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  • T: The Ensigns of Command
  • A: TNG
  • N: 3x02
  • P: 40273-149
  • C: 156
  • M: October
  • Y: 1989
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Ortiz[]

There is an ensign, Ortiz, first violin in the quattuor. Somebody please create an article, I'm not an English speaking person... The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.24.93.190 (talk).

Title of episode[]

Can someone please enlighten me as to the significance of this episode's title? Federation 21:40, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

A little florid: before ensign was used as a military rank, it also referred to flags used to signal various things aboard a sailing ship (or other places too, i guess, but this seems to be a naval reference specifically). In this "command" case i guess it would symbolically refer to rank and status of a naval officer (Data in this case, landing and trying to establish his authority). -- Captain M.K.B. 01:53, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

This is great information. I put it in the article. Federation 20:31, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Moved from Talk:Theremi-thoron[]

According to the episode this is cited from, it was not referenced in the ep, and may have been in a script along the way. As such, should it not be {{real world}} and Category:Unused production material? -- Sulfur 04:04, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

It is both interesting and amusing that "Mr. Canon" himself wrote the initial article.
  • From: "Gentlemen, how are you coming? What the hell is that? / Our first attempt. / We recalibrated the transporter setting for the tightest possible beam. / But we've got plenty of things left to try. / There's some really interesting residue reminds me of -- there's that damn pulsar in the neighborhood. / Teremi-thorons. / This just got a lot harder. / They're one of the most elusive sub-atomic particles known, and they really shred a transporter signal. / Thank you, Ensign, I passed physics. Keep at it. We need those transporters."
  • To: "Gentlemen, how's it coming? What the hell is that? / Our first attempt. / Keep at it. We need those transporters."
As for what to do with it, the dialog changed significantly from the script to what aired, and I don't think that it is significant enough to warrant keeping for anything-- being that it is a script reference vs. deleted scene reference. Besides, whatever happened to merging those/these types of content into hub articles? --Alan del Beccio 05:07, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
I agree, it's nothing that was produced and not used (like the USS Trinculo) or filmed and not shown (like Freebus), so it should be merged with the episode. Kennelly 15:40, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Page has been merged with The Ensigns of Command. --From Andoria with Love 08:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Dubbing of Grainger Hines' dialogue[]

The article has had the following note:

  • Grainger Hines' dialogue was dubbed by another actor at his request because he was unhappy with his performance.

which had an incite until 31dot cited it to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion. I'm not sure this is correct. Here's what the Companion says:

"As happens occasionally, credit for a major guest player did not appear on screen. Actor Grainger Hines' dialogue all had to be dubbed in by another actor, and he asked that his name be pulled."

which is rather vague, not giving the reason. Does anyone have any further information on this point? – Cleanse 00:55, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Have a look here [1]. I also remember I've read about this before... I think it was a Star Trek magazine...I'll research it. – Tom 01:21, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
I will also try to look it up- I seem to remember reading that somewhere.--31dot 12:44, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Misquote?[]

"How are we progressing mister La Forge?" "About as you'd expect." "Splendid. Splendid. Carry on."

I've listened to this particular quote as someone changed it recently. Anyway, when I hear Picard it sounds like he says Now and not How as in "Now. Are we progressing Mr. La Forge?" There is quite a notable pause after the word "Now". If someone else could listen to the episode and confirm this so we can update it correctly. --Morder 15:16, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Sheliak ship[]

I noticed that the Sheliak ship appears to have parts from Spock's warp shuttle from ST:TMP tacked on to the ventral side of the Merchantman model (under the "wings"). Can someone confirm that this is the case? Starfleetjedi 08:44, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Star Date[]

Hello! I found the star date 43133,3 in this episodes sidebar. I have a german version only and it does not contain any log entry or any other source for a star date. Is there a log entry in english original version? If not, how do we know a star date? Thank you very much! --Plasmarelais 22:52, October 26, 2009 (UTC)

I checked an online script of this episode, and it contained no stardate, and no obvious place to put one. Now, the available scripts often are different to the final episode, but you're right, this needs to be checked. -- Cid Highwind 10:13, October 27, 2009 (UTC)
I checked StarTrek.com and the stardate appears to be listed there as 43133.3. This is undoubtedly the source as it's not in the episode itself. [2](X)Morder (talk) 11:11, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for your help! I removed the star date from this episodes page on MA/de since we don't use those information. --Plasmarelais 16:49, October 27, 2009 (UTC)

Two years later, I have removed it from the sidebar and made a notation in the background information section regarding this.–Cleanse ( talk | contribs ) 05:04, June 25, 2011 (UTC)

Removed[]

  • This episode contains one of the first instances of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to grace an episode of the Star Trek franchise. As the Sheliak colony vessel approaches the Enterprise (approximately, 33:18), one of the few exterior shots of both vessels together, the distant Enterprise-D is a CGI model rather than a physical entity. The shot is very brief and the CGI replica is often mistaken for the similar two-foot filming model, however still-frame analysis reveals that the computer-generated Enterprise lacks much of the detail found on even the tiny two-foot model. Because of this, a CGI Enterprise would not be seen again until the first TNG feature film, Star Trek Generations, by which time computer technology had progressed significantly.

