The Continuing Mission

Twenty years after the Enterprise first boldly went to explore strange new worlds, Star Trek returned to the small screen with an upgraded ship, new crew, and never-before-seen adventures. The initial seasons were a little rough, but the show eventually settled into its groove. Mostly.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) takes place about a hundred years after the original series (TOS) aboard the flagship of Starfleet, the USS Enterprise. As a representative of the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise is primarily supposed to be a vessel of scientific research and discovery, but no one would watch 45 minutes of plant cataloging or star mapping, let alone 7 seasons, so they also respond to a lot of distress calls and meet various unfriendly alien species. Recurring TNG antagonists include the Romulans, Cardassians, Borg, and the highly materialistic and incompetent Ferengi.

TNG aired for seven seasons (178 episodes) from 1987 to 1994. It was the second live-action Star Trek series produced but comes chronologically after Enterprise, Discovery, The Original Series, The Animated Series, and the original 6 movies. The show features an ensemble cast starring

- Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the ostensibly-French leader of the Enterprise who drinks a lot of tea, Earl Grey, hot

- Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker, the Enterprise’s first officer who spends his time getting pulled into slime, eating worms, and mounting chairs

- LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordie La Forge, chief engineer and technobabble expert

- Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon security officer who takes leisurely jogs through the Enterprise with his top notch security teams that absolutely never let anyone or anything get by them

- Gates McFadden as chief medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher who’s kind of just . . . there

- Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi, a half Betazoid empath who can sense others’ thoughts, except when she can’t, and likes chocolate

- Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data, the ship’s android second officer, who is an android

Also featuring Denise Crosby as Lt. Tasha Yar (season 1), Worf’s predecessor as head of security; Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher (seasons 1-4), Dr. Crusher’s (initially) very annoying teenaged son; and Diana Muldaur as Dr. Katherine Pulaski (season 2), temporary replacement for Dr. Crusher due to real life cast/crew disputes; with guest appearances by Whoopi Goldberg as bartender Guinan.

Besides TNG, I’ve only seen some of TOS and one or two of the J.J. Abrams movies, but this is easily my favorite cast. They work well together on screen and get mostly equal plotlines, with some emphasis on Picard/Riker/Data. I appreciate that the cast is somewhat diverse, especially considering other popular shows from this time period like Friends, Seinfeld, Full House, and Frasier are predominantly, if not entirely, white (determined by two minutes of googling; don’t quote me on this). After Denise Crosby’s departure, they could have benefited from another woman regularly on the bridge, as well as giving Troi a brain before the middle of season 6, though how women are treated on the ship is at least a hundred times better than in early TOS. All the Starfleet officers have the same uniform; no more mini-skirted female yeomen bearing trays with their captain’s dinner to his quarters. And although Wesley is undeniably irritating in season 1, in following seasons I like what he brought to the show, and he and Dr. Crusher had some good scenes together.

TNG was written mostly episodically, though they do sometimes reference past episodes and there are a few overarching themes and story arcs. By the time they made it to season 7, it does feel a bit like they might have been scraping the bottom of the barrel a little, but I also like that the number of episodes gave them time to do low-stakes things like go on holodeck adventures, play poker, and have poetry recitals. It’s not all evasive maneuvers, phasers, and photon torpedoes, which, seeing as the Enterprise is supposed to be a ship of science with hundreds of civilian families on board, is probably how it should be. The episodes are a good mix of everyday life in space, diplomacy, saving people, and hostile encounters, though the number of times the Enterprise is forcefully boarded or someone’s kidnapped off the ship is slightly alarming.

Overall, the show’s quest for scientific discovery, messages of equality and acceptance, and exploration of what it means to be human help TNG hold up against time. The fact that the crew doesn’t always come away unilaterally victorious, and sometimes they’re even wrong, adds depth to the show as well. The visuals aren’t crystal clear with flawlessly integrated CGI, but the acting’s solid, the score is well-suited to the show (and the main theme is instantly recognizable), and the plots are thoughtful, so I stand by putting it on my list of favorite TV shows, and it’s well worth watching.