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Observations in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint"

A joint project with TrekCore, by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider

Here are some observations about sets, props and visual effects in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint" without a specific theme, and a comparison of the original TV release (TNG) with the remastered episode (TNG-R).

"Encounter at Farpoint" HD Screencaps @ TrekCore

Description TNG		Other caps	Comparison TNG to TNG-R	Description TNG-R
The very first shot of the Enterprise will be re-used in "The Big Goodbye". The eight forward facing windows on deck 2 are dark in "Encounter at Farpoint", while they will be illuminated in "The Big Goodbye". We may conclude that Picard stands exactly behind these windows in the following shot when he looks out into space from a dark lounge.	"The Big Goodbye"	"The Big Goodbye HD"		The resolution of the remastered shot is much better. Note that the remastered version does not retcon the saucer edge with the Ten Forward windows that would not appear until season 2.
In his first scene, Picard is standing in the dark observation lounge set. The golden ships that are normally affixed to the wooden wall behind him are missing in this first scene. They do appear later in the episode, though. Mike Okuda explains: "The observation lounge in the first scene did not have the ships on the back wall because it was intended to be a different room from the meeting room behind the bridge. This one was intended to be looking forward, even though there are no windows on the model that exactly match the set. In fact, the gold ships were removed, and set decorator John Dwyer patched the holes for this shot. They were later restored for subsequent filming."				No changes
The Enterprise-D engineering is a redress of the one of the Enterprise refit. One shot of main engineering is similar to a shot showing Kirk's Enterprise's engine room in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".		"Star Trek II"		The engineering set in HD.
One of the few scenes of the series in which a crew member can be seen in the lower levels of main engineering.				No changes
Another shot of main engineering, in which the camera is tilted, is reminiscent of one from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Especially the comparison of the upper level clearly shows that the Enterprise-D engineering set is a re-use.		"Star Trek I"		More great shots of the sets in HD.
		"Star Trek I"
The curtain of stars is clearly visible behind the main viewscreen here.				The viewscreen image is the same but was darkened (either in the transfer process or digitally).
The door to the observation lounge corridor is open permanently only in this episode. When Picard enters the bridge and looks around, the door to the observation lounge corridor is still closed, in the following shot, however, it is opened.				No changes, but note that the purplish hue of the SD version is gone and the colors are overall more natural.

When Data stands up to talk about his inability to "snoop", a piece of carpet can be seen covering part of his console chair.				No changes
In the first few bridge scenes in "Encounter at Farpoint", some of the aft bridge stations seem to be turned off. After the pilot episode, all aft stations are always lit, no matter whether they are manned or not.				No changes
In this shot, the Bussard collectors are lit blue instead of red.				The Enterprise has red collectors now. Also note that the "bars" in TNG-R have a rectangular cross-section and a stronger glow.
When Q appears, we can see a small graphic on a viewscreen on the right, but it can't be identified.				Thanks to the new HD transfer the graphic can be seen much better now. It seems to depict a star cluster or a similar stellar phenomenon.
There seems to be nothing special about the close shot in which Torres freezes in the original episode.				In the remastered version we can see much more of Torres's body. The apparent close shot was actually an enlargement of this medium shot. The enlargement may have been too grainy for HD, hence the return to the originally filmed format for TNG-R.
Some sort of lighting equipment can be seen in the top right corner in this shot.				It is even better visible in TNG-R.
The main engineering MSD is seen for the first time in this episode. The set doesn't depict main engineering here, though, but stands in as a corridor lounge. The "pool table" didn't appear until "Where No One Has Gone before", so redressing this set was very easy. In later episodes and seasons, main engineering often stood in as a corridor lounge, but in those episodes, the MSD was removed and a large cargo bay door or two chairs, plants and a painting were put in front of the wall instead. Also note the man with the "skant" who is walking by.				No changes


This lounge is a redress of Dr. Crusher's sickbay office.				No changes
The battle bridge is a redress of the Enterprise-A bridge, last seen like this in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". The set will be rebuilt frequently during the first couple of years of TNG. Re-Used Starship Interiors		"Star Trek IV"		The set in HD.
This shot of the Enterprise at warp reappears in "Lonely Among Us" (mirror-inverted) and in "11001001".	"Lonely Among Us"	"11001001" HD		As the original material was not available, a CGI model by Tobias Richter was used for TNG-R: "Encounter at Farpoint". The remastered versions of "Lonely Among Us" and "11001001" use HD scans of the original film.
The beginning of the saucer separation.				The details are much better recognizable in HD.
The saucer separation was filmed with the 6ft model.
The same footage of the exploding photon torpedo appears four times.				No changes