Long uncited note. See also Galaxy class model. - Archduk3 14:57, May 25, 2011 (UTC)

The "still-frame analysis" sounds suspiciously like original research, so that's another reason to delete the note. --Pat Berry 20:10, February 10, 2012 (UTC)

Allotted time[]

While it takes the transport ships 3 weeks to arrive (if it was exactly 3 weeks and no breakdowns happen), the time the Sheliak agreed to is also 3 weeks. That leaves no time to transfer all 15000 colonists by shuttlecraft, considering the Sheliak will follow that agreement to the letter. Queues 08:00, February 6, 2012 (UTC)

That would be a nitpick, but he had already informed them that the needed ship would not be there for 3 weeks, so they were aware of it.--31dot 12:34, February 6, 2012 (UTC)

Usage of the Betazoid language[]

The Continuity section includes the following note: "This episode marks the only usage of the Betazoid language, as demonstrated by Troi in her conversation with Picard about being stranded."

Well, Troi speaks one word of the Betazoid language. But yes, that does qualify as a usage of the language. So does the use of the word "imzadi", which occurs in many episodes of the series. Therefore, the claim that this episode marks the only usage of the Betazoid language would seem to be false. Or am I missing something here? --Pat Berry 19:58, February 10, 2012 (UTC)

Agreed and removed. Also, are we sure she wasn't just making up a word as part of her hypothetical? The script gives no indication that she was speaking her own language. [3]
  • This episode marks the only usage of the Betazoid language, as demonstrated by Troi in her conversation with Picard about being stranded.
Cleanse ( talk | contribs ) 03:49, February 11, 2012 (UTC)

StarWars Droid Army Idea?[]

Moved to this talk page.

Music from TOS?[]

Ok so I suck at editing wikipages, so I don't mind if someone else puts this into the main page.

So I'm sitting here, watching Star Trek TOS and it's the show about the Andromeda People. Show ends, I listen to end music. I'm getting ready to go to sleep, and I hear the strings getting ready and then I swear I hear the ending to the TOS credit music. I think, that's odd.. So I get up, I press rewind on my DVR, long story short, sure enough, in the middle of them Tuning up during the Orchestral scene at the beginning of Ensigns of Command, one of the smart alecks on the set of this Next Generation Episode gives the last 6 bars or so of the ending of ToS.

I rewound the DVR to the end music of the TOS credits just to make sure. And yes, it is in there. Here's the process. TNG ship comes into view (5 seconds). Guy walks through, screeching tuning sounds 20 seconds, and as camera pans to the good Doctor Bev. Crusher I believe you hear the violinist do her ascending cords, and as the camera hits Bev Crusher (before Data enters), those ascending cords turn into the last 6 bars of the ToS end credits music. It is unmistakable. This should be in the trivia section. I'm not sure if this was intentional or "snuck in".

I'm saving my DVR recording for a while just because this is pretty funny to me.

24.8.50.83 01:52, February 4, 2013 (UTC)

What you describe sounds coincidental to me, unless you have other evidence of music being reused. We generally only note deliberate use of other works or references to past episodes that can be cited. 31dot (talk) 02:01, February 4, 2013 (UTC)

Colm Meaney's credit[]

Is it worth noting as trivia that Colm Meaney was credited as a full guest star for the episode despite O'Brien having no dialogue at all? It seems strange, but I'm not sure if it actually qualifies as trivia or not.

Edit: I noticed that his lack of dialogue is already mentioned, but the strange credit isn't. --72.182.48.25 08:19, December 27, 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure what is strange about it; he was a regular recurring character so they probably gave him the same credit every time he appeared. 31dot (talk) 11:34, December 27, 2013 (UTC)

Language Lessons[]

During the scene in which Troi explains to Picard why the Treaty of Armens, between the Sheliak and the Federation, is so long was because the Sheliak demanded it to be 500,000 words. She admits that she finds it amazing that some many differant spieces can communacate and proceeds to display the trouble with teaching someone else your language. She holds up a cup of tea and says a non-terran word, when Picard guesses that the word meant 'cup' Troi state that she might have been refering to the texture, temperature, or color. However this could not be turth as anyone trying to teach someone else their own language wouldn't overly complicate it. If you are on a deserted island with a person that only speeaks French, I would not expeact them to think that when I hold up a rock and say "rock" that I am refering to anything but the thing I am holding. I feel it should be meantion that Troi's language lesson doesn't make much sense. Tripodssj6 (talk) 19:03, January 6, 2017 (UTC)

That's your opinion- which you are entitled to- but it isn't suitable article content. As she indicated, people see things in different ways, and have different ideas about how things are seen. 31dot (talk) 20:52, January 6, 2017 (UTC)
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