Star Trek: The Next Generation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG, TNG) is a science fiction television series, part of the Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry. Set in the 24th century, about 80 years after the original Star Trek, The Next Generation features a new crew and a new starship Enterprise.

ST:TNG premiered the week of September 28, 1987 with the two-hour pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" and ran for 178 episodes in seven seasons, ending with the final episode "All Good Things..." the week of May 23, 1994. The series was broadcast in first-run syndication, with dates and times varying among individual television stations.

The show gained a considerable following during its run, and like its predecessor, remains popular in syndicated reruns. Its popularity led to the creation of a number of new Star Trek 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 patterned after that of the original series — but its message was gender-neutral^[1] — and was voiced by Patrick Stewart who portrayed 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.

Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Plots 3 Themes 4 Cast 4.1 Main characters 4.2 Recurring characters 4.3 Guest stars 4.4 Alien races 5 Episodes 6 Influences from previous incarnations of Star Trek 7 Controversies within fandom 7.1 Backlash from Original Series fans 7.2 "Trekkie" versus "Trekker" 7.3 Homosexuality 8 Legacy 9 DVD releases 10 Trivia 11 Star Trek: TNG 2.0 on G4 12 See also 13 Notes 14 External links

[edit] History

After the box-office success of the Harve Bennett-produced Star Trek movies, Paramount decided, in 1986, to create a new Star Trek series. Roddenberry, 65 that year, initially declined to be involved, but after being unhappy with early conceptual work came on board as creator. The announcement of Star Trek: The Next Generation was made to the world on October 10, 1986. The show was, unusually, to be in first-run syndication rather than running on a major network, with Paramount and the local stations splitting advertising time between them.^[2]

Roddenberry hired a number of Star Trek veterans, including Bob Justman, D. C. Fontana, Eddie Milkis, and David Gerrold. Rick Berman, a Paramount executive, was assigned to the show at Roddenberry's request.

The first season was marked by a "revolving door" of writers, with Gerrold and Fontana quitting after disputes with Roddenberry. For season two, Maurice Hurley took the script writer/head writer role; the character of Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) was dropped, to be replaced by Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). Crusher's son, Wesley (Wil Wheaton) remained on board. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), who had been the navigation officer in season one, became the Chief Engineer (a role which had been filled by various characters in the first season), and Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), a series regular, was killed off towards the end of the first season. The first season introduced the Ferengi, intended as recurring antagonists for the Enterprise crew.^[3]

The start of season two was delayed by an industry-wide writers' strike, and the opening episode "The Child" was based on a script originally written for Star Trek: Phase II, a prior attempt at creating a revived weekly Star Trek series. The second season produced standout episodes such as "A Matter of Honor" and "The Measure of a Man" and introduced the Borg in "Q Who?".

In the third season Michael Piller became head writer, and Gene Roddenberry took less of an active role, with Piller and Berman becoming the executive producers. The character of Beverly Crusher returned to the show and Pulaski was dropped. The third season found the show becoming more confident. Ronald D. Moore joined the show after submitting a spec script which became the episode "The Bonding"; he would become the series's Klingon guru. The third season also saw an episode about the original series character, Sarek, the father of Spock, the first significant appearance of a character from the original series.

Brannon Braga and Jeri Taylor joined the show in its fourth season, which saw Wesley Crusher leave the cast in "Final Mission", the introduction of a new recurring antagonist race, the Cardassians, and the start of an ongoing plot thread regarding the machinations of Klingon politics.

In the fifth season, seeds were placed for a spin-off series, to be Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with the introduction of the Bajorans, a race oppressed by the Cardassians. The later seasons included more character development for the two female regulars: Crusher takes command of the ship in "Descent", and Troi gains a promotion to Commander in "Thine Own Self".

The seventh season was to be The Next Generation's last. Elements were seeded in the episodes "Journey's End" and "Preemptive Strike" for the next two series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. The final episode of The Next Generation, "All Good Things..." was a double-length episode aired May 19, 1994, revisiting the events of the pilot and providing a bookend to the series.

[edit] Plots

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

The crew of the Enterprise-D contact/discover many races and species with whom they interact as a means for exploring the "human" condition. Dramatic devices such as time travel or temporal loops, natural disasters, and other plotlines often occur without alien encounters, though these, too, are used to explore current and topical issues of humanity. 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 The Original Series (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 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,
  • the merciless cybernetic hybrids known as the Borg, and
  • the imperial Cardassians (loosely modeled after early 20th century Fascists and contemporary Communist China).

The Ferengi, introduced as villainous characters, were soon downgraded to comic relief and as such thrived on the TNG spin-off Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Borg are the most powerful threat in this series, though they do not appear frequently until latter seasons of 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 along with an unknown number of Klingon vessels, killing over 11,000 people at the Battle of Wolf 359, and continues to Earth, where it is stopped by the last-ditch efforts of the Enterprise crew.

