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Star Trek: Generations

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Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D find themselves at odds with the renegade scientist Soran who is destroying entire star systems. Only one man can help Picard stop Soran's scheme...and he's been dead for seventy-eight years.

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Stardate: the 23rd Century. Retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) and Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) are guests of honor aboard the newly christened Enterprise-B. A test run takes an unexpected turn, however, when the starship encounters two vessels trapped inside the Nexus, a mysterious energy ribbon. During a perilous rescue attempt, Kirk is swept out into space. Seven decades later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of Enterprise-D rescue an El Aurian physicist named Soran (Malcolm McDowell). Unbeknownst to Picard, Soran harbors a deadly plan that includes the destruction of the Enterprise and millions of lives. Now Picard's only hope for a future rests within the Nexus... and a legendary captain from the past.

Cast + Crew

• Kim Cattrall
• James Doohan
• DeForest Kelley
• Walter Koenig
• Nichelle Nichols
• Leonard Nimoy
• William Shatner
• George Takei
• David Warner
• David Carson Director

Star Trek Generations

Star Trek Generations ( Paramount Pictures , 1994 ) is the seventh feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series . It is often referred to as just Generations . It is the first film in the series to star the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation , and is a symbolic passing of the torch of the film series from the original series cast to the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.

• 1 Dr. Tolian Soran
• 4 External links

Dr. Tolian Soran [ edit ]

• You know, there was a time when I wouldn't hurt a fly. Then the Borg came, and they showed me that if there is one constant in this whole universe, it's death. Afterwards, I began to realize that it didn't really matter. We're all going to die sometime. It's just a question of how and when. You will, too, Captain. Aren't you beginning to feel time gaining on you? It's like a predator. It's stalking you. Oh, you can try and outrun it with doctors, medicines, new technologies, but in the end, time is going to hunt you down and make the kill.
• They say time is the fire in which we burn . Right now, Captain, my time is running out. We leave so many things unfinished in our lives... I know you understand.

Dialogue [ edit ]

Cast [ edit ], external links [ edit ].

• Star Trek: Generations quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Star Trek Generations web site

• Science fiction films
• Star Trek films
• Technology films
• Films based on television series

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Screen Rant

Star trek: voyager’s vulcan vorik & alexander enberg’s tng connection explained.

Star Trek: Voyager's Vulcan Ensign Vorik was a recurring character on the show with a surprising connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

• Aside from Tuvok, Star Trek: Voyager featured another Vulcan character in the form of Ensign Vorik.
• Vorik's introduction added depth to Voyager's crew and impacted major storylines like Tom and B'Elanna's relationship.
• Vorik's character was influenced by his predecessor Taurik from Star Trek: TNG's "Lower Decks," also played by Alexander Enberg.

Star Trek: Voyager 's Vulcan Ensign Vorik (Alexander Enberg) became a recurring character in season 3 and had a surprising connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation . Voyager 's cast of characters was one of the most diverse in the franchise at the time of its airing in 1995, and also included the first main character Vulcan since Star Trek: The Original Series in the form of Lieutenant Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ). However, Tuvok was not the only Vulcan introduced as a member of Voyager 's crew .

Throughout Voyager 's seven seasons, the show relied heavily on its supporting characters in addition to the main cast. Except for maybe Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , other Star Trek TV shows before Voyager focused on their main characters or a select few leads within that group . However, Voyager kept things interesting by introducing memorably recurring characters like Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers) or Icheb (Manu Intiraymi) throughout the series. Within the cadre of guest stars Voyager brought onboard, Alexander Enberg's Vorik stood out in some surprising ways.

Every Voyager Character Who Has Returned In Star Trek (& How)

Star trek: voyager’s vulcan ensign vorik explained, voyager's other vulcan became an important recurring character.

Vorik was a Vulcan Engineering Ensign first introduced in Voyager season 3, episode 13, "Fair Trade." Creating the character helped flesh out Voyager 's crew complement, and adding another Vulcan was a smart choice given how little Vulcans had been represented in Voyager 's sister shows, TNG and DS9 . Vorik was instrumental in some very important storylines, including arguably being the catalyst for Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and B'Elanna Torres' (Roxann Dawson) future relationship after he infected B'Elanna with Pon Farr in the season 3 episode "Blood Fever."

Alexander Enberg, who played Vorik, had a strong connection to Voyager before he even appeared on the show as the son of Executive Producer Jeri Taylor. Outside of Star Trek , Enberg has done many small parts in other movies and TV shows, and more recently has worked in the special effects departments for a handful of projects. In addition to Voyager , however, Enberg appeared on another Star Trek series, playing a very similar character to Vorik.

Vorik Has A Surprising Connection To Star Trek: TNG’s “Lower Decks”

Alexander enberg first appeared on tng.

Before Voyager , Enberg's first appearance in the Star Trek franchise was on Star Trek: TNG , where he played the Vulcan Ensign Taurik in the season 7 episode "Lower Decks." The episode focused on a group of junior officers aboard the USS Enteprise-D and was a departure from TNG 's usual storytelling in that it featured a group of largely unknown characters rather than the series leads. "Lower Decks" would go on to inspire the hit animated show Star Trek: Lower Decks which will air its fifth and final season in late 2024.

Given the similarities between the two characters, it's hard not to think that Taurik was the blueprint for Vorik on Star Trek: Voyager . According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , Taurik was the breakout character from "Lower Decks" and there was even talk about making him a recurring character had TNG continued for an eighth season. Jeri Taylor also suggested that Vorik and Taurik could be twins , according to Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 . Although this was a joke, it would be a good way to tie the two series together and explain Enberg playing both roles.

Source: Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , Star Trek: The Next Generation 365

Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: The Next Generation are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Voyager

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The fifth entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, is a sci-fi series that sees the crew of the USS Voyager on a long journey back to their home after finding themselves stranded at the far ends of the Milky Way Galaxy. Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, the series follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

6 Most Powerful Weapons In Star Trek History, Ranked

Star Trek's rich lore has introduced fans to countless pieces of technology—including extremely powerful weapons capable of great destruction.

The official stance of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets is one of peace and universal understanding, but that doesn't mean that they don't also carry some big sticks. Exploring the universe can be dangerous, and the Head of Security or the Armory Officer are often the most important jobs on a starship.

6 Darkest Star Trek Characters, Ranked

Some of the most powerful and devastating weapons in the Star Trek universe were built or developed by the Federation to defend starships and their crew. Others have appeared courtesy of less idealistic races for the intention of conquest and destruction.

6 Varon-T Disruptor

So brutal the federation made them illegal.

• Appeared In: Star Trek: The Next Generation , S3E22, "The Most Toys."

The Varon-T Disruptor is a rare type of phaser weapon possessed by obsessed collector, Kivas Fajo. Kivas threatens innocents with his deadly weapon to coerce Data into helping with a nefarious plan to lure Enterprise to the colony.

Only five of these weapons were ever manufactured, which is why they're valuable collector's items. Even the worst type of hand-held ranged weapon will often, at worst, put a hole in the target or disintegrate it. The Varon-T Disruptor, however, rends the target's body in an agonizing implosion and rips it apart from the inside.

5 Tricobalt Warhead

A real weapon on a planet of fake ones.

• Appeared In: Star Trek: The Original Series , S1E23, "A Taste of Armageddon."

The Enterprise came to the planet of Eminiar VII on a routine mission to establish diplomatic relations but got mixed up in a unique war when they arrived. The ship had been "hit" by the "virtual" warheads of the opposing planet, Vendikar.

