"Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) TV series 1987-1994

User Rating:

8.8/10   

Creator:

Gene Roddenberry

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Release Date:

26 September 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

New Stars. New Stories. New Worlds To Explore.

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Captain | Security | Mother Son Relationship | Space Shuttle | Outer Space

Awards:

Won 18 Primetime Emmys. Another 11 wins & 52 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 10	1:00 AM	WGNAMER	Starship Mine	#6.18
Tue. Nov. 10	3:00 AM	CW	Starship Mine	#6.18

Cast

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)
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data / ... (176 episodes, 1987-1994)
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf / ... (175 episodes, 1987-1994)
Gates McFadden	...	Doctor Beverly Crusher / ... (154 episodes, 1987-1994)
Majel Barrett	...	Enterprise Computer / ... (96 episodes, 1987-1994)
Wil Wheaton	...	Wesley Crusher / ... (85 episodes, 1987-1994)

Also Known As:

Star Trek: TNG (USA) (promotional abbreviation)

Runtime:

45 min (176 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Klingon | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L (some episodes) | Iceland:LH | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes) | Canada:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Paramount Television

Trivia:

VISOR stands for "Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement".

Goofs:

Factual errors: Any time Data plays the part of Sherlock Holmes he's shown as wearing a deerstalker cap and smoking a goose necked pipe. Holmes only wore a soft cloth cap (drawn as a deerstalker though never said to be one by Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle) when in the country, not in the city. Also Holmes never once smoked a goose necked pipe. That was an alteration made by an actor who found that it was the only pipe he could hold between his teeth and still be able to say his lines clearly. Finally, Sherlock Holmes never once spoke the words "It's elementary, my dear Watson." That was something else added in a script but never once written by Doyle. An android would get these details right.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Capt. Picard: Engage!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Tjuefjerde" (2005)

Perhaps the best sci-fi TV series of all-time.

The occasional campiness of the 1960's Star Trek series was not at all evident in Star Trek: The Next Generation, arguably the best science fiction television series to ever be aired. It's funny TNG wound up so brilliant, considering the first two seasons were a bit iffy in terms of quality. The show ended up the ultimate representation of Star Trek, with an immensely engaging crew with a great sense of camaraderie, intelligent and intriguing stories, and special effects that were excellent by television standards.

With the exception of Wil Wheaton, the cast was uniformly superb. Patrick Stewart had a lot to live up to as a successor to William Shatner's Kirk. With his magnetic presence and wonderful acting chops, he's crafted a very different individual from Kirk, and probably my favorite Trek character, period. Jonathan Frakes made for a likeable, intriguing Commander Riker, who's occasional rowdiness reminded me a bit of good old Kirk. Brent Spiner is simply terrific as the android, Data, who aspires to be more human. I can't imagine anyone else in the role, which is probably the highest praise you could give to an acting performance. Michael Dorn excelled as the tough Klingon Worf, Levar Burton was immensely likeable as chief engineer Laforge, and rounding out the cast were the series' two sexy and smart women, Marina Sirtis as Counselor Troi and Gates Mcfadden as Dr. Crusher (the latter of whom looks even more beautiful now than she did in her first season on TNG).

The series has had a barrage of standout episodes, whether it was with suspenseful ventures into the unknown (the first appearance of the Borg) to the ultimate cliffhanger in The Best of Both Worlds, The Next Generation was an exercise in masterful storytelling and vivid characterization. Since then, three shows have spawned from Trek lore: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. I have only seen one episode of Enterprise (and clearly, it didn't make much of an impression on me), but I had sporadically watched DS9 and Voyager, enough to know neither of them were overall quite as compelling as TNG (the only aspect they definitely had over TNG were in the sets and visual effects). For me, that's rather odd, since I often have a preference for a TV series that follows through a central storyline, as both DS9 and Voyager have, but it simply goes to show how each stand-alone episode of TNG made an impression.