Star Trek: The Next Generation

You may be looking for the trope: Next Generation.
Star Trek: The Next Generation was similar to the original Star Trek concept: a large, diverse crew on a ship called the Enterprise travels the galaxy, meets aliens, and spreads goodwill. Set 78 years after Kirk and Spock, this time, the ship was even bigger, and there were more aliens. 
Some of Gene Roddenberry's plans for Star Trek: Phase II, such as the characters of Willard Decker and Ilia (who morphed into Riker and Troi) and The Questor Tapes (both Questor and Phase II's Vulcan Lieutenant Xon informed the concepts behind Data), survived into the new series.
TNG was similar to the Star Trek: TOS concept: a large, diverse crew on a ship called the Enterprise travels the galaxy, meets aliens, and spreads goodwill. This time, the ship was even bigger, and there were more aliens. TNG brings the Star Trek timeline a century forward to the 24th Century, a time in which the Federation that the characters belong to has become a stable galactic power. The militarism of Star Trek is toned down with more focus on diplomacy. 
Not successful at first, the show lurched forward until the third season when it found its feet with the introduction of the Borg as arch-villains. TNG ultimately ran an unheard of (for a science fiction show) seven seasons, bowing out by choice to make way for a series of movies starring the cast. Hugely popular, TNG is the only other Star Trek series to rival the main cast in media familiarity. 
TNG is what made Star Trek big in other countries, like Germany, where the Star Trek fan clubs in the 1990s grew rapidly and the fan scene was very active.
==Canon==
=== Characters===
 
* Jean-Luc Picard 
* William Riker 
* Geordi La Forge 
* Worf 
* Beverly Crusher 
* Katherine Pulaski
* Data 
* Guinan
* Wesley Crusher 
* Tasha Yar
* Deanna Troi 
* Q 
* Keiko O'Brien
* Miles O'Brien 
* Lwaxana Troi
* Lore
* Ro Laren
===Early Casting===
From the March 1987 issue of Comlink: 
This was also published in March 1987, this time in The Propagator, note the major differences are that Wesley Crusher was supposed to have been a girl named Leslie, the further description of Data, more description of Hernandez, more physical description of Troi, and more on Geordi's voice: 
=== Fan Campaign for a Gay Character ===
Paramount wanted to make more money out of the Star Trek concept. Fans were...cautiously optimistic. Star Trek had been ahead of its time in many ways; fans expected TNG to update that image, and continue to make statements of its own, but TNG was a profoundly conservative creation. One place where that became very obvious was homosexual inclusion. Gay SF fans organized a national letter-writing campaign to urge Paramount to acknowledge a queer presence in the 24th century future represented on TNG. Roddenberry publicly committed himself to do so shortly before his death, but the producers never made good on that promise.Jenkins, Henry. "'Out of the closet and into the universe': Queers and Star Trek" in The Audience Studies Reader, ed. by Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn, p. 172. 
See the Gaylactic Network fan campaign: Where No Gay Person Has Gone Before.
See a fan-written form letter addressed to Paramount: Dear Mr. Chairman, printed in the letterzine, On the Double #20.
== Fandom ==
Much TNG fanfic was posted on ASC and, later, ASCEM. Picard/Crusher and Riker/Troi were popular het pairings, with a number of communities such as BonC and the Imzadi mailing list developing around them. The Data/Yar pairing also attracted some fans, including some who usually considered themselves slashers.
TNG was a less popular slash fandom than its predecessor, although there was some f/f fic, especially Crusher/Troi and Tasha/Troi, and some m/m fic, including Data/La Forge and Picard/Riker. The relatively small amount of slash may be a result of the fact that two of the central male characters, Picard and Riker, had well-developed romantic interests in canon, Crusher and Troi, respectively. Late in the series, a Picard/Q fandom also started to develop.
For an overview of Star Trek fandom's online activities from the early 1990s, including show commentary, episode guides and fan fiction, visit the textfile directory.
===TNG Fandom vs. TOS Fandom===
Comments by Shirley Maiewski in 1988 reflect some of the initial tensions between fans of the original Trek and the new kid on the block: 
===Some Early Fan Comments===
===1988===
 
