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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode Guide - Season 3

Now we’re rolling! The apex of televised Star Trek begins at around episode 7 of The Next Generation’s third season when this program became the first-ever “must-see TV” in syndication. High concept episodes like “Yesterday’s Enterprise” are paeans to the fans and sci-fi hardcores, whereas stories like “The Offsping” show TNG’s maturity into mainstream-audience viewing – a rarity for science-fiction shows in those days before the genre geeks took over entertainment.

And the whole thing culminates in “Best of Both Worlds,” a triumph of an episode habitually ranked among all sorts of “Top TV episodes” listings, Star Trek-themed or no that ultimately spawned the fantastic Star Trek: First Contact. (The best ST film, for STG’s money…)

1. Evolution – Acting ensign Wesley Crusher screws up (sigh) by unleashing a swarm of sentient nanites into the Enterprise; a war for control of the ship ensues. A really small-scale war, but still Good news: This would be the last weak script to begin a TNG season. **

2. The Ensigns of Command – Data must convince a third-generation Federation colony to evacuate their planet before the aggressive Sheliak move in. Picard’s outsmarting of the would-be new tenants in the last act is nearly worth the price of admission. ***

3. The Survivors – 10,998 of a Federation colony of 11,000 have been killed, their planet made essentially uninhabitable. So how are the two humans left able to survive, living in a pristine house? **

4. Who Watches the Watchers – See, Federation types? This is what you get for spying on “primitive” cultures Prime Directive violations all over the place (well, that and Star Trek: Insurrection). In this episode, a Bronze Age-type stumbles upon Federation observers and becomes convinced that Captain Picard is a god. (You mean he’s not?) **

5. The Bonding – On an away mission, Lt. Worf gets a Red Shirt killed. An entity attempts to comfort the Red Shirt’s young son by creating an image of his mother who offers to live with him on the uninhabited planet. The boy ultimately decides Worf is cooler, stays on the Enterprise, and disappears by the next episode. **

6. Booby Trap – Any episode of any ST series in which a character falls in love with a Holodeck character (I’m looking at you, Harry Kim) is stupid. The icky vibe Geordi LaForge gives off in this one only makes it worse. 0

7. The Enemy – As though in karmic payback for “Booby Trap”, LaForge gets to spend most of this episode on a fairly inhospitable planet with an irritable Romulan in the Star Trek version of “Enemy Mine”. ***

8. The Price – Four parties (for the record, it’s the Federation, Caldonians, Chrysalians and Ferengi) board the Enterprise so as to begin bidding and negotiations with a group offering to sell the rights to a wormhole which leads into the Gamma Quadrant. Ultimately, it is revealed that at least two of the parties haven’t played fair and that the wormhole is worthless anyway. Also, Troi falls in love but nobody cares. ***

9. The Vengeance Factor – As Picard attempts to solve the problems of the fractured Acamarian society, Riker gets the hots for an assassin and then ties on a good buzz in Ten Forward. *

10. The Defector – A low-ranking Romulan officer gets a conscience and defects to the Federation. And when fellow Romulans seek to double-cross the double-crosser, well, Picard proves too freakin’ clever for them. ***

11. The Hunted – The Enterprise is dispatched to Angosia, a planet being considered for United Federation of Planets membership. Things on Angosia aren’t as hunky-dory as the planet’s leader, who bears a strong resemblance to Zefrim Cochrane, makes it seem – particularly a pesky bunch of genetically-altered soldiers who demand, you know, rights and stuff. ***

12. The High Ground – A terrorist group whose members are slowly dying thanks to their own weaponry kidnaps Dr. Crusher for medical assistance; later they bag Picard himself in a bid to get Federation mediation for their planetary conflict. A science-fiction comment on terrorism and censorship. ***

13. Déjà Q – When is Q not Q? When the Q Continuum strips him of his power and leaves him for Picard and the Enterprise crew to deal with. A decent episode, but Q without powers isn’t nearly as much fun as Q with powers…***

14. A Matter of Perspective – As it turns out, the holodeck can be useful. Picard gets to play defense attorney again when Riker is accused of a murder he (naturally) didn’t commit; the Captain and Data employ the holodeck to help reconstruct events and crack the case. ****

15. Yesterday's Enterprise – A classic that not only thrilled and amazed Star Trek fans, but helped show American TV what that wacky continuity thing could do. The long-since destroyed Enterprise “C” emerges from a rim in space, thereby changing history. In a (televisual) instant, the familiar Enterprise “D” morphs into a warship, fighting a losing war with the Klingon Empire. Guinan, who senses that Lt. Yar should not exist at all and yet is somehow key to winning the war, convinces Picard that the Enterprise C must be sent back through time to *lose* a battle while assisting the Klingons, an act of heroism that thaws relations between Klingons and Federation. Excellent stuff. *****

16. The Offspring – Lt. Data creates an android which he thinks of as a Data. Well funnier and far less nauseating than the idea sounds on paper. And the meeting between Riker and Data’s “daughter” Lal is one of the single best scenes of season 3. ****

17. Sins of the Father – In an attempt to clear his father’s name after the Klingon High Council’s accusations of complicity with the Romulans, Worf, along with Picard, appears before a tribunal to plead the case. This episode introduces Worf’s brother Kurn and the devious House of Duras, who’d make it all the way to Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Generations, respectively. ****

18. Allegiance – Aliens replace Picard with a doppleganger while placing the real Picard in an (almost) inescapable trap along with three others, each of a different species. After Picard deduces everything, he delivers a swell comeuppance to the captors. ****

19. Captain's Holiday – As though not badass enough already, Picard becomes a 24th-century Indiana Jones while ostensibly enjoying some R&R. Mix in Ferengi and time-travelers to make one dandy romp of an episode. ****

20. Tin Man – What appears to be the transportation of a friend of Troi’s to a simple first-contact mission gets complex quickly when Romulans appear on the scene and a nearby star gets set to go supernova. ***

21. Hollow Pursuits – This introduction of the perpetually nervous fan favorite Lt. Reginal Barclay features the former “Howling Mad” Murdock having to get a grip and assist the Enterprise with its mysterious technical difficulties. ***

22. The Most Toys – A dude named Kivas Fajo, perhaps in an attempt to make Comic Book Guy of The Simpsons jealous, swipes Data off the Enterprise bridge so as to add the android to his “collection.” ***

23. Sarek – Spock’s father, a staple of the Star Trek mythos since at least Star Trek III, shows up on the Enterprise in rough shape, as he’s suffering from a terminal disease. Picard assists the Vulcan in his ambassadorial mediation. ***

24. Ménage à Troi – Star Trek Guide doesn’t know what’s more execrable about the tile of this one: The feeble attempt at a very bad pun or the sheer misleading of its implication. In any case, “Meange” is quite a funny episode featuring Ferengi kidnapping Riker, Troi and Troi’s mother. Wesley (!) discovers where they’re being held and Picard must act as though Lwaxana is his lover, threatening to destroy the Ferengi ship in a jealous rage. It almost enough to forgive the stupid title. ****

25. Transfigurations – In another “more than he seems” plotline, the Enterprise finds a human-looking guy with fantastic powers – and some enemies. **

26. The Best of Both Worlds, Part I – “We have engaged the Borg.” In case you’ve never heard it before, here it is: The height of Borg badassery, with concomitant awesome performances by all characters up to and including guest first officer Commander Shelby. The Enterprise comes face to face with a Borg vessel that has assimilated an entire Federation colony, only for the Borg demand that Picard come aboard. Picard is then assimilated, to be used as an information-providing tool to conquer Federation worlds from Earth on down. Now captaining the Enterprise, Riker reckons the Enterprise can destroy the Borg cube with Picard – now dubbed Locutus – aboard. He gives Lt. Worf the command: “Fire!” *****

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3

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With the disappearance of a Federation colony, the Enterprise warp speeds to action to uncover if the reason was political or something much more sinister. Along their travels, the crew must escort a scientist who may hold the key to a malfunction that places the crew in danger. Prime Directives are broken as Picard is taken for a god on a primitive world. The Romulans continue to notice Federation intrusion into the Neutral Zone and threatens war against the Enterprise. Things become much more complex as an old enemy stops by and Picard must decide if he should offer solace or choose to remain enemies as a precaution. All leading up to finally answering the motives of Starfleet and the Federation as the Enterprise continues on its mission to explore the galaxy.

