Star Trek: The Next Generation
| Star Trek: The Next Generation | |
|---|---|
| The title as it appeared in seasons 1-4. The title as it appeared in seasons 1-4,6-7. | |
| 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 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 178 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 42-44 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndicated |
| 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 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 on 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..." on May 23, 1994. The show gained a considerable following during its run, and like its predecessor, is widely syndicated. Its popularity led to a line of spin-off 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.
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 starship 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
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 in the case of The Original Series (TOS), the crew of the Enterprise-D meets many technologically powerful races. Many episodes also involve temporal loops, character dramas, natural disasters, and other plotlines without alien encounters. In contrast to the original series, where the ship was exploring unknown areas of the galaxy, the Enterprise-D serves almost exclusively as a vessel for diplomacy, defense, and humanitarian aid. TNG's crew seems to have a greater dedication to peaceful resolution to conflicts. As the Enterprise-D is much more powerful than the previous ship, the stories are able to focus more on moral implications, rather than the immediate need for survival. Though the ship is frequently threatened by unexpected phenomena, it is rarely at the mercy of a stronger technology or intelligence.
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, former enemies, though vast cultural differences remain.
- A "cold war" with the Romulans, similar to the orginal series, continues in TNG.
- Three new recurring races are introduced into the mythology: the aggresively capitalist Ferengi, merciless cybernetic hybrids the Borg, and the corrupt and imperial Cardassians, loosely modeled after early 20th century fascists.
The Borg are the most powerful threat in this series, though they do not appear frequently until their expansive role in Star Trek: Voyager. In the episode "The Best of Both Worlds", a single Borg cube ship 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 incorporate Earth, where it is stopped by the last-ditch actions of the Enterprise crew.
Themes
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, 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 as the series progressed. He died in 1991 and producer Rick Berman took over, and under his guidance, 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 (supposedly enlightening the human viewer in the process). Another re-occurring theme across the different series is the idea of a temporal paradox.
Controversy
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), 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.
Influences
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, in spite of the fact that it was 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.
Four feature films have been made featuring the series' characters:
TNG paved the way for three other TV series:
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.
Cast
Main characters
Unlike with TOS, the cast of TNG was subject to some change, most notably in the latter half of the first season following the death of the Enterprise's security chief, Tasha Yar. The scripts quickly adapted, having Worf, the tactical officer, replace Yar as security chief and La Forge, the Helmsman, eventually promoted to the position of Chief Engineer with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Tasha Yar, however, remains one of two of Star Trek's regular characters that were killed and *not* subsequently revived in some way (the second being Jadzia Dax of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).
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 his non-Trek career was stagnating). Dr. Beverly Crusher was written out of the show for one season, to be replaced by Diana Muldaur, who had earlier been featured as a guest star in two episodes of TOS ("Return to Tomorrow" and "Is There In Truth No Beauty" playing different characters.)
Also, not all of the main characters had a place on the Bridge, the ship's command center. La Forge, the Chief Engineer, held his primary position in Engineering, and Dr. Crusher, although holding privileges as a bridge officer, held her place in Sickbay, the second season being replaced by Diana Muldaur's Dr. Katherine Pulaski (who was not allowed to take command of the bridge). Due to Muldaur leaving for another TV series, L.A. Law, Gates McFadden was asked back.
| Picture | Character | Rank | Actor | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Picard1.jpg | Jean-Luc Picard | Captain | Patrick Stewart | Commanding officer |
| File:Riker2366.jpg | William Thomas "Will" Riker | Commander, later Captain | Jonathan Frakes | Executive (first) officer |
| File:Data2.jpg | Data | Lt. Commander | Brent Spiner | Second officer, chief operations officer, science officer |
| File:Burton as LaForge.jpg | Geordi La Forge | Lt. Junior Grade (1), Lieutenant (2), Lt. Commander (3-7) | LeVar Burton | Conn Officer and Ops, later Chief Engineer |
| File:Dorn as Worf.jpg | Worf | Lt. Junior Grade (1-2), Lieutenant (3-7), Lt. Commander (Generations), | Michael Dorn | Tactical and Conn officer (season 1)
Chief security/tactical officer after Yar's death (seasons 2-7) |
| File:McFadden as Crusher.jpg | Doctor Beverly Crusher | 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 | Doctor Katherine Pulaski | Commander | Diana Muldaur | Chief medical officer (season 2); was not bridge officer |
| File:Sirtis as Troi.jpg | Deanna Troi | Lt. Commander (1-7), Commander (7) | Marina Sirtis | Ship's counselor |
| 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 |
| Patti Yasutake | Nurse Alyssa Ogawa | Seasons 3–7 |
| 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, omnipotent member of the 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 |
| Eric Menyuk | The Traveler | Seasons 1, 4, and 7 |
| 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 |
Ms. Barrett (wife of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry) has also been the voice of the ship's computer in most Trek incarnations, and was Nurse Chapel in the original series, as well as the First Officer in the first pilot of the original series, "The Cage." It is interesting to note that the First Officer in The Cage was referred to by Captain Christopher Pike as Number One, (A British naval term for first officer) and this nickname recurred in TNG with Captain Picard's use of it when referring to his First Officer, Commander Riker.
Guest stars
Many famous, or soon-to-be-famous, guest stars have featured on the series. Some of the notable guests included:
- Ashley Judd, in "The Game" and "Darmok"
- 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"
- 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 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 fame, in the moving euthanasia episode Half a Life
- DS9 stars Armin Shimerman, in four episodes, and Alexander Siddig, in "Birthright"
- Voyager star Robert Duncan McNeill, in "The First Duty"
- TOS stars DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and Majel Barrett
- Several guest stars also became primarily known for their recurring roles in the series, including John DeLancie, Dwight Schultz, and Majel Barrett.
Alien races
DVD releases
| 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 T. Riker) are the only actors to appear in every episode of the series.
- Jonathan Frakes is the only actor to appear in all the Trek spin offs after Star Trek: TOS. He appeared in Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: DS9 and Star Trek: Enterprise
- 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 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, the only confirmed appearance of a toilet aboard the Enterprise was in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
- 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 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 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 series for this show, but was shelved due to the relative failure of the Original Series' animated spinoff.
See also
External links
- Star Trek: The Next Generation at StarTrek.com
- Star Trek: The Next Generation at Memory Alpha
- Star Trek: The Next Generation at TrekCore.com
| Television series |
|  | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Films |
| ||||||||||
| Setting |
| ||||||||||
| Production | |||||||||||
| Unmade projects | |||||||||||
| Spin-off fiction | |||||||||||
| Aftershows | |||||||||||
| Documentaries | |||||||||||
| Cultural influence |
| ||||||||||