Star Trek: The Next Generation/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acting for Two: "Time Squared" (Patrick Stewart plays two Picards). "Second Chances" (Jonathan Frakes plays two Rikers). Any episode with Data & Lore or their "father" Dr. Noonien Soong (also see the episode "Brothers" which was Acting For Three, including one stint in enough make up to make a Klingon's actor cry). And let's not forget "A Fistful of Datas", where Data plays...a fistful of Ancient-Western stock-characters.
  • Actor Allusion: TNG had a minor in-show example: In "Descent, Part II", the Enterprise is forced to hide within a star's corona by using an experimental shield. The lieutenant at Tactical doesn't think that the shield will work, but is proven wrong. The actor played a different character in a previous episode who tried to make it appear that the shield didn't work.
  • Banned in China: "The High Ground" got banned from broadcast in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland due to a line about Ireland being reunited in 2024 following a successful "terrorist" campaign.
    • "Conspiracy" was banned for a time in the U.K. because of the infamous "exploding Remmick" scene.
  • Descended Creator: Roddenberry's wife Majel Barrett, who also played Lwaxana Troi, owned a great deal of the rights and was one of the chief executives owning Star Trek after her husband's death.
  • Development Gag: "The Schizoid Man" was originally to have guest-starred Patrick McGoohan; the title of the episode is the same as that of an episode from his famous series The Prisoner. Even though McGoohan did not appear in the episode, the title remained unchanged as a tribute.
  • Directed by Cast Member: Stewart, Frakes, Burton and McFadden all directed episodes. McFadden also choreographed the dance sequences in "Data's Day", Frakes directed two of the movies, and Dorn directed several episodes of DS9.
  • Enforced Method Acting: The relationships between the characters mirrored the relationships between the actors. Knowing this may cast Gene Roddenberry in a different light.
  • Executive Meddling: Is what got Patrick Stewart an audition in the first place. The casting director saw him in a play and wanted him to try out, but Roddenberry was against it - feeling Stewart was too old and too bald to play Picard. Rick Berman admitted to also having doubts, but he was at least willing to give Stewart a shot. Berman, the casting director and production manager Robert H. Justman kept pressuring Roddenberry until he finally relented to seeing Stewart audition.
  • Exiled From Continuity: Roddenberry originally ruled that none of the TOS races and worlds (Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans...) would appear in TNG. The original characters as well as their possible offspring were also forbidden. This rule was obviously relaxed from the start, with the presence of Worf and Bones McCoy in the pilot.
  • Fake Brit: Daniel Davis, who played a hologram of Professor James Moriarty and the snide British butler on The Nanny, hails from the Royal House of Arkansas.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Picard's habit of straightening his uniform is called "the Picard Maneuver" by fans (not to be confused with "the Picard Maneuver" from the episode "The Battle").
    • The Galaxy-class starship is often abbreviated to "GCS".
    • "Cleavage" for Troi.
  • Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted with Brent Spiner's Data, a completely emotionless character played by an utter goofball of an actor.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Often overlapping with Retroactive Recognition
    • Terry O'Quinn, aka John Locke, was Riker's first commanding officer, now an Admiral, in "The Pegasus".
    • Bob Gunton, aka Samuel Norton, played Chief O'Brien's previous captain in "The Wounded".
    • Mark Alaimo appeared as a minor Rubber Forehead Alien in Season 1's "Lonely Among Us," Romulan Commander Tebok later that season in "The Neutral Zone," Cardassian Gul Macet in Season 4's "The Wounded", and a 19th century gambler in Season 5's "Time's Arrow" before taking on the role of Deep Space Nine's Gul Dukat.
    • The late Andreas Katsulas, who played Romulan Commander Tomalak, was Ambassador G'Kar on Babylon 5, and Fred Sykes, the one-armed man in The Fugitive.
    • General Gogol is one of the scientists in "Home Soil".
