Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation
File:TNGopeninglogo.JPG
Created by	Gene Roddenberry
Starring	Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes LeVar Burton Denise Crosby Michael Dorn Gates McFadden Marina Sirtis Brent Spiner Wil Wheaton Diana Muldaur
Opening theme	Jerry Goldsmith
Ending theme	Jerry Goldsmith
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	178
Production
Running time	42-45 min. per episode
Original release
Release	September 28, 1987 – May 23, 1994

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry. The first live-action television continuation of the original (1966–1969) series Star Trek, The Next Generation is set nearly a century later and features a new starship and a new crew. It is often referred to as ST:TNG or simply TNG.

The series was conceived of and produced by original Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. It premiered the week of September 28, 1987 with the two-hour pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" and ran for seven seasons, ending with the final episode "All Good Things..." the week of May 23, 1994. The series was broadcast in first-run syndication, so air dates and times varied among individual television stations. The show gained a considerable following during its run, and like its predecessor, remains popular in syndicated re-runs. Its popularity led to a line of spin-off or prequel television series that would continue without interruption until 2005. The series also formed the basis of the seventh through tenth movies of the Star Trek theatrical film series, which were related to the first six movies that starred the cast of the original NBC series.

The voiceover during each episode's opening credits was similar to that of the original series and was narrated by Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise):

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Plots

File:NCC-1701-D.jpg

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), flagship of Starfleet

The episodes follow the adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), a Galaxy class starship designed for both exploration and diplomacy but quite capable of battle when necessary. Her captain is the seasoned and charismatic Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who is more intellectual and philosophical than many typical protagonists in popular science fiction.

As was the case of The Original Series (TOS), the crew of the Enterprise-D meets many technologically powerful races. Many episodes also involve time travel or temporal loops, character dramas, natural disasters, and other plotlines without alien encounters. In contrast to the original series, in which the ship was exploring unknown areas of the galaxy, the Enterprise-D serves primarily as a vessel for diplomacy, defense, and humanitarian aid. TNG's crew seems to have a greater dedication to peaceful resolution to conflicts, and takes a more rigid approach to following Starfleet's Prime Directive established in the original series. The ship is frequently threatened by unexpected phenomena, but as the Enterprise-D is much more powerful than the previous ship, the stories are often able to focus more on moral implications, rather than the immediate need for survival.

Another noticeable difference between TOS and TNG is the continuity of general story arcs across episodes — though the show is still episodic and not serialized, events in one episode might influence events in a later episode. For example, a major recurring character, Q, bookends the series, appearing as the first major antagonist in "Encounter at Farpoint" and closing the series in the final episode "All Good Things...". Characters also deal with evolving interpersonal relationships, as well as ongoing political stories, such as the power struggles within the Klingon government.

Previously-established alien races appear in TNG.

• The United Federation of Planets (Federation) is now at peace with the Klingons, their former enemies, though vast cultural differences remain.
• A "cold war" with the Romulans, similar to that in the Original Series, continues in TNG.
• Three new major recurring races are introduced into the mythology: the aggressively capitalist Ferengi; merciless cybernetic hybrids, the Borg; and the corrupt and imperial Cardassians, loosely modeled after early 20th century fascists. The Ferengi, originally introduced as villainous characters, were soon downgraded to comic relief and as such thrived on the TNG spinoff Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Borg are the most powerful threat in this series, though they do not appear frequently until the spin-off series Star Trek: Voyager. In the episode "The Best of Both Worlds", a single Borg Cube is initially challenged (ineffectually) by the Enterprise, abducts and assimilates Captain Picard, destroys thirty-nine Starfleet vessels at the Battle of Wolf 359, and continues to Earth, where it is stopped by the last-ditch actions of the Enterprise crew.

Themes

File:NCC 1701-D1.jpg

Enterprise in orbit above a planet.

The series greatly expands on a secondary theme of TOS: the idealism of humanity's dedication to improving itself. It also continues TOS's approach of using extra-terrestrial species and science fiction elements as a means of exploring many real-world social, political, personal and spiritual issues. Most episodes have an intentional philosophical or moral message. The series attempts to depict Gene Roddenberry's vision of a future in which the human race has done away with racism, sexism, prejudice, greed, and poverty, and dedicated itself almost entirely to peaceful scientific pursuits.