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This was the first time that these weapons were mentioned. Even though these were not real and only part of the war "role-play" actual warheads like this do exist and they're powerful enough to vaporize a large starship.

Smaller devices have been used as controlled explosives, like the one from the DS9 episode, "Trials and Tribble-lations" and in the Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" the Tholians used a tricobalt warhead to create an explosion so massive it created an interphasic rift.

4 Multikinetic Neutronic Mines

A lethal weapon of borg design.

• Appeared In: Star Trek: Voyager , S4E1, "Scorpion."

Captain Janeway broke protocol a few times while guiding Voyager through the vast and unknown Delta Quadrant, making deals and stealing tech from some hostile and dangerous races. At the end of season three, she even struck a deal with the Borg to fight a mutual enemy, but the plan wasn't as clear-cut as she led her partners to believe.

Part of the plan involved the possible use of multikinetic neutronic mines, which Janeway described as a weapon of mass destruction. These mines had the power to destroy entire star systems and their inhabitants, which goes to show how desperate the Borg was to combat Species 8472.

3 The Stone Of Gol

An ancient weapon with a twist.

• Appeared In: Star Trek: The Next Generation , S7E4, "Gambit."

This would be a weapon that Captain Picard would understand, which is one of the reasons he's the one who figures out its true power and how it works. It was a type of psionic resonator that was so powerful the Vulcans that built it split it into two pieces and hid both in separate places.

8 Coolest Starships From Star Trek: The Next Generation

It resurfaced again in the TNG episode "Gambit" when a mercenary was charged with recovering it for the Vulcan Isolationist Movement. Captain Picard was the one who figured out that it was only useful against people with aggressive or malevolent thoughts. In a time of peace, or with those who could control their emotions, it was useless.

2 The Genesis Probe

The power to create and destroy.

• Appeared In: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

It wasn't built to be a weapon, and when it was first used, it seemed to have benevolent, maybe even miraculous powers to generate life from nothing more than bare rock and dead air. The Genesis Project was the creation of Carol Marcus and her son, David, and it was designed to bring life to dead planets.

It seemed to work at first, with the probe detonating on Khan's ship over a lifeless moon, but the natural cycle of the planet was accelerated, and it started to destroy itself . This was due to David's use of protomatter with Genesis, a dangerous and volatile substance that's banned throughout most of the universe.

The Klingons, who stole some of the secret files that described Genesis, were intent on stealing the probe and using it as a weapon to destroy planets instead of making them lush and inhabitable.

1 The Doomsday Machine

The final resting place of the uss constellation.

• Appeared In: Star Trek: The Original Series , S1E6, "The Doomsday Machine."

Where it came from, who built it, and its exact nature always remained a mystery. The best that Kirk and Spock could determine was that it was some ancient "doomsday" device, and it likely destroyed whoever built it.

The USS Enterprise followed a trail of destroyed ships and galaxies to find it and finally caught up to not only the Doomsday Machine but also Captain Decker and the shattered hull of the USS Constitution. From what Decker could describe, the machine used antiprotons to destroy planets and ships, and the exterior was made of solid neutronium, which is virtually impenetrable.

Captain Decker, who was suffering from survivor's guilt and serious trauma, took it upon himself to fly a shuttlecraft into the weapon and blow it up. This revealed that an attack from the inside might disable or destroy the machine, and the unfortunate Constellation was the obvious choice.

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USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B)

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The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) was a 23rd century Federation Excelsior -class starship operated by Starfleet . This was the third Federation ship to bear the name Enterprise .

• 2.1 Construction and launch
• 3 Command crew
• 4.1 Appearances
• 4.2 Background information
• 4.3 Apocrypha
• 4.4 External links

Lineage [ ]

Service history [ ], construction and launch [ ].

On stardate 9715.5, in the year 2293 , the Enterprise -B was commissioned. During its construction a piece of the USS Enterprise -A was incorporated, as the last ship to bear the name. ( SNW : " Those Old Scientists "). Soon thereafter, the starship was launched under the command of Captain John Harriman from a drydock orbiting Earth . The ship was christened with a bottle of Dom Pérignon , vintage 2265 . Honored guests aboard for the ship's maiden voyage included Captains James T. Kirk , Montgomery Scott and Commander Pavel Chekov , all of the decommissioned USS Enterprise -A crew, along with many Federation News Service journalists . The vessel was still incomplete at the time of launch and did not have a medical staff , photon torpedoes , or a tractor beam , all of which were scheduled for delivery the following Tuesday . The dignitaries were given a tour of the ship, which impressed even Scott (a noted critic of the Excelsior -class). Harriman requested that Captain Kirk give the order to get underway, and he accepted. Demora Sulu – a recent Academy graduate – served as helmsman , prompting Kirk to comment " It wouldn't be the Enterprise without a Sulu at the helm. " ( Star Trek Generations )

The bridge of the USS Enterprise

Her first journey was mostly for publicity purposes, and the ship was not scheduled to venture much past Pluto . However, the Enterprise -B was the only ship in range capable of responding to a distress call from two Federation transport ships , the SS Lakul and the SS Robert Fox . The ships, which were carrying El-Aurian refugees , had become trapped in an energy distortion called the Nexus . Because the Enterprise lacked equipment necessary to rescue the ships, the Robert Fox was destroyed before the Enterprise could transport its passengers. Only 47 survivors were brought aboard from the Lakul before it, too, was destroyed. Chekov served as a makeshift medical officer , enlisting several of the journalists to help treat survivors including Guinan , future bartender on the USS Enterprise -D , and Tolian Soran . ( Star Trek Generations )

The USS Enterprise trapped by the Nexus in 2293

The Enterprise itself became ensnared within the Nexus when she maneuvered within transporter range of the Lakul . Scott devised a plan to use a resonance burst from the deflector dish in order to simulate an antimatter explosion and free the Enterprise . Kirk went to deflector control to make necessary modifications as the Enterprise 's engineering hull was struck by an energy tendril; Harriman was going to do it himself, but Kirk took the role instead, deciding that Harriman, as the ship's captain, was needed on the bridge , and in the captain's chair . The Enterprise escaped with minor casualties and a hull breach along Sections 20 through 28 on Decks 13 through 15. Kirk was believed killed in the breach, and the mission became notorious because of his loss. ( Star Trek Generations )

Sometime between its launch in 2293 and 2344 , the Enterprise -B was succeeded by the Ambassador -class USS Enterprise -C . ( TNG : " Yesterday's Enterprise ")

In 2368 , Berlinghoff Rasmussen asked William T. Riker in his questionnaire for him what he thought was innovative about the Enterprise -B. ( TNG : " A Matter Of Time ")

A sculpture of the Enterprise -B later adorned the wall of the observation lounge on the Enterprise -D during the first few years of that vessel's service. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation ). A similar model hung in the conference room of the USS Enterprise -E , along with the other incarnations of the ship in a glass and wood casing. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; Star Trek Nemesis )

In 2401 , the Enterprise -B was among several vessels shown on posters promoting Frontier Day . ( PIC : " The Next Generation ")

Command crew [ ]

• John Harriman ( 2293 –)
• Demora Sulu (2293–)
• See : USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) personnel

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• Star Trek Generations
• Star Trek: First Contact (model)
• Star Trek Nemesis (model)
• PIC : " The Next Generation " (poster)

Background information [ ]

Featured in a display (middle, rear) of several ships named Enterprise prior to 2364

