STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (1987 to 1994) - Behind the Scenes

Jan 20, 2026 3:01 PM

Pasquinelthe2nd

Views

18300

Likes

367

Dislikes

9

behind_the_scenes

movies_and_tv

nostalgia

sci_fi

star_trek

We are almost twice as many years from the first TNG episode as TNG was to the first TOS episode.

6 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

6 months ago | Likes 23 Dislikes 0

He moved up from holodeck janitor!

6 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I still don't understand who Gates McFadden's unicycling didn't make it into the Cellular Peptide cake (with mint frosting) episode. lol

6 months ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

Excellent shots! Love seeing the various models for the Enterprise D, and the one altered bridge shot for Generations. I'll always have a soft spot for the third season of Picard, giving the D and her crew a proper send off rather than what it got in Generations, and they got in Nemesis

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Someone added Freebird to the cube scene and it was fuckin' glorious.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Every picture of Jonathan Frakes, whether he’s in-costume or on-set or not looks like something Riker would be doing. The others are like “Here’s the actors when the cameras aren’t rolling”, but all the Frakes pictures are like, “Who’s picnic is Riker attending, and why?”

6 months ago | Likes 61 Dislikes 0

v

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Marina looked delicious as a cellular peptide cake.

6 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 1

The best BTH was the episode of Reading Rainbow

6 months ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Love this show and Star Trek in general to death. These pictures just reinforce that and it's easy to believe that the cast has this unusual tight bond.

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

[deleted]

[deleted]

6 months ago (deleted Jan 28, 2026 1:35 AM) | Likes 0 Dislikes 0

The cast has been talking forever how some directors really got fed up with the cast and all their shenanigans and i can see this :)

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

According to his memoirs it was Patrick Stewart himself finally having enough of those shenanigans and exploding at Denise Crosby ("We're having fun, Patrick!").
"We are not here, Denise, to have fun!" *storming off, doors slammed*
Jonathan Frakes waited a bit, talked it out with him, and the crew got along splendidly and properly after that.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It's become the Aragorn kicking the helmet equivalent for TNG i think :) After that as reports indicate Stewart had a change of heart and mind and became the actual shenanigans ringleader.

Love that so much, i love workplaces that actually feel fun but also with people who know when it's time to be professional. A good balance is key.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#4 Hawking is the first ever person to appear on an episode of Star Trek as himself

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#23 Oh Data, that escalated quickly.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It’s easy to spot season one with Tasha Yar/ Denise Crosby.
I wish they had knocked off more cast members.
I just feel shows are better when you aren’t guaranteed that no cast are at risk.

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Another way to describe characters that may die in any episode is “disposable”.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I agree. Having watched the premiere of "The Best of Both Worlds parts 1 and 2", I really thought they were going to kill off Picard's character.
Ultimately, I'm glad they 'de-assimilated' him, and devoted episodes and story arcs to how it affected him. But I feel like it would've been more meaningful if his character had died. It would've made a fitting cap to what Q told him in "Q, Who?":

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here, but it's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid."

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

They did choose to do that on DS9 to some extent. Also, if you want a sci fi show where no one is safe you should check out the 2004 remake of BSG if you haven't already.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#3 It's wild to me that they would shoot this in 35mm with Panavision cameras. You would never see this on a Canadian TV set during the same time period.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#10 - I don't think I've ever seen a pic of Ronald Moore in his pre-beard years, my dad had that same mullet-like hairstyle back then

6 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Did you mean #9?

6 months ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

Something must have gotten deleted because I double checked that before I posted it, ya now I'm referring to #9

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

#9 is Picard now.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

What was #9 is now #8. Someone is mucking with us.

6 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

@op why did you remove two of the pics?

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

If you haven't yet read Making It So, Patrick Stewart's biography, make it so. Fascinating.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#15 Gates McFadden was a real showbiz gal. I bet she would have been a blast to have on set. A lot of people drawn to acting are very giving, emotionally understanding. A whole fucking bunch of them are also absolute jerks, not forgetting that.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I found out last weekend that Gates didn't even mean to audition for Trek, and picked the role at random when her Trekkie agent begged her to go in and audition for it. At the time, she was mainly a choreographer (she had recently completed dance choreography for Henson's "Labyrinth") who was in an improv troupe. Had zero expectation of being cast, had even LESS expectation of TNG surviving the 1st season. She then got fired for a season because she wouldn't sleep with producer Maurice Hurley.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I remember she was a choreographer. I didn't know the reason she got fired for a season, interesting. Was Maurice still a producer when she was rehired?

