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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Full Cast & Crew

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Drama, Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction
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A new crew boards a revamped USS Enterprise in the first spin-off from the '60s cult classic.

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Sound effects, special effects, executive producer, co-producer, line producer, cinematographer, production company.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: The cast of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' 36 years later

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" ("TNG") aired from 1987 to 1994.
It was the first live-action "Star Trek" show since the original series ended in 1969.
The cast will reunite for the final season of "Star Trek: Picard," which premieres February 16.

The captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, was played by Sir Patrick Stewart for all seven seasons.

Stewart got his start as a theater actor and was a part of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966 to 1982. He then had various roles on British TV series until he was cast as the newest captain of the USS Enterprise in 1987 for "Star Trek: The Next Generation," kicking off decades of debates on who the superior captain is .

Arguably, "TNG" would never have been as successful as it was without the grounding presence of Stewart and his Shakespearean sensibilities. Some of the best episodes and arcs in "Trek" history come down to Stewart's performance, such as the iconic Locutus storyline and its aftermath in "Family," or classic episodes like "The Measure of a Man" and "The Inner Light."

He was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in 1995. He won a Grammy in 1996 for best spoken word album for children for his reading of "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf."

Stewart, 82, will conclude Picard's story in 2023 after three seasons of "Star Trek: Picard" on Paramount+.

By the time "TNG" wrapped up in 1994, Stewart had already solidified his place in the hearts of nerds everywhere. He'd go on to star in four more "Trek" movies — "Generations" in 1994, "First Contact" in 1996, "Insurrection" in 1998, and "Nemesis" in 2002 — but that wasn't his last iconic role.

In 2000, he starred as the iconic Professor Charles Xavier, aka Professor X, in "X-Men." He reprised the role in 2003's "X2," 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand," 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," 2013's "The Wolverine," 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past," and 2017's "Logan" — the latter of which got him some Oscar buzz . He reprised the role in 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for services to drama.

He's played various other roles throughout his decades-long career, returned to the stage many times, and secured a Tony nomination in 2008 for his performance in "Macbeth." But Picard wasn't done with him yet.

In 2018, it was announced that Stewart would be returning to the role of Jean-Luc Picard for a series on CBS All Access (now Paramount+) following the former captain 30 years after the events of "Nemesis." "Star Trek: Picard" premiered in 2020. The third and final season will premiere on February 16.

Commander William T. Riker, Picard's right-hand man and first officer, was played by Jonathan Frakes.

Riker was more of the classic "Trek" rogue, similar in some ways to William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk, namely, his penchant for getting into trouble and getting women across the galaxy to fall in love with him. But he was also a trusted colleague and friend to Picard across seven seasons and four movies. Picking up Riker from Farpoint Station is actually one of the crew's first missions in the pilot.

Before "TNG," Frakes had appeared in various episodes of '70s and '80s shows like "Charlie's Angels," "The Twilight Zone," "Hill Street Blues," and more. But he quickly became best known for "Trek."

Like Shatner and Leonard Nimoy before him, Frakes also became interested in directing, and he was behind the camera for eight episodes of "TNG," as well as episodes of spin-offs "Deep Space Nine," and "Voyager." He also directed films "First Contact" and "Insurrection."

Frakes, 70, has appeared in "Picard" and "Lower Decks." He's also a successful director.

Soon after "TNG" wrapped up, Frakes began hosting the series "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?" from 1998 to 2002. A compilation clip of him saying things are false/fiction has since become a meme .

Frakes reprised his role as Riker in episodes of "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" in the '90s, the series finale of "Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005, two episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" in 2020, and three episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" in 2020 and 2021.

Over the last two decades, he's directed over 70 episodes of television, including shows like "Roswell," "Castle," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "The Librarians," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Seth MacFarlane's loving "Trek" homage "The Orville," and, of course, the new "Trek" shows like "Star Trek: Discovery" and "Picard."

Like the rest of the original "TNG" crew, Frakes has joined the cast of "Picard" for season three.

Marina Sirtis played Deanna Troi, the ship's counselor and an empath.

In some ways, Troi was like the exact opposite of Spock, a character from the original "Trek" who operated solely from a place of logic. Instead, Troi was a half-human, half-betazoid, which made her an empath (able to telepathically sense people's feelings and emotions). Her place on the ship was to counsel the captain and other members of the crew.

Notably, Troi and Riker were in a relationship before the events of the show, and they eventually get married during the movie "Nemesis," before moving to the USS Titan, where Riker would finally become captain.

Her mother, Lwaxana Troi, was a beloved "Trek" side character played by Majel Barrett, "Trek" creator Gene Rodenberry's wife and "Original Series" cast member. Barrett also played Christine Chapel.

Before "TNG," Sirtis had appeared in bit parts in films and was mainly doing theater in her native UK.

Sirtis, 67, reprised the role for one episode of "Picard" with her on-screen husband, Riker.

Sirtis appeared in all four "TNG" films," and she also reprised her role as Troi in "Voyager," "Enterprise," "Picard," and "Lower Decks." She also appeared in an episode of "The Orville."

She's steadily worked in TV over the last two decades, appearing in shows like "Without a Trace," "Make It or Break It," "Grey's Anatomy," "NCIS," and "Scandal."

Sirtis has also had a steady voice-acting career, lending her voice to "Gargoyles," "Adventure Time," and perhaps most famously, as Queen Bee in "Young Justice."

Sirtis will don her Starfleet uniform yet again in 2023 for the final season of "Picard."

LeVar Burton played the engineering genius Geordi La Forge.

Besides Stewart, Burton was easily the most well-known member of the cast. Ten years prior, he had played Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC miniseries "Roots," which was nominated for 37 Emmy Awards, winning nine, including a nomination for Burton . The series finale is still the second most-watched series finale of all time, garnering at least 110 million viewers. He reprised the role in the 1988 TV film "Roots: The Gift."

When he was cast as La Forge, the chief engineering officer who happened to be blind — a big step forward in disability representation at the time — Burton had already been hosting "Reading Rainbow" on PBS since 1983. "Reading Rainbow," which Burton produced, won a Peabody Award and 12 Daytime Emmys.

From 1990 to 1996, Burton also voiced Kwame on "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" for over 100 episodes. In 1999, he directed the Disney Channel Original Movie classic "Smart House."

Burton, 66, was recently at the center of a campaign to take over as the new host of "Jeopardy!"

Like the rest of the main cast, Burton appeared in "TNG's" four feature films . He also appeared as La Forge in an episode of "Voyager."

He will reprise his role for the first time on TV since 1998 during the third and final season of "Picard" — and he'll be joined by his daughter, Mica Burton, who will play La Forge's daughter Alandra, an ensign in Starfleet.

Burton has had a successful career in Hollywood since, appearing as Martin Luther King Jr. in 2001's "Ali," playing himself in iconic appearances on both "Community" and "The Big Bang Theory," and hosting "Reading Rainbow" until its end in 2006.

Like Frakes, Burton is also a successful TV director. He's directed numerous episodes of "Star Trek" and its spin-offs, as well as episodes of "Charmed," "JAG," and "NCIS: New Orleans." He made his movie directorial debut in 2008 with "Reach for Me," starring Seymour Cassel.

After the death of Alex Trebek in 2020 , fans began campaigning for Burton to take over as the new host of "Jeopardy!" Almost 300,000 fans have signed a petition to that effect. However, after a brief stint as guest host, Burton said he wouldn't be interested in taking over as the permanent host.

In October 2021, he was named next year's grand marshal of the Rose Bowl Parade.

Gates McFadden played the chief medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher for six seasons — she was replaced briefly in season two.

Dr. Crusher was introduced as the chief medical officer of the Enterprise with a long relationship with Picard — her late husband, Jack, and Picard were close friends, and Picard even brought back Jack's body after death.

However, as the show progressed, Dr. Crusher and Picard's relationship evolved into love and they even got married (and divorced) in an alternate timeline. We want to see Beverly in "Picard," please — and it seems like we're finally getting our wish.

After the first season, McFadden was written out of the show due to issues with head writer Maurice Hurley and replaced with Diana Muldaur, who played Dr. Katherine Pulaski. Muldaur's character did not gel with the rest of the cast, and McFadden was subsequently brought back for season three (and Hurley was ultimately replaced with Michael Piller).

Before "TNG," McFadden was a choreographer and a puppeteer involved with the Jim Henson Company, in addition to her career as an actress . She appeared in and choreographed 1984's "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and choreographed "Labyrinth" in 1986 . McFadden directed an episode of "TNG" in 1994.

McFadden, 73, has appeared in episodes of shows like "Franklin & Bash," "NCIS," and "The Practice."

McFadden appeared in all four "TNG" films , though she didn't have a huge role in them, considering how her relationship with Picard was left in the series finale. She even joked during a screening of the season three premiere of "Picard" that she didn't remember being in the films.

Hopefully, their bond will be addressed in season three of "Picard," which McFadden will return for, especially since season two of "Picard" seems very concerned with the lack of love in his life.

Since the end of the films in 2002, McFadden has mainly appeared on TV. She was in four episodes of "Franklin & Bash," an episode of "NCIS," and a TV movie called "A Neighbor's Deception." She was also in a 2009 holiday rom-com called "Make the Yuletide Gay."

Michael Dorn played Worf, the first Klingon in "Trek" history to be a main character.

Worf was the first Klingon to be a main character in "Star Trek" — in three of the original films, Klingons were, if not the main antagonists, one of the secondary foes.

By the events of "TNG," Dorn's character Worf had enlisted in Star Fleet and slowly became one of the series' best and most beloved characters, as well as the chief security officer. He went on to star on "Deep Space Nine" for four seasons, from 1995 to 1999.

Before the show, Dorn had appeared in shows such as "CHiPS," "Knots Landing," and "Days of Our Lives."

Dorn, 70, has been in more episodes of "Star Trek" than any other actor. He'll add to his lead by appearing in "Picard."

Overall, Dorn played Worf for 277 episodes and four films, making more appearances than any other actor in "Trek" history. The character was so popular that there were even talks to continue his story in his own show, called "Star Trek: Captain Worf" in 2012, though they never came to fruition.

He'll continue his reign, as Dorn was announced with the rest of the cast of "TNG" to be returning to "Trek" in season three of "Picard."

Besides acting in "Star Trek," Dorn also directed three episodes of "Deep Space Nine," as well as an episode of "Enterprise."

Like many of his co-stars, Dorn has had a successful voice-acting career . He used his voice in "Dinosaurs," "Superman: The Animated Series," "I Am Weasel," "Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time," "Regular Show," and "Arrow," among others. Most recently, he voiced Battle Beast in "Invincible."

Dorn appeared in two of the "Santa Clause" movies as the Sandman, and he was also in "Ted 2." In real life, he's also an accomplished pilot.

Wil Wheaton played Wesley Crusher, Dr. Crusher's son and a controversial character.

Poor Wesley. It couldn't have been easy losing your dad at such an early age, only to be dragged onto a spaceship with the man who survived instead ... a man who pointedly hated kids to boot. But that was Wesley's plight, and it didn't make for a very enjoyable character. He was written off as a regular after season four, at which point he went to Starfleet Academy. Wesley reappeared in the final season for a send-off.

The year before Wheaton began appearing in "TNG," he starred in the classic '80s film "Stand by Me" alongside River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, and John Cusack, all future stars in the making.

Wheaton, 50, made a surprise cameo at the end of season two of "Picard."

As Wesley wasn't a hugely beloved character, he only appeared in one scene of one film , "Nemesis." He didn't even speak.

But Wheaton hasn't let the haters stop him from having a successful career. He's appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies, and he hilariously played himself across 17 episodes of "The Big Bang Theory." He also had a recurring role on "Eureka," another recurring role on "Leverage," and a talk show on SyFy called "The Wil Wheaton Project."

Wheaton has also acted in many web series, including "Welcome to Night Vale." He's also had great success in voice acting, most recently voicing the Flash in "Teen Titans Go to the Movies."

He also hosted the web series "TableTop," in which he and guests play a game (like Settlers of Catan or Pandemic) each episode, which aired from 2012 to 2017.

Currently, he hosts "The Ready Room," the official "Star Trek" aftershow that features interviews with the cast and crew. He also made a brief, surprise appearance at the end of season two of "Picard."

Brent Spiner played Data, an android who was on a quest to become more human.

While most of the characters on "TNG" were almost entirely original, Data was clearly conceived as this show's version of Spock , another character who struggled with the concept of humanity.

However, as the show went on, Data solidified himself as his own character with his own fascinating backstory (Lore and Dr. Noonien Soong, anyone?) and a heartwarming desire to become human.

Before the series, Spiner enjoyed a successful career in theater , originating the role of Franz/Dennis in "Sunday in the Park with George" and starring as Aramis in "The Three Musketeers." He also appeared in six episodes of "Night Court."

In 1996, he appeared in the huge sci-fi blockbuster "Independence Day."

They keep finding ways for Spiner, 74, to stay in the "Trek" universe, even 21 years after Data's death in "Star Trek: Nemesis."

Spiner appeared in all four "TNG" movies . In fact, his character might have had the most complete arc, when you take in his sacrifice at the end of "Nemesis." He also played an ancestor of his character's creator, Dr. Arik Soong, in four episodes of "Enterprise's" fourth season.

In 2016, Spiner reprised his role as Dr. Brackish Okun in the sequel "Independence Day: Resurgence." Over the years he's appeared in dozens of TV shows, including "Friends," "Star Wars Rebels," "Ray Donovan," "The Goldbergs," and "Warehouse 13."

Spiner has also voiced two iconic Batman villains. He played the Joker in an episode of "Young Justice," and he voiced the Riddler in "Justice League Action."

In 2020, Spiner reprised his role as Data in "Picard," appearing as the character in dream sequences and as a virtual consciousness throughout the first season.

He also appeared as a descendant of his creator, Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, and as a similar android named B-4 who was originally introduced in "Nemesis." In season two, he played another one of Noonien Soong's ancestors, Adam Soong.

Spiner was announced, like the rest of the cast , to be part of "Picard's" third season, this time playing Data's evil "brother," Lore.

Denise Crosby only starred in one season of "TNG" as Natasha Yar.

Yar's death was one of the biggest shocks of "TNG" and proved this wasn't going to be like the original show — deaths weren't just reserved for "red shirts" here. No one was safe.

In actuality, Crosby asked to be written off the show , as she "was miserable. I couldn't wait to get off that show. I was dying." And so, her character was killed in the season one episode "Skin of Evil" by a malevolent tar-like creature. Yar would reappear two more times, in a season three episode called "Yesterday's Enterprise" (an all-timer), and the series finale.

