[Captain Kirk] These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
[Gates McFadden] By the mid '80s,
Gene Roddenberry's original wagon train to the stars
was still rumbling along on syndicated TV.
The ratings are actually better,
and people are watching the show now
for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh time.
[McFadden] Star Trek was no longer simply a cancelled TV show on loop.
Three lucrative movies had transformed the franchise
into a blockbuster.
[groans]
Star Trek II, III, and IV are just really great movies.
[McFadden] But when it came to this wagon train,
Gene had already fallen off.
[Marc Cushman] He had been screwed over. He wasn't getting any ownership money.
Paramount was rejecting his scripts.
They saw him as the enemy.
[McFadden] Relegated to the sidelines, Gene could only join the growing audience
and watch as Star Trek took off without him.
So beam aboard and hold on tight
as we boldly go into the depths of Star Trek.
And you can see it all from here in The Center Seat.
Take us home.
1986, Voyage Home is a huge hit.
[Kirk] Everybody remember where we parked.
Star Trek was heating up.
Star Trek is the most profitable property that Paramount has.
[McFadden] It may have been profitable, but Paramount wasn't admitting it.
At least, not to Gene.
Gene Roddenberry owned 20% of Star Trek,
and Shatner owned 5%.
[McFadden] Which sounds like more than a little...
[cash register dings]
But in fact...
Neither of them had gotten a penny.
[McFadden] Paramount's excuse? Star Trek was penniless.
[Cushman] Paramount said it's in the red.
It's the most successful show in reruns.
It's now out on home video.
It's in the red?
[McFadden] Gene knew Star Trek was a gold mine.
And if he needed any confirmation, it came to him one day on the golf course.
[David Gerrold] Gene was golfing one day with one of the studio lawyers,
and the lawyer said, "Let's make the next whole interesting."
Gene says, "I tell you what, let's make it really interesting.
How about my royalties on Star Trek?"
And they both laughed,
and Gene said, "What do you think those royalties would really be worth?"
And the lawyer looks one way and looks the other way.
He says, "Probably about 30 million."
[McFadden] And more was to come
because Paramount wanted to bring Star Trek
back to the small screen with a new show.
[Lucie Salhany] The stations were pushing to bring it back,
and we had tried to relaunch it in '81, '82, '83,
but it never really happened.
So for the next few years, they're going back and forth.
"We wanna bring Star Trek back."
[McFadden] The next generation of Star Trek
was going to require the next generation of executives.
My name is Lucie Salhany.
[McFadden] Lucie and her colleagues had an idea that had never been tried before.
Let us syndicate.
[McFadden] Selling a brand-new Star Trek straight into syndication.
[Salhany] That means selling a show station by station.
We will sell the original 79, and we will sell them the new Star Trek.
[McFadden] Local stations got their new Star Trek,
and Paramount kept a share of advertising.
We took half of their advertising time within that 60 minutes.
So we kept seven minutes.
The stations got seven minutes, and those seven minutes would be
three to four times more valuable than any programming
they would be running in that time period,
if the show worked.
[McFadden] Which was a big if.
It was a gamble those stations took.
[McFadden] And it was all about the numbers.
So we'll have this foundation of money from the original TV show
and the advertising revenue from the new Star Trek.
And that's how we paid for the show.
[whistles]
Incredible.
[McFadden] A new television business model
would enable the next generation of Star Trek.
Star Trek broke the mold again.
[McFadden] But what would they call this next generation?
We just kept talking about this next generation.
I don't even know how it came up, but that's how we named the show.
It was Star Trek: The Next Generation.
[McFadden] The colon never made it to screen,
but Star Trek: The Next Generation was heading back into space.
We believed in Star Trek.
We believed it was the time, we believed space was going to be
an important part of what people were thinking and talking about,
and we believed in Gene Roddenberry.
[McFadden] But Gene no longer believed in Paramount.
So when it came to agreeing for a new show,
before signing up, Gene lawyered up.
[Cushman] He realized that Paramount needed Star Trek
and he needed a strong lawyer.
[McFadden] Gene's lawyer was a lot more than just strong.
Gene's lawyer was, to put it politely, one of the most despicable, detestable,
vile human beings I have ever, ever had to deal with in any way.
I could not say enough evil things about him.
When he came down with a brain tumor,
I wanted to send a get-well card to the tumor.
[McFadden] But there was one very notable thing about Gene's lawyer.
He knew how to work a deal.
Gene and his lawyer, Leonard Maizlish, had negotiated a deal.
[McFadden] Not just any deal.
[Cushman] He wrote a contract that said
Roddenberry would get a percentage of the ownership,
that he would get paid by specific dates,
and that he would get to inspect the books.
"What are we gonna call this new series, Gene?"
"Oh, just put down 'Star Trek.'"
[Cushman] So Leonard writes the contract.
The president of Paramount signs it and everything else.
And he said, "Congratulations. Good to have you back in the family."
Gene says...
"By the way, I'm gonna have my accountant call next week to look at the books."
"Excuse me?"
He says, "No, really."
"We're gonna audit Star Trek."
"No, Gene, there aren't any books. We haven't started doing the show yet."
And Gene says, "Look at my contract."
"You just gave me the right. The new contract has auditing rights."
Leonard Maizlish didn't put "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
He put "Star Trek," and they signed it.
So Gene now had the right to inspect the books from the original Star Trek.
[McFadden] Paramount knew all too well the story those books could tell.
And suddenly, instead of a penniless Star Trek,
-it was pennies from heaven for Gene. -[cash register dings]
" We'll give you a million-dollar payout right now."
