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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

• Gene Roddenberry
• Patrick Stewart
• Brent Spiner
• Jonathan Frakes
• 321 User reviews
• 162 Critic reviews
• 39 wins & 61 nominations total

Episodes 176

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• Captain Jean-Luc Picard …

• Lieutenant Commander Data …

• Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker …

• Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge …

• Counselor Deanna Troi

• Lieutenant Worf …

• Doctor Beverly Crusher …

• Enterprise Computer …

• Wesley Crusher …

• Chief Miles O'Brien …
• Youngblood …

• Lieutenant Natasha 'Tasha' Yar …

• Doctor Katherine Pulaski …

• Nurse Alyssa Ogawa …

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• Ensign Ro Laren …

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• Trivia Almost everyone in the cast became life-long friends. At LeVar Burton 's 1992 wedding, Brent Spiner served as best man, and Sir Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , and Michael Dorn all served as ushers. Man of the People (1992) (#6.3) aired on that day.
• Goofs It is claimed that Data can't use contractions (Can't, Isn't, Don't, etc) yet there are several instances throughout the series where he does. One of the first such examples is heard in Encounter at Farpoint (1987) , where Data uses the word "Can't" while the Enterprise is being chased by Q's "ship".

[repeated line]

Capt. Picard : Engage!

• Crazy credits The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.
• Alternate versions The first and last episodes were originally broadcast as two-hour TV movies, and were later re-edited into two one-hour episodes each. Both edits involved removing some scenes from each episode.
• Connections Edited into Reading Rainbow: The Bionic Bunny Show (1988)

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• September 26, 1987 (United States)
• United States
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• Runtime 45 minutes
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Gene Roddenberry Agreed To Star Trek: The Next Generation In A Fit Of Rage

The path to the debut of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987 was long and fraught. Many Trekkies will likely be able to draw the map of events that extended outward after the cancelation of the original "Star Trek" back in 1969. The show was canceled, but put into endless syndication, rerunning frequently. During reruns, the show finally found an audience of passionate devotees. In the early 1970s, "Star Trek" conventions began, show creator Gene Roddenberry began speaking at them, and a new type of relationship between creator and fandom was born. 

As interest in "Star Trek" grew deep roots in the pop consciousness, Roddenberry toyed with the idea of rebooting his show. "Star Trek: Phase II" was put into production in 1977 with most of the original cast returning (Leonard Nimoy was out). Thanks to a byzantine production process and weird press releases, "Phase II" was eventually transformed into "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979. 

The film, while successful, wasn't quite the hit the studio wanted and reviews weren't overwhelmingly positive. Gene Roddenberry then, wasn't permitted to work on further "Star Trek" feature films. Rather than fight for the movies, and pay the older, well-established stars the huge amounts of money they demanded (and, to be fair, deserved), Paramount elected to start yet another "Star Trek" TV project with a new cast, this time with the franchise's utopian ideals more firmly codified. That was to become "Star Trek: The Next Generation." 

Even then, getting NextGen off the ground was a struggle. In the 2016 book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Roddenberry admitted to making NextGen out of rage.

The new, Roddenberry-free Star Trek

Roddenberry admitted that he only wanted to make "Next Generation" after Paramount threatened to give a new "Star Trek" series ... to someone who didn't care about "Star Trek." In the documentary film "Chaos on the Bridge," it was said that Roddenberry deeply resented not being able to give input to "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" or its two follow-ups, making him especially keen to keep control of any new "Star Trek" projects that might emerge. When Paramount asked Roddenberry to make a new Trek, he flatly turned them down. He wanted control and wasn't so keen to dive into such a large project again. Regardless, Paramount started production on a new "Star Trek" without him. Roddenberry recalled: 

"When Paramount originally approached me to do a new series, I turned them down. I did not want to devote the tremendous amount of time necessary to produce another show. There is only one way I know to write and produce, and that is to throw my energy at the project all the time. So when they began to think about a second series, I said I would not do it. When I turned them down, Paramount had someone else work on a new 'Star Trek.' It had a Vulcan captain and a lot of space cadets who seemed to mainly say, 'Gee whiz, Captain.'"

The "someone else," incidentally, was the father-son producing team of Greg and Sam Strangis who oversaw "The Six Million Dollar Man" and who were also working on a reboot of "War of the Worlds" at the time. Greg, despite a history in TV and a fondness for sci-fi, admitted that he wasn't a Trekkie in the slightest. 

The naval academy on a starship

Strangis wanted to clarify that he didn't hate "Star Trek," but he certainly didn't care, having said, "It's not like I was a 'Star Trek' atheist, but I was agnostic." He recalled that his version of "Star Trek," was going to skew toward a younger cast and feature elder characters serving as their professors and instructors. It seems it was just one of many "Starfleet Academy" ideas in the franchise's history. Strangis might also have introduced the idea that Klingons were no longer going to be villains in this new series. He said: 

"My premise was relatively simple: It was a time when, in the future in the existing 'Star Trek,' the Klingons weren't enemies anymore and were allies. I wanted to create Starfleet Academy on a ship. You'd have a lot of younger players and older, senior leaders, and it was going to be the naval academy on a starship. I did some preliminary work and shared it with [Paramount Television executive] Lucie Salhany and whoever else was running syndication then, and it was going along swimmingly ... until I got a phone call that said, 'You're out, Gene's gonna do it.'"

Gene's counterpoint? Not much, really. Strangis said that he "eventually saw Gene's work, which mostly consisted of drawings, hardly any written words, that didn't really mean much. And that was it. I was done." Regardless, with Roddenberry on board, all the old ideas were immediately tossed in the bin. Surely the creator of the original show had passion and ideas he wanted to share. 

As it so happens, he had more spite than anything. 

Angry enough to try

Roddenberry said: "I really feared doing it until I got angry enough to try." It didn't really matter what Strangis was working on, as the idea of making a "Star Trek" show without his input surely pissed off Roddenberry. He came back with his own pitch, however rudimentary. Roddenberry was nearly 65, "Star Trek" was 20, and it seemed like the time was right for a reboot. Only Roddenberry was going to have it his way. According to "Star Trek" archivist Richard Arnold, Roddenberry called a meeting with Paramount to threaten legal action should they proceed on a new Trek show without him. He ended up leaving the room agreeing to make "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Arnold said: 

"Someone said ... that you couldn't get lightning to strike twice in the same place, to which Gene responded, "Damnit, I could!" He walked out of that meeting having agreed to produce a new 'Star Trek' series ... hardly what he had planned going in. He was approaching his 65th birthday and he had intended to retire and spend more time with his son, Rod, who was still very young at the time."

David Gerrold, a creative consultant on "Next Generation" feels that Roddenberry's rage was, in fact, manipulated from the start. He intuited that Paramount — sneaky devils — actually wanted Roddenberry on a new "Star Trek" series, but had to resort to desperate measures when he refused. As such, the series proposed by Strangis was not anything they ever intended to make. Paramount only wanted to show that they were perfectly willing to make a Trek show without Gene ... as a bluff. Roddenberry fell for their bluff, got mad, and agreed to make a new Trek show in his own idiom. 

The rest is history. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation as Philosophy: Gene Roddenberry’s Argument for Humanism

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Star Trek: The Next Generation ( TNG, 1987–1994) is a very close second to Star Trek (TOS, 1966–1969) in the hearts and minds of fans of televised science fiction. Although both series are examples of space opera that focus on the exploration of the cosmos by a group of Starfleet officers and their crew, TNG is notably different in execution. It explores the interests and backgrounds of its ensemble cast more thoroughly, for example. It also entertains inter-season story arcs and fleshes out the cultural background and politics of alien races (both new and old) in a much more grandiose way.

In many ways, The Next Generation is also a more robust example of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s humanistic vision of the future than its progenitor. Ironically, this is partly because he had less personal creative control on TNG. This chapter will explore the various historical faces worn by humanists through history as well as Roddenberry’s distinctive contribution to that history. To humanize the philosophy of humanism in TNG, the chapter will look at the philosophical implications of the series-spanning antagonism and verbal sparring between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the powerful, arrogant entity Q. It will then demonstrate, through a detailed look at representative TNG episodes, the arguments that support the credibility and value of humanism against other competing worldviews in the areas of virtue and character, religious belief, and social ethics.

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Decker, K.S. (2020). Star Trek: The Next Generation as Philosophy: Gene Roddenberry’s Argument for Humanism. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97134-6_3-1

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10 Surprising Facts About Star Trek: The Next Generation

By mental floss uk | feb 5, 2021.

by Kirsten Howard

When Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in September 1987, no one was quite sure what to expect. After all, this was a new Enterprise with a new crew trying to revitalize a franchise that had only lasted three seasons the last time it was on television. And while the movie series was still bringing in solid box office returns, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy would play no part in this new Trek .

The Next Generation was a gamble for Paramount, and for the first few seasons, it looked like one the studio was going to lose. But once the series got over some initial behind-the-scenes chaos, it blossomed into one of the most popular sci-fi TV shows of all time. Even as bigger and shinier installments in the franchise continue to come out, this is the definitive Star Trek for countless fans. So lean back in your captain's chair and enjoy 10 facts about Star Trek: The Next Generation .

1. THE SHOW GOT OFF TO A ROCKY START.

Things were tumultuous at best behind the scenes during the first season of the show, as writers and producers clashed with creator Gene Roddenberry over themes, characters, and ideas on a weekly basis. The in-fighting and drama became such a part of the show's legacy that William Shatner himself chronicled all of it in a 2014 documentary called Chaos on the Bridge (which is currently streaming on Netflix). In it, producers, writers, and actors recounted anecdotes about the difficulties they had dealing with Roddenberry's somewhat overbearing mandates, including his infamous rule that there never be any direct conflict between the Enterprise crew members (unless one was possessed by an alien, of course) and his habit of throwing out scripts at the last minute. This led to 30 writers leaving the show within the first season, according to story editor and program consultant David Gerrold.

As Roddenberry’s health began to deteriorate after the first season, his influence over the writers waned, freeing up ideas that were departures from the creator's original vision. He would pass away in 1991, but his presence would never completely leave the series. For years, a small bust of Roddenberry sat on executive producer Rick Berman's desk with a blindfold wrapped over its eyes. "Whenever they come up with a story I don't think Gene would like," Berman said , "I blindfold him when we discuss the story."

2. GENE RODDENBERRY REALLY DIDN’T WANT A BALD CAPTAIN.

For years, William Shatner had cast the mold by which all future Star Trek captains would be judged. And it was that image of the confident, swashbuckling James T. Kirk that Roddenberry wanted to preserve when bringing a new captain in for The Next Generation . So when Berman wanted to cast Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the issue was clear: He was no Shatner.

Roddenberry was completely unconvinced that Stewart was right for the role, with Berman saying the Trek creator didn’t like the idea of “a bald English guy taking over.” But after countless auditions with other actors, Berman continued to bring Stewart up to Roddenberry, who eventually caved and agreed to bring him in for a final audition under one condition: He wear a wig. So Stewart had a wig Fed-Exed from London and auditioned for Roddenberry and Paramount Television head John Pike one final time. 

That audition was enough to win Roddenberry over, and Stewart was finally brought aboard as Picard with the wig cast aside. Roddenberry would eventually go on to fully embrace Picard’s follicular shortcomings, and according to Stewart , when a reporter at a press conference once asked him why there wouldn’t be a cure for baldness in the 24th century, Roddenberry responded by saying, “No, by the 24th century, no one will care."

