented this from happening. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 195))
• The production meeting for this episode took place on Tuesday 7 January 1992 .
• "Cause and Effect" was filmed between Wednesday 15 January 1992 and Thursday 23 January 1992 on Paramount Stage 8 and Paramount Stage 9 . Second unit inserts were filmed on Friday 14 February 1992 on Paramount Stage 8 and on Friday 21 February 1992 on Paramount Stage 9 and Paramount Stage 10 .

Visual effects [ ]

Okuda's annotations in order to create the Soyuz -class

• Originally, the USS Bozeman was going to be a Star Trek: The Original Series -era studio model of a Constitution II -class starship, and co-producer Ronald D. Moore, a fan of The Original Series , even went so far as suggesting constructing a TOS-era bridge set for it. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (3rd ed., pp. 218-219)) These plans were abandoned due to the costs of creating the necessary ship, props, and costumes. The ship was changed to the Soyuz -class , a slight modification of the USS Reliant miniature , with sets and costumes reused from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (3rd ed., p. 195); Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 248) Therefore, the existing Miranda -class model was reused, with several add-ons to give it a different appearance. The modifications were designed by Greg Jein and Mike Okuda. The class was named for the Russian spacecraft . ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (3rd ed., p. 457)) Okuda made use of the fan-produced Ships of the Star Fleet, Volume One (pp. 84-85) to make annotations on one of the blueprints for the adjustments, eventually seen on screen. Subsequent episodes of this and other series – " Relics ", DS9 's " Trials and Tribble-ations ", VOY 's " Flashback ", and ENT 's " In a Mirror, Darkly " – included recreations of sets and costumes from The Original Series -era.
• For this episode, it was felt that the special occasion of the Enterprise -D's destruction warranted a more realistic and impressive explosion. At the time, the standard technique was to superimpose footage of an explosion over stock footage of a physical studio model of the ship in post-production. In this case, four break-away models were filled up with pyrotechnics, and blown up while shooting from multiple angles. Typically, the debris of such models was discarded after use, but in this case the debris was gathered up on a hunch by Effects Supervisor Gary Hutzel . Hutzel recalled, " [W]e blew up a model for the Enterprise , by dropping it from the ceiling of the sound stage toward a high speed camera while timed charges went off to blow it up in mid-air. I went around with a cardboard box and picked up all the pieces of the model I could find, because I knew they would come in handy someday. " The debris was later reused for the destruction of another Galaxy -class vessel, the USS Odyssey , in the DS9 episode " The Jem'Hadar ". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 26, issue 6/Vol. 26, issue 1, p. 109)

The shuttlebay maquette in profile view

• This is the only episode where the Galaxy -class main shuttlebay was featured. Ed Miarecki 's company, Science Fiction Modelmaking Associates , was contracted to construct a maquette of the bay. " This set miniature, built in five days, featured a hangar door, which worked like a roll-top desk, and was powered by a cordless electric drill. The two Shuttlecraft in the scene were named for the shows producers, ' Berman ' and ' Pillar ' [sic]. " [2] Miarecki also created three more tiny Type 6 shuttlecraft and one more Type 15 shuttlepod to go with his maquette. [3] Despite being a significant feature of the Galaxy -class, the maquette, built around a wooden frame, never made another appearance. The maquette, measuring 9×48×57 inches was eventually listed as Lot 6779 in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction where it sold for US$3,050 on 17 February 2008. [4]
• A large nacelle model was also created for the episode. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 242; [5] (X) )

Continuity [ ]

