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Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Jean-Luc Picard, as seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: The Next Generation , often abbreviated to TNG , is the second live-action Star Trek television series, and the first set in the 24th century . Like its predecessors, it was created by Gene Roddenberry . Produced at Paramount Pictures , it aired in first-run syndication , by Paramount Television in the US, from September 1987 to May 1994 . The series was set in the 24th century and featured the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise -D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard .

The series led to four spin-offs set in the same time period: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , which it ran alongside during its final two seasons, Star Trek: Voyager , Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard . It is also the beginning of a contiguous period of time during which there was always at least one Star Trek series in production, ending with Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005 .

  • Main Title Theme  file info (arranged by Dennis McCarthy , composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage )
  • 2.1 Starring
  • 2.2 Also starring
  • 3.1 Season 1
  • 3.2 Season 2
  • 3.3 Season 3
  • 3.4 Season 4
  • 3.5 Season 5
  • 3.6 Season 6
  • 3.7 Season 7
  • 4.1 Remastering
  • 5.1 Performers
  • 5.2 Stunt performers
  • 5.3 Production staff
  • 5.4 Companies
  • 6 Related topics
  • 8 External links

Summary [ ]

Star Trek: The Next Generation moved the universe forward roughly a century past the days of James T. Kirk and Spock . The series depicted a new age in which the Klingons were allies of the Federation , though the Romulans remained adversaries. New threats included the Ferengi (although they were later used more for comic relief), the Cardassians , and the Borg . While Star Trek: The Original Series was clearly made in the 1960s, the first two seasons of The Next Generation show all the markings of a 1980s product, complete with Spandex uniforms .

As with the original Star Trek , TNG was still very much about exploration, "boldly going where no one has gone before". Similarly, the plots captured the adventures of the crew of a starship, namely the USS Enterprise -D . Despite the apparent similarities with the original series, the creators of TNG were adamant about creating a bold, independent vision of the future. The public did not widely accept the show on its own terms until the airing of " The Best of Both Worlds ", which marked a shift towards higher drama, serious plot lines, and a less episodic nature. This helped pave the way for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and its two-year-long Dominion War arc and preceding build-up, as well as the third and fourth seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise . Star Trek: Voyager capitalized on the heightened crew relationships and familial bonds first seen on The Next Generation. DS9, on the other hand, balanced political intrigue, character development, and series-long plot threads with a rerun-friendly format.

As with the original Star Trek , TNG's special effects utilized miniatures, but due to great advancements in computerized effects and opticals, the show leaped ahead of its predecessor in terms of quality effects. This series marked the greatest surge in Star Trek 's mainstream popularity, and paved the way for the later televised Trek shows.

Four of the Star Trek motion pictures continued the adventures of the TNG cast after the end of the series in 1994. Star Trek Generations served to "pass the torch" from The Original Series cast, who had been the subject of the first six motion pictures, by including crossover appearances from William Shatner , James Doohan , and Walter Koenig ; it also featured the destruction of the USS Enterprise -D. Star Trek: First Contact , released two years later , was the first of the motion pictures to solely feature the TNG cast, transferred aboard the new USS Enterprise -E and engaging with one of their deadliest enemies from the television series, the Borg. Star Trek: Insurrection followed in 1998 , continuing certain character arcs from the series. In 2002 , Star Trek Nemesis brought some of these character arcs and plot threads to a seemingly definite conclusion, although some cast members expressed hope that future movies would yet pick up the story. Regardless, a new generation of actors appeared in 2009 's Star Trek , which created an alternate reality and returned the films' focus to Kirk and Spock .

On television, characters from TNG appeared in subsequent series. Recurring TNG character Miles O'Brien became a series regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , as did Worf in DS9's fourth season . Jean-Luc Picard appeared in Deep Space Nine 's pilot episode , and supporting characters from TNG appeared occasionally on DS9 (specifically, Keiko O'Brien , Lursa , B'Etor , Molly O'Brien , Vash , Q , Lwaxana Troi , Alynna Nechayev , Gowron , Thomas Riker , Toral , and Alexander Rozhenko ). Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi appeared several times each on Star Trek: Voyager , and Troi and William T. Riker appeared in the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise , which was primarily a holographic simulation set during the TNG episode " The Pegasus ". However, Star Trek Nemesis was the final chronological appearance of the Next Generation characters for over 18 years, until Star Trek: Picard , which focused on the later life of Jean-Luc Picard. Riker, Troi, Data , and Hugh also appeared in Picard .

In 1994 , Star Trek: The Next Generation was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. During its seven-year run, it was nominated for 58 Emmy Awards, mostly in "technical" categories such as visual effects and makeup; it won 18.

Main cast [ ]

Starring [ ].

  • Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
  • Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker

Also starring [ ]

  • LeVar Burton as Lt. j.g. / Lt. / Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
  • Denise Crosby as Lt. Tasha Yar ( 1987 - 1988 )
  • Michael Dorn as Lt. j.g. / Lt. Worf
  • Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher ( 1987 - 1988 ; 1989 - 1994 )
  • Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
  • Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
  • Wil Wheaton as Ensign Wesley Crusher ( 1987 - 1990 )

Episode list [ ]

Season 1 [ ].

TNG Season 1 , 25 episodes:

Season 2 [ ]

TNG Season 2 , 22 episodes:

Season 3 [ ]

TNG Season 3 , 26 episodes:

Season 4 [ ]

TNG Season 4 , 26 episodes:

Season 5 [ ]

TNG Season 5 , 26 episodes:

Season 6 [ ]

TNG Season 6 , 26 episodes:

Season 7 [ ]

TNG Season 7 , 25 episodes:

Behind the scenes [ ]

Star Trek: The Next Generation was originally pitched to the then-fledgling Fox Network . However, they couldn't guarantee an initial order greater than thirteen episodes, not enough to make the enormous start-up costs of the series worth the expense. It was then decided to sell the series to the first-run syndication market. The show's syndicated launch was overseen by Paramount Television president Mel Harris , a pioneer in the syndicated television market. Many of the stations that carried The Next Generation had also run The Original Series for a long time.

According to issues of Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine from early 1987, TNG was originally planned to be set in the 25th century, 150 years after the original series, and the Enterprise would have been the Enterprise NCC-1701-G. Gene Roddenberry ultimately changed the timeline to mid-24th century, set on board the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, as an Enterprise -G would have been the eighth starship to bear the name and that was too many for the relatively short time period that was to have passed.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was billed initially as being set 78 years after the days of the original USS Enterprise . [1] (p. 16) However, after the series' first season was established as being set in the year 2364 , this reference became obsolete as dates were then able to be set for the original series and the four previous films. When this happened, it was established that the events of the original series were about a hundred years before the events of TNG. With TNG's first season being set in 2364, 78 years prior would have been 2286 . Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home partly takes place during this year along with the shakedown cruise of the USS Enterprise -A .

On the special The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation To The Next , Gene Roddenberry commented, " On the original Star Trek , I practically lost my family from working so many twelve-hour days, fourteen-hour days, seven days a week, and I told them, 'You can't pay me enough to do that.' But then they said, 'Hey, but suppose we do it in a way in which' they call syndication, 'in which we don't have a network and we don't have all those people up there?' And Paramount was saying to me, 'And we guarantee that you will be in charge of the show.' "

Andrew Probert was first hired by Roddenberry in 1978 . However, not until 1986 , when Roddenberry was preparing to launch a new show, entitled Star Trek: The Next Generation , did he call upon Probert to take a lead design role. Everything had to be rethought, imagined, planned and redesigned. As the vision evolved in the designers' minds, the evolution was charted in successive sketches and paintings.

Among Probert's creations, in addition to the new Enterprise starship and many of its interiors including the main bridge , are many other featured spacecraft. The Ferengi cruiser , and even the Ferengi species, are Probert designs.

Roddenberry originally insisted on doing a one-hour pilot and assigned D.C. Fontana to write the episode, first titled Meeting at Farpoint . However, the studio was keen on having a two-hour pilot, mainly because they wanted something big and spectacular to launch the series, especially considering first-run syndication. Roddenberry himself volunteered to extend Fontana's script to two hours, eventually adding the Q storyline to it.

Ronald D. Moore commented, " Gene did not want conflict between the regular characters on TNG. This began to hamstring the series and led to many, many problems. To put it bluntly, this wasn't a very good idea. But rather than jettison it completely, we tried to remain true to the spirit of a better future where the conflicts between our characters did not show them to be petty or selfish or simply an extension of 20th century mores. " ( AOL chat , 1997 ) Rick Berman explained, " The problem with Star Trek: The Next Generation is Gene created a group of characters that he purposely chose not to allow conflict between. Starfleet officers cannot be in conflict, thus its murderous to write these shows because there is no good drama without conflict, and the conflict has to come from outside the group. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 8)

Roddenberry tried to recruit many production staff members from The Original Series to work on the new series. These included producers Robert H. Justman and Edward K. Milkis , writers D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold (who served as the main creative force behind the formation of the series), costume designer William Ware Theiss , assistant director Charles Washburn , composer Fred Steiner , set decorator John M. Dwyer , and writer John D.F. Black . Roddenberry also tried to bring back cinematographer Jerry Finnerman , but he declined the offer, being busy working on Moonlighting at the time. However, all of the above people finished working on the series after or during the first season.

Unit Production Manager David Livingston was responsible for hiring Michael Westmore for the pilot episode. ( ENT Season 3 Blu-ray , " Impulse " audio commentary )

Remastering [ ]

After several months of speculation and partial confirmation, StarTrek.com announced on 28 September 2011 (the 24th anniversary of the series premiere) that The Next Generation would be remastered in 1080p high-definition for release on Blu-ray Disc and eventual syndication, starting in 2012 . The seventh and final season was released on Blu-ray in December 2014 .

Cast and crew [ ]

The following people worked on The Next Generation ; it is unknown during which season or on which episodes.