3. ONLY ONE PERSON HAS EVER PLAYED HIMSELF IN STAR TREK HISTORY.

Stephen Hawking was visiting the Paramount lot during the video release of the film A Brief History of Time  when he requested a tour of the Next Generation set. After making his way onto the iconic Enterprise bridge, he stopped and began typing into his computer. Suddenly, his voice synthesizer spoke : “Would you lift me out of my chair and put me into the captain's seat?"

Hawking asking to be removed from his chair was basically unheard of, so his wishes were granted immediately. Later, with writers having become aware that he was such a huge Trekkie, Hawking himself was written into the sixth season finale episode “Descent – Part I” by Ronald D. Moore, who would later go on to reimagine the Battlestar Galactica universe.

4. A WHOLE EPISODE WAS WRITTEN FOR ROBIN WILLIAMS.

Late actor and comedian Robin Williams was also a huge fan of the show and was desperate to appear in it, so an episode of the fifth season—"A Matter of Time"—was drawn up by Berman to allow Williams to shine at the center of a mystery about Professor Berlinghoff Rasmussen, a time-traveling historian from the future visiting the past to observe the Enterprise crew completing an historic mission.

Unfortunately, when it came time to shoot the episode, Williams found himself unavailable to appear in the episode. So Max Headroom star Matt Frewer was cast as Professor Rasmussen instead.

5. PATRICK STEWART APPROACHED BEING TORTURED ON SCREEN VERY SERIOUSLY.

In the episode “Chain of Command, Part II,” Picard has been captured by Cardassians and is subjected to a variety of torture methods by his interrogators. As a member of the human rights organization Amnesty International , Stewart did not want to shy away from the realities of torture, so he  watched tapes sent to him that included statements from people who had been tortured and a long interview with a torturer explaining what it was like to be the one inflicting pain on others. Stewart also insisted on being completely nude during the first torture scene, so as not to betray the experiences of those who had undergone similar horrors.

6. THEY USED SOME PRACTICAL EFFECTS.

The transporter effect on the show may look completely computer generated, but in fact it’s all done quite organically. First, a canister is filled with water and glitter and then a light is shone through it. After stirring the liquid briskly, the resulting few seconds of swirling glitter are filmed and then superimposed over footage of the actor standing in the transporter area, with an added “streak down” effect to blur the glitter further.

7. LORE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A WOMAN.

Android Lieutenant Commander Data had many adventures during the series, on and off the Enterprise , but his evil twin brother, Lore, stands out for many fans as one of the show’s greatest antagonists. Surprisingly, Lore was originally created as a female android character for the show, but the actor who plays Data, Brent Spiner, came up with a different idea: an evil twin nemesis in the shape of a long-lost brother.

8. THERE WAS AN OPEN SUBMISSION POLICY ON SCRIPTS.

When Michael Piller took over as head writer on the show in 1989, an open submission policy was launched where absolutely anyone could submit up to two unsolicited scripts for consideration. Opening up the possibility of writing for TV to people outside of the Writers Guild of America and talent agency pool was unheard of at the time, and over 5000 spec scripts were received a year at one point. "Yesterday’s Enterprise," one of the show’s most popular episodes, was based off a spec script from the open submission policy.

9. SOME SCRIPTS WERE RECYCLED FROM THE SCRAPPED PHASE II .

A decade before The Next Generation debuted, there was a failed attempt at a revival called Star Trek: Phase II . Though a first season was mapped out, it never saw the light of day, and the movie series was produced in its place. However, the scrapped scripts and concepts lived on in various Trek projects over the years. For the second season premiere of The Next Generation , producers reclaimed the script for "The Child" as a way to get a story quickly into production during the 1988 writers' strike. The season four episode "Devil's Due" was also taken from the backlog of Phase II scripts. 

More elements from Phase II would influence Trek for years, such as the pilot being reworked into Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the now-familiar elements of the Japanese-inspired Klingon culture being introduced in the shelved episode “Kitumba.”

10. THE TRANSPORTER IS THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.

In what was either a cost-cutting move or a sly Easter egg (or both), the ceiling of the Enterprise 's transporter room in The Next Generation is actually the floor of the transporter room from the original series. That's far from the only recycling that went on between the Trek series. The orbital office complex from Star Trek: The Motion Picture was reused as the Regula I station in The Wrath of Khan , which was then itself reused as a number of different space stations on The Next Generation (plus Deep Space Nine and Voyager ).

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‘star trek’: the story of the most daring cliffhanger in ‘next generation’ history.

Ron Moore, Jonathan Frakes and more reveal how writing themselves into a corner for "Best of Both Worlds" changed Trek forever: "All of us were quite thrilled they had the balls to leave Picard on the Borg cube."

By Aaron Couch

Aaron Couch

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In June 1990, many Trekkies considered the crew of the Enterprise-D pretenders to the throne.

Star Trek : The Next Generation  was closing out its third season, and it was still struggling to step out of the shadow of Kirk’s ( William Shatner ) Enterprise. That was about to change thanks to a daring cliffhanger pulled off in an era of television in which shocking deaths and major plot twists weren’t par for the course.

When “Best of Both Worlds: Part I” aired 25 years ago this week, it was truly jarring to fans. The season three finale saw the return of The Borg, the seemingly unstoppable villain introduced a year earlier. The Borg captured Captain Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and transformed him into Locutus of Borg, a de facto spokesperson for the collective consciousness. The episode ended with Picard’s No. 1 Commander Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) giving a shocking order (“Mr. Worf , fire.”) and the screen cutting to the words “To be continued…”, something it had never done.

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Written by Michael Piller and directed by Cliff Bole , “Best of Both Worlds” is arguably the most influential arc in Next Generation history. Along with “Best of Both Worlds: Part II” and its aftermath episode “Family,” the story introduced layers of psychological complexity, bold storytelling and emotional depth the show had not yet explored.

“RICK BERMAN CALLED ME AND SAID, ‘THIS IS FANTASTIC!’ “

Ronald D. Moore, member of the writers room: The story really goes to Michael Piller , who was running the writing staff in the third season when I joined the show. In the writers room, we would often talk about revisiting the Borg.  Piller said as the season went on that he thought there should be a cliffhanger, which Star Trek had never done. 

Jonathan Frakes , Commander William T. Riker : All of us were quite thrilled they had the balls to leave Picard on the Borg cube. I don’t know if they were trying to threaten Patrick with renegotiations . It’s commonplace now. Shows like Lost and House of Cards — they’ll kill off a regular and think nothing of it. This was 1990. It was not commonplace to be killing off any of your series regulars. That was a big “who shot J.R.” type of plot.

Moore: It was the only show that year that we didn’t actually sit in the room as a writing staff and break together. Michael said he wanted to go do it. Michael had a very personal connection to that particular story. The episode starts with Riker getting an offer to go command another ship. That’s at the heart of it. Michael said very overtly that he was in a very similar place. He was the number two guy on the show, and he was debating whether or not to leave Star Trek and go and run his own show or if he wanted to remain second in command of the Enterprise, as it were. So he was Riker, and he wrote the story from that perspective.

Frakes : The episode was key to Riker’s character. Previously, I thought it was not very cleverly handled to have Riker say in the first two seasons, “All I want is to have my own ship. I aspire to be a captain in Starfleet.” But then, when offered the ship, the writers put in Riker’s mouth that he didn’t feel he was ready to captain, or he didn’t want to leave his friends.

Michael Dorn, Lieutenant Worf: We didn’t know how they were going to handle it in terms of the special effects with Patrick. At that point we trusted each other, we trusted the producers and we trusted the writers enough to know that it was going to be exciting. 

Alan Sims, property master: My pride with those episodes would be the prosthetic arms, for which I created remote control apertures. You would see it flicker and flip back and forth. When the one Borg came to the Enterprise and captured Picard, that was me off camera with a little remote control with two control joysticks and antenna. 

Michael Westmore, makeup artist:  Patrick Stewart loved being in the makeup chair. He didn’t care what it was — whether he was doing a Shakespearean character in the Holodeck or doing the old age makeup on “Inner Light,” Patrick loved getting in the chair and getting made up. He would be putting his two cents in, “Oh, let’s do a little more shading right here.” He loved that part of the process.

Moore : My favorite moment was seeing Picard in that Borg outfit for the first time. When that reveal happens and he looks at the camera and he’s a Borg, and he says, “I am Locutus.” It was a shocking moment. You realize the show had gone someplace different. We all knew that internally and were like, “Woah, OK. This is going to break some molds.”

Westmore:  My son [ Michael Westmore, Jr .] found the laser we mounted on Patrick’s head for the end of “Part I.” It cost $200. It was  a new product on the market and had never been used on TV previously.  We thought, “Oh this is going to be great,” but we go into the set, and we can’t see it at all. The special effects guy said, “Let me put a little smoke in.” And oh my God, that light cut right through everything. They wanted Patrick to look directly in the lens, and nobody knew what was going to happen at all. Patrick turns to the camera, and the refraction between the laser and the mirrors in the camera made it look like it’s just shattered everything. It’s the one time [executive producer]  Rick Berman called me and said, “This is fantastic! Oh my god.” It blew Paramount away. If it was an optical, it would have cost thousands of dollars and we did it with a $200 laser.  

“IS PICARD GOING TO BE KILLED?”

The episode electrifies audiences when it begins airing on syndication June 18, 1990. Even Trekkies who refused to accept Next Generation as legitimate are buzzing. Rumors of Patrick Stewart’s exit swirl, with fans waiting an agonizing three months for the conclusion to air in September. Meanwhile, the writers are tasked with figuring out how to follow up their first cliffhanger ever.

Moore : What people forget now is in the first couple of seasons of Next Generation , we were sort of not taken seriously as Star Trek . The fans were split on the acceptance of the show. You would go to conventions and there would be bumper stickers and t-shirts that basically said, “I’m a real Trekker. Forget the bald guy.” Stuff like that. We were the second-tier Trek . When “Best of Both Worlds” came out, suddenly there was all this buzz. And it got in the press and there was all this tension and people were talking about the cliffhanger and Picard.

Jordan Hoffman, freelance writer/critic who specializes in Star Trek:   After that “To be continued…” we felt, “Is Picard going to be killed?” After that episode, there was a lot of talk. Somehow we knew — there were rumors that Patrick Stewart was going to leave the show. That was definitely in the air. There would be somebody who goes, “You know Patrick Stewart is leaving?” How do you know this? “Everyone knows it.”

Dorn : We figured there wasn’t any problem with Patrick’s contract. He was coming back. The interesting thing was, how were they going to play that?

Moore: “Part II,” we did break the story together in the writer’s room, but when Michael did “Part I,” he said, “I have no idea how this thing ends. We’re going to end on this cliffhanger of “fire” and we’re going to figure it out next season.” We all gather in the room, and it was essentially a new writing staff. I was the only holdover from season three. We sat down, and Michael was like, “All right, I don’t know where we’re going. Let’s just try to figure out something.”

Hoffman: Something that younger people don’t quite get was the fact that Next Generation was on in syndication. It was not on a major network. It was the first show to be in syndication to have tremendous ratings. What that meant was it was on in different times of the day depending on where you were. I would go down to my grandparents’ on the weekends. They were in southern Jersey outside of the Philly markets. I lived in the New York market. You could catch it three times a week.  I relived that “to be continued…” moment over and over.

Moore: There were various efforts to try to keep the scripts’ distribution tight and the plot secret. They were trying to watermark the scripts  —  which was a novelty at that point  —  and number them. It was the pre-Internet days, so it wasn’t like the files were being passed around in emails. It was all hard copy stuff anyway.

Gary Hutzel, visual effects coordinator : The budget was small by today’s standards. A lot of stuff you see on the series wasn’t shot on a professional stage. A lot of it was shot in people’s basements, because there was no money.