• This is the third episode in which we see a Galaxy -class starship destroyed, namely, the Enterprise -D.
• Alyssa Ogawa 's last name is first mentioned in this episode. Her first name was established in TNG : " Clues ".
• Picard's Aunt Adele was previously mentioned in TNG : " Ensign Ro ", where he gave Admiral Kennelly her prescription for the common cold : ginger tea with honey . Here, he gives Beverly Crusher her recipe for warm milk with nutmeg . Crusher passes on the recipe to Riker in the episode " Schisms " (although she must have re-learned it at another time, since Picard doesn't share it with her during the final loop).
• The Bozeman 's "era" of 2278 would be set halfway between the events seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . The wardrobe of Captain Bateson also establishes that Starfleet had switched to the red jacket uniform at least seven years before the "first" time the uniform was seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .
• The Bozeman was later referenced in the TNG series finale " All Good Things... ", Star Trek Generations , and Star Trek: First Contact .
• Picard's line " We can't afford to start second guessing ourselves. We should stay on this course until we have reason to change it, " is repeated almost verbatim by Deanna Troi in "All Good Things…". She specifically says, " I don't think we can start second guessing ourselves. I think we have to proceed normally and deal with each situation as it occurs. "
• This is the first reference to ejecting the warp core; while it is mentioned many more times, the procedure was not seen on screen until VOY : " Cathexis ", which marked the first of several times the USS Voyager ejected its warp core. The USS Enterprise -E ejected its core in Star Trek: Insurrection , as did the USS Enterprise in Star Trek , the USS Discovery in DIS : " That Hope Is You, Part 2 " and the USS Cerritos in LD : " The Stars At Night ".
• This is the first episode to feature Ensign Ro's new hairstyle.

Reception [ ]

• Brannon Braga commented that this episode is one of the most popular episodes he wrote personally. ("Departmental Briefing Year Five" ("Cause and Effect"), TNG Season 5 DVD special feature)
• Ronald D. Moore thought that it was a "neat episode" with an unbeatable teaser. He also praised director Jonathan Frakes. " Each time through the loop has a different feel, a different nuance, a different look. I think he did a wonderful job on making it an interesting show. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 241)
• During the episode's initial broadcast, many local affiliates were inundated with phone calls from viewers who believed that something was wrong with the broadcast, having not paid close attention and believing that footage was simply being repeated. Writer Brannon Braga noted that viewers at the time were much less comfortable with unorthodox structures. (" Requiem - A Remembrance of Star Trek: The Next Generation " ("Part 2: The Needs of the Few"), TNG Season 5 Blu-ray special feature)
• A mission report for this episode, by John Sayers, was published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine  issue 21 , pp. 6-8.

Apocrypha [ ]

• Captain Bateson and the crew of the Bozeman go on to play a major role in the novel Ship of the Line .
• Kelsey Grammer also utters the year "2278" in the Cheers episode "Woody Interrupts," but peculiarly, this aired in December 1990.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 59, 15 February 1993
• In the UK video collection Star Trek: The Next Generation - 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition under the "Ensemble Cast" section, 29 September 1997
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 5.6, 18 November 2002
• As part of the TNG Season 5 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Time Travel collection
• As part of The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Volume 2 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also starring [ ]

• LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
• Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf
• Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

Guest stars [ ]

• Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren
• Patti Yasutake as Alyssa Ogawa
• Kelsey Grammer as Captain Bateson

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Rachen Assapiomonwait as Nelson
• Michael Braveheart as Martinez
• Debbie David as Russell
• Tracee Lee Cocco as Jae
• Ericson as Bozeman crewmember or Bozeman lieutenant
• Eben Ham as operations division ensign
• Michaels as Bozeman crewmember or Bozeman lieutenant
• Michael Moorehead as science division ensign
• Reed as Bozeman crewmember or Bozeman lieutenant
• Victor Sein as Bozeman crewmember
• John Tampoya as operations division ensign
• Mikki Val as operations division officer
• Christina Wegler Miles as command division ensign

Stand-ins and photo doubles [ ]

• David Keith Anderson – stand-in and photo double for LeVar Burton
• Patty Davis – stand-in for Michelle Forbes
• Melba Gonzalez – stand-in for Marina Sirtis

Joe – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes

• Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Marina Sirtis
• Tim McCormack – stand-in for Brent Spiner and Kelsey Grammer
• Lorine Mendell – stand-in for Gates McFadden
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
• Dennis Tracy – stand-in for Patrick Stewart
• Guy Vardaman – stand-in and photo double for Brent Spiner
• James Washington – stand-in for Michael Dorn

References [ ]

