When exactly was the writer's strike...?

[WAMTNG]

Coming close to the end of my family's watching of season 1, and looking at sorting out the research for the WAMs that will go with these episodes. (Watching the shows is the easy part of writing these newsletters!) As I'm sure we're all aware, the Writer's Guild of America went on strike in 1988. This was to massively affect season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and I believe the end of season 1 too.

My understanding is that the reason that "The Neutral Zone" is not much of a bookend to the first season is due to the writer's strike, although I also think it hadn't actually begun yet... as if they rushed that final episode to avoid it being taken down by the strike. And all the foreshadowing of the Borg in that episode (who didn't even exist as a firm concept behind-the-scenes yet!) was supposed to foreshadow the reveal of a new enemy... who because of the strike did not happen until quite a bit later, but who presumably were supposed to be in the planned original finale to season 1.

Does anyone know exactly how the production time lines marry up here...?

1. When exactly did the strike begin and end in terms of TNG production schedules?
2. Is "The Neutral Zone" the only season 1 episode affected?
3. ...and which script was the first one written after the writer's strike ended?

Any intel on this behind-the-scenes consequences of the writer's strike gratefully received! I will of course do my own digging, but you folks are so hot on this stuff it seems silly not to ask y'all first.

 

[Takeru]

The writers strike from March 7 to August 7 1988, the season 1 finale was a first or second draft that they had to get ready two shoot in one or two days due to the strike so it wasn't a polished episode but the strike most heavily affected the start of season 2 when they dusted off a Phase 2 script and rushed it into production after the strike ended instead of continuing the from the season 1 finale which was supposed to start a more serialized story about a federation/romulan alliance against the borg.

 

[WAMTNG]

...when they dusted off a Phase 2 script and rushed it into production after the strike ended instead of continuing the from the season 1 finale...

Thanks! But this makes it sound as if only "The Child" was affected in season 2. Is that correct...?

 

[Seven of Five]

It was the only episode affected that season as far as I can recall, but the strike also affected the number of episodes, with 22 instead of the planned 26.

I remember reading about the planned Starfleet/Romulan alliance against the Borg in the TNG Companion years ago. I always thought it sounded like such a cool idea.

 

[Christopher]

Is "The Neutral Zone" the only season 1 episode affected?

My understanding is that the climax of "We'll Always Have Paris," with the multiple Datas trying to close the time warp, had to be pretty much improvised by the director and actors on set because they couldn't ask the writers to do revisions. I figure that's why Data says "It's me!" at one point despite his supposed non-use of contractions being established by then.

they dusted off a Phase 2 script and rushed it into production after the strike ended

Which means that they were able to rewrite the script to some extent once the strike was over.

Thanks! But this makes it sound as if only "The Child" was affected in season 2. Is that correct...?

Basically, yes. The Phase II script "Devil's Due" was also put into development during the strike, but the strike was resolved before they needed it, and it got stuck in development for several years before they finally got it to a filmable state.


As discussed in this thread, there's a persistent myth that the season 2 finale clip show "Shades of Gray" happened because of the strike, which is nonsense because the strike was nearly a year earlier, and because clip shows are a commonplace thing done to save money, and couldn't be made during a strike anyway because they still require new framing material to be written.


A couple of other Paramount shows were affected by the 1988 writers' strike. The first season of TNG's syndication sister show War of the Worlds: The Series, which debuted in 1988, was largely written by pseudonymous non-union writers, and thus had some pretty dire writing as a result. Also, the 1988 revival of Mission: Impossible only existed at all because of the strike. The series was revived as a contingency in case the strike lasted longer, with the plan being to remake original series episodes verbatim with a new cast playing the original characters. The strike was resolved soon enough that they were able to make it a more proper revival/sequel series. The first several episodes were remakes, but they were able to rewrite them to a greater or lesser extent, and the remaining episodes were new, or only loosely inspired by original episodes.

 

[Mudd]

I figure that's why Data says "It's me!" at one point despite his supposed non-use of contractions being established by then.

No. That makes no sense at all.

 

[WAMTNG]

My understanding is that the climax of "We'll Always Have Paris," with the multiple Datas trying to close the time warp, had to be pretty much improvised by the director and actors on set because they couldn't ask the writers to do revisions. I figure that's why Data says "It's me!" at one point despite his supposed non-use of contractions being established by then.

Many thanks for your detailed notes, Christopher. I've compared the final screenplay to the transcript, and can confirm that the scene you're talking about was not part of the original story plan, so this is quite a plausible scenario. Production history at Memory Alpha also confirms this episode was affected by the writer's strike, although without a proper citation, and there is apparently no known date for filming. But the script is dated 22nd February 1988. Lead time between final draft screenplay and filming was typically 2-6 weeks - that pretty much guarantees that this would have intersected with the writers' strike. Many thanks for your assistance!

 

[ThankQ]

I figure that's why Data says "It's me!" at one point despite his supposed non-use of contractions being established by then.

Wouldn't we also expect Data to more formally say It is I?

No. That makes no sense at all.

What do you mean? Aren't minor on-set rewrites common enough during filming? Something didn't work, they needed a quick rewrite, no writers around someone popped off "It's me!" and roll tape.

As discussed in this thread, there's a persistent myth that the season 2 finale clip show "Shades of Gray" happened because of the strike

I was about to ask how that fit in... off to read the other thread now.

 

[Christopher]

What do you mean? Aren't minor on-set rewrites common enough during filming? Something didn't work, they needed a quick rewrite, no writers around someone popped off "It's me!" and roll tape.

Yes, exactly. It's normal for a script to get constantly revised throughout filming -- and even afterward, as scenes are rearranged in editing and new dialogue is dubbed in (or reshoots are done, if there's the time and budget for it). Nothing in the script is ever final until the episode or film is locked (i.e. completes post-production and is ready for release). But if there's a writer's strike during filming, the script can't be revised.

