An introduction to Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Next Generation, the second series of the Star Trek saga. Set 78 years into the future from the original series. With a new cast, and a new ship, still coincidentally called the Enterprise, although this nice NCC- 1701 D as opposed to NCC - 1701. The D being the really important thing to notice. This series has the advantage of all the "recent" advances in special effects. This made the series run, feel and look substantially better, but it lost the old charm and "tackiness" of the old series, (I mean tackiness in an affectionate way i.e. the way the ship used to wobble when it went round a planet). However, I think that the change was for the better. Also the advances allowed the alien races to become more realistic and more interesting, the addition of the Klingon forehead ridges and the Borg are just 2 examples. Those things would have been impossible in the old series. It set the Klingons further apart from the humans, it made them more ....... alien. The Borg, quite possibly the least original (cyborgs set on galactic domination) and best race to be created by Star Trek, they are running close with the Q in my opinion. In the original series, Roddenbery had put Uhura and Ckekov in, in order to show that he wanted everyone to be equal and that race or nationality should not have anything to do with it. However the female crewmembers still wondered around in miniskirts, and all the alien women looked like they were leaving a strip - club and predictably they all ended up falling for Kirk. In the Next Generation however the equal society was pushed ever further, Worf (a Klingon) was now a crewmember, and women were in positions of real importance and were dressed similarly to the male members of the crew. Also Picard doesn't end up kissing an alien female every other episode, admittedly Riker takes that job but still, he doesn't do it every other episode. The enterprise's main aim is still exploration. It hasn't become a war ship, a freighter or some other role, although it does these on some occasions. During the time of the original Enterprise, 4% of the galaxy had been charted - not explored - since exploration would have required visit to all the approximately 11,000,000,000 stars and planetary systems in that 4% of the galaxy. By the 24th century, only 19% of the galaxy has been charted.

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