Things they changed after the first episode

[Karzak]

Geordi and Data switched seats after the pilot, and it remained that way for the rest of the series, even the flashbacks in "All Good Things..." (I think?)

 

[Timo]

Heck, the seats changed seats!

The consoles are clustered much closer to each other in the pilot than in the regular episodes, and canted inward. Their seat component is also different, tilted back more initially.

It would make sense that these stations resting on the flat and featureless and very large forward floor of the bridge would be moveable. With the push of a button, they'd stop gripping the floor and could be pushed to other positions, new ones could be brought in, etc. Picard was trying out a lot of things during his first year, including the roles and duties of his officers. He settled on a pattern at the beginning of the second year only; he might have settled on a bridge console configuration a bit earlier.

We see oddly positioned pulpits of this design in "Peak Performance", aboard the mothballed Hathaway. Rather than assume the ship was built with asymmetric pulpits, we could deduce the pulpits were pushed to the corner when the ship went to mothballs, and only one of them was pushed back to the center for flying the ship from the storage depot to the wargames area.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Lance]

^ The LCARS interfaces are supposed to be easily configurable for any given station (Tactical doesn't necessarily need to be behind the horseshoe, and Ops doesn't necessarily need to be forward on the bridge, but that's just how Picard decided he liked it). So, I see no real objection to the concept that the actual stations themselves shouldn't be able to move position around the bridge. Presumably all the fixtures are similarly modular, so for example, they could rip out Riker's chair or Deanna's chair and replace it with conventional stations ala the Hathaway.

Geordi and Data switched seats after the pilot, and it remained that way for the rest of the series, even the flashbacks in"All Good Things..." (I think?)

Yeah, for "All Good Things..." they did switch Data and Miles back to the "Farpoint" configuration for the flashback scenes, so Ops and Conn switching sides is definitely something that happened 'in universe'.

 

[Ithekro]

The Trill changed appearance between the first time we saw one and Dax showing up on DS9. Mainly because the question came up about why hide such a pretty face like that and we had only seen them once before.

 

[suarezguy]

3) Starfleet = Humans

Troi "My mother was betazoid. My father was in Starfleet." A crewmember from later in TNG or any of DS9 or Voyager hears this and still probably thinks her father is betazoid. Starfleet was mostly a strictly human organization at this point, and alien presence was an exception.

I'm not sure this was later outright abandoned, in season 4's "Reunion" Picard says the crew (of around 1,000) has "representatives from thirteen planets" and it's easily assumed, given the extras we generally see, that each group from each planet is quite small, not a lot of diversity. And even later in DS9 and Voyager most of the species diversity came from non-Starfleet members.

 

[Silvercrest]

There's also a clear discrepancy in EaF and Last Outpost and later in the series for how much humans and Ferengi have previously interacted. Even forgetting that humans met Ferengi two hundred years earlier in Enterprise, Ferengi seem pretty actively engaged in very nearby planets for a very long time and have an untrustworthy reputation among everybody.

But reputation isn't interaction. Hearsay can spread from culture to culture like a game of telephone. The Federation had interacted with others who had knowledge of the Ferengi, but they'd never interacted directly with the Ferengi themselves.

Here's "Farpoint" on the Ferengi:

ZORN: If Starfleet cannot accept that small weakness, then we will be forced, unhappily, to seek an alliance with someone like the Ferengi... Captain, the Ferengi would be very interested in a base like this.
PICARD: Fine. I hope they find you as tasty as they did their past associates.
​

Later:

PICARD: I asked if you knew who it is. You mentioned the Ferengi Alliance to me.
ZORN: But we have had no dealings with them. It was only a, a thought.
PICARD: Are you certain?
ZORN: I promise you, Captain. We were making an empty threat. I wanted your cooperation. Forgive me.
​

All any of that shows is that the Federation has heard of the Ferengi and their reputation. Beyond that, it's extremely vague.