Brent Spiner, Data: I remember Worf and Data beamed over to the Borg ship to grab Picard and bring him back to the Enterprise. There was a moment where a Borg is coming up behind me, and I turn and blast him with my phaser. We shot a version of it where the Borg was coming up behind me and I didn’t even turn around. I just put the phaser over my shoulder and shot it and blew it away. We thought that would be really cool if Data just sensed it and didn’t have to turn around. It looked great, but they sent it to Rick Berman and he said, “That’s ridiculous. He can’t do that. He doesn’t have eyes in the back of his head.” So we didn’t use that one.

Dorn: This might take away some of the drama for the audience, but there is a scene where Data and I go and rescue Patrick. I had to struggle with Patrick. He tries to hit me and I grab him and we’re going “ah, ah!” back and forth. And we just started cracking up. We just started laughing uncontrollably. All of us laughed uncontrollably most of the time on the show.

Marina Sirtis, Counselor Deanna Troi: The episode was a very important one for my character [Troi is key to figuring out how to save Picard]. A lot of the time, I was decorative. Hey, that was fine. I was a very ugly child, so if you had said to me when I was 13, “One day you are going to grow up to be this sex symbol,” I would have asked if you were high. But, as far as character development goes, the third going into the fourth season, where my advice was listened to, I always used to treasure those moments. Every weekend at a convention, someone will say to me it was so nice to see a competent woman on a TV show who wasn’t “the bitch.” Troi was strong and professional, but took a pride in her appearance. It was kind of a first, to have a professional woman, who wasn’t “the bitch.” It was very important to me that the writers began to see Troi as a whole person. I think it kind of started with “Best of Both Worlds Part II.”

Westmore : Creating the Borg took a lot of makeup artists and it took a lot of time. Not only because of the makeup, but because they had the suits to put on. It was a process that probably took at least three hours at that time. We had it down to a system, where we could line them all up and make them up very fast. For the faces, I found every makeup artist shades differently. In the early shows, all the Borg had all different looks to them because of all the different techniques people used to shade. Later, I took an airbrush class and I could literally airbrush each one of them in a minute and a half. It was easier for me to do than for a bunch of makeup artists, where there’d be some great ones and there’d be some not so great ones. That was the beginning of Star Trek using the airbrush. After that point, I insisted any makeup artist I hired knew how to use an airbrush.

Hutzel:  My coordinator Judy Elkins , had a great idea as we were preparing to do the destruction of the fleet. We didn’t have that much money to work with, and we had to physically build everything. How do we show an entire fleet destroyed? We invited people from the art department and other people on the show for a kit bash. We got spaceship models and all destroyed them. And we gave them our own names and whatever we wanted and put on them the ships for the shot. We were able to get quite a few ships made that way with pretty minimal effort and money. I rigged them all with internal lighting to make them look like they are on fire and we shot then that way.  The toy company gave them to us for free.

Spiner: Near the end, I’m hooked up to Patrick. It’s a tribute to Michael Westmore’s genius and his son Mike Jr . who did all of the electronics. They always did a great job of opening up my various bits. They opened up every part of my body, save one  — and they were saving that one for I guess in case we did another movie ( laughs ). Michael Westmore is a genius. 

Hutzel: I had to build the Borg ship because we couldn’t afford a modeler to make it. I just brought a whole bunch of models. I put chicken wire over a framework. And I stapled that on and I attached a board and attached all the plastic to it. We hung the cube on one of the sound stages and the pyrotechnician came in and he rigged it. Back then, if you really wanted to blow something up, you would use primer cord. Nobody really does that anymore because it’s dangerous. But this thing is loaded with primer cord. They let it rip. I didn’t know that putting chicken wire inside of something with primer cord would cause it to become a big grenade. And so when it went off, stuff flew everywhere. Fortunately it was a safe situation and no one got hurt. They’d cleared the stage before we fired it, but we came back in and saw the mess on the floor and bits of chicken wire stuck on the walls.

THE AFTERMATH

The arc would go down as one of the most daring in Star Trek history. It also gave birth to “Family,” an understated but highly acclaimed episode which saw Picard deal with the psychological trauma of becoming a Borg, as well as Star Trek: First Contact (1996), the Next Generation cast’s most beloved film. 

Moore:  That was the turning point on Next Generation ‘s acceptance as Star Trek , among the fans and with the public. Suddenly we had done something that was legitimate and got people’s attention and told a great story. From then on out we carried the torch. We were legitimate and that was the show that turned it around for us.

Frakes: The cool thing about the story was that he was forever haunted by Locutus being in his DNA. That informed the first movie that I directed, First Contact .

Moore: The second half of the show was kind of not as satisfying as the first half, in all honesty. It was a little too technobabble. It doesn’t quite have the oomph that “Part I” did. But Michael [Piller] was fine with that. He launched us into more character-based storytelling. The next episode was “Family,” which was a complete character episode, which I got to write. It was set down on Earth after Captain Picard’s experience in “Best of Both Worlds.” He goes home and you meet his brother. There was no action-adventure component to that episode. It showed you Piller was determined to make the show more character-oriented and more about the people on the Enterprise, instead of the alien on the week.

Dorn: In the end, Patrick, although he was back and he was fine and he was like, “Yeah, I’m fine. Everything is great,” you knew by his look, and by the way he felt and looked out the window that it wasn’t over. We didn’t know how it wasn’t going to be over, but it wasn’t over. Interestingly enough, it culminated in First Contact , the movie.

Moore: We had to kind of fight for “Family.” [ Star Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry hated it. He wanted to throw it out. My only story meeting with Gene was that episode. It was me and Michael and Rick Berman, who was running the production side of things, we all met in Gene’s office and Gene just said “this isn’t the 24 th century.” “These brothers reflect outdated, 20 th -Century modes of childhood development. Mankind had solved these kind of issues by then. I hate this.” I sat there and I was a really green writer. I was like, “Oh my God, what are we going to do? I’m dead.” We walked out in the hall and I just looked at Michael and Rick and was like, “What do I do now?” They said, “You know what? Just go write your story, we’ll work with Gene.” That was the last I ever heard of it. So they went off behind the scenes and did something and got him to back off or let it go or kind of distracted him with something else, because then we did the show.   

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Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry Hardcover – June 1, 1994

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• Print length 624 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Roc; First Edition (June 1, 1994)
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David Alexander is a USA Today and New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold over five million copies. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Paris Sorbonne. David Alexander's novels and nonfiction titles have won critical acclaim from USA Today, The New York Times, The London Times, The Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, The Wall Street Journal and many other venues in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

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Star Trek: Who Created Data And What Happened To Him?

In the long history of "Star Trek," few characters are as beloved by fans as the android Data (Brent Spiner). A cybernetic being powered by a positronic brain, Data served as second officer on Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) U.S.S. Enterprise, the setting of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." But while fans got to spend time with Data over the many episodes of TV and movies in which he appeared, far less is known about his reclusive creator, Doctor Noonian Soong (also Brent Spiner).

Indeed, the story of Data's creation by Soong is documented in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and additional information has been included in other movies and series, most recently "Star Trek: Picard." We've learned that the cyberneticist came from a long line of geniuses who worked to create new life forms using science, not all of whom were pure of heart. Indeed, Soong himself was driven by an obsession that lasted until his final moments. Though he was declared a madman and considered a disgrace by Federation scientists, he continued his work in secret. Eventually, he was destroyed by his own creations.

The mad cyberneticist Noonian Soong made Data and his evil twin Lore

Doctor Noonian Soong came from a long lineage of mad cybernetics experts, and they were engaged in some questionable experiments long before Data was assembled. Soong's ancestor, Adam Soong (Brent Spiner once again) went so far as to create a series of clones. All of them died with the exception of one, Kore, and he spun the fiction that he was her father in the traditional sense of the word. That history was depicted in Season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard." Adam may even have been connected to the creation of the villain Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), but that's a story for another time. Later, in the "Star Trek" timeline's 22nd century, Adam's descendant, Arik Soong, picked up the torch of genetic and cybernetic experimentation. The character was featured in multiple episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise."

This lineage eventually culminated with Data's progenitor, Noonian Soong, who worked in secret alongside his wife, Juliana O'Donnell (Fionnula Flanagan) to perfect his research and create the fan-favorite android. But Data was actually the fifth such android Soong built. The first three were far less capable and much closer to mindless robots. His breakthrough came with the fourth attempt, Data's evil brother Lore . Ultimately, it was Soong's fifth android, Data, whom the scientist considered to be the apex of his work. Unlike Lore, who had emotions but lacked a sense of ethics and therefore was a loose cannon, Data was not given the emotional programming, allowing him to function within certain ethical parameters.

Data's brother Lore killed their creator

Ultimately, it was Noonian Soong's own work that killed him. His fourth android, Lore, was much like Data but without the sense of ethics that kept him from being corrupted. Over time, Lore developed a deep resentment for his father figure, believing that Soong was playing favorites and preferred Data. Lore's paranoia was further confirmed when he learned that Soong was secretly developing an emotion chip for Data. The actual reason for this was that Soong mistakenly believed that Lore was disassembled and functionally dead, so he had no reason to work on Lore's own upgrades.

When Soong sent out a signal summoning Data to Terlina III, where he had secretly been furthering his cybernetic experiments, it also drew Lore's attention, and the two brothers converged on the planet in the Season 4 "The Next Generation" episode "Brothers." After Soong reveals in the episode that he'd created an emotion chip for Data, Lore's jealousy grows. He deactivates Data, then impersonates him in order to receive the emotion chip for himself. But since the chip wasn't meant for him, Lore becomes unstable and attacks the already sickly Soong.

In Soong's final moments, he compares Lore to the biblical Esau, Jacob's evil sibling who impersonated his brother to receive a false inheritance from their blind father, Isaac. But as Data, rescued by William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), comes to the aid of his dying creator, he finally refers to Soong as "father."

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Watch: ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ In TAS Style + Interview With Creator [UPDATED]

| April 14, 2022 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 57 comments so far

A new video has gotten a lot of attention from Gazelle Automations . Founded by Justin and Lindsay Lee and based in Toronto, Canada, Gazelle Automations has the goal of creating entertainment with the magic of puppetry, model miniatures and animation. They work with Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, ITV, BBC, CBC, and others.

The 2 minute clip is a reimagining of the kidnapping of Captain Picard from “Best of Both Worlds” as if it were done by Filmation in the 1970s (the animation firm that produced Star Trek: The Animated Series ). They nail the simple animation style, the recycled generic sound effects, and the use of blocks of purple color. They also include a Kzinti (which originated in TAS) at the conn. It’s the little details they included that really make this feel like an artifact from a bygone era: there’s simulated bits of dirt between the different animation cel layers, and the occasional wobble of film gate weave.

TrekMovie reached out to Justin Lee to get more information about this unique homage to The Animated Series which ran from 1973-1974.

Was this video just a bit of fun or was there more to it?

My wife and fellow Gazelle Automations founder Lindsay Lee is a fan of Star Trek: The Animated Series (as am I), and we’d long talked about how that show is full of serious situations and very earnest storytelling, but with that Filmation style that makes a lot of it quite hilarious. So I started thinking about how neat it would be to pay homage to Trek and how much we love it by giving that TAS treatment to a really pivotal moment in Trek history. Which of course was Picard being abducted by the Borg. And also pairing TNG dialogue with Ray Ellis’ TAS music was just something we really wanted to hear!

Is there any more Star Trek content being planned?

The reception of TNG:TAS totally took me by surprise. After I posted it yesterday, I kinda turned everything off and didn’t see what had happened until this morning. So we’re thinking about stuff now, but it’s still just a wonderful surprise that lots of other fans are enjoying this!

