A Place in History: The Next Generation Legacy

[Geekyfanboy]

This is a FANTASTIC article about the impact TNG had on Trek... check it out.

A Place in History: The Next Generation Legacy

Now that festivities to mark 20 years of Star Trek: The Next Generation are on the way, it's amazing to realize that TNG is still gaining late converts, international fans, teens and twenty-somethings too young to have caught the original airings ... all now among the legions who make up Star Trek fandom.

With such an audience in flux, then, we might forgive even the most passionate of fans who discovered the Star Trek universe as settled history â€" who can't help but see TNG as just another box of DVDs, another batch of reruns ... another brick in Star Trek's wall.

So now, as we begin this year marking TNG's two-decade anniversary, let's get one thing straight: The Next Generation was not only a huge success â€" it was a huge gamble.

TNG was not the first Trek series, obviously, but it was the comeback series â€" and in the big picture, that's just as uniquely important. While the original Star Trek had become a cult hit in reruns and spawned popular movies, TOS and its staffers were often still looked upon in "the biz" as a glorious failure on TV ... plagued by censors, network nitpicking and low overall ratings. Of course, the tracking of niche viewer demographics that began in the 1970s would have shown a lot of love to TOS' teen and young adult audience â€" and still does. But the cast's film success seemed to make moot the question of Star Trek's future. For a time, anyway.

Then 1986 brought not only the huge box office of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (to this day still referred to as "the whale one" by non-fans) but, fittingly, a tidal wave of sudden respect â€" and the first real promotion of a Star Trek anniversary. Obviously, Gene Roddenberry's baby had become worthy of note by more than a few kooky fans, as the 20th anniversary souvenirs, documentaries and Spock on the cover of Newsweek seemed to bear out. Paramount honchos began to see the long-term value in returning Star Trek to weekly television, and had the wisdom to do it by approaching Roddenberry â€" much beloved but hardly an active producer ... or a young man.

The issues were endless, the risk was enormous. "Star Trek" had always been Kirk and Co., played by William Shatner and Co. ... which begged the question: To recast, or not to recast? The most practical answer was "a new generation" â€" with all-new characters, timeframe, and the human perspectives that you can't help but pick up 20 years later. TNG soon comprised counselors, comforts, crew families, "evolved" humanity, Klingons as friends, and brains over brawn â€" but with brawn at the ready, simply unstoppable if needed.

It was a practical answer, maybe â€" but would fans and pop culture accept such a fundamental shift in what their passion had always been? Could the chemistry click anew? Could Gene really catch lightning in a bottle once again?

If so, the creative side would have to look to the business side and a game plan just as radical. Gene's TOS battles with the NBC network were legendary, but off-network TV syndication in 1986 was hardly an option. Game shows, talk shows and old TV reruns were its mainstays, so the idea of an expensive, first-run drama without a network of affiliates to provide uniform air times and promotion seemed ludicrous. But Gene wanted creative control and a safe incubation period without hassles, and the studio backed his gamble that if Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk could attract their own "network," surely Star Trek could.

Gene's faith and sound planning bore him out. Even with a shaky start and some vocal fan resistance, TNG boldly went where no drama series had gone before, starting out before 94% of the country's viewers on 190 stations and growing to 210 by series' end, outdrawing the World Series and many network hits like Cheers. In turn, that ratings boom jump-started an industry that not only led to the syndicated likes of Babylon 5, Stargate, Hercules, and Xena but to the coming of original drama on USA, Sci-Fi and other cable nets. And now in 2007, the legacy of TNG-inspired genre television is part of the mainstream â€" Heroes, Lost, Jericho, Ghost Whisperer, Smallville â€" and remains firmly entrenched on the cable nets, as evidenced by recent hits Battlestar Galactica, The 4400, and The Dead Zone.

Yes, Star Trek was finally a hit in the boardroom as well as the convention room â€" and it was TNG that made it possible.

If not, the scattered faithful might today be lovin' the original Kirk, Spock and McCoy all the more, because that's all there'd be: no post-TOS movies, no army of toys, books, games and goods ... no Star Trek: The Experience ... no references in every science news story, no fan films to compete with "Star Wars" … and no Deep Space Nine, no Voyager, no Enterprise. And, who knows, maybe even no "Star Trek XI"! No expanding, viable fan base. No future.

With TNG, Gene redeemed his team and proved that Star Trek had been no fluke ... Paramount Pictures made stockholders happy ... untold friendships, businesses and marriages came together ... and that hopeful, bracing and expansive future Gene envisioned lived on to attract the next generation. And the one after that.

[Darth Gaos]

2 things.

1) Great article that alot of fans of current TV should read because it is absolutely true.  TNG paved the way for of the shows we see today.

2)  TNG came out TWENTY YEARS AGO?!?!?!?  OMG.....how old am I???  I remember sitting and watching "Encounter at Farpoint" when it FIRST ran.  Man oh man.

[Geekyfanboy]

Yeah I'm with you Darth... loved the article that's why I posted it and 20 years.. I can't beleive it's been 20 years and what is so amazing is I can sit down and watch a TNG marathon with no problem, loving every minute even though I have seen the episodes many many times.. can't say that about many 20 year old TV shows.