The drug dispenser is labeled "Army R2D3PO-D" which is a reference to the two Star Wars droids R2-D2 and C-3PO.				We can read the label in HD.
The eagle statue behind Q is seen in several other episodes, including "Too Short a Season" and "Unification II". It reappears in three other episodes, including the recreated courtroom in "All Good Things". Re-Used Props - Decoration		"All Good Things"		The eagle statue in HD.
When the eagle flag is seen again in "All Good Things", it is a different one.		"All Good Things"		No changes
The same is true for the judge's (Q's) throne. In "Encounter at Farpoint" it features lion heads, in "All Good Things" the lions are replaced by winged creatures.		"All Good Things"		No changes
The dimly lit corridor behind the courtroom later appears again as the Farpoint Station shopping mall.		Later in the episode		No changes
Deneb IV will later appear as Vulcan in TNG: "Sarek", "Unification I" and "Gambit". Re-Used Planets in TNG	"Unification I"	"Unification I" HD		In TNG-R, Deneb IV remains the same. Vulcan, on the other hand, was changed for "Unification I".
The wall in the hallway leading up to Groppler Zorn's office was originally seen as a corridor aboard the Klingon Bird-of-Prey in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home".		"Star Trek IV"		No changes
When Riker enters Zorn's office, a rectangular golden sculpture is briefly seen under his desk and in front of the Farpoint Station model. This sculpture later appears in two episodes in Riker's quarters, namely in "Haven" and "Lonely Among Us".	"Haven"	"Lonely Among Us"		A better look at the sculpture in HD.
The office wall reappears on Relva VII in "Coming of Age", as well as in the transporter room of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey in "Star Trek V". Re-Used Building Interiors Groppler Zorn's desk later reappears in "Haven" as Valeda Innis's desk and as Baran's desk in "Gambit II". Re-Used Props - Furniture	"Coming of Age"	"Star Trek V"		No changes, just more natural colors and a better resolution of Zorn's office.
The stools seen in Zorn's office will appear in several later season 1 episodes, namely on Ligon II in "Code of Honor", Rubicun III in "Justice" and Aldea in "When the Bough Breaks". Re-Used Props - Furniture				No changes
The mural or wall relief featuring circles and lines, seen at one end of the Farpoint Station shopping mall, was later seen again in "Justice" in the Edo building and in "Loud as a Whisper" in Riva's hall on Ramatis III. Re-Used Props - Decoration				No changes
Dr. Crusher's rank pips are still those of a lieutenant commander while she is on Farpoint Station.				The possible prop errror wasn't fixed for the remastered release.
The diamond shaped shelves will reappear in Troi's quarters in "The Naked Now". They were originally seen in Kirk's apartment in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". Re-Used Props - Furniture				No changes
The two sculptures behind Wesley and Beverly Crusher were originally created for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" where they appeared in the Federation Council Hall, painted silver in the movie. They reappeared after the TNG pilot episode in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" standing in front of the Paradise Inn on Nimbus III. Re-Used Props - Decoration				No changes
The carved stone stools are seen again only two episodes later in "Code of Honor" in Lutan's throne room. Re-Used Props - Furniture				No changes
Compare this similar scene of Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". The door is clearly the same, as is the rest of the bridge set.		"Star Trek III"		The shot in HD.
When Riker first meets Picard on the battle bridge, Picard is seen seated in the Captain's chair. A reaction shot of Data, sitting in front of the Captain's chair, shows the seat empty, however. This shot was taken from a later scene when Riker manually docks the battle section with the saucer section. In that shot, he's standing next to the Captain's chair (explaining the empty seat) and Data is shown reacting to Riker mastering the dangerous maneuver.				No changes

When Riker views footage from earlier in the episode when Q first beamed aboard the USS Enterprise, he is seen from behind, looking at the small viewscreen. One reaction shot however shows him facing the camera. The placement of the red alert light behind him in this shot seems implausible. The shot was actually taken from a sequence a little later in the episode when Riker is facing away from the small viewscreen and is looking at the main bridge viewscreen while the saucer section and the engineering section are reconnected under his guidance.				No changes