How long did it take and what were the particular challenges to match the Filmation style?

I worked on this on and off for about a week. It’s funny that many people (including me) associate the Filmation style with being ‘cheap’ (which in relative terms it is), because I found to authentically recreate the look and feel, I couldn’t use most of my go-to digital shortcuts like interpolating/tweening artwork for the head, forearm, torso, etc. Sometimes Filmation would slide a static cel to make a character move (the Kzinti being scared in The Slaver Weapon comes to mind), but often character movement was  still drawn one cel at a time. So I did end up doing a ton of drawings (even though it doesn’t look like it!) so there was that hand-drawn ‘life’ to the movement and the lines. I also noticed the dirt, fingerprints and so forth on the cels would change every time cels were swapped, so there were additional elements animated overtop to simulate that.

A look at the work in progress of the TNG bridge.

And anything else to share?

I’d always intended to show the turbolift door open (a mistake often seen in TAS), but the idea to put a Kzinti officer at the conn was a very last-minute addition. I suddenly remembered Walter Koenig talking about writing for TAS, and how Gene Roddenberry kept telling him to exploit the medium of animation. So it wouldn’t have been right to have an animated TNG bridge crew that’s nearly all human!

I’m really just so happy that lots of other fans are enjoying this video. It’s absolutely meant as a love-letter to Trek and an homage to TNG and TAS. But of course the animation style is just so wonderfully funny!

Justin has put out a video discussing the creation of the TNG:TAS video

TrekMovie thanks Justin and Lindsay for their time and their loving mashup of ’70s and ’90s Trek. It was a great surprise to find online this week.

Keep up with all the  Trek viral videos at TrekMovie.com .

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This is brilliant!

was literally coming to write the exact same words

How long before the cease-and-desist letter arrives?

I’d prefer it if this becomes season 8 of TNG

Probably already in the mail.

I enjoyed the animated series but that same music over and over again drove me mad after awhile. And it returns here! Good job otherwise though.

Completely agree. I re-watched TAS recently as per my comment below and the music “did my head in” as we Scot’s would say. The same 3-4 cues used over and over again. What a contrast with TOS which reused cues but they were derived from some of the most beloved scores in television history.

“ as we Scot’s would say”

All Britons use that turn of phrase, not just Scots 😂

If you wanna get specific, Scots are more likely to say “di’ ma heid in” 😏

Fair point David.

As repetitive as it was, it was better than the ‘sonic wallpaper’ that plagued TNG.

7 seasons and the movies please!

Yes, pretty please with phasers on top!

Honestly wouldn’t mind if they did entire episodes, just remake them, in this style. Would be a lot of fun.

OMG. They even have the randomly open turbolift!

Making the Borg purple and pink was a nice touch.

The only thing it’s missing is a wackier story. Can you imagine if someone went and did new episodes of TNG in this style, with crazier, bizarre aliens with hair for eyes and glass legs who speak in backwards riddles, and are swim through the air on surfboards made of penguins?

I did a complete re-watch of TAS in the first year of lockdown and this is a superb homage.

Brilliant work everyone involved.

this was great. in the 80s as a kid i use to watch reruns of TAS….it was a great introduction to ST considering before 87 TOS reruns were normally on a midnight and i could only watch those Friday nights….sometimes

With all the love for TAS, what does it take to get Paramount to finally make it available on iTunes so we can own it digitally?? It’s the only Trek series you can’t purchase that way!

I mean, DVDs and Blu-rays are digital… :p

But yes, I get what you meant. No, I don’t know why Paramount doesn’t offer it for download. I actually wasn’t aware until seeing your post that they don’t.

Maybe they don’t make it available on iTunes because they want people to subscribe to Paramount+. Of course, you could make the same argument for the other shows but maybe those are covered by existing contracts that they can’t get out of. CBS have stated repeatedly that they want Paramount+ to be the exclusive home of all Trek shows.

Not true at all. LD, DSC, PIC are all available on Vudu. TAS just isn’t available digitally on any purchasable platform.

I love that they also included the dirt and smudges that were part and parcel of the cheap animation of the original series.

And a Kzinti at the helm is also a nice touch.

Absolutely outstanding! The attention to every detail to reproduce those beloved Filmation flaws is quite incredible. I’d love to see key episodes done in this style too. Best new Trek I’ve seen in quite some time! :D

Make this show happen!

Incredible!

I saw this on line yesterday and was floored at how authentic it looked. I loved it!

Good work, everyone!

The stories in TAS are often quite good, but he’s right… The animation style makes it hard to takes seriously. I’ve hoped for the “reverse” of this excellent homage. Use the original TAS dialog recordings with Shatner, Nimoy, and the rest of the cast. Replace animation with modern CG animation, in the style of ST: Prodigy. Create new (and not repetitive) music and sound effects, but keep them recognizably to the original, especially the awesome title theme. Do this for the 10 best TAS episodes and call it a limited series!

Maybe replace some of the many characters voiced by Doohan and Barrett with new voice actors as well.

I’ve been thinking ever since the original demos for Unreal Engine 5 came out, it would now be possible to almost convert TAS into a 4th season of TOS.

They could do this for TAS and the games(25th anniversary edition, Judgement Rites and the unreleased Secret of Vulcan Fury) Make it the 4th and 5th year or make it the second five year mission. Phase II

That’s been a dream of mine for at least 2 decades.

Probably would never be possible, but if it were, the source audio for TAS, 25th anniversary edition, Judgement Rites and Secret of Vulcan Fury, with effects and music-cues from TOS would make for a great way to “update” the past for a new audience. The dialogue for the games may be a bit “stiff”, but I think most people would be forgiving enough given where the age and source of the material they’re using. 

Awesome — outstanding job!

A minor quibble on the Picard animated character — it just doesn’t look much like him

Looks more like him than Tom Hardy does..

This was pure joy! It’s always great to see so many in fandom put in so much effort into something they love.

I watched TAS for the first time a year ago and while the animation and music especially was definitely lacking, the stories themselves were great. I doubt I’ll ever watch it again but I did like it.

But I would definitely watch a TNG version just for the thrill of it.

That was really fun.

Loved it!!!! So much love for the details down to the purple Borg… exactly the kinda of goof that TAS would have made. (It was more compelling, better thought out and more of a joy than the last 3 episodes of Star Trek: Picard.) Bravo!

Filmation’s animation for ST-TAS is always derided as cheap, stiff, and static.

Maybe, I never saw any of that as a drawback. It always struck me as one of the most distinctive looking shows in all of animation. Even Filmation’s other shows didn’t look quite like this. Outside of TMP, you won’t see a combination CU/long-shot anywhere.

And the music is awesome.

I adore TAS, undeniable limitations and all. I admire what it was able to accomplish within the tight constraints of early ‘70s animation for American television.

I think in this era it’s often hard to keep in mind just what American animated TV series in that era were like. Limited animation was the order of the day; this was long before advancements and refinements in both technology and technique came that let today’s TV animation shine like it does, and little was typically expected of the storytelling as well, and frequently little delivered. It just wasn’t taken seriously at all for the most part, and resources were allocated accordingly.

Given all that, it’s not just remarkable but borderline amazing that Star Trek TAS is as good as it is. To us in 2022, it looking at it in the contexts of both the greater Star Trek franchise and TV animation in general (so much of which has been made since then, with so many leaps in all sorts of ways), it seems absolutely impoverished, but as I understand it it was actually one of the most expensive animated American TV series up to that point, if not the most expensive, largely because of its substantial regular voice cast of actors reprising their roles from the original live-action show, which was pretty unusual then.

It also boasted numerous writers from TOS (and/or a few who’d go on to work on TNG , DS9 , and even Voyager ), and as such explores lots of the same ideas and so on as the live-action shows.

All the Hal Sutherland directed animated shows had the same style with a character’s face filling up most of the frame so there’s very little to animate. Archies, Groovy Ghoolies, New Adventures of Gilligan, Fat Albert, etc. etc. etc.

Excellent work. The stories in TAS were awesome and kind of weird at times too. I still remember the Enterprise crew literally encountering the devil in one episode. Imagine that for a supposed children’s Saturday morning cartoon. I always enjoyed them and consider them to be the official 4th year of the 5 year mission in my head canon.

I love that they even have the cat-person helmsman.

Cute, but don’t want it. Go with the Prodigy animation style. and the Music! God! it’s awful!!

Don’t be surprise if the TAS style shows up on LOWER DECKS…

It already has, albeit just for still images and not moving characters.

and that was the funniest gag in the entire series (and I like Lower Decks overall) – it was just entirely unexpected and perfect

Lower Decks is a reason why I wanted to watch TAS for the first time since they were doing a lot of references from that show that was going completely over my head.

I love Lower Decks for a number of reasons, some having nothing to do with TAS specifically, but one reason I love Lower Decks is that I also love TAS, and Lower Decks has probably shown more love for TAS than probably all the other Trek movies and shows made between that one and this one combined. I can only assume someone on the Lower Decks creative team, quite likely more than one person, has similar affection for the show.

TAS was my first Trek, followed by TNG (TOS in the LA area was usually only on at midnight, too late for a kid). So I really enjoyed the mashup on a personal level.

That animation was totally awesome. Would it be too much for Paramount+ to create one series with the old Filmation style? And hire this guy to help them out!

I see some comments deriding the original Filmation technique, but those of us who saw the Star Trek cartoon on Saturday mornings in 1973 were pleased as punch. Here is a book co-written by Lou Scheimer, the Discount Disney himself, which has a thorough passage on TAS:

https://archive.org/details/louschcrethefilgen

This is just great! :D

Y’know, I always thought they should take the voice tracks of those TAS episodes and redo the stories with modern animation. It just seems like a no-brainer to me. A lot of the stories were great and written by TOS writers and Dorthy Fontana and David Gerrold always considered them to be in-continuity and never understood why Roddenberry, who produced them, later said they weren’t. It’s like he was later ashamed of them. They weren’t dumbed down, though. There’s not much on the character drama part with < 30 minutes per story but the stories were wild and fun and there were no budget constraints on the SFX or production. The only flaw they have is how static the animation is, and now that’s no issue at all.

Of course, this TNG cartoon is going the other way and it’s just nostalgic fun!

Love that he nailed everything about TAS… also, amazing amount of work for “about a week on and off”-!!

This should be an official spin off web series. It would be perfect for YouTube etc Perhaps it could recreate some classic Trek moments across TNG, DS9 & VOY. Incredible work and definitely lots of fun!

This is a Special Edition I can get behind.

Noonien Soong

• View history

Doctor Noonien Soong , who was nicknamed " Often Wrong ", was one of the Federation 's leading cyberneticists during the 24th century .

• 2.1 Appearances
• 2.2 Background information
• 2.3 Apocrypha
• 2.4 External link

History [ ]

Soong was the designer of at least six Soong-type androids : Data , Lore , B-4 , and a recreation of his wife Juliana , as well as two prototypes . He was a descendant of 22nd century criminal geneticist Arik Soong , who started work in cybernetics that his descendants, down to Noonien, continued. An associate of Ira Graves , as well as a star scientist of the Federation in his own right, Soong's early work was highly regarded, and he promised breakthroughs on the positronic brain . After failing to deliver on his promises, the disgraced and utterly humiliated Soong disappeared. Traveling under an assumed name to a colony on Omicron Theta , he continued his research, unbeknownst to anyone but his neighbors. ( ENT : " The Augments "; TNG : " Datalore ", " Inheritance "; Star Trek Nemesis )

While living on Omicron Theta, Soong met and fell in love with Juliana O'Donnell and the pair married in secret on Mavala IV , keeping their relationship secret because Juliana's mother disapproved of her daughter's involvement with a much older man; their intention was to show her later that they could make their relationship work. Together, they perfected his design and built functional androids with advanced artificial intelligence . Each of the androids created by the Soongs represented an advancement and refinement of the potential for their creations. The first three were failures; B-4 was a relatively primitive prototype android, capable of only the most basic speech and motorization. Lore , the fifth attempt, displayed tremendous advances in cognitive abilities and interaction but had difficulty in adapting to ethical subroutines designed to facilitate interaction among Humans and was emotionally unstable. For this reason, he had Lore deactivated and began work on his sixth attempt: Data, who was the most successful. Despite lacking emotional ability and requiring a "learning" period, Data advanced further and more quickly than Doctor Soong had originally hoped.