A Rolls-Royce was delivered to his office at Paramount.
[horn honks]
Hands him the keys, a brand-new Rolls-Royce.
Hands him a check.
[ Gerrold] "A bonus for signing with Star Trek,
and then we'll pay you an enormous amount of money each week."
That's what Leonard Maizlish was able to do for Gene Roddenberry.
[McFadden] So thanks to Gene's lawyer...
[Gerrold] He was getting an enormous amount of money.
I don't know how much, but it was a lot.
[McFadden] More than that...
Gene Roddenberry is running the show.
He's running it more than he's gotten to do any of the recent movies.
[Cushman] And as a result,
Gene Roddenberry was always indebted to Leonard Maizlish
and gave him a lot of power.
[McFadden] But since Leonard the lawyer had no power over creative matters,
and with Gene a bit under the weather...
He was having health issues.
His best years were behind him.
[McFadden] And so he asked his two most trusted writers
from the original series for help.
He asked Dorothy and he asked David Gerrold to prepare the bible.
[McFadden] This was the perfect opportunity to reimagine Star Trek.
"Oh, great. We can fix the stardates. We can fix the warp speed.
We can fix all of the stuff that was inconsistent."
A manifest.
Yes, sir.
[McFadden] If he was going to write the show bible,
David was going to write a new testament.
[Gerrold] "Let's have an older, more thoughtful captain
who doesn't beam down and put himself in danger."
The away team's ready, sir.
Energizing.
Gene says, "Oh, I like that."
And Gene says, "Well, we need a Spock character."
That is wise.
"Well, we can't have a Vulcan."
I am an android, though anatomically I am a male.
Ha.
[Gerrold] "Let's do the opposite."
I seem to have reached an odd functional impasse.
"Let's have an android who wants to learn how to be human."
Intriguing.
I just, you know, took a shot and did my best,
and happy to have a job.
[McFadden] Some of David's ideas were truly radical.
And I said, "We could have a Klingon on the bridge."
[laughs]
-Gene said no. -Impossible.
[McFadden] But Gene was clinging on to the past.
[Gerrold] Dorothy came along later,
she said, "Let's have a Klingon on the crew."
Gene said no.
[McFadden] So Gene had doubled down on no Klingons,
but he did want original series writing legend D.C. Fontana's way with words.
He asked me would I please write the pilot script,
"Encounter at Farpoint."
And I said, "Fine."
This Farpoint station will be an excellent test.
We were telling people, "Don't suggest putting a Klingon on the ship.
Gene said no."
When we get to "Encounter at Farpoint,"
and Dorothy writes it where Tasha Yar is in command...
Yar here.
And Gene rewrites it and introduces the character of Worf.
I am Lt. Worf.
So he won't have to have a woman in the command chair.
[McFadden] And suddenly, David and Fontana
had their Klingon on the bridge,
but Gene had burned a bridge in the process.
She added to my pilot script, and that was the first thing
that was a little disappointing.
I see. I see.
[D.C. Fontana] He added all the stuff that had to do with Q.
We call ourselves the Q.
[Gerrold] Gene took her script and he adds the character of Q,
who is now testing the Enterprise.
Gene only had one story.
"We meet God and we beat the crap out of him."
The same old story all over again.
[McFadden] Gene had a long history of playing God with the scripts.
Which I didn't particularly care for, but it's not my choice.
[McFadden] This time, Gene was not just rewriting the script,
he was rewriting the deal.
I had to share that script credit with him.
[Gerrold] He said, "The studio wants my name on it."
And this is Leonard Maizlish's doing.
Dorothy was furious.
Gene had lied to her, and he now was getting half the credit
and half the money on this script.
[McFadden] Having been pushed aside on her own pilot,
Gene threw Fontana a small but lucrative bone.
And this is where it gets really ugly.
[McFadden] She could write the story as she saw fit,
but not for TV, for a book.
Publishing was gonna give $30,000 for the novelization.
[McFadden] Dorothy promptly wrote the novelization of her own episode.
And Dorothy had written the novelization, she was done with it.
[McFadden] But no matter how evil her own villain in the book,
it was nothing compared to what Leonard the lawyer had planned.
[Gerrold] She was gonna turn it in, and Leonard Mazelis says,
"We're taking the novelization away from you."
And he comes to me and says,
"Would you like to do the novelization of 'Encounter at Farpoint'?"
So I said, "Yeah, I can do that."
[McFadden] But Leonard Maizlish was about to hit a roadblock
made of solid loyalty.
And its name was David Gerrold.
And then I go to Dorothy very privately.
I said, "I know you finished the book and I know what Leonard has done.
Give me your book. I'll turn it in and give you the money."
I would do anything for Dorothy Fontana.
And you know, if Leonard is gonna screw her, he has to go through me.
[McFadden] Eighteen Earth years since its last primetime adventure,
Star Trek was finally launching a new mission.
Gene Roddenberry wanted to make a Star Trek that was different
from what he had done in the '60s.
Break us out of orbit and continue to our next assignment.
[McFadden] But this next-generation Star Trek
posed a next-level challenge.
We must proceed in our own way.
[McFadden] How to reshape the franchise for a new generation
without losing touch with Star Trek's roots.
Every Star Trek begins with, "How do we make it exactly like the others
except totally different?"
[Michael Okuda] Gene was very proud of what
he had done on the original series,
but he wasn't afraid to shake things up.
[McFadden] Everything was up for renegotiation.
