Yesterdays Enterprise @ 30

[Khan 2.0]

lets make sure history never forgets the name Yesterdays Enterprise (pity Generations did)
https://twitter.com/TrekCore/status/1230203306326339590

https://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/yesterdays-enterprise.jpg

 

[WarpFactorZ]

lets make sure history never forgets the name Yesterdays Enterprise (pity Generations did)
https://twitter.com/TrekCore/status/1230203306326339590

Wow, 30 years! I can still remember watching it on first run in my dorm's TV common room with about 20 other students. No one could figure out what the heck was going on at first. I also got to see it at the Skydome in Toronto in 1994, along with All Good Things.

 

[Khan Jr]

A spectacular episode, undermined only slightly by the reset making (almost) everyone forget it. Of course, it also set a precedent for similar stories such as Year of Hell and Twilight.

It's too bad the attack cruiser model wasn't ready yet, though the Enterprise-D being destroyed by the Birds of Prey turns out to be somewhat prophetic...

 

[Galileo7]

"Yesterday's Enterprise" will always be the episode that should have been a theatrical motion picture, i.e., Generations.

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[WarpFactorZ]

"Yesterday's Enterprise" will always be the episode that should have been a theatrical motion picture, i.e., Generations.

Agreed. But sadly, four years would have been waaay to soon for a remake / reboot, especially since YE was forefront in the collective consciousness as the best TNG episode. The result of it sitting in S03 is we got two things we could have done without: Sela and Generations!

Thirty years, however ... NOW it's overdo for a remake!... Hmm... A ship that travels from the past and isn't supposed to be in the future, changes history so that the Federation is crumbling. Sounds like S03 of Discovery! I guess they'll find themselves a way to get back to the 23rd century for S04.

 

[Armus]

I just turned 10 when it originally aired. I watched it and had no idea why Tasha was back nor could I follow the plot. I found A Matter Of Perspective easier to follow. Looking back it's one of TNG's most visually impressive episodes. It looks amazing in HD.

 

[amp]

"Yesterday's Enterprise" will always be the episode that should have been a theatrical motion picture, i.e., Generations.

For a movie I assume they would use the 1701-A and the TOS cast, which was the scenario in the original draft script. And it would probably play out quite differently than the episode.

For one thing, in a movie version there would be a heavy focus on the TOS crew and their feelings at being in the 24th century. The movie may have even had a couple of "funny" scenes where the crew attempt to use a replicator or the holodeck.

And while they might still have brought Yar back there probably wouldn't be room for a nascent romance with someone from the other ship (at least, I certainly hope that they wouldn't pair her with Kirk) nor would she journey back into the rift with the crew of the Enterprise A.

That's not to say it couldn't have ended up as a good movie, but it would have diverged a lot in plot and in tone from what we saw in the episode.

 

[CDP]

Ironically YE and GEN were both directed by David Carson

 

[Khan 2.0]

For a movie I assume they would use the 1701-A and the TOS cast, which was the scenario in the original draft script. And it would probably play out quite differently than the episode.

For one thing, in a movie version there would be a heavy focus on the TOS crew and their feelings at being in the 24th century. The movie may have even had a couple of "funny" scenes where the crew attempt to use a replicator or the holodeck.

And while they might still have brought Yar back there probably wouldn't be room for a nascent romance with someone from the other ship (at least, I certainly hope that they wouldn't pair her with Kirk) nor would she journey back into the rift with the crew of the Enterprise A.

That's not to say it couldn't have ended up as a good movie, but it would have diverged a lot in plot and in tone from what we saw in the episode.

posted this in the Generations@25 thread but it ties in with what you are saying:

the idea of TOS (even just Kirk) crossing paths with TNG (and resulting in the death of kirk) evoked/still evokes such imagery as Kirk on the Ent D, (bridge, Picards ready room), Riker & Co on the previous Ent (A or B), old TNG spock encountering Kirk again after 80 years, and a finale of 2 Ents facing down a Klingon or romulan armada (an impossible to avoid shades of the Yesterdays Ent finale) with kirk sacrificing himself on the bridge of an Enterprise in something akin to the death of spock meets start of ST09s captain goes down with the ship thing - and it happening as its the only way for TNG crew to survive/peace to prevail (as opposed to saving a population of some random planet). evoking all kinds of call backs to the past (kirk taking on board spocks needs of the many outweigh the one noble sacrifice/dying alone campfire scene/a true kobiashi no win scenario no cheating death this time/atoning davids death/Klingons/doomsdaymachine near death finale - a death that would sort of bring the character full circle like 'all roads led to this' type deal - a 'oh that makes all kinds of sense/wow I cant believe they pulled it off'/Spock level impact death)
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/generations-25.301864/page-3#post-13155650

 

[Khan 2.0]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-trek-episode-saved-next-generation-1280374?