    • Data is Devlin Bowman.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: The Japanese-dubbed version has some interesting casting choices, mostly from the sci-fi and Mecha genres:
  • Life Imitates Art:
    • In the William Shatner documentary The Captains, Patrick Stewart's behind-the-scenes experiences at TNG share an odd similarity with his character. Stewart, who was stressed out over succeeding the stars of TOS and working long hours, got the cast together and told them to quit goofing off between takes ("We're not here to HAVE FUN!!"); his castmates never let him live that down. According to Stewart, TNG taught him to do good work and have fun doing it. This is mirrored by Picard's final line of the show, in which he joins his crew for a game of poker.
    • The Tricorders and to a lesser extent the computer PADDs seen in this version of Trek inspired all kinds of similarly-sized, touchscreen-powered devices, such as tablet PCs, Palm Pilots and the iPhone. THE IPAD IS FROM THE FUTURE!
  • McLeaned: Lt. Natasha Yar was killed by the Monster of the Week instead of just being transferred to another vessel.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Both Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton were Trekkies at the time of their hiring.
  • Promoted Fangirl: Whoopi Goldberg, who was a big fan of the original series, and has specifically named Nichelle Nichols as her inspiration for acting. Just before the second season entered production, she called Roddenberry, saying "I am a Star Trek fan, I was a Star Trek fan long before I was ever Whoopi Goldberg and I'm wondering if there's some part I can play in your show?" Roddenberry was so impressed that he re-wrote the bartender character he had intended to introduce for Goldberg.
  • Romance on the Set: Patrick Stewart, on the lookout for the next Ex-Ms. Patrick Stewart, dated Jennifer Hetrick (Vash) during Seasons 3 & 4. They were briefly engaged during "Q-Pid", but nothing came of it.
  • Stoic Character Cheerful Actor: Brent Spiner, who plays the emotionless android Data, has a reputation as something of a cheerful, enthusiastic goofball off the set.
    • Likewise Michael Dorn, who plays Worf, is known for being rather gregarious and a bit geeky once he break character.
  • Talking to Himself: Riker in "Second Chances". Any time Lwaxana Troi interacts with the computer.
  • Throw It In:
    • "Skin of Evil" was Denise Crosby's last aired episode, with her character being killed off. In the previous episode "Symbiosis" (which was actually filmed later), she's in the background at the end, as Picard and Crusher enter the turbolift. Just as the doors close she waves goodbye to the camera.
    • In "QPid", Vash has been transformed into Lady Marian by Q. As they were filming the scene where she paces back and forth in her cell, Jennifer Hetrick tripped over her dress. The director left it in reasoning that a 24th century woman would not be used to walking in 12th-century finery.
  • Trope Namer: This series named the following tropes:
  • Troubled Production: As per usual with Trek, getting the show on the air was extremely taxing. Gene was quarrelsome, in ill health, and fans of The Original Series were more than usually scrutinizing. The prototype uniforms smelled bad (spandex retains bodily oils more than the newer cloth uniforms) and gave the actors back problems. By the time three seasons had passed, three actors (Crosby, McFadden, and Muldaur) had had enough, and Patrick Stewart was in the middle of contract re-negotiations. General consensus has it that the audience response to "Best of Both Worlds" revitalized the program, although the addition of Whoopi Goldberg and return of Gates certainty helped.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Apparently Tracey Tormé has originally wanted to include an Andorian in the episode "Conspiracy", but was informed by a producer (probably Berman) that, “We don’t do antennae on this show.” As such, the Bolians were rolled in as a compromise – blue, antennae-less aliens. Later, DS9 writer and producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe reported that producer Rick Berman did not care for the antennae, and noted that, “if we’d been allowed to, I guarantee we’d’ve put an Andorian on the show so fast your head would’ve spun.“ The Andorians were finally given their day on Enterprise, appearing in the "The Andorian Incident", one of the least-regarded episodes in Star Trek history (looks like Berman had a point...).