TNG has been praised for being more in the spirit of "traditional" idea-based science fiction than other action/adventure franchises which became more common between 1970 and 2000. However, it has also been criticized for shying away from conflict and character drama and too often having the crew solve its challenges through the discovery or invention of hitherto-unknown technology (known as Treknobabble).

Gene Roddenberry continued to be credited as executive producer of TNG though his influence lessened due to his declining health as the series progressed, with responsibility for the show gradually shifting to producer Rick Berman. When Roddenberry died in 1991, Berman officially took over and under his guidance, some feel the series came to rely more on action and conflict.

The series also contains many story elements that are found in all the Star Trek series. For instance, an alien or android is a member of the crew, and a lot of dialogue revolves around explaining human customs to the alien (trying to enlighten the human viewer in the process). Another re-occurring theme across the different series is the idea of a temporal paradox.

Cast

File:TNG crew.jpg

(left to right) LaForge, Troi, Data, Picard, Worf, Crusher, Riker

Main characters

More so than with The Original Series, the cast of The Next Generation was subject to some change, most notably in the later half of the first season following the death of the Enterprise's security chief and tactical officer, Tasha Yar, after actress Denise Crosby chose to leave the series. The scripts were quickly adapted, with the character of Worf, originally a junior officer, promoted to serve as Yar's replacement as security chief and tactical officer. Crosby returned to portray Tasha Yar in the alternate timeline episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and as part of a trip back in time to Picard's first days on the Enterprise in the series finale "All Good Things...".

Wesley Crusher was also written out of the show in order to join Starfleet Academy, after a few years of serving as helmsman under the rank of Acting Ensign and then as a full Ensign (after the result of a field promotion) (Actor Wil Wheaton has revealed on his website that he left the show because he was frustrated by having to fit other roles around his Trek schedule, when he had increasingly little to do on the series). Actress Gates McFadden was essentially fired after one season, and was replaced by Diana Muldaur, who had earlier been featured as a guest star in two episodes of The Original Series ("Return to Tomorrow" and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?," playing different characters). Muldaur's character, Dr. Pulaski, proved unpopular with viewers and was dropped at the end of the second season without explanation. After Muldaur departed for the NBC series LA Law (where her character would suffer similar fan dislike), Gates McFadden reprised her role as Dr. Crusher for subsequent seasons.

Also, not all of the main characters had a place on the bridge, the ship's command center. After being promoted from helmsman, Geordi La Forge, the Chief Engineer, spent most of his time in engineering, while Dr. Crusher, although holding privileges as a bridge officer, primarily resided in sickbay. The show did not have a regular Chief Engineer character for the first season, although various engineers appeared.

Picture	Character	Rank	Actor	Position
File:Picard1.jpg	Jean-Luc Picard	Captain	Patrick Stewart	Commanding Officer
File:Riker2366.jpg	William Thomas Riker	Commander	Jonathan Frakes	Executive Officer
File:Data2.jpg	Data	Lt. Commander	Brent Spiner	Second officer, chief operations officer, science officer
File:Sirtis as Troi.jpg	Deanna Troi	Lt. Commander (1-6), Commander (7)	Marina Sirtis	Ship's counselor
File:Burton as LaForge.jpg	Geordi La Forge	Lt. Junior Grade (1), Lieutenant (2), Lt. Commander (3-7)	LeVar Burton	Conn Officer and Ops, Chief Engineering Officer
File:Dorn as Worf.jpg	Worf	Lt. Junior Grade (1-2), Lieutenant (3-7),	Michael Dorn	Tactical and Conn officer (season 1) Chief security/tactical officer after Yar's death (seasons 2-7)
File:McFadden as Crusher.jpg	Beverly Crusher, M. D.	Commander	Gates McFadden	Chief medical officer (seasons 1, 3-7; season 2, absent while Chief of Starfleet Medical); bridge officer
File:Pulaski promo tng 1.jpg	Katherine Pulaski, M. D.	Commander	Diana Muldaur	Chief medical officer (season 2)
File:Tasha Yar.jpg	Natasha "Tasha" Yar	Lieutenant	Denise Crosby	Chief of Security (season 1, recurring otherwise)
	Wesley Crusher	Acting Ensign (1-3), Ensign (3-4), Cadet (Recurring)	Wil Wheaton	Dr. Crusher’s son, Conn Officer (seasons 1-4, recurring otherwise)