Performers [ ]

  • Antonio – background actor
  • Charles Bazaldua – voice actor
  • Terrence Beasor – voice actor (17 episodes, including the voice of the Borg )
  • Libby Bideau – featured actress
  • Brian Ciari – background actor: Cardassian ( TNG Season 6 or 7 )
  • Amber Connally – background actress: child
  • Phil Crowley – voice actor
  • Vincent DeMaio – background actor: Enterprise -D operations division officer
  • David Dewitt – background actor
  • Gregory Fletcher – background actor Borg
  • Dan Horton – background actor
  • Carlyle King – voice actress
  • Mark Laing – featured actor
  • Daryl F. Mallett – background actor
  • Tina Morlock – background actress
  • Jean Marie Novak – background actress: Enterprise -D operations division officer
  • Rick H. Olavarria – background actor (1988)
  • Jennifer Ott – background actress: Enterprise -D command division officer
  • Richard Penn – voice actor
  • Judie Pimitera – background actress: Ten Forward waitress
  • Paige Pollack – voice actress
  • Jeff Rector – background actor: Enterprise -D command division officer
  • Gary Schwartz – voice actor/ADR voice
  • Beth Scott – background actress
  • Steve Sekely – background actor
  • Andrea Silver – background actress: Enterprise -D sciences division officer
  • Oliver Theess – recurring background actor (around 1990)
  • Richard Walker – background actor
  • Harry Williams, Jr. – background actor
  • Bruce Winant – supporting actor
  • Stephen Woodworth – background actor

Stunt performers [ ]

  • Laura Albert – stunts
  • John Lendale Bennett – stunts
  • Richard L. Blackwell – stunts
  • John Cade – stunts
  • Chuck Courtney – Assistant Stunt Coordinator
  • Terry James – stunts
  • Gary Jensen – Assistant Stunt Coordinator
  • Lane Leavitt – stunts
  • Pat Romano – stunts

Production staff [ ]

  • Joseph Andolino – Additional Composer
  • David Atherton – Makeup Artist
  • Gregory Benford – Scientific Consultant
  • Steven R. Bernstein – Additional Music Composer/Orchestrator
  • Les Bernstien – Motion Control Operator
  • R. Christopher Biggs – Special Makeup Effects Artist
  • Howard Block – Second Unit Director of Photography
  • Stephen Buchsbaum – Colorist: Unitel Video (Four Seasons)
  • Alan Chudnow – Assistant Editor
  • Marty Church – Foley Mixer
  • Scott Cochran – Scoring Mixer: Advertising Music
  • Robert Cole – Special Effects Artist
  • Sharon Davis – Graphics Assistant
  • David Dittmar – Prosthetic Makeup Artist
  • Dragon Dronet – Prop Maker: Weapons, Specialty Props and Miniatures
  • Jim Dultz – Assistant Art Director
  • Shannon Dunn – Extras Casting: Cenex Casting
  • Chris W. Fallin – Motion Control Operator
  • Edward J. Franklin – Special Effects Artist
  • Lisa Gizara – Assistant to Gates McFadden
  • John Goodwin – Makeup Artist
  • Simon Holden – Digital Compositor (between 1989 and 1994)
  • Kent Allen Jones – Sculptor: Bob Jean Productions
  • Michael R. Jones – Makeup Artist (early 1990s)
  • Jason Kaufman – Prop and Model Maker: Greg Jein, Inc.
  • Nina Kent – Makeup Artist
  • David Kervinen – Visual Effects Illustrator: Composite Image Systems (4 Seasons)
  • Andy Krieger – Extras Casting: Central Casting
  • Tim Landry – Visual Effects Artist
  • Lisa Logan – Cutter/Fitter
  • Jon Macht – Post Production Vendor
  • Gray Marshall – Motion Control Camera Operator: Image "G"
  • Karl J. Martin – Digital Compositor
  • Belinda Merritt – VFX Accountant: The Post Group
  • John Palmer – Special Effects Coordinator: WonderWorks Inc.
  • Frank Popovich – Mold and Prop Assistant
  • Molly Rennie
  • Chris Schnitzer – Motion Control Technician/Rigger: Image "G"
  • Steven J. Scott – Digital Compositor
  • Bruce Sears – DGA Trainee
  • Casey Simpson – Gaffer
  • Ken Stranahan – Visual Effects Artist
  • Rick Stratton – Makeup Artist
  • Greg Stuhl – Miniatures: Greg Jein, Inc.
  • Tim Tommasino – Assistant Editor
  • Peter Webb – Digital Compositor
  • Gregory A. Weimerskirch – Assistant Art Director
  • Bill Witthans – Dolly Grip

Companies [ ]

  • Bob Jean Productions
  • Movie Movers
  • Newkirk Special Effects
  • WonderWorks Inc.

Related topics [ ]

  • TNG directors
  • TNG performers
  • TNG recurring characters
  • TNG studio models
  • TNG writers
  • Character crossover appearances
  • Undeveloped TNG episodes
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation novels
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation comics, volume 1 (DC)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation comics, volume 2 (DC)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation comics (IDW)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation soundtracks
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation on VHS
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation on Betamax
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation on LaserDisc
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine

External links [ ]

  • Star Trek: The Next Generation at Wikipedia
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation at the Internet Movie Database
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation at StarTrek.com
  • 2 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
  • 3 Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Where to watch.

Watch Star Trek: The Next Generation with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Cast & Crew

Gene Roddenberry

Patrick Stewart

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

Jonathan Frakes

Cmdr. William Riker

LeVar Burton

Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge

Michael Dorn

Gates McFadden

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Popular TV on Streaming

Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., series info.

star trek new generations

'Star Trek: The Next Generation's Biggest Cliffhanger Changed TV Forever

  • Serialized storytelling became dominant in TV thanks to shows like Hill Street Blues , which normalized season-long arcs and character development.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation broke TV rules with its two-part Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere, which introduced the first true cliffhanger and a mind-blowing twist involving the Borg.
  • The episodes "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family" showcased the evolution of TV storytelling by prioritizing character development and exploring emotional fallout, setting a new standard for dramatic tension and flawed, evolving characters.

A long, long time ago, one-off episodes were the law of the land. Series were episodic in nature regardless of genre. Sometimes, characterization moments carried over and returning characters popped in and out for flavor's sake, but serialized narratives and character arcs didn’t creep into play until 1980s game-changers like Hill Street Blues . The drama from creators Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll was a powerhouse risk-taker and an instrumental force credited for normalizing season-long arcs. Slowly but surely, serialized stories became dominant enough that episodic shows are now a rarity.

Star Trek: The Next Generation , the floundering sequel to the 1960s original, underwent a similar evolution. The Next Generation already had a lot to prove when it hit the airwaves in 1987. The glories of syndication had turned Star Trek: The Original Series into a cult classic, but the space-faring title was still far from global phenomenon status. Would the follow-up to a canceled series have enough bite to kickstart a franchise? Eight more shows, thirteen films, and a thriving fandom later, the answer's a resounding yes — but not before The Next Generation broke all the established TV rules in the summer of 1990. A gut punch as staggeringly effective as its impact on the franchise's modus operandi is lasting, The Next Generation 's two-part Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere sliced up audience expectations with the finesse of a butcher's meat cleaver and drop-kicked the television landscape into a new universe — dare we say, to "where no one has gone before."

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

Release Date 1987-09-26

Cast LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, michael dorn

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Rating TV-PG

'Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Best of Both Worlds" Prioritized Character and Story Arcs

Despite strong ratings, The Next Generation 's early seasons saw conflict between creator Gene Roddenberry and the cast and crew over dialogue , costumes , and thematic content . Not only did The Next Generation follow the Star Trek formula of one-and-done episodes, but Roddenberry was insistent humanity had evolved past interpersonal flaws. It’s a nice thought, but utopian ideals make for dull, repetitive stories. After all, conflict is the heart of all drama. The more Roddenberry stepped away from The Next Generation , the more freedom the screenwriters had to develop the Enterprise crew into dynamic, humane characters instead of stock figures fulfilling the plot-of-the-week's requirements. Those attempts catalyzed when Season 3 senior writer Michael Piller invoked a new scripting Prime Directive: every Season 3 episode had to prioritize character development .

Appropriately, the Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" and "Part 2" exist in applauded infamy as Star Trek's first true cliffhanger. You see, Season 2 had planted a dangling plot seed when the capricious entity Q (the perpetually delightful John de Lancie ) flung the Enterprise into uncharted space in a fit of pique — straight into the path of entities called the Borg. These hominids' sole purpose was to "assimilate" all in their path, stripping species of individuality, memories, and free will. The Enterprise quickly realized they were hopelessly outmatched by the Borg's technological superiority. Restored to a safe quadrant of space by episode's end, the crew is left with a sense of looming dread. It was only a matter of time before the Borg declared war on humanity in ways Romulans, Cardassians, and Klingons could only dream of mimicking.

"The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" wastes no time leaping head-first into "aw, crap" town. Every aspect feels starkly ominous, from the cold open where the crew confirms a populous Federation colony was annihilated by the Borg to a Starfleet strategy meeting detailing just how underprepared the galaxy is against this new enemy. Combined with an unsettling score and some understated performances, the expertly crafted tension lends the situation credence.

Smartly, Michael Piller's script interweaves naturalistic character beats between plot advancements and set pieces. In one corner, the normally unflappable main characters are tossed into introspection and self-doubt . In the other, the Enterprise crew enjoys their weekly poker nights. The tonal shifts between growing unease, predatory self-reflection, and breezy joke-swapping are smooth as butter and as complimentary as butter on fresh toast. Fans don't need exposition to know how close this group's grown as a triad of crew, people, and friends. The emotional stakes matter as much as the "threat against all humanity" stakes.

'Star Trek: The Next Generation's Biggest Cliffhanger Was Unprecedented

Captain Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) , the man of the hour (the decade, the century, the millennia), said psychological stakes are stratosphere-high. Against such a monolithic threat as the Borg, an enemy that can't be intellectually reasoned with, Picard's out of his element. And it shows, the strain oscillating through Stewart's restless physicality. In a quietly potent scene, he and his long-time confidant Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ) discuss the tradition of a captain touring his ship before a hopeless battle. Picard has no qualms about sacrificing his life as long as civilization stays protected. There's hardly a better way to underscore just how stinking good of a man Picard is than through his selfless, courageous resolve. When it comes to morals, Picard is the most indefatigable Starfleet officer one could ask for.

Moments later, two Borg appear on the Enterprise bridge and kidnap Picard. Excuse me? Abducting the hero was just not done , y'all; not in Star Trek, and certainly not in normal episodic television. Everything that follows is a nightmare building toward the moment Beverly Crusher ( Gates McFadden ), part of a rescue team infiltrating the Borg cube, recognizes Picard through the haze of phaser fire. The lumbering figure she sees, however, is no longer Jean-Luc Picard. Attired in black Borg regalia with multiple limbs and one eye swapped out with mechanical parts, the Borg have brainwashed him into acting as their voice and their greatest weapon against the Federation.

Previous alien villains were still human-esque and therefore surmountable. Even Star Trek deaths were a cultural meme (hi, red shirts). In 1990, something capable of corrupting a cultured, impassioned captain into a mindless husk was unimaginable. When Borg!Picard promises the Federation's doom, all the Enterprise crew can do is listen. The atmosphere breathes and builds, ensuring the situation's horror is inescapable and that the crew's individual — yet, ironically, collective — grief palpable. The floor has been wrenched out from under their feet as much as the viewers'.

Just as unheard of is the franchise's first cliffhanger, accompanied by a "To Be Continued..." screen and a "dun-dun-dun" score worthy of John Williams gravitas. In a lovely anecdote from Patrick Stewart (via his costar Jonathan Frakes ) , the actor shared how fans shouted at him, "[You] ruined our summer!" The world spent a long, torturous three months waiting to see if Picard was dead and gone. That kind of cultural anticipation pre-dated Game of Thrones and was something no money could buy.

‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Broke the Television Mold for the Better

If "Part 2" lacks its predecessor's impact, well, that was a tough act to follow. The Enterprise crew rescues Picard with gritty flair; teamwork outsmarts a Borg hive mind that's unable to think beyond its compulsion to conquer. One then expects an all's well that ends well in proper TV tradition. Yet between the mournful music cues and Stewart's soulful silences, it's obvious Picard remains haunted. Those dangling emotional threads immediately culminate in the next episode, "Family," penned by future Battlestar Galactica and Outlander showrunner Ronald D. Moore . As Picard prepares to visit his family home, he assures Deanna Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) that "The injuries are healing." She responds, "Those you can see in the mirror."

Picard's estranged brother Robert ( Jeremy Kemp ) also doesn't buy Picard's cautious avoidance. Old fraternal tensions rise until the two duke it out, and Picard, covered in mud, once again does something revolutionary for the untouchably dignified captain: he weeps, agonized and ugly. Not only does he feel violated, he blames himself for the innocent lives lost to the Borg. "Family" is a character study allowing Picard to be a terrified, flawed, and furious mess who grapples with his trauma in viscerally basic human ways. Scars aren't resolved in sixty minutes. Picard's experiences will shape his life, but rather than try to escape those ramifications into happy ending TV land, he must learn to live with them. (Ironically enough, Gene Roddenberry strongly objected to "Family.")

Dramatic events in The Original Series rarely saw emotional fallout. Even the best characters remained static. That isn't inherently faulty given the era, but television's gradual shift toward long-form storytelling demanded more from The Next Generation . The character-based risk that was "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family" paid off in dividends. Sure, the series remained largely episodic outside of two-parters and season finales. Yet The Next Generation overcame its creative impasse enough to run for four more seasons, secure the franchise's future, and set the bar exponentially high with regard to dramatic tension and flawed, ever-evolving characters. The rules were shattered, the boundaries pushed.

In The Next Generation 's wake, up cropped serialized shows as prestigious as The West Wing . By the 2000s, The Sopranos , The Wire , and Breaking Bad confirmed the new norm. At the same time serialized television stretched out its first feelers, this little sci-fi show that could left a mark equal to influential prestige dramas like Hill Street Blues . The sheer daring of "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family" truly explored strange new worlds: the kinds of stories television could tell and the groundbreaking way it could tell them.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+

'Star Trek: The Next Generation's Biggest Cliffhanger Changed TV Forever

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Patrick Stewart, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis and John de Lancie in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Make it so! Star Trek: The Next Generation remains radically hopeful television

As Star Trek: Picard wraps up, we take a look at the comforting and thrilling show that came first, featuring Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his Enterprise crew

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I n the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World, Wayne Campbell makes a wise observation about the comparisons made between sparkling wine and champagne. “It is a lot like Star Trek: The Next Generation,” he notes of sparkling wine . “In many ways it’s superior, but will never be as recognised as the original.”

Wayne was right about many things, but even he couldn’t have foreseen the cultural impact of Next Gen from his vantage point in 1992.

The original Star Trek series, starring the likes of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, was great, and the Star Trek films were intermittently so too – all following a crew of spacefaring idealists exploring the universe and having velure-ensconced adventures. But in 1987 the story of Star Trek recommenced with a new series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which skipped a century ahead and charted a fascinating new course with an all new crew on a new and improved USS Enterprise, a ship with a continuing mission to explore the universe under the steady hand of the uptight but charming Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart).

“For some people it was a burden, for some it was a privilege,” says Gates McFadden, who played Dr Beverly Crusher in TNG. “For me, because I wasn’t familiar with the first show, it wasn’t a burden at all! I was like, let’s go for it!”

Gates McFadden (right), with Marina Sirtis and Whoopi Goldberg.

Picard showrunner Terry Matalas tells me that “like the original series, there is something so unbelievably comforting about TNG”.

“It could be the [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry hope beamed into your living room, or the chemistry of the cast, or the freshness of those science fiction tales. But there is nothing better to have on your television on a lazy Sunday afternoon.”

TNG told a complex, thrilling and evolving story about what happens when humanity opts for hope over hopelessness: like all the other ships in Starfleet, the Enterprise is home to a diverse, multicultural crew who are free to pursue knowledge, equality and justice in a post-scarcity utopia.

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“I’ve learned as I’ve grown how crucial it is to have hope,” McFadden says. “Because otherwise, there’s no point to anything! And the hope in Roddenberry’s vision of the future was so freaking huge .”

What does she mean by “huge”? She laughs. “Well, to even get us to think about a world where we don’t have money any more, we don’t have greed, we can cure things. The idea that we can work together and all be up in space – together! – I think that reality gave people so much.”

The character development in Next Gen is an enormous part of its charm. Take Stewart’s Picard: a down-the-line man bound by duty, who comes to rely on his crew more and more. Or his first officer Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), the jazz-loving ladies man who secretly pined for his ex and colleague, ship counsellor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). Or Worf (Michael Dorn), a member of the war-mongering race the Klingons, who gradually becomes one of Star Trek’s most complex characters. Or Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton), a blind and confident engineer who couldn’t talk to women to save his life. And, of course, Data (Brent Spiner): the artificial life form who longs to become human.

LeVar Burton, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and Wil Wheaton.

The entire Enterprise crew are united by their principles, and TNG shows what happens when these principles meet practicality. There’s the United Federation of Planets, the ideologically driven group of planets united in peace, and Starfleet, who explore the universe while upholding the ideals of non-interference and discovery. The crew of the Enterprise believe in these ideals, but frequently the show challenges their resolve. Picard himself, in the superb Star Trek film First Contact, is confronted by his old enemies, the Borg, and is challenged when it becomes apparent he’s actually enjoying killing them. “Where were your evolved sensibilities then?” one character screams at him. It is in those moments of frisson, when the characters are torn between their ideals and reality, that Next Gen truly shines.

After a sublime seventh season and several films, the TNG story stopped. Then a few years ago we got two pretty wonky seasons of Picard, a show set 29 years after the final TNG film. But the third and final season of Picard – the finale of which is about to air – has, without spoiling anything, done something miraculous. Matalas took over from author Michael Chabon as showrunner alongside Akiva Goldsman in season two; in the third he has – if you’ll forgive the pun – single-handedly landed the ship.

Jonathan Frakes as Riker and Patrick Stewart as Picard in Star Trek: Picard.

The last season of Picard is peak Star Trek; it is TNG’s long-awaited eighth season. It reunites the classic cast for one last adventure, and is everything that makes Trek so prescient, so vital, and so timely, distilled down to a single whip-smart, passionate and emotionally articulate season of television. The performances are next level, the storytelling is breathtaking and the emotional heft is staggering. The world of TNG would be immeasurably poorer without it.

As a fan, it is wonderful to see the TNG story continue with such effortlessness after all these years. The common thread that links TNG and the final season of Picard is an idea: that together, we’re stronger.

“For me, that’s the most positive thing about Star Trek,” Gates says. “That if we work together, if we collaborate, if we stop being rigid, judgmental and open ourselves up to the possibility of learning something new or even being wrong! If we do that, and give love … we can achieve anything. That’s the genius of Star Trek.”

Gates McFadden is also the host of the podcast Gates McFadden Investigates: Who do you think you are? , where she interviews friends and colleagues, including cast members from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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‘Picard’ Gets the ‘Next Generation’ Band Back Together

The new season provides a victory lap for some of the most beloved “Star Trek” characters and actors. “I had long since given up on any hope of a conclusion as satisfying as this one is,” LeVar Burton said.

Clockwise from top left: Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Patrick Stewart of “The Next Generation,” which ran for seven seasons starting in 1987. Credit... Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times

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Sopan Deb

By Sopan Deb

  • Published Feb. 14, 2023 Updated Feb. 15, 2023

LOS ANGELES — In a 1987 review of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” a New York Times TV critic wrote of the premiere , “On this initial voyage, the Enterprise and its new crew simply fail to take flight.”

This was a common sentiment through the show’s early days, one shared by many fans, critics and even some of those involved in the series. As the first version of “Star Trek” to not involve the beloved Kirk, Spock and McCoy from the original series and multiple films, “The Next Generation” had to overcome plenty of distrust and resentment before finding its footing.

Decades later, after a popular seven-season run and several movies, it’s hard to believe anyone ever doubted “The Next Generation.” Go to any convention panel featuring members of the cast, and fans will line up to say that Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) inspired them to become psychologists, or that Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) did the same for doctors. Or that Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) influenced a generation of engineers.

For years, such events were the only way to see the stoic and thoughtful Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Co. gathered together. But now much of the original “Next Generation” cast has been reunited in the new season of “Star Trek: Picard,” which premieres Thursday on Paramount+. While there is plenty of fan service to go around, the story lines offer a fresh take on familiar faces who have taken drastically different paths.

If not exactly a “Next Generation” revival, the story could function as another, perhaps better, send-off for some of the most beloved characters in the “Star Trek” universe, who were last all together onscreen two decades ago in the movie “Star Trek: Nemesis.” Panned by critics, fans and even some of the actors, the film seemed like the end of the road for the cast.

But the universe where their ship had once boldly gone had more in store.

When the core cast got together for an interview last week, the gathering had the atmosphere of a family reunion. Stewart broke into song with Jonathan Frakes, who plays Picard’s longtime No. 1, William Riker, while Michael Dorn (who plays the honorable Klingon Worf) cackled nearby. In the conversation that followed, they, along with Burton, McFadden and Brent Spiner (the android Data), talked about what it was like to revisit their most famous characters and work with one another again. (Sirtis was unavailable; Spiner joined by video.)

These are edited excerpts from the interview.

I was fascinated to learn that Jean-Luc Picard was originally based loosely on Horatio Hornblower, the fictional Royal Navy officer protagonist of the C.S. Forester novels. Patrick, you’ve obviously made the character your own since. What did you draw on for the Admiral Picard we see in the current series?

PATRICK STEWART Well, a lot of it is based on disappointment, frustration. I was promoted, which meant a bit of farewell. A goodbye. But the admiral job turned out to be an office trip, basically. It was not what he had known all his life, which was being on a ship. I’ve heard this from Navy people, that they have the same thing.

So he had gone back to France and was running his vineyard and then he encounters this profoundly troubled young woman and feels that he needs to do something. That’s where the engagement begins, and it is also the last time that, as an actor, I ran up a flight of stairs. You’ll never see me do that again.

A close-up, black-and-white portrait of an bald man on a black background.

I saw an interview where you said that sometimes you don’t know where Picard ends and Patrick Stewart begins. Do the rest of you feel that way about your characters?

MICHAEL DORN Not me.

JONATHAN FRAKES What about your new Worf?

DORN What about him?

FRAKES He’s a little more like Michael.

DORN Did I say no? I meant yes.

[Laughter.]

LEVAR BURTON I’ve tried to bring as much LeVar into Geordi as has made sense. I won’t say that there’s an absolute melding of the two, but there’s a little Geordi in me now, absolutely.

BRENT SPINER I’ve said this before, and it may be redundant, but I think there’s a little Data in every man. But since I am Data, there’s more of it in me.

Who here needed the most convincing to reprise his or her character?

SPINER Dorn, I think. Right?