The acoustic foam panels covering the battle bridge ready room were also used for the cryonic pods in "The Neutral Zone". A similar material can be seen on the transporter room walls. Acoustic Panels as Wall Coverings in TNG		"The Neutral Zone"		The wall panels and PADD in HD.
The PADDs seen in the first few episodes of TNG were inspired by the "printed circuit board style" PADDs used in the first four feature films. The modern TNG PADDs, designed by Rick Sternbach, didn't appear until "Lonely Among Us". Rick Sternbach: "The milky white PADD that Picard holds was silkscreened from ink-and-Letraset rub-on art that I did for TMP."		"Star Trek III"
The small computer on the desk in Picard's ready room attached to the battle bridge is a real-life Astro Thunder produced by Tandy. Present-Day Devices as Props		Astro Thunder		The game console in HD.
The captain's yacht of the USS Enterprise-D can be seen very well in this shot. We will never see this small vessel in action during the seven years of TNG.				The yacht in HD.
Dinnerware with the Starfleet Headquarters logo on the side, as used by Picard here, was first seen in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". The logo however first appeared in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan".				We can recognize the logo better in TNG-R.
The golden ships have now been attached to the wooden wall in the observation lounge.				No changes
The painting hanging next to the door to Doctor Crusher's sickbay office wasn't finished in time for the pilot. As can be seen when comparing the painting in the pilot to how it looked in "The Naked Now" and the rest of the series, several details are missing, including the two Enterprises and the planets. Space Art in Star Trek: The Next Generation		"The Naked Now"		No changes
The departing USS Hood is flying next to the USS Enterprise-D.				The shot was recreated exactly for the remastered episode. Only the flashing ventral position light of the USS Hood (seen on the DVD screenshot) is completely missing in the remastered shot.
The two lamps over the door to the ready room behind Riker are not lit in this scene. The other ready room lights are turned on, however.				No changes
When Data gives Admiral McCoy a tour of the ship, all the doors are standing wide open.				No changes
A painting used to extend the length of the corridor is seen behind Data and Admiral McCoy. This wall was originally created for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". It was also seen in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". Prop and Set Oddities		"Star Trek I"		In TNG-R it is fortunately not blindingly obvious that we are looking into a painted corridor. However, the framework between the panels is yellow on the Enterprise-D, while it is white on the painted extension from the Enterprise refit.
A blooper: The door to the corridor lounge/sickbay office is open, then closed and then open again in this short scene. The door however is never heard opening or closing.				No changes


The holodeck door is seen opposite the corridor leading to the transporter room here. A small nook with three doors, one leading to a turbolift, is normally seen here. The door is new but the door frame originally appeared in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" as the main engineering door frame.	"Star Trek I"	"Brothers"		No changes
In the original version of the episode, a freeze frame of the forest is used, so there is no movement in the background shot at all when Riker enters the holographic forest.				In the remastered episode, the water in the stream in the background is running and the leaves of the plants are moving. On the other hand, a crew member walking by in the background just as the door closes is not visible any more in TNG-R, perhaps because still footage of the corridor was inserted into the shot.
There is nothing special about this shot in the original episode.				In TNG-R we can recognize that someone carved "Tom" into a tree on the upper right. Also, thanks to the extended scan area, we can see a spotlight that shouldn't be there. A new blooper!
The same corridor as seen in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". As can be seen, the door to the transporter room has been moved and the corridor extension is in place.		"Star Trek II"		No changes
The transparent sickbay biobed first appeared in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture".		"Star Trek I"		In the HD version we can make out details of the black PADD and the white neural regenerator.
The large PADD-like device on Dr. Crusher's desk was first seen in "Star Trek: The Voyage Home" and reappears in TNG: "The Quality of Life" and possibly in more episodes.	"Star Trek IV"	"The Quality of Life"
The white device on the desk previously appeared in "Star Trek IV". Its central part was created from a Klingon battlecruiser model. We can see this device once again in "The Naked Now" where Wesley lifts it with his scratch-built tractor beam emitter.	"Star Trek IV"	"The Naked Now"
Dr. Crusher now wears the rank pips of a full commander, as during the rest of the series. The apparent promotion isn't mentioned in the episode.				The commander rank pips in HD.
As already mentioned, the shopping mall on Deneb IV is a redress of Q's courtroom corridor.				The set in HD.
The spiral statue will reappear on the eponymous planet in "Angel One". Re-Used Props - Decoration		"Angel One"		The statue in HD.
When the away team starts exploring the tunnels under Farpoint Station, Riker and Data remain in the shopping mall for a few minutes. Riker passes the man selling the red fabric to Doctor Crusher earlier in the episode. In the long shot, the simple red fabric can be seen. In the close-up of the Bandi vendor, the modified red fabric with golden pattern is seen.				No changes

