The Ladies of

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   Gates McFadden as Doctor (Commander) Beverly Crusher

   Diana Muldaur as Doctor (Commander) Katherine Pulaski

   Marina Sirtis as Counselor (Lieutenant Commander/Commander) Deanna Troi

   Denise Crosby as Lieutenant Natasha "Tasha" Yar

   Michelle Forbes as Ensign/Lieutenant Ro Laren

   Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Ambassador Lwaxana Troi

   Rosalind Chao as Keiko Ishikawa O'Brien

   Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

   Suzie Plakson as Ambassador K'Ehleyr

   Barbara March as Lursa

   Gwyneth Walsh as B'Etor

   Jennifer Hetrick as Vash

   Suzie Plakson as Doctor Selar

Star Trek returned to television (finally) in the form of STAR TREK: The Next Generation.  Most fans had never heard of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, or Michael Dorn when the series was first announced by Paramount.  But it didn't take long for them to become as familiar as William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig.  Remember, most future fans had never heard of them when Star Trek first went on the air.  

The crew included Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard; Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker, the First Officer; Brent Spiner as Data, the android helm/science officer and third in command, Gates McFadden as Doctor (Commander) Beverly Crusher, Chief Medical Officer; Marina Sirtis as the half Betazoid empathic Counselor (Lieutenant Commander (now Commander)) Deanna Troi; LeVar Burton as Lieutenant (now Lieutenant Commander) Geordi LaForge, Chief Engineer; Denise Crosby as Lieutenant Natasha "Tasha" Yar, Chief of Security; Michael Dorn as Lieutenant (now Lieutenant Commander) Worf, the Klingon bridge officer; and Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, Doctor Crusher's sometimes brilliant, sometimes troublesome son.  Denise Crosby left the series in the first season to pursue a film career.  Her character was killed by Armus, an evil oil slick creature in the episode,The Skin of Evil, and Lieutenant Worf became Chief of Security.  Wil Wheaton left during the fourth season, also to pursue a film career.  His character left to go to Starfleet Academy, and was not replaced.  Worf was promoted to Lieutenant Commander at the beginning of Star Trek VII: Generations.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is set about eighty years after the original Star Trek.  The new crew is very different from the original, and so is the ship.  The USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D is the fifth starship to bear the name USS Enterprise.  It is a galaxy-class ship with a compliment of 1014, including the crew and their families.  While the ship and crew are different, the spirit of adventure has not changed.  The Klingons are now allies of the Federation, if not fast friends, as predicted by the Organians in Errand of Mercy.  There are new adversaries;  the Cardassians and the Borg, as well as Q.  Star Trek: The Next Generation became the most highly-rated syndicated series of all time.  It was also one of the most expensive series; episodes in the final season reportedly cost over $2 million each.  Star Trek: The Next Generation aired for seven full seasons, and has generated two other series and three feature films to date.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was still on the air for the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but its final episode was aired in May 1994.   The last two seasons suffered from a falling audience, partly because everyone knew they were soon to appear in the first of their own feature films, which was released in November 1994 as Star Trek: Generations, which they shared with Captain Kirk and his crew.   Captain James T. Kirk, on a tour of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-B, was lost while attempting to save another ship from the effects of the Nexus, a traveling phenomenon in space that encompasses all points of space and time.  An evil El Aurean scientist, Doctor Soran (Malcolm McDowell), is destroying entire star systems eighty years later in a mad attempt reenter the Nexus.  The crew of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D is attempting to stop him. Captain Picard fails in one attempt.  He is killed in the process and is drawn into the Nexus with Doctor Soran.  He finds Captain James T. Kirk inside, and together they defeat Soran, but Kirk is killed in the attempt.  Meanwhile, the USS Enterprise-D has been damaged by renegade Klingons and crash-lands on Veridian IV.   Fan reactions to the film were mixed.  Some liked the transition from Star Trek to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but many more hated the ending; why did they have to destroy the USS Enterprise?  They also didn't like Captain Kirk taking over and the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew having very little to do.  But, the film did make money for Paramount, and assured an eighth Star Trek feature.  This one would feature the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, without help from the original crew.

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