[David Livingston] The set design, the costumes,
the makeup, the hair design...
Everything had to be created new and invented.
[McFadden] Including a new and redesigned Enterprise.
It seemed like everything was new.
Gene had a very definite directive to me.
"No pistols."
These phasers have been retuned.
[McFadden] Which led to a few new questions.
How do you hold an energy weapon if it's not like a gun?
Well, then it's like a flashlight.
Hold it right there!
I think the first time I pulled out my phaser, I went...
[buzzes] You know, like, I made a noise.
[McFadden] Actually, Denise was on the right track.
We redid the entire sound library with modern sound.
Everything had to be familiar enough and yet new enough.
[laser sound]
[McFadden] Ships and guns were one thing, but what about the people to control them?
Star Trek had to find a new leader,
and that person had some big boots to fill.
You're from outer space.
No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space.
Gene wanted to have everything be not original series,
and so what's the totally opposite you can be of an Iowa farm boy
is a French guy.
I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise.
[McFadden] But it's a long way from Iowa to Paris.
[Salhany] Well, we were used to Shatner.
The expectation is, you're gonna get somebody like him.
[McFadden] A far bigger problem was who should play
this aristocratic Frenchman.
What the devil am I doing here?
"How many French actors are we gonna read?"
[McFadden] The answer was obvious.
Oh, great.
[McFadden] An Englishman, of course.
When they came up with it, we went, "Oh, my God."
[McFadden] Gene Roddenberry was unconvinced.
Gene didn't want Patrick Stewart.
[McFadden] He felt there was something missing about Patrick Stewart.
[Cushman] Gene didn't like the fact that he was hairless.
Gene wanted it to be somebody who looked like Jeffrey Hunter or William Shatner,
that standard American leading man.
[McFadden] Gene felt Star Trek would be losing touch with its roots
if it cast a captain that didn't have any,
but he was abundant with something else.
He had a gravitas.
All right!
Gene was so impressed by his acting, he said okay.
[McFadden] But if Gene loved Patrick's smooth acting,
he still wasn't a fan of his smooth head.
Damn.
[Livingston] This bald guy shows up looking for the hair department.
With his very proper English accent, he says, "Hi, I'm Patrick Stewart,"
and he has this box.
In the box were wigs for a hair test.
Because, Gene Roddenberry, he was not about to have a bald captain.
[McFadden] Who's to say
whether Patrick Stewart passed or failed the hair test?
It was a little bit of a shocker.
[McFadden] But then someone had a bright idea.
[Cushman] "Why not let him just be what he is?
It won't be compared to the original Star Trek."
As simple as that.
[McFadden] Of course.
What Patrick Stewart lacked was not a problem, it was the solution.
If they try to get somebody like Shatner, it's gonna kill the show.
We need somebody different that people will talk about.
[McFadden] Patrick Stewart's skull
was the least of Star Trek's casting problems.
Creating that ensemble, it's a...
85% of the success of your show is your casting.
[McFadden] But not to worry because...
[Gerrold] Gene had a superpower, and it was casting.
He would go with his gut feeling.
He will triumph who knows when to fight.
[Gerrold] With the men, he looked for people
who were capable of heroic deeds.
[McFadden] And for the women...
Gene was always looking for women who had a certain presence.
And you can see it with Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden.
Their presence is compelling.
Dr. Crusher.
Captain.
[McFadden] As for my presence, yes, that's me.
I almost wasn't even present at my audition.
I had come out to LA for something else, and I was on my way back to the airport
when my agent said, "Please go to Paramount and audition."
"Well, what's the part?" She said, "Oh, just go, just go."
I went there and they said, "Yeah, any of the women's roles."
Doctor, all I've got is--
Is an order to report to sickbay
from the only person aboard this ship who can give you an order.
Gene made it very clear that I was a high-ranking officer,
that Riker and Crusher had the same rank,
and that if I felt that the captain, something was off
psychologically, medically, I could ask him to step down.
I thought it was a big step forward for women in command positions,
the fact that she was a mother and had to deal with her child on the ship.
Mom, could you get me a look at the bridge?
All of those things were why I ultimately said yes.
Mr. Crusher.
[McFadden] Star Trek's first single mom
would bring with her Star Trek's first series regular teenager.
I'm with Starfleet.
Gene really wanted a character that kids could relate to.
Breathe.
Gotta remember to breathe.
[Wil Wheaton] I was a super weird kid.
I was shy, and I just felt so seen by Star Trek.
So when I had an opportunity to become part of Star Trek,
I was so nervous that I went in there and I just sucked.
I wasn't prepared at all.
I just blew it and I left, and I was like, "Well, I just lost that job."
Do you judge your condition good?
I judge it excellent, sir.
[McFadden] Denise Crosby entered through the backdoor,
thanks to a last-minute brainstorm and a trip to the movies.
We had seen Aliens, and we were so impressed with Vasquez.
[McFadden] The hard-hitting heroine played by Jenette Goldstein.
"We need a strong woman like that," Gene said.
So I created-- I called her Macha Hernandez.
He said, "Oh, we can't name her Macha, that means 'lesbian.'"
"Yeah, what's your point?"
All right, so they changed the name to Tasha Yar.
Originally, I was reading for the part of Counselor Troi.
I came in and read for Rick Berman and Gene Roddenberry,
and Gene said, "Would you mind reading the part of Tasha Yar?"
As security chief, I can't just stand here and let--
Yes, you can, Lt. Yar.
And Gene said, "I see it suddenly differently."