[edit] 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 extraterrestrial species and science fiction elements as a means of exploring many real-world social, political, personal and spiritual issues. Many 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, religion, 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). Also, unlike TOS, it seemed to focus less on development of individual characters, and leaned more toward depicting the characters in the context of the group, and through their interactions with each other.

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 recurring theme across the different series is the idea of a temporal paradox.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main characters

More so than with The Original Series, the cast of The Next Generation was subject to some change, most notably in the latter half of the first season following the death of the Enterprise's security chief and tactical officer, Lieutenant 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 acclaimed alternate timeline episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and as part of a trip back in time to Picard's first days on the Enterprise-D 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 an 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 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. Following Muldaur's departure for the NBC series LA Law (where her character would suffer similar fan dislike), Gates McFadden reprised her role as Dr. Crusher in subsequent seasons.

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
	Jean-Luc Picard	Captain	Patrick Stewart	Commanding Officer
	William Thomas Riker	Commander	Jonathan Frakes	Executive Officer
	Data	Lt. Commander	Brent Spiner	Second officer, chief operations officer, science officer
	Deanna Troi	Lt. Commander (1–6), Commander (7)	Marina Sirtis	Ship's counselor
	Geordi La Forge	Lt. Junior Grade (1), Lieutenant (2), Lt. Commander (3–7)	LeVar Burton	Conn Officer and Ops, Chief Engineering Officer
	Worf	Lt. Junior Grade (1), Lieutenant (2–7),	Michael Dorn	Tactical and Conn officer (season 1) Chief security/tactical officer after Yar's death (seasons 2-7)
	Beverly Crusher, M. D.	Commander	Gates McFadden	Chief medical officer (seasons 1, 3–7; season 2, absent while Chief of Starfleet Medical); bridge officer
	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)

[edit] Recurring characters

Character	Actor	Appearances
Alexander Rozhenko	Brian Bonsall	Seasons 4–7
The Traveler	Eric Menyuk	Seasons 1, 4 and 7 (three episodes)
Admiral Gregory Quinn	Ward Costello	Season 1
Lt. Cmdr. Dexter Remmick	Robert Schenkkan	Season 1
Katherine Pulaski	Diana Muldaur	Season 2
Nurse Alyssa Ogawa	Patti Yasutake	Seasons 3–7
Commander Tomalak	Andreas Katsulas	Seasons 3, 4, and 7
Ensign Robin Lefler	Ashley Judd	Season 5 (two episodes)
Ensign Sonya Gomez	Lycia Naff	Season 2 (two episodes)
Guinan	Whoopi Goldberg	Seasons 2–6
Miles Edward O'Brien	Colm Meaney	Seasons 1–7
Keiko O'Brien	Rosalind Chao	Seasons 4–6
Kurn	Tony Todd	Seasons 3–7
Lwaxana Troi	Majel Barrett	Seasons 1–5 and 7
Professor Moriarty	Daniel Davis	Seasons 2 and 6
Q	John de Lancie	Seasons 1–4 and 6–7
Lieutenant Reginald Barclay	Dwight Schultz	Seasons 3–4 and 6–7
Ensign/Lieutenant Ro Laren	Michelle Forbes	Seasons 5–7
Sela	Denise Crosby	Seasons 4 and 5
Ambassador Sarek	Mark Lenard	Seasons 3 and 5

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 for the original series, "The Cage". She also did voiceovers for two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, making her the only actor involved in all five television series.

[edit] Guest stars

Notable guests have included:

• Corbin Bernsen, in "Déjà Q"
• Charles Cooper in "Sins of the Father", "Reunion", and "Firstborn". He also played General Korrd in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
• Nikki Cox, in "Pen Pals"
• Ronny Cox, in "Chain of Command"
• James Cromwell, in "Birthright" and "The 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.
• Kirsten Dunst, in "Dark Page"
• Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, in "Manhunt"
• Susan Gibney, as Dr. Leah Brahms in TNG episodes "Booby Trap" and "Galaxy's Child", and as Cpt. Erika Benteen in DS9 episodes "Paradise Lost" and "Homefront"
• Kelsey Grammer, in "Cause and Effect"
• Teri Hatcher, in "The Outrageous Okona"
• Stephen Hawking, playing himself in a Holodeck simulation, in "Descent"
• Famke Janssen, in "The Perfect Mate"
• Mae Jemison (in real life, the first minority female astronaut), in "Second Chances"
• Renée Jones of Days of Our Lives, in "Aquiel"
• Sabrina Le Beauf of the Cosby Show, in "Gambit"
• Carolyn McCormick, in "11001001" and "Future Imperfect"
• Christopher McDonald, in "Yesterday's Enterprise"
• Bebe Neuwirth, in "First Contact"
• Terry O'Quinn of Lost (TV series), in "The Pegasus"
• Michelle Phillips, in "We'll Always Have Paris"
• Joe Piscopo, playing "The Comic" in a Holodeck simulation, in "The Outrageous Okona"
• Vincent Schiavelli, in "The Arsenal of Freedom"
• Paul Sorvino, in "Homeward"
• David Ogden Stiers of M*A*S*H, in "Half a Life"
• Carel Struycken, who played Lwaxana Troi's silent companion Mr. Homn in multiple episodes
• John Tesh, playing a Klingon in "The Icarus Factor"
• Tony Todd, in "Sins of the Father" and "Redemption"; he also guest-starred on DS9 and Voyager.
• Ben Vereen, in "Interface"
• David Warner, in "Chain of Command" (he also had featured roles in the fifth and sixth Trek films).
• James Worthy of the Los Angeles Lakers, in "Gambit"

