The<i> Enterprise-</i> D. Bringing back the<i> Enterprise,</i>
and the<i> Enterprise-</i> D, was an idea early on. I went to Patrick's house,
and I told him, I said, "I think it's obviously right
for you to get back onto the<i> Enterprise</i>, but not just any<i> Enterprise</i> ." And he was like,
"I think you're 100% right." I became very emotional. It wasn't just the<i> Enterprise</i> , but it was being back
on a ship again. [Brent] Look at this would you? Look at this! During those seven years, can you imagine how
many thousands of hours we spent on those sets? They became home. I mean, my son, my
personal son, my real son, learned how to walk on that set. [Terry] This art department
has worked so hard to get this right, down
to the square inch. So, Liz and Dave. We early on had to
rebuild that bridge, and that involved our
Production Designer, Dave Blass, getting in touch with
people I used to work with when I was a Production
Assistant, with the Okudas, Doug Drexler, Herman Zimmerman. Everyone who was in involved
with that bridge early on came back to help out to make
it as accurate as possible. Everybody involved in the
building of the<i> Enterprise-</i> D set
did such a great job. I mean, we all walked on
and went, "Wow." The<i> Enterprise-</i> D of course is a very accurate copy of
what we did back in 1987 under Production Designer
Herman Zimmerman. When you step onto that set, the sense of nostalgia is
almost overwhelming you. It's like it's 1987 again. When I first saw
the bridge back in '87, we had never seen a
bridge like that before. It was always kind of
militaristic and very stark and spartan. Even though it's,
it's full of nostalgia, hopefully to a lot of
the viewers of this show, it's important to remember
that back in those days when the ship was first
designed, it was, it was very innovative. I just remember it looked
like a living room. You know, it looked like
somebody's really nice living
room. It just goes to show that
they thought about that. They thought about, you know,
"What if these people have to be in space, for five
or 10 or whatever years, it'd be nice to have
something that's comfortable." There was no denying that there
was an emotional sense memory
going right up through my feet. And I think that that's
gonna happen to all of us. Warp core, online. Watching the crew take
their stations, again, after all this time,
intermixed with the new crew, it's like everything
you want from Star Trek, especially from this version
of Star Trek. I don't think we could've
gotten there without the first two seasons. I think it would've been
too fast to get there in Season 1 or Season 2. It felt like it always felt. It felt comfortable. And we took our positions
at our stations, felt like we'd never left. There is kind of sentimental
and moving that we're going to be on the
bridge of the<i> Enterprise</i> again, but what we were looking
forward to as a cast was working together
again, the whole crew. And it gets a bit, let's
not say unprofessional, let's say joyous. Let's use that word instead. And now there's a hundred
starships with a guns pointed right at
you. There are no words to
describe what it's like to call action in that moment. It's...you're standing in
this room with these legends, on this legendary set, and
you still have to work. Still gotta get your day and
you still gotta yell, "Cut," and give them direction. It's really hard. Turns out it's really hard
when it's your childhood dream and these heroes are here. They're all having
an emotional reaction. They're all remembering
moments with each other on that set where somebody fell, somebody smashed into a
wall, somebody did a thing. It was extraordinary. It really was magic for three
days. Again, that sense of coming
home, completing the circle, on the
story has been really present in the scripts and in
the atmosphere on stage. My goal from the beginning
of Season 3 was: this needs to be a sendoff to the<i> Next Gen</i>
cast and where better to end than
at the beginning, on that set, on that bridge. It felt really powerful to us to
do. Computer, initiate
shut down sequence. [Computer] Shut down
procedure initiated. [Will] I miss that voice. [Jean-Luc] Take care of her,
Geordi. [Geordi] Yes, sir. After all, she's always
taken good care of us.