Crosby also appeared in three episodes as a character called Sela, a future half-Romulan daughter of Yar's from an alternate timeline.

Before the show, Crosby, the granddaughter of Bing Crosby, had appeared in films like "48 Hrs.," "Pet Sematary," two "Pink Panther" films, and multiple episodes of "Days of Our Lives."

Crosby, 65, recently appeared in a few episodes of "General Hospital."

Crosby didn't appear as Yar in any of the "TNG" films, but that doesn't mean she's totally stayed away from "Trek." She produced and presented a 1997 documentary about "Trek" fandom called "Trekkies," and its 2004 sequel "Trekkies 2." As of 2017, there were plans for a third installment.

She's also appeared in multiple direct-to-video movies , in addition to her roles in "Southland," "Ray Donovan," "The Walking Dead," "Suits," "Creepshow," and most recently "NCIS" and "General Hospital."

Colm Meaney had a recurring role as the transporter chief Miles O'Brien.

Meaney appeared in over 50 episodes of "TNG" as O'Brien before he switched over to "Deep Space Nine," which he starred on from 1993 to 1999. His character got much more to do on the spin-off, though he did get married in a season four episode called "Data's Day," and he eventually had a child in the season five episode "Disaster."

During his run on "TNG," Meaney also appeared in a 1993 film called "The Snapper." He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.

Meaney, 69, continued to play O'Brien in "Deep Space Nine" through 1999.

After wrapping up his role in "Deep Space Nine," Meaney went on to be nominated for a Gemini Award in 2002 for his role in Canadian series "Random Passage." He also appeared in three episodes of "Stargate Atlantis," the miniseries "Alice," two episodes of "Men in Trees," and more.

Meaney was also nominated for a Saturn Award in 2013 for his role in "Hell on Wheels," appeared in 10 episodes of "Will" and in British series "Gangs of London" and "The Singapore Grip."

In 2021, he appeared in the 15th season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" as the father of Charlie Day's character.

He's had success on the big screen, as well. He was nominated for the Irish Film and Television Award for best actor in 2007 for "Kings," and he has been in other films like "Law Abiding Citizen," "Get Him to the Greek," "Tolkien," "Seberg," and "Pixie."

He recently starred in "The Serpent Queen" as King Francis I on Starz.

Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for "Ghost" as she was recurring on "TNG" as Guinan, an alien bartender who was hundreds of years old.

Goldberg had already been nominated for an Oscar (for "The Color Purple" in 1985) and had won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 1985 (Whoopi Goldberg: Original Broadway Show Recording), and had been nominated for an Emmy for her performance on "Moonlighting" in 1986, when she was asked if she wanted to appear in "TNG" as Guinan, an alien bartender in the ship's lounge who acted as a sounding board for many characters.

She actually asked to be on the show due to her "Trek" fandom, which stemmed from seeing Uhura, a Black woman, in a position of power in the first "Star Trek" series. Goldberg appeared in 28 episodes across seven seasons.

At the same time, Goldberg was becoming a true A-lister. In 1990, she starred in "Ghost," which eventually won her an Oscar. In 1992, she starred in the classic "Sister Act" and its sequel the following year.

Goldberg, 67, accepted a personal invitation from Stewart during "The View" to return as Guinan in season two of "Picard."

Goldberg appeared in two of the "Next Generation" films, "Generations" and "Nemesis." During that time, she also appeared in films like "The Lion King," "Girl, Interrupted," "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella," and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back."

In 2002, Goldberg secured her Tony Award win for producing "Thoroughly Modern Millie." That same year, she completed her EGOT by winning an Emmy for outstanding special class series. She's also hosted multiple award shows, including the Tonys and the Oscars.

Goldberg has consistently acted in both TV and movies in the 2000s, appearing in "Glee," "The Middle," "Toy Story 3," "Nobody's Fool," and more.

Since 2007, Goldberg has hosted "The View," which won her her second Emmy — she won outstanding entertainment talk show host at the 2009 Daytime Emmys.

During an appearance on "The View," none other than Patrick Stewart extended an invitation to Goldberg to reprise her role as Guinan during season two of "Picard," which she emotionally accepted.

Both Goldberg's version and a younger version played by Ito Aghayere of Guinan appeared during the show.

John de Lancie played Q, a mischievous, omnipotent being throughout all seven seasons of "TNG."

In many ways, it would've been impossible to bring back Picard without bringing back Q. The Enterprise's captain meets Q in the very first episode of "TNG," and for almost every season after he pops back in to check in on the crew (and usually antagonize them a little bit). "TNG's" highly lauded series finale is also a Q episode, with Q attempting to conclude the trial of humanity he began in the first episode.

John de Lancie played Q in eight episodes of "TNG," along with one episode of "Deep Space Nine" and three episodes of "Voyager."

Throughout the '80s and '90s, de Lancie also appeared in "Days of Our Lives," "Trial and Error," and had small roles in films like "The Fisher King" and "Multiplicity."

De Lancie, 74, returned for season two of "Picard."

De Lancie has continued to work frequently on TV, with arcs in shows like "Breaking Bad," "Charmed," "The Librarians," "The Secret Circle," and more.

The actor returned to the "Trek" universe to play Q once again on the first season of the animated series "Lower Decks" in 2020. Two years later, it was revealed that Q would play a major part in season two of "Picard" since, as Q would later say in the season, " even gods have favorites ."

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One of the best things about Star Trek: The Original Series was the incredible cast of characters, and Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced the world to all new characters who would soon become just as beloved. TNG followed the adventures of the USS Enterprise-D and its crew under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), carrying on that original mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life. Though the first season of TNG left something to be desired, the show improved drastically over the course of its second and third seasons and would be praised by both critics and audiences.

The crew of the USS Enterprise-D would become one of the most beloved Star Trek crews of all time, and Star Trek: The Next Generation would produce some truly outstanding episodes of sci-fi television. With its incredibly compelling cast, TNG became a worthy successor to TOS and led to the continued popularity of the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek would never have become such a beloved franchise without its great characters and the actors who play them, and Star Trek: The Next Generation added some amazing crew members to the Star Trek roster.

12 Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard

With a more serious command style than Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Captain Picard leaned into the intellectual side of Star Trek . Picard was a skilled diplomat who preferred to explore every avenue of conversation and compromise before resorting to violence. He may have kept himself emotionally removed from his crew, but he cared about every life and would never leave anyone behind. He loved Shakespeare and Earl Grey tea, and could deliver an inspiring speech or a dressing down better than anyone. Patrick Stewart's commanding performance and great TNG speeches ensured Picard would quickly become one of the most respected and beloved Star Trek Captains.

11 Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker

As First Officer, William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) led many of the away missions and took over the ship when Captain Picard was incapacitated. Since Captain Picard was a more stoic leader, Riker was meant to act as the "replacement" for Captain Kirk, the adventurous ladies' man who cared deeply about his friends. He had several romances throughout the series, but ultimately ended up with the ship's Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). Will really came into his own over the course of the series, and would refuse multiple opportunities for promotion to remain on board the Enterprise.

10 Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

The lovable android Data (Brent Spiner) became a quick fan favorite thanks to his child-like wonder and endearing personality. Created by cyberneticist Dr. Noonian Soong (also played by Brent Spiner), Data had a positronic brain which allowed him to process calculations faster than any computer. Throughout the series, Data longed to be human , and he tried to explore his humanity in different ways, from playing musical instruments and painting to performing Shakespeare's plays. Many of TNG's best episodes focused on Data and his presence on the show allowed TNG to explore what it means to be human in interesting ways.

9 LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge

Though Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) began TNG in the command division, he soon transferred to operations and became the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. Blind since birth, Geordi's visor allowed him to see various types of light on the electromagnetic spectrum. Not only was La Forge a great engineer, but once he discovered a problem, he would not rest until he solved it. Throughout the series, Geordi developed a friendship with Data and Data would often come to Geordi with questions about humanity. Though Geordi could be awkward and even creepy when it came to romantic encounters, he was a good friend, a brilliant engineer, and a loyal crew member.

8 Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf

As one of the few Klingons in Starfleet, Worf (Michael Dorn) sometimes struggled to reconcile his Klingon heritage with his duties as a Starfleet officer. Like most Klingons, Worf placed a high value on honor and loyalty and became an invaluable member of the Enterprise crew. It became a bit of a trope to have the alien of the week overpower Worf to show how strong and dangerous they were. Unfortunately, this mostly just made Worf look weaker than he actually was. The character would truly come into his own when Worf made the switch from TNG to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine after TNG ended in 1994.

7 Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher

In her role as the Enterprise's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) proved to be a smart, capable, and compassionate doctor. Though Dr. Crusher left the Enterprise in TNG season 2 to become head of Starfleet Medical, she returned at the beginning of season 3 and remained throughout the rest of the series. Beverly's empathy sometimes caused her to bend or break Starfleet rules, including the Prime Directive. Her late husband had been close friends with Captain Picard, and Beverly and Picard later developed feelings for one another.

6 Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi

The half-human half-Betazoid Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) served as the ship's Counselor and used her Betazoid senses to read people's emotions. Troi's ability to sense deceit made her a valuable member of the Enterprise crew, though her telepathic abilities sometimes made her more susceptible to alien influence. Although she had a few romances throughout the series, her most well-known relationship was with Commander Riker, whom she would eventually marry in Star Trek: Nemesis . Though Troi was not always given the best material to work with, she grew into a compelling character whose caring nature set her apart.

5 Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher

As the youngest of TNG's main characters, Wil Wheaton's Wesley Crusher sometimes struggled to fit in on the Enterprise. The son of Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Wesley had a brilliant mind and eventually became an acting Ensign on the ship. Despite his earlier desire to attend Starfleet Academy, Wesley eventually decided to become a Traveler and explore space and time. The writers seemed unsure about what to do with Wesley as a character some of the time, and he often got saddled with mediocre storylines. Still, Wesley and Wil Wheaton would go on to become important figures in the Star Trek franchise.

4 Denise Crosby as Lt. Tasha Yar

Though Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) was only around for the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation , she left a lasting impression on both the characters and the fans. As the Security Chief of the Enterprise, Tasha was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and was not afraid to confront dangerous situations head-on. Although Tasha Yar was killed on an away mission in season 1's "Skin of Evil," Denise Crosby would return as alternate versions of the character, as well as the half-Romulan daughter of an alternate universe Tasha Yar.

3 Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Lwaxana Troi

The mother of Deanna Troi, Lwaxana (Majel Barrett Roddenberry) made several appearances over the course of the series, much to Captain Picard's chagrin. Lawaxana acted as an Ambassador for her home planet of Betazed and had a larger-than-life personality that sometimes embarrassed her daughter, Deanna. Lwaxana appeared in several episodes of TNG and would go on to appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as well. Though she generally came across as vibrant and happy, her life was not without tragedy. Her first daughter, Kestra, passed away soon after Deanna was born and her second husband, Deanna's father, passed away when Deanna was young.

2 Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

As the bartender in the Enterprise's lounge, Ten Forward, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) would often provide a listening ear to the officers on the ship. As an El-Aurian, Guinan had a very long life span and was unusually perceptive. Guinan had a distinct dislike for Q (John de Lancie), and a hatred of the Borg, as they had destroyed most of her people. Guinan was close friends with Picard and only joined the Enterprise crew at his request. She developed friendships with many members of the Enterprise crew as they often came to her for advice and help with their problems.

1 John de Lancie as Q

Introduced in the pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint," the omnipotent being known as Q (John de Lancie) took an interest in Captain Picard and his Enterprise crew. In his first appearance, he put all of humanity on trial with Captain Picard and his crew as representatives of the entire human race. Q popped up on the Enterprise on several more occasions, becoming a bit of a thorn in Captain Picard's side. Most notably, in season 2's "Q Who," Q tossed the Enterprise into the far reaches of space where they encountered the Borg for the first time, far earlier in their timeline than they were meant to. Q would go on to appear in other Star Trek series, but he always had a particular fondness for Captain Picard and the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Jonathan Frakes

Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast and Character Guide

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Star Trek: The Next Generation represented a watershed for the vaunted sci-fi franchise. It first premiered on Sept. 28, 1987, and ran for seven seasons: evolving from almost an afterthought to one of the best television shows of all time. More importantly it moved Star Trek from a one-crew series into something far more expansive, allowing numerous shows with all-new characters to flourish. In many ways, the franchise wouldn't have survived without it.

Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard serves as a reunion of sorts for the Next Generation cast, bringing many of the show's favorites back for a curtain call. That includes both the seven "core" members of the cast -- constituting the bridge officers of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D -- and a surprising number of supporting cast members, some of whom returned earlier in Picard . Together, they have helped define Star Trek in the post- Original-Series era.

RELATED: Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Roddenberry Box, Explained

Patrick Stewart Is Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Sir Patrick Stewart was best known as a Shakespearean actor in the early part of his career. Like many Shakespeareans, he made numerous appearances in movies and TV shows. He even had a profile among sci-fi lovers, thanks to appearances in the likes of Excalibur, Lifeforce , and David Lynch's version of Dune. He earned a whole new group of fans after Star Trek by portraying Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise .

Jean-Luc Picard is captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, and conceived in many ways as the antithesis of Captain James T. Kirk. Picard is cerebral, diplomatic and slow to anger. He prefers negotiation to fighting, and displays a wealth of knowledge in a wide variety of fields. As the captain of Starfleet's flagship, he's often targeted by the Federation's enemies, most notably the Borg, who assimilated him into their collective in Season 3, Episode 26, "the Best of Both Worlds, Part 1." The emotional scars of the incident remain with him for the length of the franchise.

Jonathan Frakes Is Commander William Riker

Jonathan Frakes was an unknown when he joined the cast of The Next Generation , though he had appeared in numerous TV series before then as a working actor. Star Trek gave him a chance to work behind the camera as a director. Since then, he's become a major creative force in the franchise, directing episodes of multiple Star Trek series and two movies, as well as numerous projects outside The Final Frontier.

Square-jawed and stalwart, William Riker spends the early seasons leading dangerous away team missions while Picard remains behind on the bridge. As the show evolves, the two men come to rely on each other more and more, to the point where Riker repeatedly turns down promotion to remain the Enterprise-D's "Number One." Though a stalwart commander, he adopts a more informal attitude than Picard, joking with other members of the staff and commiserating with them while off-duty.