20 Episodes

S3 e1 - evolution, s3 e2 - the ensigns of command, s3 e3 - the survivors, s3 e4 - who watches the watchers, s3 e5 - the bonding, s3 e6 - booby trap, s3 e7 - the enemy, s3 e8 - the price, s3 e9 - the vengeance factor, s3 e10 - the defector, s3 e11 - the hunted, s3 e12 - the high ground, s3 e13 - déjà q, s3 e14 - a matter of perspective, s3 e15 - yesterday's enterprise, s3 e16 - the offspring, s3 e17 - sins of the father, s3 e18 - allegiance, s3 e19 - captain's holiday, s3 e20 - tin man, where does star trek: the next generation rank today the justwatch daily streaming charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. this includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. this includes data from ~1.3 million movie & tv show fans per day..

Streaming charts last updated: 1:18:24 AM, 06/09/2024

Star Trek: The Next Generation is 2866 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The TV show has moved up the charts by 419 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Eureka but less popular than Rescue: Special Ops.

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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TNG Season 3

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Episodes [ ]

Summary [ ].

Season 3 is marked by a string of abductions, with six people being kidnapped, and Captain Picard being abducted no less than three times. Captain Picard is abducted by aliens, takes a vacation which eventually gets him caught up in the search for a weapon from the future, mind melds with the legendary Vulcan Sarek , and is mistaken for a god by a primitive culture . He was again kidnapped with Doctor Crusher by Ansata terrorists . Data was abducted by Kivas Fajo , a collector of rare objects. He also continued to learn about Humanity, and constructed his own daughter , Lal . Worf adopts as his brother a young boy whose mother was killed under his command, and later meets with his real brother as his family is discommended because of the lies of Duras , a storyline which would continue into the next season , and onward. Commander Riker , Counselor Troi , and her mother Lwaxana Troi are all abducted by the Ferengi .

This season also features a loose story arc involving political tension between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire, and the latter's attempts to destabilize the Federation-Klingon alliance. This story line continues into season four, and is closely linked to the Worf/Duras story arc.

The USS Enterprise -D encounters the USS Enterprise -C which emerges from a time vortex, causing significant alterations to history. This is eventually resolved and removed from everyone's memories, though it had the side effect of creating a duplicate Lieutenant Natasha Yar in the past, who went on to become the mother of Sela before being killed by Romulans .

Additionally, Reginald Barclay comes on board the USS Enterprise -D and slowly begins to learn how to become a better officer, and Wesley Crusher is promoted to the rank of full ensign by Captain Picard after successfully discovering the key to rescuing Commander Riker, Counselor Deanna Troi and her mother Lwaxana, at the expense of his own entry into Starfleet Academy .

The season ends with the Borg entering Federation space, assimilating Captain Picard, and proceeding on a course to Earth , leaving Riker with the choice of whether or not to attempt to save Captain Picard.

Background information [ ]

A Season 3 "class photo"

• Gates McFadden returns to the cast as Doctor Beverly Crusher . Her first episode back is " The Ensigns of Command ", although " Evolution " would air first.
• In the first episode of Season 3, La Forge has been promoted from lieutenant to lieutenant commander and Worf from lieutenant j.g. to full lieutenant.
• Cinematographer Edward R. Brown retires and is replaced by Marvin Rush , who continues to work on Star Trek for the next sixteen years. Rush's preference for a bright, vibrant color scheme (as opposed to the more subdued lighting used by Brown) heavily alters the look of the series from this season onwards.
• The Starfleet uniforms are redesigned twice. Initially, they are still made of a spandex-like material, but are looser fitting with a raised collar and no striping on the shoulders. Later in the season, the main characters receive uniforms manufactured with wool gabardine. The redesign was to relieve back pain caused by the spandex uniforms. Background extras continue to use the original uniforms until the following season.
• The type 2 phasers are redesigned by Rick Sternbach . Later in the season, the tricorder props are reconstructed with greater detail by Ed Miarecki .
• A new four-foot model of the USS Enterprise -D is built by Greg Jein . It makes its debut in " The Defector ". Although it is incapable of saucer separation , it has more surface detail and accurately-lit Ten Forward windows.
• Head writer Maurice Hurley left after the second season , citing exhaustion from the in-fighting so prevalent among the writing staff in the early seasons. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 171) Michael Wagner initially took over the writing staff, but stepped down after only four episodes. According to regular director Cliff Bole , " I just don't think it was his cup of tea as far as the way the show worked, and the way Rick and everybody knows the show so well that they all rely on each other. Input even comes in from the technical guys, who have almost been in space. I just don't think it was the way he'd been operating in other places. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 183) Wagner was in turn replaced by Michael Piller , who had impressed Berman and Gene Roddenberry with the script for " Evolution ". ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , 2nd ed., p. 98)
• This is the first season to conclude with a cliffhanger: " The Best of Both Worlds ". From here on out, every season begins with the conclusion to the previous season's cliffhanger episode, and ends with another cliffhanger, with the exception of the final season, which concludes with the series finale, " All Good Things... "
• Beginning this season, a new opening credits sequence is used. Previously, the credits featured a departure from Earth through the Terran solar system. From this season on, however, the credits feature various exotic stellar phenomena, beginning with the trademark blue nebula. Later, as the shot pans through a star system, the ringed planet shown is clearly not Saturn, as its surface appears to be rocky with what seem to be lava formations on the night side. The rings of the planet mask a visual inconsistency with the star fields between the new footage and the edit to the original shots of the ship from the Season 1 and 2 intro sequence.
• Jonathan Frakes makes his directorial debut, becoming the first of many Star Trek cast members to direct an episode. His first episode as director was " The Offspring ". (He was not the first Star Trek performer to direct an episode, however, as TOS guest star Richard Compton had directed the episode " Haven " in the first season, and original cast members Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner had previously directed Star Trek films).
• Mark Lenard 's appearance as Sarek in the eponymous episode marked the second occasion in which a character from Star Trek: The Original Series crossed over to The Next Generation .

Credits [ ]

• Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker
• LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge ("Evolution” – “Allegiance", "Tin Man” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
• Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data
• Wil Wheaton as Acting Ensign / Ensign Wesley Crusher ("Evolution” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding” – “The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted” – “The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective” – “Allegiance", "Tin Man” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Gene Roddenberry

Line Producer

• David Livingston

Co-Producers

• Hans Beimler
• Richard Manning
• Peter Lauritson
• Ira Steven Behr ("The Vengeance Factor” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Co-Executive Producer

• Michael Piller ("The Bonding” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Executive Producers

• Rick Berman

Executive Script Consultant

• Melinda M. Snodgrass ("Evolution” – “Ménage à Troi")

Executive Story Editor

• Richard Danus ("Booby Trap” – “Deja Q")

Story Editor

• Ronald D. Moore ("Sins of The Father” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Junie Lowry
• Ron Jones ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "Allegiance", "Ménage à Troi", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Dennis McCarthy ("The Ensigns of Command” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted", "Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Hollow Pursuits” – “Sarek", "Transfigurations")
• Jay Chattaway ("Tin Man")

Main Title Theme by

• Jerry Goldsmith
• Alexander Courage

Director of Photography

• Marvin Rush

Production Designer

• Richard D. James
• J.P. Farrell ("Evolution", "The Bonding", "The Price", "The Hunted", "A Matter of Perspective", "Sins of The Father", "Tin Man", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Bob Lederman ("The Ensigns of Command", "Who Watches The Watchers", "The Enemy", "The Defector", "Deja Q", "The Offspring", "Captain's Holiday", "The Most Toys", "Transfigurations")
• Tom Benko , A.C.E. ("The Survivors", "Booby Trap", "The Vengeance Factor", "The High Ground", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Allegiance", "Hollow Pursuits") (received credit as A.C.E. from "Allegiance" on)
• Daryl S. Baskin ("Sarek")
• Howard S. Deane , A.C.E. ("Ménage à Troi")

Unit Production Manager

• Merri D. Howard

First Assistant Directors

• Chip Chalmers ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "The Most Toys", "Ménage à Troi", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Brad Yacobian ("The Ensigns of Command” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted", "Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Hollow Pursuits", "Sarek", "Transfigurations")
• Adele G. Simmons ("A Matter of Perspective")
• Bruce Alan Solow ("Allegiance", "Tin Man") (credited as Bruce Allen Solow in "Tin Man")