2278 ; 2335 ; 2353 ; 2357 ; 47 ; ace ; acoustic energy ; Adele ; African Confederation ; Berman ; Bozeman , USS ; casualty report ; catwalk ; chronometer ; collision course ; common cold ; damage report ; dealer ; deja vu ; dekyon ; dizziness ; dozen ; drive plasma ; ear infection ; escape pod ; evasive maneuvers ; explosive decompression ; eyebrow ; Federation ; Fletcher ; Galaxy class decks ; gravitron polarimeter ; headache ; inertial damper ; inner ear ; insomnia ; king ; Klingon ; Klingonese ; level 2 diagnostic ; level 3 diagnostic ; main shuttlebay ; Midsummer Night's Dream, A ; milk toddy ; Mogadishu ; numeral ; nutmeg ; optical diagnostic ; paragraph ; particle accelerator ; patient ; phase shift ; phenomenon ; Piller ; plasma ; poker ; positronic net ; premonition ; queen ; rank insignia ; red alert ; senior officer ; sensor log ; Somalia ; Soyuz -class ; Starfleet Academy ; stellar dynamics lab ; subspace scan ; temporal causality loop ; time-base beacon ; tricorder ; Typhon Expanse ; unnamed starbase ; vertazine ; VISOR ; visual receptor ; warp core breach ; warp core ejection system ; warp field generator ; warp nacelle ; warp subsystems

Library computer references [ ]

• Starship Mission Assignments : Ahwahnee , USS ; Challenger , USS ; Constellation , USS ; Eagle , USS ; Emden , USS ; Endeavour , USS ; Helin , USS ; John Muir , USS ; Kongo , USS ; Korolev , USS ; Lantree , USS ; Oberth , USS ; Potemkin , USS ; Republic , USS ; Scovill , USS ; Springfield , USS ; Starbase 24 ; Starship Mission Assignments ; Whorfin , USS

External links [ ]

• " Cause and Effect " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Cause and Effect " at Wikipedia
• "Cause and Effect" at StarTrek.com
• " "Cause and Effect" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• "Cause and Effect" script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Let's revisit the greatest Star Trek game ever

Few games capture the thrill of taking the captain's chair, but Bridge Commander nails it.

If you’ve ever been a Star Trek fan, you’ve probably imagined what it would be like to sit in the captain’s chair of a Federation starship. Over the years there have been dozens of Star Trek videogames on PC, from point-and-click adventures to first-person shooters. But Star Trek: Bridge Commander is the closest a digital recreation of the show has ever gotten to deeply simulating the experience of being in command of a Starfleet vessel. 

The game starts with a bang, literally, as a star mysteriously destabilises and explodes, killing the captain of the USS Dauntless. The ship’s relatively inexperienced first officer (that’s you) is then forced to take over command and find out what caused the explosion. Your character is a completely blank slate who never speaks and is never seen, or even named, with first officer Saffi Larsen doing most of the talking for you. 

This is initially a little distracting, as charismatic captains who make their opinions known are an important part of the classic Star Trek format. But it does ultimately add to the role-playing aspect of the game, making you feel like you are the captain, and not just in control of someone else. At the start of each mission you’ll get the usual Star Trek-style logs, explaining the current mission objectives. But because of your total lack of a voice, these are read out by other members of the crew instead.

On the bridge, the game is locked to a first-person perspective, and you never leave the captain’s chair. To issue orders you have to turn your head with the mouse and face the appropriate member of the bridge crew, then choose from a list of commands. So if a Romulan Warbird suddenly de-cloaks, you turn to Larsen on your right and ask her to go to red alert, which powers up your weapons and shields. It also dims the lights on the bridge, just like in the show, which is a nice touch.

You can also go to yellow alert, which boosts your shields but leaves your weapons inactive: a good way to show an enemy that your guard is up, but you don’t want a fight. But in most cases you’ll be forced to defend yourself, because Bridge Commander is very heavy on combat, which is actually my biggest criticism of it. I love Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation, because conflict is usually a last resort. If Captain Jean-Luc Picard can solve a problem without firing a phaser, he always will. But in the game, pretty much every mission results in a space battle. It’s primarily a combat sim.

In the middle of a battle, power management is key. Swing your head around to your left and you’ll see your Solian chief engineer, Brex. Through him you manage your ship’s power output via a series of sliders. If you want a wider scan of the area, boost power to the sensor array. If you’re having trouble punching through an enemy’s shields, boost your weapons. And if your own shields are taking a hammering, diverting extra power to them will increase your resilience to whoever is currently firing at you.

