page_title: Tapestry (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
section_title: Casting and filming
hierarchical_section_title: Tapestry (Star Trek: The Next Generation) / Production / Casting and filming
caption_attribution_description: English: John de Lancie opera
context_page_description: "Tapestry" is the 15th episode of the sixth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 141st overall. It was originally released on February 15, 1993, in broadcast syndication. Ronald D. Moore was credited with writing the episode, but the basis of the story was a collaborative effort from the writing crew. "Tapestry" was directed by Les Landau, with the title coming from executive producer Michael Piller.
  Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, Q allows a supposedly deceased Captain Jean-Luc Picard to re-visit a pivotal event in his youth that he since regrets. Picard changes the past, but upon returning to the present he finds that the event made him the man he became. He returns once more to the past and returns it to the way it originally took place. Picard wakes up in the present, unsure if the events took place or if they were a dream caused by his injury.
  A number of previously used screen props were used, including some from the 1956 film The Ten Commandments, and from previous episodes.
context_section_description: John de Lancie returned to the series in "Tapestry" as Q, having appeared on a regular basis since his first appearance in the pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint". He had already appeared twice during the 1992/93 television series as the character, both earlier in the season in "True Q" as well as the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Q-Less". De Lancie thought that the script for "Tapestry" was "terrific", and praised the speech he got to perform at the end of the episode.
  Appearing for the first time in Star Trek was J.C. Brandy as Marta Batanides. She was nervous and intimidated to work with Patrick Stewart, but said that everyone on the cast and crew made her feel welcome. However, there were concerns when she first arrived on set for costume fitting as she looked quite young, and Stewart was worried about the age difference on screen. Director Les Landau requested that the hair and make-up on Brandy should make her look older. Brandy said that this "worked nicely", but they still "downplayed the sex". She was pleased with her scenes with Stewart, as they managed to capture a "nervousness and innocence" in Picard and Marta's relationship. The episode marked the first appearance of the Nausicaans on screen with Clint Carmichael playing the lead alien, although they had been mentioned earlier in the episode "Samaritan Snare". The two non-speaking members of the race were portrayed by stuntmen Tom Morta and Dick Dimitri. The two appeared on screen without make-up in the episodes "A Fistful of Datas" and "Emergence," respectively.
  A significant number of previously created costumes and make-up were included in the barroom scenes in "Tapestry". There were notes from the producers not to include any Ferengi, as at that point the Federation had not yet made first contact with them. The scene featured both Anticans and Selay close to one another, despite being at war at the time that this flashback scene was set and only making peace earlier in The Next Generation in the episode "Lonely Among Us". Several of the glasses and other props in this scene were from a collection that Paramount had stored from the 1956 Charlton Heston film, The Ten Commandments. There were problems with the audio recordings of some scenes with Stewart and Brandy, as the camera dolly was noisy which required them to re-record their lines later so that they could be dubbed over the originals. Brandy was "amazed" that there was no difference she could tell in Stewart's performance, but felt that it took away an element from her performance.
  The scenes with Q and Picard together on a white background were compared to those in the Warren Beatty and Buck Henry 1978 film Heaven Can Wait by producer Merri Howard and director of photography Jonathan West. These particular scenes caused some problems as there were concerns by the director of photography that Q's white robes would not show up on camera well against the all-white background. They were worried that he might appear simply as a floating head. With both de Lancie and Stewart anticipating re-shoots for these scenes, they were both unhappy as they shot those appearances. However, this was filmed late on the last day; de Lancie said that it resulted in both of them looking quite tired. Some scenes were cut in order to reduce the episode down to the required length. This included a one-page monologue by Marta which would have taken place the morning after her liaison with Picard, a scene where Picard was to report to La Forge in engineering, audio mention of Dr. Selar and a mention of Scobee Hall – a reference to Dick Scobee, the commander of the Space Shuttle Challenger at the time of the destruction of the vessel.
caption: John de Lancie made his seventh appearance as Q during the series in "Tapestry".
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