RELATED: TNG Changed Star Trek With a Game of Cards

Gates McFadden Is Doctor Beverly Crusher

Before joining the cast of The Next Generation, McFadden worked with Jim Henson Studios as a choreographer and movement specialist in the likes of Labyrinth and The Muppets Take Manhattan . McFadden quit the Star Trek series after the first season, citing sexism in the scripts and a dispute with then-lead writer Maurice Hurley. She did, however, return for Season 3.

The shift reveals just how important Dr. Crusher is to the cast's dynamic. A widow and the mother of super-genius Wesley Crusher, she dispenses her medical duties with kindness, calm, and dogged optimism. She and Picard have an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the series -- fond but platonic most of the time -- which results in the birth of their son Jack two decades before the events of Picard Season 3.

Brent Spiner Is Lieutenant Commander Data

Spiner has become a staple of the Star Trek franchise, with multiple characters stretching across 35 years of programming. Most of them belong to the sinister Soong family, though he also plays Data's treacherous brother Lore and "failed prototype" B-4. Data, however, remains Spiner's signature role, created as an alternative to Mr. Spock and quickly becoming one of the franchise's most beloved characters.

As an android, Data possesses no emotions, though he yearns to experience them. His clinical observations and fantastically advanced brain make him an outstanding science officer for the Enterprise-D, while his compassion and moral compass upend Star Trek's normal Frankenstein-esque approach to artificial intelligence. Picard Season 3 returns Data to life for a proper curtain all after infamously killing him at the conclusion of Star Trek: Nemesis .

RELATED: A Dubious Star Trek Movie Found Inspiration in a Cut TNG Story

Marina Sirtis Is Counselor Deanna Troi

Marina Sirtis joined Star Trek after previously appearing on various British TV series and American B-movies. Her character is presented as the ship's counselor, a half-Betazoid empath capable of sensing emotions in others. While she aptly serves as a therapist for the crew, her main duties involve advising the captain on diplomatic matters. This makes her a vital member of the bridge staff.

Deanna Troi also has a past relationship with Will Riker, and they remain close platonic friends throughout The Next Generation's run. They rekindle their romance during Star Trek: Insurrection, and get married in the opening of Star Trek: Nemesis . Picard Season 1 finds them semi-retired and living with their daughter.

LeVar Burton Is Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge

Of all the principal cast members on the series, LeVar Burton had the highest profile among the public. He first rose to fame playing Kunta Kinte in the groundbreaking miniseries Roots , then served as host and executive producer of the classic PBS educational series Reading Rainbow starting in 1983. Geordi La Forge begins The Next Generation as the ship's pilot, but soon moves to the Chief Engineer's position. He's level-headed and hyper-efficient, though utterly hopeless around women. He and Data become fast friends as the series progresses.

La Forge is also known for his distinctive VISOR, which gives him the ability to see in different spectrums. He constitutes a major step forward for representation. The show views his blindness not as an impediment, but as a unique perspective that brings its own singular gifts. He trades the VISOR in for a pair of cybernetic eyes starting in Star Trek: First Contact , in part because of Burton's weariness with the cumbersome prop.

RELATED: Star Trek: TNG Could Have Continued Past Season 7, but Without Picard

Michael Dorn Is Lieutenant Worf

Worf's appearance on the Enterprise-D was a part of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's vision for the series. The Klingons spent The Original Series as foes of the Federation, but by the time The Next Generation rolled around (100 years on the franchise timetable), they had become allies. Worf is the first Klingon to join Starfleet, played by Shakespearean actor Michael Dorn. Before Star Trek, Dorn was best known for a recurring role on CHiPs. He became only the second actor to formally cross over onto another series: following Chief O'Brien to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Worf himself becomes a catalyst for The Klingons as a culture: exploring them in depth and adding a plethora of exciting characters to the canon. The Empire's scheming nobles and clashing houses draw on Dorn's Shakespearean background, with Worf an exiled lord fighting to restore honor to his people. In the midst of it all, he remains a stalwart friend and able security officer aboard the Enterprise.

Wil Wheaton Is Wesley Crusher

Wil Weaton actually came to The Next Generation as a better-known actor than may of his older cast mates, having made a huge splash as the lead in Rob Reiner's Stand By Me . He has since become Star Trek's de facto master of ceremonies as the host of the aftershow The Ready Room as well as numerous podcasts and other social media series.

Wesley is perhaps The Next Generation's greatest salvage job. He stumbles badly in Season 1, acting as a de facto stand-in for franchise creator Gene Roddenberry and often solving crises as a deus ex machina. Subsequent seasons improve his standing greatly, turning him into a talented but questioning apprentice to the rest of the crew. He departs with a being called The Traveller to explore higher planes of existence at the end of Season 7, though he returns for a brief cameo in Picard Season 2.

RELATED: The Next Generation's USS Enterprise-D Was Star Trek's Best Hero Ship Upgrade

Denise Crosby Is Lieutenant Tasha Yar

Tasha Yar is The Next Generation's great "what if" and the Enterprise's original security chief who was ignominiously killed off at the end of Season 1. Denise Crosby left the show for many of the same reasons McFadden did, and unfortunately, she never received a proper mulligan like Doctor Crusher did. The actor went on to prominent roles in Miracle Mile and the first Pet Sematary, as well as a long line of guest appearances on prominent sci-fi series.

Thankfully, The Next Generation finds places to bring her back, most notably in the now-classic "Yesterday's Enterprise" in Season 3. That leads to her half-Romulan daughter Sela, who becomes one of the Enterprise-D's chief foils in Season 4 and 5. Her absence haunts her former crewmates as they never quite shed the pain of her passing, and keeping her out of Picard Season 3 is still one of that series' biggest mistakes.

Colm Meaney Is Chief Miles O'Brien

Before serving as chief engineer on Deep Space 9, Miles O'Brien was the Enterprise-D's stalwart transporter chief. Colm Meaney, who played O'Brien throughout both The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , rocketed to prominence on the role after eking out a few brief TV roles here and there. Afterwards, he starred in a long string of high-profile movie roles: starting with Stephen Frears' The Commitments and others like Con Air, Under Siege and The Snapper.

O'Brien himself is a holdover from Montgomery Scott, the redoubtable Chief Engineer from The Original Series . He's also Star Trek's first semi-official "Lower Decks" character , representing the ship's rank-and-file crew members. Diligent and hard-working, he dotes on his wife Keiko and is always ready at the transporter when the away team needs a quick pick-up.

RELATED: Star Trek Theory: Why the Borg Queen Didn't Appear in The Next Generation

Whoopi Goldberg Is Guinan

Goldberg is a self-confessed Trekkie, having famously grown up admiring Nichelle Nichols' performance on The Original Series . Her own film career launched with a bang when she starred in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple based on the Alice Walker novel. She joined The Next Generation in Season 2 as Guinan, the ship's bartender who has a long history with Picard and an uncanny knack for good advice. Her presence is credited with helping the show turn things around after the disastrous Season 1, and she returned for a brief appearance in the second season of Picard .

Guinan makes a sterling example of The Next Generation's strong line of supporting characters. The show doesn't use her unless the plot calls for it, making every appearance a meaningful one (and freeing Goldberg to pursue what became an Oscar-winning movie career). In that sense, she exemplifies part of Gene Roddenberry's formula for The Original Series' success: write meaty parts for a small number of episodes in order to attract top-notch actors who don't want to be tied down in a single series.

Dwight Schultz Is Lieutenant Reg Barclay

Schultz made a big splash on the 80s classic The A-Team , where he played deranged pilot "Howling Man" Murdock throughout its successful run. Reg Barclay is the exact opposite of Murdock: timid, uncertain, painfully shy and another early example of Star Trek's Lower Deckies. An inherently unpopular member of the engineering staff, he first appears in Season 3, Episode 21, "Hollow Pursuits," where he lives vicariously through inappropriate holodeck programs designed around his real-life crewmates.

While ostensibly a holographic expert, Barclay quickly evolves into the ship's Everyman: appearing in the likes of Season 4, Episode 19, "The Nth Degree" and Season 6, Episode 12, "Ship in a Bottle," as well as making a cameo in Star Trek: First Contact . He eventually becomes attached to the efforts to reach the U.S.S. Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, leading to several prominent appearances on Star Trek: Voyager as well.

RELATED: How Picard Cemented This Couple as Star Trek's Best

Diana Muldar Is Katherine Pulaski

Star Trek's "forgotten doctor" appears in the second season of The Next Generation , replacing the departing Gates McFadden. Unlike Crusher, Pulaski is plain-speaking, blunt and a little stand-offish. Critics note that she resembles Leonard McCoy a little too closely (both characters share a phobia about transporters, for example) and she lacks the chemistry with the rest of the crew that McFadden enjoyed. She departs the series at the end of season 2, never to be seen again.

Actor Diana Muldar was already a success when she played Dr. Pulaski, with a long string of television appearances stretching back to the 1960s. That included two episodes of The Original Series : Season 2, Episode 20, "Return to Tomorrow" and Season 3, Episode 5, "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" After her run on The Next Generation , she earned a pair of Emmy nominations as the villainous Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law . Batman: The Animated Series fans know her as Dr. Leslie Thompkins, which marked the first appearance of the character outside of the comics.

Michelle Forbes Is Ro Laren

Ro Laren arrives on the Enterprise in Season 5, Episode 3, "Ensign Ro." She introduces the Bajorans to the Star Trek universe, which is a religious species who have become insurgents and refugees after the Cardassians occupy their world. She becomes a stand-in for the oppressed and neglected, as well as demonstrating the limits of Starfleet's power and morality. She and Picard form a bond, which she betrays when she joins the terrorist Maquis in Season 7, Episode 24, "Preemptive Strike." She returns in Picard Season 3 to warn her old mentor about the Changeling threat before sacrificing herself in one of the new series' most celebrated plotlines.

Forbes spent two years on the soap opera Guiding Light before joining the cast of The Next Generation . Ro Laren was intended to be one of the leads on Deep Space Nine , but the actor declined, fearing she would be typecast in the part. The role was rewritten and became Nana Visitor's Kira Nerys. Forbes went on to star in numerous film and television projects, including Homicide: Life on the Street, 24, Battlestar Galactica, Kalifornia , and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Where The Cast Of Star Trek: The Next Generation Is Today

In 1987, after a series of successful feature films starring the Original Series cast, the Star Trek franchise decided to boldly go in a new direction. Star Trek: The Next Generation took the risk of creating an all-new cast of characters in an all-new era of the science fiction classic, and the risk paid off. More than 30 years after it debuted, Star Trek: The Next Generation remains one of the most beloved and influential sci-fi series of its era, and for many fans it grew to surpass its predecessor series in terms of quality, depth, and thematic complexity.

Because it was so warmly received and has such an impressive legacy, The Next Generation also made worldwide stars out of its ensemble cast, and they've all gone on to various levels of success beyond Star Trek in both film and television, working in front of and behind the camera. From Captain Picard to Lt. Yar, here's what the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is up to today.

Patrick Stewart - Jean-Luc Picard

Sir Patrick Stewart had the unenviable task of following William Shatner's James T. Kirk as the next captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek canon. Somehow, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, he not only pulled it off, but managed to become a science fiction icon to rival Kirk, leading the Enterprise crew with steely resolve and an always commanding presence.

Stewart's Shakespearean background made him what seemed like an unlikely fit for Star Trek , but The Next Generation propelled him to global stardom, and the notoriety that came with the series led to a number of other iconic roles, most notably as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise . Stewart played that role from X-Men in 2000 all the way through to Logan in 2017, cementing his status as a titan in two major genre franchises. His other roles include a fan-favorite version of Ebenezer Scrooge in 1999's A Christmas Carol , a malevolent skinhead in Green Room , and Walter Blunt in the acclaimed series Blunt Talk . He's also continued to act on the stage, and returned to reprise his most iconic role in the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard .

Jonathan Frakes - William Riker

A Captain with the presence of Jean-Luc Picard needed a First Office who could keep up, and in that capacity Jonathan Frakes shined in The Next Generation as William Riker. The two characters balance each other out throughout the run of the series, as Riker injected a sense of humor and a certain sense of cavalier passion into the command of the Enterprise.

After beginning his career in the 1970s with a series of small TV appearances, Frakes spent the '80s gaining increasingly larger roles on series like Paper Dolls , Falcon Crest , and North and South before landing the role of Riker. Since The Next Generation era ended he's continued to work as a voiceover actor for shows like Gargoyles , Adventure Time , and Guardians of the Galaxy , but he's also gained a passion for working behind the camera. Since making his directorial debut on The Next Generation (and directing both First Contact and Insurrection ), he's continued to work regularly directing television, including episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard . He also returned in front of the camera for Picard , reprising his role as Will Riker.

Brent Spiner - Data

Just as The Original Series had Spock, The Next Generation had its own almost-human character there to inject a certain strangeness and different perspective into the crew's adventures. The role was Data , and it fell to Brent Spiner , who turned the aspirational android into one of the franchise's most beloved characters.

After a series of guest starring roles on television, Spiner became an icon when he was cast as Data in The Next Generation , a role he continued on the big screen while also branching out into related characters like Lore and B-4 in various stories. Since then he's continued to work regularly with roles in series like Threshold , Warehouse 13 , Ray Donovan , Outcast and Star Trek: Enterprise . He's also been a prolific voice actor, with credits including Gargoyles , Justice League Action , Star Wars Rebels , Generator Rex , and many more. Finally, he reprised his role as Data in The Next Generation sequel series Star Trek: Picard , alongside many of his original castmates.

Marina Sirtis - Deanna Troi

As counselor Deanna Troi, Marina Sirtis added an element to The Next Generation that even The Original Series never quite explored. She was in some ways the heir to Uhura, but in other's her position as counselor allowed her to inject a new sense of emotional and psychological depth to the series, and her relationship with William Riker may be the best romance in Trek history.

Sirtis' career began with a number of small film and TV roles in the U.S. and the U.K. before she landed Next Generation , and she went on to play Troi in four feature films and the Trek series Voyager and Enterprise (in a cameo only). Since TNG ended she's stayed busy with TV roles including Without a Trace , Riley Parra , and Girlfriends , as well as film roles including Crossing , For the Love of George , 5th Passenger , and more. She's also a prolific voice actress, with roles on Gargoyles , Young Justice , Adventure Time , Mass Effect and more. In 2020, she reprised her role as Deanna Troi on the TNG sequel series Star Trek: Picard .