Recurring characters

Actor	Role	Appearances
Brian Bonsall	Alexander Rozhenko, Worf's son	Seasons 4–7
Eric Menyuk	The Traveler	Seasons 1, 4 and 7 (three episodes)
Ward Costello	Admiral Gregory Quinn	Season 1
Robert Schenkkan	Lt. Cmdr. Dexter Remmick	Season 1
Patti Yasutake	Nurse Alyssa Ogawa	Seasons 3–7
Andreas Katsulas	Commander Tomalak	Seasons 3, 4, and 7
Ashley Judd	Ensign Robin Lefler	Season 5 (two episodes)
Whoopi Goldberg	Guinan, El Aurian bartender	Seasons 2–6
Rosalind Chao	Keiko O'Brien, Miles O'Brien's wife	Seasons 4–6
Tony Todd	Kurn, Worf's brother	Seasons 3–7
Majel Barrett	Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's mother	Seasons 1–7
	Voice of the Enterprise computer
Daniel Davis	Professor Moriarty, a sentient Holodeck character	Seasons 2 and 6
John de Lancie	Q, member of the omnipotent Q Continuum	Seasons 1–4 and 6–7
Dwight Schultz	Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, engineer	Seasons 3–7
Michelle Forbes	Ensign/Lieutenant Ro Laren, a Bajoran	Seasons 5–7
Denise Crosby	Sela, a half Romulan, Tasha Yar's daughter	Seasons 4 and 5
Mark Lenard	Ambassador Sarek, a Vulcan, and Spock's father	Seasons 3 and 5
Colm Meaney	Miles Edward O'Brien, Navigation and later, Transporter Chief	Seasons 1–7

Majel Barrett (wife of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry) has also been the voice of the ship's computer in most Trek incarnations, and played Nurse Chapel in the original series, as well as the First Officer in the first pilot of the original series, "The Cage." She also did voice-overs for two episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise," allowing her to be the only actress involved in all five television series.

Guest stars

Notable guests have included:

• Corbin Bernsen, in "Deja Q"
• Kirsten Dunst, in "Dark Page"
• Kelsey Grammer, in "Cause and Effect"
• Teri Hatcher, in "The Outrageous Okona"
• Joe Piscopo, playing "The Comic" (presumably himself) in a Holodeck simulation, in "The Outrageous Okona"
• David Warner, in "Chain of Command" (he also had featured roles in the fifth and sixth Trek films)
• John Tesh, playing a Klingon in "The Icarus Factor"
• Nikki Cox, in "Pen Pals"
• Ronny Cox, in "Chain of Command"
• Vincent Schiavelli, in "The Arsenal of Freedom"
• James Worthy of the Los Angeles Lakers, in "Gambit"
• Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, in "Manhunt"
• Christopher McDonald, in "Yesterday's Enterprise"
• Tony Todd, in "Redemption" and "Sins of the Father"; he also guest-starred on DS9 and Voyager
• Bebe Neuwirth, in "First Contact"
• Famke Janssen, in "The Perfect Mate"
• Mae Jemison (the first minority female astronaut), in "Second Chances"
• Renée Jones of Days of Our Lives, in "Aquiel"
• Carolyn McCormick, in "11001001" and "Future Imperfect"
• James Cromwell, in "Birthright" and "Hunted"; he also guest-starred in DS9, and played the pivotal role of Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact and the premiere episode of Enterprise
• Stephen Hawking, playing himself in a Holodeck simulation, in "Descent"
• Michelle Phillips, in "We'll Always Have Paris"
• Ben Vereen, in "Interface"
• Sabrina Le Beauf of the Cosby Show, in "Gambit"
• Paul Sorvino, in "Homeward"
• Diana Muldaur, who joined the crew as Dr. Pulaski for the second season after guest-starring twice in the original series
• Carel Struycken, who played Lwaxana Troi's silent companion Mr. Homn in multiple episodes
• David Ogden Stiers of M*A*S*H, in "Half a Life"
• DS9 stars Armin Shimerman, in four episodes, and Alexander Siddig, in "Birthright"
• Voyager stars Robert Duncan McNeill in "The First Duty," and Tim Russ in "Starship Mine"
• TOS stars DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and Majel Barrett in various episodes
• Several guest stars also became more well-known as a result of their recurring roles in the series, including John DeLancie, Dwight Schultz, and Majel Barrett.

