Star Trek's Most Important Character Was Filler | TNG Rewatch #1: Encounter at Farpoint

The trial that opens Star Trek: The Next Generation wasn't in the original script. Paramount wanted a two-hour premiere, the Farpoint story wasn't long enough, so Gene Roddenberry invented a godlike being to fill the gap — and accidentally created the character who would still be asking the same question in the show's final minutes, seven years later. This is the whole pilot, start to finish, with everything that was happening behind the camera while they made it: the hairpiece shipped from London so Patrick Stewart could audition with hair, the Enterprise-D that started as a doodle pinned to a desk, DeForest Kelley working for union minimum to hand the franchise over, and the guy at the conn with no name who ended up carrying two Star Trek series. Episode 1 of a complete TNG rewatch. All 176 of them. CHAPTERS 0:00 A trial that wasn't in the script 0:52 The captain nobody wanted 2:47 Why Q exists at all 4:37 Farpoint: the station that's too good to be true 5:19 Riker, and the ship's party trick 6:35 How the Enterprise-D got designed 7:43 The handoff — DeForest Kelley 8:18 Hiding in plain sight: Worf, O'Brien, and 1970s sets 9:56 What's under the station 11:19 The answer 13:11 Does it hold up? 14:37 The trial never ends 15:38 Next time: The Naked Now SOURCES & FURTHER READING Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 — Paula M. Block & Terry J. Erdmann Memory Alpha (memory-alpha.fandom.com) StarTrek.com oral histories The 1987 TNG writers' guide (March 23, 1987) Contemporary press coverage, 1987–88 Star Trek and all related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios / Paramount. This video uses short excerpts for the purposes of criticism, commentary, review and historical reporting. Original music composed for this video. #StarTrek #TNG #StarTrekTNG #EncounterAtFarpoint #RetroCoffeeTalk