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"Ten Forward is the hub of the ship's social activity. Everyone on board comes here."

Ten Forward was a lounge and recreation facility located on Deck 10, forward section 1 of a Galaxy-class starship. (TNG: "The Child", "Power Play", "Deja Q")

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Functions

Ten Forward was situated at the extreme forward end of the saucer section and was designed with several large windows, which offered a spectacular view of space ahead of the vessel. The room was accessed by two doors, on the port and starboard sides at the rear of the room. The location served as the social center of the ship and was equipped with a number of recreational activities such as three-dimensional chess, Terrace, and Strategema, tables and seating, and a bar which served several alcoholic and syntheholic beverages. Two replicator terminals behind the bar were able to produce other food and drinks. (TNG: "The Child", "Peak Performance", "Ménage à Troi", "Conundrum", "Relics"; ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") Ten Forward also employed dedicated wait staff who served patrons both at the bar and at the tables. They were generally civilian members of the crew and wore uniforms with a green color palette. (TNG: "Deja Q", "Lower Decks")

Ten Forward could also be used for many official shipboard functions, such as weddings, (TNG: "Data's Day", "Cost of Living") diplomatic gatherings, (TNG: "The Price", "Ménage à Troi", "Liaisons", "Dark Page", "Journey's End") the change of command ceremony, (TNG: "Chain of Command, Part I") birthday and other parties for individual ship personnel, (TNG: "Future Imperfect", "The Measure Of A Man", "Preemptive Strike") concerts, (TNG: "Sarek", "In Theory", "Lessons", "Second Chances", "Inheritance") poetry readings, (TNG: "Schisms") and funerals. (TNG: "The Next Phase")

Children were not usually allowed in Ten Forward unless accompanied by an adult. (TNG: "Imaginary Friend")

Geordi La Forge was seen talking to a boy in Ten Forward in TNG : " Sarek ".

In case of low-power or other emergency situations, Ten Forward was a designated emergency environmental support shelter. (TNG: "Night Terrors", "Disaster")

USS Enterprise-D

On the USS Enterprise-D, the Ten Forward lounge was hosted by the El-Aurian Guinan, who came aboard the ship in 2365. (TNG: "The Child") She was afforded a small office adjacent to Ten Forward as part of her duties. (TNG: "Q Who") Guinan kept a variety of non-syntheholic drinks in Ten Forward, including a bottle of Aldebaran whiskey given to her by Captain Jean-Luc Picard. (TNG: "Relics") There was a large fiber-optic mural displayed on the wall behind the bar aboard the Enterprise; the artwork represented the Milky Way Galaxy seen from an oblique angle.

Ten Forward hosted a reception shortly following Captain Picard's arrival in 2364. Counselor Deanna Troi introduced the captain to the senior officers at that time. (TNG: "All Good Things...")

When Wesley Crusher inadvertently released a breed of sentient nanites aboard the Enterprise in 2366, Ten Forward was one of the locations where he set up traps in an attempt to contain the machines. (TNG: "Evolution")

Lieutenant Commander Data believed that spending time observing Human social interaction in Ten Forward would be beneficial for his android "offspring", Lal. She worked there for a brief period, under the supervision of Guinan. (TNG: "The Offspring")

When Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan visited the Enterprise in 2366, side effects from Bendii Syndrome began to project negative emotions on the Enterprise crew. Ten Forward became the site of a brawl, injuring several crew members. (TNG: "Sarek") There was more violence in Ten Forward in late 2367, after REM sleep-deprived crew members began to draft conspiracy theories about the Enterprise's inability to escape the Tyken's Rift. Guinan was able to defuse the situation, thanks to a weapon she had acquired on Magus III. (TNG: "Night Terrors")

In 2367, Chief Miles O'Brien wed Keiko Ishikawa in Ten Forward. (TNG: "Data's Day") Ten Forward also became the birthplace of their first child one year later, in 2368. The Enterprise had been struck by a quantum filament, disabling most ship's systems and cutting Ten Forward off from sickbay. Keiko was in Ten Forward at the time, and assisted Lieutenant Worf in treating injured survivors. She subsequently entered labor, and Worf acted as midwife during the delivery. (TNG: "Disaster")