Characters in Star Trek are always diverting power to various systems to increase their effectiveness, so it’s marvellous to see that turned into a game system in Bridge Commander. But it’s all about the balancing act. Pull too much juice from the ship and your power transmission grid won’t be able to cope, reducing your overall effectiveness. This power- juggling mechanic is at the core of the game’s many battles, and yelling orders at Brex as the bridge shakes and sparks fly out of the consoles can be hugely exciting.

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Bridge Commander captures the drama of a Star Trek space battle brilliantly. The screen judders as you take damage, the red alert alarm wails, and your crew shout updates about the status of the ship and the enemy’s movements. You can order your tactical officer, Felix Savali, to target and attack at will or you can step in and take control, manually targeting and firing the ship’s arsenal of phasers and photon torpedoes. Honestly, most of the time you’ll rely on Savali to do the hard work, because battles can go on for a long time in Bridge Commander. Sitting back, saying "make it so", and letting someone else do the work feels a lot more captain-like anyway. 

There are some non-combat mission objectives, including delivering VIPs, rescuing people, beaming people aboard your ship, and picking up cargo. But this all happens off-screen, with your crew merely telling you about it rather than you witnessing it first-hand. It would have been nice to leave the bridge and visit other locations. Maybe stopping at Ten Forward for a drink, or checking up on someone in sickbay. But in this game, the life of a captain takes place entirely on the bridge. Even just taking a few conversations in your ready room would have added visual variety. 

At any time you can hit the spacebar and switch to a third-person view, which gives you a clearer view of your surroundings. There are some dramatic visuals here, including colourful alien suns and asteroid fields, but technically it’s pretty ropey, with distractingly low-res textures. You can fly the ship manually in third-person, but it’s much more Trek-like to switch back to the bridge and order your Bajoran flight controller, Kiska LoMar, to move the USS Dauntless between planets and other points of interest.

But after a few hours of play, you’ll almost certainly get sick of your crew repeating the same handful of barks over and over again during combat. "Moving into attack range! Lining up forward torpedo tubes! Sweeping through phaser arcs!" Sound design is one area Bridge Commander falls short, with a forgettable, repetitive soundtrack, and some missing details like the rumble of your ship’s engines. The weapons sound great and the voice acting is decent, but overall it’s a bit of a sonic mess.

However, you can remedy this. I muted the in-game music and played the score from Star Trek: The Next Generation instead, which you can find on Spotify. I also found a ten-hour loop of the ambient engine sounds from the show on YouTube , and played that quietly in the background. This is possibly the nerdiest thing I’ve ever done, but man, it really improves the game. And thanks to a vibrant modding community, there are countless other ways to tinker with the experience, whether you want to improve the visuals or command ships from the other Star Trek series.

There’s some nice stuff in Bridge Commander for Star Trek fans, including guests occasionally joining your crew. In your first stint as captain you’re joined by none other than Jean-Luc Picard, who sits beside you and explains some of the game’s systems. Getting Patrick Stewart to reprise his role as Picard, and then using him as essentially an interactive tutorial, is a wasted opportunity. But it’s still cool to hang out with him regardless, and just hearing his voice lends the game extra authenticity.

You’re also joined by Data, voiced by Brent Spiner, when you swap the USS Dauntless for the USS Sovereign partway through the story. Like Deep Space Nine’s USS Defiant, the Sovereign was developed after the Battle of Wolf 359 to defend against the Borg. It’s a more advanced ship and nimbler in battle, but I must admit, I prefer the bridge of the Galaxy class Dauntless, which looks just like the one in TNG—albeit with some different colouring.

While aboard your ship, Data determines that the exploding star was not a natural event. This revelation leads to clashes with the Cardassians and a race of aliens invented for the game called the Kessok. Occasionally enemies will hail you, either to surrender or to gloat, which adds to the Star Trek vibe. But I would have liked the option to engage in a little diplomacy, perhaps choosing from dialogue options to try and talk aggressors down or offer to work together. If they ever make another Bridge Commander, this would add some much needed non-combat variety. 