Second Assistant Directors

• Adele G. Simmons ("Evolution” – “Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Jeff Cline ("A Matter of Perspective")

Costume Designer

• Robert Blackman (credited as Bob Blackman until "Who Watches The Watchers")

Original Starfleet Uniforms / Starfleet Uniforms Created By

• William Ware Theiss

Visual Effects Supervisors

• Rob Legato ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "Allegiance", "Tin Man", "Ménage à Troi", "The Best of Both Worlds") (credited as Robert Legato from "Ménage à Troi" on)
• Dan Curry ("The Ensigns of Command” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted", "Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Sarek", "Transfigurations")
• Ron Moore ("Hollow Pursuits")
• Gary Hutzel ("The Most Toys")

Post Production Supervisor

• Wendy Neuss

Original Set Design

• Herman Zimmerman

Make-Up Supervisor

• Michael Westmore

Set Decorators

• Tom Pedigo ("Evolution” – “The Enemy")
• Jim Mees ("The Price” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Senior Illustrator/ Technical Consultant

• Rick Sternbach (credited only as Senior Illustrator until "Allegiance")

Scenic Art Supervisor/ Technical Consultant

• Michael Okuda (credited only as Scenic Art Supervisor until "Allegiance")

Set Designer

• Gary Speckman

Script Supervisor

• Cosmo Genovese

Special Effects

• Dick Brownfield

Property Masters

• Alan Sims ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "Allegiance", "Tin Man", "The Most Toys", "Ménage à Troi", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Joe Longo ("The Ensigns of Command” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted", "Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Hollow Pursuits", "Sarek", "Transfigurations")

Construction Coordinator

Hair Designer

• Vivian McAteer

Hair Stylists

• Barbara Lampson ("Evolution” – “The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Tim Jones ("The Hunted", "Deja Q")
• Rita Bordonaro ("Yesterday's Enterprise")

Make-Up Artists

• Gerald Quist ("Evolution” – “Transfigurations")
• June Abston Haymore
• Hank Edds , S.M.A. ("The Best of Both Worlds")

Production Associate

• Susan Sackett

Visual Effects Coordinators

• Gary Hutzel ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "Allegiance", "Tin Man", "Ménage à Troi", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Ron Moore ("The Ensigns of Command” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted", "Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Sarek", "Transfigurations")

Production Coordinator

• Diane Overdiek

Post Production Associates

• Terri Martinez ("The Survivors” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Heidi Julian ("Deja Q” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Wendy Rosenfeld ("Deja Q” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Assistants to the Producers

• Terri Martinez ("Evolution” – “The Ensigns of Command")
• Carol Eisner ("Evolution” – “The Ensigns of Command")

Sound Mixer

• Alan Bernard , C.A.S.

Chief Lighting Technician

• Buddy Bowles

First Company Grip

• Kimberley Thompson ("Evolution", "The Bonding", "The Price", "The Hunted", "A Matter of Perspective", "Sins of The Father", "Tin Man", "Sarek", "The Best of Both Worlds") (credited as Kimberly Thompson in "The Bonding", "The Price", "Sins of The Father", and "Sarek")
• David Velasquez ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "Transfigurations")
• Camille Argus ("The Ensigns of Command", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Vengeance Factor", "The High Ground", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Allegiance", "Hollow Pursuits", "Ménage à Troi")
• Amanda Chamberlin ("The Ensigns of Command” – “The Survivors", "The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted", "Deja Q", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Hollow Pursuits", "Sarek")
• Kris Jorgensen ("The Survivors", "The Enemy", "The Defector", "Deja Q", "The Offspring", "Captain's Holiday", "The Most Toys", "Transfigurations") (credited as Chris Jorgensen in "Deja Q")
• David Page ("A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "Allegiance", "Tin Man", "The Most Toys", "Ménage à Troi")
• Norma Johnson ("The Best of Both Worlds")

Visual Effects Associate

• David Takemura ("Deja Q” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Music Editor

• Gerry Sackman

Supervising Sound Editor

• Bill Wistrom

Sound Editors

• James Wolvington
• Mace Matiosian
• Wilson Dyer

Post Production Sound By

• Modern Sound

Pre-Production Associate

• Eric A. Stillwell ("Deja Q” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Casting Executive

• Helen Mossler

Stunt Coordinator

• Dennis Madalone ("Evolution” – “The Bonding", "The Enemy", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Hunted” – “Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of The Father", "Captain's Holiday", "Hollow Pursuits” – “Sarek", "Transfigurations” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Assistant Scenic Artist

• Cari Thomas

Art Studio Paintings By

• Elaine Sokoloff ("A Matter of Perspective")

Research Consultant

• Richard Arnold

Computer Monitors By

• Sony Corp. of America ("Evolution” – “The Ensigns of Command", "Booby Trap", "The Price” – “Sins of The Father", "Tin Man” – “The Most Toys", "Ménage à Troi” – “The Best of Both Worlds")

Lenses and Panaflex ® Cameras By

• Panavision ®

Special Visual Effects By

• Industrial Light & Magic , A Division of Lucasfilm, Ltd.

Additional Motion Control Facilities

Video Optical Effects By

• The Post Group

Special Video Compositing

• Composite Image Systems

Editing Facilities

• Unitel Video

Uncredited [ ]

• Dave Archer – Artwork Provider: Paintings ("Booby Trap", "The Vengeance Factor", "The Defector", "The Offspring", "Sins of the Father", "Tin Man", "Sarek")
• Rita Bellissimo – Hair Stylist ("Hollow Pursuits")
• Steve Burg – Model Maker: Promellian battle cruiser ("Booby Trap")
• John Earl Burnett – First Assistant Camera Operator: Additional Photography/VFX Unit ("Evolution", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price")
• Lloyd A. Buswell – Construction Foreman
• John Caglione, Jr. – Makeup Artist ("Allegiance")
• Joe Chess – "A" Camera Operator
• Jerri Churchill – DGA Trainee ("Tin Man” – “Transfigurations")
• Ray Clarke – DFX Paint FX Artist: The Post Group
• Doug Davey – Re-Recording Mixer ("Yesterday's Enterprise")
• Thomas F. Denove – 2nd Unit Director of Photography ("The Ensigns of Command")
• Doug Drexler – Makeup Artist ("A Matter Of Perspective"); Special Effects Make-Up Artist ("Allegiance")
• Syd Dutton – Matte Artist ("The Ensigns of Command", "Sins of The Father", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Hank Edds – Makeup Artist ("Allegiance")
• Alfred T. Ferrante – ADR/ Foley Mixer
• Carl Fortina – Orchestra Contractor
• Donald S. Foster – Set Dresser
• Rick Freeman – Sound Editor ("Yesterday's Enterprise")
• Hala Gabriel – Accountant
• Shari Goodhartz – Writing Staff Intern ("Allegiance” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Don Greenberg – Lead Compositor/ Visual Effects Editor: The Post Group ("Tin Man", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Chris Haire – Re-Recording Mixer ("Yesterday's Enterprise")
• Joseph Hodges – Set Designer: Zibalian escape pod ("The Most Toys")
• Dennis Hoerter – Motion Control Technician ("Evolution” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Nancy J. Hvasta Leonardi – Makeup Artist ("Evolution” – “The Best of Both Worlds")
• Gregory Jein – Model Maker
• Stan Kellam – Visual Effects Editor: The Post Group
• Kristina Kochoff – Production Assistant
• David Krieger – Scientific Technical Advisor
• Don Lee – Visual Effects Editor ("Deja Q", "Tin Man", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Peter Levin – Whale Sound Specialist ("Tin Man")
• Jill MacKay – Jewelry Designer
• Gary Maynard – Special Effects Technician: Image "G"
• Tony Meininger – Model Maker: Delta Rana warship ("The Survivors")
• Ed Miarecki – Prop Maker
• Richard L. Morrison – Re-Recording Mixer ("Yesterday's Enterprise")
• Peter Moyer – Visual Effects Editor: The Post Group ("Deja Q")
• Erik Nash – Motion Control Supervisor ("Tin Man"); Motion Control Camera Operator ("The Best of Both Worlds")
• Frank Orsatti – Stunt Coordinator ("A Matter of Perspective")
• Ernie Over – Assistant to Gene Roddenberry
• Michael Piller – Teleplay ("Yesterday's Enterprise")
• Steve Price – Quantel Harry Artist: The Post Group ("Deja Q"); Visual Effects Animator ("Tin Man"); Visual Effects Animation Designer ("The Best of Both Worlds")
• Maricella Ramirez – Key First Assistant Camera Operator
• Joseph Smith – Orchestrator
• Elaine Sokoloff – Scenic and Graphic Artist ("The High Ground", "The Most Toys")
• Armin Steiner – Music Scoring Mixer
• Eric Stillwell – Script Coordinator ("Booby Trap")
• Greg R. Stone – Special Effects Technician ("The Ensign of Command", "Who Watches The Watchers", "Booby Trap", "The Price", "The Defector", "The High Ground", "A Matter of Perspective", "The Offspring", "Allegiance", "The Most Toys")
• Robert Stromberg – Matte Artist ("The Best of Both Worlds")
• Bill Taylor – Matte Cameraperson ("The Best of Both Worlds")
• Ron Thornton – Model Maker: Promellian battle cruiser ("Booby Trap")
• Jerry Trent – Foley Artist ("Allegiance")
• Guy Vardaman – Research Consultant ("Evolution” – “The Defector")
• Elaina M. Vescio – Set Security
• Michael Wagner – Co-Executive Producer ("Evolution” – “Who Watches The Watchers")
• Jana Wallace – Secretary to Gene Roddenberry /Script typist
• Ron Walters – Makeup Artist ("Allegiance")
• L.Z. Ward – Set Security
• Michael Westmore, Jr. – Prosthetic Electronics ("The Offspring", "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Dana White – Art Department Associate / Model Maker: Gregory Jein, Inc.
• Lisa Putman White – Co-Writer ("Tin Man")
• Beth Woods – Additional Story Material ("Sins of the Father")