Thirty years later, Piller's decision more than holds up. And as great as "Yesterday's Enterprise" is, it is a source of some regret for one of its key creative architects.

"I wish we did this as the plot for Generations," Moore says, referencing the first Star Trek feature film featuring The Next Generation crew that he co-wrote with Brannon Braga. "If we hadn't have done that episode, then [the movie] would have been the Enterprise-A coming through that wormhole, and you'd have Spock and Kirk and everyone on that ship, we'd play the same story. They — the original crew — they had to go back to their deaths. And Guinan knew Kirk, and Guinan knew Picard, and that would have been an amazing movie."

Guess we will just have to settle for having an amazing episode

Maybe YE could've still been used for Generations (it happened with TMP using Changeling/Immunity/Doomsday, TVH - Tomorrow Yesterday/Assignment Earth, TFF - Way to Eden) .. just changed it up abit (Ent D in 23rd century? Ent A in 24th but no alternate war torn reality?)

 

[ChristopherPike]

Yeah, in my mind I see this as the Tarantino Trek movie. Don't know how close to his idea essentially remaking "Yesterday's Enterprise" was, but it was mentioned during an interview once as his favourite TNG episode.

But I can see this redoing plot as the starting point in the creative process... before taking off in a different direction. Enterprise E crew encounter strange universe altering phenomena. Kelvin Enterprise crew discovered to be at the heart of it, with the few remaining TOS cast playing their older counterparts. So Shatner, Takei, Koenig and Nichols (however brief because her health).

 

[amp]

I don't get Berman sometimes. Moore's original dialogue is so much better than the silly prune juice stuff:

“Originally, I had Guinan talking to Worf about the stars. About how, when humans look at the stars, they often ask questions of them,” Moore explains. In Moore’s original version of that scene, Worf’s reply was something to the affect of “when Klingons look to the stars, it’s more ‘what do the stars make us ask of ourselves’?” Executive producer Rick Berman ultimately cut that compelling exchange, but Behr made it known to the rookie writer how big a fan he was of that scene.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I don't know. Later on, Worf walking into Quark's bar and ordering Prune juice... it added humour to the character. Looking out the window and being philosophical is all well and good, but there's enough weighty stuff going on in the script, to just throw in the mundane, everyday and make a big deal out of it, is what TNG did. It's tea earl grey and fish in the ready room. Like it or loathe it.

Watching Star Trek with my Dad back then, we always used to laugh about it from this episode on... knowing it's probably what Worf was drinking.

 

[Armus]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Worf laughs for the first time in this episode. At the time that was a big deal.

 

[ChristopherPike]

The real missed opportunity was not showing Worf commanding one of the Bird of Preys attacking the Enterprise.

He effectively has to disappear from the bridge, due to the altered Klingon War timeline. So it makes sense to show him onscreen telling Picard to "Surrender and prepare to be boarded."

There's so much crammed into this episode, due to its history of being several pitches, half a dozen credited writers and endless rewrites, it was basically going through film development hell. It started life somewhat unrecognisably to the finished show, as a story in which Sarek time-travels and somehow is revealed to be Surak by the end.

 

[Armus]

The real missed opportunity was not showing Worf commanding one of the Bird of Preys attacking the Enterprise.

He effectively has to disappear from the bridge, due to the altered Klingon War timeline. So it makes sense to show him onscreen telling Picard to "Surrender and prepare to be boarded."

There's so much crammed into this episode, due to its history of being several pitches, half a dozen credited writers and endless rewrites, it was basically going through film development hell. It started life somewhat unrecognisably to the finished show, as a story in which Sarek time-travels and somehow is revealed to be Surak by the end.

I think Yesterday's Enterprise was saved by excellent lighting, set and costume alterations, and David Carson's direction. And a serviceable score by Dennis McCarthy.

 

[Qonundrum]

At the time of original broadcast, I wasn't keen on:

* the Castillo/Yar soap opera - it did start to drag onward, not unlike some of my posts
* the movie-era uniforms with bits removed to double as 1701-C variants
* the cheesy line "this isn't a ship of war, it's a ship of peace"

But loved:
* loved the 1701-C exterior
* loved the 1701-D interior lighting
* the overall plot ideas
* prune juice!
* Yar!
* the music
* the direction

But the rest of it was pretty darn great.

