Ten Forward


 * If you are looking for Memory Alpha's discussion page, see Memory Alpha:Ten Forward

Ten Forward is a lounge and recreation facility located on Deck 10, section 1 of a starship. Ten Forward has much the same function as a mess hall on smaller starships.

Functions

 * "Ten Forward is the hub of the ship's social activity. Everyone on board comes here."
 * - Jean-Luc Picard



Ten Forward is situated at the extreme forward end of the saucer section and is designed with several large windows, which offer a spectacular view of space ahead of the vessel. The room is accessed by two doors, on the port and starboard sides at the rear of the room. The location serves as the social center of the ship and is equipped with a number of recreational activities such as three-dimensional chess, Terrace, and Strategema, tables and seating, and a bar which serves several alcoholic and syntheholic beverages. Two replicator terminals behind the bar are able to produce other food and drinks. There is also dedicated wait staff who serve patrons both at the bar and at the tables. They are generally civilian members of the crew and wear uniforms with a green color palette. 

Ten Forward can also be used for many official shipboard functions, such as weddings, diplomatic gatherings , the change of command ceremony , birthday and other parties for individual ship personnel , concerts , poetry readings , and funerals. 

Children are not usually allowed in Ten Forward unless accompanied by an adult. 

In case of low-power or emergency situations, Ten Forward is a designated emergency environmental support shelter. 

USS Enterprise-D
On the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), the Ten Forward lounge was hosted by the El-Aurian Guinan, who came aboard the ship in 2365. She was afforded a small office adjacent to Ten Forward as part of her duties. 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. There was a large fiber-optic mural behind the bar aboard the Enterprise, which 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. 

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. 

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

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. 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. 

In 2367, Chief Miles O'Brien wed Keiko Ishikawa in Ten Forward. 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. 

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. 

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. 

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 vessel 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 would prove 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. 

Captain Picard transferred command of the Enterprise to Captain Edward Jellico during a ceremony in Ten Forward in 2369. 

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. 

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."

In 2370, the matter in Ten Forward was partially transformed into a D'Arsay temple due to the effects of the D'Arsay archive. 

Personnel

 * See: Ten Forward personnel

Alternate timelines and realities
In an alternate version of 2366, created when the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-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. 

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. 

Ten Forward was a focal point in dreams experienced by Data in early 2370, influenced by interphasic organisms. 

Background
Ten Forward was introduced in, the first episode of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, 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. (, 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. 

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!" (, p. 25)

The doors of Ten Forward were originally seen as part of Starfleet Command in. The set was redressed to serve as a concert hall in and a theater in  and. It was also heavily redressed to represent the office of the Federation Council President in. After filming on was completed, the set was refurbished to become the mess hall of the USS Voyager on Star Trek: Voyager. 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, integrated via computer with a clip of the rest of the set from the TNG episode.

It has been suggested by, among other sources, that the banquet area seen aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) during the beginning of is that ship's Ten Forward. Although the room was on Deck 10, there was no dialog 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. 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.

"Ten Forward" is also the name of a coffee shop in Los Angeles.

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 (NCC-71099)'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).

External link
Zehn Vorne