===1993===
===Conventions===
*Beach Trek (1988-?) in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
*LagrangeCon (1990) by USS Lagrange
==Fanworks==
=== Zines and Stories===
:For a full listing of TNG fanfiction on Fanlore, see :Category:Star Trek TNG Fanfiction
Timeline:
* It appears that the fanzine, This is It! published in May of 1987, was the first TNG fanzine. "In fact, it had such complete details of the characters in its stories that Paramount asked us to stop it's sale after just one issue." ~ T.A. Chafin in Early Science Fiction Fanzines: A Cover Gallery, Jan 25, 2010. Following close behind was the newsletter Data Entries, which began publishing in October/November 1987, as was The Hive, published in November 1987. A very early TNG story appeared in a Star Trek: TOS anthology was "The Keys" in Elysia #2. 
* The long-running Australian Star Trek newsletter, Data (est. 1976) having Lieutenant Commander Data as a namesake was a wonderful coincidence for the club, Astrex. The 1989 title of its companion fanfic zine, Lore, was a deliberate choice, the winning suggestion in a poll of members. Lore was Data's evil twin, a recurring character in TNG.
* Space Station, a TNG zine made in Japan (?1990s).
Notable in content:
* Several TNG fanworks considered among the best by some fans are actually crossovers with other fandoms, including:
* In The Dark series by Kellie Matthews and Julia Kosatka, an X-Files/Highlander/TNG crossover with Duncan MacLeod and Guinan becoming lovers. 
* Married Dance by Jane Carnall, a novella-length slash Highlander/ST:TNG/The Persian Boy crossover -- a deft mix of three fandoms, marred only by, in some Highlander fans' views, the author's too-evident disdain for Duncan. (See Hero Bashing.)
* One novel that is still searched for as a used zine is Pulse of the Machine by Jean Kluge, a Data/Tasha novel gorgeously illustrated by both Jean and Marty Siegrist.
* Frontier magazine featured ST:TNG on its cover three times (Issues 4, 5 and 9) and included articles in many issues.
Slash:
* In the early '90s, SF fans who'd heard of het and slash Trek fic, brought out a ST:TNG zine called Science Friction, which highlighted the gay subtext of the Borg episodes. Most long-term media fans disliked it a great deal. This led to much discussion about the difference between erotica in media fandom vs. professional erotica/pornography of the time.
Pairings:
* Picard/Q was probably the biggest slash pairing 
* A famous pair of early netfic stories -- His Beloved Pet & At the Center of Things by Ruth Gifford and Atara Stein -- was published on alt.startrek.creative.erotica back in 1996. They told a love story with a very heavy s/m dynamic, featuring Q as top, Picard (relaxing from the cares of command) as bottom, with chains, whips, collars, and leather all over the place.
* The King Who Would Be Man was a P/Q zine story by M Fae Glasgow in an Pæan to Priapus #2 (1990). Q decides he wants to experience sex after "Deja Q" (the episode where he becomes human). He picks Picard to experience it with; Picard patently refuses to cooperate and Q starts shape-shifting trying to push Picard's buttons.The King Who Would Be Man, on the Oblique Press site, in pdf 
* A Picard/Data story that is still recommended is Mental Traveler, also by M Fae Glasgow, in Concupiscence, a Manacles Press zine.
* Another well-regarded early Picard/Data fic is Obscured.
More zines:
* For more TNG zines see: Star Trek: The Next Generation/Fanzines and :Category: Star Trek TNG Zines
=== Art ===
:See also :Category:Star Trek TNG Art
When TNG came along, Jean Kluge had already been a fan artist for years, but she fell hard for Tasha Yar/Data, and it's possible that her art for that pairing is her best ever. One of her Tasha Yar/Data pictures was used for the cover of Textual Poachers.Other popular characters that appeared in fan art were Data, Riker, Captain Picard and Worf.
Image:Pulse.jpg|cover of Pulse of the Machine (1991)
Image:poachers.jpg|cover of Textual Poachers by Jean Kluge
File:Joey r startrektng pen and ink drawing worf.jpg|Worf," pen and ink drawing by Joey Rodrigues
=== Vids ===
* Tapestry by Mary Van Deusen, a sad Tasha Yar vid, that told her whole first-season story through a frame of Data putting away her things.
* I think I'm a Clone Now by Anonymous, shown at Escapade in 1992, and also at RevelCon, On one level, a profoundly silly vid to Star Trek and TNG clips; on another, a lovely commentary on how much TNG ripped off original Trek. "The video entries this year were excellent. There was only one Star Trek entry, done to a song that I think is entitled "Only a Clone Now," or something like that. It compared Classic Trek to Next Gen, to next gen's detriment. The video came in tied for first in its category." -- from a letter in Come Together #5, May 1994 from a fan describing RevelCon #5 
* Kandy Fong's classic Riker vs. Kirk vid, "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better", a rare early vid with professional video effects
* Trekarena by Locutus (1996)
==Meta==
*You ever invite your coworker to watch you give birth just to spite a racist
==Mailing Lists==
 
* Description: 	"Star Trek character, Q has eyes for Picard...and Riker.... and Paris...and KirK???? whoever. we're looking for general fiction, hetero and slash pieces. Smarm through BDSM and beyond...imagine what Q can do.... All fiction will be archived at "The Wonderful World Of MakeBelieve Archive", which houses varied fandoms. Joining confirms you are over the age of consent."
	
* Description: 	"A slash fest for the TNG characters Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Entity known simply as Q. By joining this list, you certify that you are over 18 years and that it is legal for you to view adult material. This list is slash oriented, which means that it will contain stories/discussions about sex between two people of the same gender. In this case, two males, sort of... DO not join the list if this is not to your liking. You have been warned."
==Archives==
*TNG stories at AO3
*TNG stories at ff.net
*TNG Index at Trekiverse
*Data & Maddox Archive
== References ==
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