The scoop on producer Gene Roddenberry’s new version of his popular science fiction series.
By Sheldon Teitelbaum
Gene Roddenberry’s new series STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was slated to begin production in June, a month behind schedule. The television air date for the two-hour pilot has now been moved back to October. Word from sources involved in the production indicates that despite careful budgeting by the executive accounting office at Paramount, the show cant help but go significantly over its projected budget of $1.2 million to $1.4 million perepisode. Paramount plans to syndicate 26 episodes of the one-hour show. ILM has been hired to do the show's titles and optical effects and has begun building a new model of the Enterprise.
The pilot script is written by Roddenberry and D.C, Fontana, a former script editorand one of the preeminent writers of the original series. Roddenberry, serving as executive producer, created the new show's format and issued a writing guide to prospective script writer's which outlines the concepts and characters. Set a century after the first series’ 23rd-century time frame, it involves a new Enterprise starship on a thirty-year mission.
The ship will be captained by an older officer, Dr. Julian Picard, an honored sage from the days of the original series. Paramount has cast Patrick Stewart for the part, which will function much in i fashion of Lorne Greene's ‘Adama,’ BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, as pes overseer who seldom has to beam down into the thick of things. The Britishtrained Royal Shakespeare company actor played minstrel Gurney Halleck in DUNE. The point man for the new Enterprise will be a younger captain-in-training Lieutenant William Ryker, played by Jonathan Frakes,
In a nod to the uniqueness of Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, Roddenberry has done away with the position of science officer aboard the new ship, avoiding any comparison. As yet there are no plans for a Vulcan principal. But the series will feature an android named ‘Data,’ whose main aspiration is to be human, the creation of an unknown alien race.
Other characters include a hard-nosed female security officer called *Macha,” reportedly fashioned after the woman marine played by Jenctte Goldstein in ALIENS. In casting, this role went to Denise Crosby, the lady scientist of THE ELIMINATORS, and was changed to a blonde Russian named Tasha Yar. The senior medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher is played by Cheryl McFadden. Her 15 year-old son named Lesley is played by Will Wheaton, the actor who appeared as a young Stephen KinginSTAND BY ME. A Klingon officer is also among the crew.
The Klingons, it would seem, have grown tired of knocking their heads against the Federation, and have joined them in an alliance. At present there is talk of dusting off the Romulans or establishing the “Farengi Alliance,” to replace the Klingons as regular series villains.
Also cast for the show is actor Levar Burton of ROOTS who plays blind Lt. Jordy Leforge, who sees by means of a prosthetic device. Marina Sirtis plays the half-human/ half-“Betazoid™ Starfleet counselor Deanna Troi, the show's main alien character. Sirtis is outfitted with an inverted, high sloping forehead makeup appliance for the role. And Brent Spiner plays an android possessing both strength and photographic memory recall. Dont cross him.
A number of veterans from the original series are involved in the new show. Robert Justman is associate producer. Justman was an associate producer, then co-producer, of the original series, who is said to be intent upon sticking close to the precedents set by the original show. David Gerrold was hired as story editor, but said he was leaving the show in May to work on his own network mini-series. The show's original costume designer, William Ware Theiss was brought on board instead of Robert Fletcher, who produced the costumes for the feature films.
None of the cast of the original series is slated toappear, even ina guest-starcapacity. Walter Koenig, nee Chekhov, had pitched a script idea which had a planet issue a distress call and insist upon receiving assistance from the old Enterprise principals. Those still alive because of the wonders of 24th century geriatrics would have been called out of their nursing homes to render rescue. Reportedly Paramount nixed the suggestion, arguing that even reassembling the series’ grossly undervalued supporting actors would have proved too expensive.
The script for the premier episode is called “Encounter at Farpoint,” a reference to an enormous space city which will be built on Paramount’s Stage 16, one of three stages allotted to the series thus far. The space-city reportedly includes a huge shopping mall which runs down the entire length of the stage. The stage will also have a large center room that will be converted into a courtroom, and Lt. Ryker’s Farpoint apartment, complete with patio, a main room, a bathroom and a corridor. Other sets for the pilot include the interior of an alien spaceship—equipped with its very own torture chamber—assorted tunnels, and something called an “energy gate,” a concept which Roddenberry was still grappling with as the script took shape.
The new Enterprise would make a grown Scotsman cry. It’ll be over double the size of the old Enterprise—1,230 meters long. Although it will suggest a progression from the old Federation starship designs, the ship will be built for comfort, and will incorporate aesthetic considerations one wouldn’t ordinarily expect in a vessel weighing 50 billion tons. Its windows will be curved, furniture will flare into the floor, and the ship will have carpets instead of the standard-issue iron grates audiences have grown accustomed to seeing.
The new Enterprise bridge, which will occupy a large part of Stage 6, will be oval-shaped, and viewed overhead. Ramps will stretch around the captain’s chair and come down on both sides of it. The raised area in back will have five stations. The view screen will be 15′ wide and 10′ high, significantly larger than that either in the old TV series or in the films. To ensure a wide enough camera angle to view the screen from the captain’s perspective, a pit was dug on one side of the bridge. Otherwise, the required camera angle would have been blocked by the bridge floor.
The bridge will also feature a captain’s ready-room, where private conversations can be had without forcing an exit to the captain’s cabin. The ship will be run by a giant computer that can be accessed anywhere on the ship. A shining black plastic surface is designed to run down the side of every corridor, enabling the computer to provide graphic and voice information.
Yet another 24th century innovation is the “holodeck,” which traces its origin to the defunct STAR TREK animated cartoon series, in which the Enterprise was equipped with a deck that used holograms to create realistic off-ship settings. In the new show the interactive holodeck allows crew members to experience the reality of travel to far-off places with the use of stock footage. In the original series pilot, “The Cage,” illusions could be made subjectively real for participants. The rationale for breaking the Federation embargo on this kind of technology is that 30 years is a long time to be cooped-up.
Slightly less than half of the shows planned will take place on alien worlds. The rest will transpire aboard the Enterprise or will involve ship-to-ship activity. Budgets for the basic sets have been set at $800,000. Additional sets for the first episode have been budgeted at another $250,000 to $300,000. And set budgets for subsequent episodes have been set at $50,000. But informed sources within the production believe that three times that will have to be spent to assure the feature-film quality they believe the series must have to be successful.
According to the industry trade journal Variety, Paramount has already cleared the show to run on 136 TV stations reaching 85% of the U.S. television market, including 28 of the top 30 markets, mostly stations that already carry re-runs of the original series. The stations give Paramount seven minutes of commercial time to sell for airing the show and keep five minutes to sell on their own, an arrangement called a “barter” deal. If the new series flops Paramount already has plans to offer the new episodes in a re-run package with the original show.
Executive producer Gene Roddenberry, creator of the original STAR TREK and the new show, poses on the bridge of the Enterprise with some of the “old generation.”