Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)

Set decades after Captain James T. Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers in a new Enterprise set off on their own mission to go where no one has gone before.

Creator:

Gene Roddenberry

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Won 18 Primetime Emmys. Another 12 wins & 54 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander William T. Riker (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Gates McFadden	...	Doctor Beverly Crusher (154 episodes, 1987-1994)
Wil Wheaton	...	Wesley Crusher (86 episodes, 1987-1994)

Storyline

Set in the 24th century and decades after the adventures of the original crew of the starship Enterprise, this new series is the long-awaited successor to the original Star Trek. Under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the all new Enterprise NCC 1701-D travels out to distant planets to seek out new life and to boldly go where no one has gone before.

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Plot Keywords:

captain | 24th century | starbase | investigation | alien species | 

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Taglines:

New Stars. New Stories. New Worlds To Explore.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

G4 Star Trek: The Next Generation at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki

Country:

USA

Language:

English Klingon French

Also Known As:

Star Trek: TNG

Filming Locations:

Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant - 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min 45 min (176 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some characters have their origins from the proposed Star Trek Phase II series. Riker and Troi appear based on Decker and Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and originally intended for Phase II. Data is based on Xon, a full Vulcan lacking emotion with high intelligence who aspires to learn about and attempts to mimic human behavior. In addition, Phase II would have seen Kirk as mostly ship bound, matured and tempered by experience, while mellowing with age, traits given to Captain Picard.

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Goofs

Many times throughout the series, a stage light will be reflecting it's light off a window, door, glass panel, etc.

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Quotes

Klingon Commander: Federation ship Enterprise, surrender and prepare to be boarded.
Capt. Picard: [indignantly, under his breath] That'll be the day!

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Crazy Credits

The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.

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Connections

Referenced in Homestarrunner.com: Everything Else, Volume 3 (2007)

User Reviews

Trek in the 24th Century...

When the TNG series premiered in 1987, it wasn't greeted well by many of the old-time Trek fans, including myself. It didn't help matters that one of the earliest episodes, "The Naked Now" was a superficial retread of the classic "The Naked Time" from '66. The new episode should have served as a way of spotlighting several of the new crew, but all it did was show them all in heat. I wasn't too impressed. What did work was keeping the central theme of exploration (something lost in the offshoots, DS9 & Voyager). The new Enterprise was twice as large as the original, with about a thousand personnel aboard. Capt. Picard (Stewart) was a more cerebral, diplomatic version of the ultimate explorer we had known as Capt. Kirk. Again, Picard wasn't too impressive in the first two awkward seasons, as some may mistake his caution for weakness. The Kirk-like first officer Riker (Frakes) was controlled by Picard, so the entire crew of Enterprise-D came across as a bit too civilized, too complacent for their own good. It's interesting that this complacency was fractured by the most memorable episode of the first two years, "Q Who?" which introduced The Borg. All of a sudden, exploration was not a routine venture.

Other memorable episodes of the first 2 years: the double-length pilot, introducing Q; "Conspiracy"-an early invasion thriller; "Where No One Has Gone Before"-an ultimate attempt to define the exploring theme; "The Big Goodbye"-the first lengthy exploration of the new holodeck concept; "Datalore"-intro of Data's evil twin; "Skin of Evil"-death of Tasha Yar; "11001001"-perhaps the best holodeck story; and "The Measure of a Man"-placing an android on trial. Except for "Q Who" the 2nd year was even more of a letdown from the first. Space started to percolate in the 3rd season. I liked "The Survivors"-introducing an entity resembling Q in a depressed mood, and "Deja Q" with both Q & Guinan squaring off, as well as other alien beings. A remaining drawback was the 'techno-babble' hindering many scripts, an aspect which made them less exciting than the stories of the original series. As Roddenberry himself believed, when characters spoke this way, it did not come across as naturalistic, except maybe when it was Data (Spiner), the android. The engineer La Forge (Burton), for example, was usually saddled with long, dull explanatory dialog for the audience.

In the 3rd year, truly innovative concepts such as the far-out parallel-universe adventure "Yesterday's Enterprise" began to take hold, topped by the season-ender "The Best of Both Worlds,part 1" in which The Borg returned in their first try at assimilating Earth. After this and the 2nd part, the TNG show was off and running, at full warp speed. There are too many great episodes from the next 4 seasons to list here, but I tended to appreciate the wild, cosmic concept stories best: "Parallels"(s7); "Cause and Effect"(s5); "Timescape"(s6); "Tapestry"(s6); and the scary "Frame of Mind", "Schisms" and "Genesis." There's also the mind-blowing "Inner Light"(s5), "Conundrum" and "Ship in a Bottle"(s6), "Second Chances." The intense 2-parter "Chain of Command" was almost like a film, and the great return of Scotty in "Relics" was very entertaining, though it showed you can't go home again. The show also continued to tackle uneasy social issues, as in "The Host", "The Outcast", "First Contact" and "The Drumhead" as well as political:"Darmok", "Rightful Heir", "Face of the Enemy" and "The Pegasus." The series ended on a strong note, "All Good Things..." a double-length spectacular with nearly the budget of a feature film. But it wasn't really the end. A few months later, an actual feature film was released "Star Trek Generations"(94). It's rather ironic that the TNG films couldn't match the innovation and creativity of the last 4 seasons of the series. "Star Trek Insurrection"(98) for example, is a lesser effort than any of the episodes mentioned above.