bridge lighting in Generations

[Allyn Gibson]

I think there was another set of writers that were hired after Moore & Braga delivered the first renaissance-era draft of what became First Contact, which Paramount or Stewart hated.

As a long-time Doctor Who fan, I have always a strange admiration for the "Renaissance" pitch. The Borg in Renaissance Italy is just the maddest idea. I'd have loved to see it, while at the same time thinking that this was a wild idea for a Star Trek film.

 

[DonIago]

As a long-time Doctor Who fan, I have always a strange admiration for the "Renaissance" pitch. The Borg in Renaissance Italy is just the maddest idea. I'd have loved to see it, while at the same time thinking that this was a wild idea for a Star Trek film.

I think setting the film during the events of first contact was a good idea versus setting it during the Renaissance...but that would have been interesting...

 

[David cgc]

To be clear, I don't think swapping the protagonists of the two plots -- fighting the Borg on the Enterprise, comedy plot with Zefram Cochrane on the planet -- was a wrong creative choice. I can almost see in my head how Picard and Cochrane together would have worked, it's the rest of the film around that I have trouble with.

I'd never looked closely at it before, but since it's available, I'll read that version now (but I'm really curious about this mentioned draft that had no Borg Queen at all).

You'll be disappointed to know that Cochrane spends most of the movie unconscious and only has about three lines, where he gives Picard his blessing to do the first warp flight without him, and then has to be pumped up by Picard to take the credit at the end when the Vulcans arrive. The only plotline in this draft that isn't radically different in the film is Data's capture and seduction by the Borg Queen. Lily (still called "Ruby") is a photographer, not Cochrane's right-hand person, the ground plot centers a lot on Mad Max politicking in the shantytown, and saying "Riker stays on the ship instead of Picard" is a bit of a misleading; it's actually Worf who it the main character of that plotline, with Riker staying on the bridge as "the guy in the chair." Riker even gets to be the one who gets space-sick doing the EVA. A few stray lines survived here and there (outside of Data's scenes with the Queen), but they ended up in the mouths of different characters.

On the other hand, Data's plot being totally siloed off from Picard (and any other characters) makes it a lot easier to imagine a Queenless version of the story, though now I'm wondering what Data would've been doing in that one and how the Borg would've been ultimately defeated on the ship. Maybe he would've had Worf's role leading the counter-attacks on board?

 

[Tosk]

Also, "action Picard" wasn't exactly new for the movies, he was already doing action hero stuff as early as "Captain's Holiday".

Isn't that the episode where the only action hero stuff Picard performs is punching Max Grodénchik in the face a single time?

 

[CoveTom]

I'd never looked closely at it before, but since it's available, I'll read that version now (but I'm really curious about this mentioned draft that had no Borg Queen at all).

You'll be disappointed to know that Cochrane spends most of the movie unconscious and only has about three lines, where he gives Picard his blessing to do the first warp flight without him, and then has to be pumped up by Picard to take the credit at the end when the Vulcans arrive. The only plotline in this draft that isn't radically different in the film is Data's capture and seduction by the Borg Queen. Lily (still called "Ruby") is a photographer, not Cochrane's right-hand person, the ground plot centers a lot on Mad Max politicking in the shantytown, and saying "Riker stays on the ship instead of Picard" is a bit of a misleading; it's actually Worf who it the main character of that plotline, with Riker staying on the bridge as "the guy in the chair." Riker even gets to be the one who gets space-sick doing the EVA. A few stray lines survived here and there (outside of Data's scenes with the Queen), but they ended up in the mouths of different characters.

On the other hand, Data's plot being totally siloed off from Picard (and any other characters) makes it a lot easier to imagine a Queenless version of the story, though now I'm wondering what Data would've been doing in that one and how the Borg would've been ultimately defeated on the ship. Maybe he would've had Worf's role leading the counter-attacks on board?

Just read through it. Gotta be honest... I think I like that script better.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm really curious about this mentioned draft that had no Borg Queen at all.

This script you posted is labeled "First Draft," so with the Queen present here, the Queen-less story that Dolgen commented on must have been a plot outline that circulated (studio, Stewart, maybe Spiner) before the word "go" was given on a script draft.

 

[Qonundrum]

I realize this subject has likely already been debated to death, but I'm new to TNG fandom and this is my first opportunity to express my opinion on a subject I feel strongly about. I apologize in advance and thank everyone for their patience and indulgence.

