Star Trek: The Next Generation
New stars. New stories. New worlds to explore.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
Seasons: 7,
episodes: 176
Episode runtime: 45 min
Average rating:
8.7/10
158 842
Production
Status
Completed
Creators
Scenario
René Echevarria
Author
Composer
Producer
Wendy Neuss
Actors
Patrick Stewart
Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes
William T. Riker
Brent Spiner
Data
LeVar Burton
Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn
Worf
Marina Sirtis
Deanna Troi
Gates McFadden
Beverly Crusher
Diana Muldaur
Katherine Pulaski
Short description
Follow the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his loyal crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, as they explore new worlds.
Seasons
| Season | Episodes | Release date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
Season 1 Picking up decades after the original Star Trek series, season one begins the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his loyal crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, as they explore new worlds.
|
25 | 1987-09-28 | 6.6 |
Season 2 In season two, the Enterprise continues on its journey across the galaxy with the birth of a new member. Picard once again leads the team as unknown civilizations take notice of the ship and wishes to know more about the crew and their operations. Riker struggles with his loyalty to the Enterpris…
|
22 | 1988-11-21 | 6.7 |
Season 3 With the disappearance of a Federation colony, the Enterprise warp speeds to action to uncover if the reason was political or something much more sinister. Along their travels, the crew must escort a scientist who may hold the key to a malfunction that places the crew in danger. Prime Directives …
|
26 | 1989-09-25 | 7.2 |
Season 4 As Riker tries to save the Enterprise and the Earth from a powerful alien race, Captain Picard's life hangs in the balance. The crew faces their own demons and must overcome their own obstacles to continue their mission. This leads Data to return to his creator to better understand emotions. Worf…
|
26 | 1990-09-24 | 7.2 |
Season 5 In season five, Starfleet becomes involved in a vast conspiracy amidst a Klingon civil war which forces the Enterprise to become an unwilling pawn against the Romulans as Starfleet's motives are unknown. This leads Picard and Data to undertake a journey to seek out a mysterious member who is tryi…
|
26 | 1991-09-23 | 7.1 |
Season 6 In season six, the crew is faced with a familiar face from the past who insists that machines cannot replace human experience. This causes conflict in Data who questions his affiliation with the Enterprise vs. joining a powerful enemy in order to feel his first emotion. Worf begins a quest to fin…
|
26 | 1992-09-21 | 7.2 |
Season 7 In the seventh and final season, Riker goes undercover and rediscovers Picard posing as a mercenary on an alien ship. Together they initiate a plan to find a lethal artifact. The crew struggles to deal with Data's new found human elements which cause several traumatic episodes for the crew. As Pi…
|
25 | 1993-09-20 | 6.8 |
What's left behind the scenes
- Due to the complexity of the plot lines, Tasha Yar dies three times in the series.
- Sir Patrick Stewart was so convinced that nothing good would come of this whole series venture that he didn't even unpack his suitcases during the first six weeks of filming.
- The forehead prosthetic for the Klingon Worf had to be remade for the second season because the original had been stolen.
- The sound of the doors opening and closing in the series was so loud that the actors were advised to remain silent until it stopped. Only in very rare instances in the series do the actors deliver lines while the doors are opening or closing.
- Sir Patrick Stewart (who played Jean-Luc Picard) and Jonathan Frakes (who played William Riker) are the only ones who appear in all 178 episodes.
- Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg, owes her name to the silent film actress Texas Guinan (1884-1933). During the Prohibition era (1920-1933), Guinan became the owner of a speakeasy.
- After the second season, the producers intended to inform viewers that Geordi had undergone an experimental operation that restored his sight and made wearing the VISOR optional. This idea was abandoned when it became clear that Geordi had already become a role model for people with physical disabilities.
- Sir Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner could not stand their characters' pets—Livingston the fish and Spot the cat, respectively. Stewart was generally opposed to keeping animals in captivity, especially since the series promoted freedom for all civilizations and races in the universe. (The captain who replaced him, Edward Jellico, played by Ronnie Cox, demanded that Livingston be removed from his quarters—a gesture of goodwill toward Stewart.) As for Spiner, he simply did not like cats.
- Initially, Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) flatly refused to cast Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard, as he imagined the captain to be younger. However, Stewart impressed producer Robert X. Justman so much that Justman went to great lengths to convince the show's creator. Roddenberry eventually gave in, but only after all the other candidates he had selected had auditioned and he personally became convinced that no one could play the role better than Stewart.
- In the first two seasons, the Starfleet officer uniforms proved to be quite uncomfortable to wear, so by the third season, the jumpsuits were replaced with trousers and jackets. This proved more convenient; however, the jackets constantly rode up whenever the actors sat down. Sir Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Picard, developed a habit of tugging the back of his jacket down when standing up. Among the actors and technical crew, this gesture was jokingly dubbed the 'Picard Maneuver' (analogous to the tactical maneuver mentioned in the series).
- Two characters in the series are named after real people who were avid fans of the original 'Star Trek' (1966-1969). These are Q, named after British fan Janet Quorton, and Geordi La Forge, who bears the name of the wheelchair-bound George La Forge.
- In one of the episodes, Captain Picard covers his face with his hand. This is now known as the 'facepalm,' a popular online expression used to convey the hopelessness of a dialogue, or as a response to obvious stupidity or false information.
- Captain Picard keeps an aquarium in his quarters with a fish named Livingston. It was named after one of the producers, David Livingston. The fish is even featured on one of the collectible character cards from the series.
- From the very start of filming, the series was plagued by misfortune. Gene Roddenberry began having health problems. He responded to this in a very unusual manner by hiring his lawyer, Leonard Maizlish, as an assistant. Maizlish was constantly at odds with the other members of the creative team, especially after he was caught breaking into other people's offices and computers to make edits to the scripts—despite having absolutely no experience in doing so. It ended with Maizlish having to leave, but before his departure, screenwriters David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana had already resigned. Furthermore, Maizlish managed to appoint Maurice Hurley as head writer. Hurley also constantly clashed with the actors and crew. As a result, the series lost 30 writers who had worked on the first season; all of them either left on their own or were fired at the request of Maizlish and Roddenberry. Around the same time, actress Gates McFadden refused to continue working on the show. Before the start of the second season, Hurley approached the management of Paramount Pictures with a proposal to fire all the actors and reboot the series. Fortunately, this proposal was not acted upon. Hurley was fired after the second season. He was replaced by Rick Berman, whose first order of business was to convince McFadden to return. By this time, Roddenberry's health had declined to the point where he was practically removed from the leadership of the series. He passed away during the filming of the fifth season.
- The actors' performances were shot on 35mm film, while all episodes and scenes with special effects were shot on video, which was much cheaper. This led to certain problems when Paramount Pictures decided to release the series in Blu-ray format. It turned out that the original recording quality did not meet the resolution level required for a Blu-ray conversion. It became necessary to take all original recordings — both the actors' performances and the special effects — and apply digital technologies to improve the image quality. This, in turn, necessitated re-editing every single episode.
- The characters in the series repeatedly mention how close they are—and the same can be said of the actors. Many of them truly became friends on set and continued to communicate regularly after filming ended. Here is just one example: at LeVar Burton's wedding (the navigator, and later chief engineer in the series) in 1992, Brent Spiner (the android Data) served as the best man, while the groomsmen were Sir Patrick Stewart (the captain), Jonathan Frakes (the first officer), and Michael Dorn (the tactical officer and chief of security).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