[Captain Picard] Wesley.
I haven't stepped one foot on your bridge, Captain.
[McFadden] And for Wil Wheaton, the door didn't shut.
[Wheaton] Casting had called and said, "Just wasn't what we know he can be.
We just want him to come back and take another swing at it."
Sit down over there, young man.
[Wheaton] I went back and I didn't suck. That never happens.
I'm really lucky and really grateful.
Generosity has always been by weakness.
[McFadden] John de Lancie's casting as Q
came from the unlikely combination of daytime TV, heart surgery,
and a lawyer pretending to be someone else.
A guy walks out, he said, "I'm one of the producers."
He actually wasn't. He was Gene's lawyer.
[McFadden] Leonard the lawyer was back.
-[horn honks] -As a producer?
[John de Lancie] And he said, "This is a payback.
Four or five years ago, I was flat on my back
with a quadruple bypass operation.
Every day, I would watch you."
I had been on a soap opera.
You should have seen the smile on her face.
"And you made me laugh when I thought I was gonna die."
Leonard Maizlish brought me in,
and I was there at 6:00 in the morning on Monday.
Another brilliant suggestion.
[McFadden] The question for the producers was,
how would all of this play in the kingdom of fandom?
There was an actual protest about The Next Generation.
"You're never going to replace Kirk and Spock!
You can't wipe away Kirk and Spock and McCoy for us!"
You know, the fans, they just thought we were killing the sacred cow.
[Brent Spiner] Leonard Nimoy said that, you know,
"How many times can you create lightning in a bottle?"
It was unlikely that we were going to be a success.
It is possible.
But absolutely no margin for error.
[McFadden] Lightning or not,
things did get a little rattled come opening night.
[de Lancie] When the show aired, when I saw that crane shot,
and it came in like this...
[laughs]
I went, "Oh, dear."
[grunting]
[stammers] It was out of a great comedy.
I mean, you just couldn't make that up.
[laughs] "This show isn't gonna go anywhere."
[McFadden] The first episode, "Encounter at Farpoint,"
went shakily into the unknown on September 28th, 1987.
"Encounter at Farpoint," to me, is a strange hybrid.
It's way too long.
It's a two-hour, and it's really only got enough story for an hour.
It's kind of undisciplined and loose-limbed.
It kind of flops around a bit.
I don't see no points on your ears, boy.
But you sound like a Vulcan.
[McFadden] But something about this loose-limbed, ill-disciplined behemoth
struck a chord.
[Salhany] The early returns were phenomenal,
far beyond what anybody thought they would be,
and we knew we had a major hit on our hands.
A feeling of great joy.
[McFadden] It sure was.
And gratitude.
[McFadden] But not for long.
[McFadden] Despite a shaky debut,
Star Trek: The Next Generation was an instant hit.
I feel strange but also good.
[McFadden] This brand-new chapter was a breath of fresh air
for Gene Roddenberry's aging franchise.
Hello, stranger.
[McFadden] But then the air went stale.
The third episode was the one, I think, where, as a viewer, I stopped watching.
The dreaded "Code of Honor."
[McFadden] Episode three arrived with a storyline so loaded,
it looked like unexploded ordnance from another time.
We go to the all-Black planet and I've gotta fight the woman.
[grunting]
He's gonna take the white woman as his new wife.
We were like, "Are we really doing this?"
[McFadden] Yep, they did.
There is no excuse for that episode.
It should be burned in a magnesium fire and never aired again.
Star Trek... up in a really, really, really bad way.
There is no doubt in my mind that the cast would have pushed back
if it was later in the run.
Some of the people who could have made a difference
would have just refused to go to work.
It's the same kind of pompous, strutting charades
that endangered our own species a few centuries ago.
[Denise Crosby] I was scratching my head, thinking,
"There's no way this is gonna get on the air.
There's no way."
If they had not had a guarantee of two seasons,
this show would not have gotten past the first season.
We were, like, trying to find our way, and there were a lot of bad episodes.
I am programmed in multiple techniques,
a broad variety of pleasuring.
That first season was all over the map.
[all screaming]
[laughs]
[Ronald D. Moore] The show is trying to figure out
what it is on a very basic level.
"How close to the original series should we be,
and how different should we be?"
It's almost just like they're throwing things at the wall
and seeing what'll stick.
[Geordi La Forge] Coordinates set in, Captain.
Speed, warp five.
[McFadden] For the actors,
the only thing more uncomfortable than the storylines
were the costumes.
Nice suit.
Thank you.
There are some costume choices where I go, "Oh, my God, it's just terrible!"
Splendid! Splendid!
This looks like something that one would come up with for Halloween or something.
We finished our ski lesson, sir.
[Wheaton] I hated Wesley's sweaters.
I hated the colors. They were baggy.
They were weird. Like, I just felt awkward.
The gray spacesuit,
wardrobe built a big muscle suit that I had to wear underneath.
I hated that thing so much. It was so uncomfortable.
It was always too tight.
[McFadden] But some costumes were ill-fitting
in ways wardrobe couldn't fix.
What do you think?
Gene brought Bill Tice, his original Star Trek designer.
Bill Tice was a lovely man.
But you look at his costumes,
you think you're looking at the original series.
These costumes hadn't really evolved.
[Data] You should get into uniform.
[McFadden] Even the standard issue was so problematic,
it was affecting actors' performances.
The tail was wagging the dog.
[Livingston] The costumes for the permanent cast
on The Next Generation were Lycra one-piece suits,
and they wreaked havoc on the cast
because they would pull on their body
and force the actors into a hunched position.
