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Star
Trek: TNG was set 75
years after the conclusion of Captain Kirk's epic five-year mission. The
Federation and the Klingon Empire were now in a shaky alliance. There were
new enemies in the money-grabbing Ferengi, the collective super-beings
called the Q, and new threats from beyond the limits of the explored
galaxy: the Borg had arrived, and they drained whole civilisations of life
and technology. They were also virtually invulnerable.
The crew were a fair representation of Starfleet's
finest: a mixture of people who were by turns accomplished, experienced ,
heroic, brave, bold, and quite often just plain irritating. To soften
that, a semi-regular character was Guinan, played by self-confessed fan
Whoopi Goldberg. She starred as the alien host of Ten-Forward, the popular
lounge-cum-bar located at the front of deck 10, and acted as casual mentor
and agony aunt for the crews' woes, popping up regularly from Season Two
onwards.
Creator Gene Roddenberry died in late 1991, and the
film Star Trek VI was dedicated to his memory (from that point, a
whole host of producers and co-producers became evident). There was a
90-minute special made to celebrate twenty-five years of the programme
(this was shown on Sky Movies; BBC2 trimmed it down to 50 minutes for its
own screening a couple of months later). Star Trek continued to
go from strength to strength, and, with the original cast having hung
their hats for the very last time, the TNG crew moved onto a new set of
films, leaving the Deep Space Nine
crew to take on the task of
being the primary television series, with Star Trek: Voyager joining
it there.
The BBC were much hampered by Sky One's snatching of
the series from its very hands. Sky's rights to broadcast each new episode
exclusively in the UK forced BBC2 to show it in stops and starts, and they
didn't help themselves by scheduling it at 6.00pm. BSkyB and its half a
million interested viewers enjoyed the full run of ST:TNG three
times over in the time BBC2 screened it once, much to the detriment of
BBC2's audience of six million or so. The dates used here are first BBC2
broadcast dates, while Season Seven is taken from Sky One. Episode running
times for Season One were longer than normal, coming in at around
47-minutes each, this before changes were made to advertising slots in America.
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Created by: Gene
Roddenberry
Exec Producers: Rick Berman and Gene
Roddenberry (to 1991), with Michael
Pillar (Seasons 4-7), and Jeri Taylor
(Season 7)
Co-Exec Producers: Maurice Hurley
and Rick Berman (Season 2), Jeri Taylor
(Season 6)
Producers: Maurice Hurley (Season 1),
David Livingston (Season 2-5), Lee
Sheldon (Season 2-4), Burton Armus,
Mike Gray, John Armus (Season 2),
Peter Lauritson (Season 6), Ronald D
Moore (Season 7)
Associate Producers: Peter Lauritson
(Seasons 1-2), D C Fontana (Season 1),
and Wendy Neuss (Seasons 4-5)
Co-Producers: Robert Lewin (Season 1),
Herbert Wright (Season 1), Peter
Lauritson (Season 2-7), Joe Menosky
(Season 5), Ronald
D Moore (Seasons 5-7),
Wendy Neuss (Seasons 6-7), Brannon
Braga (Season 7)
Line Producers: David Livingston (Seasons 1-5),
Merri D Howard (Seasons 6-7)
Supervising Producers: Rick Berman (Season 1),
Robert H Justman (Season 1), David
Livingston, Frank Abatemarco (Seasons 3-6),
Jeri Taylor (Seasons 4-5), David Livingston
(Season 7)
Consulting Producer: Peter Lauritson (Season 7)
Creative Consultant: Greg Strangis
(Season 1 Only)
Executive Story Editor: Tracy Tormé
(Season 1 Only)
Title Theme: Jerry Goldsmith and
Alexander Courage
Incidental Music Variously By: Ron Jones,
Dennis McCarthy, Jay Chattaway,
and John Debney
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US Production/UK Screenings:
Season 1: 26 Episodes
1987-88/26th September 1990 - 27th March 1991
Season 2: 22 Episodes
1988-89/3rd April - 2nd October 1991
Season 3: 26 Episodes
1989-90/9th October 1991 - 6th May 1992
Season 4: 26 Episodes
1990-91/13th April - 18th December 1994
Season 5: 26 Episodes
1991-92/25th December 1994 - 14th June 1995
Season 6: 26 Episodes
1992-93/21st June - 20th December 1995
Season 7: 25 Episodes (including 1
double-length)
1993-94/31st July 1994 - 29th January 1995 (Sky One)
A Paramount Production
177 colour 44-minute episodes
(BBC2/Sky One)
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