• 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 (all in various episodes)
• Several guest stars also became more well known as a result of their recurring roles in the series, including John de Lancie, Dwight Schultz, and Majel Barrett.

[edit] Alien races

See List of Star Trek races

[edit] Episodes

See List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

[edit] 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 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 executive 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 alongside 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 of 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.

[edit] Controversies within fandom

[edit] Backlash from Original Series fans

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", reprising his role as Captain Montgomery Scott.

[edit] "Trekkie" versus "Trekker"

By the time TNG was produced, the term "Trekkie" 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.

[edit] Homosexuality

See also: Society and Star Trek

The show's homosexual fans complained that there were no gay characters represented in the future, something Roddenberry said he intended to address. A subsequent episode, "The Outcast," dealt with the issue of homophobia obliquely, by having Will Riker enter into a relationship with a J'naii, an androgynous alien. Fan reaction to this was mixed. Equally interesting is "The Host," in which Beverly Crusher has a relationship with Ambassador Odan, a Trill. The Trill's male host dies and is replaced first by Will Riker, and then a female. Odan, in the new female body, wishes to continue the relationship, but Crusher decides that while she still loves Odan, she can't keep up with the changes.

[edit] Legacy

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

• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

TNG paved the way for three other TV series:

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
• Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)
• Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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 spinoffs after The Original Series. In addition to TNG, he appeared in Star Trek: Voyager ("Death Wish"), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("The Defiant" as Thomas Riker) and Star Trek: Enterprise ("These Are the Voyages...").

• Colm Meaney (Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien), John de Lancie (Q), and Denise Crosby (Lieutenant Tasha Yar, who left the cast in the Season One episode "Skin of Evil") are the only actors (other than the regular main cast), to appear in both the first ("Encounter at Farpoint") and the last ("All Good Things...") episodes of the series.

• 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, and the animated series.

• 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: The Next Generation 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. The one possible appearance of a restroom in TOS was in the episode of "Elaan of Troiyus", when Kirk confronts Elaan in her quarters, and she runs into a smaller room whose function is not identified. David Gerrold referred to this scene in his book "The World Of Star Trek", as the only depiction of a bathroom in TOS. There is a "Head" on the bridge of the enterprise (according to the official Paramount Star Trek: The Magazine's Next Generation Enterprise-D issue). It is located at the rear left of the bridge- a shallow alcove contains two doors, one of which leads to it.

• Similarly, the schematic of the Enterprise-D at the back of the Engineering set is another amusing 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 airplane, 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.

• 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. ^{[citation needed]}

• 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 biological parents, none of the adoptive parents), Yar (both), Wesley Crusher (father), Beverly Crusher (both), and Troi (father) all start the series with at least one dead parent. That leaves only La Forge and Data. Data's "father", Dr. Noonien Soong, dies in the fourth season episode "Brothers", and one could argue that his "mother" actually died before the series started from injuries suffered when the Crystalline Entity attacked Omicron Theta, as explained in the seventh season episode "Inheritance". In the seventh season episode "Interface", La Forge's mother becomes missing and presumed dead.

• Both the "Red Alert" and "All hands..." sound effects were reused from the original series.

• The series established the five number stardate, with the second digit indicating the season after starting with 5, (51000 for season one etc...) and the last three numbers rose throughout the season, the following two spin-offs followed, with DS9 starting with 56379 and Voyager starting with 58315 (essentially it would have run in sync with TNG's 8th season). However this system was not concrete until season 2 thus Tasha Yar dies on stardate 41601.3, and yet appears in episodes broadcast featuring later stardates (The Big Goodbye, The Battle, Angel One, and The Arsenal of Freedom).

[edit] Star Trek: TNG 2.0 on G4

On January 15, 2007, an interactive version of TNG, known as "Star Trek: TNG 2.0," will begin broadcasting on the television channel G4. Members of G4's official site will be able to use the online chat and "Spock Market." Messages from the online chat will be shown during the broadcast along with "Trek Stats" and "Trek Facts." Star Trek: TNG 2.0 will air at 9:00 PM Eastern/8:00 PM Central.^[4]