Introduction and Cast

I’ve never really watched more than a handful of Star Treks in my life, so I was sort of probed into watching this series. I first caught it at the end of the second season, which was a great time to catch it, as the first season was overall, rather poor. Like Star Trek, The Next Generation first started out focusing on cool sets and costumes. I had a lot of fun with them and with the weird aliens with funny-shaped heads. And some of the stories were very innovative. But as the series progressed, it also took on thrilling concepts.

We in the audience had to use our imaginations more. Unlike other sci-fi dramas that are just fun, after watching this series, you’d find yourself still thinking about the worlds and characters you saw that day as if they were real. Or you’d put yourself in the picture of wondering how you’d handle a tough situation. There were also fun things to wonder about, like who vacuumed the floors, or why the crew never wore seat belts, at least while traveling through meteor showers or being attacked by photon torpedoes!

The wonderful irony about The Next Generation (and Star Trek too) was that through telling stories of alien cultures, we learned and experienced more about our own human qualities. We could use ourselves as measuring sticks to gauge our own behavior by watching how alien cultures created and/or solved their problems. Almost every episode of The Next Generation made this working theory available to us.

And it was quite a visual feast. It started out looking a little cheesy like Star Trek (which is fun), but with each year, there were new technological developments and a bigger budget. By the third or forth year, The Next Generation could easily hold its own with any of the finest-looking fantasy – sci-fi feature films out there. The art direction in particular, was exemplary. Even the aliens became truly lifelike and chilling. But like with all great TV shows, why we tune in every week is ultimately because of the cast. And this was one of the finest.