In 2338 , when the colony on Omicron Theta came under attack by the Crystalline Entity , Soong escaped, but his wife was fatally injured, and he was assumed dead while in fact he continued his research in secret at a new location. The inert body of Data and the disassembled body of Lore were left behind on the colony, to be discovered later by Starfleet. Soong knew Data had been rescued and followed his life in secret, but assumed that Lore had been left disassembled and inert. Some of the research that he did after the attack involved the creation of an upgrade chip to Data that would, among other things, give him the ability to experience the range of Human emotions previously unavailable to him. Because Soong thought Lore to be still abandoned in pieces on Omicron Theta, he did not research how to correct the flaws in Lore's design or integrate the advancements he later made into Lore, which was his original intention.

A hologram of Doctor Soong from around the time of Juliana's creation

Julia Tainer

Unable to let Juliana go, Noonien transferred his comatose wife's memories into an advanced gynoid body before her passing. The Juliana android, though still a Soong-type design, greatly advanced Soong's goal of replicating Human abilities in an android. The new android design was so advanced that she never realized she was not the original Juliana. When Soong began to become too caught up in his work, she later divorced Soong, moved away, and remarried. In a recorded message, Soong told their "son" Data about his mother and that he had always deeply regretted putting his work before his wife, admitting that the "original" Juliana would have also left him under the circumstances. Unlike the androids Lore and Lal, who had been made to feel emotions yet had to be turned off as their positronic nets could not handle emotional feelings, the Juliana android could handle emotions as her positronic brain was the transferred recipient of Human memories. ( TNG : " Inheritance ")

Soong was believed to have been killed on Omicron Theta, in the Crystalline Entity's attack, when this massacre was uncovered in 2364 . Three years later , however, he was discovered to be alive and secluded in the jungle of Terlina III , where Soong and Juliana had fled after the attack and where he had continued his work to create a perfect emotion chip for his son Data. In an effort to bring Data to him so that he could install the emotion chip, he activated a homing device that forced Data to hijack the USS Enterprise -D in order to travel to Terlina III. Unfortunately, the same homing signal also attracted Lore, who had been re-activated several years before, an event of which Soong was unaware.

During this meeting with his "sons", Soong admitted that he would have preferred Data to go into cybernetics like him rather than joining Starfleet, but nevertheless expressed compassion for both his "sons", trying to convince them to reconcile despite the disastrous results of Lore and Data's first meeting, apologizing to Lore for his inability to help Lore during their initial time on the colony in favor of working on Data instead. Lore was still angry at Soong and jealous of Data yet when Soong told him that he was dying Lore for a few seconds actually felt sorrow for his father. Soong could not understand why Lore had turned out as he did; to find out he disassembled Lore and then constructed Data. Had he not been forced to flee for his life, Soong would have reassembled Lore to fix him. The only differences between the two brothers was that Lore had a type L-resonator and Data had a type R-resonator. Likewise, Data was different in that unlike Lore he could not respond to emotions. Still thinking Lore was disassembled; Soong spent nearly thirty years make an emotion chip designed for Data own positronic brain. However, angered at the discovery that he and Data were not actually as different as he had initially believed, with the only difference being Data's greater ability to adapt to the ethical subroutines that Soong had given him, Lore eventually disabled Data in order to receive the emotion chip himself, and after it was installed, attacked Soong, hastening his death. As Soong laid dying, Data assured him that he would remain to continue Soong's legacy, and, although he commented that he would not be able to grieve for his creator, Soong's last words assured Data that he would mourn his death in his own way, dying shortly after Data called him "father" for the first time. ( TNG : " Brothers ")

Despite Soong's death, this was not the last encounter Data had with his father. Doctor Soong had implanted a subroutine into Data's base programming, enabling Data to dream when he had achieved a certain level of development. The dream circuit was activated prematurely while conducting an experiment with Doctor Julian Bashir from Deep Space 9 . Data's dreams included images of a young Noonien Soong as a blacksmith , forging a bird that represented Data himself. Data also encountered a holo-recording of Soong when he met his "mother" for the first time; after he discovered that Juliana was an android "duplicate" of the original, he discovered a memory chip that included a holographic recording of Soong he had created to explain the situation to anyone who learned what Juliana was. When Data activated the recording and identified himself, the Soong hologram admitted that he was grateful that Data was the one to find the message, noting that he had created a special program to explain the history of Data's mother to his "son" in more detail than he would have provided if anyone else had activated the chip. ( TNG : " Birthright, Part I ", " Inheritance ")

According to the time traveling 22nd century con artist , Berlinghoff Rasmussen , very few records of Doctor Soong's work survived to the 26th century . ( TNG : " A Matter Of Time ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Brothers "
• " Birthright, Part I " (dream sequence only)
• " Inheritance " (hologram only)

Background information [ ]

Soong was played by Brent Spiner (who also played Data , Lore , B-4 , Arik Soong , Altan Soong , and Adam Soong ).

According to the script for "Brothers", "Noonian" Soong was ninety years old in 2367, placing his birth in or around 2277 . [1]

Along with Khan Noonien Singh , Noonien Soong was named after a man named "Kim Noonien Singh", whom Gene Roddenberry had known during World War II. [2] Both names were tied together years later, when it was established on Star Trek: Enterprise that Soong's presumed ancestor Arik Soong (see below) attempted to recreate and perfect the same genetic engineering that had produced Khan.

Soong's first name was spelled "Noonien" in the scripts for " Datalore " and " The Measure Of A Man ", while all subsequent scripts (" Brothers ", " A Matter Of Time ", " Birthright, Part I ", and " Inheritance ") spelled the name "Noonian". The original okudagram for Data's personnel file seen on-screen in " Conundrum " used "Noonian", while the remastered version used "Noonien", as did the passenger manifest seen in " Inheritance ". The "Noonien" spelling is used in several reference sources, including the Star Trek Encyclopedia  (3rd ed., p. 455), StarTrek.com , and in the Star Trek: Picard Logs .

The first person planned to "portray" Soong was scenic artist Michael Okuda , who – on the suggestion of Producer Robert H. Justman – was photographed as Soong, to be included in a biographical file seen on a computer readout in " Datalore ". However, the scene featuring the bio was scrapped and Okuda's "appearance" never made it on screen. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 047)

In " Brothers ", Soong was originally planned to be played by actor Keye Luke , who previously appeared as Donald Cory (in TOS : " Whom Gods Destroy "), but Luke, aged eighty-six by this point, was either unavailable or unwilling to do the part. He died only a few months after the broadcast of the episode. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Guide )

Via an extensive make-up process, Brent Spiner adopts his Noonien Soong persona

Michael Westmore said that the Soong make-up in "Brothers" was made of seventeen pieces. (" Departmental Briefing Year Four – Make Up ", TNG Season 4 DVD special feature)

Comments by production staff, and the casting of Brent Spiner, indicated that Noonien Soong was the great-grandson of Arik Soong . This was supported by Arik Soong's comment about cybernetics in " The Augments ", when he says that developing an artificial lifeform "might take a generation or two."

Apocrypha [ ]

In Diane Duane 's novel Dark Mirror , which takes place in the mirror universe , Doctor Soong was executed as a political dissident, and, consequently, neither Data nor Lore was ever created. A different version of the mirror Soong appeared in the novella " The Worst of Both Worlds ". He was assimilated by the Borg in 2371 .

In the short story "The Embrace of Cold Architects" by David R. George III (collected in the Star Trek: Myriad Universes anthology Shattered Light ), Doctor Soong plays an important role when he is able to save his "granddaughter", Lal , from suffering a cascade failure (which killed her in the main universe) when she follows her "father" to Soong, when he attempts to give Data the emotion chip. In this timeline, her creation was delayed after Data missed a vital conference, resulting in Data constructing Lal several months later than he did in the show.

Doctor Soong returns in the novel Cold Equations : The Persistence of Memory , which reveals that he survived his death by transferring his mind into an android body far more Human in appearance than Data's. After his remaining 'children' – his three early prototypes, B-4, Lal, and Lore – are stolen by the Breen , he manages to rescue them with help from the USS Enterprise -E , but subsequently sacrifices himself to transfer Data's memories from B-4 into his own body, unable to complete the new body he had been attempting to construct due to a recent Borg invasion and the Breen's subsequent attack on his lab. This transfer results in Data acquiring all of Soong's memories and a new ability to use contractions, although he still chooses not to use them, out of habit.

External link [ ]

• Noonien Soong at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

Star Trek: DS9 Did Something That Picards Enterprise Never Could

• Both Star Trek: DS9 and TNG's second seasons introduced new existential threats that set up major conflicts in season 3.
• DS9 showed the effect of the Dominion threat on its civilian crew, unlike TNG that carried on with civilian families in danger.
• TNG had families aboard due to a peaceful work-life balance policy in the 24th century that DS9 highlighted the consequences of.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did something that Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was unable to do on the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation . With its space station setting and combination of Starfleet and non-Federation crew members, DS9 was specifically designed to stand apart from TNG . However, for all their differences, there's an interesting similarity between DS9 season 2 and TNG season 2. Both Star Trek TV shows ' second seasons introduced new existential threats to the Federation, that set up major conflict in season 3.

Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 introduced the Borg Collective, who would later attack the Federation in TNG 's thrilling season 3 finale, "The Best of Both Worlds". Star Trek: DS9 's Dominion were an anti-Federation , who opposed everything that Starfleet stood for. Both of these threats proved that traditional Federation diplomacy wasn't a viable solution, putting the crews of the USS Enterprise-D, and Deep Space Nine in the line of fire. However, while Star Trek: DS9 addressed the effect of the Dominion on its civilian crew, TNG carried on as if having a ship full of civilian families was perfectly normal during the Borg crisis .

Star Trek: The Dominion War Timeline, Explained

The Dominion War was the bloodiest conflict in Star Trek history, and its complicated timeline was filled with shocking twists and turns.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Took Its Children Out Of Harms Way, Unlike Picards Enterprise

After Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) fails to reason with the Dominion in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's season 3 opener, it has an immediate effect on the station's civilian populace. In DS9 season 3, episode 3, "The House of Quark", Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind Chao) reveals that the Dominion threat has shut the school, due to the Bajorans evacuating the station for the safety of the planet below . This is in stark contrast to how, in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's season 3 finale, the multiple families aboard the USS Enterprise-D weren't evacuated in the face of the Borg threat.

The closure of the school was written into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to remove Keiko O'Brien from the series temporarily while the writers developed the friendship between Chief O'Brien (Alexander Siddig) and Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig).

Kids in Star Trek like Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) or Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) were regularly put at risk because they were being cared for by their single parents, who happened to be Starfleet officers. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine made this distinction clear by establishing in "The House of Quark" that the only kids left on the station were Jake, Nog (Aron Eisenberg) and Molly O'Brien (Hana Hatae). Meanwhile, Picard's Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation continued to put multiple civilian children in harm's way through battles with the Borg and the eventual crash on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations .

