Observations in TNG: "The Child"

The complete shuttlebay set (in this case shuttlebay 3) is seen for the first time. While the set did appear in season 1 (including the large doors), it exclusively represented various cargo bays in the first season. The set insinuates that the outer hull in this area is vertical, although it is actually around 45°. Furthermore, we should be able to see parts of the Enterprise's hull from this perspective.

The pentagonal cargo containers seen in the background debut in "The Child". They are seen up close later in the episode.

A rare stardate with 4 digits after the decimal point is seen on the viewscreen.

Mike Okuda: "I always thought that the numbers after the decimal were fractions of a 24 hour day, meaning that .1435 would be about 3:20 in the morning. Which is really early in the day for a doctor's appointment..."

The static background of the Federation Medical Collection Station behind Hester Dealt is interesting for several reasons:

Mike Okuda: "Hester Dealt's background was a cool photo backdrop of some kind of cyclotron. Richard James found that one."

Many years later, the same backdrop appeared in the Earth 2 episode "Better Living Through Morganite II".

The alien alphabet seen in the background looks familiar.

Mike Okuda: "The alien alphabet was Bandi, from 'Encounter at Farpoint.' Rick Sternbach designed that for me, way back during the pilot. You might see it on Groppler Zorn's desk. Elsewhere in the classroom, you might catch a glimpse of an alphabet based on the original Star Trek title font."

Rick Sternbach: "I don't recall the Bandi script exactly; most one-off alien written languages, at least ones that I drew up, were basically a set of scribbles or more formal strokes in a consistent style. I never got that deep into the detailed workings or origins, just searching for an interesting look."

The script was also seen in "The Last Outpost" as the Tkon script. A celestial globe, like the one sometimes seen in Picard's quarters and ready room, is also seen in the background.

Speaking of script, the Latin alphabet appears in the same font as the classic Star Trek main title.

In the remastered version of this shot, lighting equipment is visible at the right edge of the screen.

Note that at 1080 lines the visible portion in season 2 is wider (1458 pixels) than in season 1 (1440 pixels). We cropped it to 1440x1080 (because the EAS scripts and layout require exact 4:3 aspect ratio) in a way that the equipment on the right edge is visible.

Like in "When the Bough Breaks", the three-dimensional shapes displayed by the game had to be recreated for the remastering of the episode.

Several toys, including small robots, can be recognized in HD on a shelf in the background. The red and blue ones seem to be Horikawa Star Striders, while the small one to the right of them is a Tomy Chatbot.

A diagram of various aquatic lifeforms first appears in this episode.

Rick Sternbach: "Denkir IV was a habitable planet from a story I had started toying with in 1974, inspired roughly by Arthur C. Clarke's 'Second Dawn.' His intelligent critters had two forelimbs and a single bounding tail limb, but I went back to a 'normal' pair of back legs. The evolved creatures in the schoolroom diagram were not the land dwellers, but a separate offshoot that developed in the seas. No specific reason to show the aquatic cousins; just seemed interesting. I patterned the present-day aquatic Denkiri after dolphins, probably because I like cetaceans."

The lower aquatic forms were given strange in-joke names, mostly from anime characters and mash-ups of pseudo-Linnean species labels.

The display was later seen in the school room aboard the USS Enterprise-D in "The Offspring", "Reunion", "Imaginary Friend", "Rascals" and "Masks". It also appeared in the biolab in "New Ground" and in the classroom aboard Deep Space 9 in "Cardassians".

A close-up of the sensor strip on the rim of the saucer section, above the Ten Forward windows.
The Saucer Rim on the Galaxy Class

Mike Okuda: "I made the sensor strip model for Rob Legato and Gary Hutzel. It was a cool idea, but I don't think it was successful in conveying the location of Ten Forward on the saucer rim."

A small pyramid shaped game is seen on some Ten Forward tables. This game is called "Pair Match" and was made by Bandai.
Present-Day Devices as Props

The season 1 3-D chessboard can be seen in the background. It still features the two special game pieces shaped like animals standing on a ring.

The wall panels in Ten Forward are commercially available acoustic panels, here still in their original orientation on the starboard side until they will be rotated in season 5.
Acoustic Panels as Wall Coverings in TNG

This console later appeared again in the transporter room (a redress of the USS Enterprise-D transporter room) aboard the USS Enterprise-A in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier". The silkscreened 24th century buttons were still present in that subsequent appearance.

Mike Okuda: "I used similar silkscreened buttons on the tabletop for the Obs Lounge, although they weren't always there. Also used similar technique on the small 'doorbell' panels after the first season, as well as the small vertical button panels used on the side of the Obs Lounge wall screens. I might have done some of these as early as the first season, although I did not do this for the doorbells until the second season."

The data about the plasma plague contains several in-jokes. Maurice Hurley, Jaron Summers and Jon Povill wrote the "The Child", Rob Bowman directed the episode. Rob Legato and Gary Hutzel were visual effects coordinators on TNG.

The text also contains two errors as "northern" is spelled "norhtern" and the word growth appears twice ("with growth growth proceeding exponentially").

Furthermore we can see that the central part of the LCARS display is slightly inclined relative to the buttons around it and to the console.

This is the only time integrated window blinds are seen in crew quarters on TNG.

Mike Okuda: "In 'The Child,' the blinds were closed specifically because the story required the ship to be at warp, and the budget wouldn't cover the number of bluescreen warp streak shots that would be required for a scene of that length."