An extended corridor is also visible in the underground Farpoint Station tunnels.				As the image transfer is not so blurry in TNG-R, the painted extension is less recognizable for the most part.
The cylinders behind La Forge in the tunnels were originally seen on the Regula I research station in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". They appeared again in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" on Vulcan. Re-Used Props - Containers	"Star Trek II"	"Star Trek IV"		No changes
A scale model of Farpoint Station. It doesn't seem to be the miniature used to film the planet surface scenes, however. Rick Sternbach explains: "I designed the station, yes. The desktop model was built for first unit filming, of course, but the ILM FX version was done later and I don't believe they were under any real constrains to match the desktop. If you go back to the Voyager episode '11:59,' you'll see that the Millennium Gate complex bears a striking similarity to the Farpoint Station. I wonder how that happened..."				No changes, only much better colors in TNG-R.
				The planet surface was greatly improved in TNG-R, although it is arguably still the very same shot of the studio model. We can see even better now that it is not the same as the one in Zorn's office.
In this shot, the Bussard collectors are purple, not red.				This error too was fixed in TNG-R.
The alien ship should cast a shadow on the Enterprise's saucer. In the documentary "Energized: Taking the Next Generation to the Next Level" on the first Blu-ray disc of season 1 Mike Okuda states that the shadow was created but somehow didn't make it into the original version.				The shadow was included in the remastered version.
The same footage of the blasts hitting the old Bandi city is re-used later, as Riker and Data have arrived. While the foreground with the arch remains the same, the view of the Bandi city was mirror-inverted.				The Bandi city is still mirror-inverted in TNG-R. Also, in both remastered scenes we can see that the patterns of the smoke cloud, the sparks and the debris looks different than in the original version. It was either digitally rebuilt, or an alternative take was available.

The window in Zorn's office (un)surprisingly spells "Zorn". Mike Okuda tells us: "The 'Zorn' window graphic was designed by master set designer Les Gobrugge."		"Zorn" emblem		TNG-R reveals that the actual outlines of the emblem are not pink, but more like yellow.
Medical cases of this type were first seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".		"Star Trek I"		No changes
		"Star Trek II"
A characteristically shaped medical case barely visible at the left edge of the frame was previously seen in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". It appears again in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and in countless DS9 episodes. We can also see one of the omnipresent tubes made of sonobuoy containers. Re-Uses of Sonobuoy Containers	"Star Trek II"	DS9: "Emissary"		We can barely recognize anything even in HD.
	"Star Trek V"	DS9: "Cardassians"
The blinds in the sickbay office behind Doctor Crusher are seen opened in only three TNG episodes, "The Quality of Life" and "Man of the People" being the other ones. The Corridor from the Transporter Room to Sickbay Prop and Set Oddities The office was first seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" as the sickbay office of the USS Enterprise. The set was also seen in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". Re-Used Starship Interiors		"Star Trek I"		The sickbay office in HD.
Another look at the unfinished sickbay painting. As can be seen, the planets and Enterprises are still missing. Andrew Probert: "I whipped up this painting as a way to add color to the Sickbay outer office area. It represents the human body & mind starting with the (white) brain and looking right along the lungs, heart, liver, etc... The left side of the brain represents the hopes & dreams of Mankind... creating starships to explore the Universe. The painting was rushed onto the set just before the cameras rolled for the first time in that set and I discovered much later that some of the left side ended up being scuffed quite a bit but I had no time to go back & touch it up."		"Too Short a Season"		No changes
		"The Naked Now"
They are not so clearly visible here, but in one shot we can see that parts of the terminals at the aft end of the bridge are covered with black cardboard, as in several other early TNG episodes too. Visual Bloopers				The cardboard is still barely recognizable in TNG-R.
The energy beam emerges from a spot on the ventral side right in front of the captain's yacht. It is doubtful that there is an emitter in the place.				When the scene was recreated for TNG-R, the origin of the beam was moved to the phaser strip. As the original shot was not found in time, a digital matte was created by Max Gabl.
In the original episode the Farpoint creature appears as a featureless blob.				Thanks to the greatly improved resolution and contrast the structure of the entity is recognizable now.
Only in the final shot in this episode is Tasha Yar seen wearing a skant.				No changes

Credits

Thanks to Kamdan, RAMA and Maxwell Everett, who pointed out the change to the Torres shot at Trek BBS. Thanks also to Jeffrey Folck for the hint about Beverly's rank. The observation about the blasts hitting the Bandi city comes from Trekkie Channel. Thanks to Björnar Dohm for the hint!

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