Why Star Trek: TNGs Enterprise Had To Have Kids

Captain Picard wasn't fond of having children aboard the USS Enterprise-D, which begs the question of why Star Trek: The Next Generation had so many junior crew members. Picard's Enterprise had families aboard thanks to TNG 's creator, Gene Roddenberry. In Roddenberry and David Gerrold's Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 bible , the show's new approach to families is explained:

As humanity probes deeper and deeper into space with ten-year or longer missions becoming the norm, Starfleet has begun encouraging crewpersons to share space exploration: adventure with their families. Twenty-fourth century humans believe that life should be lived, not postponed.

In essence, the reason that Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Enterprise had kids aboard was because there was a better work-life balance in the peaceful 24th century . Indeed, Roddenberry and Gerrold's bible asserts that " people need people " and having family members aboard will reduce the isolation felt by deep space explorers. However, as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's pilot proved, the effects of losing a loved one during times of conflict are devastating, and a hefty price to pay for the privilege of having one's family aboard. It's only when the Dominion War began that Starfleet clearly began to rethink this policy.

All episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Cast Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Rene Auberjonois, Nicole de Boer, Michael Dorn, Andrew Robinson, Nana Visitor, Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig

Release Date January 3, 1993

Writers Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller

Where To Watch Paramount+

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Release Date September 28, 1987

Writers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Sparking STEM dreams: From 'Star Trek' to Neil deGrasse Tyson, minorities find inspiration

Ronald Gamble still remembers sitting up with his mother in the 1960s to watch the exploits of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and Lt. Uhura on TV's groundbreaking "Star Trek."

“She was a big Trekkie,” Gamble, a theoretical astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said of his mom and a show with barrier-busting messages of unity and mission-driven science.

Uhura — who even once helmed the conn on the animated version of Star Trek — may have been one of the first major visualizations depicting Black people working and solving problems in the future, but she’s not alone.

In the decades since "Star Trek," a number of figures — both real and fictional — have inspired Black people to join science and engineering work fields.

One of the most prominent real-life figures, Black or white, in astrophysicsis is Neil deGrasse Tyson, the 65-year-old astrophysicist and author who appears across media talking on everything from black holes to the possibility of life on other planets.

Tyson, who one day may talk about the rings of Saturn and the next give a shout out to hip-hop, remains a staple on science shows, cable news and in movies.

One of his mentors, prominent author and astronomer Carl Sagan, once chided Hollywood directors for movies like the first "Star Wars," taking them to task over their early failure to depict alien life of all kinds, with no Blacks and other minorities in its fictional universes.

Nearly 30 years later, a plethora of books, movies and videogames depict Black explorers and Black warriors tackling galactic-sized issues in movies like " Black Panther," "Captain Marvel," the Star Wars sequels and blockbusters like the zombie-packed "I Am Legend" and the sci-fi mind-twister, "Tenet."

One of the defining trends depicting Black representation in the science and technology-themed fields of art, literature and movies is Afrofuturism, the cultural movement that combines the Black experience with science and pop culture.

Author Octavia Butler, whose work "Kindred," about a protagonist time traveling to the days of slavery, was adopted for a movie recently, is frequently cited as an influence. Gamble, an established oil painter, graphic designer and consultant, points out that part of making science and STEM-related fields accessible is making them relatable the way Star Trek and other pop culture figures do.

In recent years, groups like Black in Astro, Gamble’s Cosmic Pathfinders Program or podcasts like the Dr. Raven the Science Maven have raised the consciousness of those interested in learning the trappings of space and science.

"The plan is to remove the barriers," Gamble said.

J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter: @JDGallop.

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Published May 29, 2024

The Darkest Treks: Star Trek's Closest Calls with Black Holes

From lost probes to ancient treasure, Starfleet's encounters with black holes require science know-how and faith of the heart.

This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Discovery's "Lagrange Point."

StarTrek.com

As the journey of Star Trek: Discovery comes close to reaching its endpoint, the eponymous starship and crew have found themselves at the end of a very long road. In the search for the technology left behind by the mysterious Progenitors , we learn that the technology itself has been hidden at a specific spot, right in a tricky place, between two black holes. In scientific terms, this is called a " Lagrange Point ," which is where the episode gets its name and refers to a location in space between two bodies in which gravitational attraction and repulsion are enhanced, creating what NASA calls "parking spots," in space.

In this case, the two bodies that have created a small parking spot are two black holes, rendered in all their glory, resembling what physicist Kip Thorne posits black holes would really look like if observed from a spaceship. But, Star Trek has been thinking about black holes, long before current science was really sure what they might look like, and, as such, Starfleet's history with this phenomenon goes deep. So deep, you might say, that light can't even escape!

Here's a brief history of Star Trek 's best black hole adventures, and how these wonderfully mysterious phenomena continue to pull us in.

Voyager 6 … I Presume?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture , the crew of the Enterprise learn that a giant machine intelligence known as V'Ger is really a mash-up of an ancient alien lifeform and an old Earth space probe called Voyager 6 . Decker tells us that the probe "disappeared into what they used to call a black hole." In 1979, the same year as the Disney sci-fi romp titled The Black Hole , the actual term "black hole" was still relatively new, at least in the popular consciousness. Although the etymology of "black hole," can be traced to the early 1960s, it was not until 1967 — smack-dab in the middle of the first run of The Original Series — that the scientific term became more widely used. Before the 1960s, referring to a collapsed star with an unbeatable gravitational pull wasn't standardized, and as far back as the 1700s, the term "dark star" was often used instead.

"Beyond the Farthest Star"

This is why Decker says people used to call various gravitational phenomena black holes. At the time, the coinage was still fairly new! In The Animated Series debut episode, "Beyond the Farthest Star," the Enterprise gets into the orbit of a "dead star," which is an imprecise astronomical term, because again, at the time, black holes had just recently become fully codified as black holes.The 1967 TOS episode " Tomorrow is Yesterday ," also mentions that the Enterprise uses a "black star" to create a slingshot effect and travel back in time. In theoretical physics, a "black star" is a kind of alternative theory to a black hole, but, it's also possible that in "Tomorrow is Yesterday," Starfleet merely called it a black star, and it was really a black hole.

In real life, NASA has not lost any probes to black holes, at least not that we know. But, on Voyager I and Voyager II , there is a golden record, containing various pieces of information about Earth, including an audio recording of Nick Sagan saying, "Hello from the children of planet Earth." Sagan is the son of Carl Sagan and was a writer for The Next Generation and Voyager .

Singularity Headaches from Voyager to Enterprise

"Parallax"

Speaking of spacecraft called " Voyager ," the wayward crew in Star Trek: Voyager dealt with more than their fair share of black hole conundrums. In the second regular episode of Voyager , ever, " Parallax ," they encounter an event horizon of a "quantum singularity." In physics, the center of a black hole is called a singularity, the place of infinite density. In "Parallax," the proximity to this singularity the Voyager crew believed there was another ship trapped in the same area of space, but, in reality, it was a time-delayed echo of Voyager itself.

In the episode " Hunters ," the Voyager crew was able to transform a microsingularity into a full-blown black hole, and thus, destroy an attacking Hirogen ship. A few years later in Earth time — but roughly 200 years prior in Star Trek time —  the Enterprise episode " Singularity " found the crew of the NX-01 skirting the edge of a black hole, resulting in everyone becoming obsessed with irritating minutiae. You could say, the proximity to the singularity of a black hole made the crew single-minded .

Real Black Holes Come To Star Trek

"If Memory Serves"

As NASA has pointed out over the years, black holes are not fully understood by contemporary science, an evolving truth that is reflected over the years throughout all of Star Trek , too. This is why, it wasn't until the 2019 Discovery episode " If Memory Serves " that we got our first Star Trek glimpse of what current science thinks a black hole might really look like. When siblings Spock and Burnham take an unauthorized road trip to Talos IV, the Talosians create an illusionary black hole around their planet to ward off the visitors. From this point, all versions of Star Trek have begun using this conception of black holes on-screen. While the red-matter-generated black hole Spock created in the 2009 Star Trek film looks incredible, the version first depicted in Discovery Season 2 is more scientifically up-to-date.

This contemporary version of a black hole also appeared in the Strange New Worlds episode " Memento Mori ," in which the Enterprise crew uses the gravity of a brown dwarf star — tethered to a black hole — to escape attacks from the Gorn. A black star of this nature also appears in the opening credits of every single episode of Lower Decks , in which it appears the U.S.S. Cerritos almost gets sucked into a black hole, but, thankfully, narrowly escapes.

"Lagrange Point"

Because Discovery pioneered this newer look for black holes, it's fitting that two black holes appear in the penultimate episode of the entire series. From navigating the multiverse to the mycelial network, Discovery has had more than its fair share of encounters with the stormy weather of outer space. But, with the double black holes of "Lagrange Point," Discovery proves that when it comes to space obstacles, sometimes, the classics work best.

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Ryan Britt is the author of the nonfiction books Phasers on Stun! How the Making and Remaking of Star Trek Changed the World (2022), The Spice Must Flow: The Journey of Dune from Cult Novels to Visionary Sci-Fi Movies (2023), and the essay collection Luke Skywalker Can’t Read (2015). He is a longtime contributor to Star Trek.com and his writing regularly appears with Inverse, Den of Geek!, Esquire and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine with his family.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is over. Now Alex Kurtzman readies for ‘Starfleet Academy’ and ‘Section 31’

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In “Star Trek” terms, and in the real world of “Star Trek” television, Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the 21st century franchise, might be described as the Federation president, from whose offices various series depart on their individual missions. Indeed, to hear him speak of it, the whole enterprise — honestly, no pun intended — seems to run very much on the series’ ethos of individual initiative and group consensus.

The first series to be launched, “ Star Trek: Discovery, ” has come to an end as of Thursday after five seasons on Paramount+. Others in the fleet include the concluded “ Picard, ” which brought “The Next Generation” into a new generation; the ongoing “ Strange New Worlds, ” which precedes the action of what’s now called “The Original Series,” from which it takes its spirit and several characters; “Lower Decks,” a comedy set among Starfleet service workers; and “Prodigy,” in which a collection of teenage aliens go joyriding in a starship. On the horizon are “Starfleet Academy,” with Holly Hunter set to star, and a TV feature, “ Section 31, ” with Michelle Yeoh back as Philippa Georgiou.

I spoke with Kurtzman, whose “Trek” trek began as a writer on the quantum-canonical reboot movies “ Star Trek ” (2009) and “ Star Trek: Into Darkness ” (2013), at Secret Hideout, his appropriately unmarked Santa Monica headquarters. Metro trains glide by his front door unaware. We began the conversation, edited for length and clarity here, with a discussion of his “Trek” universe.

Alex Kurtzman: I liken them to different colors in the rainbow. It makes no sense to me to make one show that’s for everybody; it makes a lot of sense to make a lot of shows individually tailored to a sect of the “Star Trek” audience. It’s a misnomer that there’s a one-size-fits-all Trekkie. And rather than make one show that’s going to please everybody — and will almost certainly please nobody — let’s make an adult drama, an animated comedy, a kids’ comedy, an adventure show and on and on. There’s something quite beautiful about that; it allows each of the stories to bloom in its own unique way.

Do you get pushback from the fans?

Absolutely. In some ways that’s the point. One of the things I learned early on is that to be in love with “Star Trek” is to engage in healthy debate. There is no more vocal fan base. Some people tell you that their favorite is “The Original Series,” some say their favorite is “Voyager” and some say their favorite is “Discovery.” Yet they all come together and talk about what makes something singularly “Trek” — [creator] Gene Roddenberry‘s extraordinarily optimistic vision of the future when all that divides us [gets placed] in the rearview mirror and we get to move on and discover things. Like all great science fiction, you get to pick your allegory to the real world and come up with the science fiction equivalent. And everybody who watches understands what we’re talking about — racism or the Middle East or whatever.