[Wheaton] When you sit down in that spacesuit, the tunic rides up.
Patrick started dramatically tucking it down,
and they call it "The Picard Maneuver."
[McFadden] Costume designer Bob Blackman
came to the rescue in season two with a new two-piece number
that saw Star Trek returning to its military themes.
I looked at the Second World War and saw Dwight Eisenhower
in his little jacket that was fashioned just for him,
and I said, "Let me take that silhouette and work with that."
And that's how we came up with the two-piecer.
The cast was most grateful for that.
[McFadden] Over in the writers' room,
another generational battle was playing out,
and the disagreements were over more than style.
Gene ran it in a very hodgepodge kind of way.
People would bring him stories.
He would give it then to everybody to get notes, and it was very odd.
[McFadden] Even stranger was who Gene brought in as script doctor.
[Cushman] Leonard Maizlish, his attorney, was doing a lot of the writing.
[horn honks]
They didn't like Leonard Maizlish at all.
And they didn't want him rewriting their scripts.
[McFadden] Gene's lawyer had proved he knew how to write a contract.
But when it came to scripts, he'd already lost the room.
Everybody hated Maizlish except Gene Roddenberry.
[McFadden] And Gene's lawyer/producer/writer
was stepping on some very esteemed toes.
As the story editor, I was not terribly well-treated.
Things went over my head that I could have had input in.
Dorothy Fontana has written a lot of great scripts,
and she should have been a producer.
[McFadden] Dorothy wasn't the only high-ranking woman
feeling overlooked.
-Is that an order, Doctor? -Yes.
I often felt very lost and very out of place.
I thought I was captain of this starship.
-Of course you are, but I-- -Thank you for the confirmation, Doctor.
Star Trek in that era, in the late '80s, early '90s,
was a boys' club.
[McFadden] As for the girls' club, well, there wasn't one.
[Crosby] It was never like the women just got together
because we never had a scene together.
[McFadden] And if we did...
It would always be something almost comical.
Like, we would be hitting someone on the head with a pot.
[groans]
You're gonna put somebody in a position of power
and then not give them anything powerful, right, to do.
[McFadden] The power struggle on set
mirrored the turf war raging among the producers
as Gene fought to retain control.
That is to say, his lawyer did.
The studio execs, every time they would tell Gene how much they liked my work,
the lawyer would panic.
"Oh, my God, they're gonna fire Gene and put in David Gerrold."
And so Gene would end up bawling me out.
The one I feel bad for is David Gerrold
because he never even got his name on the screen.
I mean, he wrote the bible.
He came up with some of those characters.
They asked me, "Do you want the credit or the money?"
I said, "I'll take the money."
[McFadden] Others chose to take the exit.
I stayed for the first 13 episodes, and then I left.
It was not a terribly happy experience.
Gene should have hired me and Dorothy as producers,
and instead his despicable lawyer brought in a lot of people
who didn't know what Star Trek was at all.
[McFadden] But in the end, David knew the rules better than Gene's lawyer,
and so the writer-turned-lawyer...
Leonard was doing producer-level work on the show when he wasn't qualified,
and this was a violation of Writers Guild rules.
[McFadden] The Writers Guild went directly to Paramount's top brass.
[Gerrold] Within 15 minutes, studio guards had packed up Leonard's entire office
and escorted him from the lot.
He was banned from the lot.
[McFadden] With this Star Trek villain vanquished,
Star Trek: The Next Generation continued its syndicated success.
However, some members of the crew were on their last legs.
I actually asked them, "Could you make a mock-up of my legs?"
[McFadden] And the reason for such a request...
"You're always on Patrick and these guys down here,
so you just really see my legs up there. I can go home."
[McFadden] Denise decided it was time for home
after her request for better Tasha Yar stories was rebuffed.
[Crosby] Gene, he was the one who really said to me,
"The stories are gonna focus on the captain, the first officer, and Data.
It's, you know, Shatner, Spock, Bones."
When in Rome, we'll do as the Romans do.
[comm whistles]
"It's a formula that works, and I'm gonna stick with that."
[McFadden] So Gene made firm plans to dispense with Tasha Yar.
[Crosby] He said, "I want this character to be killed.
I've never done it," and he said, "The only problem is,
you won't be able to come back."
I warn you.
I said, "Yeah, go for it."
[McFadden] And so finally, Tasha Yar got to be the center of attention.
As she lay dying...
[Captain Picard] What's Lt. Yar's condition?
You know, it was such an anti-climactic, you know, death.
[Captain Picard] Dr. Crusher, report.
She's dead.
[McFadden] That, by the way,
was just making my character look like an unlicensed doctor.
There were so many people who died on my table.
[sighs]
I remember Patrick saying, "Don't let her touch you.
Her patients die." [laughs]
How's your patient, Doctor?
Not good.
It's a running joke.
You know, it's like, "I don't know about Crusher, how good she was."
You are here now watching this image of me because I've died.
[McFadden] But Tasha Yar's final moments
would not be Denise's final moments on set.
So "Symbiosis" was the last script that I shot,
and obviously they reversed them.
[McFadden] For that, she prepared an Easter egg.
-[bell dings] -And laid it right on camera.
I waved goodbye in the camera. I'm waving goodbye to the fans.
[McFadden] The fans and everyone.
There she is.
But Denise wasn't alone in wanting more for her character.
[Wesley Crusher] Hey, Mom, look what I can do.