DORN Everything was fine except the makeup. That was the issue that I had: making sure the makeup was not three hours as it was before.

Was it better?

DORN Much better. Actually, the makeup was less than an hour.

FRAKES Never looked better, I’ve got to say. The beard was beautiful.

How challenging was it to play evolved versions of your characters?

FRAKES I thought Terry [the showrunner, Terry Matalas] wrote Riker better than he had ever been written.

FRAKES He had Patrick and me to lunch, and he said, “What I’d like to do is write conflict for you two guys who never really had any conflict.” To which we both said: “That’s great.” Roddenberry [Gene Roddenberry, the “Star Trek” creator] wanted our ship to exist in a bubble in which the family lived without conflict, which is unrealistic and uninteresting in many ways and is undramatic. So for Picard and Riker to be at loggerheads was great for us. To look at Patrick’s eyes and the characters disagree — it was so much different than bringing him reports. Our relationship was so gentle, and here we really had big issues, and that made the drama better. It made the story better.

Brent, there’s a running joke among fans about how every time there’s a new “Star Trek” story, there’s a new character for you to play. [Data has multiple clones and human quasi-ancestors.] Is there a part of you that wishes your original version of Data, who died in “Nemesis,” could be part of this rendition?

SPINER I don’t think so, because then I couldn’t have played those other things. You know, I was perfectly happy with the ending of “Nemesis,” even though I know that a lot of fans weren’t. And then I feel that was sort of redeemed, in a way, for the fans in the first season of “Picard.” I would hate to have missed both those moments.

So no, I’m perfectly happy with the way it’s gone. I can’t say much more. I haven’t really seen much of the show — they’ve kept it away from me because they know I’ll blow it.

How did the rest of you feel about where the “Next Generation” franchise was left after “Nemesis”?

BURTON I always felt it was a missed opportunity to create a story and play a story line that had a fitting and proper conclusion to it. None of us knew that was going to be our last outing. So there was always, at least for me, a sense of a missed opportunity, something unfulfilled.

FRAKES Which is what Season 3 of “Picard” has been, which we didn’t dare hope for.

BURTON That ship had sailed. Two decades have passed. I had long since given up on any hope of a conclusion as satisfying as this one is.

GATES McFADDEN I had given up hope. I felt that my character in the movies was practically nonexistent; it was just bizarre. In this one, I felt more like the way I felt in “All Good Things” [the series finale]. “All Good Things” was a brilliant end. We all had great story lines, and in this, I think, the same thing is true. You feel the past — I felt my past connection with each of these characters, and that was something I didn’t feel in the films. Then I felt like I was just filling a role of, “Well, we have to have Crusher in here because she’s part of the cast.” There wasn’t really a sense that I had a through-line or real character intention. So this was unexpected, and I’m very happy with it. I think it’s an incredible season.

DORN I didn’t have any idea that [“Nemesis”] was going to be the last one. I thought that there was going to be another shot at some point. After 10 years go by, you go, “I don’t know if it’s going to come back.”

Patrick, did you think you were saying goodbye to Jean-Luc after “Nemesis?”

STEWART Oh, yes, but with disappointment.

[To Spiner:] Brent, there had been a lot of conversation about you and John Logan [who co-wrote “Nemesis”] writing a new film script, and that appealed to me enormously. But of course that was dumped along with everything else. And I felt frustration and disappointment about that because what we went out with wasn’t good, I don’t think.

SPINER There are things about “Nemesis” that didn’t work. I think we went into it with the feeling that it was probably going to be our last film, which was why we let Data’s demise happen. We thought a great dramatic conclusion to one of the characters would be a fitting end to the series.

I don’t want to put the blame on anybody for why “Nemesis” didn’t work, but I think we could have come back and done another film. As we’ve seen, Data did come back in the first season of “Picard,” so there were ways of doing that.

McFADDEN The franchise is very different now , though. I think that we’ve had so many wonderful captains of new shows, and it’s gone on enough to be able to make fun of itself in “Lower Decks.” In particular, if I can speak for the role of women in the franchise, it’s just night and day from when Marina and I began. There’s a huge difference to me, and that view is manifest in this season.

You all have talked in the past about how fun the “Next Generation” set was. What was the dynamic like in working together again?

DORN It was different.

In what ways?

DORN I mean, for me, we weren’t all together all the time.

FRAKES We didn’t have the opportunity to get back into that weird rhythm. [With the original series,] we did 26 episodes a year, but we played on the bridge together for days on end. That’s when we got a reputation as being so rambunctious and unmanageable that the director had to yell action to get us to shut up.

McFADDEN There were times where we were all together as well.

SPINER For me, it was very similar to the way it used to be, except much slower.

What do you mean by that?

SPINER We’re old.

What is it about these characters that still resonates decades later?

McFADDEN People need role models; I don’t think I understood that when I first started doing the show. By doing the conventions, I have been introduced — we all have — to people whose lives have been changed by watching the show, or maybe that was the only thing on in the hospital room. And it is a show that is intelligent and has scientific basis to it but also has great humanity.

I think this season of “Picard,” our characters are the most human they’ve ever been, actually. We are expressing things in ways that we weren’t quite expressing them in any other show. The fans have taught me a lot and brought me to understanding how important it is to have a show that talks about a positive future, a future where people can collaborate, that’s inclusive.

SPINER I think it also has to do with our affection for each other as a family. It’s the connection we have with each other that they appreciate. They can then symbiotically be a part of the familial situation that we have onscreen and, frankly, offscreen as well.

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the Culture section. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign for CBS News. More about Sopan Deb

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This Obscure 'Next Generation' Character Will Return in 'Star Trek: Section 31'

Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou will meet an interesting familiar face.

The Big Picture

  • Paramount+ reveals cast member Kacey Rohl will play Rachel Garrett in the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie.
  • Originally planned as a series, the film follows Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou in her work for Section 31.
  • Rachel Garrett captained the USS Enterprise-C in the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Details on Paramount+'s upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie have so far been as top-secret as its namesake Starfleet spy agency. But now we know one of the characters who will encounter Michelle Yeoh 's Philippa Georgiou - and she's an important part of Star Trek history. A new feature in Variety goes behind the scenes of the filming of the streaming-original film, which recently wrapped filming , and reveals that previously-announced cast member Kacey Rohl ( Hannibal ) will be playing Rachel Garrett, a character who captained the USS Enterprise-C in the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise".

Little else is known about the upcoming film; it was originally planned as a series, but with Yeoh's busy schedule following her groundbreaking Best Actress Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All At Once , it was compressed into a single standalone film. It will follow Georgiou's work for the shadowy Starfleet intelligence agency Section 31, following her return to the 23rd century in the third season of Star Trek: Discovery . In addition to Yeoh and Rohl, it will also star Omari Hardwick , Sam Richardson , Sven Ruygrok , Rob Kazinsky , Humberly Gonzalez , James Hiroyuki Liao , Joe Pingue , Miku Martineau , and Augusto Bitter .

Who is Rachel Garrett?

In "Yesterday's Enterprise", which aired in 1990 as part of The Next Generation 's third season, the 24th-century Enterprise-D finds itself confronted with its long-thought-destroyed predecessor, the Enterprise-C , captained by Rachel Garrett ( Tricia O'Neil ). Somehow, the Enterprise-C being thrown into the future has altered the future; instead of the relatively peaceful galaxy familiar to the show's viewers, the Federation is embroiled in a desperate war with the Klingon Empire . The crew soon realizes that the Enterprise-C must respond to a Klingon distress call in its own timeline, even though it means the ship will be destroyed by the Romulans ; Garrett is soon killed in an ambush by the future Klingons, forcing helmsman Richard Castillo ( Christopher McDonald ) to take over the ship with Enterprise-D security officer Tasha Yar ( Denise Crosby ), leading it to its fate in the past. Ultimately, the Enterprise-C 's sacrifice averts war with the Klingons and restores the Enterprise-D 's future to its rightful state, while Garrett and her crew are remembered as heroes. However, the Enterprise-C 's legacy later came back to haunt the Enterprise-D ; Yar survived and bore a half-Romulan daughter, Sela, who would become one of the crew's recurring foes.

"Yesterday's Enterprise" is considered to be one of The Next Generation 's finest episodes. Collider's Liam Gaughan deemed it to be the best episode of season 3 , calling it a "fascinating look at a darker version of the setting we know and love" while also serving as a proper sendoff for Tasha Yar, who had been unceremoniously killed off in the show's first season.

Star Trek: Section 31 is now in post-production, and has not yet set a release date . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

A Surprising Next Generation Character Was Revealed For Star Trek: Section 31, And I'm So Stoked

I wasn't expecting this!

Michelle Garrett and Picard

Star Trek: Section 31 , the first new movie for the franchise in years, recently wrapped production. While fans were already jazzed about the possibility of actors from Strange New Worlds appearing in the movie , we now have confirmation of one iconic character who will make an appearance. It's been revealed one of the previously announced cast members will be playing someone from The Next Generation , and I'm so stoked about it.

Kacey Rohl was announced as part of the Star Trek: Section 31 cast , but the original announcement did not say who she would play. Now, Variety has reported that Rohl will play a younger version of The Next Generation 's Rachel Garrett, who has some history in the Trek universe worth knowing about for those who may not remember.

Rachel Garrett First Appeared In TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise"

Rachel Garrett was Captain of the USS Enterprise C , which had been transported into the future due to an anomaly in the midst of battle. Garrett met the successor crew of the Enterprise D , who realized the ship's transport created an alternate timeline that led to war between the Klingons and the Federation when Garrett's ship failed to protect an outpost from Romulans.

Ultimately, Garrett decided to send the Enterprise C back through the anomaly, knowing it would likely be destroyed, in order to show the Klingons the Federation supported them and prevent the war. The character ultimately died before she could arrive on the other end, but her lieutenant continued through the rift. "Yesterday's Episode" is a great episode, and one I'd highly recommend to anyone with a Paramount+ subscription .

Rachel Garrett Was Also Referenced In Picard Season 3

Rachel Garrett had a small part to play in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, as a statue of her was in front of a Starfleet recruitment building that was ultimately destroyed by a terrorist attack. I'm not expecting this connection to really mean anything in the context of Section 31 , but it does seem interesting to see that there are those behind the scenes looking to expand on Garrett's story and legacy.

Dexter Remmick in Star Trek: The Next Generation

I still think about these.

One major question I have is whether or not Rachel Garrett will be a part of the Section 31 division. It would be interesting to learn that an eventual captain of the flagship Enterprise was also working for Starfleet's secret division at one point. I'd love to see a series centered around that, though there are already some upcoming Star Trek projects currently being worked on, so there may not be room for it on the slate.

One thing there's no denying is that the mystique surrounding Star Trek: Section 31 just shot up for a lot of fans. The fact that Garrett is in the movie raises a lot of questions about the point in time the movie is set in and how her being a part of the story factors into anything. With that said, the Variety article did refer to her appearance as something for the most dedicated fans, but also an appearance that those unaware of her history won't feel lost without knowing. This could mean that her overall impact in the story isn't that substantial in terms of the lore, but hey, I'm still stoked to be seeing the character return once again. Here's hoping for more cameos like this in the Michelle Yeoh-led Star Trek movie !