A sketch of the Enterprise -B

In Star Trek Generations , the exterior of the Enterprise -B was a reuse of the USS Excelsior studio model designed by Bill George for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . The miniature was given several modifications designed by John Eaves and Herman Zimmerman , including an extra set of impulse engines on the saucer section , flares on the side of the engineering hull, new caps on the front of the warp nacelles , and fins on the back of the nacelles. The blue accents on the ship were repainted to a teal color. The flares were added for the specific purpose of damaging them during the Nexus escape sequence and as a way to keep the Excelsior model beneath undamaged. The modifications were also by request of Producer Rick Berman , who felt the Excelsior design had been overused in the previous motion pictures and in the television series. The NCC-1701-B was also rendered as a CGI model for certain sequences within the Nexus. As it turned out, the glue used to attach the additional parts did in fact damage the original model, so the modifications were never removed. The physical model was later relabeled to become the USS Lakota in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fourth season episode " Paradise Lost ". ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 452); ( AOL chat , 1998 ))

The bridge was a redress of the USS Enterprise -A bridge from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , which was also seen as the Amargosa observatory in Star Trek Generations . The sickbay was the drydock observation area seen earlier in the film, while deflector control was a new set. ( citation needed • edit )

The Enterprise -B was established as an Excelsior -class ship during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation , when a series of relief sculptures depicting the history of the Enterprise name was added to the Enterprise -D conference lounge set. They were present for the first four years of the series and a flashback during TNG : " All Good Things... ". The sculpture used represented the original Excelsior design. However, models in the lounge of the Enterprise -E in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek Nemesis more accurately showed the Enterprise -B as it is depicted in Generations . Furthermore, the Enterprise -C sculpture also differed from the final Ambassador -class design, meaning the sculptures were probably meant to be abstract.

Actor James Doohan once commented about the Enterprise -B, " It looks absolutely fabulous. " ("Uniting Two Legends", Star Trek Generations (Special Edition) DVD / Blu-ray )

The model of the Enterprise -B (Lot #998) was sold at the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction on October 7, 2006 for US$132,000 including the buyer's premium (the winning bid was US$110,000). The model is now part of ScienceFictionArchives.com collections. [1]

A box of video tapes of the computer graphics, including RADAR and subspace scan , aboard the Enterprise -B during its red alert was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [2]

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual , the Enterprise -B was involved in exploration beyond the Gourami sector, charting 142 star systems and making first contact with seventeen new civilizations prior to her decommissioning.

Apocrypha [ ]

The USS Enterprise -D cut-away poster listed a Captain "Thomas Johnson Jr. ( β )" for the Enterprise -B. The USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual established that "Thomas Johnson, Jr." was the ship's final captain serving from the early 2320s through the ship's loss in 2329 . This source also claims that a new captain, William George ( β ) – a nod to ILM visual effects staffer Bill George – was assigned alongside several other officers, but this is not referenced in any other source.

The Enterprise -B's dedication plaque in memory of Kirk

In the first issue of the IDW Publishing comic Star Trek: Spock: Reflections , Spock visited the Enterprise -B a year after its launch where Harriman showed him a memorial plaque dedicated to Kirk he had installed on the ship after it left spacedock for repairs in the section of the ship where Kirk was at the time believed to be killed. Although Harriman knew it wasn't regulation, he felt it was the right thing to do.

The Enterprise -B was involved in:

• The novel The Captain's Daughter by Peter David
• The PC-based simulation Star Trek: Starship Creator
• The Lost Era novels Serpents Among the Ruins and One Constant Star by David R. George III
• 2301 – Demora Sulu was promoted to first officer .
• 2311 – Following the Tomed Incident with the Romulan Star Empire , Captain Harriman steps down, and Demora Sulu was promoted to captain.
• 2315 – Captain Sulu gives up command – for one year – to care for her terminally-ill paternal grandmother, Shimizu Hana Sulu ( β ).
• 2320s – The ship, under Captain Johnson, was assigned to patrol the Cardassian border .
• 2328 – Offers assistance to many Bajorans fleeing Cardassia's annexation of Bajor.
• 2329 – Lost (presumed destroyed) after the crew reports contracting an unknown infection.
• 2332 – The USS Enterprise -C is commissioned. ( Well of Souls )

External links [ ]

• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) at StarTrek.com
• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) at Wikipedia
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

This Is The Correct Order In Which To Watch The Star Trek Franchise

Don't look now, but "Star Trek" is a thing again. It's been a while — after redefining television in the 1960s and enjoying a resurgence in the '80s and '90s, the final episode of ""Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005 marked the beginning of a dark period in which there was simply no "Trek" to be had. Then, in 2017, the drought ended with the premiere of " "Star Trek: Discovery ," and when it rains, it pours. "Discovery" heralded the arrival of a whole new era of ""Star Trek," and that's just the beginning — Paramount+ will soon play host to two new "Star Trek" shows, with three more currently in development, and there's a new movie scheduled for release in 2023 . Suddenly, we are awash in "Trek," which means that if you're unfamiliar with Gene Roddenberry's universe, it's a pretty good time to jump on board. Only where do you start with a franchise this big — and more importantly, what's the proper watch order?

These are the questions we're here to answer. While it's tempting to try and watch "Star Trek" chronologically, using either the fictional timeline or release dates, we recommend an order that's a bit of a blend of both. Following this list should result in an experience that provides a complete picture of what "Star Trek" is while also remaining easy to binge. With that in mind (and with the understanding that a few spoilers are unavoidable ), it's time to boldly go where every previous "Star Trek" installment has gone before!

The Original Series

When you watch "Star Trek," you really need to begin at the beginning. Not with Enterprise, which is set earlier in the "Trek" timeline than any show, but with "Star Trek" — or as it's lovingly called these days, "The Original Series." This is the show that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969, forever altering the television medium, the science fiction genre, and the experience of being a fan. While some viewers may find the special effects laughable or the political themes unsubtle, the most astonishing thing about "TOS" is how well it holds up, even more than 50 years later. The first two seasons, in particular, are absolutely riddled with classic episodes, and while the third season is significantly worse due to changes in the creative team, it's still fun to watch William Shatner ham it up as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy raise a single Vulcan eyebrow as Mr. Spock, and the original Starship Enterprise soar through space. Most importantly, though, those first 79 episodes introduce rules, concepts, and even characters that "Star Trek" is still playing with today, from Class M planets and the Prime Directive to Khan and the Klingons.

The Animated Series

The unofficial fourth and fifth seasons of "Star Trek," "The Animated Series" aired on NBC from 1973 to 1974, after tempers had cooled somewhat between NBC and Roddenberry, who left "Star Trek" after its second season out of frustration with the network. Not only was the entire original cast back (minus Walter Koenig), but so was Roddenberry, and so was D.C. Fontana, Roddenberry's longtime assistant who had grown into one of the most celebrated "Trek" writers and had also departed after Season 2. Between the return of some of the show's original creative minds and cast, and the fact that animation allowed them to do so much more than live action special effects of the era, "TAS" is pure, undiluted "Star Trek."

It's never been made explicitly clear whether "TAS" is canon, but considering the number of "TAS" ideas re-used in later live-action shows, plus the introduction in "TAS" of canon pieces of backstory, like Kirk's middle name, it's silly at this point to believe otherwise. And it's required viewing for completists who want to see every televised adventure undertaken by the original Enterprise crew.