Production companies [ ]

• Central Casting – Extras Casting

See also [ ]

• TNG Season 3 performers
• TNG Season 3 UK VHS
• TNG Season 3 US VHS
• TNG Season 3 DVD
• TNG Season 3 Blu-ray

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3 at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• The Next Generation Season 3 episode reviews  at Ex Astris Scientia
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

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A Matter of Perspective

• Episode aired Feb 10, 1990

The widow of respected scientist Dr. Nel Apgar accuses Riker of seducing her and killing her husband. Rather than turn Riker over for unfavorable trial, the Enterprise reconstructs the facts... Read all The widow of respected scientist Dr. Nel Apgar accuses Riker of seducing her and killing her husband. Rather than turn Riker over for unfavorable trial, the Enterprise reconstructs the facts. The widow of respected scientist Dr. Nel Apgar accuses Riker of seducing her and killing her husband. Rather than turn Riker over for unfavorable trial, the Enterprise reconstructs the facts.

• Gene Roddenberry
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• Trivia Picard is never seen painting again. A deleted scene had Picard throw red paint at his painting after Data's crushing criticism of his work.
• Goofs Krag points to the sensor logs that show an energy discharge from Riker's position to the science station's generator. Krag claims that Riker fired a phaser just as he beamed out. No one disputes this. But in The Most Toys (1990) O'Brien can tell that a phaser has been fired just before transport. Surely he could read Riker's weapon as well, and that would be evidence as to whether Riker fired at all.

[O'Brien has beamed Riker back from the research station]

Chief Miles O'Brien : Transporter room to bridge. He's aboard.

Commander William T. Riker : Why do you sound so surprised, Mr. O'Brien?

Chief Miles O'Brien : Well, for a moment, we weren't sure you left the space station in time.

Commander William T. Riker : In time for what?

Chief Miles O'Brien : It just exploded, sir.

• Connections Referenced in Star Trek: Lower Decks: Kayshon, His Eyes Open (2021)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 22

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• February 10, 1990 (United States)
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Upcoming Star Trek TV Shows: What's Ahead For The Sci-Fi Franchise

Here's what's ahead for Star Trek.

It’s a golden era for Star Trek tv shows, as the franchise is churning out more content than ever before. Fans with a Paramount+ subscription can stream a plethora of old and new content from one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time.

There’s a ton of new Star Trek content coming in the future, including the debut of a new show as well as the return of all the ones fans already know well. For those who need a breakdown of what all to expect, look no further because here’s where and when all the new Trek will arrive in 2023 and beyond. There’s even some information on planned shows that aren’t quite ready yet, but hopefully, we’ll see them soon enough. 

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is coming back for Season 3, and is currently filming for the upcoming season. It's likely the season will kick off with the second part of the adventure started in the Season 2 finale . Pike must decide whether or not he's going to listen to Starfleet and retreat to avoid further conflict with the Gorn or to stay and try to save the kidnapped crew members. I have a hunch I know what decision he'll make, but I'm also very invested in seeing if Scotty will remain with the crew and what other adventures will come as well. 

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Section 31 Movie - Production Complete

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As shown above, there’s still a ton of Star Trek on the way in 2024, and beyond. The only way to watch these shows is with a Paramount+ subscription , which is totally worth picking up with the increasing amount of shows and movies available to watch. 

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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Picard season 3 is great for me, less great for Star Trek

The Paramount Plus show is a little too good of a goodbye

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I should start by noting that I am probably, by most fans’ reckoning, a Star Trek Casual. I grew up at a time when there was a lot of Star Trek on TV — three shows at once! — and absorbed a lot of the stuff by both osmosis and by having family members that were super into the various adventures chronicled in The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager . Personally, I had a great time watching these shows, but I was mostly just along for the ride. That’s how I’d describe my level of investment in Star Trek: Along for the ride, and happy to be here.

From this standpoint, the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard was a wild success. While re-tooling the floundering series to be a full-on The Next Generation reunion read as an obvious Hail Mary play to go out with a bang (and maybe an apology for Star Trek: Nemesis ), it managed to do so while remaining earnest throughout, turning things around by not just bringing back the cast of The Next Generation , but by doing so in what turned out to be an ode to all of ’90s Trek .

Personally, I had a great time. My Trek knowledge is mostly built around major touchpoints; the big fan-favorite things that everyone knows about Trek in general and The Next Generation in particular. Q , The Borg, “make it so,” all that stuff. Picard is playing a tune just for me. It’s also, unfortunately, very much ending things in a narrative cul-de-sac: not just sending off its characters, but much of what they represented.

[ Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the end of Picard .]

Picard has ultimately made a mistake big franchises often make when their stewards’ primary interest is playing the hits: It makes its world smaller by making everything tie back to its legacy heroes. Its endgame literally makes nostalgia both the weapon that threatens to destroy the galaxy and the only thing that can save it: The Borg have, through Picard’s son Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), found a way to splice themselves into the genome of every Starfleet member that’s used a teleporter. The few immune? Older folks. Namely, The Next Generation cast.

This is the broadest and funniest way that Picard has traded The Next Generation ’s legacy as a thought-provoking show that was foundational to a whole era of science fiction for spectacle and sentiment, the former spectacularly empty-headed, and the latter just genuine enough to endear those who aren’t sticklers for narrative cohesion. Picard is all over the place , waving around the most iconic foes of ’90s Star Trek in the Changelings and The Borg, while completely eschewing what made them interesting ideological foils to Jean-Luc Picard and the Federation he represents .

As Picard digs into its initial antagonists, the Changeling Vadic (Amanda Plummer) and the crew of her ship The Shrike , the series reveals that she and her cohort are different from the Changelings of the Deep Space Nine era , enhanced by cruel experimentation by Federation scientists that Picard was not aware of. It’s a huge moral crisis, especially for a character that’s positioned as the moral center of Starfleet, and it’s all rather quickly elided to dispose of Vadic in favor of the real threat: a resurgent Borg, this time almost entirely represented by the Borg Queen, as few drones exist anymore.

Not only is this far less complex than the Changeling dilemma, it’s also — to briefly stake a claim in a meaningless war that’s been waged since Star Trek: First Contact was released — even more antithetical to the Borg’s whole raison d’etre than they’ve ever been. The main reason I can abide this is simply due to the fact that Picard doesn’t dwell on any of it. It’s a pretty thoughtless show when it comes to thoughts that don’t revolve around the Next Generation cast members saying nice things to one another and saving everyone from certain disaster one last time.

In “The Last Generation,” Picard sets up a new crew that could carry the legacy of The Next Generation onward — a curious notion, given that Star Trek: Discovery ostensibly exists for that purpose, Strange New Worlds is here to provide a modern spin on Roddenberry’s first Star Trek , and Prodigy and Lower Decks refract the mission of Star Trek for younger audiences and comedy, respectively.

