Observations in TNG: "The Naked Now"

In both the S.S. Tsiolkovsky corridors and the crew quarters we can see characteristic chairs of the type often seen in TOS.

Mike Okuda tells us: "I believe the Burke chairs on the Tsiolkovsky were indeed original to TOS. Unfortunately, I believe they were burned in the fire sequence of 'The Battle'."
Commercially Available Chairs in Star Trek

The wall with the viewscreen in the S.S. Tsiolkovsky corridor that Riker is using to view footage from the bridge of the ship is very interesting. The same wall (to the left of the airlock) is seen in the footage of the bridge that Riker views. In "Where No One Has Gone Before", this wall first appears in main engineering where it is used to hide the corridor that leads into the set when it is redressed as a corridor lounge. This wall will remain in place until the end of the series.

It was slightly modified, however: The big round disk on the left wall panel, for example, was moved to the right panel. Where the round disk was originally attached, a new LCARS display can be found now. The black lines were also removed.

Likewise, the wall to the right of the bridge airlock of the S.S. Tsiolkovsky can be seen behind Riker in the S.S. Tsiolkovsky corridor. It is later seen on the other side of main engineering in "Where No One Has Gone Before" and the rest of TNG.

This wall was slightly modified, too. Two oval displays were added between the two original ones. The black lines were also removed.

In this shot of the S.S. Tsiolkovsky and the USS Enterprise-D, the registry of the Oberth class ship is NCC-640. The very first time an Oberth class ship was seen was in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". The registry of the USS Grissom was NCC-638. Why is the S.S. Tsiolkovsky labeled "NCC-640" in this shot then?

Mike Okuda: "I seem to recall that Grissom may have been relabeled to serve as another ship (the Copernicus?) in Star Trek III or IV. I didn't try to relabel the model for 'The Naked Now,' partly because we realized that the existing registry would not be legible in standard-def video, but also because we were all so insanely busy at the time that no one could take on an additional project that wasn't likely to be seen on the screen."

NCC-640 must have been the registry of the USS Copernicus, briefly seen in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" then. After this appearance in the fourth Star Trek film, the model wasn't used until "The Naked Now".

The corridor set was much shorter in the first two seasons of TNG. The set ended just behind the sickbay door. A wall featuring four silver wall panels was placed at the end of the set to give the impression of a T-intersection. In the third season, the set was expanded, now leading to the holodeck entrance.

When Crusher leaves the sickbay set to peek out the door and see where Geordi has gone, she takes the main sickbay door. When the shot shows the corridor set from her POV, however, the camera is not located at the sickbay office door. On the screenshot one can actually see the door that Crusher should have been standing in front of. This was done because Crusher would otherwise have looked directly at the wall at the end of the corridor set.

The large crew quarters set first appears in this episode, seen as Crusher's, Troi's and Yar's quarters. The set featured modular walls that were removed or put in place to make the quarters look different and change the size of the set. When seen as Crusher's quarters, the set appears at its largest size, featuring two bedrooms for the Doctor and her son, one at each end of the set.

The chairs with the high backrest were first seen in "Star Trek I" on the bridge of the Klingon battlecruiser. They also appeared in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" in the Old City Station transporter room where Uhura worked with "Mr. Adventure".

Wesley's mobile tractor beam emitter was designed by Rick Sternbach: "I did a couple of really basic sketches (which may have gone to who knows where), and IIRC the thing was cobbled together using a few custom fabricated parts (like the emitter supports and the base), but mostly found bits that looked techy... I think the actual tractor beam emitter was a small portable camping light, like a very short baby fluorescent tube sort of thing, and it was mounted between the uprights."

The control console on the prop is actually an alarm clock of the type Micronta 63-756. It was painted gray and supplied with an illuminated LCARS display. The base is made of a printed circuit board.

36 years later, we can see Rutherford working on the device in LOW: "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee".

The library computer images that Data views on the bridge are interesting for a number of reasons.

A variety of the Type-7 shuttlecraft with elongated windows is seen here. This is the first appearance of a 24th century shuttlecraft, the actual shuttle doesn't show up until "Coming of Age".
Variations of the Type-7 Shuttle

"NCC-1701-D" is now legible on the side and "07" on the roof of the shuttle. If one looks really closely at the name of the shuttle next to the front window, "GALILEO" can barely be made out. Many years later, a Type-6 shuttle, also named "Galileo" and numbered "07" would appear in "All Good Things".

Mike Okuda: "Yes, the shuttle was labeled Galileo."

On a related note, TNG-R clearly shows that the small text solely consists of numbers, so Picard reads out data about the old Enterprise that are definitely not on screen. ;-)

The shelf in Troi's quarters was previously seen in Kirk's apartment in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and in the Farpoint Station mall in the pilot episode.
Re-Used Props - Furniture

The red giant is much more detailed in HD. There are new solar eruptions but the pattern of the sunspots is the same as on the red giant seen in the original episode, although it was rebuilt from scratch.

Mike Okuda: "The red giant is all new, but based closely on the original."

This is the first appearance of a 24th century hypospray, designed by Rick Sternbach.

We can see that Dr. Crusher's console is made of cardboard and plywood.

Riker and MacDougal are working on the circuits in an opening in the main engineering wall.

The tubes/circuitry inside this engineering locker were made from the no longer needed hand rails of Kirk's USS Enterprise's engineering set, seen in "Star Trek I+II". In 1987, the engineering set got new hand rails when it was heavily modified for use on TNG.

The inconsistent relative scale of the ships was not fixed for TNG-R.

For this shot, the registry of the S.S. Tsiolkovsky was corrected by the team overseeing the HD transfer of the episode. The ship is labeled "NCC-53911" here, as per the dedication plaque seen earlier in the episode.

We can see the colorful isolinear chips for the first time.

Mike Okuda: "No, there was no particular significance to the colors. The first batch of chips was made with fluorescent yellow/green acrylic plastic. It was actually plastic that had been part of Ilia's sickbay bed from ST:TMP. I liked the look of that stuff, but I wanted some variety in color, so I picked a blue to go along with it. These were the chips that were seen in 'The Naked Now.' Later, the property masters needed more chips, and had them made in additional colors."