User blog:ARTaylor/30 Years of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Set one-hundred years after the original series, the show follows the adventures of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise-D as they seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one has gone before. The series was the first to feature a new crew and actors, though using much of the same crew from the original series. It is the third series in the franchise. At first the series was not popular among Trekkies who felt it was copying the original series. As the series continued it evolved beyond the original crew and developed into its own popularity. The series became massively popular and spun-off into two additional series and four films, the second of which spun-off into a third series. The series went on to win numerous accolades including nineteen Emmy Awards, two Hugo Awards, five Saturn Awards, and a Peabody Award. The series commonly ranks among the best series ever made along with numerous episodes appearing as the best episodes ever. The series was one of the first reboots, set in the same universe as the original but featuring new characters and situations, and was the first to feature long-term recurring storyarcs.

The series featured the talents of Jonathan Frakes as first officer Commander William T. Riker, LeVar Burton as chief engineer Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Michael Dorn as Klingon security officer Lieutenant Worf beating James Avery for the role, Brent Spiner as android second officer Lieutenant Commander Data, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as returning as the voice of the Enterprise computer and as the recurring role as the mischievous Lwaxana Troi, Dwight Schultz as shy engineer Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, James Cromwell as Prime Minister Nayrok and smuggler Jaglom Shrek before appearing in the second film as Zefram Cochrane, David Warner as the sadistic torturer Gul Madred, Olivia d'Abo as Q Amanda Rogers, Earl Boen as formless being Nagilum, Matt Frewer as time traveling con man Berlinghoff Rasmussen, Nikki Cox as Dreman child Sarjenka, Mark L. Taylor as human colonist Haritath, Paul Winfield as Tamarian captain Dathon in the highly popular "Darmok" episode, Tony Jay as third minister to the Conference of Judges Campio, Tim Russ as space pirate Devor and appeared as a crewman of the Enterprise-B in the first film before getting a starring role on the spin-off Voyager, Michael Bell as Bandi leader Groppler Zorn of the first episode, Robert Ito as Lieutenant Chang, Diedrich Bader as a tactical crewman, Jason Marsden as murdered colonist Raymond Marr, Alan Oppenheimer as Klingon Koroth, Don Stark as Nicky the Nose in the second film, Malcolm McDowell as the primary villain Tolian Soran in the first film, Neal McDonough as the ill-fated Lieutenant Hawk in the second film, as well as Joseph Ruskin appeared as a Son'a officer in the third film though this is the only live-action series he did not appear in.

Frakes and Burton went on to direct several episodes while Frakes also directed the second and third films. Dorothy Catherine Fontana and Morgan Gendel wrote for the series.