Webster and that Star Trek The Next Generation "Crossover"

Webster and that Star Trek The Next Generation "Crossover"

I wrote about this years upon years ago in another Trek post. I think it was a Reading Rainbow crossover with the TNG BTS crew. I talked to the founder of the Agony Booth and we talked about this often overlooked episode. He said he wanted to go over the episode. Even though I haven't seen it in years (20+), I still remember it. It kind of falls under that whole missing canon rule like the Ewok TV movies.

The fine folks over at the Agony Booth got their hands on a copy of the Webster/TNG crossover and did a full rundown of this strange crossover.

From Memory Beta, ((This episode has Webster transported into the future and aboard the USS Enterprise-D, where he has a conversation with lieutenant Worf and relates some of his experiences to him. Webster is ultimately returned to his own time, where he questions if the experience was a dream - only to discover he still has his souvenir from his visit to the Enterprise. ))

I remember when this episode came out. My brother still watched Webster and recorded the episode. I couldn't believe it that Webster showed up on my fave show at the time. Now, it just seems strange. It was a Webster clip show under the veil of a crossover with TNG. TNG and Webster shared the studio lot at the time.

This crossover happened during the second season of TNG due to Worf having his S2 Klingon head and gold uniform. Plus, the bridge has been redesigned for its S2 appearance. Plus, all the background crew members were extras on the TNG show at the time. That included Ensign Youngblood. Yes, that was his name on the show.

Since this was filmed during S2, there was a lot major shakeups going on during the filming of this crossover. Gene was getting sicker and more hooked on meds. Another producer had just fired Gates McFadden and brought in Dr. Pulaski and the actress didn't get along with the rest of the cast.

I love the fact that none of the rest of the TNG cast shows up for this shitty crossover. They probably went out to lunch and left Dorn there to film this mess. It should be noted that the folks in Trek almost never talk about this crossover and Dorn seems to never talk about it at all given he stars in the episode. It has been almost forgotten it seems other than those Trek fans like myself and a few others like the writers of various sites.

Like the story has said, this was the last episode of Webster. I find it strange given this is a clip show. Generally, these are done to save cost, but not as a finale episode.

Anyway, make sure to read the rest of the post at the Agony Booth.

Check here and here and here for more about this strange crossover.