Here's "The Last Outpost":

PICARD: We are in pursuit of a starship of Ferengi design. Our mission is to intercept and recover a T9 energy converter which the Ferengi stole from an unmanned monitor post on Gamma Tauri IV -- a theft which automatic scanners recorded, providing us with the long-awaited opportunity to make close contact with a Ferengi vessel. If we succeed in this chase, it will be Starfleet's first look at a life form which, discounting rumour, we know almost nothing about.
​

I don't see any discrepancy at all. After all, these were only three episodes apart. I once read that it took about 11 weeks to get a TNG episode from initial story proposal to finished episode. And with the early episodes of the season. So "The Last Outpost" would've probably been written while "Farpoint" was still in pre-production and subject to revision. Whatever ideas the producers had about the Ferengi would've been developed in both scripts pretty much simultaneously. So they both reflect the same same set of ideas: Namely, that the UFP was aware of the Ferengi by reputation, but had not directly met them, and that the reality was less intimidating than their reputation suggested.

Here's bit of dialogue oddity that suggests the writers did lose track eventually:

From "The Siege":
Nog: Has there ever been one of your kind and one of my kind who were better friends?
Jake Sisko: Never.

Uh, boys — official first contact was only six years prior at the time you said that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Data was part of the class of '78 at the Academy.

 

[Ithekro]

Data was part of the class of '78 at the Academy.

Temporal accident.

 

[Mytran]

Nah, there were just that many people in his class. A class of 78, see?

I'm not sure if it was changed after the pilot or in the mid Season 1/2 break (like the Bridge walls, chairs etc) but when Picard first enters the Bridge in EAF there's a door adjacent to the turbolift that seems to provide access to the rear of the science stations. It's there in the pilot, but not later on, and never appears on any official blueprints either...

 

[Timo]

Nah, there were just that many people in his class. A class of 78, see?

Heh, that even makes plot sense. After all, it's Data's response to Riker's challenge that the android's rank is purely honorary (the only example that survived of the original concept of Riker being AI-phobic). So naturally Data says "Sir, I have 77 witnesses to the fact that I earned these pips"...

when Picard first enters the Bridge in EAF there's a door adjacent to the turbolift that seems to provide access to the rear of the science stations.

Where? I don't see it.

When Picard enters, it's through the aft portside turbolift. To his right is the semi-closeup is just the paneled wall. I can't see any sign of a door in that paneling.

Then there's a Picard POV to starboard, showing two doors: to the right, the one that goes to the Observation Lounge and remains there for the entire show, and to the left, the one that goes, well, we don't know where, but people come and go through it, and at one point a Jeffries tube comes up through there. That door stays there, too, and is labeled "head", that is, toilet, in the blueprints - it's just that this camera angle is seldom repeated.

The shot then pans to the left, and all the further shots are "conventional" ones, showing no rare or exotic features...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

Here's bit of dialogue oddity that suggests the writers did lose track eventually:

From "The Siege":
Nog: Has there ever been one of your kind and one of my kind who were better friends?
Jake Sisko: Never.

Uh, boys — official first contact was only six years prior at the time you said that.

They're teenagers. To them, six years is forever.

Besides, there's no factual contradiction there. If the species have only been in contact for six years and have been antagonistic ever since, then it stands to reason that there's never before been a close human-Ferengi friendship.

 

[Mytran]

Well, drat! I've definitely seen an odd door in the Bridge there at some stage, but I've just checked EAF and it's not there! Next time I spot it I'll let you guys know

 

[Lance]

The Trill changed appearance between the first time we saw one and Dax showing up on DS9. Mainly because the question came up about why hide such a pretty face like that and we had only seen them once before.

The threads only asking for things that changed between the pilot episode and the series. So, basically anything that was different from "The Naked Now" onwards than it was in "Encounter At Farpoint".

It's not uncommon for TV pilots to be very different to the shows themselves, whether extending to different sets, sometimes different costumes and actors. This is often because TV pilots are produced a year or more before a show, and things get revamped after a network picks them up and true production begins. What makes TNG strange in this sense is that the season was pre-sold in full as a complete unit, so there was actually no production gap between the pilot and the next episode along -- but they still took the opportunity to revamp a few things they didn't think worked about the pilot episode anyway.

