Early TNG promotion question

Prior to the series airing, I recall seeing a video clip on television which as I recollect showed a bridge shot where some characters weren't located at their usual stations. Specifically, I remember some blonde woman (who I later would learn was Natasha Yar) at the console where we would normally see Wesley. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'd write it off to a faulty memory, but the memory goes back a couple of decades now

 

All I remember about the early promos was Ernie Anderson's voiceover: "Data, an annnndroiiiid ... ".

 

I only remember this promo, but it doesn't appear to show the scene you're looking for.

 

I remember that one. Wasn't that the one tacked onto the video of Star Trek IV, too?

It's interesting to look back on. After "introducing" Captain Picard and Riker, Dr. Beverly (and her brilliant son, Wesley) are next. Was that just following the Kirk/Spock/McCoy-type dynamic? Was she intended to play a bigger part in the show originally?

Then they run through the other characters, and only Worf gets a line. I wonder why that was?

Along these lines, the show's opening credits are pretty interesting, too. After Stewart and Frakes, the rest are listed alphabetically. It works out well, what with Wil Wheaton bringing up the rear. Suppose his name had been, say, Wil Barnes, which would put him before Levar Burton?

Fascinating how sometimes things just work out.

As far as my original question, the more I think about it, it must've been a clip from Entertainment Tonight, which was covering the pre-release stuff.

 

I think that was just to surprise viewers with a Klingon character on the bridge of the Enterprise. That was a major thing back then. Of course, Roddenberry didn't even want Worf in the first place.

 

My recollection is that Worf was a very late addition to the cast. I think even near-final drafts of the Writers Guide didn't have him.

 

Was it by chance any of thee 30 second promos that counted down to the premier?

http://youtu.be/BeMF32tLw8U

 

I certainly can't rule it out. I didn't spot it in the video you posted, but possibly my brain melded some imagery together, leaving a false impression. But it's just so specific is what gets me.

 

Boy, those promos … some of them reach almost 60 percent ``not footage from the Trek movies'', don't they?

 

^LOL, yeah. I remember the very first TNG commercial before the show premiered. It was basically footage of the Genesis wave from STII

 

He's not in the early cast photos for the series, either.

Michael Dorn was the last one added to the regular cast.

 

Maybe it was because not enough new effects footage was ready when the promotions department cut the ads.

 

I was taping the night TNG premiered, and it kicked off with the vid Hober Mallow linked to. "Tonight, the 24th century begins...", and after the promo, right into the episode.

 

Almost certainly that. If you watch those promos carefully, there is only footage from the first three eps of TNG present, and I'm pretty sure there are no fx shots from TNG other than the few from Farpoint there.

 

I remember that night. I got really excited when I saw Levar Burton, the Reading Rainbow guy, was in the show.

 

Yeah, LeVar and Wil were the two names I most recognized. I had seen Denise Crosby's name before, but only for a Playboy pictorial she did in 1979, and an appearance in 48 Hours. Playboy recycled the pictorial after TNG made her notable again.

 

Having started watching TNG long after it stopped airing, the most recognizable ones to me when I started watching was Patrick Stewart and LeVar Burton. I knew Patrick Stewart from the X-Men and because my parents were Trek fans and I saw maybe one or two episodes, and I knew LeVar from Reading Rainbow.

 

"Buttuhfly in the skyyyyyyy..."

 

And LeVar did a Reading Rainbow segment from the TNG set I think. I didn't watch the show regularly, being in my 30s with no kids.