If the speculative “Star Trek: Legacy” — which may only exist in Picard ’s coda — were to be realized, it’s hard to feel particularly inspired about where it might go. In the end, Picard took us on a hell of a ride, but it too definitively asserted that Jean-Luc Picard and his friends were the be-all, end-all of this era of Trek. They played the hits big and loud, and even I, a Trek casual, could smile and sing along with them. I just wonder if anyone remembers what brought us here to begin with.

Picard is now streaming on Paramount Plus.

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55 Years Ago: Star Trek Final Episode Airs, Relationship with NASA Endures

Johnson space center.

The voyages of the Starship Enterprise came to a sudden and premature end on June 3, 1969, with the airing of the final episode of the Star Trek original television series. Ironically, the show’s cancellation came just six weeks before humanity embarked on its first voyage to land on another celestial body. Although the show ran for only three seasons, it generated a devoted fan base disappointed by the cancellation despite their write-in campaign to keep it on the air. But as things turned out, over the decades Star Trek evolved into a global phenomenon, first with the original episodes replayed in syndication, followed by a series of full-length motion pictures, and eventually a multitude of spin-off series. With its primary focus on space exploration, along with themes of diversity, inclusion, and innovation, the Star Trek fictional universe formed a natural association with NASA’s real life activities.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first had the idea for a science fiction television series in 1964. He presented his idea, a show set in the 23 rd century aboard a starship with a crew dedicated to exploring the galaxy, to Desilu Productions, an independent television production company headed by Lucille Ball. They produced a pilot titled “The Cage,” selling it to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) network that then bought a second pilot titled “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” NBC introduced the show to its fall 1966 lineup, with the first episode “The Man Trap” airing on Sep. 8. To put that date in perspective, NASA launched Gemini XI four days later, one of the missions that helped the agency achieve the Moon landing nearly three years later. Meanwhile, Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise continued its fictional five-year mission through the galaxy to “seek out new life and new civilizations.” The makeup of the Enterprise’s crew made the show particularly attractive to late 1960s television audiences. The major characters included an African American woman communications officer, an Asian American helmsman, and a half-human half-Vulcan science officer, later joined by a Russian-born ensign. While the show enjoyed good ratings during its first two seasons, cuts to its production budget resulted in lower quality episodes during its third season leading to lower ratings and, despite a concerted letter-writing campaign from its dedicated fans, eventual cancellation.

Despite the show’s cancellation, Star Trek lived on and prospered in syndication and attracted an ever-growing fan base, turning into a worldwide sensation. Often dubbed “trekkies,” these fans held the first of many Star Trek conventions in 1972. When in 1976 NASA announced that it would name its first space shuttle orbiter Constitution, in honor of its unveiling on the anniversary of the U. S. Constitution’s ratification, trekkies engaged in a dedicated letter writing campaign to have the orbiter named Enterprise, after the starship in the television series. This time the fans’ letter writing campaign succeeded. President Gerald R. Ford agreed with the trekkies and directed NASA to rechristen the first space shuttle. When on Sept. 17, 1976 , it rolled out of its manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California, appropriately accompanied by a band playing the show’s theme song, it bore the name Enterprise. Many of the original cast members of the show as well as its creator Rodenberry participated in the rollout ceremony, hosted by NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher . Thus began a lengthy relationship between the space agency and the Star Trek brand.

During the development of the space shuttle in the 1970s, the need arose to recruit a new group of astronauts to fly the vehicle, deploy the satellites, and perform the science experiments. When NASA released the call for the new astronaut selection on July 8, 1976, it specifically encouraged women and minorities to apply. To encourage those applicants, NASA chose Nichelle Nichols, who played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the Starship Enterprise, to record a recruiting video and speak to audiences nationwide. She came to NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston in March 1977, and accompanied by Apollo 12 and Skylab 3 astronaut Alan L. Bean , toured the center and filmed scenes for the video in Mission Control and other facilities. NASA hoped that her stature and popularity would encourage women and minorities to apply, and indeed they did. In January 1978, when NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts from more than 8,000 applicants, for the first time the astronaut class included women and minorities. All distinguished themselves as NASA astronauts and paved the way for others in subsequent astronaut selections. Nichols returned to JSC in September 2010 with the Traveling Space Museum, an organization that partners with schools to promote space studies. She toured Mission Control and the International Space Station trainer accompanied by NASA astronaut B. Alvin Drew . She also flew aboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope aircraft managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, in September 2015.

Meanwhile, the Star Trek brand renewed itself in 1979 as a full-length motion picture with the original TV series cast members reprising their roles. Over the years, several sequels followed this first film. And on the small screen, a reboot of sorts occurred in 1987 with the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a new series set in the 24 th century aboard the Enterprise-D, a next generation starship with a new crew. That series lasted seven seasons, followed by a near-bewildering array of spin-off series, all built on the Star Trek brand, that continue to this day.

James Doohan, the actor who played Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, the Starship Enterprise’s chief engineer, had early associations with NASA. In April 1967, Doohan visited NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center in California, spending time with NASA test pilot Bruce A. Peterson. A month later, Peterson barely survived a horrific crash of the experimental M2-F2 lifting body aircraft. He inspired the 1970s TV series The Six-Million Dollar Man, and the show’s opening credits include film of the crash. Doohan narrated a documentary film about the space shuttle released shortly before Columbia made its first flight in April 1981. In January 1991, Doohan visited JSC and with NASA astronaut Mario Runco (who sometimes went by the nickname “Spock”) toured the shuttle trainers, Mission Control, and tried his hand at operating the shuttle’s robotic arm in the Manipulator Development Facility. In a unique tribute, astronaut Neil A. Armstrong , the first person to step on the lunar surface , spoke at Doohan’s retirement in 2004, addressing him as “one old engineer to another.”

George Takei, who played Enterprise helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu, and his husband Brad, visited JSC in May 2012. Invited by both Asian American and LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Groups, Takei spoke of leadership and inclusiveness, including overcoming challenges while in Japanese American internment camps during World War II and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He noted that Star Trek remained ahead of its time in creating a future when all members of society could equally participate in great undertakings, at a time when the country struggled through the Civil Rights movement and the conflict in Southeast Asia. The inclusiveness that is part of NASA’s culture greatly inspired him. JSC Director Michael L. Coats presented Takei with a plaque including a U.S. flag flown aboard space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-135 mission. He also visited Mission Control and spent some time with Robonaut.

Leonard Nimoy played the science officer aboard the Starship Enterprise, the half-human, half-Vulcan Mr. Spock. The actor watched in September 2012 when space shuttle Enterprise arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, on the last leg of its journey to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where it currently resides. “This is a reunion for me,” observed Nimoy. “Thirty-five years ago, I met the Enterprise for the first time.” As noted earlier, the Star Trek cast attended the first space shuttle’s rollout in 1976. Following his death in 2015, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti paid tribute to Nimoy aboard the International Space Station by wearing a Star Trek science officer uniform, giving the Vulcan greeting, and proclaiming, “Of all the souls I have encountered … his was the most human.”

Captain James T. Kirk, played by actor William Shatner, a life-long advocate of science and space exploration, served at the helm of the Starship Enterprise. His relationship with NASA began during the original series, with references to the space agency incorporated into several story lines. In 2011, Shatner hosted and narrated a NASA documentary celebrating the 30 th anniversary of the Space Shuttle program , and gave his time and voice to other NASA documentaries. NASA recognized Shatner’s contributions in 2014 with a Distinguished Public Service Medal , the highest award NASA bestows on non-government individuals. NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications Robert “Bob” N. Jacobs presented the medal to Shatner. The award’s citation read, “For outstanding generosity and dedication to inspiring new generations of explorers around the world, and for unwavering support for NASA and its missions of discovery.” In 2019, Shatner narrated the NASA video We Are Going , about NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the Moon. He has spoken at numerous NASA-themed events and moderated panels about NASA’s future plans. On Oct. 13, 2021, at the age of 90, Shatner reached the edge of space during the NS-18 suborbital flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, experiencing three minutes of weightlessness.