Gates McFadden - Beverly Crusher

The Original Series created an iconic Star Trek doctor in Leonard McCoy, so The Next Generation felt compelled to try and do the same. With Gates McFadden , the show found the perfect doctor for this new generation of the Enterprise crew. As Dr. Beverly Crusher, McFadden was the level-headed, always nurturing and caring presence aboard the starship, and while she sat out season 2 and wasn't always front and center in the cast, her absence was always felt, and she turned out to be an icon in all the ways McCoy wasn't.

McFadden landed the role of Crusher after a series of small roles in the 1980s, and has since appeared semi-regularly in various small film and TV roles. She remained part of the TNG cast through the feature film era, and her other roles since the series ended have included TV roles on Marker , Mad About You , The Practice , The Division , Franklin & Bash , The Handler and more. Her most recent screen acting appearance was in an episode of NCIS in 2017.

Michael Dorn - Worf

One of the most important aspects of the future established by Star Trek: The Next Generation was the evolved relationship between humans and Klingons. This time around, the series put a Klingon on the Enterprise Bridge in the form of Worf, the intense warrior turned Federation office played by Michael Dorn . Dorn's portrayal of Worf made him perhaps the most popular Klingon in the history of the series.

Dorn's major breakthrough came in the late 1970s when he landed a recurring role on CHiPS , and he continued to work regularly through the 1980s via TV guest appearances. Once he landed the role of Worf, he held onto it in a way that even some of his TNG co-stars did not, playing the character through four feature films and a recurring role on the TNG follow-up series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Since then, he's continued acting regularly in live action and is an extremely prolific voice actor. His credits include The Santa Clause franchise, Gargoyles , Superman: The Animated Series , Castle , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Arrow , The Lion Guard , and much more.

Wil Wheaton - Wesley Crusher

Though he was only a teenager when he landed the role of Ensign Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation , Wil Wheaton was more famous than certain co-stars of his at the time thanks to roles in hit films like The Secret of NIMH , The Last Starfighter , and Stand by Me . As Wesley Crusher, he injected a teenage energy into Star Trek that hadn't been seen so frequently before, and as a result his character became a divisive topic among fans.

After appearing in the first four seasons as a regular, Wheaton left TNG to pursue other projects, returning as an occasional guest star while working on films like Toy Soldiers , The Liars' Club , and more. Since then he's continued to appear regularly onscreen, most famously as a fictionalized version of himself on The Big Bang Theory and as host of the YouTube gaming series Tabletop . He's also a prolific audiobook narrator and voiceover artist, with credits including Teen Titans , Legion of Super Heroes , Fantasy Hospital , Transformers: Power of the Primes , and much more.

LeVar Burton - Geordi La Forge

LeVar Burton was already a pop culture icon by the time Star Trek: The Next Generation rolled around, having starred in the hit miniseries Roots in 1977 and then becoming a prominent children's television star as the host of Reading Rainbow in 1983. As Geordi La Forge, he brought his own distinctive sense of humor and wonder to Star Trek , and his iconic visor made him one of the most instantly recognizable characters in the franchise.

Burton continued to play Geordi throughout the Next Generation era, and has worked regularly ever since. His post- TNG roles include continuing work on Reading Rainbow in its various forms, the TV series Christy , a voice acting role Captain Planet and the Planeteers , appearances as himself on The Big Bang Theory and Community , and the TV series Perception and Weird City . He will next be seen as himself in the film Definition Please , a dramedy revolving around the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He's also become a prolific director, working behind the camera on series including Star Trek: Enterprise , Charmed , and NCIS: New Orleans .

Colm Meaney - Miles O'Brien

Colm Meaney 's career really began to take off in the early 1980s with a role in the miniseries Les roses de Dublin , and continued to pick up with recurring roles throughout the decade until he landed what was at first an unnamed character on Star Trek: The Next Generation . Before long, he had a name — Miles O'Brien — and while he wasn't ever quite as prominent as the main cast, he quickly became a fan favorite.

O'Brien was such a prominent supporting character on TNG that Meaney ultimately migrated over to take a major role on the follow-up series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , where he continued to play O'Brien until that series ended in 1999. Since his Star Trek days Meaney has remained a prolific character actor, appearing in films like Con Air , Layer Cake , The Damned United , Get Him to the Greek , Alan Partridge , and many more. He's also a prolific TV actor with credits including Stargate: Atlantis , Men in Trees , Hell on Wheels , Will , and Gangs of London . He can also be seen in the TV series The Singapore Grip and the film Pixie .

Denise Crosby - Tasha Yar

As the granddaughter of Bing Crosby, Denise Crosby was born Hollywood royalty, and began her screen acting career in the 1980s with roles in films like 48 Hrs. , Curse of the Pink Panther , and The Man Who Loved Women . As Lt. Tasha Yar on The Next Generation , she made a distinct impression on fans despite only appearing as a regular cast member in the first season, and was able to return as her character's hybrid half-daughter, Sela, in subsequent seasons.

Since her relatively brief Star Trek tenure, Crosby has continued to work regularly in both film and television. In 1989 she appeared in the horror classic Pet Sematary , and her other film work includes Deep Impact , Legend of the Phantom Rider , The Watcher , and Itsy Bisty . She's also a prolific TV guest star with roles on series including The X-Files , Mad Men , Southland , Ray Donovan , The Walking Dead and, most recently, Suits . She has also continued to reprise her role as Tasha Yar via voice appearance in various Star Trek video games, including Star Trek Online in 2010.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who on the Enterprise-D (and What They're Doing Now)

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When Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987, it felt like a long shot to succeed. The beloved original Star Trek crew was still wildly popular in reruns and a thriving film series, but would fans accept a sequel series set a century after the initial show and featuring an entirely new cast? The answer turned out to be a resounding yes, and TNG , as it is affectionally known by fans, went on to birth an entire extended Trek universe that continues to thrive today.

Set in the 24th century, Star Trek: The Next Generation chronicles the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise-D starship as they -- like their predecessors before them -- explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no man has gone before. Here is your guide to the cast of the series, taking a look back at the characters they played on the sci-fi classic (and, in some cases, are still playing!) and offering a glimpse at what they've been up to recently.

RELATED: Star Trek Timeline Explained, Including Two Kirks, Two Different Prequels, and the Return of Picard

Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart)

Every ship needs a captain, and the Enterprise-D’s is Jean-Luc Picard. Finding someone to follow in the footsteps of William Shatner ’s James T. Kirk was never going to be an easy task, and Gene Roddenberry , the creator of both the original series and TNG , was wise to land on an actor with a completely different energy about him. Stewart, a well-regarded British stage actor with a smattering of film and TV credits, made Picard the anti-Kirk – a stern tactician who is more interested in victory through diplomacy than throwing a punch. Thanks to Stewart’s commanding presence, Picard became a pop-culture icon, with the character anchoring seven seasons of TNG , four feature-film spinoffs, and a recent revival/spinoff series -- fittingly titled Star Trek: Picard -- that is currently streaming on Paramount+. (Season 2 debuts early next year.) In between playing Picard, Stewart headlined another franchise when he portrayed Charles Xavier -- Marvel’s Professor X -- across five X-Men films. Most recently, he played Merlin in 2019’s kid-based Excalibur tale The Kid Who Would Be King and stepped into the role of Bosley in the Charlie's Angels reboot released that same year.

Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes)

Whereas Picard is usually calm and collected, Commander William T. Riker, the ship's first officer, can be more of a hot-head. As played by the at first unbearded, but later very bearded Frakes, Riker is a crucial member of the Enterprise crew who can lead the away team or stay behind to captain the bridge in the event that Picard gets assimilated by the Borg or something. While on the show, Frakes began pivoting to a career behind the camera. He directed eight episodes of the series as well as two of the Next Generation cast's big-screen adventures – Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection . Elsewhere within the Trek universe, Frakes has helmed multiple episodes of Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Discovery , and Picard , and he has been an in-demand TV director for years, having called the shots for shows such as The Librarians , Burn Notice , and Leverage . He returned to the role of Riker for two episodes of Picard in 2020 and has also voiced the character in Star Trek: Lower Decks .

Data (Brent Spiner)

Designed to sort of be the “Spock character” on TNG , Lt. Commander Data is a highly advanced android who serves as the Enterprise’s second officer and spends most of the series trying to understand what it means to feel emotions and be human. The friendship that develops between him and Picard proves to be one of the series defining relationships, and Spiner briefly returned to the role for season one of Picard . Spiner continues to work regularly as a TV and voice actor. He recently appeared in six episodes of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and, in 2016, reprised his Independence Day role of Dr. Brackish Okun in that film’s sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence .

Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton)

When The Next Generation launched, La Forge worked as the Enterprise’s helmsman, but in season two he shifted to the role of chief engineer, where he served for the remainder of the show’s run. Geordi is blind but is able to “see” using a distinct metallic visor that covers his eyes and feeds electromagnetic scans into his optic nerves. Geordi struggles with his disability at times but rarely lets it interfere with the job at hand. Outside of TNG , Burton is probably most known for hosting the PBS education series Reading Rainbow for 21 seasons. He's an accomplished TV director and also hosts Levar Burton Reads , a podcast where he narrates a different piece of short fiction in every episode. If it were up to Twitter, Burton would currently be the new host of Jeopardy! , but, sadly, his considerable fanbase will have to be content with the five episodes of the game show he guest hosted in 2021.

Worf (Michael Dorn)

Maybe no one stands out on the Enterprise-D bridge more than Lt. Commander Worf, a Klingon officer whose distinct forehead ridges defined the Klingon look from TNG forward. Worf is a character who often feels trapped between two worlds -- the Klingon culture he left behind and the Starfleet crew that became his family. He is named the ship’s chief security officer after the death of Tasha Yar and eventually became the first main character to jump to a spinoff show when Dorn joined the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine following TNG ’s finale. More recently, Dorn has contributed voice work to shows such as Invincible , The Lion Guard , and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .

Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis)

Along with Worf, Troi is the other prominent alien in the show’s crew. Though she’s half human, her Betazoid half allows her the gift of empathic telepathy, which she often puts to good use as the ship’s counselor. Prior to being reunited as part of the Enterprise crew, Troi and Riker were a couple, and though the show often teases that the two may one day rekindle their relationship, they don’t formally get back together until the TNG cast had moved onto the big screen. Sirtis reprised the role of Deanna in Picard , where Troi and Riker continue to be happily married. She continues to act regularly in movies and on TV, having recently appeared in episodes of genre shows The Orville and Titans .

Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden)

Dr. Crusher is the Enterprise’s chief medical officer in Season 1 of TNG , vanishes in Season 2 when she is suddenly transferred to Starfleet Medical, but then returns for good in Season 3 when she’s reinstated aboard the starship. The back-and-forth was the result of behind-the-scenes drama which resulted in McFadden being fired from -- and then rehired for -- the series. Crusher is responsible for patching up the crew, and she also serves as a potential love interest for Captain Picard. McFadden’s last on-screen credit was an episode of NCIS in 2017, although she’s also had a long career as a choreographer. (Fun fact: She was the director of choreography and puppet movement for Jim Henson ’s Labyrinth !)

Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton)

Almost certainly the most divisive member of the cast, Wesley is the son of Dr. Crusher and joins her on the Enterprise. At first, he is a nuisance to Picard (and sometimes the audience), but as time goes on Wesley becomes a valuable member of the Enterprise community and is eventually named a ship ensign. Wheaton left the series following Season 4, although he would continue to make guest appearances as Wesley down the road. He has gone on to have a diverse career as an actor, writer, and Internet personality. He notoriously played a fictionalized version of himself on The Big Bang Theory , where he recurred as Sheldon’s arch nemesis across 17 episodes. Wheaton is currently back in the Star Trek fold, hosting the Trek -based aftershow The Ready Room .

Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur)

Dr. Pulaski becomes chief medical officer during Dr. Crusher’s one-season absence, but the character departs the series when Crusher returns for Season 3. Muldaur recently appeared in Sidney Furie ’s docudrama Finding Hannah , her first on-screen acting appearance in nearly two decades.

Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby)

Yar is the Enterprise’s chief security officer during season one, but Crosby was unhappy working on the show, which led to Yar being killed near the end of that season. The character does reappear a few times thanks to some time-rift shenanigans, and Crosby eventually tackles a second role on the show when she guests in heavy makeup as Sela, Yar’s half-Romulan daughter. Crosby continues to act and recently had multi-episode runs on The Walking Dead , Ray Donovan , and Suits .

Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg)

Guinan is a warm and wizened bartender who’d serve you a drink in the Enterprise’s Ten-Forward lounge and maybe throw in some sage advice at no cost. A fan favorite, she’d appear in 28 episodes of the series, and Goldberg is slated to the role during season two of Picard . (Although we’ll see how they handle Whoopi’s aging as Guinan is an El-Aurian, an alien species that ages slowly and can live for multiple centuries.) Here on planet Earth, Goldberg has been a host on the daytime TV talk-show staple The View since 2007.

Q (John de Lancie)

Also returning for season two of Picard is de Lancie as the enigmatic Q, a godlike being who takes delight in toying with Jean-Luc on The Next Generation , often putting the human race itself on trial. Q appears in eight episodes of TNG , including the series premiere and finale. De Lancie has worked steadily as a TV and voice actor over the years, and in 2019 wrapped up his run voicing Discord on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic , a character that was loosely based on Q.

KEEP READING: Why James Cromwell's Zefram Cochrane Is One of the Best 'Star Trek' Performances

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

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The Cast Of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ To Receive Special Lifetime Achievement Saturn Award

| January 31, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 26 comments so far

This is going to be a big weekend for Star Trek at the Saturn Awards, with a total of 15 nominations , a franchise record. And the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror has announced the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation will also be honored with an additional special award.

TNG cast awarded with special Saturn

The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation will receive The Lifetime Achievement Award at the 51st Annual Saturn Awards, being held in Los Angeles this Sunday. For 2024 the Academy is doing something different for the TNG cast with this award. A statement from the Academy to TrekMovie explains:

“The Lifetime Achievement Award is usually presented to an individual for their contributions to genre entertainment. Top luminaries like Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock himself, have received this top honor. It’s not new, but we extended this award to cover the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation , due to its continued influence on the face of general television. It was originally doomed to failure since it was following in the footsteps of the original Star Trek, yet it carved its own identity, and its diverse cast was light years ahead of its time!”

