The Subsequent Technology’s Hardest Episodes To Create

Within the “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (February 19, 1990), the Enterprise-D is flying merrily by means of house when it encounters a colossal adverse space-wedgie in its path. They crew finds it’s a portal by means of time, main to a degree in historical past 22 years prior to now. A ship flies out of the portal. It is the Enterprise-C, commanded by the stalwart Rachel Garrett (Tricia O’Neill). 

When it does, nevertheless, every thing in regards to the Enterprise-D’s timeline shimmers and shifts. Impulsively, the Enterprise-D is a fight ship. The crew all grow to be weapons-toting troopers, now embroiled in a year-long struggle. Plainly the Enterprise-C exited its personal timeline at an important level in galactic historical past, when it was dealing with a shedding battle by the hands of the Romulans. When it vanished into the longer term, the battle by no means ended, and a full-scale struggle broke out. 22 years later, the Enterprise-D remains to be combating the identical struggle. 

Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) is the one character who senses that one thing is amiss. She is aware of that the timeline shifted, and that the Enterprise-C has to return by means of the time portal to its personal time. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is reluctant to take action, as he is aware of the Enterprise-C can be destroyed. Whether it is, nevertheless, it is going to forestall a struggle from breaking out and save untold lives. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” presents a intelligent, sci-fi model of the trolley drawback. 

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” additionally options the return of Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), a personality who had died just a few seasons earlier. Many think about “Yesterday’s Enterprise” one of many higher episodes of the sequence.

Within the Hollywood Reporter in 2020, co-writer Ira Steven Behr talked about making the episode, and the way tough it was to result in. It was, as one may think, an advanced affair.

Plainly “Yesterday’s Enterprise” was massively reworked from its early inception. The script was one of many few that was written by outdoors amateurs, on this case, Trent Christopher Ganino; “Subsequent Technology” had an open-door coverage when it got here to scripts, and followers had been welcome to mail of their tales all they wished. The preliminary script for “Yesterday’s” was accepted by the then-new Michael Piller, and handed to writers Eric Stillwell and Ronald D. Moore for polish. Moore was the one who invented Rachel Garrett as a principal character, and who turned the story explicitly right into a time journey story. It was then handed to Behr and different “Subsequent Technology” author for additional fine-tuning. 

The issue with the a number of rounds of script tinkering was that “Subsequent Technology” was already being produced at a breakneck tempo, needing to complete an episode each week. Ira Steven Behr described the manufacturing of “Yesterday’s” as a “cluckerf***,” and that the episode possible would not have made it to display screen in the event that they weren’t determined to get one thing in manufacturing as rapidly as doable. Behr stated: 

“What’s necessary to know is that we had been thus far behind on episodes [in season three], we had been so backed up with reveals, so it was similar to placing out fires, you realize? However there had been this story that there was curiosity in, from Eric Stillwell, and we would have liked to place one thing within the pipeline for manufacturing.”

Behr recalled that, in an effort to end the script, he, Moore, and writers Richard Manning and Hans Beimler all needed to work over their Thanksgiving trip. Behr stated that “That pissed everybody off to no finish. […] However that was the job.” Tough job, it appears.

It was crunch time. Manufacturing needed to be moved from early 1990 again to late 1989 in an effort to accommodate the schedules of Goldberg and Crosby, now main elements of the story. Behr recalled that it actually was a matter of assembly a strict deadline, and needing to do piles and piles of labor in a short time. Capturing was going to begin on December 11, and it was Turkey Day already. As Behr recalled:

“Michael [Piller], on the time, was not in a position to — or did not wish to — take care of the writing employees on a day-to-day foundation, for one thing like this. He was, justifiably, too busy rewriting and coping with every thing else, as a result of we had been so behind that season. It was such a clusterf***. He stated: ‘Get them in, we gotta do that.'”

Moore got here up with a whole lot of the foremost adjustments within the script. He wrote the opening scene whereby Guinan and Worf (Michael Dorn) have a dialog in Ten Ahead earlier than the timeline rigmarole begins, in addition to the ultimate scene whereby the Enterprise-D blows up defending the Enterprise-C (a scene, by the way, that government producer Rick Berman objected to). Piller wrote the scenes between Guinan and Picard. Behr was finally impressed with the ultimate product, saying that “It was all fingers on deck, however out of that chaos got here sort of a […] cultural touchstone, I suppose, by way of the style.”

Moore recalled in the identical Hollywood Reporter piece that “Yesterday’s Enterprise” got here collectively so properly, that it boosted morale among the many “Subsequent Technology” employees. Everybody was overworked and drained, however this episode really ended up working, and everybody got here to like the way in which it turned out.