The first six films

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was released by Paramount in 1979, and while it's not an especially good film, it holds historical importance as the launching point for the "Star Trek" movie franchise. The real highlights in this part of the list, though, are the three films that followed. The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home essentially form their own trilogy of movies within the larger "Trek" saga, and are some of the most popular and critically acclaimed installments in the franchise. "The Wrath of Khan," in particular, tends to show up near the top of "best science fiction films in history" lists, making the titular Khan such an iconic villain that he was recast for the J.J. Abrams reboot movies, while "The Voyage Home" is probably the most charming "Star Trek" film, as the Enterprise travels to the past to rescue the humpback whale species from extinction.

Even the most dedicated binge-watcher can safely skip the horrendous fifth movie, "The Final Frontier," but "The Undiscovered Country" is an absolute masterpiece, and taken together, these six films provide a worthy capstone to the franchise's inaugural era.

It might seem counterintuitive to follow up the oldest "Star Trek" series with one of the newest, especially given that "Star Trek: Discovery" actually takes place prior to "The Original Series." But there's a good reason to jump from the tales of Kirk and Spock to the tales of Michael Burnham and...well, and Spock, who shows up in Season 2. "The Original Series" and its accompanying animated and film extensions are foundational to "Discovery," which is set shortly after the events of the rejected "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage." And characters from "The Cage" show up in Season 2 and are also appearing in their own spinoff, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

While an in-universe chronological watch order would put the first two seasons of "Discovery" before "TOS" and the third season at the very end (as the crew travels forward in time to the far future) it makes more sense to us to treat "Discovery" as its own story. The third season does occasionally reference "past" events from other shows, but that does lead nicely into the next "Trek" installment...

The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)

For many Trekkies today, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was their introduction to the franchise, and for good reason. If any one series beyond the original can lay a claim to being the single most iconic "Star Trek" story, it's Next Generation, which premiered in 1987 and went on to not only have seven seasons of its own, but to jumpstart a chain of interlocking "Star Trek" shows that would thoroughly dominate the 1990s. Before that, though, the first five seasons of Next Generation stood alone, and if you're trying to get somebody instantly hooked on Trek, this might actually be the place to start, despite the fact that the first couple of seasons don't hold up incredibly well.

If you're absorbing all of "Star Trek," though, "Next Generation" has to be the place to start. After all, it's the next generation of what, exactly? The answer is the Starship Enterprise, which comes with an entirely new cast and crew, introducing the world to Worf, Data, Counselor Troi, and Geordi LaForge, and permanently branding the hearts of a thousand Trekkies with the image of Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard .

The Next Generation (Season 6) / Deep Space Nine (Season 1)

Okay, this is where it gets weird. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" debuted in January 1993, just a few months after "Next Generation" kicked off its sixth season — a season full of unmitigated classics, incidentally, from the return of Montgomery Scott in "Relics" to the legendary two-parter "Chain of Command." Picard even makes a cameo in the first episode of "DS9," which takes place aboard a space station and uses the ideas and events of earlier "Next Generation" episodes to inform characters like Commander Benjamin Sisko and Quark. It's essentially impossible to understand Sisko's backstory, for example, without first having seen the "Next Generation" episode "The Best of Both Worlds."

Despite the fact that they take place over roughly the same time period, we recommend watching the entirety of Season 6 of "Next Generation" followed by the entirety of Season 1 of "DS9," if for no other reason than the former has more episodes than the latter, making it a complicated process to intercut between them. But however you choose to do it, these two seasons really should be watched back to back.

The Next Generation (Season 7) / Deep Space Nine (Season 2)

Similarly, the second season of "DS9" coincides with the last "Next Generation" season. While it might lack the standout episodes of earlier seasons, Season 7 manages a few achievements. For one thing, it puts a bow on one of the most beloved shows in television history with a flourish, ending the program with an ambitious, timeline-jumping two-parter that ties directly into the events of the very first episode. It also inadvertently lays the groundwork for a much more modern "Trek" show with an episode about junior officers called "Lower Decks." But most importantly, it ties into and reinforces "Deep Space Nine," most notably in the penultimate episode "Preemptive Strike," which deals with concurrent "DS9" problems like the Cardassians and the Maquis.

By the end of Season 2, "DS9" has already proven capable of standing on its own, having picked up and ran with the Maquis threads from earlier "Next Generation" episodes, returned to the Mirror Universe first introduced in the original series, and introduced the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar, who will serve as the series' primary antagonists. But the stories of Picard and company were far from over...

Generations

The four feature films built around the cast of "Next Generation" are a direct continuation of the movies that came before, not least because the first one, 1994's "Generations," serves as a bridge between "TOS" and its descendant, and between Kirk and Picard, in about the most literal way you could imagine. This movie marks the final appearance of several characters from the original show, including Kirk himself (the one played by William Shatner, at any rate) which makes it a crucial piece of the "Star Trek" timeline, as does the introduction of Data's emotion chip. Of course, some might consider the movie worth it just to see Malcolm McDowell chew the scenery like he hasn't eaten in three days, and we can't say they're wrong.

"Generations" launched Picard's crew onto the big screen almost immediately after their exit from the small one, meaning they would continue to be the face of "Star Trek" for the remainder of the decade. But back in the realm of "Trek" TV, things were only heating up, as a new series prepared to take the field and challenge "DS9" for television dominance.

Deep Space Nine (Season 3) / Voyager (Season 1)

Once again, it's time to switch between two seasons of "Star Trek," as the third season of "DS9" overlaps with the debuting "Star Trek: Voyager." The first "Trek" series to feature a woman (Kathryn Janeway) in the captain's chair, "Voyager" also had a unique and fascinating premise. Much of the "DS9" action is driven by the existence of a nearby wormhole that leads to the Gamma Quadrant, a section of space far away from the Federation's native Alpha Quadrant. This allows the titular space station and its intrepid crew to encounter any number of new and dangerous alien species. "Voyager" goes even farther, literally — a solitary ship finds itself transported to the even more distant Delta Quadrant and spends the rest of the series trying to get home.

Due to this premise, there's no reason whatsoever to jump between individual episodes of these two seasons, as the events of one show don't affect the other in any way. But jumping between shows by the season provides a fun and accurate experience of what it was like to watch the interlocking "Star Trek" programs of the 1990s.

Deep Space Nine (Season 4) / Voyager (Season 2)

Like most "Star Trek" shows, "Voyager" takes a couple of seasons to find its feet, and Season 2 in particular contains some of its most notoriously bad episodes, from the tone-deaf Native American implications of "Tattoo" to Janeway and Voyager pilot Tom Paris turning into salamanders and having salamander babies together in "Threshold" to the utter abomination that is "Tuvix." At least it has the consideration to get them all out of the way early on.

"DS9," meanwhile, was encountering its own problems in Season 4, which took a sharp turn away from the burgeoning conflict with the Dominion and instead spent most of its time dealing with the newly antagonistic Klingon Empire. Fortunately, even as the overarching plot went briefly off the rails, the writing was getting better and better, and the diversion is, if nothing else, entertaining. As a bonus, Season 4 features one of television's first lesbian kisses, and also brings in Worf, the Klingon security officer from "Next Generation" — until Picard, Michael Dorn was the only actor to star in the main casts of two different "Star Trek" shows.

First Contact

As a result of his dual roles, Worf would spend the next several years hopping back and forth between television and the movies. One reason it's important to watch Season 4 of "DS9" prior to watching "First Contact," the second film starring the "Next Generation" cast, is because in order to include Worf in the story, the latter is obligated to include a scene in which the Enterprise rescues another ship called the Defiant, introduced in "DS9" and captained by Worf himself. Future "Next Generation" movies, which decline in quality moving forward, come up with increasingly hand-wavy reasons for his presence on the Enterprise bridge.

