Star Trek: TNG facts, give your thanks to producers of the original show!

[Deja Q]

If it were not for Robert Justman, we wouldn't have Cmdr Data or Cmdr Worf (or any Klingon) on the Bridge. Justman also gave the idea that whole families should be brought on board (but nobody's perfect). He also came up with the initial basis for what evolved into the Holodeck.

Of course, he also preferred LESLIE Crusher. I couldn't stand Wesley, but at least a female girl would have given Womens' Lib a mid-80s boost. He also proposed a part-Vulcan great-great-Granddaughter of Spock being a Bridge officer (science officer, naturally.)

Writer David Gerrold recommended the color of Data's skin, a new format for stardates, and a new method of calculating warp speed (so "Warp 6" now would be faster than "warp 6" dfuring Kirk's era). Gerrold also suggested an ensemble cast rather than having featured stars.

D. C. Fontana ensured that Jean-Luc Picard was Jean-Luc Picard and not JULIEN Picard. She also successfully, and thankfully, convinced Gene Roddenberry that Troi should NOT have four breasts. She also suggested the Romulans be brought back, due to their lack of use in the original series.

Rick Berman did a great job of polishing these concepts, but it's cool to note that the TOS production team came up with it all!

(this is from "Star Trek: Where No One Has Gone Before", pg 110)

[WillParkinson]

1. But *4* breasts??!???!!!

Well, I figured if no straight guy was going to say it SOMEONE should.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. A Female Girl?

And Womens' Lib?

Dude. You have got to get out more! :)

--bkl
And I ought to know.

[Deja Q]

5. ROTFLMAO!

It's just one of the little foibles that goes along with me being me... :D

Of course, womens' lib did die down a bit in the mid-80s, but still...

[Code_Name_D]

7. Maybe not. Check this out?

http://www.stargate-sg1.com/home/bio/tapping.html
As far as strong and genuwen femail charicters go. And no cat suite. We have come a long way from Uhura in a miny skirt, don't you think?

[Deja Q]

9. Why does Trek stick with suggestive costumes?

It was the 1960s at the time, so I can accept all the chicks wearing the miniskirts.

But 7-o-9 and T'Pol wearing ultra-tight catsuits? Yuck. We all know which portion of the viewing population they wanted to bring in... Definitely more revealing, those catsuits, but at least TNG had men wearing minis for a while, which was very nice indeed... :-)

[solinvictus]

13. Catsuits

Well, they are more modest than Uhura's skirt which, at some angles, probably left little to the imagination. I'd imagine she would be very popular on that long voyage of the Enterprise.

[FireHeart]

20. Not really.

I love Sam Carter. She's great. But then look at T'Pol in "Enterprise"...in the new season, has she *ever* kept her clothes on during the entire show?

I will admit, I watch little commercial TV anymore. It's all fairly useless and the endless commercials drive me mad. But what I do watch...there's still that element of gender stereotyping that makes me quite angry.

[Code_Name_D]

3. LESLIE Crusher??

Well, intresting. Maybe -she- would have been less anoying.

Their were plenty of mestakes on that show, and lot of other things that spired out of their control. Such as the writer's strike. And exactly how the the Star Trek wing of paramound end up being a refugee camp for soap opera writers any way?

Still. Their was some good stuff there.

Now. Whom to we hang for the movies? :mad:

[Rick Myers]

4. I have a David Gerrold story

I was 14 and I wrote him a letter care of ST. He responded, citing specific elements I'd asked him about...

I love Trek, and I KNOW they have their ups and downs...

The new season of Enterprise really has me hooked. It took a while, but they've finally found their 'space legs.'

I didn't know till this weekend that Anthony Montgomery, who plays Travis Mayweather, is the great Wes Montgomery's grandson...

[Mal]

6. There's a poll

at Stardestroyer.net that asked "If you were trapped in an elevator with Wesley Crusher and Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars Phantom Menace), and you had a gun but only had one bullet, who would you shoot?"
The results were tied between Wesley and Jar Jar, but the clear winner was "Myself"

[TlalocW]

8. I have a lot of ...

"Geek" friends - heck I am one myself - except while I enjoy Trek and Star Wars, etc. I don't go overboard. I like to either embarrass, threaten to embarrass, or just pop off around my friends when we do go to the one convention that comes to Tulsa each year - I go probably every 3 or 4 years.

Anyway, I was telling this one really deep into sci-fi friend of mine - loudly - at the convention, that I was going to go put on a t-shirt with Ewoks on it, get a Jar Jar Binks mask, and a button that says "I -Heart- Wesley Crusher" and wear them all just to see if I could get all the Trekkies, Trekkers, and Sci-fi'ers to despise me. The look on his face (my friends can never tell when I'm being serious) was priceless.

Of course, I had just told a convention worker who was dressed as a Klingon that he had no honor because he had allowed others to cut in front of us when my friend was getting an autograph from Scotty, and the convention worker got mad, and it embarrassed my friend. :)

TlalocW

[Mal]

10. Somebody I know

really takes Star Wars seriously, and he was getting together a Star Wars role-playing group. I'm looking through the rules, and I remark upon the character type of 'Pirate'
"Yes," he tells me, "there are pirates. They hide out in places like asteroid belts and attack merchant shipping. But they're not identical to historical pirates, with buried treasure, walking the plank and that"
"So I could be a pirate?" I ask in innocent interest.
"Oh yes", he assures me.
"Arghh me hearties! Shiver me timbers! Scrub the deck, ya scurvy scum, or ye'll be walkin' me plank!!!"
He had such a look of horror on his face... :)

[Deja Q]

11. LOL!

I'd personally shoot Jar-Jar and try to chat up Wes...

[jiacinto]

12. I loved the Whoopi Goldberg character

I also liked Counselor Troi, although she was the most useless character.

[Deja Q]

14. Guinan is definitely the BEST character TNG offered, along with Q...

n/t

[7th_Sephiroth]

15. diddent wesley

end up like becomeing a super-powered bieing at the end?

[PeakOil2008]

16. Yes, he "evolved" to a higher state of existence.

Supposedly. That was definitely one of the more ludicrous plotlines during the series.

[7th_Sephiroth]

17. and diddent Q

knock janeway up in voyager?

[XanaDUer]

18. Yes

In one of my least fave eps.

:eyes:

[PeakOil2008]

19. Q was AWESOME! So was Guinan...

Almost all of the Q episodes were good, but "Q-pid" was the best of them all, and rates right up at the top with "The Best of Both Worlds".

I wish they had featured him in one of the TNG movies. It almost certainly would have been one of the better showings.

And now for something completely different, I heard that at one point around season 3 or 4, Marina Sirtis, who played Counselor Troi, considered leaving the show. TPTB considered having Guinan take over her role as the ship's counselor, something she really was doing anyway at 10-Forward. However, I think it was Roddenberry (not terribly long before his untimely passing) who convinced Sirtis to stay. Still, as much as I enjoyed watching a vivacious Troi bounce up and down the decks of the NCC 1701-D, there's no denying that Whoopi's Guinan in more of a major role would've had an interesting impact on the series.