Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) - 20 questions

Question: Who can use the holodecks at their discretion? I've never seen a holodeck numbered higher than five. Lieutenant Barclay can obviously use them whenever he likes, though he got in trouble for it. Are they just for officers? Does an ensign have to surrender a holodeck if a Commander want to use it?

Answer: I'm sure there are more than 5 holodecks. Also, judging from DS9, you generally would schedule use on a holodeck. Finally, though incredibly cool to us, that's pretty routine for the TNG crew. They read, play instruments, take fighting classes, dance lessons, put on plays, do personal research projects, etc to fill their off-duty time. Getting in holodeck time might be pretty easy! We never see average crewmen using the holodecks as the stories just aren't about them. I'm sure they use them too. I imagine the only way someone has to surrender a holodeck is if the officers need it for research (like the episode where the subspace aliens were kidnapping them or Geordi turned into one of those glowing blue aliens) or when using it in conflict with accepted StarFleet conduct (as Barclay did by using the crew in his fantasies).

Question: Whenever anyone wants to contact someone else from another part of the ship, they hit their badge and say (for example), "Picard to Engineering." In no episode ever is there an instance where we hear somebody call someone else who is not involved in the current scene. We should assume, therefore, that when communication like this is initiated, it is only heard by the recipient of the page. So the question is, how can the ship's communication system know ahead of time who the person is paging? In other words, if Picard says, "Picard to Engineering," what keeps sickbay from hearing his call? There can't be a time-delay (i.e., the computer does not make the page until it hears the entire page, and then directs it only to the intended recipient) because in many episodes we hear the reply right away. Can anyone explain this? Are we simply "lucky," in that we only hear pages made by or sent to people in the scene we're watching?

Answer: Enterprise's computer directs the call to the aforementioned department. It is then answered by the ranking member of the department. For instance, if Engineering was contacted, and Geordi was in sickbay or off duty, the call would be answered by whoever was "officer of the watch" in Engineering. Mainly, it wouldn't do much for the show to say, "Picard to engineering", "This is engineering, go ahead." "Yes, I'd like to speak to Geordi about some more phaser power, please", "One moment, I'll transfer you."

Question: This actually applies to every Star Trek series but it features most prominently here: Exactly what purpose do the little dots seen moving across the bottom of every bridge main viewer serve? There's no mention of them in any technical manual or website that I've seen yet they seem to be a fairly standard feature of Federation starships from any era.

Answer: According to Micheal Okuda (technical supervisor of Trek) they are the future's version of a computer monitor's "refresh rate".

Question: All of the computer monitors on TNG are referred to as "LCARS." What does LCARS mean?

Answer: It is short for "Library Computer Access and Retrieval System", the ship's computer system.

Question: Is there a reason why all planets (except earth) have a number attached to their names? Or is that never explained?

Answer: Planets that don't actually have a specific name tend to be referred to by the name of the star which they orbit and a number indicating how far out they are - so the planet Tau Ceti IV would be the fourth planet out from the star Tau Ceti. Under this system, our planet could be referred to as Sol III, but as it has a given name, that is used instead.

Question: At the end of one episode, Picard orders the helmsman to set course for "Archer 4." What TNG episode did Picard say this in?

Answer: It's the beginning of "Yesterday's Enterprise".

Question: I have a question about the cloaking technology all through the Star Trek universe. Does the cloak actually turn the ship using it invisible, or does it just hide the ship from being "seen" by other ships sensors? In other words, if a ship was cloaked and invisible to the view screen on the bridge, could someone looking out of a porthole still see the ship?

Answer: The cloaking device makes the ship invisible to other ships' sensors and to the naked eye. This was evidenced in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where the Klingon vessel Kirk time travels back to the 20th C. in is hidden from humans while it is in Golden Gate Park and when it hovers over the whaling vessel.

Question: Does anyone know what is the order of replacement for the captain on the Bridge? All I know is that Riker is the first, but is it the captains choice after that.

Answer: According to rank and seniority, the chain of command is: Picard, Riker, Data, LaForge, Troi and Worf as of the series finale. Troi was added when she took command school, Tasha Yar would have been between Geordi and Worf, and Wesley or Ro Laren would have been after Worf had they not left the Enterprise.

Question: This has been lingering on my mind since I saw "Conspiracy." What happens if a "Captain-eyes-only" message comes in and the captain is off the ship and not easily accessible? Is the message transfered, or does the captain give his first officer permission to view the message?

Answer: It would depend on just how innaccesible the Captain was. If possible the message would be transferred. Otherwise, in the Captain's absence, the first officer would be the acting Captain and would be permitted to view the message.

Question: What is this connection that Guinan and Picard have that goes "deeper than friendship or family"? I just don't understand where it has come from. Am I missing something?

Answer: Guinan is Picard's confidant. There are certain things he will only goto Guinan to talk about and not Counsellor Troi. It comes in part from his deep respect for her because of her wealth of knowlege of alien species because of her age.

