10 More Most Paused Star Trek Moments
5. What Ship Is That?
Captain Picard's ready room is an iconic location in its own right, with that pink carpet coating the walls, that incredibly comfortable-looking couch and his pet Lionfish, Livingston. There is and has always been another constant in the room - the yellow model of his old starship, the USS Stargazer. It sat on a plinth every time that the scenes took place in this room, bar a very obvious and ironic example.
In the first season episode The Battle, the Enterprise encounters a Ferengi Marauder commanded by Daimon Bok. This commander lost a son to Picard in a battle years earlier. This battle, subsequently named the Battle of Maxia, was waged between a Ferengi vessel and the Stargazer. Picard's ship had been damaged to the point of destruction, after which Picard ordered an evacuation. The ship cooled and drifted for years.
The original script for the episode had the Stargazer as an old Constitution-class vessel, similar to the refit-1701 from the movies. To match this, the model in the ready room was switched out. The four-nacelled Constellation class model was removed and replaced with a silver model of the Enterprise. As filming went on, the idea of a Constitution-class was scrapped. As recording had already taken place, LaForge was overdubbed with the similar-sounding Constellation-class.
So, after all of this, the episode that actually featured the Stargazer didn't feature the famous yellow model!