Observations in TNG: "Unification II"
A joint project with TrekCore, by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider
Here are some observations about sets, props and visual effects in TNG: "Unification II" without a specific theme, and a comparison of the original TV release (TNG) with the remastered episode (TNG-R).
"Unification II" HD Screencaps @ TrekCore
| Description TNG | Other caps | Comparison TNG to TNG-R | Description TNG-R | |
| Like "Unification I", part II features a title card dedicated to Gene Roddenberry at the beginning. |    |
The title card in TNG-R. | ||
| Several Romulan cargo containers featuring the Romulan logo are seen in the caves under the Romulan capitol. |   |
A look at the set in HD. | ||
| A shot showing the bridge of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and its captain's chair. As can be seen, the same captain's chair was in use aboard Chang's Bird-of-Prey in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". |  "Star Trek VI" |
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We can recognize the consoles and other details of the bridge better in HD. | |
| After a matte painting of the surface of Romulus was first seen in the previous episode, a different version of the matte painting, showing the planet at dusk, is seen here. |   |
The wonderful matte painting in HD. | ||
| As mentioned in the article for part I, the Romulan street lights have appeared in several earlier episodes. They were originally created for Paradise City on Nimbus III in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier". |  "Star Trek V" |
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The lamps as they appear in TNG-R. | |
| Vulcan writing and the famous IDIC symbol can be seen on the pages and cover of this Vulcan book. The writing is inspired by the one on Spock's robe in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". |  "Star Trek I" |
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A look at the book in HD. | |
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| The USS Enterprise-D in orbit of Qualor II. The starships seen in this shot are a Talarian warship (from "Suddenly Human"), A Mars defense perimeter ship (from "The Best of Both Worlds II") and an Excelsior-class study model. Analysis of the Qualor II Surplus Depot |
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We can see the ships better in HD. | ||
| The Qualor II bar is an extensive redress of the observation lounge. The wall that featured metallic struts and was illuminated by a semicircle of ceiling lights was removed but the lights were left in place. One of the side doors can also be seen (it's standing open here) and the large monitor on one side of the set was hidden behind a window-like wall feature. The large observation lounge windows were covered but the window frames can still be made out behind Amarie. |  "The Wounded" |
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The bar set in HD. | |
 "Ensign Ro" |
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 "The Game" |
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 "Unification I" |
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| Among the aliens seen in the Qualor bar are an Antican (from "Lonely Among Us") and an alien hooker, so called in the script. A photo of this alien woman was later seen on wanted posters in Odo's security office on Deep Space 9. In those re-uses, her face was painted blue, however, to make her appear more alien. |  DS9: "Duet" |
 DS9: "A Time to Stand" |
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An HD close-up of the hooker and her dress. |
| The dress the alien woman is wearing was originally created for one of Q's girls in "Déjà Q". It would later show up again as the "ugly dress" in "Sanctuary". |  "Déjà Q" |
 DS9: "Sanctuary" |
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| Another look at the beautiful matte painting of Romulus. |   |
Another look at the matte painting in HD. | ||
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| Neral's office features metallic pieces of wall decoration that would later be seen in many more episodes, including "Violations" and "Schisms". The Ventaxian logo created for "Devil's Due" also appears on chairs in his office. |  "Devil's Due" |
 "Schisms" |
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The shot in HD. |
 "Violations" |
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Two types of Klingon desktop monitors are seen aboard the Klingon Bird-of-Prey in this episode. One previously appeared in the Duras house in "Redemption II" and can also be seen in VOY: "Time and Again". The other was originally a human monitor, first seen in "Family". Here, this monitor features interesting large control buttons. |
 "Family" |
 VOY: "Time and Again" |
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The Klingon monitor in HD. |
 "Redemption II" |
 Photo of the prop |
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| Omag's girls wear very elaborate and revealing dresses. Deanna Troi can be seen with the blue dress in the episode "Man of the People" while under the influence of Ves Alkar. The Yellow alien with the golden dress would be seen in many later DS9 episodes as a Dabo girl. |  "Man of the People" |
 DS9: "A Man Alone" |
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Omag and company in HD. |
