Looking Back At 30 Years Of Star Trek: The Next Generation

On September 28, 1987, Encounter At Farpoint, the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation aired. I was just shy of six year old at the time. That means I wasn’t alive for the original run of Star Trek. But I watched re-runs of the original Star Trek series as a kid, and I remember being super excited that a new Star Trek series was about to air. I specifically remember watching the Entertainment Tonight piece that highlighted the new show two months before it aired.

Whatever time TNG aired on our local affiliate was past my bedtime, so my parents would tape each episode, and my brother and I would watch it on Sundays after church. (They specifically did not let us watch the still terrifying first season episode “Conspiracy,” nor have I shown it to my kids.) I still remember seing Q Who for the first time. That’s the episode that introduced the Borg, and I remember how scary I found them. Speaking of the Borg, I still remember the experience of watching The Best of Both Worlds Part 1, one of the greatest TV show cliffhangers of all time which ended with Captain Picard being transformed into one of the Borg. I still remember the stunned disappoinment I felt when my parents explained to me that I would have to wait all summer to find out how it ended.

In all honestly it both stuns me and makes me feel old to realize that today we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I still remember 1991 and the celebration of Star Trek’s 25th anniverary like it was yesterday. We had 25th anniversary trading cards, and we played the heck out of the 25th anniversary video game, still one of my favorite games of all time. That’s the year that Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country came out, the first Star Trek film I saw in the theater. I remember that my dad took my brother and me to the barber shop before we went to the movie, and my dad teasingly tried to get me to tell the barber to give me Star Trek sideburns, but I was too shy to ask for them.

Most TNG fans will tell you that the show didn’t really find its footing until the third or fourth season. And that’s probably true. Most TNG fans also don’t really care for that first season all that much. But having gone back and watched it recently, I find it quite charming. It’s the most like the original series of any of the seasons of TNG. That’s largely because it had many of the same writers and production staff from the original series. Some of the sets look very much like TOS sets.

Thanks to Netflix, I can now go and watch any episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation any time I please at a moment’s notice. Now that I’m a father I’ve gotten to share many TNG episodes with my own kids. What a tremendous show, and how fitting it is that as we celebrate its 30th anniversary, a new Star Trek TV show has just begun airing. Live long an prosper, TNG!