I hated the dark and gloomy lighting of Enterprise bridge in Generations.

It was definitely different. For production purposes, they of course had to hide every fabric tear or dented corner and there was no other practical way... especially for the small amount of time available to film, and there was no big shiny new ship (they wanted to crash the "D" during season 6 as well... glad they hadn't...)

1.) It was unrealistic and would be a depressing place to work. A vessel intended to house crew members for years at a time would be designed with an environment that promotes psychological wellness, not melancholy. Outside of a restaurant where the lighting may be dimmed to create a mood, most people's workspaces are not defined by high contrast shadows on the walls and edges of the room cloaked in darkness.

Bingo. Being able to easily find where you're going really can help, and while the lighting adds more atmosphere in character in some ways, it really does feel odd in this film - especially on the Bridge of all locations. (Crew quarters and Ten-Forward make for some ambiance that I actually liked, but that dark on the Bridge?)

2.) I appreciate that fiction needn't be 100% realistic and there can be artistic motivations behind lighting schemes. Directors may choose gloomy lighting to create an atmosphere or mood of somberness, despair or dystopia. But that doesn't fit with the tone of Stark Trek in general or this movie in particularly. Artistically, it makes no sense.

It's funny, innit, where Trek rarely talked of gravity plating or artificial gravity as minutiae* and yet it's easier to be pulled out of the fictional universe's realism by little things like lighting and/or other factors. Not always and suspension of disbelief is a fun thesis in of itself anyway. I suspect "Yesterday's Enterprise" may have influenced this as well, as it was dark lighting during its alternate-universe portion of the runtime too. I'm not saying or suggesting GEN is a different timeline, though nobody remembering to modulate shield frequencies otherwise begs questions (even if Soran brings up the Borg, but before I go down this rabbit hole of all rabbit holes...)

* e.g. "Day of the Dove" when Kang cuts all power to life support yet nobody's floating around... (background panels are still lit, so what he cut was pretty much oxygen only anyway...​

3.) I believe many people prefer this lighting style because it's supposedly more cinematic. True, most modern, high-budget sci-fi subscribes to this visual design. But that makes it a cliche. Star Trek is supposed to be unique and stand out from other sci-fi, not conform to it. Star Trek is supposed to give audiences an alternative, not more of the same.

That's true! Production reason aside, a lot of sci-fi did the low-lighting routine and it was to ramp up a sense of threat and menace. The movie does revolve around the metaphysical and mortality, which invariably permeates, so in that sense - and this is a big stretch, I agree - the juxtaposition of lighting to the movie's themes (which IMHO rise above so many nitpicks) also sorta works despite the impracticalities of it.

4.) Finally, this didn't have to be a binary choice: "bright as the TV series" versus "dark and gloomy". They could have dimmed the lighting a bit without going to the extreme. For example, in Picard Season 3 the lighting of the Enterprise D was much softer than it had been in TNG, yet brighter than it had been in Generations. That seemed like a reasonable compromise to me.

It still would have shown any dents, fabric frays, etc. Heck, eagle eyes will - especially in early TNG where they dared use more epic camera angles but had the camera just a teensy bit too close - that the engineering conduit is not metal but is quilted fabric. It's not often made so easily noticeable, though! At least for the cameras and tv sets average of the time. For a big screen, in full light, that stuff and more would be dead giveaways. I'm pretty sure the nail was still on the side of the warp core chamber where a tv episode needed a bomb to sit on it or something too... that'd be another big giveaway on the big screen (it's hard enough to spot for any given tv episode, but still...)

 

[Qonundrum]

Both are much better than Picard's lighting though. They did such an amazing job recreating the set, then made it look so dull.

The recreation was magnificent, but that bugged me too. For the areas where a 5000k (daylight white), 6000k (bluish white), or 10000k (whitish blue) light was used, they were all replaced with the same 2700k warm yellow glow. At least it wasn't 2100k (puke orange). The result was way too monotonous, give me that complementary or split complementary every time instead... or even TOS with the frequent use of double complementary, double split complementary, tetradic, quadratic, or even the "new color tv unicorn puke" palette where they chuck it all in but amazingly artistically (e.g. the cast photo from "I, Mudd" really is a work of art ).