[McFadden] I thought we were gonna have some really great development
between Wesley Crusher and Doctor Crusher
because she was a scientist, he was this genius.
You never seemed that interested in warp theory before.
Wesley was very often an idea
and not a fully realized character.
And it always broke my heart that we didn't get to have those scenes.
It was a difficult part to write for, Wes,
and I think we all sort of backed off from it,
didn't want to because his role was uncertain.
You know, it was not clear by any means what his position was there
and what his relationship to the others were.
[McFadden] Second season head writer Maurice Hurley wanted more action too,
but not for his female characters.
What do you want?
[Taylor] He wanted the big adventure, the big conflict,
not so much interested in human dynamics, characterization,
that kind of thing.
[Mark A. Altman] Maurice Hurley, you know,
that old-school, cigar-chomping TV writer,
the bottom line is, he was very sexist.
He wrote women in lazy, tropy ways.
[McFadden] I argued a lot about it with Maurice Hurley,
and I think I was not very diplomatic.
You know, he just was not... not happy with her.
[McFadden] I think I really, really upset him.
And I remember at the closing party of the first season,
I had been told by my agents how popular my character was.
I remember I was saying hello to everybody,
and Maurice Hurley looked at me with a look that I will never forget.
Like, "Okay, you will see. You're gonna be surprised."
And I heard later that he said, "Either she goes or I go,"
and then it was like a week later that I was told
by my agent that I was, you know, fired.
You are excused, Doctor.
[McFadden] And so it was Dr. Crusher
who was put into the transporter to nowhere.
He was a producer-writer, so obviously the actor could be easily replaced.
Nobody was cool with it.
I recall the cast being angry about it.
[McFadden] So having killed the doctor,
producers sent for the doctor.
Doctor! Doctor!
[McFadden] This doctor...
Dr. Katherine Pulaski.
[Diana Muldaur] I just got the call and went in,
talked to Gene, and he said,
"Would you be interested in playing a doctor on The Next Generation?"
And I said yes.
[McFadden] Well, that was easy.
I like to help.
I only agreed to do it 'cause I was doing a totally different character.
I'm Dr. Jones.
[McFadden] Different to the doctor she played way back when,
when a female doctor on TV was something to get excited about.
Of course, Dr. McCoy. Please don't worry about me.
[McFadden] And not just for Bones.
I based my character on Bones.
Well, what do you know?
And a lot of fans picked up on that.
Close but different.
[McFadden] While that satisfied the true fans,
Star Trek was about to receive a fan request like no other.
Well, everyone's very curious about you.
Yes, I'll bet they are.
Got a call from Whoopi Goldberg saying that she wanted
to be considered take Denise's role as the head of security.
[McFadden] But with a chance to have a big Hollywood star in their show,
they had other plans for Whoopi.
Whoopi wasn't really the head-of-security type for us.
And Gene and I sat down and we discussed it and thought,
"What a great idea to have a bartender."
-Guinan. -Captain.
[McFadden] But even as a humble bartender,
Whoopi 's megastar power was quietly saving Star Trek.
With experience.
[Spiner] A major movie star at the peak of her career decided to do this show.
I think we became legit when Whoopi came on the show.
It could have been your timing.
My timing is digital.
[chuckles]
[McFadden] Others would soon be departing.
[Muldaur] I was very happy at the end of the year to say bye-bye.
I would not have stayed for more.
-[man] Can I ask why? -No.
I don't need to hear what you don't need to say.
[McFadden] Star Trek's doctors were going down faster than their patients,
and fans were clamoring for the return of Dr. Crusher,
so that's where I come in... again.
I was at Starfleet Medical for a year. I missed about two inches of him.
[McFadden] It took some convincing, but when the captain calls...
I got a call from Patrick, he asked me if I would please consider coming back.
[McFadden] The return of Dr. Crusher
was a bone crusher for head writer Maurice Hurley,
who had previously said...
"Either she goes or I go."
[Altman] Maurice, at the end of the second season,
he voluntarily left the show.
One of the first things that happened at the beginning of the third season was,
"Let's bring Gates back," and Diana was never spoken of again.
[McFadden] But just as the ship began to steady on screen,
Star Trek: The Next Generation was forced to undergo
a changing of the guard at the top.
[Livingston] Gene realized that the day-to-day running of the show
needed to be turned to the next generation,
and that was Rick Berman.
It happened slowly.
He got less and less involved as his illness took over.
Rick Berman was a studio executive who had a lot in common with Gene.
You know, Gene felt he could trust him.
[Rick Berman] Gene's optimistic attitude of the future,
I always felt, was somewhat unrealistic,
but it was his attitude,
and I felt it was my responsibility to keep Gene's optimism alive.
[McFadden] But the long shadow of Star Trek's creator
was putting the next generation in the shade.
We'd have these very acrimonious fights with Rick about what Star Trek was.
"Gene would never do this in a million years," he would say.
Rick was going to defend to his dying breath
what he thought Gene wanted Star Trek to be.
Rick ran the show as he thought it should be run.
If that rubbed certain people the wrong way, so be it.
[McFadden] While Rick defended Gene's vision,
there was one subject matter Gene was willing to explore
that Rick wasn't.
At some point, Gene mentions that we're gonna have to have
a gay crew member.
[McFadden] And so in an episode called "Blood and Fire"...
[Gerrold] There's a scene in "Blood and Fire"
where someone turns to the gay crew member and says,
"How long have you and Freeman been together?"
That was it.
Rick Berman wrote a memo.
"We can't have gay characters on Star Trek
because mommies will write letters."
