Tag: Star Trek: the Next Generation
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Star Trek’s Makeup Artists Didn’t Have An Easy Time Bringing Data Back For Picard
When “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was first casting actors in 1986, Brent Spiner — who would land the role of Data — was about 37 years old. Spiner’s original makeup tests show that Data might have sported a pinker shade of skin, and producers were debating whether to give him his eventual chartreuse-colored eyes or…
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The Death Of Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry Sparked An Eternal Deep Space Nine Debate
“Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991, at the age of 70. It was pretty widely known that Roddenberry widely used cocaine, quaaludes, methamphetamines, and a variety of other recreational drugs, a fact discussed tastefully and frankly in Joel Engel’s 1994 biography “Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek.”…
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Jonathan Frakes Added Personal Touches To Riker In Star Trek: Picard Season 3
The third season of “Star Trek: Picard” began in a very tantalizing place. It seemed that Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), likely over 100 years old, was ready to sell all his belongings and abandon any notion of legacy. He wasn’t ready to let his home become a museum of his past, eager to start a…
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Star Trek Neglected Worf’s Brother Kurn, And We’re Here To Fix That
In the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “Sins of the Father,” Worf (Michael Dorn) learned that he had a brother named Kurn (Tony Todd) who arrived on the Enterprise to recruit Worf for a special mission. It seems that their deceased father, Mogh, had been posthumously accused of treason by the Klingon High Council.…
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A Lying Star Trek Producer Tried To ‘Sabotage’ Wil Wheaton’s Career
The start of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was a difficult and tempestuous time. Many Trekkies will be able to tell you the series of events: “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” wasn’t the enormous hit that Paramount wanted when the film was released in 1979, and “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry was uninvited from participating…
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Jonathan Frakes Wasn’t The First Choice For Riker In Star Trek: The Next Generation
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” introduced us to pop culture’s truest Space Dad in the form of Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a noble, commanding, trustworthy father figure for an entire generation of science fiction-loving dorks. But could you ask Captain Picard about girls? About alcohol? About having a good time? Of course not. That…
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Star Trek: Tng’s Booby Trap Put The Enterprise In A Classic Trek Problem
In the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “Booby Trap”, the Enterprise-D discovered — floating in a vast asteroid field — an ancient Promellian battle cruiser, a ship that had been built 1,000 years earlier. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) mentions that the cruiser was engaging in space battles when Earth was barely perfecting the crossbow…
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The Sprawling History Of Star Trek’s Ro Laren Gets A Little Complicated
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.In the fifth season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the showrunners introduced a new regular character named Ensign Ro Laren. Ro (an excellent Michelle Forbes) was a Bajoran, a species whose planet has been militarily occupied by the wicked Cardassians for generations. Bajorans had long…
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Jonathan Frakes Decided To Break A Big Rule On One Star Trek Episode
Since concluding its seven-season run on May 23, 1994, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” has held up remarkably well. It took a season or two for the series to truly find its footing, but once it did the show not only matched but expanded on the Original Series’ intellectually acute exploration of humankind at its…
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Jonathan Frakes Got A Taste Of His Own Medicine When He Directed His First Star Trek Episode
By the time Jonathan Frakes directed the recent surprise release crossover episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the actor was no stranger to stepping behind the camera for the sci-fi franchise. In fact, the actor best known for playing William T. Riker on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” has been directing episodes of “Star…