| Another alien seen in the Qualor II bar is this Zakdorn waiter. A Zakdorn first appeared in "Peak Performance". |   |
A look at the Zakdorn in HD. | ||
| The bridge is the only set aboard the USS Enterprise-D that appears in this episode. Here, the captain's and counselor's chairs can be nicely seen. |   |
The bridge chairs in HD. | ||
| A close-up of the raw fish Omag is eating in this episode. This gives us the first idea at the type of food the Ferengi prefer. The plate doesn't feature any insect yet, though. |   |
Even more delicious in HD! | ||
| The eagle statue behind Omag was also seen in the 21st century court room in "Encounter at Farpoint" and in Karnas's office in "Too Short a Season". |  "Encounter at Farpoint" |
 "Too Short a Season" |
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The statue in HD. |
| More colorful alien food is seen in this shot. As was mentioned before, the Qualor II bar is a redress of the Observation Lounge. Behind Omag, one of the doors leading to the room is normally located. |
 "Unification I" |
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No changes | |
| Several Klingon interfaces and bridge stations can be seen in these two screenshots. A shot from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" shows what the set looked like in that film. |  "Star Trek VI" |
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The Klingon consoles in HD. | |
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| More Vulcan writing can be seen on these cubes. |   |
The Vulcan props in HD. | ||
Galorndon Core was last seen in the third season episode "The Enemy". In that episode, the planet looked completely different and no moon was in sight. Galorndon Core in this episode is a re-use of Peliar Zel II from "The Host", and the moon seen here is its Alpha moon. |
 "The Enemy" |
 "The Host" |
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The discrepancy was fixed for the remastered release. The planet now looks the same in the two episodes, and not any more like Peliar Zel, although the moon was included again, probably to accomplish some visual consistency with the original episode. |
| After it was first seen in use by the Romulans in the previous episode, the Romulan disruptor rifle can be seen here again. It was originally created for the Ansata terrorists in "The High Ground" and was re-used countless times ever since. Re-Used Props - Beam Weapons |
 "The High Ground" |
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A better look at the Romulan weapon in HD. | |
| The Romulan logo featuring a large Bird-of-Prey holding Romulus and Remus in its talons can be nicely seen on Sela's uniform. |   |
The uniform in HD. | ||
| The Romulan hologram of Spock shimmers slightly when it is paused. |   |
The hologram as it appears in TNG-R: | ||
| Another shot of Galorndon Core re-used from "The Host", this time showing another moon, originally the Beta moon of planet Peliar Zel II. |  "The Host" |
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Another look at the corrected planet. | |
| Weapons fire of both Romulan disruptor rifles and pistols is blue in this episodes, whereas it was green in earlier ("Future Imperfect") and later ("Timescape", "The Search I") appearances. |  "Future Imperfect" |
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The firefight in HD. We can see the fake Riker's bad hair better than ever! | |
 "Timescape" |
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 DS9: "The Search I" |
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| A unique Romulan console is seen in this screenshot. |   |
A close-up of the console in HD. | ||
| The Romulan logo appears before Spock's transmission is shown. The logo has never been seen as well as here. The Evolution of the Romulan Emblem |
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It looks like the Romulan emblem was faithfully redone for TNG-R. However, there are slight differences, especially regarding the borders of the wings. | ||
| The reflection of boom operator Bill Gocke chewing gum famously appears in the glass pyramid in this shot. |   |
For the remastered version of the episode, the reflection was removed. | ||
| The frequently re-used flyby of the Enterprise-D. Enterprise Flybys in TNG and TNG-R |
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As the original footage of the model could not be found for the remastering, the shot had to be recreated using a CG model of the ship. | ||
The Vulcan vessels are destroyed by a Romulan Warbird. The footage of the Romulan ship was newly created for this episode. The model of the Vulcan vessels appeared again as a Vulcan freighter in the DS9 episode "For the Cause". The model was also used as Tosk's ship in "Captive Pursuit". |
 "Captive Pursuit" |
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The sequence in HD. Unlike in many other TNG-R episodes, the explosion uses the original footage. The registries on the hulls of the Vulcan ships are recognizable. They are identical (though mirror-inverted) to the hull markings of the Vulcan long-range shuttle, seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". |
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 "For the Cause" |
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 "Star Trek I" |
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Credits
Thanks to Brett Jones for the photo of the Klingon monitor and the hint about its reuse in VOY: "Time and Again".