Question: I know that this is such a small detail, but it's been bugging me for a while and google has been no help. In the original series, the command uniforms were gold and security was red, but in Next Gen and everything thereafter, it has been reversed to command being red and security being gold. Anyone know why the change was made? I'm looking for a real world explanation, not a continuity one as I already found one of those. Thanks.

Answer: When ST:TNG went into production, television had changed drastically from the time the original series aired in the 1960s. Not only were special effects far more advanced, but editing, camera angles, set design, lighting, color schemes, types of film used, and so on, were all very different. It was likely a decision of what looked best from an artistic-design point-of-view to give the series a fresh, updated look as well as to reflect how much Star Fleet had changed since Captain James T. Kirk's time. Red is also a very prominent color, and it draws the viewer's eye to it, and to the character wearing it. Therefore, that became the command color.

Question: Something that's bugged me ever since becoming a Star Trek fan: Why do none of the ships featured in this or any other Star Trek series have seat-belts or some futuristic equivalent for their bridge crews? Practically every time, for example, the Enterprise comes under heavy attack, consoles and panels start exploding and crew members are thrown from their chairs and shown flying through the air. To me this seems a very obvious oversight.

Answer: The ships have inertial dampeners, they don't really need seatbelts. And consoles aren't really supposed to be exploding. When the do, would you really want to be lashed in place so your face and torso take the full force of it?

Question: Are there more than three Star Fleet uniform colors? In the episode where Dr. Crusher is pulled into an alternate dimension aboard the Enterprise, there is an older science officer (not a recurring character) who is wearing a green uniform. When he is next to Dr. Crusher in her blue uniform, the difference is quite noticeable. Red is command, blue is sciences and medical, and gold is engineering, security, and ship services. What would green be for? I've only seen it in this one episode.

Answer: The colors of the uniforms (like the models of the uniforms) change a lot. In the time frame of the original series for example the command color was gold/yellow and red was engineering. In TNG these colors are switched and altered. Also, the blue color for science has been more greenish in other periods of (Star Trek) time. And finally, uniform alterations are, to some extend, accepted (Troy often wears more casual clothing on duty and Worf adds cultural decorations to his uniform. To conclude: the green uniform might be a character's choice or an older type of uniform.

Question: Is Jonathon Frakes actually playing the trombone in the night club scene?

Answer: Yes - he's played the instrument for many years.

Question: What was the reason behind Q giving Riker the power of the Q?

Answer: Q is a rather nasty entity hell-bent on proving that the human race are NOT the nice guys they make out to be. Q and Riker simply don't like each other and Q gives Riker the power of Q to prove a point...that power corrupts. And it almost does to Riker who uses his Q power to help, then to squander. Riker finally realizes that he's being corrupted by the power and gives it up, showing Q that he can't be swayed to the dark side.

Question: When Picard is preparing to use the Stargazer to attack the Enterprise, Data states that all its main systems are intact, and that only some minor damage was caused by fires during the earlier battle. If the Stargazer's in such good shape, why did Picard have to abandon it?

Answer: The Stargazer was seriously damaged in the previous battle, which is why she had to be abandoned. When the Ferengi salvaged her, they repaired the damage to the major systems in order to get her functional, but didn't bother with the minor fire damage.

Question: Where exactly was the lone Borg cube heading and why was it so far away from the Delta Quadrant?

Answer: Q brought the Borg ship to the Alpha Quadrant. He used his powers to alert the Borg of the human existance. Once alerted it is the nature of the borg to persue assimilating other cultures.

Question: Can anyone tell me why Dr. Crusher was written out for all of series two?

Answer: According to the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion," Gates McFadden was replaced as ship's Doctor by Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) because some of the show's producers were able to convince Gene Roddenberry that the character of Dr. Crusher was not developing well. Fans began a letter-writing campaign to bring McFadden back, and at the end of the second season, Roddenberry decided to replace Dr. Pulaski, saying the chemistry just wasn't good. Rather than finding a third doctor for the Enterprise, the decision was made to ask McFadden to return, and she accepted. Roddenberry later said, "It was always our intention to leave the door open for her to return to the show."

Question: Why did the Borg dispatch only one ship to sector 001 in their attempt to assimilate humanity? Why not three or maybe even four or five?

Answer: One Borg ship is usually enough. You notice, they were only able to destroy it because their assimilation of Picard ended up giving his crew a unique 'backdoor' into their system. No one had ever tried to retrieve an assimilated crewman before, because it is usually such a futile effort. So if the Borg feel that one ship is enough, they will send one ship. They are big on efficiency. Sending more ships diverts ships away from other potential targets and missions.

Question: Even though Worf keeps jumping from parallel universe to parallel universe, he never encounters his double (i.e., the Worf from the universe he jumped into). At the end, when the Enterprise from Worf's final alternate universe contacts the "real" Enterprise, there's a Worf on the bridge with the "real" crew. Does this mean that every time Worf moved into a different reality, all the other Worfs shifted around as well?

Answer: Correct. When Worf jumps, the other Worfs jumped also. That is how the other Enterprise (the one with the same signature as the Worf the episode follows) knew what was going on.