Alien races

See List of Star Trek races

Influences from previous incarnations of Star Trek

While the series was of course influenced by the original Star Trek series, it perhaps was more influenced by the original series' pilot, The Menagerie (also known as The Cage). The pilot presented more of an ensemble crew (once it was officially picked up, the series would focus almost exclusively on the dynamic of Kirk, Spock and McCoy) and featured Captain Christopher Pike gathering his crew together to make consensus decisions very much in the Picard style. Pike also referred to his female first officer as "Number One" - the term Picard would use for his own first officer. The tone of this pilot was also relatively cerebral (indeed, the network ordered reshoots for just that reason) and Roddenberry deliberately sought this more thoughtful quality on TNG.

Although the animated Trek series is not always considered canon, TNG did borrow from it in some ways, including the use of the Holodeck. TNG was also particularly influenced by Star Trek: The Motion Picture; indeed, ST:TMP was itself spun from an aborted '70s Trek series that was to be called Star Trek: Phase II. The series would have featured Kirk working alonside the dashing young officer Willard Decker and the exotic alien Ilia, characters that were included in the film and later reworked as Will Riker and Deanna Troi in TNG. The Phase II character Xon (a Vulcan) also may have influenced the character Data. One episode of TNG, featuring Troi becoming pregnant with a mysterious alien child, was a script from Phase II that was hastily reworked during the writers strike of 1988, as was the courtroom drama "Devil's Due". Certain sets from ST:TMP were also reused for TNG, and the show followed the film's one-piece style of uniforms, which, according to the film 'Trekkies', gave some of the cast back problems. The uniforms were later changed to a two-piece style beginning with the series' third season.

Controversies within fandom

The prospect of a new live-action Star Trek series after 18 years was much anticipated by the Star Trek fan community, but for some, anticipation turned to outrage when Gene Roddenberry announced that the new series would feature a brand new cast and be set in a time long after the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew, making even guest appearances by the original cast unlikely. Before production even began on the series, factions of Star Trek fandom were at work circulating petitions and organizing protests against the new series.

Although it is not known what, if any, impact these protests had on the producers, it is known that as early as the first season efforts were underway to arrange for an appearance by Leonard Nimoy as Spock (the event would not happen until the fifth season episode Unification), and a script was reportedly written to feature the character of Harry Mudd, a recurring minor criminal from TOS. The episode was cancelled when actor Roger C. Carmel died. DeForest Kelley made a cameo appearance in the first episode as Admiral Leonard McCoy, and James Doohan was a central character in the sixth-season episode Relics, playing Captain Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott.

By the time TNG was produced, the term "Trekkies" had come to imply a certain nerdy fanaticism among fans and was considered pejorative by some, despite it being coined by creator Gene Roddenberry himself, with no such negative connotations. In response, some fans of the new series decided to call themselves "Trekkers". The terms have become interchangeable, though intense debate still rages over which term is the 'correct' one to apply to a Star Trek fan.

The show's gay fans complained that there were no gays represented in the future, something Roddenberry said he intended to address. A subsequent episode dealt with this issue of homophobia obliquely by having Enterprise First Officer Will Riker enter into a relationship with a genderless alien. Fan reaction to this was mixed.

Legacy

Four feature films have been made featuring the series' characters:

• Star Trek: Generations
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Star Trek: Insurrection
• Star Trek: Nemesis

TNG paved the way for three other TV series:

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek: Enterprise

The series has also inspired countless novels, analytical books, web-sites, and works of fan fiction.

Toronto's Skydome played host to a massive CITY-TV sponsored event for the series finale on May 25, 1994. Thousands of people packed the stadium to watch the final episode on the stadium's Jumbotron.

The design of the ship's computer interfaces, called LCARS, has become popular among many Star Trek fan sites. Variants of the design are used on all Federation starships in subsequent series.

DVD releases

Main article: Star Trek The Next Generation DVD

Season	Region 1	Region 2
1	March 26 2002	April 1 2002
2	May 7 2002	June 10 2002
3	July 2 2002	July 22 2002
4	September 3 2002	October 7 2002
5	November 5 2002	November 18 2002
6	December 3 2002	December 2 2002
7	December 31 2002	December 23 2002

Trivia

• Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) and Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker) are the only actors to appear in every episode of the series. (Brent Spiner (Lieutenant Commander Data) comes close, only missing one episode (the fourth season's "Family").