What specific objections did you find to “Discovery”?

I think people felt it was too dark. We really listen to our fans in the writers’ room — everybody will have read a different article or review over the weekend, and we talk about what feels relevant and what feels less relevant. And then we engage in a healthy democratic debate about why and begin to apply that; it seeps into the decisions we make. Season 1 of “Discovery” was always intended to be a journey from darkness into light, and ultimately reinforce Roddenberry’s vision. I think people were just stunned by something that felt darker than any “Trek” had before. But doing a dark “Star Trek” really wasn’t our goal. The show is a mirror that holds itself up to the times, and we were in 2017 — we saw the nation fracture hugely right after the election, and it’s only gotten worse since then. We were interpreting that through science fiction. There were people who appreciated that and others for whom it was just not “Star Trek.” And the result, in Season 2, Capt. [Christopher] Pike showed up, Number One showed up, Spock showed up, and we began to bring in what felt to people more like the “Star Trek” they understood.

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You’re ending the series after five seasons. Was that always a plan?

You know, we were surprised we didn’t continue, and yet it feels now that it was right. One of the things that happened very quickly as streaming took off was that it radically changed watch patterns for viewers. Shows that used to go 10, 12 seasons, people would tap out after two — like, “I got what I want” — so for any show to go five seasons, it’s a miracle. In ways I don’t think we could have predicted, the season from the beginning feels like it’s the last; it just has a sense of finality. The studio was wonderful in that they recognized we needed to put a button on it, we needed a period on the end of the sentence, and so they allowed us to go back, which we did right before the strike, and [film] the coda that wraps up the series.

“Discovery” is a riot of love stories, among both heroes and villains.

There’s certainly a history of that in “Star Trek.” Whether or not characters were engaged in direct relationships, there was always a subtext of the love between them. I believe that’s why we love the bridge crew, because it’s really a love story, everyone’s in a love story, and they all care for each other and fight like family members. But ultimately they’re there to help each other and explore the universe together. If there’s some weird problem, and the answer’s not immediately apparent, each of them brings a different skill set and therefore a different perspective; they clash in their debate on how to proceed and then find some miraculous solution that none of them would have thought of at the outset.

One of the beautiful things about the shows is that you get to spend a long time with them, as opposed to a two-hour movie where you have to get in and out quickly and then wait a couple of years before the next one comes along. To be able to be on their weekly adventures, it affords the storytelling level of depth and complexity a two-hour movie just can’t achieve in that way.

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It’s astonishing how much matter you got into these things. Some storylines that only lasted an episode I remembered as seasonal arcs.

The sheer tonnage of story and character we were able to pack into “Discovery” every episode was kind of incredible. The thing to keep in mind is that “Discovery” was made as streaming was exploding, so what I think you’re also seeing there is a lot of writers who were trained in the network world with an A, B and C story applying it suddenly to a very different kind of storytelling in a much more cinematic medium. And when you have that kind of scope it starts to become really, really big. Sometimes that works really, really well and sometimes it was too much. And we were figuring it out; it was a bunch of people with flashlights in the dark, looking for how to interpret “Star Trek” now, since it had been 12 years since it had been on a television screen.

Are you able to course-correct within a season?

Sure. You get people you really trust in the room. Aaron Baiers, who runs Secret Hideout, is one of my most important early-warning systems; he isn’t necessarily in the room when we’re breaking stories, but he’s the first person who’ll read an outline and he’s the first person who’ll read a script. What I value so much about his perspective is that he’s coming in cold, he’s just like, “I’m the viewer, and I understand this or I don’t understand it, I feel this or I don’t feel it.” The studio executives are very similar. They love “Star Trek,” they’re all die-hard fans and have very strong feelings about what is appropriate. It then goes through a series of artists in every facet, from props to visual effects to production design, and they’re bringing their interpretations and opinions to the story.

Did “Strange New Worlds” come out of the fact that everybody loved seeing Christopher Pike in “Discovery?”

I really have to credit Akiva Goldsman with this. He knew that I was going to bring Pike into the premiere of the second season of “Discovery,” and said, “You know, there’s an incredible show about Capt. Pike and the Enterprise before Kirk takes over; there’s seven years of great storytelling there” — or five years, depending on when you come into the storyline. I said, “We have to cast a successful Pike first, so let’s see if that works. Let’s figure out who’s Number One, and who Spock is,” which are wildly tall orders. I hadn’t seen Anson Mount in other things before [he was cast as Pike], and when he sent in his taped audition it was that wonderful moment where you go, “That’s exactly the person we’re looking for.” Everybody loves Pike because he’s the kind of leader you want, definitive and clear but open to everyone’s perspective and humanistic in his response. And then we had the incredibly tall order of having Ethan [Peck] step into Leonard [Nimoy’s] and [Zachary Quinto’s] shoes.

He’s great.

He’s amazing, just a delight of a human being. And Rebecca Romijn‘s energy, what she brings to Number One is such a contemporary take on a character that was kind of a cipher in “The Original Series.” But she brings a kind of joy, a comedy, a bearing, a gravitas to the character that feels very modern. Thank God the fans responded the way they did and sent that petition [calling for a “Legacy” series], because everybody at CBS got the message very quickly. Jenny Lumet and Akiva and I wrote a pilot, and we were off to the races. Typically it takes fans a minute to adjust to what you’re doing, especially with beloved legacy characters, but the response to “Strange New World” from a critical perspective and fan perspective and just a viewership perspective was so immediate, it really did help us understand what was satisfying fans.

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What can you tell me about “Starfleet Academy?” Is it going to be Earth-based or space-based?

I’m going to say, without giving anything away, both. Right now we’re in the middle of answering the question what does San Francisco, where the academy is, look like in the 32nd century. Our primary set is the biggest we’ve ever built.

So you’re setting this —

In the “Discovery” era. There’s a specific reason for that. As the father of a 17-year-old boy, I see what my son is feeling as he looks at the world and to his future. I see the uncertainty; I see all the things we took for granted as given are not certainties for him. I see him recognizing he’s inheriting an enormous mess to clean up and it’s going to be on his generation to figure out how to do that, and that’s a lot to ask of a kid. My thinking was, if we set “Starfleet Academy” in the halcyon days of the Federation where everything was fine, it’s not going to speak to what kids are going through right now.

It’ll be a nice fantasy, but it’s not really going to be authentic. What’ll be authentic is to set it in the timeline where this is the first class back after over 100 years, and they are coming into a world that is only beginning to recover from a cataclysm — which was the Burn, as established on “Star Trek: Discovery,” where the Federation was greatly diminished. So they’re the first who’ll inherit, who’ll re-inherit, the task of exploration as a primary goal, because there just wasn’t room for that during the Burn — everybody was playing defense. It’s an incredibly optimistic show, an incredibly fun show; it’s a very funny show, and it’s a very emotional show. I think these kids, in different ways, are going to represent what a lot of kids are feeling now.

And I’m very, very , very excited that Holly Hunter is the lead of the show. Honestly, when we were working on the scripts, we wrote it for Holly thinking she’d never do it. And we sent them to her, and to our absolute delight and shock she loved them and signed on right away.

And then you’ve got the “Section 31” movie.

“Section 31” is Michelle Yeoh’s return as Georgiou. A very, very different feeling for “Star Trek.” I will always be so grateful to her, because on the heels of her nomination and then her Oscar win , she just doubled down on coming back to “Star Trek.” She could have easily walked away from it; she had a lot of other opportunities. But she remained steadfast and totally committed. We just wrapped that up and are starting to edit now.

Are you looking past “Starfleet” and “Section 31” to future projects?

There’s always notions and there are a couple of surprises coming up, but I really try to live in the shows that are in front of me in the moment because they’re so all-consuming. I’m directing the first two episodes of “Starfleet Academy,” so right now my brain is just wholly inside that world. But you can tell “Star Trek” stories forever; there’s always more. There’s something in the DNA of its construction that allows you to keep opening different doors. Some of that is science fiction, some of it has to do with the combination of science fiction and the organic embracing of all these other genres that lets you explore new territories. I don’t think it’s ever going to end. I think it’s going to go on for a long, long time. The real question for “Star Trek” is how do you keep innovating, how do you deliver both what people expect and something totally fresh at the same time. Because I think that is actually what people want from “Star Trek.” They want what’s familiar delivered in a way that doesn’t feel familiar.

With all our showrunners — Terry Matalas on “Picard,” the Hagemans on “Prodigy,” Mike McMahan on “Lower Decks,” Michelle Paradise, who has been singlehandedly running “Discovery” for the last two years, and then Akiva and Henry Alonso Myers on “Strange New Worlds” — my feeling is that the best way to protect and preserve “Star Trek” is not to impose my own vision on it but [find people] who meet the criteria of loving “Star Trek,” wanting to do new things with it, understanding how incredibly hard it is to do. And then I’m going to let you do your job. I’ll come in and tell you what I think every once in a while, and I’ll help get the boat off the dock, but once I hand the show over to a creative it has to be their show. And that means you’re going to get a different take every time, and as long as those takes all feel like they can marry into the same rainbow, to get back to the metaphor, that’s the way to keep “Star Trek” fresh.

I take great comfort because “Star Trek” really only belongs to Gene Roddenberry and the fans. We don’t own it. We carry it, we try to evolve it and then we hand it off to the next people. And hopefully they will love it as much as we do.

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'Star Trek #500' cover showcases a commanding collection of cosmic captains

"If you're only getting one 'Star Trek' book this year, this is not one to miss out on!"

Since 2007, San Diego-based IDW Publishing has been at the vanguard of nurturing a galaxy of " Star Trek " comics and graphic novels spanning decades and touching upon nearly generation and iteration of creator Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi franchise.

Now seventeen years later, IDW is primed to release their milestone 500th "Star Trek" issue in time for Star Trek Day 2024. This all-star collector's edition is injected with characters not only from vintage offerings like "The Original Series" and "The Next Generation," but also new digital age fare experienced on streaming platforms.

Related: 6 'Star Trek' Captains, Ranked from Worst to Best

Here's the official description:

"Celebrate IDW's 500th issue of 'Star Trek' comics (and an early Star Trek Day!) with this landmark oversized anthology issue! This collection of seven short stories spans through fan-favorite eras of the beloved franchise from 'Lower Decks' to 'Strange New Worlds,' legacy characters from 'The Next Generation' and the original series, written and illustrated by 'Star Trek' comics veterans and new voices alike. Plus, don't miss out on the prelude to 2025's big 'Star Trek' and 'Defiant' comic crossover event written by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Christopher Cantwell!"

Another attractive feature of this special release is the composing of four fantastic covers created by artists Joëlle Jones, Jake Bartok, J.K. Woodward, and Chris Fenoglio. Contributing writers include Patton Oswalt, Chris Cantwell, Magdalene Visaggio, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Jody Houser, Jordan Blum and Morgan Hampton.

"The sending to print of any single comic is a feat in and of itself," IDW editor Heather Antos told Nerdist . "To hit a landmark like 500 issues with any franchise is a true accomplishment to be celebrated. This Star Trek Day, IDW is excited to present not only a look back at some of our favorite characters and series from over the years, but also a look forward on what is to come in the future for our Eisner-nominated 'Star Trek' and 'Defiant' series. If you're only getting one 'Star Trek' book this year, this is not one to miss out on!"