Elements of the Star Trek universe have made their way not only into popular culture but also into NASA culture. As noted above, Star Trek fans had a hand in naming the first space shuttle Enterprise. NASA’s Earth observation facility aboard the space station that makes use of its optical quality window bears the name the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF). The connection between that acronym and the name of a Klingon officer aboard the Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series seemed like an opportunity not to be missed – the facility’s official patch bears its name in English and in Klingon. Several astronaut crews have embraced Star Trek themes for their unofficial photographs. The STS-54 crew dressed in the uniforms of Starship Enterprise officers from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, the second full-length feature motion picture of the series. Space shuttle and space station crews created Space Flight Awareness (SFA) posters for their missions, and more than one embraced Star Trek themes. The Expedition 21 crew dressed in uniforms from the original series, while the STS-134 crew chose as their motif the 2009 reboot motion picture Star Trek.

As much as Star Trek has influenced NASA, in turn the agency has left its mark on the franchise, from episodes referencing actual and future spaceflight events to NASA astronauts making cameo appearances on the show. The first-season episode “Court Martial” that aired in February 1967 featured a photograph of the December 1965 Gemini VI launch adorning a wall aboard a star base. In the second-season episode “Return to Tomorrow,” airing in February 1968, Captain Kirk in a dialogue about risk-taking remarks, “Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn’t reached the Moon?” a prescient reference to the first Apollo mission to reach the Moon more than 10 months after the episode aired. Astronaut Mae C. Jemison , who credits Nichelle Nichols as her inspiration to become an astronaut, appeared in the 1993 episode “Second Chances” of Star Trek: The Next Generation , eight months after her actual spaceflight aboard space shuttle Endeavour. In May 2005, two other NASA astronauts, Terry W. Virts and E. Michael Fincke , appeared in “These are the Voyages…,” the final episode of the series Star Trek: Enterprise.

In the 2016 documentary “ NASA on the Edge of Forever: Science in Space ,” host NASA astronaut Victor J. Glover states, “Science and Star Trek go hand-in-hand.” The film explores how for 50 years, Star Trek influenced scientists, engineers, and even astronauts to reach beyond their potential. While the space station doesn’t speed through the galaxy like the Starship Enterprise, much of the research conducted aboard the orbiting facility can make the fiction of Star Trek come a little closer to reality. Several of the cast members from the original TV series share their viewpoints in the documentary, along with those of NASA managers and scientists. Over the years, NASA has created several videos highlighting the relationship between the agency and the Star Trek franchise. In 2016, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden led a video tribute to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the first Star Trek episode.

In 2021, on the 100 th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry’s birth, his son Rod hosted a virtual panel discussion , introduced by NASA Administrator C. William “Bill” Nelson , about diversity and inspiration, two ideals the Star Trek creator infused into the series. Panelists included Star Trek actor Takei, Tracy D. Drain, flight systems engineer for the Europa Clipper spacecraft at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim , Swati Mohan, guidance and operations lead for the Mars 2020 rover at JPL, and Hortense B. Diggs, Director of the Office of Communication and Public Engagement at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mutual attraction between NASA and Star Trek stems from, to paraphrase the opening voiceover from the TV series, that both seek to explore and discover new worlds, and to boldly go where no one has gone before. The diversity, inclusion, and inspiration involved in these endeavors ensure that they will live long and prosper.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Will Be Our Best Season So Far, Says Anson Mount

• Anson Mount hails season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as the best yet, with even bigger storytelling risks and surprises.
• Season 3 wrapped production in May 2024, with a renewal for season 4 already in the pipeline, sparking high audience anticipation.
• Mount teases exciting developments in season 3, including bold creative choices that will surpass previous seasons.

Anson Mount, who plays Captain Christopher Pike, enthusiastically calls Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 "our best season so far". Strange New Worlds season 3 wrapped six months of production right before Memorial Weekend 2024. While there is no release date yet from Paramount+, Strange New Worlds received an early season 4 renewal , with production expected to start up again in Spring 2025. Meanwhile, audience anticipation is sky-high, especially after the cliffhanger ending of Strange New Worlds season 2 in August 2023.

In an interview with Gold Derby , Anson Mount discussed the success of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Season 2 of Strange New Worlds regularly charted in the Nielsen Streaming Top 10, and the series hit highs with its biggest risks, a comedic crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek 's first-ever musical episode. Without divulging spoilers, Mount teased the "even bigger swings" in Strange New Worlds season 3, promising that the musical "will not be the craziest thing that we did" by the time it's over. Read Anson's quote below:

I think its not just an exciting season, I think storytelling wise, development-wise, technically; its going to be our best season so far and a lot of that has to do with even bigger swings being taken. The musical episode will not be the craziest thing that we did or we have done by the end of this. Were feeling more ownership over what it is that were doing and realizing that it continues to resonate.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 - Everything We Know

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 ended with an epic cliffhanger and here's everything known about when it will be resolved in season 3.

What Could Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3's Big Swings Be?

How to they top the musical episode.

It's hard to imagine how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 can top season 2's crossover and musical, but Anson Mount believes they do. Strange New Worlds season 3 is shrouded in secrecy, but a few dollops of information have emerged. For instance, J onathan Frakes is directing an episode of Strange New Worlds season 3 that's been touted as a "Hollywood murder mystery" , which could certainly be as out-of-the-box as Strange New Worlds ' musical.

Martin Quinn is also returning as Lt. Montgomery Scott AKA Scotty in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3.

Strange New Worlds is also debuting a new Science Lab set on the USS Enterprise , and many of the top directors from season 2 like Frakes, Chris Fisher, Valerie Weiss, Dan Liu, and Jordan Canning, are back behind the camera for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. It's safe to assume storylines like Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) leaving the Enterprise for her archaeological medicine internship with Dr. Roger Korby , and Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh's (Christina Chong) will-they-or-won't-they love story with Lt. James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) will continue. It's best to believe Anson Mount that when it comes to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, audiences haven't seen anything yet.

Source: Gold Derby

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is streaming on Paramount+

Cast Bruce Horak, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, Melissa Navia, Ethan Peck, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Christina Chong, Anson Mount

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Bill Wolkoff, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Directors Amanda Row, Valerie Weiss, Jonathan Frakes, Chris Fisher

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Where To Watch Paramount+

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 Review — Kirk Is Back!

A time-traveling two-hander of Strange New Worlds takes us to an alternate past and finally digs into the trauma that comes with La’an’s infamous last name.

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This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3

Given that one of Star Trek: Strange New World ’s main characters has the last name Noonien-Singh, it was inevitable that the show would have to find ways to address the legacy of La’an’s most famous family membe r and the lingering trauma of growing up in Khan’s shadow has had on her life. We’ve seen hints of this before—her anger when she discovered Una was genetically modified last season, and it came up during her trial last week—but “Tomorrow and Tomorrow Tomorrow” confronts the looming specter of Khan head-on, in more ways than one. 

While this hour sees the return of Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk— once again playing a version of the character who technically doesn’t exist in the show’s primary timeline—this is really a true showcase episode for Christina Chong, who gets the chance to dig into La’an’s deeply complex layers. She’s angry, she’s standoffish, she’s stubborn, afraid, and deeply lonely, convinced that few if any are capable of seeing her as anything other than the sum of her genetic parts. (Not to mention, we already know she’s worried about whether her genetics are her destiny, and she’s somehow irrevocably doomed to become a monster herself.)

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” sees La’an trapped on an alternate version of the Enterprise after a strange man—who we find out later is from the technically-doesn’t-exist-yet Department of Temporal Investigations—appears and hands her a bizarre device insisting that she has to stop an attack that has taken place in the past. And whatever happened, it altered the timeline enough to essentially erase the Federation, make James Kirk the Captain of the Enterprise, and Spock as a Vulcan commander of his own vessel fighting a war with the Romulans. Sent back by the same device to the mid-21st century, Kirk and La’an will have to figure out what happened to make the timeline change. Said investigation will involve everything from trips to what appears to be a Canadian version of the Gap to tracking down the Pelia that lives in this timeline (and still steals famous antiquities), all while the pair grow closer along the way.

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As someone whose been fairly wary of Strange New Worlds ’ decision to introduce a younger version of Kirk, I’ll admit to being pleasantly surprised by Wesley. Admittedly, I was firmly Team Stefan during the actor’s time on The Vampire Diaries , so I’m already predisposed to like the guy, but I’ll also go to my grave insisting this show doesn’t need any version of Kirk to succeed. So it’s something fairly close to a miracle that the two episodes he’s appeared in thus far have actually been some of the series’ best. Strange New Worlds, smartly, has used alternate timelines to not only ease us as viewers into the idea of this character but to also give Wesley lots of space to find his own footing and make the role more than a remix of what Chris Pine or William Shatner have done before. 

