A follow-up series to the Original Series was considered in 1977. It would be called "Star Trek 2" and feature a second mission for the original cast. It was cancelled before production but two of the scripts for this series were re-written as episodes for The Next Generation - "The Child" and "Devil's Due".
No-one was more surprised than Patrick Stewart when he landed the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. When he first arrived in Hollywood he pinned a sign to his trailer door saying: ''Beware, unknown British Shakespearean actor.'' Little did he know his next stop would be the stars!
Lt. Worf is the longest-running character in the history of Star Trek. He appeared in all seven seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987), five seasons (starting with the third), of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993), and all four Next Generation films. In addition, Michael Dorn played Col. Worf, the attorney defending Kirk and McCoy, in the sixth Star Trek film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski) also was in two episodes of the original Star Trek series, playing "Dr. Miranda Jones" in the episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" and "Lt.Cmdr.Ann Mulhall, Ph.D and Thalassa" in "Return to Tomorrow".
Majel Barrett (Lwaxana Troi) was also the voice of the ships computer, Nurse Chapel in the original series, and the wife of Gene Roddenberry creator of Star Trek.
Denise Crosby was originally cast as Troi, and Marina Sirtis was originally cast as Yar. Prior to filming the two exchanged roles.
The character of Tasha Yar was originally to be a Latina named Macha Hernandez, inspired by the tough female marine Vasquez in "Aliens" (1986). In fact, 'Jeanette Goldstein' (who played Vasquez) auditioned for this character, and later played the Enterprise-B science officer in "Star Trek: Generations" (1994).
Deanna Troi was nearly written out after the first season and in fact is absent from many year one episodes. But after both Tasha Yar and Dr. Crusher were written out, Troi was kept.
Many actors who originally auditioned for roles on this show later went on to star in other Star Trek series, including Tim Russ who was the 2nd choice for Geordi LaForge and Vaughn Armstrong, who auditioned for Riker.
Tim Russ, later to play Tuvok on "Star Trek: Voyager", was a candidate for the role of Geordi.
Jeffrey Combs auditioned for the role of William T. Riker, and later went on to play roles in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993), "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) and "Enterprise" (2001).
Bill Campbell, who played the title role in the second season's "The Outrageous Okona", was a contender for the role of Commander Riker.
Whoopi Goldberg (the re-occurring mysterious bar-keeper Guinan, seasons 2-7), was given the role after being a fan of the original series and expressing interest in having a re-occurring role in the new series
If one includes the movies, nearly every member of the "Star Trek" (1966) crew has appeared in this series and interacted with the new crew - Kirk (in Star Trek: Generations (1994)), Bones (in Encounter At Farpoint), Scotty (in Relics) and Spock (in Unification, parts 1 & 2). Chekov and Scotty also appear in Star Trek: Generations (1994), but they do not interact with the Next Generation crew. Only Uhura and Sulu have not, but the former did appear in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) episode: Trials and Tribble-ations with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Chekov & the DS9 crew; while the latter appears in the "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) episode: Flashback (and is mentioned as one of Chakotay's contemporaries in Tattoo).
Each of the three live-action Star Trek series after the original "Star Trek" (1966) has had a cameo appearance by a character from its predecessor series in its premiere episode: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had Dr. McCoy, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) had Captain Picard, and "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) had Quark.
Early in the planning stages of the series, Roger C. Carmel was offered the chance to return as his original series character Harry Mudd, but he died long before production would have begun on such an episode. Attempts were also reportedly made to get Leonard Nimoy to appear during the first season, but fans had to wait a few years for that to happen.
Two characters on the show were named after real people: The alien "Q" was named for Janet Quarton, a British fan; and Geordi La Forge was named after another Trek fan, George La Forge, who was confined to a wheelchair.
Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, an Enterprise engineer, has the full name of Reginald Endicott Barclay III, according to the scripts of his episodes. This is a homage to the TV series "Benson" (1979) which had a character named Clayton Endicott III (played by Rene Auberjonois, who would later play Constable Odo in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993)).
Wesley Crusher takes his first name from Gene Roddenberry's middle name.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" has attracted a number of guest stars who've put in memorable appearances. Physicist Stephen Hawking dropped in to play poker with Data, Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton in one episode. While Mick Fleetwood, from Fleetwood Mac, has also featured in the series.
Stephen Hawking is the only person to appear as himself in the series (in a holodeck scene where Data plays poker against Einstein, Newton, and Hawking [Hawking wins]).
Mae C. Jemison is the first (and as of January 2002, the only) real astronaut to appear in any Star Trek show.
David Rappaport was to have played the villain in the episode "The Most Toys" but committed suicide before filming began.
According to some sources, Jerry Lewis was invited to play the holodeck comic in the episode "The Outrageous Okona." The role eventually went to Joe Piscopo who included a Lewis impersonation.
Most of the characters underwent some minor changes before the show debuted: Picard's first name was Julien; Riker was spelled 'Ryker'; Data's name was pronounced 'dat-uh' instead of 'day-tah'; Wesley Crusher was Leslie Crusher...Dr. Crusher's daughter.