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

No, he had been shitcanned in S3 because HE was a big reason why S1 & S2 of TNG sucked so much— fucker used to write cop shows, and had no interest in "getting" Star Trek, & Roddenberry's grip on the show slipped as he wasn't doing well health wise. So Rick Berman axed Hurley, & brought in Michael Piller who pretty much is responsible for most of the world building/tone that TNG is known for. One of his decrees was to get McFadden back as Pulaski was not a favorite, and the actor was combative.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In the cake picture Stewart is clearly wearing a "Comic Relief" sweater. I would bet he got it from Goldberg who was one of the big names in the show along side Robin Williams and Billy Crystal.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It saddens me a bit that shows like this will likely never be made again. And I don't mean "good quality", because there are a lot of good quality shows today. But it feels like more and more, shows are becoming these big cinematic productions. Movies are dying and big budget shows are replacing them. But that means big budgets and less episodes. TNG had 178 episodes! Not only were they able to just explore nuanced and niche topics in universe, but also the cast just got to gel in ways that>>

6 months ago | Likes 56 Dislikes 0

ToS had like 60 episodes in the first season alone, but that's more because tv seasons worked differently back then

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 5

Where did you get this information? ToS had 29 episodes in the first season. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek%3A_The_Original_Series_season_1

6 months ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

It is mildly unfortunate. The ways TV shows are made, and the expectations of what they're going to be like is different now. But these trends shift a lot. It could move any time.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

casts of most modern shows never will. That chemistry can be seen on screen, especially in later seasons. //

6 months ago | Likes 33 Dislikes 0

RIP episodic storytelling.
Strange new worlds gave it a go, but it feels like it's for a different generation?

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I definitely enjoy longer arcs as well. But I am also getting tired that EVERY show needs to feel like a whole drawn out saga. Especially when every episode now ends in cliffhangers. Not saying all shows are guilty of it, but there are so many examples where it almost feels like the producers are trying to trick you into binging it.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I lost it with Discovery when I think season climax was trying to save the universe in three different time periods? I mean please.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The cast famously was family-like on and off set, as well. Also having cast members direct episodes probably added to the magic. 20-30 episodes in a season was so amazing.

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

The SNW producers said that every time they asked for more episodes in a season, the studio threatened to cut the number further.

I'll be amazed if we get any Star Trek at all under the new Larry Ellison/Trump-era ownership.

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

They'll make it bad on purpose, then quietly cancel the shows, claiming a lack of viewership.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Well, they only have one committed show at the moment and nothing runs over 5 years due to streaming royalties, so it's unlikely to run terribly long. I would be surprised if the comedy in development moves forward given that fascists hate humor.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

You know I always found it kind of amusing when people say that Trek needs to be serious. It's always been a little bit silly, and the property has never really shied away from humor. Is it laugh a minute slapstick? No, certainly not, but they've always had moments of humor and lightheartedness.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It sucks because they're actually made in Canada

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#7 That's clearly from DS9...

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 9

...the shot including Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar, who was removed from the show years before DS9 premiered, along with Beardless Jonathan Frakes? That shot?

6 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

The @op removed the shot I was talking about. It was a picture of Michael Dorn sitting behind a camera, in regular clothes, but his Worf makeup, on a DS9 set.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Ah, that makes sense - yours isn't the only comment referencing an image that's no longer there, my apologies.

6 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

6 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Apparently also a stuck up Shakesperean asshole on set until the rest of the cast told him to chill tf out. He did and he's been marvelous ever since.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Both sides had to calm down. Stewart with his stuck up (professional theatre) attitude as well as his tv actor fellows who ruined a lot of scenes with undue shenanigans.
In the end they worked it out and got along very well, as we all know.

6 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Sure did; TNG is my favorite on-screen chemistry of all time.

6 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

My friend started with NuTrek and I wanted to get them into the originals. He got to season two of TNG with the child episode and thinks Riker is misogynistic. It made his girlfriend very uncomfortable. Trying to convince him to keep going to get to stuff like measure of a man.

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

When we showed our kid, we started with the pilot, then skipped a lot of early episodes

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Ya, I told him season one was bad so he skipped it. I forgot season 2 is also well... not great except like measure of a man.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

To be fair later seasons do have some real stinkers too, it does suffer from 80s writing where they never know what to do with female cast members

6 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

True, I just want him to see in it what I see.

6 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0