Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre	Science fiction
Created by	Gene Roddenberry
Starring	See cast
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	176
Original release
Release	September 28, 1987 (1987-09-28) – May 23, 1994 (1994-05-23)

Star Trek: The Next Generation was the second television series of the science fiction franchise Star Trek. It was created by Gene Roddenberry, and was aired for seven years, from 1987 to 1994.

The Next Generation was set in the 24th century, eighty years after the original series of Star Trek, and it focused on the lives of a crew on a starship called Enterprise. The crew's mission was to explore the universe, as was the mission of the crew in the original series.

Uniforms

The Starfleet officers and members in Star Trek: The Next Generation and most 24th century Star Trek based shows had to wear a jumpsuit, (except for children and some parents on board the Enterprise) with a communicator badge (also known as a combadge) shaped in the form of an oval, with the Starfleet logo over top of it on the upper left side. The uniform colors would also represent your position.

Color	Position
Red	Command or Helm
Gold	Engineering, OPS (Operations) or Security
Teal/Blue	Science or Medical

For ranks from Petty Officer to Captain you could see on the right collar of the uniform (Seasons 3-7) or on the collar bone area of the uniform (Seasons 1-2), were gold pips, an outline, or solid, that defined the rank of the officer.

With ranks higher than Captain, including the rank of Admiral (1 to 5 star) the pips would be on both collars.

Pips	Rank
One (Outline Only)	Petty Officer
One (Solid)	Ensign
Two (One Solid, One Outlined)	Lieutenant Junior Grade
Two (Solid)	Lieutenant
Three (One Outlined, Two Solid)	Lieutenant Commander
Three (Solid)	Commander
Four (Solid)	Captain
One (Solid w/ square border)	Admiral, one star
Two (Solid w. square border)	Admiral, two star
Three (Solid w. square border)	Admiral, three star
Four (Solid w. square border)	Admiral, four star
Five (Solid w. square border)	Admiral, five star (max)

During other episodes including (TNG: Future Imperfect) the TNG crew had a different way to show rank. The ranks were shown on a different communicator badge with the Starfleet logo and four long bars behind the logo, closely separated vertically. Each bar that was lit would represent a rank. The rank of admiral was shown with the bars on the combadge being full white. There was also another communicator (TNG: All Good Things Part I & II) with an outline of a Starfleet logo and two long vertical trapezoids, each separated horizontally.

Cast and crew

Character	Rank	Actor	Position
Jean-Luc Picard	Captain	Patrick Stewart	Commanding Officer
William Thomas Riker	Commander	Jonathan Frakes	Executive Officer
Data	Lt. Commander	Brent Spiner	Second officer, chief operations officer, science officer
Deanna Troi	Lt. Commander (1–6), Commander (7)	Marina Sirtis	Ship's counselor
Geordi La Forge	Lt. Junior Grade (1), Lieutenant (2), Lt. Commander (3–7)	LeVar Burton	Conn Officer and Ops, Chief Engineering Officer
Worf	Lt. Junior Grade (1), Lieutenant (2–7),	Michael Dorn	Tactical and Conn officer (season 1) Chief security/tactical officer after Yar's death (seasons 2-7)
Beverly Crusher, M. D.	Commander	Gates McFadden	Chief medical officer (seasons 1, 3–7; season 2, absent while Chief of Starfleet Medical); bridge officer
Natasha "Tasha" Yar	Lieutenant	Denise Crosby	Chief of Security (season 1, also recurring)
Katherine Pulaski	Commander	Diana Muldaur	Chief medical officer (Season 2)
Wesley Crusher	Acting Ensign (1–3), Ensign (3–4), Cadet (Recurring)	Wil Wheaton	Dr. Crusher's son, Conn Officer (seasons 1–4, also recurring)

The U.S.S Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

The U.S.S Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) is a Galaxy Class starship from the television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Enterprise was set in the 24th century, with the same mission as the original U.S.S Enterprise (NCC-1701). She weighed in at 4,960,000 tons and was powered by a warp core with a top speed of Warp 9.925. During the time of its service, the Enterprise-D was the flagship of the Federation Starfleet. A Galaxy-class starship, it was a large, long-range exploratory ship with 42 decks and a usual complement of 1,014 crew and civilians (e.g., their family members) but it was capable of carrying over 6,000 personnel. The Enterprise had 12 Type X phasers and three Photon Torpedo launchers. The ship has a high-capacity shield grid. It could carry 250 photon torpedoes. The ship had a standard complement of shuttles as detailed below, and 8 transporter rooms. The Enterprise can separate into two sections, saucer and star drive (hull).

Shuttle Complement (Galaxy Class Starship) The U.S.S. Enterprise is equipped with auxiliary shuttlecraft to support mission objectives. Standard complement of shuttlecraft includes ten standard personnel shuttles, ten cargo shuttles, and five special purpose craft. Additional special-purpose shuttles can be provided to a starship as necessary. The Enterprise also carries twelve two-person shuttlepods for extravehicular and short-range use. Galaxy Class, and larger, starships are also equipped with a specialized shuttle designated as the Captain's Yacht.

Operating rules require that at least eleven shuttle vehicles be maintained at operational status at all times. Cruise Mode operating rules require one standard shuttlecraft and one shuttlepod to be at urgent standby at all times, available for launch at five minutes' notice. Four additional shuttlecraft are always available on immediate standby (thirty minutes to launch), and an additional six vehicles are maintained for launch with twelve hours' notice. Red Alert Mode operating rules require two additional shuttles to be brought to urgent standby, and all nine remaining operational vehicles to be maintained at immediate standby.

Other websites

• Star Trek: The Next Generation Archived 2010-07-08 at the Wayback Machine at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek: The Next Generation on IMDb
• Star Trek: The Next Generation at Memory Alpha