Star Trek: The Next Generation launched as a syndicated drama series in 1987, running for seven seasons. TNG was nominated six times by the Saturn Awards for Best Genre Series, winning twice. Stewart also won for Best Actor in 1990. The series was also nominated for 58 Emmys during its run, with 18 wins. The Next Generation helped launch a new era of Star Trek, ushering in two additional TV series in the 1990s ( Deep Space Nine and Voyager ), along with 4 feature films.

Season 3 publicity photo for Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paramount)

The Saturn Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to the TNG cast by producer and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who is an avowed Star Trek fan. On hand to accept the award will be Sir Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, and Wil Wheaton. While not present, TNG cast members LeVar Burton and Jonathan Frakes are also being bestowed with this honor. Both actors had to send their regrets due to scheduling conflicts.

In 2023 Spiner, Sirtis, Dorn, Burton, McFadden, and Frakes joined Stewart for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard , which picked up a total of 7 nominations (see full list below).

Shatner to present MacFarlane with special award

There will be other special awards handed out during the event including The Robert Forster Artists Award going to Seth MacFarlane, the actor and producer behind The Orville , Family Guy , Ted , and much more. Presenting the award will be Star Trek icon William Shatner.

This year’s show is dedicated to the memory of Saturn Awards winner (and onetime host) Lance Reddick. The Academy is also introducing the Lance Reddick Legacy Award with the inaugural award going to actor Keannu Reaves, presented by actor Titus Welliver. Christopher Nolan will receive The Visionary Award, presented by Emily Blunt. The George Pal Memorial Award will go to Dave Filoni (Lucasfilm’s CCO), presented by Ming-Na Wen. The Walking Dead Franchise is being presented with the Dan Curtis Legacy Award. And finally, actress and director Jodie Foster will receive the Life Career Award, presented by writer/producer Issa López.

Shatner is no stranger to the Saturn Awards, including winning the Life Career Award (along with Gene Roddenberry) in 1980. He has been nominated six times, with two wins. His first win was for Star Trek II and his latest was in 2016 for a guest role in the Syfy series Haven .

15 Saturn nominations for Star Trek

In addition to the special award, Star Trek is set to take home more gold at this weekend’s Saturn Awards. Here is a complete list of the 7 categories where Star Trek is nominated…

Best Science Fiction Television Series:

Andor (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Foundation (Apple TV+) The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm/Disney+) The Peripheral (Amazon) Silo (Apple TV+) Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS) Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS)

Best Animated Television Series or Special:

Chainsaw Man (Crunchyroll) Gremlins: Secrets of Mogwai (HBO/Max) Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix) Harley Quinn (HBO/Max) My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon Network/Adult Swim) Star Trek: Lower Decks (Paramount+) Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Lucasfilm/Disney+)

Lower Decks’ “Old Friends, New Planets” (Paramount+)

Best Actor in a Television Series:

Tyler Hoechlin , Superman & Lois (Warner Bros. Television) Sam Heughan, Outlander (Starz) Diego Luna, Andor (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Anson Mount, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS) Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us (HBO/Max) Harold Perrineau, From (MGM+) Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS)

Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series:

Jonathan Frakes, Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS) Harvey Guillen, What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu) Ernie Hudson, Quantum Leap (NBC/Universal) Ethan Peck, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS) Ed Speleers, Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS) Matt Smit, House of the Dragon (HBO/Max) Todd Stashwick, Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS)

Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series:

Jess Bush, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS) Celia Rose Gooding, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS) Genevieve O’Reilly, Andor (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Jeri Ryan, Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS) Katee Sackhoff, The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Sophie Skelton, Outlander (Starz) Rebecca Wisocky, Ghosts (CBS)

Best Guest Star in a Television Series:

Gael Garcia Bernal, Marvel’s Werewolf by Night (Marvel/Disney+) Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Nick Offerman, The Last of Us (HBO/Max) Amanda Plummer, Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS) Andy Serkis, Andor (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Paul Wesley, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS) Catherine Zeta-Jones, Wednesday (Netflix)

Anson Mount as Capt. Pike and Ethan Peck as Spock in “Charades” from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)

Best 4K Home Media Release:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 4K (Criterion) The Exorcist 50th Anniversary Edition 4K (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) Cujo 4K (Kino Lorber) John Wick, Chapter 4 – 4K (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) Needful Things 4K (Kino Lorber) To Live and Die in L.A. 4K (Kino Lorber) Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition 4K (Paramount Home Entertainment)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture 4K Blu-ray

This year the Saturns Awards is hosted by actor and comedian Joel McHale. The show will be held on Sunday, February 4, 2024, at the L.A. Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel. The ceremony will be livestreamed on ElectricNOW .

Find more news and analysis on Star Trek Universe TV shows at TrekMovie.com .

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This warms my heart so much. My favorite cast from my favorite show to be recognized like this is amazing. The TNG cast certainly deserves it. And Kevin Feige will be presenting to them as well. Pretty cool. I read All Good Things is his favorite TV episode, period.

If Picard season 3 is truly the last time we see all those characters together again like that, then they went out with a bang.

Also great to see so many nominations for both PIC and SNW! Hope we get a few winners. Well done team! 😀🖖

Yup, IIRC All Good Things inspired the time traveling escapades of Avengers: Endgame

Yeah when I heard that I was very excited to see the movie at the time. It’s nice to see when Trek influences other things out there.

Other fans believe the signatures at the end of that movie was inspired by The Undiscovered Country as well.

Don’t know how true that one is but I’ll take it! 🙂🖖

The signatures in Endgame being inspired by TUC is 100% true, read it in an interview. Same with the time traveling as mentioned by amirami. Also the destruction of Asgard in Thor Ragnarok was inspired by the destruction of the Enterprise in Search for Spock – the writers felt that for the third movie, the heroes had to lose something in a big way, like in SFS. Also there was a recent interview where Final Frontier’s campfire scenes inspired a lot of the “plainclothes” scenes of the superheroes across the Avengers movies, because it was like seeing your heroes out of costume just being regular people that you like and want to hang out with, and enjoy hanging out with each other. So yeah, Trek’s DNA is all throughout Marvel, in all the best ways.

Wow thank you! 🙂

If I could give you a like for this post I would give you several. I didn’t know that about Ragnarok or the plain clothes scenes either.

Well said. This is fantastic news.

Wow, that’s really something. Congrats, gang. Well deserved.

This is so damn cool. This whole cast deserves this.

Congratulations…

That is great! Congratulations to the cast!

GREAT NEWS! WELL DESERVED!

Wow congratulations to the whole crew!!!!!

Way to go and soooooo good! My favourite ensemble cast of all time finally, collectively being acknowledge for all their hard work and for being so much a part of of our lives! Living long and prospering… making it so!

Niiiiice!!!!

Nearly 40 years later and TNG is still receiving major accolades decades later! It’s still an amazing show with a great cast and well deserved!

Sweet. So deserved.

That award looks like that game/virus that the D crew got addicted to.

Well deserved. Picard s3 = Best Trek since 1996 First Contact!!

Well, I would say best Trek season since 1997-1998 DS9 Season 6. But close enough!

I agree with this too. Picard season 3 was on par with the last seasons of DS9. Just great television and the Star Trek I been sorely missing.

Whole cast? WHOLE CAST???

Polaski or GTFO!!!

AAAActually, Diana Muldaur was never a main cast member. Like Whoopi Goldberg, John de Lancie, and Colm Meaney, she was just a guest star (granted, her credit read “special appearance by” but still not a main cast member).

Yeah I think she was in every episode in season 2, but only as a guest star role. Now THAT said, she and Whoopi Goldberg were in all the cast photos in season 2 as well. So while technically neither were considered main cast members they were promoted as such back then. You never saw Garek or Gul Dukat in any main cast photos for DS9 as an example.

This is so cool. Ok, I will watch Picard Season 3 again. Twist my arm.

I love these people so much. Also really cool that Shatner will be there as well. Star Trek has so many amazing fans that are really talented. I’m hoping that since 2024 is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek (The Cage being from 1964), Shatner and Stewart will team up for an event or something while they still can, given that it’s also the 30th anniversary of Generations, and we’re blessed that they’re both still around to do something. I’ve been in talks with people at the TOS set in Ticonderoga to see if we can do an event, hopefully with the blessing of CBS as well. If anyone knows how we can make this happen, I would love to somehow get in touch!

Oscar winner Holly Hunter joins the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

O scar winners have been on Star Trek shows before, including F. Murray Abraham, Louise Fletcher and Whoopi Goldberg, who had a long-running role on Star Trek: The Next Generation . But it's always impressive when it happens. Now, Holly Hunter will join that group with a lead role in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy .

Starfleet Academy will be set in the 32nd century, at a school where young cadets learn the dos and don'ts of exploring the galaxy. Hunter will play the captain and chancellor of the Academy, according to Variety . The cast will include teachers and students, with Hunter presiding over the lot of them.

“It feels like we’ve spent our entire lives watching Holly Hunter be a stone-cold genius,” said co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau. “To have her extraordinary authenticity, fearlessness, sense of humor, and across the board brilliance leading the charge on ‘Starfleet Academy’ is a gift to all of us, and to the enduring legacy of ‘Star Trek.'”

Hunter has been tearing it up onscreen for years, ever since she broke out in the 1987 Coen Brothers movie Raising Arizona . Since then, she won and Oscar for her work in the 1993 movie The Piano , and was nominated for 1987’s Broadcast News , 1993’s The Firm and 2003’s Thirteen . She appeared as a corporate player in a couple seasons of Succession on HBO, and is best known these days for voicing Elastigirl in The Incredibles movies from Pixar.

There's release date for Starfleet Academy as of yet, but the fact that they're casting Hunter is a sign that they're taking this show seriously. The series will also feature an enormous set, a two-story high academic atrium with an amphitheater, classrooms, a mess hall, and a walkway lined with trees.

Clearly, Paramount believes in the power of Star Trek to bring in viewers; they've invested plenty in the final frontier over the past several years, bringing to bear shows like Star Trek: Discovery , Picard , Strange New Worlds , Lower Decks and Prodigy . Starfleet Academy will take a different sort of tack, with a cast that mostly stays in one place rather than going all over the galaxy.

Part of me wonders if Paramount should slow down and focus on one or two Star Trek projects it really knows will work, but it's also fun to see the studio aim this high.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account , sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel .

This article was originally published on winteriscoming.com as Oscar winner Holly Hunter joins the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy .

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Doohan, second from left, during his retirement party with fellow Star Trek stars George Takei, left, and Nichelle Nichols, and Apollo 11 astronaut Neil A. Armstrong

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15 min read

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.

A scene from “The Man Trap,” the premiere episode of Star Trek

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.

NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher, left, with the creator and cast members of Star Trek at the September 1976 rollout of space shuttle Enterprise

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.

Star Trek cast member Nichelle Nichols, left, in the shuttle simulator with astronaut Alan L. Bean at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston

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.

Nichols, center, aboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy aircraft

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.

Actor James Doohan visits NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center in California in 1967 with NASA pilot Bruce A. Peterson, in front of the M2-F2 lifting body aircraft

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.”

Takei and Robonaut both give the Vulcan greeting

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.

Star Trek cast member Leonard Nimoy gives the Vulcan greeting in front of space shuttle Enterprise after its arrival in New York in 2012

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.”

Star Trek cast member William Shatner, left, receives the Distinguished Public Service Medal from NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications Robert N. Jacobs in 2014

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.

Patch for the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF), including the Klingon writing just below the letters “WORF.”

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.

Picture of the Gemini VI launch in the background in the 1967 Star Trek episode “Court Martial.”

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.

NASA astronaut Victor J. Glover, host of the 2016 documentary “NASA on the Edge of Forever: Science in Space.”

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 a tribute to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry on the 100th anniversary of his birth, his son Rod, upper left, hosts a virtual panel discussion about diversity and inspiration

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.

Explore More

25 Years Ago: STS-96 Resupplies the Space Station

15 Years Ago: First Time all Partners Represented aboard the International Space Station

40 Years Ago: NASA Selects its 10th Group of Astronauts

Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, standing in a yellow field with weird lights, raising her hand

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Star Trek: Discovery tore itself apart for the good of Star Trek’s future

And it helped set the tone for where Star Trek is now

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If you were to jump directly from the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery to its finale — which just debuted on Paramount Plus — the whiplash would throw you clear out of your seat like your ship had suffered an inertial damper malfunction. Since its first two chapters premiered on CBS All Access in 2017, the series has moved to a different ship and a different century, and has acquired an almost entirely different set of characters. Moreover, Discovery has received a radical tonal refit, evolving in fits and starts from a dark and violent war story to a much sunnier action-adventure serial.

Though it never won the mainstream attention or critical acclaim of its spinoff, Strange New Worlds , nor the gushing fan adulation of Picard ’s Next Gen reunion , Discovery spearheaded Star Trek’s return to television , the franchise’s maiden voyage into the frontier of premium streaming content. Like any bold pathfinder, Discovery encountered obstacles, suffered losses, and made some major course corrections. But, if you ask the cast and crew, the adventure has been more than worth the tumultuous journey.

Tacking into the wind

“We were on wobbly legs for a long time,” admits star Sonequa Martin-Green, whose character, Michael Burnham, has had the rug pulled out from under her a number of times over the course of the series. In the first season and backstory alone, Burnham lost her parents, saw her mentor murdered, was tried for mutiny, discovered that her first love is a Klingon sleeper agent, and was betrayed by not one but two Mirror Universe doppelgängers of trusted Starfleet captains.

Move over, Deep Space Nine — this was instantly the grimmest canonical depiction of the Star Trek universe on screen. Season 1 of Discovery was rated TV-MA and featured more blood and gore than the franchise had ever seen, not to mention an instance of graphic Klingon nudity. (Actor Mary Wiseman recalls seeing her co-star Mary Chieffo walking the set wearing prosthetic alien breasts and thinking, What the hell? ) The corpse of Michelle Yeoh’s character is cannibalized by Klingons off screen, and her successor, portrayed by Jason Isaacs, turns out to be a manipulative psycho from the Mirror Universe who tries to mold Burnham into his plaything.

Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, midflip as she tries to escape from someone’s hold

The bleak, adult-oriented tone was not the only sticking point with Star Trek purists, as Discovery would take place a decade before the original 1960s Star Trek but have a design aesthetic much closer to that of the 2009 movie reboot, leading to some irreconcilable clashes with continuity. The show’s serialized, season-long arcs were a far cry from the familiar “planet of the week” stories of most previous incarnations of the franchise. Then there was Burnham’s backstory as the never-before-mentioned human foster sister to Trek’s iconic Vulcan Spock , a creative decision that has “clueless studio note” written all over it. Even ahead of its debut, Discovery faced vocal opposition from the fan base for straying so far from their notion of what Star Trek was supposed to be. (Not to mention the revolting but quite vocal faction of fans who were incensed that Star Trek had “gone woke,” as if it hadn’t been that way the whole time.) Many of Discovery ’s detractors flocked toward The Orville , a Fox series starring and created by Seth MacFarlane that was essentially ’90s-style Star Trek with the occasional dick joke thrown in. The Orville offered fans alienated by Discovery ’s vastly different approach to Star Trek a more familiar (but far less ambitious) alternative.

