Foreign Text Briefly Visible in Zorn's Office in Encounter at Farpoint

[cgervasi]

What is the reason for this foreign text visible very briefly in Zorn's office in Encounter at Farpoint?

It only appears for a second, fades away, and is never seen again or mentioned in the story.

It seems like it would have taken work to make those letters appear for a second and then fade away. Why did the producers do it? What is the purpose of those two ramp-shaped structures built into Zorn's desk?

 

[Christopher]

It looks like a simple backlit transparency of the sort they used all over TNG. The reason "Okudagram" consoles were all flat touchscreens was because it was very cheap to print out color transparencies and backlight them, as opposed to building prop consoles with physical buttons. This was presumably meant to be some kind of status display screen showing Bandi writing -- although it does look very much like Japanese hiragana to me, probably just a placeholder they used because this was made before HDTV and they probably never expected anyone to see it clearly enough to notice.

I'd assume they had the light flashing on and off throughout filming the scene, just as a bit of background texture, and by luck of the draw, when they edited the final scene together, it just happened that there was only one brief glimpse of the display. That's the way these things work sometimes; filmmakers put all sorts of details into their sets so they'll be there for the cameras to catch, but the editing process prioritizes more important things like performance and pacing, so sometimes the background details are barely glimpsed or completely cut out.

 

[Leviathan]

...but what does it SAY!?!?

 

[Christopher]

Knowing the TNG art department, it's probably a Dirty Pair in-joke...

 

[Finn]

It's probably just random deco, to emphasize that it's an alien station. Not everything we see onscreen has a purpose pertaining to the plot of the episode....

It seems like it would have taken work to make those letters appear for a second and then fade away. Why did the producers do it? What is the purpose of those two ramp-shaped structures built into Zorn's desk?

You are overthinking this. It wouldn't take that much work to have a screen illuminating some alien script briefly. And it's just an alien desk.

It'd be like questioning why a random book was on one of the desks at the squad room in one of the Law and Order shows...

 

[rhubarbodendron]

It looks like Klingon characters

 

[Kor]

...but what does it SAY!?!?

It doesn't matter. We aren't meant to know. It's just to add to the "alien" atmosphere and setting.

Kor

 

[Leviathan]

It doesn't matter. We aren't meant to know. It's just to add to the "alien" atmosphere and setting.

Kor

Wrong!

 

[φ of π]

It says: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

 

[at Quark's]

I think this would be a nice one for those caption contests