Originally, Data was to be the Chief Science Officer of the Enterprise, (much like Spock was on the original "Star Trek" (1966)) and sport a blue tunic. However, the blue tunic clashed with his android make-up and the idea was scrapped. Data was re-assigned as Chief Operations Officer of the Enterprise and sported a gold tunic for all seven seasons (except for the two-part episode "Chain of Command" in which he is promoted to first officer and wears a red tunic).
The character of Geordi LaForge was originally conceived as Jamaican. When LeVar Burton was cast in the role, this was dropped, although a Jamaican actress (Madge Sinclair) later appeared as LaForge's mother.
Data's cat "Spot" is a male throughout the history of the show, but is suddenly female in the episode "Force of Nature, and in the episode "Genesis" gives birth to kittens.
The Ferengi were originally introduced with the intention of making them the main, re-occurring adversaries in the series (very much as the Klingons were in the original series). However, audiences found the Ferengi too comical to take seriously as potential foes, and the race were gradually refined into the more (usually unintentionally) comical characters as later typified by Quark in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. The Borg would eventually become infamous as TNG's ultimate nemesis.
Thus far, all five Star Trek series have featured at least one character who is the first of their species in Starfleet. This series has two: Worf is the first Klingon in Starfleet and Data the first android.
Picard rose to his rank when his commanding officer aboard the USS Stargazer was killed in battle.
Geordi LaForge has been promoted faster than any Star Trek character before or since. In the first season, Geordi was a Lieutenant junior grade; in the 2nd season, a full Lieutenant; 3rd season, a Lieutenant Commander. (Other characters have had that many ranks, but none were promoted as fast as Geordi was.) "Timeless", a later episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995), took place in the future, where Geordi was a Captain.
Throughout the first two Star Trek crews (including the movies), Picard and Data are the only two characters never to receive a promotion. However, in at least two "alternate futures", they were both promoted - the episodes "Future Imperfect" (Data is a full Commander, Picard is an admiral) and "All Good Things" (Picard, though retired, is referred to as an ambassador).
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" borrowed its theme music from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979).
A different piece of theme music was composed for the series before the decision was made to reuse Jerry Goldsmith's theme. This unused title music was later issued on one of the Next Generation soundtrack CDs produced by GNP Crescendo records in the US.
Jonathan Frakes returned to rehearsals for the start of the second season sporting a beard, with the intention of shaving it off before shooting began, but the producers liked it and asked him to keep it. It remained for the rest of the show's run. (He eventually shaves it off again for the movie "Star Trek: Insurrection" (1998)).
VISOR stands for "Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement".
Geordi's VISOR was improvised on the first day of shooting using chiefly an automobile air filter.
The first version of the Starfleet uniforms were very uncomfortable for the actors, leading to a change of design from one-piece to a two piece outfit in Season Three. Although the new uniforms were easier to wear, the jackets had a tendency to "ride up" when the actors were sitting down. 'Patrick Stewart' got into the habit of straightening his jacket with a sharp downward tug as he stood up, an action that became known among the cast and crew as "The Picard Maneuver" (from a tactical maneuver mentioned in the show).
The corridor, engineering, transporter room, and battle bridge sets were derived from sets originally built for the first four Star Trek movies. A majority of the sets also served as different locations on the Enterprise-A in the fifth and sixth Star Trek films.
The ceiling of the transporter chamber on the Enterprise D is in fact the floor of the transporter chamber from the Enterprise in the original series.
The sliding doors were very loud on the show and have been compared to sliding glass doors. The actors were instructed to hold their dialogue until the doors stopped; you will rarely see an actor delivering lines while a door is opening or closing.
Characters on the Enterprise frequently access hidden ship's mechanisms by removing "Mees Panels" from the walls. This is two-pronged inside joke: Jim Mees was TNG's set decorator, and "Mees Panels" are a reference both to him and to the original series' "Jefferies Tubes", named for original prop master Matt Jefferies.
When the Enterprise was initially being designed for Next Generation, the producers conveniently located a transporter room directly off the main bridge. Gene Roddenberry nixed the idea, saying he wanted the characters to have conversations in the turbolifts before/after embarking on a mission.
The number 47 pops up an inordinate amount of times on computer screens, serial numbers, dates and so on. This tradition was started by writer/coproducer Joe Menosky and was soon picked up by the rest of the production team. Menosky said that he choose that particular number because when he was a graduate student at Pomona College, Professor of Mathematics Donald Bentley proved as a joke that all numbers are equal to 47.
Many displays and readouts in this series also have smaller printing or sight gags that are actually too small to be read on a TV screen. One such joke is on the medical displays and reads "Medical Insurance Remaining".
Close inspection of an oversized Enterprise schematic which was shown in nearly every episode reveals a detail invisible to TV audiences: the image of a mouse on a wheel in Engineering (the schematic is on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum).
As a running gag, bathrooms are never shown on Enterprise schematics. This joke is referenced in "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996), when Zefram Cochrane asks Geordi, "...don't you people from the 24th Century ever pee?"
As of Autumn 2003, pieces of the original bridge including the chairs and consoles, and a large Enterprise schematic, are preserved and on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles.