The grim Klingon War story was the brainchild of co-creator Bryan Fuller, who had been a member of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager writers rooms before creating cult series like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal . Fuller would end up departing Team Discovery before production even began, asked to resign after a string of creative differences with the studio. New showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg carried out a version of Fuller’s plans without him, and then oversaw the show’s first major pivot. Discovery ’s second season was immediately brighter, more colorful, and cozier with established Star Trek lore. (This is the arc that would introduce the versions of Pike , Spock , and Number One who now lead Strange New Worlds .) But things weren’t so sunny behind the scenes — Harberts and Berg were fired midway through the season after writers accused the duo of creating an abusive work environment.

As different as Discovery would eventually stray from the HBO-style drama of its first season, co-creator Alex Kurtzman feels that the mission of the series has never changed.

“One of the things that we set up in season 1 is that we knew that Burnham would start as a mutineer and end up a captain,” says Kurtzman. “What was exciting about that is that we knew it would take time.”

Captain on deck

Lt. Nhan (Rachael Ancheril); Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green); Captain Pike (Anson Mount); Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson); Saru (Doug Jones); and Lt. Connolly (Sean Connolly Affleck), all standing in an elevator on the ship

It was after Harberts and Berg’s departure that Kurtzman, who had remained involved but been primarily occupied with the development of the growing television Star Trek franchise as a whole, took the helm of Discovery himself. Before long, he would promote writer and co-executive producer Michelle Paradise to the role of co-showrunner, which she would retain for the remainder of the series. Just as the late, great Michael Piller did during the third season of The Next Generation , Paradise brought a sense of stability and confidence to Discovery , which reverberated onto set.

“I commend Michelle Paradise and the rest of the writers because this show evolved ,” says Martin-Green. “Our initial showrunners, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg, they made their impact and that’ll never be erased, but landing where we did with Michelle co-showrunning with Alex Kurtzman, jumping farther than any Trek had gone before, I feel that’s when our feet were solid on the ground and when we really established our identity.”

Season 2 fell into a steady rhythm that felt more in tune with Kurtzman’s “movie every week” philosophy, never far in tone from the reboot film trilogy on which Kurtzman served as a writer and producer. The steady presence of Michelle Yeoh’s deliciously amoral Emperor Georgiou was a major boon, essentially becoming Star Trek’s answer to Buffy ’s Spike or Dragon Ball Z ’s Vegeta. However, Discovery was also undeniably borrowing clout from legacy characters Pike and Spock, and the constant friction with established canon wasn’t sitting well with Kurtzman or the audience.

The season ended with a surprising twist that resolved the continuity problems but also changed the entire nature of the show. The titular starship and its crew would be propelled 930 years into the future, past the furthest fixed point in Star Trek’s continuity. No longer forced to tiptoe around the sacred canon, Discovery was free to sprint in a bold new direction. Once again and in a more tangible way, it was a whole new show.

“If the folks who came in had sort of taken us off the rails that would have been a very different experience,” says Anthony Rapp, who portrays the prickly Commander Paul Stamets. “But Michelle Paradise came through as such a shining light and a beautiful presence in our lives. She took the show into this territory of being able to have the heart in its center in a way that felt very grounded and meaningful, and really helped us to make that transition.”

An open sky

Anthony Rapp, Michelle Yeoh, Mary Wiseman, and Sonequa Martin-Green on the bridge of the Discovery in Star Trek: Discovery

Season 3 of Discovery offered Kurtzman, Paradise, producing director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and the rest of the creative team a rare opportunity to completely rewrite Star Trek’s galactic map . Not since the launch of The Next Generation in 1987 had a writers room been able to venture onto such “fresh snow,” as Paradise puts it. In the 32nd century, beyond the furthest point explored in the established Trek canon, the righteous United Federation of Planets has all but collapsed in the aftermath of “the Burn,” a mysterious space calamity. Some longtime friends are now adversaries, and even Earth has become an isolationist state. The USS Discovery, displaced in time, becomes the means by which to reconnect the shattered galaxy. It’s not hard to read this as a mission statement for Star Trek as a whole — a relic from another time, back to offer hope to a bleak present.

Season 3’s 13-episode arc restored a bit of Star Trek’s space Western roots, with warp drive a rare and costly luxury in the ravaged 32nd century and half the galaxy dominated by a vast criminal empire known as the Emerald Chain. Michael Burnham spent much of the season out of uniform, having found a new purpose as a more roguish freelance courier alongside the sweet and savvy Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). This is arguably the most interesting version of the show, as Michael questions whether or not Starfleet — the institution whose trust she has worked so hard to restore — is still her home.

By the end of the season (and right on schedule with Fuller and Kurtzman’s original plans), Michael Burnham finally accepts her destiny and becomes captain of Discovery. More subtly, this altered the premise of the show for a third time, as the central question of “Will Michael ever become captain?” had been answered in the affirmative. But, since she’d already been the central character and a figure of improbable cosmic import, the change was mostly cosmetic. And symbolic — Martin-Green considers her presence “being Black, and a woman, and a captain sitting in that chair” to be her greatest contribution to Star Trek. After three seasons of struggle and uncertainty, Burnham could now be as aspirational a character as Picard , Sisko, or Janeway .

The tone on which the show settled at the end of season 3 would be the one that finally stuck. Where the series had initially been bloody and brooding, it was now squarely an adventure show featuring a cast of characters with a boundless and demonstrative love for each other. The crew would face mortal danger each episode and a galactic-level threat each season, bolstered by very expensive-looking visual effects and a rousing score. At the same time, many conflicts both large and small would eventually be resolved by characters talking through their feelings and finding common ground. This was exhausting as often as it was compelling, but it was consistent. For its final two seasons, viewers could finally know what to expect from Star Trek: Discovery .

Discovering itself

This “feelings over phasers” approach was not for everyone, but it was never intended to be. Even from the outset, before Paramount began pumping out more Star Trek series to target different facets of the fan base, Discovery was never meant to be a definitive Star Trek experience that checked every box.

“You’ll never be able to be everything to everybody,” says Michelle Paradise. “The goal was always to make the best version of Discovery . It’s a different kind of Star Trek. It’s serialized, it’s fewer episodes, it’s a movie every week. That’s a thing that will appeal to many people, and for some people it won’t be their cup of tea.”

Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) sits in the captain chair in the season 3 finale of Star Trek: Discovery

Discovery has bounced up and down my personal ranking of Star Trek series a number of times during its run, more than any of its past or present siblings. I have begun each season of the show with great excitement, and that excitement is frequently exhausted by season’s end. Most Trek series have good years and bad years. To me, Discovery suffers from being simultaneously brilliant, innovative, lazy, cringe, inspiring, and eye-rolling at all times, only in different measures. It features the franchise’s strongest lead actor since Patrick Stewart, and a supporting cast that has never been leveraged to my satisfaction. In my career, I have written more words about Star Trek: Discovery than any other television series, and I still haven’t made up my mind about it. For as many cheerleaders and haters as the show must have, I imagine there are many more viewers who feel the way I do — it’s a show that I wanted to love, but never fully fell in love with.

As Discovery disappears in the aft viewport, some will bid it a fond farewell, some will be blowing it raspberries, and some will turn away with total disinterest. But regardless of how well Discovery itself is remembered in the coming years, it has already made a substantial impact on the franchise. It paved the way for every Trek series that followed, including three direct spinoffs. Its second season was the incubator for Strange New Worlds , now the most acclaimed Trek series in a generation. Michelle Yeoh had such fun in her recurring role on Discovery that, even after winning an Academy Award , she was still keen to return for the upcoming Section 31 TV movie . Discovery ’s 32nd-century setting will continue to be explored in the new Starfleet Academy series , leaving the door open for some of its characters to return.

Even the new shows that have no direct relationship to Discovery have benefitted from the precedent it set by being different from what came before. Lower Decks is an animated sitcom, Prodigy is a kid-targeted cartoon , Picard is… a bunch of different things that don’t work together , but they are all different shows. Star Trek was one thing, and beginning with Discovery , it became many things. And for Star Trek, an institution that preaches the value of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, that’s a legacy to be proud of.

Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming in full on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery boldly goes where no Trek has gone before by saying religion is... OK, actually

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Shakespeare & star trek today.

Esther Ferington

Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham in season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery

Last Thursday, an adventurous and, at the end, sentimental series finale for Star Trek: Discovery marked the conclusion of a show that single-handedly brought the notion of new Star Trek series back to life. Discovery , which debuted in 2017, came after a 12-year dry spell with no Star Trek series. During its five-season run, stretched out by the pandemic, a new flurry of Star Trek shows appeared, some aimed at different audiences, in different formats (including animation), and set in different times and locations, with many of them tied to Discovery . Today, even as Discovery comes to an end, still more series and films lie ahead, including a film meant for streaming that stars Michelle Yeoh—a popular member of the Discovery cast from 2017 to 2020 who also, of course, won an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once .

A volatile, unpredictable show that frequently reinvented itself, Discovery was originally meant to be a prequel, occurring about 10 years before the original Star Trek . It also centered on a Starfleet officer who wasn’t a captain, breaking with a tradition dating back to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner): Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green. Burnham came with a surprising backstory—although she is human, after a family tragedy she was brought up on the planet Vulcan as a sister to Spock, who is about her age. By last week’s final episode, however, Burnham had long since been promoted to captain and resolved her family differences with Spock, and the Discovery series was no longer a prequel—we’ll say no more than that, to avoid spoilers. Throughout its run, the show also broke new ground with several major LGBTQ characters in its cast.

Since Star Trek debuted in 1966, it’s almost become a given that Shakespeare is woven through Star Trek series and, eventually, films. Austin Tichenor has written on this blog that there are literally hundreds of connections between Shakespeare and Star Trek, from episode titles taken from Shakespeare’s works to characters freely quoting Shakespeare, to whole plotlines from the plays, other verbal and visual references, and more. Perhaps the most famous example is “The Conscience of the King” episode in the original series, involving a traveling theater company putting on Macbeth —followed closely by a memorable quote from the Klingon chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , who explains to Captain Kirk that “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.” (The film’s title “the undiscovered country” is itself from Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech.)

As Tichenor explains, there was another underlying connection as well: Shatner brought his Shakespearean acting experience from the Stratford Festival company in Canada to the original Star Trek series, to which Patrick Stewart, a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, richly added when he starred on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. (Our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast interviewed Stewart after he published his memoir Making It So , a Star Trek-inspired title.)

But does the recent flowering of Star Trek series, beginning with Discovery , continue that link with the Bard? In a word, yes. Not every new series touches base with Shakespeare, but nearly all of them do—and often at key plot points or season or series finales. Here are some highlights, drawn from the wiki encyclopedia Memory Alpha :

Star Trek: Picard

In the series finale of Picard , a show centered on Picard after his retirement from Starfleet, he joins with old and new Star Trek characters to stave off a momentous threat to the Federation. As they gather together afterwards, he offers a toast from Julius Caesar :

There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serve Or lose our ventures.

Image of cast members from Lower Decks, an animated series

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Lower Decks includes Shakespeare quotations by characters in different episodes. Most notably, though, Lower Decks has a rare and somewhat racy episode title from Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis , “Where the Pleasant Fountains Lie,” from Venus’s words to Adonis:

Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry, Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.

Star Trek: Prodigy

One of Prodigy ’s most self-referential episodes is entitled “All the World’s a Stage.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Just two titles from Shakespeare: “A Quality of Mercy” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”

Star Trek: Discovery

Multiple episodes of Discovery had Shakespearean titles, including the two-part finale, “Such Sweet Sorrow,” for the second season, which marked a major shift to a new setting—and the start of a lasting separation between Burnham and Spock. In an episode not long before that, Spock quotes a line from Hamlet to Burnham as she faces another grueling moment of Star Trek derring-do and moral gravity, perhaps foreshadowing what is to come:

The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite That [ever] I was born to set it right!

In last week’s series finale for Discovery , there was no overt Shakespeare connection. Still, the pairing up of some major characters in the last part of the finale had a certain Shakespearean flair, with the notion of multiple couples suggesting the happy end to many of his comedies.

is an independent editor, writer, and content developer. She works on a variety of projects for the Folger and was the editor for Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library. — View all posts by Esther Ferington

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Published May 31, 2024

Robin Curtis Looks Back at Star Trek III: The Search for Spock For Its 40th Anniversary

Curtis on portraying Saavik, being directed by Leonard Nimoy, and more!

Stylized and filtered collage of stills of Robin Curtis' Saavik from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

StarTrek.com

Forty years ago this weekend, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock inherited the monumental task of picking up the tale of Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the U.S.S. Enterprise crew following Spock's tragic death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Written by Harve Bennett and directed by Leonard Nimoy himself, the film dealt with the aftermath of the battle with Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), the evolution of the newly-created Genesis Planet, and Kirk's unsanctioned jaunt to bring Spock's body and katra — a Vulcan’s living spirit — to be reunited on Mount Seleya.

Standing in a row, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, Chekov, Saavik, and Kirk, all look ahead of them with curiosity and intensity in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Complete with Christopher Lloyd's portrayal of a ruthless Klingon commander named Kruge, the original Star Trek series' cast's signature camaraderie, and an adventurous spirit, the third Star Trek film welcomed Robin Curtis to the role of Lieutenant Saavik, the Vulcan officer who accompanied Kirk's son Doctor David Marcus (Merritt Butrick) during his expedition to the Genesis Planet. Curtis was kind enough to speak to StarTrek.com and help us celebrate The Search for Spock 's 40th anniversary by reflecting on her time as Saavik and the rare experience of playing a Vulcan while being directed by Leonard Nimoy.

Four decades later, and Robin Curtis recollects that her respect for Nimoy as a director and collaborator was established the instant they met. "Right out of the gate, I could express nothing but praise for working with him, and it's only gotten better over time. Like good wine, my experience with him has aged well," remarks Curtis. "I look back with such fondness at his sensitivity, his respect for other actors, his ability to orchestrate the existing cast — his fellow coworkers for so many years — and newcomers like myself and Christopher Lloyd."