"First Contact" itself, however, is by far the best of the "Next Generation" films and one of the best "Star Trek" films in general, as the crew travels back in time to prevent the cybernetic hive mind known as the Borg from altering history. Not only is "First Contact" a great movie (and the film directorial debut of Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander William Riker), it also kicks off a spectacular "Star Trek" run that can stand up against any other period in franchise history.

Deep Space Nine (Season 5) / Voyager (Season 3)

With Season 5, "DS9" gets back on track after the previous outlier season, quickly focusing around a single unified threat thanks to an alliance between the show's original antagonists the Cardassians and the Dominion. The presence of the sinister Changelings adds an intrigue element to the story, as any character could potentially be a Changeling in disguise — a concept that would be used to great effect years later in the 2004 reboot of "Battlestar Galactica." The season concludes with the official start of the Dominion War, a conflict that would dominate the remainder of the show.

"Voyager," meanwhile, was also getting back on track in its third season, which generally sees an uptick in quality — particularly toward the end, with episodes like "Before and After," "Real Life," and "Worst Case Scenario." Robert Picardo, who plays Voyager's holographic doctor, also gets to make a cameo in "DS9" as the Doctor's creator, Lewis Zimmerman, in the episode "Doctor Bashir, I presume." And Season 3 ends with the first installment of "Scorpion," which catalyzed "Voyager's" official rise to greatness in part thanks to a memorable new character.

Deep Space Nine (Season 6) / Voyager (Season 4)

These two overlapping seasons, airing in late 1997 and early 1998, represent the pinnacle of "Star Trek's" '90s golden age. In "DS9," the Dominion War is in full swing, the series' much-discussed religions themes are building in prominence, the mysterious Section 31 is introduced, foreshadowing its prominent role in both "Enterprise" and "Discovery," and most memorably, the showrunners do what almost no iteration of "Star Trek" has ever dared to do: permanently kill off a member of the main cast.

Casting changes are also a major part of Season 4 of "Voyager," which jettisons the little-loved character of Kes and officially introduces Seven of Nine , a liberated Borg drone played by Jeri Ryan who quickly joins the ranks of the franchise's most widely known characters. It's an oversimplification to suggest that the overall brilliance of Season 4 is the direct result of Ryan joining the cast, but no matter how much of it you attribute to her, it's a phenomenal season of television, filled from start to finish with some of the best "Voyager" episodes (and also "Retrospect," but we don't talk about that one).

Insurrection

It's not "First Contact," but 1998's "Insurrection" is still a pretty good "Next Generation" movie, another solid offering from Jonathan Frakes. While "Insurrection" doesn't interact much with the events of "DS9" or "Voyager," watching it at this point in the "Trek" timeline provides an overall context for the state of the Federation, which has been intermittently challenged, as the movie's primary villain points out, by the Borg, the Cardassians, and the Dominion. A sense of the Federation being assailed from all sides isn't strictly necessary for the film's story of familial betrayal on a planet that confers immortality, but it does make viewing it a more interesting experience (though again, the perfunctory inclusion of Worf simply because he's expected to be in "Next Generation" movies is potentially jarring for "DS9" fans who have become invested in his character development, which "Insurrection" largely ignores).

"Insurrection" is Frakes' last "Star Trek" movie as director (though he would later direct episodes of "Discovery" and "Picard") and marks the beginning of the end of the '90s "Trek" boom. There's still plenty of great "Trek" ahead, but the curve is now pointing down.

Deep Space Nine (Season 7) / Voyager (Season 5)

The final season of "DS9" represents one of the single greatest creative accomplishments in "Star Trek" history, as no "Trek" show to date has managed to stick such an ambitious and satisfying landing. In a unique move, the last 10 episodes of the season form a single, series-ending story, and the feature-length finale, "What You Leave Behind," is considered one of the greatest "Trek" episodes of all time. "DS9" had been great for at least two seasons prior to this one, but the success of Season 7 cemented it as a foremost jewel in the crown of the "Star Trek" franchise.

"Voyager," meanwhile, continued its stellar run of episodes, capping off a three-year rehabilitation effort that saw one of the franchise's shakiest shows become one of its best. It was good timing, too, because with "DS9" wrapping up ("What You Leave Behind" aired the week after the Season 5 "Voyager" finale, "Equinox"), Captain Janeway and her crew were suddenly the only starship in the galaxy. And you, intrepid binge-watcher, can finally stop switching between two different shows.

Voyager (Seasons 6-7)

Unlike "DS9," the final seasons of "Voyager" are not its best, though admittedly, after Seasons 4 and 5, that's a high bar to clear. Season 6 comes close with a steady stream of classics, introducing both the popular Holodeck scenario Fair Haven and the "Pathfinder" storyline that sees "Next Generation" vets Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi join up as recurring characters. By Season 7, however, the quality of "Voyager" has begun to dip noticeably — the final season contains few memorable episodes and at least one extremely ill-conceived romantic subplot. It earns some redemption, however, with the two-part series finale "Endgame," which, whether you like it or not, at least fulfills the promise of the show's premise and comes to a definitive conclusion about whether the ship and its crew are ever getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. It's a moment that would have been easy to shy away from, and "Voyager" meets it head on.

"Endgame" aired in May 2001, and in retrospect, the title didn't only apply to "Voyager." The continuous story that "Star Trek" had been telling for the past 14 years over the course of three different shows and three different movies was over. There was, however, one last (incredibly depressing) chapter to get through.

The final "Next Generation" film, released in 2002, is by far the worst of them, and the worst "Star Trek" movie in general since 1989's "The Final Frontier." It was so bad, in fact, that it notoriously killed "Star Trek" — plans for a fifth "Next Generation" movie were scrapped after "Nemesis" bombed at the box office, and creatively, it's an absolute nightmare, introducing a Romulan sister planet with the unfortunate name of Remus, blatantly attempting to restart Data's entire character arc via a literal copy with the also unfortunate name of B-4, and tying these and other unfortunate decisions together with a nonsensical plot featuring Tom Hardy as a secret clone of Picard. After "Nemesis," the scuttling of future franchise installments can honestly be seen as a mercy killing.

"Star Trek" wasn't quite dead in 2002, however. While we've now officially made it through the combined stories of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager," there's one more show, independent from the others, that now enters the viewing order. And watching it involves going back to the very beginning... and even before that.

In a chronological viewing, "Star Trek: Enterprise" would actually be the first show you watch, since it takes place a hundred years prior to "The Cage." Indirectly spinning off from the events of "First Contact," it tells the story of Earth's first warp starship, appropriately named the Enterprise and captained by Scott Bakula's Jonathan Archer, and of humanity's early relationships with alien species like the Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians. Despite its status as a prequel, the sheer degree to which "Enterprise" relies on its audience having knowledge of other "Star Trek" properties makes it almost impossible to recommend as an entry point. It fits much better here, as the official end of the franchise's second major era, especially given that the final episode, "These Are The Voyages...," frames itself as a holodeck simulation being watched by the Enterprise crew from "Next Generation."

"There Are The Voyages..." aired on May 13th, 2005. There wouldn't be another "Star Trek" show for more than 12 years. At this point, our watch order breaks away from order of release, but we feel strongly that it's how "Star Trek" from 1987 to 2005 should be watched.

Lower Decks

If you think 12 years is a long gap between "Star Trek" installments, that's nothing compared to the 45 years that went by between "Trek" stories told via animation. "Short Treks" was technically the first "Trek" show since "The Animated Series" to include animated episodes, and that aired in 2019, but 2020 gave us the first season of "Lower Decks," an entirely animated show about the people who don't get to hang out on the bridge.

