Expert: Justin Case - 7/5/2009

Question
I saw the Star Trek TNG episode called "Yesterday's Enterprise". I've always wondered why they never made a separate episode that showed the Enterprise C during their battle with the four Romulan warbirds while the Enterprise C was defending the Klingon outpost Narendera 3, just before the Enterprise C went through the temporal rift which took them from the year 2344 to 2366. Was there a time constraint that made the producers unable to make a separate episode?

Answer
Hi David -

Wow wasn't that a spectacular episode!?  The producers did run into time constraints that prevented them from filming the destruction of the Enterprise-C and the actors(ress) who played Lt. Castillo and Capt. Garrett had other commitments.

In addition the budgetary constraints of filming a weekly series often prevent the directors from being able to film expensive space battles and/or other scenes with costly and time consuming special effects.

The cost of having two bridges (the C and the D) and changing the normal set of the D bridge set had eaten up much of the budget for that particular episode, leaving very little left.

In addition the writers wanted the show to be very character driven and explore the angst between Garrett, Castillo and Tasha Yar as they wrestle with the decision to return to what they know will be certain doom rather than a 'big battle' show.

Thanks for watching and for using the website, let me know if you have any other questions!

Deran