Decades later:

* still can't like that corny line
* it's still dragging out soap opera fluff - seriously, @ChristopherPike above nailed it with how they could have used Worf. Getting rid of the saccharine and equally pointless luuuuuurve story would have allowed other elements to breathe, or even be included. Yar's plot points of "I should be... dead!", "I died pointlessly", et al, were extremely solid on their own.
* knowing the budget constraints, they did as much as they could for costuming and it's grown on me
* what I loved back then hasn't changed
* an entire scene was cut out of this episode and pasted into "Generations" - only the time for a warp core breach was given a lot more time so everyone could be shooed to the saucer section in order to play "Galactic Frisbee Fail"(tm). Plus that cool crash, but I digress... YE certainly had to have been great to influence a full length motion picture, let's face it
* being older now, I appreciate that prune juice reference a lot more. But gimme some Metamucil instead... no cane yet but please give me a while.
* I saw the original design for the 1701-C and while what was made looks great, had the money been there, the originally intended model would have been sweeeeeeeeet, that design is

It's still one of TNG's all-time greats, and sets up a terrific, highly innovative setup for what becomes Sela. A shame TNG's writing went downhill at just the wrong time. Crosby got a raw deal out of one of sci-fi's more intriguing characters ever conceived, pardon the pun...

 

[Mojochi]

Getting rid of the saccharine and equally pointless luuuuuurve story would have allowed other elements to breathe, or even be included.

This aspect keeps this episode off my all-time favorites list. McDonald's & Crosby's scenes together just sucked the power right out of the episode. It's like even when they had this amazing chance to bring the character back with something crafty, they still couldn't come up with anything more substantial for her than another run-of-the-mill romance of the week.

I mean people! They find a lost Enterprise in the episode! There's tragically altered history! A person who knows about it! a WAR! A dead character resurrection! & glory for all... & yet somehow, in an episode that surely should've been made a 2-parter, we waste 6 of the 43 minutes they did get on these 2 sucking the wind out of the sails. lol

 

[Armus]

I think Guinan is the real weak link in this episode although her special knowledge was necessary to convince Picard to send the Enterprise-C back. Based on everything I've read this episode wasn't expected to turn out as well as it did.

The romance gave Tasha some consolation. She agreed to go face death so she could die with meaning. At least she didn't have to die alone.

 

[Lance]

I seen somebody on Facebook comment yesterday that this episode is "a little too much like the Mirror Universe" for their liking, which to me feels like it's completely missing the point. Visually, yes, the episode suggests a darker, grim take. But these are not evil versions of the crew we know. In fact, what makes the episode so perfect is that the characters are spot on. Everyone is recognisably themselves, just 'for want of a nail'. Underneath his brusque realism of the horrors of the war, Picard still has his optimism, it's just been buried. Indeed, I like to believe it's this idealism that things could be better that is what drives him to send the past Enterprise back.

One of my favourite things about the episode is the way it suggests a completely different paradigm, not with big massive things, but with subtle ones: the noticeable friction between Riker and Picard, or the obs lounge being a 'war room' with tactical maps instead of a conference room with plush chairs (symbolically, replacing the regular TNG's method of 'we can always talk it out' with 'standing to fight is our only option'). Or the subversion of light: the usually bright bridge, ready room, etc are ominously dark, claustrophobic command centres, evoking a utilitarian war ship, while Ten Forward, typically a place with relaxed mood lighting, is instead floodlit and looks more like a mess hall. This isn't the mirror universe, with cartoon-like replacements of the regular characters, it's just a recognisably inside-out version of the Star Trek we know. The episode masterfully sketches out a whole alternative series of history in broad strokes, which is why I think it's still compelling 30 years later. I've never tired of hypothesizing how things came to be so different, and yet still so much the same.

If I have one criticism, it's that I've always felt Denise Crosby's character is still... stuck in Season One, somehow. While the rest of the actors have had three years to get the feel of their characters and there has been some degrees of character growth in all of them, Crosby unfortunately comes back into the ensemble without that benefit. Yes, she's undeniably better written, but her presence doesn't feel like it "gells" with where all the other actors have come in three seasons in the development of their characters, and their bond as a team. She comes back as something of an outsider, although, perhaps I'm being a little harsh, as that degree of her being somewhat outside of things helps to underline just how 'wrong' (to paraphrase Guinan) it is that Tasha is even here at all.