While investigating the disappearance of the USS Essex at Mab-Bu VI in 2368, Counselor Troi, Commander Data, and Chief O'Brien were inhabited by the noncoporeal Ux-Mal criminals. They attacked the bridge crew and then stormed Ten Forward, taking several hostages and injuring several crew members. Attempts by Enterprise crew to force the entities from the officers failed, and the hostages were finally freed when Captain Picard deceived the criminals into believing he would transport the rest of the spirits aboard. (TNG: "Power Play")

Ten Forward was chosen by Ambassador Lwaxana Troi for her wedding to Minister Campio in 2368. Although Captain Picard was initially irritated that the ambassador believed she could use the Enterprise at her disposal, his demeanor changed when he learned he would be acting as father of the bride. The wedding was later canceled when Troi offended the minister's strict protocol requirements by arriving at the wedding in the nude, in traditional Betazoid fashion. (TNG: "Cost of Living")

After it was believed Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge and Ensign Ro Laren had been killed in a transporter accident during a rescue mission to a damaged Romulan science ship in 2368, Commander Data planned a memorial service for the two officers which was held in Ten Forward. The service was non-traditional and was upbeat instead of mournful and solemn, which was met with approval by the Enterprise crew. This proved to be fortuitous – Ro and La Forge were very much alive, having actually been "phased" due to chroniton exposure from an experimental interphase generator aboard the Romulan ship. They were able to create a sufficiently large chroniton field in Ten Forward, requiring a heavy anyon sweep to eliminate them. The anyon field temporarily rephased Ro and La Forge just enough so Picard and Data could see them, leading Data – realizing that the numerous unexplained chroniton fields popping up throughout the ship had been caused by their presence – to initiate a high-powered anyon sweep, which completely returned the pair to normal phase. (TNG: "The Next Phase")

Captain Picard transferred command of the Enterprise to Captain Edward Jellico during a ceremony in Ten Forward in 2369. (TNG: "Chain of Command, Part I")

Ten Forward was the last area of the ship to be decontaminated during the baryon sweep in 2369. Picard and the terrorists attempting to steal trilithium resin from the Enterprise went to Ten Forward to await pickup by a small vessel. Picard narrowly escaped death, as the baryon sweep was discontinued mere meters from the edge of the windows. (TNG: "Starship Mine")

Thomas Riker's description of Ten Forward in a romantic clue to Deanna Troi was "What the future holds, no one can know, but forward we look, and forward we go." (TNG: "Second Chances")

In 2370, the matter in Ten Forward was partially transformed into a D'Arsay temple due to the effects of the D'Arsay archive. (TNG: "Masks")

In 2371, Dr. Tolian Soran met with Captain Picard in Ten Forward, and Guinan saw him. (Star Trek Generations)

In 2399, the retired Admiral Picard sleeping in Château Picard in France had a dream about playing poker with Data in Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D. (PIC: "Remembrance")

Personnel

See: Ten Forward personnel

Alternate timelines and realities

In an alternate version of 2366, created when the USS Enterprise-C disappeared from the year 2344, Ten Forward was suitably altered to befit the military nature of the new timeline. Luxuries were limited, the civilian wait staff was gone, and crew members were often forced to consume TKL rations, since replicator power was generally diverted to the defensive systems. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")

Ten Forward was still aboard the refit USS Enterprise-D of the anti-time future experienced by Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It had been slightly altered, with a new piece of artwork replacing the Milky Way mural. (TNG: "All Good Things...")

Ten Forward was a focal point in dreams experienced by Data in early 2370, influenced by interphasic organisms. (TNG: "Phantasms")

Appendices

Background information

Ten Forward was introduced in TNG: "The Child", the first episode of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, TNG: "All Good Things..." established that it was an unseen part of the ship until then.

In the TNG Season 2 DVD special feature "Mission Overview: Year Two", Ten Forward was discussed by Rick Berman, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Maurice Hurley, and Peter Lauritson. According to Berman, the production had some space over, following a move of the sets, and they discussed what they could build. They decided to show a place where the crew members could be off duty. On every other set, the crew members were always shown on duty.