It’s been a nice surprise, particularly in all the ways that Wesley’s Kirk just feels so darn young —lighthearted and playful in a way we don’t get to see in Pine or Shatner’s version. From his gleeful embrace of street hot dogs and real showers to his skill at hustling chess players in a park, this is a Kirk who hasn’t yet been weighed down by his own choices, a man who still believes in the promise of a better world so strongly he’s willing to die to bring it about, who chooses to follow La’an’s admittedly insane plan not for himself but for the possibility of bringing back the brother he lost. I like this Kirk, dangit, even though I didn’t at all intend to.

Plus, Wesley and Chong also have adorable chemistry with one another. Call me a sucker but I kind of love the idea of Kirk maybe kind of having a romantic flirtation with a woman descended from the man who will become his greatest adversary. (Thanks, cryostasis, I guess!) But, more importantly, this episode is also the first time we’ve ever really gotten to see La’an relax in this way—she always carries a certain tension around her, whether she’s doing routine aspects of her job or throwing back bloodwine with Klingons, as though she’s inevitably waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Here, despite the whole “trying to solve a mystery that could irrevocably alter the timeline of her life as she knows it” thing, she seems looser, freer, and like she might actually be enjoying herself. And, of course, it’s nice to see her finally being judged for herself alone, without any of the trauma of her last name attached. When is the last time that happened to her? Maybe never? 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 3 Easter Eggs Just Changed Khan Canon

Strange New Worlds: Illyrians Call Back to One of Star Trek’s Darkest Moments

Of course, like any good story, that’s exactly why La’an must ultimately accept that she, too, is also part of Khan’s legacy , for both good and ill. (And, for the record: “His legacy is genocide, torture…and me ” is a hell of a line!) But that doesn’t mean she is destined to become him. She has the freedom to make different choices, which is why she ultimately decides to save the life of the young boy who will grow up to cause her (and humanity) so much pain. When given the opportunity, she makes a better choice, one that you could argue in many ways goes against her own self-interest and morals—after all, she kills someone to protect a mass murderer!—and is almost certainly not the same one her infamous ancestor would have made in a similar position. She proves to herself that she is, at heart, who she chooses to be.

Like any episode based on time travel and potential alternate realities, your mileage can and will vary when it comes to how closely you’re willing to look at the specifics of the world this episode creates and the various plot holes that may or may not come along with it. When, exactly, do the Eugenics Wars happen in this timeline? How does Kirk know what a Romulan ship looks like in a world where “Balance of Terror” presumably hasn’t happened yet? How is adorable preteen Khan still a kid? And how much of anything we saw really happened after reality reverts back to baseline? The lingering final shot on the watch La’an brought back with her hints that we may not actually be going to gloss over all the weird aftereffects of her trip into an alternate past, but what it will ultimately mean for La’an, Kirk, or the primary timeline is anyone’s guess. 

But “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is ultimately a throwback to so many of Star Trek ’s best episodes, a bittersweet, thoughtful hour that explores roads not taken and whose lasting impacts are primarily internal and emotional ones that will reverberate throughout stories to come. Truly, is there anything Strange New Worlds can’t do? The answer seems doubtful indeed.

Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…

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Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 3, Episode 12

The high ground, where to watch, star trek: the next generation — season 3, episode 12.

Watch Star Trek: The Next Generation — Season 3, Episode 12 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Cast & crew.

Patrick Stewart

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

Jonathan Frakes

Cmdr. William Riker

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Inside the ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Series Finale: The Last-Minute Coda, the Surprise Easter Eggs, and What Season 6 Would Have Been About (EXCLUSIVE)

SPOILER WARNING: This story includes descriptions of major plot developments on the series finale of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” currently streaming on Paramount+ .

Watching the fifth and final season of “ Star Trek: Discovery ” has been an exercise in the uncanny. Paramount+ didn’t announce that the show was ending until after the Season 5 finale had wrapped filming — no one involved with the show knew it would be its concluding voyage when they were making it. And yet, the season has unfolded with a pervasive feeling of culmination. 

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“I think there’s more to it than just, ‘Oh, it was a coinkydink!’” the actor says with a laugh, before explaining that she’s thinking more about subtext than direct intent. “I’ve gotta give Michelle her flowers. She has always asked the deeper questions of this story and these characters. Those questions of meaning and purpose led to questions of origin and legacy, and, yes, that is quite culminating.”

Martin-Green and Paradise spoke exclusively with Variety about filming the finale and the coda, including the surprising revelation about the origins of one of “Discovery’s” most memorable characters and what Paradise’s plans for Season 6 would have been.

“It’s the Most Complicated Thing I’ve Ever Seen”

Once the “Discovery” writers’ room decided the season would be organized around a search for the Progenitor’s technology, they also knew that, eventually, Burnham would find it. So then they had to figure out what it would be.

“That was a discussion that evolved over the course of weeks and months,” Paradise says. Rather than focus on communicating the intricate details of how the technology works, they turned their attention to delivering a visual experience commensurate with the enormity and complexity of something that could seed life across the entire galaxy.

“We wanted a sense of a smaller exterior and an infinite interior to help with that sense of power greater than us,” Paradise says. Inspired in part by a drawing by MC Escher, the production created an environment surrounded by towering windows into a seemingly endless procession of alien planets, in which it’s just as easy to walk on the walls as on the floor. That made for a daunting challenge for the show’s producing director, Olatunde “Tunde” Osunsanmi: As Burnham battles with the season’s main antagonist, Mol (Eve Harlow), inside this volume, they fall through different windows into another world, and the laws of gravity keep shifting between their feet.

“It’s the most complicated thing I’ve ever seen, directorially,” Paradise says. “Tunde had a map, in terms of: What did the background look like? And when the cameras this way, what’s over there? It was it was incredibly complex to design and shoot.”

Two of those planets — one in perpetual darkness and rainstorms, another consumed by constant fire — were shot on different parking areas on the Pinewood Toronto studio lot.

“The fire planet was so bright that the fire department got called from someone who had seen the fire,” Paradise says. “It should not be possible to pull those kinds of things off in a television show, even on a bigger budget show, with the time limitations that you have. And yet, every episode of every season, we’re still coming in on time and on budget. The rain planet and the fire planet we shot, I believe, one day after the other.”

Martin-Green jumps in: “Michelle, I think that was actually the same day!”

“It Felt Lifted”

The last time a “Star Trek” captain talked to a being that could be (erroneously) considered God, it was William Shatner’s James T. Kirk in 1989’s “Star Trek: The Final Frontier.” The encounter did not go well.

“I had my own journey with the central storyline of Season 5, just as a believer,” Martin-Green says. “I felt a similar way that Burnham did. They’re in this sort of liminal mind space, and it almost felt that way to me. It felt lifted. It really did feel like she and I were the only two people in this moment.”

It’s in this conversation that Burnham learns that while the Progenitors did create all “humanoid” alien species in the galaxy in their image, they did not create the technology that allowed them to do so. They found it, fully formed, created by beings utterly unknown to them. The revelation was something that Martin-Green discussed with Paradise early on in the planning of Season 5, allowing “Discovery” to leave perhaps the most profound question one could ask — what, or who, came first in the cosmos? — unanswered.

“The progenitor is not be the be all end all of it,” Paradise says. “We’re not saying this is God with a capital ‘G.’”

“There’s Just This Air of Mystery About Him”

Starting on Season 3 of “Discovery,” renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg began moonlighting in a recurring role as Dr. Kovich, a shadowy Federation operative whose backstory has been heretofore undisclosed on the show.

“I love the way he plays Kovich,” Paradise says of Cronenberg. “There’s just this air of mystery about him. We’ve always wanted to know more.” When planning Season 5, one of the writers pitched revealing Kovich’s true identity in the (then-season) finale by harkening back to the “Star Trek” show that preceded “Discovery”: “Enterprise,” which ran on UPN from 2001 to 2005.

In the final episode, when Burnham debriefs her experiences with Kovich, she presses him to tell her who he really is. He reintroduces himself as Agent Daniels, a character first introduced on “Enterprise” as a young man (played by Matt Winston) and a Federation operative in the temporal cold war. 