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Star Trek: Section 31 has wrapped production, but we're still waiting on news of when it'll be available to stream on Paramount+. I would stream The Next Generation in the meantime, or gear up for the upcoming release of Discovery 's final season.

Mick Joest

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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  • Episode aired Jan 4, 1992

Michael Dorn and Brian Bonsall in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Geordi can barely curtail his enthusiasm at being able to test out a new theory of transportation, as Worf's mother boards the Enterprise with his son and news that Worf's Earthly parents ca... Read all Geordi can barely curtail his enthusiasm at being able to test out a new theory of transportation, as Worf's mother boards the Enterprise with his son and news that Worf's Earthly parents can no longer care for him. Geordi can barely curtail his enthusiasm at being able to test out a new theory of transportation, as Worf's mother boards the Enterprise with his son and news that Worf's Earthly parents can no longer care for him.

  • Robert Scheerer
  • Gene Roddenberry
  • Grant Rosenberg
  • Sara B. Cooper
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • LeVar Burton
  • 16 User reviews
  • 9 Critic reviews

Michael Dorn and Gates McFadden in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

  • Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Jonathan Frakes

  • Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

LeVar Burton

  • Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

Michael Dorn

  • Lieutenant Worf

Gates McFadden

  • Dr. Beverly Crusher

Marina Sirtis

  • Counselor Deanna Troi

Brent Spiner

  • Lieutenant Commander Data

Georgia Brown

  • Helena Rozhenko

Brian Bonsall

  • Alexander Rozhenko

Richard McGonagle

  • Dr. Ja'Dar

Jennifer Edwards

  • Ensign Felton

Majel Barrett

  • Enterprise Computer

Joyce Agu

  • Ensign Gates
  • (uncredited)
  • Crewman Nelson
  • Crewman Garvey
  • Crewman Martinez

Tracee Cocco

  • All cast & crew
  • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

  • Trivia Georgia Brown reprises her role as Worf's foster mother Helena Rozhenko following her first appearance in Family (1990) . This was her final appearance and also Brown's final performance as the actress passed away in 1992.
  • Goofs Kahless is pronounced here as "Kah-less" while all other Trek productions about this character call him "Kay-less".

[last lines]

[Worf had considered sending Alexander to a Klingon school]

Lieutenant Worf : Klingon schools are designed to be difficult. The physical and mental hardships faced by the students are meant to build character and strength. However - if you wish to face a greater challenge, you may stay here with me. It would not be easy - for either of us. But perhaps we can face the challenge together.

Alexander Rozhenko : I accept your challenge, Father. I will stay.

Lieutenant Worf : I believe your mother would be pleased.

  • Connections Referenced in Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
  • Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 16

  • Sep 19, 2017
  • January 4, 1992 (United States)
  • United States
  • Official site
  • Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
  • Paramount Television
  • See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

  • Runtime 46 minutes
  • Dolby Digital

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Star Trek: Discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants

Imagining the future of the future

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It’s a truth universally acknowledged that even among the greatest television shows in Star Trek history, most of them take two seasons to stop being kind of bad. Never has that been more true or more excruciating than in the case of Star Trek: Discovery .

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Polygon is looking ahead to the movies, shows, and books coming soon in our Spring 2024 entertainment preview package, a weeklong special issue.

Often it felt like what Discovery was really doing in its early seasons was discovering what didn’t work. Strong performances from a great cast? That works. A Klingon design that absolutely nobody liked ? Definitely not. But despite the stumbles, Discovery season 1 had still averaged C’s and B’s with reviewers, and had built an audience and a subscriber base for Paramount Plus. On the strength of Disco ’s first season, Paramount greenlit Star Treks Picard , Lower Decks , and Prodigy , three new shows covering a huge range of ages and nostalgic tastes. And spinning out of Disco ’s second season, which introduced familiar , nostalgic characters and a brighter, more Star Trek-y tone, Paramount produced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , inarguably the best new addition to the franchise since 1996.

Star Trek: Discovery crawled so that the rest of modern Trek could run... and then it started to walk. The show’s third season saw the USS Discovery and crew in the place that should have been their starting blocks: the bleeding future edge of Star Trek’s timeline. Thanks to season 3’s groundwork, season 4 became the first time that Discovery had a status quo worth returning to. In its fifth and final season, Star Trek: Discovery is finally free — free in a way that a Star Trek TV series hasn’t been in 23 years.

Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery, season 5. Wearing a glowing uniformed spacesuit, she clings to the back of a spaceship speeding through hyperspace, colorful lights streaking the background.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is such an elder statesman of the television elite that it’s easy to forget that it was daring. The show’s triumph wasn’t just that it featured a new cast of characters, but also its audaciousness in imagining the future of the future — and making that future unmistakably different . The Original Series showed a racial and national cooperation that seemed fantastical in its time, with an alien crewmember to denote the next frontier of embracing the other . Next Generation saw that bet and raised it, installing a member of the Klingon species, the Federation’s once-feared imperialist rival state, as a respected officer on the bridge of Starfleet’s flagship.

Next Generation ’s time period — one century after Kirk’s Enterprise — wasn’t a nominal choice, but a commitment to moving the story of Star Trek forward. From the show’s foundations, Gene Roddenberry and his collaborators, new and old, set a precedent that the Federation would evolve. Therefore, in accordance with the utopian themes of the franchise, old enemies would in time become friends. Next Generation embraced The Original Series ’ nemeses and the rest of ’90s Trek saw that bet and raised it again, pulling many of Next Gen ’s villains into the heroic fold. Voyager welcomed a Borg crewmember and disincorporated the Borg empire; Deep Space Nine gave the franchise the first Ferengi Starfleet cadet, and brokered a Federation-Klingon-Romulan alliance in the face of an existential threat.

But Discovery — at least until it made its Olympic long-jump leap 900 years into the future — couldn’t move Star Trek forward. So long as it was set “immediately before Kirk’s Enterprise,” hemmed in by the constraints of a previously established era of Star Trek history, it could graft on new elements (like Spock’s secret human foster sister) but it couldn’t create from whole cloth (like a galaxy-wide shortage of starship fuel that nearly destroyed the Federation). Like its predecessor, the ill-fated Star Trek: Enterprise of the ’00s, it was doomed to hang like a remora on the side of the events of The Original Series , or, if you’ll pardon another fish metaphor, doomed like a goldfish that can only grow as large as its half-gallon fishbowl will allow.

Discovery ’s later, free seasons in the 32nd century have shown the Federation at its most vulnerable, a subtler echo of Picard ’s own season 1 swing at fallen institutions . (Fans of Voyager and Deep Space Nine know that this is an extremely rich vein of Trek storytelling.) In its third season, Discovery solved a galaxy-wide fuel crisis that had shattered the community of the Federation. In its fourth it fought for a fragile new Federation alliance and its millennia-old ideals.

And those seasons have also boldly committed to the idea of imagining the future’s future — 900 years of it. The centuries-old rift between Vulcans and Romulans is long healed, Ferengi serve as captains in Starfleet, the work of Doctor Noonien Soong has brought new medical technologies to the fore.

Even still, Discovery hasn’t been truly free in its third and fourth seasons. Star Trek: Picard was out there, forming new past elements of a post- Next Gen / Voy / DS9 era that Discovery had to abide by. And, after all, the show still had to make sure there was something for its own next season to come back to.

Blu del Barrio as Adira in Star Trek: Discovery. She kneels confused before a strange figure dressed in white with white hair, with red robed figures in the background.

But now — with Prodigy and Picard finished, and Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks locked into their settings of Star Trek’s established past, and Starfleet Academy and Section 31 not yet in production at the time that its final season would have been written — Discovery has reached the final final frontier for a Star Trek show. If you’re a Star Trek fan, that should excite you.

Not since Deep Space Nine in 1999 and Voyager in 2001 has a Star Trek series had the freedom to wrap up its run with the Federation in any state it wants to. With franchise flagship Next Generation at an end, and Voyager restricted to the Delta Quadrant only, Deep Space Nine used its last seasons to throw the Federation into all-out war, making sweeping changes to the established ficto-political norms of ’90s Trek. Voyager used its finale to do what Captain Picard never could: defang the Borg (mostly).

We don’t know exactly what Discovery will do with that freedom. Season 4 directors have talked about reaching “ into the past to get further into the future ,” and likened it to Indiana Jones. Official news releases have said the crew will “uncover a mystery that sends them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries.” But speculating on what that means would be beside the point.

Discovery , the show about an intergalactically teleporting starship, can finally, actually, go anywhere. It’s been almost a quarter of a century since a beloved Star Trek series was so free to boldly go. Let’s hope they’re very bold indeed.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres with two episodes on April 4 on Paramount Plus.

Spring 2024 entertainment preview

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The restored star trek enterprise-d bridge goes on display in may, the bridge is going on display at sci-fi world musem in santa monica, california..

Jonathan M. Gitlin - Mar 22, 2024 4:48 pm UTC

A recreation of the Star Trek The Next Generation Enterprise-D bridge

More than a decade has gone by since three Star Trek: The Next Generation fans first decided to restore the bridge from the Enterprise-D . Plans for the restored bridge morphed from opening it up to non-commercial uses like weddings or educational events into a fully fledged museum , and now that museum is almost ready to open. Backers of the project on Kickstarter have been notified that Sci-Fi World Museum will open to them in Santa Monica, California, on May 27, with general admission beginning in June.

It's not actually the original set from TNG , as that was destroyed while filming Star Trek: Generations , when the saucer section crash-lands on Veridian III. But three replicas were made, overseen by Michael Okuda and Herman Zimmerman, the show's set designers. Two of those welcomed Trekkies at Star Trek: The Experience , an attraction in Las Vegas until it closed in 2008 .

The third spent time in Hollywood, then traveled to Europe and Asia for Star Trek: World Tour  before it ended up languishing in a warehouse in Long Beach. It's this third globe-trotting Enterprise-D bridge that—like the grit that gets an oyster to create a pearl—now finds a science-fiction museum accreted around it. Well, mostly—the chairs used by Riker, Troi, Data, and some other bits were salvaged from the Las Vegas exhibit.

Unlike the actual set, which was made from wood, the replica is made of metal and fiberglass. The restoration was originally supposed to take up to two years , but the project ended up being a far bigger challenge.

When Ars checked in with the Enterprise-D bridge restoration in 2014, the science-fiction museum plan had taken shape. But that change of plans did not sit well with some of the project's original supporters, particularly after an imperfect re-creation of the captain's chair—which remained lost until recently—was sold on eBay.

Things got even uglier in 2018 when Huston Huddleston, who led the project, was arrested and then convicted for possessing child pornography. Although Huddleston still appears listed as the project's CEO on its Kickstarter page , that appears to be an artifact of its creation, and John Purdy is listed as the CEO of the Sci-Fi World Museum on its About Us page . However, Huddleston's mother remains as the museum's Chief Financial Officer.

