Thought exercise: One TNG episode with an unlimited budget?
- Thread starter Ragitsu
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Yesterday's Enterprise. Two part episode. Enterprise A, around the events of Star Trek VI. Entire TOS cast. Full space battles and cinematic presentation. Whatever model-work is deemed necessary.
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Best part is, no one has to die to stop the war since they have to get back to their own time to save the Federation President. Lots of excuses to still have good drama. Story reworked to take advantage of the casting.
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Best part is, no one has to die to stop the war since they have to get back to their own time to save the Federation President. Lots of excuses to still have good drama. Story reworked to take advantage of the casting.
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I was going to say TBOBW, to see what more they would do instead of plastic body armor, fish tank tubes, and the $2000 laser for Locutus of the sort that now costs $3 in a pet shop so you can entertain Tiddles and Mittens with before giving them their crunchy treats... but you're right. TNG could star proper and recycle its own sets - which season 1 often cleverly does... for the most part. I'll get back to that in a sec...
I'd also say "Yesterday's Enterprise" because, even in 1990, digging up the movie uniforms but removing the puffy pillow turtleneck bits didn't begin to convince of a 20 year-old outfit design. I know the budget was tight, but the Vengeance Factor, Allegiance, Captain's Holiday on the Planet of the VDs, Transfigurations, and a handful of other episodes could surely have been pared down just a bit more? Heck, they went all f/x-bling on "Menage a Troi" for a pointless scene and there's a huge continuity gaffe in how a reflective green towel also transmogrifies into a custom tailored dress later on for no reason... But the 1701-C uniforms issue is one of the few times where the budgeting sticks out badly. In a show that was rightly proud of taking a minuscule budget ($1m/episode) and doing so much out of the gate. Remember kids, the ill-fated 1985 not-a-hit TV series "V" had $1m/episode as well and they had to ditch a ton of sound and video effects as postproduction was too costly (a reason that TNG was one of the first to have f/x done on videotape), but I digress... Even the TOS movie set bits repurposed for TNG weren't as bad to me, and - for bulkhead corridors and such - there's only so much one can do while keeping it looking "realistic". But that's a variation on the same theme; TNG having its own corridor sets from day one would have distinctly separated itself from TOS even more.
Then again, VOY reused the same corridor sets, with bits covered up as well.
“All Good Things…”. See the 30 Romulan ships, a more detailed Cambridge skyline, interiors of future Ent-D and the Pasteur look more futuristic with holographic panels, maybe a couple other Ent-D’s enter the anti-time disruption, with Wesley Crusher, Dr. Pulaski, Barclay, Ro, Dr. Selar, Guinan, being central to those Ent-D’s. Plus, could limit commercial interruptions for the finale and not cut Martha Hackett’s scene (playing a Terrellian) from the finale.
Probably "The Arsenal of Freedom." If I could change stuff, I'd have both the saucer and the stardrive together fighting the drones, the space drones would have more variety and be more intense, less stupid shit going on down on the planet, perhaps less main characters down on the planet and instead have them on the saucer or stardrive, the ground drones would probably be more humanoidish or something and get more dangerous as they evolve, and maybe add in a few supporting characters that weren't in the episode or didn't exist at the time like O'Brien, Ro, Barclay, Ogawa, Guinan etc (maybe not all but some). Bryan Cranston as Picard.
I'd blow an unlimited budget on the pilot and make every set, within the parameters of imagine that I would ever need to represent the Enterprise D. I'd have arboretums, labs, a huge sickbay like in SNW. Build the best E-D model possible and film it from a gazillion different angles.
So it'd have to be Encounter at Farpoint, for better or worse, to use the budget to ensure the production itself would always look fabulous in future episodes.
So it'd have to be Encounter at Farpoint, for better or worse, to use the budget to ensure the production itself would always look fabulous in future episodes.
We could split the difference and choose "Q Who?" so that, from the beginning, the Borg are designed with better parts.
Given modern Trek's love of changing uniforms, they could have even come up with a midway uniform between the TOS movies and TNG's start. They could even go further with the changes to the set to really make it seem like a ship of war. Hell, they could have even changed the D to look more like a battleship (similar to the future D in "All Good Things).