In TNG's case, there were a lot of differences in terms of characters and motivations, as "Encounter At Farpoint" was working only from the series bible as a base, and certain assumptions were made thereof that stand out as weird compared to what we later became familiar with, whereas subsequent episodes got rewritten/tailored for the cast dynamic that had become apparent during the shooting of the pilot.

 

[Christopher]

Well, drat! I've definitely seen an odd door in the Bridge there at some stage, but I've just checked EAF and it's not there! Next time I spot it I'll let you guys know

You may be thinking of the door to the never-seen bridge head (bathroom) that's adjacent to the observation-lounge door at the other end of the bridge rear. Here's a set plan.

What makes TNG strange in this sense is that the season was pre-sold in full as a complete unit, so there was actually no production gap between the pilot and the next episode along -- but they still took the opportunity to revamp a few things they didn't think worked about the pilot episode anyway.

In which case it isn't technically correct to call it a pilot at all, just a premiere. But it's become commonplace to use the terms interchangeably.

In TNG's case, there were a lot of differences in terms of characters and motivations, as "Encounter At Farpoint" was working only from the series bible as a base, and certain assumptions were made thereof that stand out as weird compared to what we later became familiar with, whereas subsequent episodes got rewritten/tailored for the cast dynamic that had become apparent during the shooting of the pilot.

Also there were a lot of changes in the production crew early on, as Roddenberry and his clique drove away other co-creators. TNG was really a joint creation of Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, and Bob Justman. Gerrold did the lion's share of work writing the series bible, and since the premiere script was credited to Fontana and Roddenberry, that should have entitled Fontana to creator credit and the commensurate residual income on the entire series. But Roddenberry and his lawyer Leonard Maizlish shut them out of credit and marginalized them creatively and eventually drove them off. So a lot of the original ideas for the series got quickly forgotten as the original development team eroded away.

 

[Silvercrest]

Here's bit of dialogue oddity that suggests the writers did lose track eventually:

From "The Siege":
Nog: Has there ever been one of your kind and one of my kind who were better friends?
Jake Sisko: Never.

Uh, boys — official first contact was only six years prior at the time you said that.

Besides, there's no factual contradiction there. If the species have only been in contact for six years and have been antagonistic ever since, then it stands to reason that there's never before been a close human-Ferengi friendship.

Nope, no factual contradiction, but an implied one. The line suggests the races have been in contact for a long time. Same as the "brand new" holodeck in EaF vs. Janeway's "decades ago" holodeck. These aren't irreconcilable discrepancies — obviously the lines can be explained. But it still looks like the writers forgot. YMMV.

They're teenagers. To them, six years is forever.

 

[Timo]

The line suggests the races have been in contact for a long time.

I'm not sure the suggestion is there. It's not just two teenagers talking about the passage of time - it's two teenagers using phrases too big for their combined mouths. They're being so pompous it hurts, i.e. they certainly aren't being serious!

but they still took the opportunity to revamp a few things they didn't think worked about the pilot episode anyway.

Is the jump from "Farpoint" to "Naked Now" really bigger than, say, the jump from "Naked Now" to "Lonely Among Us" or "The Last Outpost"? There was constant tinkering there, swapping of roles (main characters performing different bridge tasks in different episodes, secondary characters suddenly being treated as main ones), new abilities or limitations of hardware, new adversaries and alliances and odd disappearance of previously estabished ones. Heck, even the basic setting of the show appeared to evolve - it's not from "slightly after 2278 or 2378 or even 2478" to "2364" between "Farpoint" and the regular episodes, it's this evolution between "Farpoint" and the season finale.

The tinkering stopped, sort of, during the second season. But TNG really had a "pilot season" at the conclusion of which many a thing was changed. Worf became a central character, for one, completely changing a balance where the previous Security Chief had been a bit player despite being a celebrity actor. And then Riker gained a beard and lost a spine, another major shift in premise...