Saavik gazes up at David Marcus while a young Spock stands between them in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

During her audition for the role of Saavik, Curtis had the unique distinction of hearing Nimoy's insight into what an actor can do to truly become a Vulcan. "Mr. Nimoy took such a lovely, intuitive approach to directing. He said, 'Vulcans have 1,000 years of wisdom behind the eyes,'" says Curtis of Nimoy's early advice regarding the Vulcan nature. "When I was given the role, he told me I should look in the mirror [and practice] talking without using my face to express what I was saying. Being so still and so contained near about did me in, and I thought I was failing so miserably at it that I was going to be fired. I didn't feel the innate knack or confidence that I was nailing it."

The challenge of assuming a Vulcan disposition weighed even more heavily on Curtis' shoulders when placed in context with her desire to deliver an excellent performance. "I was as serious as a heart attack on the set! I didn't speak until I was spoken to, which is totally unlike my normally sociable self. I was very earnest, wanting to show and demonstrate that I was grateful for this part. I wanted to do a good job and hit it out of the park," adds Curtis, who sensed that Nimoy appreciated her devotion to the film and her role as Saavik, as well as her overall work ethic and approach to acting.

A Klingon lifts his dagger above him facing Saavik who reflects his intense gaze as David Marcus and a young Spock look at their foe in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

In spite of her doubts, Curtis had her morale boosted by a pact she made with the director. "I shook his hand on my very first day of filming, and I said, 'Mr. Nimoy, you seem to think I know what I'm doing. And I need to tell you I do not.' And he said, 'Robin, I will take you every step of the way. I will never take you out on the end of a limb and leave you there.' I said, 'Deal.' And we shook hands on it, and he fulfilled that promise in each and every scene," declares Curtis.

A close-up of Saavik's expression as a Klingon holds a communicator to her as a younger Spock looks towards her in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Curtis also attests that there were certain scenes which were easier to approach and more straightforward than others. Those involving Saavik and weighty emotions demanded more scrutiny and attention. For example, while holding Saavik, Kirk's son David Marcus, and a reborn Spock hostage on the Genesis Planet, Kruge ordered one of his soldiers to kill a prisoner in order to demonstrate his conviction toward acquiring the Genesis Device. The sentence was inflicted upon David, and Saavik was forced to report the death to the man's father. "That [moment] filled me with anxiety and dread. How could I possibly say that with the Vulcan demeanor?"

Saavik lifts up two fingers, a Vulcan gesture, as she stares directly into the eyes of a younger Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Those complexities also rang true on the other end of the emotional spectrum. With a rapidly aging Spock overwhelmed by the urges of the pon farr , or the Vulcan time of mating, Saavik guided him through the intimate process. This scene, with its close contact and affectionate hand gesture, represented another significant Vulcan hurdle to overcome. "The reverence and enormity and profundity of pon farr , and going into this cave with Spock," begins Curtis. "We came to the set with no sense of what that would look like. [Young Spock actor] Stephen Manley and I were both a little trepidatious about what Lenoard was going to have us do. What would a Vulcan love scene or Vulcan foreplay look like? In fact, I've only just learned recently that the simple gesture that Leonard introduced us to that day, the notion of [the characters] joining their fingers, was originally introduced by Spock's mother and Sarek in the television series."

Leonard Nimoy directs Robin Curtis in her role as Saavik pointing in the distance ahead of him while on set of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Behind-the-scenes of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Of course, having pioneered the Vulcan temperament for nearly 20 years by the time The Search for Spock entered production, Nimoy was singularly suited to answer questions about such delicate matters. Whether dealing with Saavik's reaction to David's death, the intimacy of pon farr , or any of Curtis' other scenes, Curtis recalls Nimoy's valuable input. "He would take me aside before every scene, and we'd sit down at the edge of the set on the platform, and I'd say the lines. He would moderate me no differently than we do with our cars with the radio volume. I was so grateful for that," shares Curtis.

Shifting her focus to her overall impression of their professional association, Curtis conveys her appreciation for Nimoy's leadership on the film before admitting she does have one slight regret. "I absolutely love the man. Loved him as a person, loved him as a director, and I'm sorry that I was too shy to even hint or suggest that we would have a friendship outside the realm of the shoots themselves."

While their friendship was largely limited to the production itself, the director did leave an indelible impact on Curtis' personal life. "Leonard Nimoy was aware that my father was battling cancer at the time, and it wasn't looking good," notes Curtis. "The best thing I remember about Star Trek is that it was a colossally beautiful distraction from the agony we were feeling as a family. Leonard Nimoy reminds me of my dad, and they were the same age. And [Nimoy] was so sensitive and kind about the idea that Star Trek was such a gift and a bright light for my family in a time of suffering. Ultimately, my dad lived long enough to see the movie. I went home to be at the Riverside Mall in Utica, New York, with my neighbors and family, and my dad made it to the movie theatre. I will always be grateful for that."

Hovering over a younger Spock, Saavik lifts her communicator to her face in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Curtis' thankfulness extends to the many fans who regularly compliment her for her tenure as Saavik in The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . "I'm flabbergasted at the multitude of ways that [Star Trek] has enriched my life. My heart explodes over the tenacity of the fans and how the franchise only gets better and richer. People are very generous and sentimental about [ The Search for Spock ]. They understood it was part of a triumvirate [of films]," observes Curtis. Referring to her final on-screen moments in The Voyage Home , in which Saavik and Amanda Grayson remain behind on Vulcan, Curtis jokes, "What did she and [Amanda Grayson actor] Jane Wyatt get up to? [ laughs ] What happened with the pon farr ? Did she end up being pregnant? I think the fans were just as curious as I was."

Perceiving her connection with the fans as a gift, Curtis contemplates an unexpected phone call she received from a medical facility in Cleveland, Ohio. A young man who she had once met at a convention had been taken off of dialysis and given only two weeks to live. The staff member contacting Curtis informed her that the man's last wish was to share a meal with her. "I had shown him some kindness at a convention in Ohio in the '90s, and he remembered," reveals Curtis, who didn't hesitate to make the five-hour drive to Cleveland that very same day. Before leaving, Curtis advised the caller, "You tell him I'll be there for dinner, and I wouldn't miss it for the world." Arriving Friday evening, Curtis spent every waking hour of that weekend with the fan. After departing on Sunday, they talked each day until he passed the following week. "That was a gift to me, and I like to think maybe a small gift to him," explains Curtis, noting that their connection has endured via her ongoing friendship with the fan's aunt.

Close-up of Saavik facing Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The Search for Spock clearly meant a lot to those who watched it repeatedly, but Curtis' own perception of the movie has evolved since its release. "I saw the film at the time and then never saw it again for so many years. My memory of it was that it was depressing [ laughs ]," confesses Curtis. "The fact of the matter is, everything dies. Genesis dies, the ship dies, Kirk's son dies. Spock comes back to life, but he starts out dead [ laughs ]." As was the case for many of us, the pandemic changed everything for Curtis. "We were all in our houses and seeking connection. I felt like I needed to go back, so I rewatched [ The Next Generation two-parter] 'Gambit,' and I rewatched the movie. And I thought, 'This is funny!' There's a lot of good parts in this film that aren't depressing. I don't know why I had that impression stuck in my brain, but maybe it's because my involvement was very serious. Everything I had to do dealt with great disappointment and loss and tragedy."

Looking back, Curtis cites Sarek's mind meld with Admiral Kirk as her favorite scene, describing the sentiment behind the characters' interaction, the cinematography, and the close up of the actors' faces as "gorgeous." Though she felt the mood on the set of The Voyage Home was more joyful and playful — after all, she still has Polaroids of herself making funny faces with Walter Koenig, George Takei, Kirk Thatcher, and other cast and crew, Curtis maintains fond memories of working on The Search for Spock . "The cast were so generous and classy with me, and they understood the weight upon my shoulders as the newcomer. They were reassuring. I remember Walter Koenig told me to keep a journal. And of course, like a jackass, I didn't listen. [ laughs ]," jests Curtis. "Now, I wish I had kept one."

The Enterprise crew (Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, Saavik, and Kirk) are joyful with the return of Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The Search for Spock 's conclusion exuded hope and wonder, as Spock's body and katra were reunited in a ceremony on Mount Seleya. Following his resurrection, Spock passes by each crew member in attendance, eventually finding himself embraced by the group. Although a glance between Spock and Saavik was fleeting, much preparation went into that moment. "[Nimoy] approached me before the scene and asked, 'How would you feel if you were to suddenly come upon somebody that you loved or were intimate with on a New York City street? How would you imagine that?' In the matter of a split second, so many thoughts went through my mind," says Curtis. "First, what a personal question to ask. Then I felt tenderness, embarrassment, sentimentality, nostalgia, and vulnerability all at once. I looked up at him, then looked down. He said, 'That’s it!' And I thought, ' Oh, okay, I love you! ' It is so lovely and simple when a director does that. No arm wrestling had to happen, he just asked me a simple question and I got [the scene]."

As for The Search for Spock 's ending, when Spock's friends crowd around him on Vulcan, Curtis recollects that she and the other cast members were given a general direction to "be encouraged by that moment and confident that his katra had been restored. Sometimes we don't work those moments out, and it's all on the fly. It was very much off-the-cuff." Whether meticulously planned or inspired by the moment, these scenes combined to create a film that has stood the test of time and established itself as a crucial installment in the pantheon of Star Trek stories.

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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Collage of Kelvin Timeline characters (Chekov, Uhura, McCoy, Kirk, Jaylah, Scotty, Sulu, and Spock)

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is over. Now Alex Kurtzman readies for ‘Starfleet Academy’ and ‘Section 31’

Alex Kurtzman leaning against an old TV set with a lamp hanging above him.

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In “Star Trek” terms, and in the real world of “Star Trek” television, Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the 21st century franchise, might be described as the Federation president, from whose offices various series depart on their individual missions. Indeed, to hear him speak of it, the whole enterprise — honestly, no pun intended — seems to run very much on the series’ ethos of individual initiative and group consensus.

The first series to be launched, “ Star Trek: Discovery, ” has come to an end as of Thursday after five seasons on Paramount+. Others in the fleet include the concluded “ Picard, ” which brought “The Next Generation” into a new generation; the ongoing “ Strange New Worlds, ” which precedes the action of what’s now called “The Original Series,” from which it takes its spirit and several characters; “Lower Decks,” a comedy set among Starfleet service workers; and “Prodigy,” in which a collection of teenage aliens go joyriding in a starship. On the horizon are “Starfleet Academy,” with Holly Hunter set to star, and a TV feature, “ Section 31, ” with Michelle Yeoh back as Philippa Georgiou.

I spoke with Kurtzman, whose “Trek” trek began as a writer on the quantum-canonical reboot movies “ Star Trek ” (2009) and “ Star Trek: Into Darkness ” (2013), at Secret Hideout, his appropriately unmarked Santa Monica headquarters. Metro trains glide by his front door unaware. We began the conversation, edited for length and clarity here, with a discussion of his “Trek” universe.

Alex Kurtzman: I liken them to different colors in the rainbow. It makes no sense to me to make one show that’s for everybody; it makes a lot of sense to make a lot of shows individually tailored to a sect of the “Star Trek” audience. It’s a misnomer that there’s a one-size-fits-all Trekkie. And rather than make one show that’s going to please everybody — and will almost certainly please nobody — let’s make an adult drama, an animated comedy, a kids’ comedy, an adventure show and on and on. There’s something quite beautiful about that; it allows each of the stories to bloom in its own unique way.

A tall, thin alien and a human woman walk through the tunnel of a spaceship.

Do you get pushback from the fans?

Absolutely. In some ways that’s the point. One of the things I learned early on is that to be in love with “Star Trek” is to engage in healthy debate. There is no more vocal fan base. Some people tell you that their favorite is “The Original Series,” some say their favorite is “Voyager” and some say their favorite is “Discovery.” Yet they all come together and talk about what makes something singularly “Trek” — [creator] Gene Roddenberry‘s extraordinarily optimistic vision of the future when all that divides us [gets placed] in the rearview mirror and we get to move on and discover things. Like all great science fiction, you get to pick your allegory to the real world and come up with the science fiction equivalent. And everybody who watches understands what we’re talking about — racism or the Middle East or whatever.

What specific objections did you find to “Discovery”?

I think people felt it was too dark. We really listen to our fans in the writers’ room — everybody will have read a different article or review over the weekend, and we talk about what feels relevant and what feels less relevant. And then we engage in a healthy democratic debate about why and begin to apply that; it seeps into the decisions we make. Season 1 of “Discovery” was always intended to be a journey from darkness into light, and ultimately reinforce Roddenberry’s vision. I think people were just stunned by something that felt darker than any “Trek” had before. But doing a dark “Star Trek” really wasn’t our goal. The show is a mirror that holds itself up to the times, and we were in 2017 — we saw the nation fracture hugely right after the election, and it’s only gotten worse since then. We were interpreting that through science fiction. There were people who appreciated that and others for whom it was just not “Star Trek.” And the result, in Season 2, Capt. [Christopher] Pike showed up, Number One showed up, Spock showed up, and we began to bring in what felt to people more like the “Star Trek” they understood.

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You’re ending the series after five seasons. Was that always a plan?

You know, we were surprised we didn’t continue, and yet it feels now that it was right. One of the things that happened very quickly as streaming took off was that it radically changed watch patterns for viewers. Shows that used to go 10, 12 seasons, people would tap out after two — like, “I got what I want” — so for any show to go five seasons, it’s a miracle. In ways I don’t think we could have predicted, the season from the beginning feels like it’s the last; it just has a sense of finality. The studio was wonderful in that they recognized we needed to put a button on it, we needed a period on the end of the sentence, and so they allowed us to go back, which we did right before the strike, and [film] the coda that wraps up the series.

Alex Kurtzman, the executive producer of Paramount's new "Star Trek" franchise, sits in a Danish modern chair.

“Discovery” is a riot of love stories, among both heroes and villains.

There’s certainly a history of that in “Star Trek.” Whether or not characters were engaged in direct relationships, there was always a subtext of the love between them. I believe that’s why we love the bridge crew, because it’s really a love story, everyone’s in a love story, and they all care for each other and fight like family members. But ultimately they’re there to help each other and explore the universe together. If there’s some weird problem, and the answer’s not immediately apparent, each of them brings a different skill set and therefore a different perspective; they clash in their debate on how to proceed and then find some miraculous solution that none of them would have thought of at the outset.