Assuming the intent of the original thought experiment was about a single episode, not about using it in future episodes, though, I might go with "Where Silence Has Lease." I really love Nagilum, but it might be interesting to see them with current CGI. Using "Stormy Weather" from Discovery as an example, the whole area Nagilum brought them to could have been done so much better. As much as we all love the Ensign Haskell gif, I think they could have done a better job with modern effects to show him dying in a less, dare I say, cheesy, way.
I guess that could go for many episodes with a weird space anomaly, especially "Night Terrors" with the terrible effects on Troi flying through her dream state.
Great point about Nagilum; he works and yet he doesn't. I suspect they portioned out the funds ahead of time and gave most of it to the Borg.
Ensign Haskell should have been in the whole episode and not thrown in for one quickie scene - the budget was probably why, since the only thing missing from Crusher's bathroom break would be him sipping on strawberry slurpies through the entire episode up to that point but then, all of a sudden, needed to whiz. Haskell's death moment as acted wasn't too bad (it's like "Scanners", but for broadcast standards of the time), but the contrivance to get Wesley out for just one or two small scenes is definitely cheesy.
And speaking of Scanners:
Oh Michael Ironside, you had too much fun in the 80s...
The scene also reminds me to get more pizza sauce as I'm running low... maybe more cheese, too..."Justice" - I think there's a very good episode hiding somewhere in there and a lot of the problems with the episode are visual. If the extras were more diverse and the costumes they wore were different, the episode would be better.
I figured that "Yesterday's Enterprise" would end up being one of the more popular picks. Personally, I'd like to see "The Pegasus" expanded to two episodes; in addition to lengthening the clandestine search itself (resulting in further opportunities for Terry O'Quinn and Patrick Stewart to interact with each other), we could also witness flashbacks featuring Will's service aboard the titular starship.
Seconded. I also think that good story buried within is also called "the original draft". There's no glowing godlike being (which is so tropey, even during TOS's time...) and there's more reasoning put into the punishment zones. Indeed:
Justice (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom
- This was the first script to be commissioned for the series after the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" (then known as "Meeting at Farpoint") was written. Due to the extensive rewrites that the story went through however, it ended up being the eighth episode to be filmed. (Creating the Next Generation)
- Writer John D.F. Black used his pseudonym "Ralph Willis" in the credits, because the televised episode bears little resemblance to his original first draft script. In Black's treatment, the colony of Llarof installed punishment zones to fight anarchy; however, the zones are now enforced to abide the law, but for only those who are deemed not immune to them. An Enterprise-D security guard, Officer Tenson, protecting two children while on shore leave, happens upon a crime scene, and is shot dead by the policeman Siwel, who is also killed by his partner Oitap on the spot, for misinterpreting his duty. In his first draft, Picard decides not to help the rebels led by Reneg who fight against this system of council member Trebor. Finally, it turns out the rebels install a similarly totalitarian regime when they gain power. In the second draft, the rebel leader, called Reneg is put on trial and executed for treason. Picard muses on the topic of people having their right to decide their own justice without interference. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (1st ed., p. 40); Creating the Next Generation, p.44-45)
I don't know about you, but I think that even that first draft has far more potential waiting to be drawn out of it than "It's not Risa or Wrigley's pleasure planet and there's space syphilis there except we cured it so it doesn't exist but don't tell the audience, but trip into a thriving flower bed and you're slated to be given lethal injection" could ever be.
Actually, the idea of more directly getting a main cast member into the alien legal system to wreck Picard's tea break is not bad and that's the only one good aspect to this story. But beyond the basic synopsis the idea is so poorly handled. I can think of horrible camp movies from 1970 that are structured and executed better than this episode.
Sadly and/or thankfully, there's not direct video clip. However,
CRUSHER: Establishing that colony has been exhausting for the entire crew, Captain. We're not a supply vessel. Settling all those people has been a strain on everyone. I'm tired myself.
(Riker, Data and Yar enter)
PICARD: Is it as good as your report suggests, Number One?
RIKER: As per report, sir. Class M, Earth-like, beautiful. It will startle you.
CRUSHER: It sounds wonderful for the children. The holodecks are marvellous, of course, but there's nothing like open spaces and fresh air.
TASHA: I've listed my report on their customs and laws, sir. Fairly simple, common sense things.
LAFORGE: They're wild in some ways, actually puritanical in others. Neat as pins, ultra-lawful, and make love at the drop of a hat.
TASHA: Any hat.