This is, to be sure, a deep cut even for “Star Trek” fans. (Neither Cronenberg nor Martin-Green, for example, understood the reference.) But Paradise says they were laying the groundwork for the reveal from the beginning of the season. “If you watch Season 5 with that in mind, you can see the a little things that we’ve played with along the way,” she says, including Kovich/Daniels’ penchant for anachonistic throwbacks like real paper and neckties.

“I didn’t know that that was going be there,” Martin-Green says. “My whole childhood came back to me.”

“We Always Knew That We Wanted to Somehow Tie That Back Up”

Originally, Season 5 of “Discovery” ends with Burnham and Book talking on the beach outside the wedding of Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) before transporting away to their next adventure. But Paradise understood that the episode needed something more conclusive once it became the series finale. The question was what.

There were some significant guardrails around what they could accomplish. The production team had only eight weeks from when Paramout+ and CBS Studios signed off on the epilogue to when they had to shoot it. Fortunately, the bridge set hadn’t been struck yet (though several standing sets already had been). And the budget allowed only for three days of production.

Then there was “Calypso.” 

To fill up the long stretches between the first three seasons of “Discovery,” CBS Studios and Paramount+ greenlit a series of 10 stand-alone episodes, dubbed “Short Treks,” that covered a wide variety of storylines and topics. The second “Short Trek” — titled “Calypso” and co-written by novelist Michael Chabon — first streamed between Season 1 and 2 in November 2018. It focuses on a single character named Craft (Aldis Hodge), who is rescued by the USS Discovery after the starship — and its now-sentient computer system, Zora (Annabelle Wallis) — has sat totally vacant for 1,000 years in the same fixed point in space. How the Discovery got there, and why it was empty for so long, were left to the viewer’s imagination. 

Still, for a show that had only just started its run, “Calypso” had already made a bold promise for “Discovery’s” endgame — one the producers had every intention of keeping.

“We always knew that we wanted to somehow tie that back up,” says Paradise, who joined the writers’ room in Season 2, and became showrunner starting with Season 3. “We never wanted ‘Calypso’ to be the dangling Chad.”

So much so, in fact, that, as the show began winding down production on Season 5, Paradise had started planning to make “Calypso” the central narrative engine for Season 6. 

“The story, nascent as it was, was eventually going to be tying that thread up and connecting ‘Discovery’ back with ‘Calypso,’” she says.

Once having a sixth season was no longer an option, Paradise knew that resolving the “Calypso” question was non-negotiable. “OK, well, we’re not going to have a season to do that,” she says. “So how do we do that elegantly in this very short period of time?”

“I Feel Like It Ends the Way It Needed to End”

Resolving “Calypso” provided the storytelling foundation for the epilogue, but everything else was about giving its characters one final goodbye.

“We want to know what’s happening to Burnham, first and foremost,” Paradise says. “And we knew we wanted to see the cast again.”

For the latter, Paradise and Jarrow devised a conceit that an older Burnham, seated in the captain’s chair on Discovery, imagines herself surrounded by her crew 30 years prior, so she (and the audience) could connect with them one final time. For the former, the makeup team designed prosthetics to age up Martin-Green and Ajala by 30 years — “I think they were tested as they were running on to the set,” Paradise says with a laugh — to illustrate Burnham and Book’s long and happy marriage together.

Most crucially, Paradise cut a few lines of Burnham’s dialogue with Book from the original Season 5 finale and moved it to a conversation she has with her son in the coda. The scene — which evokes the episode’s title, “Life Itself” — serves as both a culminating statement of purpose for “Discovery” and the overarching compassion and humanity of “Star Trek” as a whole.

To reassure her son about his first command of a starship, Burnham recalls when the ancient Progenitor asked what was most meaningful to her. “Do you know how you would answer that question now?” he asks.

“Yeah, just being here,” Burnham replies. “You know, sometimes life itself is meaning enough, how we choose to spend the time that we have, who we spend it with: You, Book, and the family I found in Starfleet, on Discovery.”

Martin-Green relished the opportunity to revisit the character she’s played for seven years when she’s reached the pinnacle of her life and career. “You just get to see this manifestation of legacy in this beautiful way,” she says. “I will also say that I look a lot like my mom, and that was that was also a gift, to be able to see her.”

Shooting the goodbye with the rest of her cast was emotional, unsurprisingly, but it led Martin-Green to an unexpected understanding. “It actually was so charged that it was probably easier that it was only those three days that we knew it was the end, and not the entirety of season,” she says.

Similarly, Paradise says she’s “not sure” what more she would’ve done had there been more time to shoot the coda. “I truly don’t feel like we missed out on something by not having one more day,” she says. “I feel like it ends the way it needed to end.”

Still, getting everything done in just three days was no small feat, either. “I mean, we worked ’round the clock,” Martin-Green says with a deep laugh. “We were delirious by the end — but man, what a way to end it.”

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Gates McFadden Beams Up 'Star Trek's Best & Brightest for 'InvestiGates' Season 3 [Exclusive]

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The Big Picture

• Gates McFadden's podcast, InvestiGates , is returning for a third season with exciting guests like Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala.
• The podcast features intimate conversations with Star Trek alums, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and personal experiences.
• Fans of Star Trek can look forward to upcoming projects like Lower Decks Season 5, Strange New Worlds Season 3, and Starfleet Academy Season 1.

Collider is thrilled to exclusively announce that Gates McFadden 's beloved podcast, InvestiGates: Who Do You Think You Are? is returning for a third season! On top of unveiling that the series has been green-lit for Season 3, we've teamed up with Nacelle, to unveil a few of the very exciting guests that McFadden will be interviewing in the new episodes. Across the first two seasons, McFadden conducted 25 one-on-one interviews with some of your favorite Star Trek alums, diving deep into behind-the-scenes stories, and even boldly going beyond the franchise for in-depth answers about what makes these actors tick.

Joining McFadden for Season 3 are Star Trek: Discovery alums Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala . Discovery will sail into the sunset tomorrow when the series finale hits Paramount+ and Martin-Green has guided the series from its inception to its beautiful and poignant ending . You can also expect to hear from your favorite grumpy captain, Todd Stashwick , who stole hearts in Picard Season 3 as Captain Shaw alongside McFadden. Fellow Picard alum, and procedural drama regular, Michelle Hurd , who played Raffi across all three seasons will also be sitting down with McFadden for a candid chat. And while those are all the names we can reveal for now, InvestiGates has a whole slate of big surprises lined up for Season 3.

Going beyond what we've seen on screen, InvestiGates "thrives on intimate conversations that are filled with stories of youth, family, and the cast's intertwined experiences." Engaging from her own experience in the world of Star Trek McFadden is able to create one-of-a-kind conversations with her co-stars that range from "hilarious to harrowing." Upon getting the green light for Season 3 McFadden said:

"Intelligence, imagination, empathy, love of science, pretty darn funny, and a belief that the future may be better than we thought. Those are the qualities of my podcasts guests for this upcoming season. Lucky me!"

Nacelle CEO Brian Volk-Weiss also shared a statement saying, "It's been one of the great pleasures of my career to work with Gates on this show as she does a flawless job at reeling you in with smart questions, and then leaving you in awe of her incredible hosting abilities long after you've finished the episode."

What's Next For 'Star Trek'?

To hold fans over until Season 3 of InvestiGates hits Spotify and Apple Podcasts, there are still several Star Trek projects to look forward to on the horizon. Discovery 's series finale will be available on Paramount+ this week and the cast of Star Trek: Lower Decks have already recorded voice work for the fifth and final season of the beloved animated series . While it's certainly sad to see these two shows go, we can also look forward to the third season of Strange New Worlds , which recently wrapped filming in Toronto , and the new series Starfleet Academy which will film this summer . Beyond the small screen, Paramount is also working on a Star Trek origin movie set years before the events of Star Trek (2009).

You can listen to the first two seasons of InvestiGates on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and catch McFadden's latest Star Trek performance on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Picard

Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, long retired from Starfleet, is thrust back into the heart of galactic intrigue when a desperate young woman seeks his aid. Determined to uncover a vast conspiracy and protect her, Picard recruits a diverse team of allies. As they navigate a galaxy fraught with new dangers and old enemies, Picard faces personal demons and ethical dilemmas, all while trying to uphold the ideals he has always stood for.

Watch on Paramount+

• Gates McFadden