One of the beautiful things about the shows is that you get to spend a long time with them, as opposed to a two-hour movie where you have to get in and out quickly and then wait a couple of years before the next one comes along. To be able to be on their weekly adventures, it affords the storytelling level of depth and complexity a two-hour movie just can’t achieve in that way.

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It’s astonishing how much matter you got into these things. Some storylines that only lasted an episode I remembered as seasonal arcs.

The sheer tonnage of story and character we were able to pack into “Discovery” every episode was kind of incredible. The thing to keep in mind is that “Discovery” was made as streaming was exploding, so what I think you’re also seeing there is a lot of writers who were trained in the network world with an A, B and C story applying it suddenly to a very different kind of storytelling in a much more cinematic medium. And when you have that kind of scope it starts to become really, really big. Sometimes that works really, really well and sometimes it was too much. And we were figuring it out; it was a bunch of people with flashlights in the dark, looking for how to interpret “Star Trek” now, since it had been 12 years since it had been on a television screen.

Are you able to course-correct within a season?

Sure. You get people you really trust in the room. Aaron Baiers, who runs Secret Hideout, is one of my most important early-warning systems; he isn’t necessarily in the room when we’re breaking stories, but he’s the first person who’ll read an outline and he’s the first person who’ll read a script. What I value so much about his perspective is that he’s coming in cold, he’s just like, “I’m the viewer, and I understand this or I don’t understand it, I feel this or I don’t feel it.” The studio executives are very similar. They love “Star Trek,” they’re all die-hard fans and have very strong feelings about what is appropriate. It then goes through a series of artists in every facet, from props to visual effects to production design, and they’re bringing their interpretations and opinions to the story.

Three seated officers and the standing captain on the bridge of a starship

Did “Strange New Worlds” come out of the fact that everybody loved seeing Christopher Pike in “Discovery?”

I really have to credit Akiva Goldsman with this. He knew that I was going to bring Pike into the premiere of the second season of “Discovery,” and said, “You know, there’s an incredible show about Capt. Pike and the Enterprise before Kirk takes over; there’s seven years of great storytelling there” — or five years, depending on when you come into the storyline. I said, “We have to cast a successful Pike first, so let’s see if that works. Let’s figure out who’s Number One, and who Spock is,” which are wildly tall orders. I hadn’t seen Anson Mount in other things before [he was cast as Pike], and when he sent in his taped audition it was that wonderful moment where you go, “That’s exactly the person we’re looking for.” Everybody loves Pike because he’s the kind of leader you want, definitive and clear but open to everyone’s perspective and humanistic in his response. And then we had the incredibly tall order of having Ethan [Peck] step into Leonard [Nimoy’s] and [Zachary Quinto’s] shoes.

He’s great.

He’s amazing, just a delight of a human being. And Rebecca Romijn‘s energy, what she brings to Number One is such a contemporary take on a character that was kind of a cipher in “The Original Series.” But she brings a kind of joy, a comedy, a bearing, a gravitas to the character that feels very modern. Thank God the fans responded the way they did and sent that petition [calling for a “Legacy” series], because everybody at CBS got the message very quickly. Jenny Lumet and Akiva and I wrote a pilot, and we were off to the races. Typically it takes fans a minute to adjust to what you’re doing, especially with beloved legacy characters, but the response to “Strange New World” from a critical perspective and fan perspective and just a viewership perspective was so immediate, it really did help us understand what was satisfying fans.

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What can you tell me about “Starfleet Academy?” Is it going to be Earth-based or space-based?

I’m going to say, without giving anything away, both. Right now we’re in the middle of answering the question what does San Francisco, where the academy is, look like in the 32nd century. Our primary set is the biggest we’ve ever built.

So you’re setting this —

In the “Discovery” era. There’s a specific reason for that. As the father of a 17-year-old boy, I see what my son is feeling as he looks at the world and to his future. I see the uncertainty; I see all the things we took for granted as given are not certainties for him. I see him recognizing he’s inheriting an enormous mess to clean up and it’s going to be on his generation to figure out how to do that, and that’s a lot to ask of a kid. My thinking was, if we set “Starfleet Academy” in the halcyon days of the Federation where everything was fine, it’s not going to speak to what kids are going through right now.

It’ll be a nice fantasy, but it’s not really going to be authentic. What’ll be authentic is to set it in the timeline where this is the first class back after over 100 years, and they are coming into a world that is only beginning to recover from a cataclysm — which was the Burn, as established on “Star Trek: Discovery,” where the Federation was greatly diminished. So they’re the first who’ll inherit, who’ll re-inherit, the task of exploration as a primary goal, because there just wasn’t room for that during the Burn — everybody was playing defense. It’s an incredibly optimistic show, an incredibly fun show; it’s a very funny show, and it’s a very emotional show. I think these kids, in different ways, are going to represent what a lot of kids are feeling now.

And I’m very, very , very excited that Holly Hunter is the lead of the show. Honestly, when we were working on the scripts, we wrote it for Holly thinking she’d never do it. And we sent them to her, and to our absolute delight and shock she loved them and signed on right away.

A woman with long brown hair in gold-plated chest armor.

And then you’ve got the “Section 31” movie.

“Section 31” is Michelle Yeoh’s return as Georgiou. A very, very different feeling for “Star Trek.” I will always be so grateful to her, because on the heels of her nomination and then her Oscar win , she just doubled down on coming back to “Star Trek.” She could have easily walked away from it; she had a lot of other opportunities. But she remained steadfast and totally committed. We just wrapped that up and are starting to edit now.

Are you looking past “Starfleet” and “Section 31” to future projects?

There’s always notions and there are a couple of surprises coming up, but I really try to live in the shows that are in front of me in the moment because they’re so all-consuming. I’m directing the first two episodes of “Starfleet Academy,” so right now my brain is just wholly inside that world. But you can tell “Star Trek” stories forever; there’s always more. There’s something in the DNA of its construction that allows you to keep opening different doors. Some of that is science fiction, some of it has to do with the combination of science fiction and the organic embracing of all these other genres that lets you explore new territories. I don’t think it’s ever going to end. I think it’s going to go on for a long, long time. The real question for “Star Trek” is how do you keep innovating, how do you deliver both what people expect and something totally fresh at the same time. Because I think that is actually what people want from “Star Trek.” They want what’s familiar delivered in a way that doesn’t feel familiar.

With all our showrunners — Terry Matalas on “Picard,” the Hagemans on “Prodigy,” Mike McMahan on “Lower Decks,” Michelle Paradise, who has been singlehandedly running “Discovery” for the last two years, and then Akiva and Henry Alonso Myers on “Strange New Worlds” — my feeling is that the best way to protect and preserve “Star Trek” is not to impose my own vision on it but [find people] who meet the criteria of loving “Star Trek,” wanting to do new things with it, understanding how incredibly hard it is to do. And then I’m going to let you do your job. I’ll come in and tell you what I think every once in a while, and I’ll help get the boat off the dock, but once I hand the show over to a creative it has to be their show. And that means you’re going to get a different take every time, and as long as those takes all feel like they can marry into the same rainbow, to get back to the metaphor, that’s the way to keep “Star Trek” fresh.

I take great comfort because “Star Trek” really only belongs to Gene Roddenberry and the fans. We don’t own it. We carry it, we try to evolve it and then we hand it off to the next people. And hopefully they will love it as much as we do.

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'Star Trek: Discovery' ends as an underappreciated TV pioneer

Eric Deggans

Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham in Season 5, Episode 9 of Star Trek: Discovery.

Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. Michael Gibson/Paramount+ hide caption

First, an admission: Though this column will offer a lot of discussion and defense of Star Trek: Discovery as a pivotal show, it won’t spend much time talking up the series’ current, final season or its finale episode, “Life, Itself,” dropping Thursday on Paramount+.

That’s because, for this critic, the last few seasons of Discovery have been a bit bogged down by the stuff that has always made it a tough sell as a Trek series: overly ambitious, serialized storylines that aren’t compelling; new characters and environments that don’t impress; plot twists which can be maddening in their lack of logic; big storytelling swings which can be confusing and predictable at once.

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The show’s finale features the culmination of a sprawling scavenger hunt which found the crew of the starship Discovery bounding all over the place, searching for clues leading to a powerful technology pioneered by an alien race which created humanoid life throughout the galaxy. Their goal was to grab the technology before another race, ruthless and aggressive, could beat them to it, laying waste to everything.

It's no spoiler to reveal that Discovery ’s heroes avoid that nightmarish scenario, wrapping its fifth and final season with a conclusion centered on Sonequa Martin-Green’s ever-resourceful Capt. Michael Burnham and fond resolutions for a multitude of supporting characters (there’s even a space wedding!)

Still, this good-enough ending belies Discovery ’s status as a pioneering show which helped Paramount+ build a new vision for Star Trek in modern television – breaking ground that more creatively successful series like Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would follow years later.

And it all began with a singular character: Michael Burnham.

A take on Star Trek for modern TV

Discovery debuted in 2017 on CBS All Access — the streaming service which would become Paramount+ — facing a serious challenge.

As the first new Trek series in a dozen years, it had to chart a path which offered a new vision of the franchise without going too far — carving out a new corner in the universe of Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock not long after the release of Star Trek Beyond , the third feature film produced by J. J. Abrams featuring rebooted versions of those classic characters.

Producers set Discovery ’s story 10 years before the days of Kirk and Spock (originally depicted on NBC for three seasons starting way back in 1966). The new series wouldn’t be centered on a starship captain, but its second in command: Burnham, a Black woman who also happened to be the hitherto unknown adopted daughter of Vulcan ambassador Sarek, Spock’s father (she would get promoted to captain of Discovery much later).

A Black human woman who was raised among the emotionally controlling, super-intellectual Vulcans? Who Trek fans had never heard of over nearly 60 years? Before I actually saw any episodes, my own feelings ranged from cautiously intrigued to cynically pessimistic.

But then I saw the first episode, which had an amazing early scene: Martin-Green as Burnham and Michelle Yeoh as Discovery Capt. Philippa Georgiou walking across an alien planet – two women of color marking the first step forward for Star Trek on a new platform.

People once sidelined in typical science fiction stories were now centerstage — a thrilling, historic moment.

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou and Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham in the very first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Jan Thijs/CBS hide caption

And it got better from there. Back in the day, Trek writers often felt hamstrung by creator Gene Roddenberry’s insistence that, in the future depicted by the show, humans were beyond social ills like greed, prejudice, sexism, war, money and personal friction. The writers chafed, wondering: How in the world do you build compelling stories on a starship where interpersonal human conflict doesn’t exist?

But Discovery found a workaround, putting Burnham in a position where logic led her to mutiny against her captain, attempting a strategy which ultimately failed — leaving humans in open combat with the legendarily warlike Klingons. Discovery also featured a long storyline which played out over an entire season, unlike many earlier Trek shows which tried to offer a new adventure every week.

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The show’s first season had plenty of action, with Harry Potter alum Jason Isaacs emerging as a compelling and unique starship captain (saying more would be a spoiler; log onto Paramount+ and check out the first season). Fans saw a new vision for Trek technology, leveraging sleek, visceral special effects and action sequences worthy of a big budget movie, with design elements cribbed from several of the franchise’s films.

Later in its run, Discovery would debut Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, classic Trek characters who eventually got their own acclaimed series in Strange New Worlds . So far, five other Trek series have emerged on Paramount+ from ideas initially incubated on Discovery – including a critically acclaimed season of Picard which reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Not bad for a series one TV critic eventually called among “the worst in the [ Trek ] franchise’s history.”

Discovery’s unappreciated legacy

Unfortunately, Discovery has taken some turns which didn’t work out quite so well. At the end of Discovery ’s second season, the starship jumped ahead in time nine centuries – perhaps to remove it from Strange New World ’s timeline? – placing it in an environment only distantly connected to classic Trek .

And while Discovery initially seemed cautious about referencing classic Trek in its stories, later series like Strange New Worlds and Picard learned the value of diving into the near-60-year-old franchise’s legacy – regularly tapping the show’s longtime appeal, rather than twisting into knots to avoid it.

There are likely fans of Discovery who would disagree with this analysis. But I think it helps explain why the series has never quite gotten its due in the world of Star Trek , initially shaded by skeptical fans and later overshadowed by more beloved products.

Now is the perfect time to pay tribute to a show which actually accomplished quite a lot – helping prove that Roddenberry’s brainchild still has a lot of narrative juice left in the 21st Century.

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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)

Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery steaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+.

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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Cast & crew
User reviews
Episode aired May 12, 1990

Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Mark Lenard, and Joanna Miles in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Legendary Federation ambassador Sarek visits the Enterprise to conclude peace talks with a race called the Legarans. His arrival is accompanied with a rash of unusual emotional outbursts amo... Read all Legendary Federation ambassador Sarek visits the Enterprise to conclude peace talks with a race called the Legarans. His arrival is accompanied with a rash of unusual emotional outbursts among the crew. Legendary Federation ambassador Sarek visits the Enterprise to conclude peace talks with a race called the Legarans. His arrival is accompanied with a rash of unusual emotional outbursts among the crew.

Gene Roddenberry
Peter S. Beagle
Marc Cushman
Patrick Stewart
Jonathan Frakes
LeVar Burton
17 User reviews
10 Critic reviews

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

Lieutenant Worf

Doctor Beverly Crusher

Counselor Deanna Troi

Lieutenant Commander Data

Wesley Crusher

Ki Aloysius Mendrossen

Chief Miles O'Brien

Science Crewman
Science Officer …

Ensign Gates
(uncredited)
Crewman Nelson
Crewman Garvey
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

Trivia Picard's crumbling emotions, mirroring Sarek's inner turmoil, echoes a similar scene of Spock in The Naked Time (1966) , even down to a single take being used.
Goofs The crew are entertained by a recital that starts with a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart string quartet, as promised. This needs four players: two violins, viola and cello. The piece that causes Sarek's tear is in fact Johannes Brahms ' Sextet #1 - which would require six players, i.e. an additional viola and cello.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : It's ironic, isn't it? All this magnificent technology, and we still find ourselves susceptible to the ravages of old age... loss of dignity... the slow betrayal of our bodies by forces we cannot master. Do you still want to be one of us, Data?

Connections Featured in Honest Trailers: The Emoji Movie (2017)
Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 17

Nov 10, 2016
May 12, 1990 (United States)
United States
Official site
Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
Paramount Television
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 45 minutes
Dolby Digital

More to explore

IMAGES

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VIDEO

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COMMENTS

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