TNG stands out in this respect vs. the other two long-running spinoffs. The TNG pilot might not be significantly different from the DS9 and VOY ones in terms of contrast with the regular series, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

Well, drat! I've definitely seen an odd door in the Bridge there at some stage, but I've just checked EAF and it's not there! Next time I spot it I'll let you guys know

You may be thinking of the door to the never-seen bridge head (bathroom) that's adjacent to the observation-lounge door at the other end of the bridge rear. Here's a set plan

I'm familiar with that plan. The alcove by Picard's Ready Room would also fit the bill, but I can't see why either would look odd enough for me to notice. No matter, I'm sure I'll figure out what I saw and where

 

[Kilana2]

They got rid of those damn mini skirts on men right quick.

And it was justified. They were a lapse of taste.


And what about Spot, Data´s cat. It was always a red cat. But was it male or female? In Genesis it was a "she" as Spot was pregnant. They had obviously several red cats with different fur, both male and female.

 

[Nerys Myk]

No mention of the O'Brien Conundrum?

He's an no name redshirt ensign in "Encounter at Farpoint".

Becomes a no name, no rank gold shirt guard in his next appearance.

Gets his "real" job in his third appearance, but is a lieutenant

Gets a name in his sixth appearance.

Offically becomes a petty officer in his 34th appearance, while wearing a lieutenant's pips.

Gets a single hollow pip in his 50th appearance.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

There's also a clear discrepancy in EaF and Last Outpost and later in the series for how much humans and Ferengi have previously interacted. Even forgetting that humans met Ferengi two hundred years earlier in Enterprise, Ferengi seem pretty actively engaged in very nearby planets for a very long time and have an untrustworthy reputation among everybody.

But reputation isn't interaction. Hearsay can spread from culture to culture like a game of telephone. The Federation had interacted with others who had knowledge of the Ferengi, but they'd never interacted directly with the Ferengi themselves.

Here's "Farpoint" on the Ferengi:

ZORN: If Starfleet cannot accept that small weakness, then we will be forced, unhappily, to seek an alliance with someone like the Ferengi... Captain, the Ferengi would be very interested in a base like this.
PICARD: Fine. I hope they find you as tasty as they did their past associates.
​

Later:

PICARD: I asked if you knew who it is. You mentioned the Ferengi Alliance to me.
ZORN: But we have had no dealings with them. It was only a, a thought.
PICARD: Are you certain?
ZORN: I promise you, Captain. We were making an empty threat. I wanted your cooperation. Forgive me.
​

All any of that shows is that the Federation has heard of the Ferengi and their reputation. Beyond that, it's extremely vague.

Here's "The Last Outpost":

PICARD: We are in pursuit of a starship of Ferengi design. Our mission is to intercept and recover a T9 energy converter which the Ferengi stole from an unmanned monitor post on Gamma Tauri IV -- a theft which automatic scanners recorded, providing us with the long-awaited opportunity to make close contact with a Ferengi vessel. If we succeed in this chase, it will be Starfleet's first look at a life form which, discounting rumour, we know almost nothing about.
​

I don't see any discrepancy at all. After all, these were only three episodes apart. I once read that it took about 11 weeks to get a TNG episode from initial story proposal to finished episode. And with the early episodes of the season. So "The Last Outpost" would've probably been written while "Farpoint" was still in pre-production and subject to revision. Whatever ideas the producers had about the Ferengi would've been developed in both scripts pretty much simultaneously. So they both reflect the same same set of ideas: Namely, that the UFP was aware of the Ferengi by reputation, but had not directly met them, and that the reality was less intimidating than their reputation suggested.

The discrepancy I was referring to isn't between those two episodes, it's between those two episodes with later episodes. The Ferengi seem to have a firmly entrenched presence in areas near Federation space.

The Ferengi were surprised that humans clothe their females, yet the Ferengi at the very least had significant interaction with the Cardassians and Bajorans, who clothe their females.