    • Robin Williams was offered the part of the time-traveling "Dr." Berlinghoff Rasmussen in "A Matter of Time", but he was busy working on Hook at the time, so the role was given to Matt Frewer.
    • Stewart auditioned for TNG three times. Once for Data and twice for Picard. Once bald and once wearing a hairpiece.
    • Edward James Olmos was offered the part of Jean-Luc Picard, but declined due to being constrained by contractual obligation.
    • Marina Sirtis and Denise Crosby were originally going to play Yar and Troi respectively, but switched roles at the last minute.
    • The Borg were planned to be insectoid aliens but the special effects budget wouldn't run to it. The concept was reused for the Jarada, who we never see on-screen.
    • The writers considered crashing the ship's saucer section on a planet as the cliffhanger ending of Season 6, but the budget didn't allow for it. This was eventually used in Star Trek Generations instead. Separating the saucer itself was planned to be a much more common tactic, but again effects expenses meant it was only used four times. In addition, halfway through season one it had become painfully obvious that saucer separation was time-consuming and destroyed the pacing, a major issue when it was supposed to happen halfway through dramatic battle sequences.
    • Bill Campbell, who played the titular "Outrageous" Okona, tried out for the part of Riker.
    • Wesley Snipes was considered to star as Geordi LaForge. Tim "Tuvok" Russ also auditioned for the role. He came that close to getting it, too.
    • Among the actors that auditioned for Riker were Jeffrey Combs and Maxwell Forrest - both of whom became pretty well-known to viewers regardless.
    • How much better would "The Outcast" have been if the actors playing the sexless J'naii were male instead of female? Jonathan Frakes criticized the staff for not doing that and making the message of the episode that much stronger.
    • For "All Good Things...", the writers considered revisiting "The Best of Both Worlds" in addition to the other three time periods.
    • Dr. Selar (from "The Schzoid Man" and repeatedly referenced) was originally intended to be a recurring character and develop a romance with Worf, since there was a drought of Vulcans on the show and pairing one up with a Klingon sounded interesting. But this was scuttled when K'Ehleyr was introduced later the same season. Incidentally, both characters have similar names (seriously, try sounding them out) and were played by Statuesque Stunner Suzie Plakson.
    • The Enterprise was originally going to be the seventh rather than fifth ship to bear the name, and was referred to in the script as the Enterprise Seven rather than the Enterprise-D we know and love.
    • The writers considered bringing back Denise Crosby as Tasha in one of the alternate universes in "Parallels", but decided against it, feeling it'd be redundant after "Yesterday's Enterprise".
    • The Q Continuum were originally going to be many people with the same face. This portrayal is rather apparent in "Encounter At Farpoint", with each change of costume Q goes through usually resulting in a change in attitude and demeanor. However, by Q's next appearance, this particular idea seems to have been dropped, with Q acting as a single individual, and later episodes (and Star Trek: Voyager) introduced additional members of the Q Continuum.
    • The writers didn't know what to do with Troi in Season 1, even omitting her from four episodes just to save themselves the trouble. Marina Sirtis has said she was nearly let go after Season 1 because of this. She was only kept on because Denise Crosby had already left and Gates McFadden would soon decide to leave.
    • At one point, Wesley Crusher was planned as a female character named Leslie Crusher, as the TNG creators thought the teenaged boy genius was too much of a cliché (they were probably right). Although considering that a female genius would have been Mary Sue, it was kind of a no-win situation.
    • Ronald D. Moore considered bringing Captain Jellico back to be the commander of the Enterprise in the Alternate Timeline presented in the episode "Tapestry".
    • One of the people who was considered a favorite for the role that eventually became Tasha Yar was Rosalind Chao, who later portrayed Keiko O'Brien.
    • Patrick Stewart's contract was up for renewal at the end of season three, and he waffled a bit over whether he would continue with the show. Hence, "The Best of Both Worlds Part 1" was constructed around the possibility of losing Picard (with no forward planning on how to resolve the story either way).
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