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Veteran "Star Trek" writer Jackson Lanzing has been helping to lead the momentous charge in restoring the space fantasy to its proper place in the comic book realm. 

"In 'Star Trek #400,' we began a journey that changed the face of 'Star Trek' comics and carved out a whole new line for readers of every generation,” said Lansing in a statement. "I don’t think any of us could have imagined what would follow. From all the incredible interlocked series to the first 'Star Trek' summer event to the first Eisner nominations in Starfleet's history. Now, one hundred issues later… it's time to push things even further."

IDW's "Star Trek #500" will be released on Sep. 4, 2024.

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Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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Star Trek: Discovery Boss Breaks Down That ‘Calypso’ Nod, Kovich’s Surprising Reveal in Emotional Series Finale

Keisha hatchett, staff editor.

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The following contains major spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery ‘s series finale on Thursday. Proceed accordingly.

After five ambitious seasons, Star Trek: Discovery has sent its last transmission.

In Thursday’s 90-minute series finale, Burnhum found herself cut off from her crew after following Moll through the portal that contained the Progenitors’ life-altering tech and, to her astonishment, doors to other worlds. While the captain fought the latter inside, her Discovery cohorts battled Breen warriors out in space.

 When the dust settled — Action Saru having fended off the Breen army — later scenes set in the future reveal that the Kelpian ambassador and T’Rina married. Book and Burnham also wed, then settled on Sanctuary Four (where Book planted Kwejian’s World Root) and had a son named Leto. The series wrapped with an older Burnham, now an admiral, taking Discovery out to space one last time, where it will sit abandoned for a thousand years until someone else finds it.

Read on for our interview with co-showrunner Michelle Paradise, who breaks down the episode’s biggest reveals and how it all came together.

[Note: Season 5 was originally filmed as a season finale. Following its cancellation , cast and crew were given an opportunity, aka a coda, to film additional scenes that wrapped up the show.]

The other thing it gave us is the chance to resolve the character of the ship because Discovery itself, Zora, is a huge character in the show. In the same way that it was emotionally important for us to wrap up Burnham’s story and know what had happened with her and Book, and just to know that they had their happy ending and she’s become an admiral, we wanted to have an emotional wrap-up for the ship Discovery and know what was going to happen to [it]. And so, tying it in with “Calypso” felt like a way to honor the fans who had seen the short and had that question, and it also felt like honoring fans who hadn’t ever seen the short but would want to know, ‘What’s going to happen to the ship now?’ Well, it has a very important mission. She’s going to go out and it’s going to take some time, but she has something very important to do as well.

TVLINE | You had a very short window for this coda, so was there any story that you wrote but had to unfortunately leave out? No, because we were very clear. We knew from the time we found out that we were going to have three days to shoot, which tells us, ‘OK, we can do maybe 10 to 12 pages or so.’  We knew that there were certain limitations with the sets because some sets had already been struck, but we had the bridge. [EP Kyle Jarrow], [co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman] and I just sat down and said, ‘OK, what are the most important things?’

TVLINE | We did learn that Book and Burnham have a son who is now going to be a captain. Talk to me about the importance of that and carrying their legacy. Is this setting him up to potentially be seen somewhere else in the future? We wanted to know what would happen with Burnham and Book in the future. It felt like, ‘Oh yeah, they would start a family,’ that their son would be the combo platter of the two of them. And we were very intentional about all of that, including his name Leto, which is the name of Book’s [nephew], who we met back in Season 3 and who was on Kwejian [in Season 4, Episode 1 when the DMA destroyed the planet]. Being able to honor his [nephew] in that way by naming their son after him, and that their son is going into Starfleet and following in mom’s footsteps by becoming a captain, it all felt right for the characters and also like a happy ending for us to be able to see that.

TVLINE | I loved the reveal of Kovich as Agent Daniels, the temporal agent from Star Trek: Enterprise . How early on did you know that would be his true identity? Where’d that come from? It was a pitch in the writers’ room. Carlos Cisco and Eric J.  Robbins know every iteration of everything, and they really love Enterprise . And from the moment David Cronenberg started playing that role, we all found ourselves leaning in whenever he was on screen. He plays that character so wonderfully and mysteriously that from moment one, I was asking myself, ‘What is happening? Who is this guy? There is a mystery here.’ We wanted to answer that question and we knew we would be doing the fans a disservice if we didn’t answer whatever that mystery was going to be.

It was probably Season 4 when this idea for him to be Daniels came up… In Season 5, we started planting little seeds: him writing with pen and paper as opposed to the holoPADDs that everyone uses. Even just his choice of wardrobe. When we meet him, he’s in glasses and a tie. This is a guy that, from the moment he joined the show, has been a little out of time. And so, Daniels felt like the perfect choice to highlight all of that.

TVLINE | Do you think that this series finale will be a satisfying ending for longtime Star Trek fans? Why so? I hope it is. I hope it feels emotionally satisfying for people who have invested seven or eight years in the five seasons of this show. We didn’t want any hanging questions. We wanted it to be an emotionally satisfying, happy ending for people who have loved the show [and] these characters. And for folks who are fans of Discovery and all the other iterations, we hope it will also be satisfying. We’ve put our hearts into it and we are fans of the show as much as we also work on the show. We know what this show means to people, and what the characters mean to people and what they represent to people. And so, we really wanted to honor the characters and the fans in the way that we ended. I hope it will feel satisfying and that people won’t feel like anything was left out. Hopefully, they’ll come away and feel joy for having been on the ride with us.

What did you think of Star Trek: Discovery’s series finale? Grade the episode below, and then sound off in the comments.

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I’m glad for those who enjoyed Discovery but it never seemed like Trek to me but instead its own special story.

It’s a shame that Surik, Spock, and Georgiou couldn’t return for the finale.

They all have other shows to appear on

Move over Star Trek: Enterprise, we have a new undisputed worst Trek finale of all time. What better way to say what a waste of time this season was than have a finale that resulted in nothing of consequence happening despite stringing along the Progenitor’s saga for ten episodes.

I completely disagree with you. This episode was very Star Trek and it had a satisfying ending for the series.

I’m glad we got to see Detmer and Owosekun for a brief moment in the bridge scene as Burnham reflected on her Discovery family, but it’s still a complete mystery to me why the actors were essentially not in the final season. Yes, their characters were piloting Enterprise back to Starfleet. But why make the decision to have their characters to that? I’ve not found an answer to this.

We have an answer for you. Stay tuned!

Great! My first thought was these 2 actors were doing a side project together so they weren’t available to ST:D but my searches have come up empty… Looking forward to your reveal!

When she flew it out one last time, didn’t some need to be in engineering that was a compatible pilot to activate the spore drive?

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'Star Trek: Discovery' ends as an underappreciated TV pioneer

Eric Deggans

Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. Michael Gibson/Paramount+ hide caption

First, an admission: Though this column will offer a lot of discussion and defense of Star Trek: Discovery as a pivotal show, it won’t spend much time talking up the series’ current, final season or its finale episode, “Life, Itself,” dropping Thursday on Paramount+.

That’s because, for this critic, the last few seasons of Discovery have been a bit bogged down by the stuff that has always made it a tough sell as a Trek series: overly ambitious, serialized storylines that aren’t compelling; new characters and environments that don’t impress; plot twists which can be maddening in their lack of logic; big storytelling swings which can be confusing and predictable at once.

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The show’s finale features the culmination of a sprawling scavenger hunt which found the crew of the starship Discovery bounding all over the place, searching for clues leading to a powerful technology pioneered by an alien race which created humanoid life throughout the galaxy. Their goal was to grab the technology before another race, ruthless and aggressive, could beat them to it, laying waste to everything.

It's no spoiler to reveal that Discovery ’s heroes avoid that nightmarish scenario, wrapping its fifth and final season with a conclusion centered on Sonequa Martin-Green’s ever-resourceful Capt. Michael Burnham and fond resolutions for a multitude of supporting characters (there’s even a space wedding!)

Still, this good-enough ending belies Discovery ’s status as a pioneering show which helped Paramount+ build a new vision for Star Trek in modern television – breaking ground that more creatively successful series like Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would follow years later.

And it all began with a singular character: Michael Burnham.

A take on Star Trek for modern TV

Discovery debuted in 2017 on CBS All Access — the streaming service which would become Paramount+ — facing a serious challenge.

As the first new Trek series in a dozen years, it had to chart a path which offered a new vision of the franchise without going too far — carving out a new corner in the universe of Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock not long after the release of Star Trek Beyond , the third feature film produced by J. J. Abrams featuring rebooted versions of those classic characters.

Producers set Discovery ’s story 10 years before the days of Kirk and Spock (originally depicted on NBC for three seasons starting way back in 1966). The new series wouldn’t be centered on a starship captain, but its second in command: Burnham, a Black woman who also happened to be the hitherto unknown adopted daughter of Vulcan ambassador Sarek, Spock’s father (she would get promoted to captain of Discovery much later).

A Black human woman who was raised among the emotionally controlling, super-intellectual Vulcans? Who Trek fans had never heard of over nearly 60 years? Before I actually saw any episodes, my own feelings ranged from cautiously intrigued to cynically pessimistic.

But then I saw the first episode, which had an amazing early scene: Martin-Green as Burnham and Michelle Yeoh as Discovery Capt. Philippa Georgiou walking across an alien planet – two women of color marking the first step forward for Star Trek on a new platform.

People once sidelined in typical science fiction stories were now centerstage — a thrilling, historic moment.

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou and Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham in the very first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Jan Thijs/CBS hide caption

And it got better from there. Back in the day, Trek writers often felt hamstrung by creator Gene Roddenberry’s insistence that, in the future depicted by the show, humans were beyond social ills like greed, prejudice, sexism, war, money and personal friction. The writers chafed, wondering: How in the world do you build compelling stories on a starship where interpersonal human conflict doesn’t exist?

But Discovery found a workaround, putting Burnham in a position where logic led her to mutiny against her captain, attempting a strategy which ultimately failed — leaving humans in open combat with the legendarily warlike Klingons. Discovery also featured a long storyline which played out over an entire season, unlike many earlier Trek shows which tried to offer a new adventure every week.

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The show’s first season had plenty of action, with Harry Potter alum Jason Isaacs emerging as a compelling and unique starship captain (saying more would be a spoiler; log onto Paramount+ and check out the first season). Fans saw a new vision for Trek technology, leveraging sleek, visceral special effects and action sequences worthy of a big budget movie, with design elements cribbed from several of the franchise’s films.

Later in its run, Discovery would debut Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, classic Trek characters who eventually got their own acclaimed series in Strange New Worlds . So far, five other Trek series have emerged on Paramount+ from ideas initially incubated on Discovery – including a critically acclaimed season of Picard which reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Not bad for a series one TV critic eventually called among “the worst in the [ Trek ] franchise’s history.”

Discovery’s unappreciated legacy

Unfortunately, Discovery has taken some turns which didn’t work out quite so well. At the end of Discovery ’s second season, the starship jumped ahead in time nine centuries – perhaps to remove it from Strange New World ’s timeline? – placing it in an environment only distantly connected to classic Trek .

And while Discovery initially seemed cautious about referencing classic Trek in its stories, later series like Strange New Worlds and Picard learned the value of diving into the near-60-year-old franchise’s legacy – regularly tapping the show’s longtime appeal, rather than twisting into knots to avoid it.

There are likely fans of Discovery who would disagree with this analysis. But I think it helps explain why the series has never quite gotten its due in the world of Star Trek , initially shaded by skeptical fans and later overshadowed by more beloved products.

Now is the perfect time to pay tribute to a show which actually accomplished quite a lot – helping prove that Roddenberry’s brainchild still has a lot of narrative juice left in the 21st Century.