The Enterprise-D isn't the only bridge you'll be able to find at the museum —there's also a replica of the bridge from Star Trek: The Original Series , which previously lived in a wax museum in Buena Park, California. Other exhibits include a hall of robots, as well as the "Bubbleship" and a drone from the movie Oblivion .

It's also not the only recent re-creation of the Enterprise-D's bridge. Okuda and his wife Denise both helped Paramount re-create the iconic set for the third season of Picard . The new Enterprise-D set can even be explored on Google Maps .

And earlier this month, it looked like Jean-Luc Picard's long-lost chair might be sold at auction. However, the day saw an agreement between CBS Studios and the auctioneer Propstore, which will return the chair to CBS's Star Trek Archive, which plans to restore and display it in the coming year.

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The Future of ‘Star Trek’: From ‘Starfleet Academy’ to New Movies and Michelle Yeoh, How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans

“I can’t believe I get to play the captain of the Enterprise.”

“Strange New Worlds” is the 12th “Star Trek” TV show since the original series debuted on NBC in 1966, introducing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a hopeful future for humanity. In the 58 years since, the “Star Trek” galaxy has logged 900 television episodes and 13 feature films, amounting to 668 hours — nearly 28 days — of content to date. Even compared with “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Trek” stands as the only storytelling venture to deliver a single narrative experience for this long across TV and film.

In other words, “Star Trek” is not just a franchise. As Alex Kurtzman , who oversees all “Star Trek” TV production, puts it, “‘Star Trek’ is an institution.”

Without a steady infusion of new blood, though, institutions have a way of fading into oblivion (see soap operas, MySpace, Blockbuster Video). To keep “Star Trek” thriving has meant charting a precarious course to satisfy the fans who have fueled it for decades while also discovering innovative ways to get new audiences on board.

“Doing ‘Star Trek’ means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time,” Kurtzman says.

The franchise has certainly weathered its share of fallow periods, most recently after “Nemesis” bombed in theaters in 2002 and UPN canceled “Enterprise” in 2005. It took 12 years for “Star Trek” to return to television with the premiere of “Discovery” in 2017; since then, however, there has been more “Star Trek” on TV than ever: The adventure series “Strange New Worlds,” the animated comedy “Lower Decks” and the kids series “Prodigy” are all in various stages of production, and the serialized thriller “Picard” concluded last year, when it ranked, along with “Strange New Worlds,” among Nielsen’s 10 most-watched streaming original series for multiple weeks. Nearly one in five Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. is watching at least one “Star Trek” series, according to the company, and more than 50% of fans watching one of the new “Trek” shows also watch at least two others. The new shows air in 200 international markets and are dubbed into 35 languages. As “Discovery” launches its fifth and final season in April, “Star Trek” is in many ways stronger than it’s ever been.

“’Star Trek’s fans have kept it alive more times than seems possible,” says Eugene Roddenberry, Jr., who executive produces the TV series through Roddenberry Entertainment. “While many shows rightfully thank their fans for supporting them, we literally wouldn’t be here without them.”

But the depth of fan devotion to “Star Trek” also belies a curious paradox about its enduring success: “It’s not the largest fan base,” says Akiva Goldsman, “Strange New Worlds” executive producer and co-showrunner. “It’s not ‘Star Wars.’ It’s certainly not Marvel.”

When J.J. Abrams rebooted “Star Trek” in 2009 — with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña playing Kirk, Spock and Uhura — the movie grossed more than any previous “Star Trek” film by a comfortable margin. But neither that film nor its two sequels broke $500 million in global grosses, a hurdle every other top-tier franchise can clear without breaking a sweat.

There’s also the fact that “Star Trek” fans are aging. I ask “The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes, who’s acted in or directed more versions of “Star Trek” than any other person alive, how often he meets fans for whom the new “Star Trek” shows are their first. “Of the fans who come to talk to me, I would say very, very few,” he says. “‘Star Trek’ fans, as we know, are very, very, very loyal — and not very young.”

As Stapf puts it: “There’s a tried and true ‘Trek’ fan that is probably going to come to every ‘Star Trek,’ no matter what it is — and we want to expand the universe.”

Every single person I spoke to for this story talked about “Star Trek” with a joyful earnestness as rare in the industry as (nerd alert) a Klingon pacifist.

“When I’m meeting fans, sometimes they’re coming to be confirmed, like I’m kind of a priest,” Ethan Peck says during a break in filming on the “Strange New Worlds” set. He’s in full Spock regalia — pointy ears, severe eyebrows, bowl haircut — and when asked about his earliest memories of “Star Trek,” he stares off into space in what looks like Vulcan contemplation. “I remember being on the playground in second or third grade and doing the Vulcan salute, not really knowing where it came from,” he says. “When I thought of ‘Star Trek,’ I thought of Spock. And now I’m him. It’s crazy.”

To love “Star Trek” is to love abstruse science and cowboy diplomacy, complex moral dilemmas and questions about the meaning of existence. “It’s ultimately a show with the most amazing vision of optimism, I think, ever put on-screen in science fiction,” says Kurtzman, who is 50. “All you need is two minutes on the news to feel hopeless now. ‘Star Trek’ is honestly the best balm you could ever hope for.”

I’m getting a tour of the USS Enterprise from Scotty — or, rather, “Strange New World” production designer Jonathan Lee, who is gushing in his native Scottish burr as we step into the starship’s transporter room. “I got such a buzzer from doing this, I can’t tell you,” he says. “I actually designed four versions of it.”

Lee is especially proud of the walkway he created to run behind the transporter pads — an innovation that allows the production to shoot the characters from a brand-new set of angles as they beam up from a far-flung planet. It’s one of the countless ways that this show has been engineered to be as cinematic as possible, part of Kurtzman’s overall vision to make “Star Trek” on TV feel like “a movie every week.”

Kurtzman’s tenure with “Star Trek” began with co-writing the screenplay for Abrams’ 2009 movie, which was suffused with a fast-paced visual style that was new to the franchise. When CBS Studios approached Kurtzman in the mid-2010s about bringing “Star Trek” back to TV, he knew instinctively that it needed to be just as exciting as that film.

“The scope was so much different than anything we had ever done on ‘Next Gen,’” says Frakes, who’s helmed two feature films with the “Next Generation” cast and directed episodes of almost every live-action “Trek” TV series, including “Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds.” “Every department has the resources to create.”

A new science lab set for Season 3, for example, boasts a transparent floor atop a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench, and the surrounding walls sport a half dozen viewscreens with live schematics custom designed by a six-person team. “I like being able to paint on a really big canvas,” Kurtzman says. “The biggest challenge is always making sure that no matter how big something gets, you’re never losing focus on that tiny little emotional story.”

At this point, is there a genre that “Strange New Worlds” can’t do? “As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” Goldsman says with an impish smile. “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

This approach is also meant to appeal to people who might want to watch “Star Trek” but regard those 668 hours of backstory as an insurmountable burden. “You shouldn’t have to watch a ‘previously on’ to follow our show,” Myers says.

To achieve so many hairpin shifts in tone and setting while maintaining Kurtzman’s cinematic mandate, “Strange New Worlds” has embraced one of the newest innovations in visual effects: virtual production. First popularized on the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” the technology — called the AR wall — involves a towering circular partition of LED screens projecting a highly detailed, computer-generated backdrop. Rather than act against a greenscreen, the actors can see whatever fantastical surroundings their characters are inhabiting, lending a richer level of verisimilitude to the show.

But there is a catch. While the technology is calibrated to maintain a proper sense of three-dimensional perspective through the camera lens, it can be a bit dizzying for anyone standing on the set. “The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” says Mount. “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

And yet, even as he’s talking about it, Mount can’t help but break into a boyish grin. “Sometimes we call it the holodeck,” he says. In fact, the pathway to the AR wall on the set is dotted with posters of the virtual reality room from “The Next Generation” and the words “Enter Holodeck” in a classic “Trek” font.

“I want to take one of those home with me,” Peck says. Does the AR wall also affect him? “I don’t really get disoriented by it. Spock would not get ill, so I’m Method acting.”

I’m on the set of the “Star Trek” TV movie “Section 31,” seated in an opulent nightclub with a view of a brilliant, swirling nebula, watching Yeoh rehearse with director Olatunde Osunsanmi and her castmates. Originally, the project was announced as a TV series centered on Philippa Georgiou, the semi-reformed tyrant Yeoh originated on “Discovery.” But between COVID delays and the phenomenon of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” there wasn’t room in the veteran actress’s schedule to fit a season of television. Yeoh was undaunted.

“We’d never let go of her,” she says of her character. “I was just blown away by all the different things I could do with her. Honestly, it was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, because I believe in this.’”

If that means nothing to you, don’t worry: The enormity of the revelation that Garrett is being brought back is meant only for fans. If you don’t know who the character is, you’re not missing anything.

“It was always my goal to deliver an entertaining experience that is true to the universe but appeals to newcomers,” says screenwriter Craig Sweeny. “I wanted a low barrier of entry so that anybody could enjoy it.”

Nevertheless, including Garrett on the show is exactly the kind of gasp-worthy detail meant to flood “Star Trek” fans with geeky good feeling.

“You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans,” Kurtzman says. “You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans.”

On its face, that maxim would make “Section 31” a genuine risk. The titular black-ops organization has been controversial with “Star Trek” fans since it was introduced in the 1990s. “The concept is almost antagonistic to some of the values of ‘Star Trek,’” Sweeny says. But he still saw “Section 31” as an opportunity to broaden what a “Star Trek” project could be while embracing the radical inclusivity at the heart of the franchise’s appeal.

“Famously, there’s a spot for everybody in Roddenberry’s utopia, so I was like, ‘Well, who would be the people who don’t quite fit in?’” he says. “I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field. These are not people who necessarily work together the way you would see on a ‘Star Trek’ bridge.”

For Osunsanmi, who grew up watching “The Next Generation” with his father, it boils down to a simple question: “Is it putting good into the world?” he asks. “Are these characters ultimately putting good into the world? And, taking a step back, are we putting good into the world? Are we inspiring humans watching this to be good? That’s for me what I’ve always admired about ‘Star Trek.’”

Should “Section 31” prove successful, Yeoh says she’s game for a sequel. And Kurtzman is already eyeing more opportunities for TV movies, including a possible follow-up to “Picard.” The franchise’s gung-ho sojourn into streaming movies, however, stands in awkward contrast to the persistent difficulty Paramount Pictures and Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have had making a feature film following 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” — the longest theaters have gone without a “Star Trek” movie since Paramount started making them.

First, a movie reuniting Pine’s Capt. Kirk with his late father — played in the 2009 “Star Trek” by Chris Hemsworth — fell apart in 2018. Around the same time, Quentin Tarantino publicly flirted with, then walked away from, directing a “Star Trek” movie with a 1930s gangster backdrop. Noah Hawley was well into preproduction on a “Star Trek” movie with a brand-new cast, until then-studio chief Emma Watts abruptly shelved it in 2020. And four months after Abrams announced at Paramount’s 2022 shareholders meeting that his 2009 cast would return for a movie directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”), Shakman left the project to make “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel. (It probably didn’t help that none of the cast had been approached before Abrams made his announcement.)

