1987: Star Trek: The Next Generation

When Star Trek: The Next Generation was first announced by Paramount, most people have never heard of the stars who will be a part of the new Star Trek legend. Indeed, who was Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Denise Crosby, Michael Dorn, and Colm Meaney?

ST:TNG occurs almost a hundred years after the original adventures, and the new crew are very different from the original, and so is the ship. The ship is NCC-1701-D (meaning there were two other Enterprises between this one and the one in the most recent movie). This ship carried over 1000 people, and has families onboard.

While the ship and crew are different, the spirit of adventure have not changed. The new ship took them to many different places. Klingons are now Federation's ally, new adversaries took their place, such as Ferengi (whom later took a role change), Romulans, Cardassians (introduced later), and the Borg, the most fearful adversary of all.

ST:TNG went on to be the most highly rated syndicated series of all time, and is also one of the most expensive ones, with episodes in the final season costing over two million dollars per episode. It went on for seven full seasons, spawning two other series and two movies.

The original crew is not sitting idle though... William Shatner got his chance to direct, and the result was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. It was followed by Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

 

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Star Trek Nexus Star Trek: The Next Generation section

 

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Final Frontier and Undiscovered Country

The Film Series