A Brief Guide to Star Trek

the series’ storytelling and the production of more sophisticated episodes such as ‘Yesterday’s
Enterprise
’.
The Next Generation
was a series that had begun to grow up. Ira Steven Behr joined the show in the third year and would go on to become a driving force behind the second spin-off series,
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
.
    Season four saw Brannon Braga and Jeri Taylor join the show – they would later go on to run spin-off
Star Trek: Voyager
. Season three had ended on a dramatic cliffhanger – a first for a
Star Trek
season finale – with ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ seeing Captain Picard captured and transformed by the Borg. Opening episode of the fourth season, ‘The Best of Both Worlds, Part II’, both resolved the storyline and became the episode that saw
The Next Generation
pass the seventy-nine episodes produced for
The Original Series
. Unlike the
Star Trek
of the past, the effect of Picard’s experiences was explored as the damaged captain came to terms with his confrontation with the Borg in the next episode of season four, ‘Family’. The series reached 100 episodes with the fourth season finale, ‘Redemption’.
    The remaining three seasons of
The Next Generation
extended and deepened the new
Star Trek
mythology that the show had built up. Klingon and Vulcan storylines would come to dominate, with Worf involved in a Klingon civil war, while the two-part story ‘Unification’ depicted an attempted reconciliation between the Romulans and the Vulcans. The episodes featured a guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy as Spock in a promotional tie-in with the sixth
Star Trek
movie,
The Undiscovered Country
. Nimoy’s Spock was the last of four original series characters to appear on
The Next Generation
. ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ had seen DeForest Kelley reprise the role of an elderly Dr McCoy, giving a seal of approval to the new 1980s show. Mark Lenard later appeared as Spock’s father, Sarek, in an episode built around his character, while ‘Relics’ would see James Doohan’s Scotty arrive in the twenty-fourth century thanks to a transporter malfunction.
    By the end of seven years on air,
The Next Generation
returned to its beginning. Double-length season finale ‘All Good Things . . .’ revisited the events of ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ with the return of the malevolent Q. In the wake of the new
Star Trek
series came a new generation of science fiction television shows, such as
Quantum Leap
(1989–93),
Sliders
(1995–2000), and the epic
Babylon 5
(1993–8), as well as fantasy series like
Buffy theVampire Slayer
(1997–2003). Of course, the show also spawned three additional
Star Trek
spin-offs in
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
(1993–9),
Star Trek: Voyager
(1994–2001) and
Star Trek: Enterprise
(2001–5).

    The command crew characters of
The Next Generation
were closer to Gene Roddenberry’s original ideas for the 1960s series, which had been seriously derailed by the popularity of Spock and the dominance of the Kirk–Spock–McCoy triumvirate. However, the characters on the bridge of the
Enterprise
continued to be split down the traditional
Star Trek
opposition of science versus emotion. In Picard there is something of the Vulcan in his unemotional aloofness that often sets him apart from the rest of the crew. With Riker filling the womanising action-hero role previously filled by Kirk (all emotion),
The Next Generation
allows the captain to step back from the immediate crisis and have a broader overview. When Picard meets Spock in the 1991 episode ‘Unification II’, Spock sees much of his Vulcan father in the human captain of the
Enterprise
(Sarek and Picard shared that most intimate of connections, the Vulcan mind-meld). It is only through mind-melding with Picard that Spock finally understands his father’s true feelings for his half-human, half-Vulcan son.
    Picard leads the non-emotional grouping of characters: those who look to ideas and pragmatic solutions rather than acting on instinct. Among this group are Data (searching for a way to experience emotions that Spock suppresses, Data discusses their opposite views of humanity in ‘Unification II’); the Crusher family, consisting of Dr Beverly Crusher (who returned to the show in the third season, also a long-term romantic interest for Picard), youthful prodigy Wesley Crusher (although Picard initially dislikes having children on board his ship) and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge.
    Riker heads up the emotional