And I wrote a memo which says,
"Gene promised gay crew members on this Enterprise. If not now, when?"
One of the producers sticks his head in my office and says,
"Great memo. You still have to take the characters out."
[McFadden] David's groundbreaking script was lost to history,
and with it went one of Star Trek's most faithful servants.
That was the reason why I quit because this is hypocrisy.
I was emotionally beaten down.
[McFadden] Star Trek: The Next Generation
had been on a merry-go-round of casting chaos.
Well, it's nice to be together again.
[McFadden] The balance of power was shifting behind the scenes too.
It was a switch at the top of the writing staff.
You know, Maurice Hurley had left, and Michael Piller came in.
Things really took a turn and seemed to start going in the right direction.
Can it be possible they know what they're doing?
[McFadden] Well, by the show's third year, maybe, yes.
[Andre Bormanis] God bless Michael Piller.
When he took the reins, he really understood
the potential of the show
and understood storytelling in science fiction.
And Michael's edict was, "We're gonna tell stories about the Enterprise characters."
[Tenuto] The show is not about the ship.
This show is about Riker and Picard and the characters.
It's about people.
[McFadden] But good characters need good stories,
and halfway through season three,
the only action the writers' room had seen was industrial.
The writers' strike had just ended. There was not a full staff.
There was a point where we had nothing.
Once you start shooting, it never stops,
and something shooting tomorrow and then a day after that.
It has to be a sense of clockwork to it.
And if you don't have enough scripts in development
and they're not in good enough shape,
then it becomes an emergency.
[McFadden] But one thing Star Trek still had was its fans,
and Trekkers themselves were about to intervene in a way
that would restore the show they loved and ultimately set a new direction.
We invited absolute unknowns and newcomers to come in and pitch story ideas.
It's like, "Why don't we leverage that fan base out there?"
If you wrote an actual script, you could send it to Paramount
and somebody would read it.
Part of that job fell in my department as the script coordinator.
My office was just piled with scripts everywhere.
It was insane.
[McFadden] One fan script caught the attention
of production assistant Eric Stillwell.
Trent Ganino's script involved an Enterprise from the past.
[McFadden] That script didn't make it to screen.
We had gone up to Trent's hometown for a Star Trek convention
where Denise Crosby was the guest.
We were speaking to her in the autograph line
and she said, You should write an episode and bring me back."
-Tasha. -Yeah.
[McFadden] But there was one small issue to do with her being, um...
What's the word?
Dead.
[McFadden] That's it.
You know, I died. We know that.
[McFadden] Of course, everyone knew that.
I'm not supposed to be here, sir.
So Trent and I together started hashing out
how could we bring Tasha back 'cause she's dead.
[McFadden] Well, there was one way.
Time travel, of course.
So Eric traveled across the hall.
Yeah, I ran across the hall, started just cold pitching.
[McFadden] And Michael Piller said...
Make it so. We'll give you cover.
[McFadden] But it was still a very basic idea.
They turned it over to Ron Moore to polish the story.
I took "Yesterday's Enterprise."
I really liked the idea of the alternate timeline,
and there was a mention of, like, they had been at war with the Klingons.
But it wasn't front and center of the story and I just thought,
"Oh, that's the coolest part is that they're at war when--
Oh, well, that would make it a darker universe,
and, like, everything would be more war-like and militarized."
What's the matter with the bridge?
This is not a ship of war.
This is a ship of peace.
[McFadden] Now the story had become serious enough
that Captain Picard had to whisper.
[whispering] The war is going very badly for the Federation.
[Moore] They're not just at war, but the Federation's actually losing.
The good guys are losing and it's all gonna come crashing down.
And that gave this episode this sense of stakes
and it made it a bit of a tragedy.
You know, there's a doomed sense to the world that you were in.
The Federation has lost more than half of Starfleet to the Klingons.
[McFadden] And now with the fleshed-out outline,
the stage was set for a beloved character to come back.
In the flesh.
And there was a sense that Tasha didn't go out
with the episode she deserved.
So when we were talking about bringing her back,
everyone was excited by the idea.
Didn't know if Denise Crosby would be willing to do it.
[Crosby] And of course, I read it and went, "This is fabulous.
This is great."
And I said, "I'm on board."
Where am I supposed to be?
Dead.
[McFadden] Producers now had their idea and the actress ready to play Lazarus.
But days from shooting, there was still something missing.
We had no script.
[McFadden] Scrambling to put together an ambitious episode...
There was just an outline of what the thing was.
This was seven days before we shot.
There was no time for any one writer to do a complete draft.
[McFadden] This crowdsourced idea needed a crowdsourced script.
They take Thanksgiving, their Thanksgiving holiday,
and all the writers are writing at home an act.
They all take an act.
They all come back on Monday after losing Thanksgiving
and put it together.
We all wrote separately and then stitched them together.
Everybody thought it was crazy. It was insane.
It's a real mess down here, sir.
[Eric Stillwell] Everybody was convinced that it was just gonna be this hodgepodge,
horrible episode that they had thrown together at the last minute.
What ship is this, Captain?
You're aboard the Enterprise.
[McFadden] In the rush, the writers managed
to smuggle in some Star Trek firsts.
Rachel Garrett. How's my ship?
[McFadden] Rachel Garrett was breaking new ground
as the Enterprise's first female captain.
[Moore] In the script, it wasn't a woman.
I remember thinking at the time, "It's weird that I'm the one doing this."
It's like, "How is this the first time this has been done?"
We'll make it one for the history books.