The first franchise installment to ever concern itself primarily with characters who are not in command of a starship or space station, "Lower Decks" is the "Star Trek" equivalent of shows like HBO's "Harley Quinn" — an irreverent, adult-oriented comedy that revels in its TV-MA rating, delivering violence, sex, and swearing at warp speed frequencies. Chronologically, it's set shortly after the events of "Nemesis," but more importantly to the binge-watcher, it's the dessert following a feast — a vital dose of pure fun after absorbing almost four full decades of space drama.

The Kelvin timeline

After the box office failure of "Nemesis" brought an abrupt end to the "Next Generation" movies, there wasn't a new "Trek" film until 2009. And far from being a continuation of the existing movie franchise, this new version, simply called "Star Trek," was a reboot of "The Original Series," casting new, younger versions of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the first Enterprise crew. Sequels to the reboot followed in 2013 and 2016.

Watching these three movies as part of a "Star Trek" binge is pretty much entirely optional, since they take place in an alternate timeline created when the USS Kelvin was destroyed in battle with time-traveling Romulan ship from the 24th century, leaving an infant James T. Kirk without a father in the process. Moreover, the trilogy is widely considered to be of uneven quality (though the third movie, "Star Trek Beyond," is considerably better than its predecessor, possibly due to the departure of director J.J. Abrams). Still, if you're going to watch them, this is the place in the viewing order to do it, as a key plot point of the first film — the Romulan sun going supernova — plays a major role in "Picard."

Short Treks

The Kelvin movies might not exert much direct influence over the larger plot of "Star Trek," but they played a major role in the future of the franchise by bringing in Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman is the showrunner on "Discovery," and with the exception of "Lower Decks," he has been directly involved in every modern "Trek" series. In 2018, after the successful first season of "Discovery" led to a new expansion of the "Star Trek" franchise, Kurtzman and co-creator Bryan Fuller (formerly a writer on "DS9" and "Voyager") premiered "Short Treks," an anthology series of short, unrelated stories. As of this writing, there have been two seasons and 10 total episodes, some live-action, some animated.

"Short Treks" spans almost the entire "Star Trek" timeline — two episodes are set in the period of time between "Enterprise" and "The Original Series," while a third takes place in the far future. As a result, watching it requires a sense of the entire scope of the "Trek" universe. It's the penultimate entry in this watch order, however, because the Season 2 finale, "Children of Mars," leads directly into the final entry: "Picard."

"Star Trek: Picard" is the first of the modern "Trek" offerings to look forward rather than back, giving us a story set after the events of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager." Indeed, not only does the series follow up with Jean-Luc Picard 20 years after we last saw him (and 12 years after the Romulan sun went supernova) but it also brings in an older version of Seven of Nine, once again portrayed by Jeri Ryan. As mentioned, Picard also ties into the most recent installment of "Short Treks," which involves a terrorist attack by synthetic life forms that eventually leads to a ban on their creation — one of the many plot elements of "Picard" that has drawn criticism for being inconsistent with the original utopian vision of "Star Trek."

With so many new "Trek" shows on their way, this list will quickly become outdated. But all the upcoming series will reward previous "Trek" viewing, from Janeway's return on "Star Trek: Prodigy" to a show focused entirely on Section 31. So if you're going to binge all of "Star Trek," you might want to get started now!

Diana Muldaur says there was no humanity in Star Trek: The Next Generation

O ne of the biggest issues fans had with the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation was the replacement of Gates McFadden as the Enterprise's primary doctor, Dr. Beverly Crusher . McFadden was let go, and Diana Muldaur was hired as Dr. Katherine Pulaski. Meant to be abrasive much like Dr. Bones McCoy [DeForest Kelley] on Star Trek: The Original Series, Dr. Pulaski wasn't as welcomed as Dr. McCoy was aboard the Enterprise.

Writer Tracy Tormé, as reported in The Fifty-Year Mission The Next 25 Years From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, said that the abrasiveness lasted only two episodes before it was decided that changes needed to be made.

Pulaski was supposed to be abrasive. That lasted about two shows. "People aren't going to like her," they said. "We'd better make her loveable."Tracy Tormé

From Muldaur's side of things, though, she didn't seem to think that The Next Generation cast and crew had what it took, at least not for her. In fact, she called her time on the series "a waste of time."

You go into something with a good group of people, but it wasn't a great, creative, wonderful world. It was all techn. There was no humanity in it, there was nothin gto get my creative juices going whatsoever, and that was a waste of time to me, so my leaving the show was very mutual."Diana Muldaur

Fortunately, season three saw the return of McFadden, who, although wasn't 100% happy with the way her character was written, remained with the series until the end, following up with four movies before a return to season three of Star Trek: Picard gave her character the depth needed to make her shine.

Though one could say that Muldaur simply wasn't a good fit with The Next Generation, it's clear it wasn't a good fit with her, either. It wasn't just the fact that Dr. Pulaski came across as unlikeable; it was that she was replacing Dr. Crusher. And the fans didn't want that. They weren't ready to welcome anyone else into that slot. So even if the fans had liked what the producers did with the character, it still would have been an uphill battle to keep her as McFadden had made more of an impact in season one than even she could realize.

Muldaur had one season to make an impression on the fans, and it clearly didn't happen...at least not the one she and the creative team wanted. She went on to say that Star Trek: The Next Generation didn't have a "great mix of people and directors" while calling the directors "all kids, who had just come over from the old country, and didn't know what they were doing." Perhaps some of the directors did struggle in the second season, but by season three, The Next Generation had found its stride, and with the return of McFadden, it became a solid ratings hit.

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Diana Muldaur says there was no humanity in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

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• Trivia Almost everyone in the cast became life-long friends. At LeVar Burton 's 1992 wedding, Brent Spiner served as best man, and Sir Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , and Michael Dorn all served as ushers. Man of the People (1992) (#6.3) aired on that day.
• Goofs It is claimed that Data can't use contractions (Can't, Isn't, Don't, etc) yet there are several instances throughout the series where he does. One of the first such examples is heard in Encounter at Farpoint (1987) , where Data uses the word "Can't" while the Enterprise is being chased by Q's "ship".

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• Crazy credits The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.
• Alternate versions The first and last episodes were originally broadcast as two-hour TV movies, and were later re-edited into two one-hour episodes each. Both edits involved removing some scenes from each episode.
• Connections Edited into Reading Rainbow: The Bionic Bunny Show (1988)

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Interview: Denise Crosby On ‘Trekkies’ At 25 And Looking Back At ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’

| May 23, 2022 | By: Anthony Pascale 25 comments so far

Denise Crosby played Tasha Yar in the first season of  Star Trek: The Next Generation. After leaving as a series regular, Crosby returned to the show periodically to play Yar and her Romulan descendent Sela. Then in 1997 she collaborated with director Roger Nygard on Trekkies , acting as narrator and co-producer on the trailblazing documentary that took a serious look at the phenomenon of Star Trek fandom. The film was a hit, spawning a sequel ( Trekkies 2 ) in 2004.

This week, Shout! Factory is releasing the 25th anniversary edition of Trekkies, restored on HD for Blu-ray and VOD. TrekMovie spoke to Crosby about Trekkies 25 years later, how fandom has (and hasn’t) changed, and how she feels about that TNG reunion on Star Trek: Picard .

25 years later do you see Trekkies as a historical account of fandom in the 1990s, or something that is still relevant today?

