Then a few years ago we got two pretty wonky seasons of Picard, a show set 29 years after the final TNG film.

It is in those moments of frisson, when the characters are torn between their ideals and reality, that Next Gen truly shines.Īfter a sublime seventh season and several films, the TNG story stopped. “Where were your evolved sensibilities then?” one character screams at him. 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. The crew of the Enterprise believe in these ideals, but frequently the show challenges their resolve. 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 entire Enterprise crew are united by their principles, and TNG shows what happens when these principles meet practicality. Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images United by principle: LeVar Burton, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and Wil Wheaton. And, of course, Data (Brent Spiner): the artificial life form who longs to become human. Or Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton), a blind and confident engineer who couldn’t talk to women to save his life. 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 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). Take Stewart’s Picard: a down-the-line man bound by duty, who comes to rely on his crew more and more.

The character development in Next Gen is an enormous part of its charm. The idea that we can work together and all be up in space – together! – I think that reality gave people so much.” “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. What does she mean by “huge”? She laughs. “Because otherwise, there’s no point to anything! And the hope in Roddenberry’s vision of the future was so freaking huge.” “I’ve learned as I’ve grown how crucial it is to have hope,” McFadden says.

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