If you’re feeling the urge to replay Star Trek: Bridge Commander, you’ll be glad to hear that it runs out of the box on Windows 10 without any messing around—although you will want to install the official 1.1 patch first. Finding a copy, however, might be a little trickier. It’s been out of print for years, and no digital storefronts currently offer it. This is the case for a lot of Star Trek games, but thankfully there are several websites that archive these hard-to-find gems. There’s always a way. But I’d love Activision to do a proper re-release or remaster. With Discovery and Picard getting people into Star Trek again, there’s never been a more perfect time. 

It’s hardly a looker—even by 2002 standards—but gaze beyond the low-poly characters and strangely flat-looking viewscreen conversations and developer Totally Games did a very decent job of capturing the ambience of a Star Trek ship. And if you can’t stomach the lo-fi visuals, you could always give Ubisoft ’s Star Trek: Bridge Crew a go. It offers a similar experience, with modern production values, a TNG-themed bridge and VR support. But it’s not as deep as Bridge Commander, designed with accessibility and co-op play in mind, so it’s not quite the same. Not many vintage Star Trek games are worth playing today, but sitting in the captain’s chair in Bridge Commander still has the power to thrill.

If it’s set in space, Andy will probably write about it. He loves sci-fi, adventure games, taking screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.

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Local landmarks abound in special Toronto episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds

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Even if you would score a solid zero if ever forced to take part in Star Trek trivia, you may want to watch the latest episode of the long-running science-fiction show if you're from Toronto.

Those not at all familiar with the cult favourite franchise, any of its stars or its storylines can definitely still appreciate "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," the most recent installation of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which takes place in none other than our hometown.

Nice, #StarTrekSNW Strange New Worlds kept Toronto, as Toronto in their episode Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. 🖖🇨🇦 — Greg Banning 🇺🇦🌻 (@GregBanning) June 29, 2023

It is in this third episode of the second season of the series that a version of the ever-iconic Captain James T. Kirk joins La’an Noonien-Singh, Enterprise Chief of Security and one of the newer additions to the universe, on a trip back in time to change the future. (Warning: spoilers are ahead.)

After accidentally pressing the button on their time travelling device, the pair find themselves transported not to 21st-century New York City, as Kirk guesses at first, but to Yonge-Dundas Square during that same era.

I want to know which Torontonian on the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crew made it their mission that not a single person on the planet would confuse this for any other city. Like they pushed Toronto HARD every single scene it was FANTASTIC #Toronto #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds pic.twitter.com/YcrM2SCXXQ — Eric Josey (@Eric_the_great7) June 30, 2023

After some remarks about "Maple Leafs, politeness and poutine," they go on a shopping spree in the Eaton Centre to don some new digs, take a walk along the Harbourfront, grab some street meat and play chess in a local park to win some Canadian cash.

But, after some lighthearted fun exploring the 6ix instead of outer space, our protagonists are brought to the scene of a terror attack that destroys a giant futuristic-looking bridge connecting the city to Niagara (that somewhat resembles the city's new Cherry Street bridges ).

Even Doug Ford would never green light a project that wasteful. — Jamie Patterson 🚅 (@Jamie_Patterson) June 30, 2023

On the scene at what residents will recognize as Billy Bishop Airport overlooking Lake Ontario and the T.O. skyline, the two commence their search for the perpetrator of the largescale blast in earnest to correct the timeline as planned.

This includes stealing a car to peel through parts of the downtown core, passing too many Toronto sights to count in the process.

The latest episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” being aggressively and unapologetically set in present-day Toronto makes me feel seen in a way I did not expect. — Frank Yang (@fyang) June 30, 2023

Without further ruining the show, audiences should just know that they can count on beloved staples like the Lakeview , the Royal Conservatory of Music, the ROM and other spots serving as backdrops later in the episode, too.

As one person on Reddit said, "It was really hard to watch and concentrate on the plot as a Torontonian."

Others are calling it a love letter to the city that they themselves are absolutely adoring, mainly because most things filmed here simply  use the city to represent another locale rather than pay homage to it like this episode did with flying colours.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. A love letter to Toronto and the best ST episode in years. Well done #SNW — Mike Kubes (@kubesincanada) June 30, 2023

The only suggestion that some fans had? That writers should have chosen to destroy the contentious Gardiner Expressway  rather than a fictitious bridge to really get citizens' blood pumping.

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