• Jonathan Frakes is the only actor to appear in all the Trek spin offs after The Original Series. In addition to TNG, he appeared in Star Trek: Voyager (Death Wish), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Defiant as Thomas Riker) and Star Trek: Enterprise (These Are the Voyages...).

• Colm Meaney (Chief Miles O'Brien) and John de Lancie (Q) are the only actors, besides the regulars, to appear in both the first ("Encounter at Farpoint") and the last ("All Good Things...") episodes of the series. However, Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar), who left the cast in the Season One episode "Skin of Evil" and was therefore not a regular at the time of the final episode, also appeared in both episodes.

• Majel Barrett is the only actor to be credited in all five series, appearing in The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine. She did voice-over work as various Federation computers in the above series, as well as Voyager and Enterprise, along with several Star Trek motion pictures.

• LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, and Patrick Stewart all tried their hand in directing for the show. Burton also directed for Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. Frakes also directed for Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and two Trek films, First Contact and Insurrection. Michael Dorn directed for Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.

• Armin Shimerman, who plays Quark on Deep Space Nine guest-starred four times, but only once as Quark. He played a Ferengi named Letek in "The Last Outpost", where the Federation had first contact with the Ferengi Alliance, DaiMon Bractor (another Ferengi) in "Peak Performance", and also appeared in the episode "Haven", where he played the face of Deanna Troi's talking Wedding Gift Box.

• The Engineering set was not originally intended to be constructed for the show's pilot. However, according to a footnote in the Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual, if a set is not built for the pilot, there is a good chance that it will never be built at all, so Gene Roddenberry deliberately set a scene in the pilot in Engineering, thus forcing the set's construction.

• As a running gag, bathrooms are never shown on Enterprise schematics. The gag was started when toilets were accidentally omitted from the design of the original Enterprise. This joke is referenced in Star Trek: First Contact when Zefram Cochrane asks Geordi La Forge "...don't you people from the 24th century ever pee?" In a special, aired before the final episode, Jonathan Frakes actually answered the question of where one could actually find a bathroom on a diagram of the ship, and pointed to a diagram of the Enterprise seen in Engineering, indicating where it was. For the record, confirmed appearances of toilets aboard Star Trek spaceships were in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Observer Effect, and mention of a "programmers' restroom" was made in one episode of TNG in its first season.

• Similarly, the schematic of the Enterprise-D at the back of the Engineering set is another laughable reference to (among other things) the fact of the missing toilets by showing a single toilet marked in the center of the saucer section. This display also shows the location of the ship's duck (a very large duck inexplicably appears in the middle of the diagram), a mouse, a Porsche, a DC-3 aeroplane, the Nomad probe (from an episode of TOS) and a hamster on a treadmill. Details such as these were usually too small to be seen on TV.

• Geordi La Forge wears a special device to help him see, called a VISOR. It is said to be an acronym for "Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement", though the full term was never used in the series. The prop designer's inspiration for the Visor design came from a hair comb.

• The show's theme tune combines part of Jerry Goldsmith's theme tune for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and part of an earlier theme tune by Dennis McCarthy, which was deemed to be "too bland" by Gene Roddenberry and rejected.

• Star Trek: The Next Generation is the only syndicated television show ever to be nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Dramatic Series. It was nominated for its seventh and final season in 1994.

• At one point, Paramount considered an animated version of this show.

• In almost every episode from Season 3 onward, various crew members can be seen pulling down their shirts due to a costume malfunction, especially Picard (sometimes jokingly called the Picard Maneuver).

• By the end of the series, every regular character has at least one dead parent. Picard (both), Riker (mother), Worf (both), Yar (both), W. Crusher (father), B. Crusher (both), and Troi (father) all start the series with at least one dead parent. That leaves only Laforge and Data. Data's father dies in the fourth season ("Brothers") and LaForge's mother dies in the seventh season ("Interface").

See also

• List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes
• List of Post-Star Trek: the Next Generation stories

External links

• Star Trek: The Next Generation at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek: The Next Generation at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome show
• Star Trek: The Next Generation at TrekCore.com - Includes archive of over 50,000 DVD Screencaps from the show
• Star Trek: The Next Generation at Memory Alpha