The studio still intends to make what it’s dubbed the “final chapter” for the Pine-Quinto-Saldaña cast, and Steve Yockey (“The Flight Attendant”) is writing a new draft of the script. Even further along is another prospective “Star Trek” film written by Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and to be directed by Toby Haynes (“Andor,” “Black Mirror: USS Callister”) that studio insiders say is on track to start preproduction by the end of the year. That project will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise. In both cases, the studio is said to be focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for “Star Trek” feature films.

Far from complaining, everyone seems to relish the challenge. Visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman says that “working with Alex, the references are always at least $100 million movies, if not more, so we just kind of reverse engineer how do we do that without having to spend the same amount of money and time.”

The workload doesn’t seem to faze him either. “Visual effects people are a big, big ‘Star Trek’ fandom,” he says. “You naturally just get all these people who go a little bit above and beyond, and you can’t trade that for anything.”

In one of Kurtzman’s several production offices in Toronto, he and production designer Matthew Davies are scrutinizing a series of concept drawings for the newest “Star Trek” show, “Starfleet Academy.” A bit earlier, they showed me their plans for the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada.

But this is a “Star Trek” show, so there do need to be starships, and Kurtzman is discussing with Davies about how one of them should look. The issue is that “Starfleet Academy” is set in the 32nd century, an era so far into the future Kurtzman and his team need to invent much of its design language.

“For me, this design is almost too Klingon,” Kurtzman says. “I want to see the outline and instinctively, on a blink, recognize it as a Federation ship.”

The time period was first introduced on Season 3 of “Discovery,” when the lead character, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), transported the namesake starship and its crew there from the 23rd century. “It was exciting, because every time we would make a decision, we would say, ‘And now that’s canon,’” says Martin-Green.

“We listened to a lot of it,” Kurtzman says. “I think I’ve been able to separate the toxic fandom from really true fans who love ‘Star Trek’ and want you to hear what they have to say about what they would like to see.”

By Season 2, the “Discovery” writers pivoted from its dour, war-torn first season and sent the show on its trajectory 900-plus years into the future. “We had to be very aware of making sure that Spock was in the right place and that Burnham’s existence was explained properly, because she was never mentioned in the original series,” says executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise. “What was fun about jumping into the future is that it was very much fresh snow.”

That freedom affords “Starfleet Academy” far more creative latitude while also dramatically reducing how much the show’s target audience of tweens and teens needs to know about “Star Trek” before watching — which puts them on the same footing as the students depicted in the show. “These are kids who’ve never had a red alert before,” Noga Landau, executive producer and co-showrunner, says. “They never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.”

In the “Starfleet Academy” writers’ room in Secret Hideout’s Santa Monica offices, Kurtzman tells the staff — a mix of “Star Trek” die-hards, part-time fans and total newbies — that he wants to take a 30,000-foot view for a moment. “I think we need to ground in science more throughout the show,” he says, a giant framed photograph of Spock ears just over his shoulder. “The kids need to use science more to solve problems.”

Immediately, one of the writers brightens. “Are you saying we can amp up the techno-babble?” she says. “I’m just excited I get to use my computer science degree.”

After they break for lunch, Kurtzman is asked how much longer he plans to keep making “Star Trek.” 

“The minute I fall out of love with it is the minute that it’s not for me anymore. I’m not there yet,” he says. “To be able to build in this universe to tell stories that are fundamentally about optimism and a better future at a time when the world seems to be falling apart — it’s a really powerful place to live every day.”

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14 biggest star trek updates: section 31, starfleet academy, strange new worlds & more.

Alex Kurtzman outlines his plans for the future of Star Trek to Variety, providing exciting updates on Section 31, Picard, Starfleet Academy and more!

  • Star Trek franchise teases exciting future with reveals on Section 31, Strange New Worlds, and more in recent interview.
  • Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 movie promises action-packed spy thrills in space, akin to Mission: Impossible.
  • Starfleet Academy set in 32nd century, with new sets and episodes for fan favorite series like Strange New Worlds.

The Star Trek franchise has just revealed a treasure trove of new information about Star Trek: Section 31 , season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and much more. With Star Trek: Discovery ending in 2024, and concerns over the implications of a potential Paramount merger, it's reassuring to discover that the future of the Star Trek franchise looks very bright indeed. Key figures like Alex Kurtzman and Eugene Roddenberry Jr. have revealed new details about the upcoming Star Trek movies , Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 , and a possible sequel to Star Trek: Picard in a brand-new interview.

In a Variety feature entitled The Future of ‘Star Trek’: From ‘Starfleet Academy’ to New Movies and Michelle Yeoh, How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans , Adam B. Vary talks to a number of key figures involved with the current Star Trek TV shows and movies about the exciting future for the franchise. Talking to stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Michelle Yeoh, Adam B. Vary unearths some exclusive information about what to expect from Star Trek 's next few years on TV and in theaters.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

14 the first image of star trek: section 31 is released, michelle yeoh's georgiou meets a mystery figure.

The Variety feature gives Star Trek fans their first glimpse of Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) back in action. Star Trek: Section 31 wrapped filming recently, so attention now turns to post-production ahead of a future release on Paramount+. The image shows Georgiou whispering something into the ear of a mysterious, but memorable looking character . Whether this is a Section 31 asset or one of the movie's antagonists is not yet clear.

Who this metal mohawked character with the tattoos and cybernetic augmentations will likely remain a mystery until such time as Star Trek: Section 31 releases a trailer. However, it's good to see Michelle Yeoh back in her trademark black leathers playing Georgiou again after such a long delay. The first image is an intriguing tease of things to come for Michelle Yeoh's appropriately top secret Section 31 movie.

13 Star Trek: Section 31 Features A Young Rachel Garrett

Played by hannibal's kacey rohl.

One of the biggest surprises from Variety 's Star Trek: Section 31 set report is the revelation that Georgiou will team up with a young Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl). Until now, the roles played by Section 31 's cast have been kept under wraps. Now it's been confirmed that Kacey Rohl will be playing the future captain of the USS Enterprise-C in Section 31 . All that's known about Garrett is how she dies, meaning that there's a lot of unexplored backstory for Section 31 to reveal.

Kacey Rohl starred as Abigail Hobbs in Hannibal , created by Star Trek: Discovery co-creator, Bryan Fuller.

Rachel Garrett's involvement in Star Trek: Section 31 could also narrow down when in the Star Trek timeline the movie is set. Rachel Garrett was a Starfleet officer in the early to mid 24th century, and died in 2344. This suggests that the Guardian of Forever didn't send Georgiou back to her own time in Star Trek: Discovery season 3 , but instead sent her to some point a few decades later.

Rachel Garrett: Star Trek’s Most Tragic Enterprise Captain Explained

12 michelle yeoh calls section 31 "mission: impossible in space", star trek's spy movie is more tom cruise than john le carré..

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh discussed her love for the character of Georgiou in the Variety piece, and gave an enticing tease of what to expect. Yeoh describes Star Trek: Section 31 as "" Mission: Impossible" in space " which is a neat elevator pitch that gives audiences a good idea of what to expect. Under the creative direction of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, the Mission: Impossible movies have become thrilling globetrotting adventures, filled with incredible stunts.

The idea of transposing that Mission: Impossible style to the Star Trek universe suggests that Michelle Yeoh's movie will be full of action and adventure. Star Trek: Section 31 writer Craig Sweeny backs this up, by explaining what Star Trek 's spy movie isn ' t . Read Craig Sweeny's quote below:

“I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field.

11 Section 31 Visit An Alien Nightclub

Georgiou visits a club full of classic star trek aliens..

When Adam B. Vary visits Michelle Yeoh on the set of Star Trek: Section 31 , she's preparing to shoot a scene inside an alien nightclub. From Quark's Bar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to the pleasure planet of Risa, there are many ways to unwind in the Star Trek universe. However, given that this is Section 31 , it's likely that the nightclub visited by Georgiou and Garrett will be a seedier location, perhaps where the mysterious mohawked figure is holding court.

Intriguingly, the Variety feature also reveals that the nightclub will be populated by some classic Star Trek aliens. This location is clearly some sort of hub where the movers and shakers of the galaxy are meeting up, making it a prime location for Section 31's best operatives to be seen. Adam B. Vary gives an enticing description of the action on set while filming this scene from Star Trek: Section 31 in a quote below:

A few minutes later, dozens of extras in all manner of outlandish evening wear file into the club, several of them made up as classic “Star Trek” aliens that fans might be surprised to see in this kind of swanky establishment.

10 Jonathan Frakes' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode Is A Hollywood Murder Mystery

Frakes says that it's “the best episode of television" he's ever done..

Jonathan Frakes is returning to direct an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 that he says is "the best" he's ever done. That's quite a claim, given the director's prolific output between Star Trek: The Next Generation and SNW season 3. Frakes' episode is reportedly a "Hollywood murder mystery", which invokes images of hard-boiled detectives and glamorous settings. It sounds like one more thing to be excited about as production on Strange New Worlds season 3 continues.

9 Starfleet Academy Confirmed To Take Place In Star Trek's 32nd Century

The show will build on star trek: discovery's established canon..

Alex Kurtzman confirms to Variety that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be set in the 32nd century, presumably following on from Star Trek: Discovery 's final season . The Variety feature astutely points out that, by setting Starfleet Academy in the largely unexplored 32nd century, it will reduce the amount of revision that its young adult audience will have to do. Interestingly, the feature also highlights that Star Trek has an aging fanbase, which makes a show like Starfleet Academy vital in building fandom's next generation .

Alex Kurtzman doesn't confirm if any of Star Trek: Discovery 's cast will be making the transition to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy . However, the confirmation of the 32nd century setting does make it more likely that Mary Wiseman's Tilly could appear in the show as an instructor . While casting is still being kept under wraps, Kurtzman and the team did reveal some more information about Starfleet Academy 's setting.

Starfleet Academy Show Is "Trying To Tell A Star Trek Story In A New Way", Says Tawny Newsome

8 starfleet academy will be set in san francisco, star trek's ya show is making the voyage home..

Set designs shared with Variety by Alex Kurtzman and production designer Matthew Davies reveal that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will return to San Francisco . When Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew arrived in the 32nd century in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, Earth was no longer a member of the Federation. This meant that Starfleet Headquarters, and a fledgling Starfleet Academy had moved off-world.

The designs reveal that the 32nd century Starfleet Academy will have " a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge ", cementing its location. San Francisco has always been Starfleet's home , so it's fitting that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will have its roots there. Rooting the show in San Francisco also gives Starfleet Academy a chance to explore what life on Earth looks like in Star Trek 's 32nd century.

7 Starfleet Academy Will Be Star Trek's Biggest-Ever Set

Every inch of pinewood toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage will be used..