I think it’s more relevant than ever. When we initially made the film 25 years ago, these doors were just opening up. There wasn’t an onslaught of DC and Marvel movies. Comic Cons weren’t as huge as they are now. We hit it just when things were starting to open up and change. So I think it’s a great piece of representation for the beginnings of what we kind of take for granted right now.

In a new Blu-ray special feature, you and Roger talk about how you didn’t know anything about making a documentary before you started. How did Trekkies benefit from that naivete, and now with the benefit of experience and hindsight, what would you have done differently?

Well, ignorance is bliss sometimes and you’re very creative in what you’re doing. We first started out with a convention that I was invited to locally here in LA at the Airport Hilton. And by chance, almost all of the original Star Trek cast was going to be there because it was a benefit for the Motion Picture Actors Fund. So fortunately, in one shot we could get all of those interviews. A lot of luck fell into our laps. And Roger Nygard, the director, had never made a documentary before, but he certainly knew his way behind a camera. So we were just sort of making things up as we went along and letting our instincts guide us. We didn’t have the luxury of shooting a lot of footage so we were careful with what we were shooting. But we were looking at it right away and we started to see a pattern, a story unfold. And so it kind of revealed itself to us as we went along. I don’t know that I would do anything differently. We had such a great time making the film. I was lucky enough to have the trust of people and fans and my fellow actors to allow me to kind of jump in there with them.

How do you feel about concerns the doc could be making fun of Star Trek fans?

It was not the intention to make fun of anyone; quite the opposite. What gave me the idea to do this was that I had been going to conventions for about eight or nine years by that point and I was struck by the depth of what this show meant in people’s lives, but also the relationships and friendships and charitable intentions and the social messages and social justice that people got involved in. And that was all gleaned from this kind of inherent utopian vision of the future. And they were trying to emulate this in their lives. So when I would watch the media try to talk about Star Trek fans and Trekkies, it was always with a sort of note of derision. It was very easy for the newscasters on the 11 o’clock news to say, “Oh, everybody get your Spock ears out and join us in Pasadena for a Star Trek convention.” And they kind of snicker, having never gone themselves to any convention, by the way. So I knew that there was so much more to this. And the only way to really capture what I was seeing was to turn the cameras on the fans themselves and let the public in on who these people are and what it’s like at a convention.

That being said, you’re also making a film. So you’re going to seek out people who really bring an exciting sort of story out. You want the general population, but you want stars in this genre to kind of stand out. And so that’s what we did. The other thing we did along the way is we conferred a lot with Richard Arnold, who was Gene Roddenberry’s right-hand man and a historian for all things Star Trek. And we ran footage and ideas by him to get his view on how this or that would be perceived. Like, “Would this be offensive to anyone?” He was our kind of guide.

Klingon fans in Trekkies (Shout! Factory)

You are still connected to the fandom and still going to cons. So what do you see as the biggest changes and what’s the same since what we saw in Trekkies ?

There’s certainly a lot more product. There is so much more Trek! There are three or four or five more series on now at the same time. There are so much more people watching. But what I’ve always loved is the generational sharing. It’s one of the few shows where many different ages can watch together and glean something from it. But the kind of experience you have going to a convention hasn’t really changed that much. People want to come and get their pictures taken or talk to you a little bit about the show. My favorite thing is always hearing from young women that are now adults, who were watching the character I played and really, something like a light bulb went off in their heads: “These things are possible for me… I can be a strong individual and succeed as a woman!” And that’s really pretty spectacular. Or they’ve gone into science. Like I’m going next weekend to the first Space Prize that’s being given. It’s a nonprofit foundation to encourage women and girls in high school to pursue careers in science and technology, engineering, arts, and math.

Being part of the launch of TNG you saw some of the first divisions between fans of the old and the new. Do you think things are the same today or has it become even more divisive?

You have to remember when we first were filming and we hadn’t aired any episodes yet, we had a lot of hostility aimed towards us. People for who this was their sacred cow. This show of Star Trek and Kirk and Spock and they just said this is not going to go over well. “You cannot do a next generation! This is this is sacrilegious!” And we, of course, as actors were just kind of scratching our heads. We have no idea what this was about or why this was so intense to people. So there’s always going to be that kind of argumentative kind of thing going on. Some people don’t like what J.J. Abrams did, other people love what he did. Some people are going to think Trekkies is making fun of the fans, other people go, “My god, we’re so grateful you did this movie.” It’s kind of inherent in what it is.

Have you kept up with the new shows? Like there is an animated comedy bringing back a lot of classic characters.

Just a little bit. I don’t follow it fully enough. I know that some people reached out to me with Lower Decks and they were talking about Armus and brought him back and people were really thrilled about that to get some righteous justice with him. I’ll check in with a couple of the actors if I can catch it. I love so many of the actors on the new shows that I’ve known personally and worked with, like Sonequa [Martin-Green]. I worked with her on The Walking Dead so when I was up in Toronto I came to visit the set. But there is so much, I couldn’t possibly watch it all.

You must have heard the news that they’re bringing your TNG co-stars back for the next season of Picard ?

I did hear that, yes. Because people keep asking me if they’re going to have Sela back. But there are no plans for that. Certainly, if they ask, I’ll definitely do it, but I’ve never been asked.

Unfortunately, the season has been shot and that is the last season.

Oh, okay. Well then, that ship has sailed. I don’t really follow it, though. I have never seen Picard . I don’t watch much of it, to be honest.

Leonard Nimoy in Trekkies (Shout! Factory)

I know you have talked about how you were miserable and that’s why you left TNG, so I understand if you don’t want to talk about it again. But now seeing this reunion, do you ever look back and wonder if you could have done something differently to make it work, maybe talk to Gene [Roddenberry]…  

I did talk to Gene. And he said it’s never going to change. He said the show is going to focus on Picard, Data, and the first officer. “That’s what it did in The Original Series , and that’s what I want to do for this one.” He said, “I don’t want you to leave, but I get why you would want to leave.” It’s never going to be about the other characters. Once in a while, you’ll get a storyline. But TV was changing very much so in the ‘80s. When you had big casts, you had multiple storylines. Hill Street Blues was sort of the first kind of benchmark for that. And again, in the ’80s I was in drama school and nobody was aspiring to be on a TV show. You have to frame it in not this day and age. Now, television has the best storylines going on and great series, but in the ‘80s, television was where you went to because you couldn’t get a movie, or you couldn’t get a Broadway play.

So you have to really put it in context. The last thing I wanted was to stand around for seven years in that same position in that same suit going “Aye aye, Captain.” Right? It’s not what I went to drama school for, and that’s not what I dreamed of doing. I think you got to take your shot, whether it works or not, but owe it to yourself to do it. And what nobody could foresee, was that in the middle of the second or third season, Gene passed away and Michael Piller came on board and pretty much changed things around.

Right, now everyone gets an episode or two a season…

Yeah, or gets a storyline. I certainly didn’t want to be the star of Star Trek: The Next Generation , but I wanted to have some sort of meat on the bone there.

Are you saying that if Michael Piller was running the show, you wouldn’t have left?

Oh, you can’t, who knows? I don’t know. I think it changed though when he came on board. So, I don’t know. For me, it was the right decision to do. Because I feel like I’ve continued. It’s like I never really left. I came back in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” I came back as another character entirely. I made Trekkies , I made Trekkies 2 . So I kind of got the best of both worlds, really.

Speaking of Trekkies 2 , can we expect an upcoming anniversary release of that in HD and Blu-ray from Shout! Factory?