The diamond-shaped chrome shelf unit in the Farpoint Mall set comes from Kirk's apartment in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" (1982).
In this series, the uniforms worn by Romulan military officers have a variety of patterns and colors on them. These do not appear to have anything to do with the Romulan's position or rank; a popular fan theory is that Romulan uniforms are patterned according to family or clan affiliation.
The prop bottles used for Klingon Blood Wine are Cuervo Margarita Mix bottles, painted white.
Gene Roddenberry's original scripts for TNG's premiere story, "Encounter at Farpoint," did not include any scenes set in the Enterprise's engine room. When he learned that Paramount was therefore refusing to pay to build an engine room set, he revised the scripts to include the engine room.
The 1988 episode "The Neutral Zone" was a milestone in the history of Star Trek by establishing that the first season of TNG took place in the year 2364. This was the first time an exact calendar date was provided for a Trek episode. All Star Trek episodes, chronologies, novels and background information since 1988 have been calculated from this date.
The two-part episodes "Unification" and "The Best of Both Worlds" both contained 'graveyard' scenes full of wrecked and/or abandoned starships. These scenes were populated with study models which were considered for use in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979) (as possible versions of the Enterprise) and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984) (as the Excelsior). Some of the other wrecked ships were created via "kit-bashing," or quickly mixing starship parts from many different models.
In the episode "Where Silence Has Lease", Nagilum was originally supposed to have been played by Richard Mulligan. That is how the character's name was developed.
The episode "Tapestry" shows the cityscape from "Logan's Run" (1976) outside Picard's window.
In the episode, "Cause and Effect," the Enterprise encounters a ship called the U.S.S. Bozeman. Brannon Braga, one of the writers on the show was raised in the town of Bozeman, Montana.
In the episode "Relics", Scotty (guest star James Doohan) visits the bridge of the Enterprise from "Star Trek" (1966) on the Holodeck. A fan who recreated a life-size version of the bridge set generously donated it for use in the episode, as the original set had long since been demolished.
The hull number of the starship Bozeman is NCC-1941, because model maker Gregory Jein also worked on the film "1941" (1979).
In the episode "A Fistfull Of Datas", a holodeck character is referred to "The butcher of Bozeman", another reference to Brannon Braga's hometown.
Much of the crew of Star Trek the Next generation were avid fans of Japanese animation, and often put in references to their favorite shows. This includes the "Exocomps" in the episode "Quality of Life" were modeled after the robot Namno from "Dirty Pair," while other episodes often referenced characters from "Urusei Yatsura" (1981). The "Akira-class" starships are also meant as a double reference to the Anime film of the same name and director Akira Kurosawa.
Episode "The Defector" (3.10) begins with Data rehearsing a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V, while being watched by Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart. In the play scene the part of Williams (being acted by a holodeck construct) is also played by Patrick Stewart under heavy makeup. It is notable that only Bates, the one other character in the scene, is credited at the end of the episode.
Because of guest star Leonard Nimoy's schedule, part two of the two-part episode "Unification" was filmed before part one
"The Game" was the first episode to air following Gene Roddenberry's death.
Near the end of the episode "Symbiosis" when Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher walk out of the Cargo Bay look in the background and you will see Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) waving at the camera, as this was the last episode she filmed before she left the first time.
The death of Tasha Yar in "Skin of Evil" marked the first (but not the last) time a continuing Trek character was killed off. (Spock doesn't count as he was revived).
In "The Ensigns of Command", actor Grainger Hines was unhappy with his performance (as Gosheven), so he requested his name be removed from the credits. All of his lines were subsequently overdubbed by another actor.
In 1991, former President Ronald Reagan visited the set during filming of the fourth season finale, "Redemption Part I". After being introduced to several actors dressed in full Klingon warrior garb, Reagan was asked what he thought of the Klingons. "I like them," he said. "They remind me of Congress."
Ronny Cox has a unique distinction in the series. He is the only guest star who ever did a "captains log" entry when his captain was in charge of the enterprise while Captain Picard was on a mission. This occurred in the episodes "Chain Of Command."
When a writer's strike hit the series at the start of the second season, several plots from the proposed late 70s series 'Star Trek: Phase II', which was eventually dropped in favor of becoming Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), were hurriedly dusted off and adapted for the Next Generation crew.
David Gerrold, a writer from the original series, was a consultant and uncredited story editor on the first two seasons. He left in a dispute after a script of his about two gay officers was pulled from production in the 11th hour. The story, entitled "Blood and Fire", was resurrected in 2004 as a non-Star Trek novel by Gerrold.
Running for seven seasons, the show briefly held the record for longest-running American live-action science fiction TV series (though several fantasy series ran longer). It was soon tied by its spin-offs "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) and "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995). In 2002, the record was taken by "X Files, The" (1993) which ended after nine seasons.
The 'Star Trek Crews' from all the Star Trek series were ranked #2 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).
In May 1994, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" made history. It was the first series ever to be nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding drama.
Diana Muldaur, who plays Dr. Pulaski, played Dr. Leslie Thompkins in "Batman: The Animated Series".