PICARD: But the happiest report has its negatives. Let's start with them, Number One.
RIKER: There are none, sir. Not that any of us can find.
(Riker, Data and Yar enter)
PICARD: Is it as good as your report suggests, Number One?
RIKER: As per report, sir. Class M, Earth-like, beautiful. It will startle you.
CRUSHER: It sounds wonderful for the children. The holodecks are marvellous, of course, but there's nothing like open spaces and fresh air.
TASHA: I've listed my report on their customs and laws, sir. Fairly simple, common sense things.
LAFORGE: They're wild in some ways, actually puritanical in others. Neat as pins, ultra-lawful, and make love at the drop of a hat.
TASHA: Any hat.
PICARD: But the happiest report has its negatives. Let's start with them, Number One.
RIKER: There are none, sir. Not that any of us can find.
Yes. Same scene.
(Um, as Senior of the Security division, how could she overlook their law books when it's not a book but a simple leaflet with 72pt font that states, "Break a law and you die". Since Riker also chimed in with "nothing we could find", one suspects it was a team effort and yet the whole team got too hung up on the hornball stuff, I guess...)
Best. Episode. Ever.
Also, there's probably a 10 hour repeating clip of that out there somewhere...
Also, you know someone had to have been reacting to the episode with this:
Or this, in this regenerated form:
And frankly, we kind of left Picard's risky whistleblowing stunt unresolved. That business would not be just an open & shut case. A LOT of people are going to be implicated, & he outed it in as indelicate a way as utterly possible. He certainly caused a diplomatic incident, & maybe even somewhat destabilized the peace. There'd a be vast numbers of high command who would NOT like what he did, even if they agreed Pressman & co were guilty.
Granted, he really had no choice, given that if he'd not outed it that way right then, there'd likely have been more coverups & making things classified, to keep it from becoming known to the Romulans, which would've been maybe enough room for Pressman to wriggle himself some loopholes to protect himself, much like he probably did the 1st time. I find it interesting that Will's next mentioned assignment was getting shipped out to Betazed for a length of time, while the whole thing blew over. Nice cushy, out-of-the way assignment, where he finds himself a hot girlfriend, all on Pressman's dime, for being a good little foot soldier.
Hell, that the Enterprise crew themselves became aware of the Pegasus secret in their dire need to make use of it, it might've jeopardized all their postings, when everything got hushed, & the whole crew could've been mothballed or reassigned. So Picard kind of HAD to do what he did then, for everyone's sake, but still... not just a bad admiral goes to prison. This thing's got far reaching implications, & personally, I'd dump a ton of budget on letting it play out.
I'd make Cause and Effect a season-long arc with a different 80s celeb cameo at the end of every episode. Some Captains Bateson: Tom Sellek, Harold Ramis, Bea Arthur, Howard Hessman, Scott Bakula (imagine!), Mister T, Arthur Ashe, Judi Dench, Ken Kercheval, Robert Redford, The Rockets, TV's Frank...
Where no one has gone before. A three part episode. Trapped in the universe of thought. Mind blowing chaos.
Or
Parallels with entirely different universes. One at war with the Klingons still, one with Jellico in charge, different crew mates, the enterprise being different in different timelines, crazy beard Riker’s remaining crew boarding the Enterprise and so on etc.
Think of all the guest star possibilities! Star Trek in the multiverse in 3 parts. Worf becoming slowly crazed and unhinged from the changes (I always wondered why the weird bridge freaks him out so much in Where Silence Has Lease but he’s so calm about shifting through universes)
Or
Parallels with entirely different universes. One at war with the Klingons still, one with Jellico in charge, different crew mates, the enterprise being different in different timelines, crazy beard Riker’s remaining crew boarding the Enterprise and so on etc.
Think of all the guest star possibilities! Star Trek in the multiverse in 3 parts. Worf becoming slowly crazed and unhinged from the changes (I always wondered why the weird bridge freaks him out so much in Where Silence Has Lease but he’s so calm about shifting through universes)
Not to mention the widespread diplomatic fallout if a Romulan spy were to disclose that information to their government; Picard's maneuver was blunt, but it was also the best choice of a tough lot.
Easy, Measure of a Man. I'd add a space battle.
Too cliche. Make Data have to fight a giant spider in the third act.
Good try. Nine out of ten for effort.
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