The set for Ten Forward was created in the interim between the show's first and second seasons. It was designed by Production Designer Herman Zimmerman, and was the last standing set he supervised for TNG. Zimmerman also considered the Ten Forward set as being the final significant Galaxy-class set that was designed for the series. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 25) However, the designer of the Enterprise, Andrew Probert, did not intend for that part of the ship to represent lounge space. Rather, he preferred clusters of windows located further up on the saucer section. [1] Therefore, the lounge windows were not represented on the first two Galaxy-class studio models, and the discrepancy was only corrected during the run of the third season when the new four-foot model was introduced.

Illustrator Rick Sternbach designed the Milky Way mural in Ten Forward. "I had a lot of fun suggesting various bits of art for Ten Forward," recalled Sternbach. "After showing them a number of abstractions, it came down to an impressionist view of the Milky Way Galaxy. The whole thing was rimmed in light, and the different layers received very heavy-duty fiber optics, which were lit and cycled. It turned out to be a nice piece that complemented the room." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 2, p. 98)

Ten Forward was built as a set on Paramount Stage 8. The doors of Ten Forward had originally been shown as part of Starfleet Command in TNG: "Conspiracy".

Set Decorator John Dwyer enjoyed the task of working on the Ten Forward set, later remarking, "The only thing we didn't do was put all those cooking appliances and stuff in. We didn't have any of that, we had a bar. If you look at it later on, they had a little barbecue set up in there!" (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 25)

Comparing the challenge of filming on the set for Quark's Bar with the task of filming on the Ten Forward set, David Livingston commented that shooting on the latter was less complicated and difficult. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 23, No. 6, p. 25) He also explained about Ten Forward, "It's like shooting on an aircraft carrier, it's a big empty room." Filming on the Ten Forward set while keeping the action quotient constantly high occasionally proved difficult, such as during production on "Power Play", which made extensive use of the set and was directed by Livingston. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 239)

The Ten Forward set was redressed to serve as a concert hall in TNG: "Sarek" and a theater in "The Nth Degree" and "Frame of Mind". It was also heavily redressed to represent the office of the President of the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. After filming on Star Trek Generations was completed, the set was refurbished to become the mess hall of the USS Voyager on Star Trek: Voyager. In that case, its windows were flipped upside down and used in the captain's ready room and briefing room.

A corner portion of the set was rebuilt for a brief scene during the first act of ENT: "These Are the Voyages...", integrated via computer with a clip of the rest of the set from the TNG episode "Ménage à Troi".

Star Trek: The Magazine claimed that the banquet area seen aboard the USS Enterprise-E during the beginning of Star Trek: Insurrection is that ship's Ten Forward (October 2001, volume 2, issue #6). Although the room was on Deck 10, there was no dialogue or signage which explicitly identified it as Ten Forward. Also, there is no evidence to suggest that Ten Forward was a feature of every Galaxy-class starship. It may have been unique to the Enterprise-D, although all Galaxy-class ships seen possess the distinctive window arrangement of Ten Forward at the bows of their saucer sections.

One of the door pairs for Ten Forward was sold off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction. [3] In the auction, it was stated that the doors are made up of wood, painted brown, while the viewports are smoked acrylic. The doors are operated by two runners on the top of the structure. Several glasses were also sold off on the It's A Wrap! auction. [4] [5] Window pieces from the Ten Forward set were available to the organizers of the auction, as these set pieces were released for sale by Paramount, but were not ultimately included. Project Manager Colin Warde explained, "These giant items were never part of our inventory due to their overwhelming size. Unfortunately, our collection process in the first couple of weeks had to be about acquiring the items that had best opportunity to not only sell but be shipped. How many people would actually be able to show an item like this let alone afford the freight?" (Star Trek Magazine issue 139, p. 48)

Appearances

Ten Forward appears in a little over half (55 percent) of the 178 episodes of The Next Generation and in one film.

Apocrypha

Outside of canon information, some novels and comics have referred to this area on Galaxy-class starships other than the Enterprise-D. The USS Excalibur (NCC-26517-A) has a Deck 10 bar area, but it is referred to as the "Team Room" by the crew in the Star Trek: New Frontier stories of Peter David. The USS Challenger's Ten Forward has been replaced with a "Shuttlebay Four" according to The Return, a novel by William Shatner (with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens).

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