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy appears to be literally building the titular educational establishment for use in the show, making it the biggest set ever constructed for Star Trek . Looking over the designs with Alex Kurtzman and Matthew Davies, Adam B. Vary gives a sense of the scale of the 32nd century's Starfleet Academy. Read his quote below:

a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada

6 The Enterprise Gets A New Science Lab In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3

And there's a glimpse of ethan peck's spock at work..

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 will debut a new science lab set , and it looks very impressive. Intriguingly, the new lab is described as having "a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench". Whether this means that Strange New Worlds will introduce its own cetacean ops, or continue Starfleet's love of whales , remains to be seen. Either way, the new set is an impressive addition that suggests Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) will need to upgraded facilities to solve some scientific conundrum in SNW season 3.

5 There's No Genre That Strange New Worlds Can't Do

"could it do muppets sure. could it do black and white, silent, slapstick maybe”.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Akiva Goldsman reaffirms that the Star Trek: The Original Series prequel can attempt any genre. Responding to Vary's question of whether there's a genre that Strange New Worlds couldn't do, Goldsman had an " impish " response. Read Goldsman's quote about a potential Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Muppet episode below:

“As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” [...] “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

4 Strange New Worlds AR Wall Can Be Disorienting For The Cast

But not for everyone....

Elsewhere in the Variety feature, Anson Mount discusses Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' use of the AR wall to create alien backdrops. Where previous Star Trek shows had used a greenscreen, the LCD screens that make up SNW 's AR wall allow the actors to actually see the environments that they're acting against . While it's a benefit, it doesn't always create a great experience for the actors, as Anson Mount points out.

“The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” [...] “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

However, Ethan Peck says that he doesn't get disoriented by the AR wall, wryly joking that Spock wouldn't be fazed by it, so he's simply method acting. Hilariously, Anson Mount also reveals that they refer to the AR wall as the Holodeck. The route that actors take to the AR wall on the set of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is even decorated with posters of the holodeck, and a sign that reads "Weclome to the Holodeck" in the classic Star Trek font.

Enterprise’s Holodeck Is Star Trek’s “Most Imaginative” Invention, Says TNG Producer

3 alex kurtzman is considering a "follow up" to star trek: picard, could patrick stewart get his wish for a final picard movie.

While news of Star Trek: Legacy is absent from Variety 's sprawling feature about the future of the franchise, Alex Kurtzman does drop a small hint about continuing the story of Star Trek: Picard . It's long been suspected that Star Trek: Section 31 will pave the way for more Paramount+ exclusive movies . This is confirmed by Kurtzman, who is already considering potential follow-ups should Section 31 be a success. A follow-up Star Trek: Picard movie is one of the projects that Kurtzman is considering, but there's no further information as to what this would be.

2 Toby Haynes' Star Trek Movie Is An Origin Story For The Entire Franchise

Is star trek's origin movie set for 2026's 60th anniversary.

Variety has confirmed that Seth Grahame-Smith's Star Trek movie, to be directed by Andor 's Toby Haynes, will be an origin story for the entire franchise . More interesting still is that the movie is rumored to be "on track" for pre-production to begin by the end of this year. This suggests that the theatrical release Toby Haynes' Star Trek origin movie could form part of the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2026. Star Trek: First Contact did something very similar for the 30th anniversary celebrations in 1996, so it will be interesting to see how a new movie continues that story 30 years later.

1 The Flight Attendant's Steve Yockey Is Working On Star Trek 4

Yockey is the latest writer to work on the kelvin timeline's finale..

While Toby Haynes' Star Trek origin movie currently appears to be on track, Star Trek 4 remains in development hell. The Variety feature states that Paramount still intends to give Chris Pine's Star Trek movies a final chapter, but not much has changed since the last disappointing update. However, it has been confirmed that The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey is now working on a new draft of Star Trek 4 , but there's no further information than this. While the Kelvin Timeline movies still being stuck at the scripting stage may be disappointing, it's hard to deny that the future of the wider Star Trek franchise looks very bright indeed.

Every Star Trek Show And The Kelvin Timeline Movies Are Now Streaming On Paramount+.

Source: Variety

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  2. To Celebrate 30 Years, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' Stars Visit

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  3. Star Trek-The Next Generation

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  4. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series 1987–1994)

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  5. Star Trek-Generations

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  6. Star Trek: The Next Generation 4-Movie Collection 4K Ultra HD set

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COMMENTS

  1. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired from September 28, 1987, to May 23, 1994, in syndication, spanning 178 episodes over seven seasons. ... Paramount decided not to compete in the science fiction movie category and shifted their efforts to a new ...

  2. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series 1987-1994)

    Star Trek: The Next Generation: Created by Gene Roddenberry. With Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

  3. List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

    Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series which aired in syndication from September 1987 through May 1994. It is the second live-action series of the Star Trek franchise and comprises a total of 176 (DVD and original broadcast) or 178 (syndicated) episodes over 7 seasons. The series picks up about 95 years after the original series is said to have taken place.

  4. Star Trek: The Next Generations 'Cause and Effect' Explained

    Star Trek: The Next Generations 'Cause and Effect' Explained. Story by Joshua Kristian McCoy. • 5d • 4 min read. This well-received episode of TNG sees the Enterprise-D crash and explode ...

  5. List of Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members

    Star Trek: The Next Generation first-season cast photo. Six of the main actors appeared in all seven seasons and all four movies. Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series that debuted in broadcast syndication on September 28, 1987. The series lasted for seven seasons until 1994, and was followed by four movies which were released between 1994 and 2002.

  6. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Star Trek: The Next Generation. Nearly 100 years after Kirk, Spock and the original Enterprise patrolled the galaxy, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a new U.S.S. Enterprise and a new crew carry forth Starfleet's orders to "seek out new life and new civilizations" and "to boldly go where no one has gone before.". 7 seasons • 178 episodes ...

  7. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Summary []. Star Trek: The Next Generation moved the universe forward roughly a century past the days of James T. Kirk and Spock.The series depicted a new age in which the Klingons were allies of the Federation, though the Romulans remained adversaries. New threats included the Ferengi (although they were later used more for comic relief), the Cardassians, and the Borg.

  8. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series 1987-1994)

    Sat, Nov 3, 1990. When the leader of the Klingon High Council dies, Picard finds himself in the middle of the struggle for the now-vacant position. Meanwhile, Worf reunites with a past love, only to find he now has a son. 8.3/10 (3.7K)

  9. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series 1987-1994)

    Sat, Nov 28, 1987. While on a mission to a planet called Haven, Counselor Troi meets her husband to be, a marriage arranged by her father years before, as the Enterprise encounters a ship far deadlier than any combat could provide. 6.2/10 (3.7K) Rate. Watch options.

  10. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 1

    Rated 3.5/5 Stars • 01/09/23. Featuring a bigger and better USS Enterprise, this series is set 78 years after the original series -- in the 24th century. Instead of Capt. James Kirk, a less ...

  11. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Lt. Worf. Dr. Beverly Crusher. Featuring a bigger and better USS Enterprise, this series is set 78 years after the original series -- in the 24th century. Instead of Capt. James Kirk, a less ...

  12. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Star Trek: The Next Generation. Featuring a bigger and better USS Enterprise, this series is set 78 years after the original series -- in the 24th century. Instead of Capt. James Kirk, a less volatile and more mature Capt. Jean-Luc Picard heads the crew of various humans and alien creatures in their adventures in space -- the final frontier ...

  13. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation's Biggest Cliffhanger Changed TV ...

    Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Release ...

  14. 10 Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes To Hook New Fans

    Not only is Star Trek: The Next Generation a worthy successor to Star Trek: The Original Series, but it also produced some of the best science fiction television of all time.Following the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise-D, TNG picks up about 100 years after TOS and introduces the world to a whole new cast of characters.

  15. Make it so! Star Trek: The Next Generation remains radically hopeful

    But in 1987 the story of Star Trek recommenced with a new series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which skipped a century ahead and charted a fascinating new course with an all new crew on a new ...

  16. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Picking up decades after Gene Roddenberry's original Star Trek series, The Next Generation follows the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D as they explore new worlds. Stream Star Trek: The Next Generation free and on-demand with Pluto TV.

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    Star Trek: The Next Generation. 1987 | Maturity rating:12 | Sci-Fi. Decades after the adventures of the original Enterprise crew, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard leads a new Enterprise on missions to explore unknown worlds. Starring:Patrick Stewart,Jonathan Frakes,LeVar Burton. Creators:Gene Roddenberry.

  18. Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Watch Every Star Trek EVER on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/?cbscidmt=startrekuniverse&ftag=PPM-01-10afe6eThe Enterprise fends off a Romulan atta...

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    Summary. 95 years after the original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation leads the way for a new Enterprise crew, led by Captain Jean Luc Picard, to discover strange new worlds and alien ...

  20. 'Star Trek: Picard' Gets the 'Next Generation' Band Back Together

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  21. 'Star Trek: Section 31'

    It will follow Georgiou's work for the shadowy Starfleet intelligence agency Section 31, following her return to the 23rd century in the third season of Star Trek: Discovery. In addition to Yeoh ...

  22. Star Trek Generations

    Star Trek Generations is a 1994 American science fiction film and the seventh film in the Star Trek film series. Malcolm McDowell joins cast members from the 1960s television show Star Trek and the 1987 sequel series The Next Generation, including William Shatner and Patrick Stewart.In the film, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D joins forces with Captain James T. Kirk to stop the ...

  23. Star Trek: Section 31 Confirmed to Feature Major Next Generation Character

    By Adam Barnhardt - March 27, 2024 05:52 pm EDT. 0. At least one more familiar face has joined the cast of Star Trek: Section 31. Rachel Garrett, a Starfleet captain who appeared in Star Trek: The ...

  24. A Surprising Next Generation Character Was Revealed For Star Trek

    Star Trek: Section 31, the first new movie for the franchise in years, recently wrapped production. While fans were already jazzed about the possibility of actors from Strange New Worlds appearing ...

  25. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" New Ground (TV Episode 1992)

    New Ground: Directed by Robert Scheerer. With Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn. Geordi can barely curtail his enthusiasm at being able to test out a new theory of transportation, as Worf's mother boards the Enterprise with his son and news that Worf's Earthly parents can no longer care for him.

  26. Star Trek: Discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants

    Star Trek: The Next Generation is such an elder statesman of the television elite that it's easy to forget that it was daring. The show's triumph wasn't just that it featured a new cast of ...

  27. The restored Star Trek Enterprise-D bridge goes on display in May

    reader comments 64. More than a decade has gone by since three Star Trek: The Next Generation fans first decided to restore the bridge from the Enterprise-D.Plans for the restored bridge morphed ...

  28. Star Trek's Future: 'Starfleet Academy,' 'Section 31,' Michelle Yeoh

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  29. 14 Biggest Star Trek Updates: Section 31, Starfleet Academy, Strange

    The Star Trek franchise has just revealed a treasure trove of new information about Star Trek: Section 31, season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and much more. With Star Trek: Discovery ending in 2024, and concerns over the implications of a potential Paramount merger, it's reassuring to discover that the future of the Star Trek franchise looks very bright indeed.