Fun facts about Star Trek: The Next Generation

1) The decision to produce Star Trek: The Next Generation for TV syndication was an incredibly expensive gamble back in 1987, but the decision paid off. The show did so well that it eventually paved the way for a trench of successful made-for-syndication TV drama series including Xena, Warrior Princess, Andromeda, Baywatch, and of course - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

2) Each of the three Star Trek series following on from the original Star Trek – The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager - has featured a cameo appearance by a character from its predecessor series in its first episode: TNG invited back DeForest Kelley as the legendary Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, DS9 welcomed Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Voyager re-admitted the Ferengi publican Quark.

3) Various sets used on Star Trek: Next Generation - the corridor, transporter room, and battle bridge - were re-made from sets originally built for the first four Star Trek movies. Plus, the Enterprise D transporter chamber’s ceiling is actually the transporter chamber’s floor from the Enterprise in the original series.

4) Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander William T. Riker are the only actors to have appeared in all 178 episodes of the Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ironically, back in 1987, famed RSC board-treader Stewart was so convinced that the show would sink without trace that he refused to unpack his suitcases for the first six weeks of filming.

5) Originally, the character of Data was intended to be Star Trek: The Next Generation’s equivalent of Mr. Spock in the original, 1966 Star Trek. Clad in a crisp, blue uniform, the sentient android was slated to occupy the post of Chief Science Officer on the Enterprise – until the production team realised that the colour blue clashed with the his android make-up. The idea was swiftly re-jigged, and Data was reassigned to Chief Operations Officer and given a natty gold uniform.

6) Real-life astronaut Mae C. Jemison appeared as Lt. Palmer in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘Second Chances’. The American doctor and NASA alumnus became the first African-American woman to travel in space as part of the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. Coincidentally, she has said that her inspiration for joining the famed Space Administration was a fellow African-American woman – none other than actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Commander Uhura on Star Trek.

7) The original one-piece Starfleet uniform was denounced as deeply uncomfortable by the show’s actors, which lead to a design tweak in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s clobber in season three. The costume department changed the one-piece outfits to two-pieces, but they didn’t phase out the space catsuits completely – a variant of the uni-pieced Starfleet uniform sneaked back in at least once in every season afterwards.

8) Two of the characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation were named after real people. Gene Roddenberry chose the name "Q" for the alien species and character of the same name (played by John de Lancie) in honour of his friend, Janet Quarton. Geordi La Forge was named after George La Forge, a wheelchair-bound fan of the original Star Trek series who died from muscular dystrophy in 1975.

9) As many of the TNG crew were avid fans of Japanese animation, the ‘Akira-class’ starships were meant as both a reference to the Anime film of that name and to director Akira Kurosawa. In addition, the Nausicaan alien race had the same name as the title character from the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize-winning 1984 film ‘Kaze no tani no Naushika’ (roughly translated as ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’).

10) The producers behind the visual and special effects on the show often used every day objects to create impressive futuristic effects. For instance, the edge of the universe in the episode ‘Where No-one Has Gone Before’ was created by bouncing a laser beam off a beer can, and the hovering killer probe in ‘The Arsenal of Freedom’ was made out of a shampoo bottle and some tights packaging.

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