This happened with the 2009 Star Trek movie, which was filmed during a writers' strike. The normal process of revising during filming wasn't possible, so Abrams had to film exactly what was scripted. He couldn't even rewrite it himself, since that would've been breaking the strike. But the strike ended before the film was edited, so he was able to make some script and dialogue changes by redubbing actors' lines.

For instance, the infamous line in the Pike-Kirk barroom scene about the Federation being "a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada" was not there in the initial clip of the scene released online, but was dubbed in later (note that Pike is off-camera when he says it), presumably because the filmmakers realized they hadn't sufficiently defined the Federation for novice viewers and had to clumsily throw in the exposition. If there hadn't been a strike, they might have been able to work that exposition in more organically during filming.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It was the only episode affected that season as far as I can recall, but the strike also affected the number of episodes, with 22 instead of the planned 26.

I remember reading about the planned Starfleet/Romulan alliance against the Borg in the TNG Companion years ago. I always thought it sounded like such a cool idea.

Tracy Tormé was attempting to hold the fort. Susan Sackett was given the task to revisit all the "Phase II" scripts and find anything easily adapted. They found "The Child" for the next season's premiere and "Devil's Due" (held for later). Tormé had a first draft (two-part?) script featuring Spock and the Guardian of Forever which was lost in the shuffle and two other scripts of his were given his pseudonyms - of Keith Mills ("The Royale") and Terry Devereaux ("Manhunt") - and causing him to depart. The season was truncated by four episodes (and the final one was made to be a bottle show with lots of previously-seen clips).

Another Tormé idea that was mostly lost: a Worf romance. There was to be a scene with injured Worf reporting to sick bay to be treated by Dr Selar (Suzie Plakson), with Worf admitting that it was damage from a courtship ritual. This was to have been a running gag over several episodes until is is revealed that Dr Selar is the partner. (While the suits thought that Ms Plakson had a synergy with Dorn, they decided to create a new Klingon character for her, K'Ehleyr.)

Tormé told a New Zealand convention audience about the Spock script and the Selar plans (for the first time ever) in June 1988.

 

[Christopher]

(and the final one was made to be a bottle show with lots of previously-seen clips).

Which there's no reason to bring up here, because it happened nearly a year after the strike ended and had nothing whatsoever to do with the strike. Clip shows are commonplace things that are done strictly to save money. If anything, reducing the season by four episodes should've given them more money to spare, so there's no correlation there.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Shades_of_Gray_(episode)

This episode was written to save time and money as a result of budget overruns earlier in the season. It was shot in only three days, while most take at least a week. Director Rob Bowman commented, "It was Paramount saying, 'We gave you more money for "Elementary, Dear Data" and the Borg show. Now do us a favor and give us a three-day show.' So that's what you do. It's an accepted part of the medium." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 182)

 

[suarezguy]

The writers strike from March 7 to August 7 1988, the season 1 finale was a first or second draft that they had to get ready two shoot in one or two days due to the strike so it wasn't a polished episode but the strike most heavily affected the start of season 2 when they dusted off a Phase 2 script and rushed it into production after the strike ended instead of continuing the from the season 1 finale which was supposed to start a more serialized story about a federation/romulan alliance against the borg.

I think a rare time I'm glad there wasn't more serialization, it would have been too soon and likely too much dominated the whole show for a while and OTOH the Borg, especially as we did get them, are much better as only rarely appearing.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Which there's no reason to bring up here, because it happened nearly a year after the strike ended and had nothing whatsoever to do with the strike. Clip shows are commonplace things that are done strictly to save money. If anything, reducing the season by four episodes should've given them more money to spare, so there's no correlation there.

It filled a gap in an already short, troubled season. It seemed relevant to me, even if you disagree. If I had left it out, someone would have piped up that I forgot to mention it. Sheesh.

 

[Christopher]

It filled a gap in an already short, troubled season.

Wrong. Read the passage I quoted in my previous post. It was done because they'd run over on schedule and budget on "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Q Who," and they needed an episode that could be filmed in three days instead of the usual seven or eight. That is the exact opposite of "filling a gap." It's not that they had extra room to fill, it's that they had too little room to fit in a whole normal episode and had to cut it down.

This is what clip shows are always for -- to save time and money to keep a season from running over budget. That is a routine, normal part of television production, so it's bizarre that so many people wrongly assume it had a connection to something as anomalous as a writers' strike.

I do not "disagree." This is not a matter of my opinion, but of facts that are on the record. There is no "disagreement" in questions of objective fact, there is just accepting the facts or denying them.

 

[Maurice]

Read the passage I quoted in my previous post.

"As I said."

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

"As I said."

That whole thing was a melodramatic overreaction by him regarding my post, where the relevant section began with the words "I'm not sure..." and also "around that time," meaning within a year or two. So there's no conspiracy going on by anyone to spread a useless myth and/or disinformation about a TNG episode and the writers' strike.

Such armchair speculation welcomes additional info that paints a clearer picture of what was going on. But leave the melodrama out of it.

 

[WAMTNG]

<awesome information clipped>

Wow, awesome intel here, Therin - thanks so much for this! I'll do some further digging around this information, to see what I can turn up on my own (probably not much if the source is convention Q&A, but still). All extremely helpful - much obliged for the assist!

 

[Greatn]

Whiney overpaid people wanting more

 

[Christopher]

Whiney overpaid people wanting more

You think writers are overpaid???

It's always management who's overpaid, and the workers who have to fight tooth and nail to get the bare minimum of what they're entitled to.

 

[Greatn]

I work on municipal shit pumps so ya toilet works for much less they make for dream job of writing Star Trek so yes