page_title: Star Trek: The Next Generation
section_title: Story arcs and themes
hierarchical_section_title: Star Trek: The Next Generation / Story arcs and themes
caption_attribution_description: English: Brent Spiner, William Shatner, and Levar Burton at the Tweet House during Comic-Con in San Diego, California.
context_page_description: Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired from September 28, 1987 to May 23, 1994, in syndication, spanning 178 episodes over seven seasons. The third series in the Star Trek franchise, it is the second sequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of the United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of a Starfleet starship, the USS Enterprise, in its exploration of the Milky Way galaxy.
  In the 1980s, Roddenberry—who was responsible for the original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and a series of films—was tasked by Paramount Pictures with creating a new series in the franchise. He decided to set it a century after the events of his original series. The Next Generation featured a new crew: Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Commander Worf, LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as counselor Deanna Troi, Denise Crosby as Lieutenant Tasha Yar, Gates McFadden as Dr.
context_section_description: Star Trek had a number of story arcs within the larger story, and oftentimes different episodes contributed to two or more different story or character arcs. Some are epitomized by the aliens the characters interact with, for example, TNG introduced the Borg and the Cardassians. The Klingons and Romulans had been introduced in The Original Series (1966–1969); however, the Klingons were somewhat rebooted with a "turtle-head" look, although a retcon was given to explain this in an Enterprise episode. Other story arcs focus on certain peripheral characters such as Q, Ro Laren or characters projected on the Holodeck.
  Certain episodes go deeper into the Klingon alien saga, which are famous for having an actual Klingon language made for them in the Star Trek universe. The Klingon stories usually involve Worf, but not all Worf-centric shows are focused on Klingons. The Duras sisters, a Klingon duo named Lursa and B'Etor, were introduced on TNG in the 1991 episode “Redemption”. They later appeared in the film Generations.
  One of the science fiction technologies featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation was an artificial reality machine called the "Holodeck", and several award-winning episodes featured plots centering on the peculiarities of this device. Some episodes focused on malfunctions in the holodeck, and in one case how a crew member became addicted to the environment created by the technology. The dangers of technology that allows illusion is one of ongoing themes of Star Trek going back to the 1st pilot, "The Cage" where aliens' power of illusion to create an artificial reality is explored. One of the plots is whether a character will confront a reality or retreat to a world of fantasy.
caption: Brent Spiner (left) stars as the android Data on the show and all four movies, and also plays Data's "father" (e.g. manufacturer) and "brother".
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