perhaps you could help me with a few random trek questions.....

[lisa]

I have a few random questions..... They don't really go together but perhaps someone knows at least one of the answers. Perhaps you have some random trek trivia to add.

1. What do the colors of their uniforms mean?
2. Why are there almost no Vulcans on TNG?
3. why, on gods green earth, would Riker grow that stupid beard?

 

[Tora Ziyal]

!. Red is command, gold is operations (engineering, security, etc.), blue is science (including medical).
3. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

1. Not sure why they swapped gold and red from TOS. Perhaps to get rid of the old "red shirt" association with low life expectancy.
2. I want to know why the Romulans developed prominent brow ridges during their split from the Vulcans. Data's near autistic behaviour was probably enough logic for the series.
3. To hide a developing double chin perhaps?

 

[Dr. Crusher]

I thought at one point in the series, Riker explained (or answered some kind of a question) that indicated he grew the beard to cover up how young-looking he was without it. I recall his being referred to, by another officer who knew him earlier in his career, as "Ensign Baby-Face."

I didn't mind the beard.

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

2. I think I read somewhere that Roddenberry didn't want to rely too heavily on past aliens from TOS. IIRC Bob Justman and Rick Berman really had to lobby hard to even get a Klingon character on the show as a main character.

3. Jonathan Frakes grew a beard for a TV movie (I think) or just during the hiatus and Roddenberry liked it so much that he told him to keep it. He thought it made Riker look more dignified.

 

[sojourner]

1. Not sure why they swapped gold and red from TOS. Perhaps to get rid of the old "red shirt" association with low life expectancy.

The old story on that is that Patrick Stewart's camera tests went poorly with the gold color, so they switched command to red.

2. Gene Roddenbary wanted TNG for the most part to use aliens we hadn't seen before. Which is why you also don't see any andorians or tellarites among others.

 

[Finn]

2. I think I read somewhere that Roddenberry didn't want to rely too heavily on past aliens from TOS. IIRC Bob Justman and Rick Berman really had to lobby hard to even get a Klingon character on the show as a main character.

3. Jonathan Frakes grew a beard for a TV movie (I think) or just during the hiatus and Roddenberry liked it so much that he told him to keep it. He thought it made Riker look more dignified.

No. There was a writers strike...

 

[cblmc1296]

To hear Jonathan Frakes tell it, the producers did like the beard he grew after season 1. However, they couldn't decide on exactly how it should be shaped and ended up doing a bunch of trimming and then pasting on fake facial hair to get it to look just right.

Didn't Suzie Plakson play a Vulcan doctor on the Enterprise D? Dr. Selar??

 

[Finn]

Yes

 

[Therin of Andor]

1. Not sure why they swapped gold and red from TOS. Perhaps to get rid of the old "red shirt" association with low life expectancy.

They also colour-shifted all of the three division colours slightly, so red of TOS darkened to a wine/maroon colour, blue went to teal (avoiding bluescreen problems), and gold to mustard.

Patrick Stewart's screentests showed he wasn't suited to the mustard colour. After several movies of Admiral Kirk and Captain Spock being associated with wine/maroon uniforms, they decided that the public would accept that colour as a command colour, and they switched the command and ship's operations colours for TNG. And yes, it also took away the old redshirt stigma.

I want to know why the Romulans developed prominent brow ridges during their split from the Vulcans.

Maybe the Vulcans deliberately bred out the trait amongst themselves after the Romulans left? We know from TOS, ST V and ST VI, that some high-ranking Romulans lacked ridges. The helmeted Romulan minions in TOS may have had ridges we couldn't see. Mintakans are proto-Vulcans, and they have brow ridges, too.

To hide a developing double chin perhaps?

Many actors stop shaving in a hiatus between seasons. Roddenberry liked the look and Frakes kept his beard.

 

[Start Wreck]

I object. These questions are not random. They appear to be selected by choice.

 

[RoJoHen]

My first thought was, "You're not Lisa." Is that bad?

 

[Captain Robert April]

The running joke regarding putting command in red was, "Let's see how they like it for a change."

Re: Vulcans, Roddenberry was adamant about not wanting to retread old ground, so no Vulcans as regular characters, although even in "Encounter At Farpoint" the occasional Vulcan can be seen in the background (besides, he had Data to serve as the outside resident observer of humanity). In fact, it took a major sales job on Bob Justman's part to get Worf included.

As for Frakes' beard, he grew it during hiatus, everyone liked it, so he got to keep it. For one thing, Roddenberry figured they'd gone too far in making Riker in the Gary Cooper mold, so it was decided to start loosening him up a bit and letting a bit more of Frake's own personality fill in the gaps, and the beard made for a good step in the process. It also cut down on the Anson Williams ("Potsy" from "Happy Days") comparisons.

 

[Nerys Myk]

My first thought was, "You're not Lisa." Is that bad?

Lisa left you years ago...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOgTVJOdFVU[/yt]

 

[horatio83]

2. Why are there almost no Vulcans on TNG?

If you check Memory Alpha you realize that Vulcans appear in 25 episodes, roughly as often as in the other 24th century series (excluding Tuvok in the case of VOY).
The only series that really focuses upon the Vulcans is ENT.

 

[sojourner]

^Totally missing the intent of the question.

 

[tafkats]

My first thought was, "You're not Lisa." Is that bad?

Wait a sec, does that mean Lisa's account doesn't even exist anymore, or are usernames case-sensitive?

 

[horatio83]

^Totally missing the intent of the question.

Enlighten me, what is the intent of the question?

 

[sojourner]

^The OP wanted to know why Vulcans weren't used prominently in TNG. Giving the number of episodes they were present in doesn't answer the question. Especially since while most of those episodes contained vulcans, they were not featured.

 

[horatio83]

I am well aware of this. But you are obviously not aware that no TOS episode besides "Amok Time" and "Journey to Babel" deals with Vulcans. As I already pointed out, ENT is the only series which really delved into Vulcan culture.