Oh, let’s hope so. That would be wonderful! They’ve been so great and so supportive. We finally got to do what we had been waiting to do. We want the film back out on all the platforms and streaming and this beautiful new version. And I certainly would be very happy to have that happen.

And now for the obligatory Trekkies 3 question… Any chance that is going to happen?

[Laughs] Roger and I have some ideas and we would love to do it. We would certainly bring it into the present day. And there’s a lot still to cover. And we would check in on some our superheroes from the first one. So, fingers crossed, you will see that.

Do you have an angle on what you might focus on?

Again, we would let the fans you drive that. I’m curious about what you asked me about which was: What are the differences now? And kind of measure it against our own experience and our own film from 25 years ago, I’d also like to go to some places we haven’t been to like in Asia and India see what kind of Trek presence is there. And, again, I would like to revisit some of the people who stand out in the first movie.

Denise Crosby in Trekkies (Shout! Factory)

Trekkies returns on Tuesday in HD

Trekkies: 25th Anniversary Edition will be released in HD on Blu-ray and Video on Demand on Tuesday, May 24th. The 25h anniversary edition is based on a new 4K scan restoration. The Blu-ray includes a new documentary featurette, “A Trek Back,” with the film’s narrator Denise Crosby and director Roger Nygard.

Trekkies features interviews with hundreds of fans, along with a number of notable Star Trek veterans including James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, and George Takei.

The Blu-ray can be ordered for $18.98 at ShoutFactory.com , or for $16.09 at Amazon.  Starting Tuesday can buy a digital version for $16.99 or rent it for $4.99 via iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your digital media. It is expected to be eventually be released for streaming, but no date or details are available.

Find more news on Star Trek documentaries .

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I like Denise Crosby. She’s always been a straight shooter.

I used to know Daryl Frazetti, the cat guy. He taught a lot of sci-fi classes. He…it might have been one thing or another with him, but I had some horrible experiences with him. Screamed at me in a car in LA, abandoned me in Pasadena, and at another event, Roger Nygard had to PAY for my bus ride back because Daryl had a mental breakdown and refused to drive back with me. The last straw was when he threatened my ex’a cats while we were away, because he was pissed off we didn’t take him to comic con.

I did get to meet Roger and Larry Nemechek through him, and went to a few Warp 11 shows. I guess that’s a plus. If you watch the bluray for season 3 of TOS, a panel I did with him is on the special features.

Brent Spiner has had multiple versions of Soong ancestors…time for a Yar ancestor on Strange New Worlds? (“Set fan service to maximum” :-)

i wouldn’t be surprised. One of the fan series, New Voyages I think it was had Crosby as an ancestor of Yar on the Enterprise several years back.

I pre-ordered this when it was released. Marvelous movie.

I hope Crosby is lying and Tasha shows up in season three of “Picard.” I couldn’t care less that it wouldn’t make any sense for her to do so; making sense is not this show’s bag anyways.

Perhaps Sela was told her mother was executed, to cover up for the embarrassing fact that Tasha actually escaped!

please please please i love this… romulans are supposed to be the biggest liars, right?

Except Tasha would be about twenty years older.

I think Sela said she *saw* her mother executed, no? Or was that just in a novel?

I’m not exactly clamouring for Tasha Yar to return but that she would have aged 20 more years than her colleagues isn’t really an issue for me given that humans are supposed to live to a 130+ In the 24th/25th century. Personally I thought that they should have had a bigger than real time gap between Star Trek Nemesis and Star Trek Picard to account for the actors looking so much older.

Honestly season one made the most sense to bring Sela back. It would’ve been great if she was the one that was looking for the Synths. Or maybe give her a redemption arc and we see her helping Picard in the end. Lots of potential there.

And while I believe Crosby that she’s not in season 3, these guys have been pretty good at lying! ;)

Had to shake my head that Denise said that they relied on Richard Arnold’s advice.

That alone might make a big difference between the first two documentaries and an update.

I don’t know who could fill a similar consultant role now. It’s problematic because everyone who might be helpful also has their own slant on what should be, what’s sensitive or how it “really” was – just as Arnold did.

With three decades of conventions behind her, Denise herself may be discounting her own experience and expertise about the fandom regardless of whether she’s watched the newer series.

Richard Arnold was a mean-spirited little man who abused his tiny bit of authority and did a lot of damage to the Star Trek franchise, claiming all of it was in Gene’s name when the reality was that Gene was very sick and Richard was making (bad) decisions unilaterally. I worked at Paramount at the time, and a lot of people couldn’t stand him, but Gene protected him for whatever reason. He liked to parade himself as some sort of Trek historian, but he wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable as he liked to pretend, and he had it out for the licensed writers for some inexplicable reason. Once Gene was gone, Richard was fired and none of us were upset about it. I was sorry he died because deaths are sad, but if truth be told none of us missed his presence at Paramount . There was a lot of bad blood and damage that had to be fixed after he was no longer in a position to create it.

Thanks for sharing Lorna Dune.

I have heard the same in the early 90s from others with connections to TNG production back in the early seasons.

There’s a firm sense that he contributed to the miasma of stress and misery that surrounded preproduction and licensing.

So, there’s a sad irony that Denise Crosby, who suffered in her own way from constrained horizons in thinking about her role as Yar, relied on his advice and judgment.

That’s exactly it, yes.

“He liked to parade himself as some sort of Trek historian, but he wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable as he liked to pretend” Wow, lol

Lorna gets around. He was there at the creation of TNG it seems like and just recently he said he was in talks with the showrunners of Disco about season 5. I’m envious.

I’m not working on Disco. :) But I did work at Paramount in the early ’90s.

Lorna makes up a lot of stuff.

This is a general comment not directed at anyone in particular

I’m always weary about anonymous posters on the internet “sharing their resumes.” It’s such a convenient way to back up their POV’s and you have no way to verify it. And if the person doing that also has a history of being rude to others, I get even more skeptical regarding their claimed “resumes.”

Trekkies for sure was making fun of some of the fans, but it was awesome. Be proud of who you are. Some people take it too far for my taste, but I love them for it and I loved Trekkies.

I found some of her answers slightly disingenuous—mainly continuing to maintain that she did the right thing by leaving TNG when you just know, you just KNOW, she spent the rest of her career regretting it. There’s nothing wrong with admitting the truth. We’re all winging it through life and sometimes we make choices we end up regretting. I sometimes think it would have been cool to see how they’d have developed her character. Not that many of the show’s characters really developed that much mind you.

I don’t think it’s disingenuous for her to say that she made the best decision with the information she had and the context of the time, but might have made a different decision had she foresight about how things would change.

Let’s be concrete here. All three female main cast members strongly considered quitting at the end of the first season: Crosby, McFadden and Sirtis. Two out of three did leave. This tells us a lot about the experience all the women on the cast were having and the messages that Roddenberry and the other EPs were giving them about the prospect for meaningful roles.

Unlike Dr. Crusher who had a son remaining on the ship, Yar was killed off and written out in a way that precludes any return. She was also given what fans considered a “meaningless death” more in keeping with a TOS red shirt than a main cast bridge officer.

If all the facts don’t add up to an environment that was not positive of female actors and characters, I don’t know what more you need.

I don’t think that she does regret it. She did a recent interview with the Treksperts Briefing Room podcast and seemed very at peace with her choice. If you look at her filmography she has had a very rich career in television and film post-TNG that she might not have developed otherwise. She also got to remain in the Trek family with the classic episode Yesterday’s Enterprise and the resulting Sela character.

Jeepers, I’m old.

I always hoped that there would be a TREKKIES 3.

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