[Moore] I wanted her to be every bit as brave and heroic.
She had to be worthy of Picard and Kirk.
Captain, I would be lying to you if I told you
there was a chance in hell of coming out of this alive.
[McFadden] Captain Garrett broke through Star Trek's glass ceiling,
but unfortunately also broke her head.
The detail of how Trisha died was really, really important,
the kind of shockingness I wanted to get as part of the war.
So it became harsher and nastier than sometimes deaths were.
This is Lt. Yar, sir.
Captain Garrett is dead.
[McFadden] For the character of Tasha Yar, it was an unlikely win.
[Crosby] "Yesterday's Enterprise" became a redeeming episode
for Tasha's senseless death.
A death without purpose.
She even addresses this very thing.
I'd like my death to count for something.
I always make the joke, "I had to die to get a good script."
This isn't a joke, Natasha.
[McFadden] Just as this fansourced episode reanimated Tasha Yar,
it reinvigorated The Next Generation.
[Moore] "Yesterday's Enterprise" is a very risky episode
that could have gone south a thousand different ways,
but it worked.
You're not part of my crew.
I am now. Captain Picard approved my request for transfer.
It was the first, in my opinion, truly great episode of Next Generation.
And I think it really raised the profile of Next Generation.
I think people sat up, took note, and took the show more seriously.
Welcome aboard.
[McFadden] It seemed that Star Trek: The Next Generation
had finally found its place in the universe.
[Captain Picard] Space: the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
[McFadden] With the steady hands of Michael Piller
and Rick Berman steering the ship,
Star Trek: The Next Generation had successfully extended
the franchise's mission.
[Captain Picard] To boldly go where no one has gone before.
[McFadden] But behind the scenes,
personnel issues were only getting more personal.
[Captain Picard] Mr. Crusher, report to the bridge.
I had this terrific opportunity to go work in a feature film,
and Rick Berman said, "This is a really important Wesley episode.
I have personally written an extremely important scene.
It's a really important part of the show.
Our hands are tied. He has to pass on the film."
You're not involved in this decision, boy.
[Wheaton] After I had passed on the film and the film had been recast,
he wrote me out of the episode completely,
and I was furious.
Look, I have done everything that everyone has asked of me and more.
It hurt so much.
And after that happened, I said to my agent,
"Get me out of this contract. Get me off the show.
I don't wanna work for this person anymore."
[McFadden] It was another unwelcomed departure.
But then came the news of an even more significant loss.
It was during the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Sorry to interrupt. We're receiving an emergency distress signal.
I'm on my way.
[McFadden] The producers received some news
that would stop them in their tracks.
[Jeri Taylor] Rick got a phone call.
He took it and didn't say much,
and then he came back and sat down with us and told us.
And...
Gene, he passed away.
[Taylor] One of the most significant individuals
ever to impact television was now gone.
[McFadden] Gene Roddenberry died suddenly on October 24th, 1991,
25 years after the launch of Star Trek.
His memorial service, it was a perfect send-off to him:
hundreds and hundreds of people,
they had the Blue Angels fly over at the end.
A handful of people actually create something that lasts 55 years, you know.
[Gerrold] He managed to create this iconic thing
that defines the best part of the 20th century,
a vision of hope, a vision of what could be a way
to ask questions about who we are and what we're up to in the world.
[McFadden] But even still, Star Trek without Gene?
It's heartbreaking.
It was a big deal for the Star Trek family that he was gone.
[McFadden] Without its creator, Star Trek: The Next Generation
continued for another two and a half years.
I think in the 6th and 7th seasons in particular,
we were on such a roll as the cast was just going so well together.
The writing was phenomenal,
and it just seemed to get better and better.
[McFadden] The series wrapped with a two-part extravaganza
that Gene no doubt would have been proud of.
The series finale really brought us full circle
to some of the issues and themes that were brought up
in "Encounter at Farpoint."
It's time to put an end to your trek through the stars.
I thought it was a sensational double episode at the end.
Captain Picard.
-Yes? -Yes?
There was nothing that I felt I could have asked for more
than the way they explored where our characters go or have gone.
[Moore] The whole final episode was a love letter
to the series and to the fans.
It didn't feel right to just go up onto the bridge
and press engage one more time.
It was really about them and how much they loved each other.
Yes. Yes!
[Moore] Yes, we knew we wanted to end the show with a poker game,
and the key was that Picard never joined the poker game.
I, uh... I just thought that I might, um...
I might join you this evening.
[Moore] So we wanted to gather the family together,
just loving each other's company.
I should have done this a long time ago.
"What's the last line gonna be?" It had to be a poker line, you know.
And I think it might have been Jeri Taylor who came up with it.
[Captain Picard] And the sky is the limit.
[Taylor] It was a very sad time for me
and a sad episode just because it was over.
It turned out to be one of the great episodes.
[McFadden] Paramount's risky experiment
and direct-to-syndication television had paid off.
You've saved humanity once again.
[McFadden] And not just commercially.
[Larry Nemecek] 1994 was peak Trek.
You have Next Generation ending with an Emmy nomination.
[McFadden] But on the other side of every peak is a descent.
And emboldened by its success,
Star Trek was about to descend once more into chaos.
In deep space.
This was the show that they aren't that pleased with.
You're obviously a prisoner of Federation dogma and human prejudice.
[McFadden] And ultimately, deep trouble.
There were a lot of people who didn't like the way it was going,
the fact that it was serialized.
A lot of the audience gave up.
Paramount just threw up their hands.
[theme music playing]