Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Next Generation Main Bridge

Here's something you'll never be able to un-see: There isn't any glass in the windows aboard the Enterprise-D. And no, that's not some joke about transparent aluminum.

While the windows in the Enterprise-D sets did originally have glass in them, they frequently reflected lights and production equipment and were ultimately eliminated sometime before Season Two. From there on out, almost every window on Star Trek: The Next Generation sets was just an open frame looking out onto a black curtain covered in reflective glass "stars".

This same curtain was also used for the bridge viewscreen when a static space vista was required. Other times a blue screen was lowered in front of the viewscreen and VFX shots were edited into the viewer in post production.

Yet other times, however, the viewscreen wasn't there at all. If a scene did not call for the viewscreen to be visible in any given episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was simply removed to allow for cameras, lighting equipment, and production personnel to walk freely between the soundstage and the bridge of the Enterprise.

So next time you watch an episode of TNG, look out for those windows with no glass and also imagine Data or Picard or Riker or Troi staring awestruck out into space and know they're probably just staring at a teamster eating a donut or something.