characters star trek next generation

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Star trek: the next generation cast & character guide.

Star Trek: The Next Generation has one of the most beloved cast of characters in all of science fiction. Here are the major characters of the classic.

One of the best things about Star Trek: The Original Series was the incredible cast of characters, and Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced the world to all new characters who would soon become just as beloved. TNG followed the adventures of the USS Enterprise-D and its crew under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), carrying on that original mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life. Though the first season of TNG left something to be desired, the show improved drastically over the course of its second and third seasons and would be praised by both critics and audiences.

The crew of the USS Enterprise-D would become one of the most beloved Star Trek crews of all time, and Star Trek: The Next Generation would produce some truly outstanding episodes of sci-fi television. With its incredibly compelling cast, TNG became a worthy successor to TOS and led to the continued popularity of the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek would never have become such a beloved franchise without its great characters and the actors who play them, and Star Trek: The Next Generation added some amazing crew members to the Star Trek roster.

12 Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard

With a more serious command style than Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Captain Picard leaned into the intellectual side of Star Trek . Picard was a skilled diplomat who preferred to explore every avenue of conversation and compromise before resorting to violence. He may have kept himself emotionally removed from his crew, but he cared about every life and would never leave anyone behind. He loved Shakespeare and Earl Grey tea, and could deliver an inspiring speech or a dressing down better than anyone. Patrick Stewart's commanding performance and great TNG speeches ensured Picard would quickly become one of the most respected and beloved Star Trek Captains.

11 Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker

As First Officer, William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) led many of the away missions and took over the ship when Captain Picard was incapacitated. Since Captain Picard was a more stoic leader, Riker was meant to act as the "replacement" for Captain Kirk, the adventurous ladies' man who cared deeply about his friends. He had several romances throughout the series, but ultimately ended up with the ship's Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). Will really came into his own over the course of the series, and would refuse multiple opportunities for promotion to remain on board the Enterprise.

10 Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

The lovable android Data (Brent Spiner) became a quick fan favorite thanks to his child-like wonder and endearing personality. Created by cyberneticist Dr. Noonian Soong (also played by Brent Spiner), Data had a positronic brain which allowed him to process calculations faster than any computer. Throughout the series, Data longed to be human , and he tried to explore his humanity in different ways, from playing musical instruments and painting to performing Shakespeare's plays. Many of TNG's best episodes focused on Data and his presence on the show allowed TNG to explore what it means to be human in interesting ways.

9 LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge

Though Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) began TNG in the command division, he soon transferred to operations and became the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. Blind since birth, Geordi's visor allowed him to see various types of light on the electromagnetic spectrum. Not only was La Forge a great engineer, but once he discovered a problem, he would not rest until he solved it. Throughout the series, Geordi developed a friendship with Data and Data would often come to Geordi with questions about humanity. Though Geordi could be awkward and even creepy when it came to romantic encounters, he was a good friend, a brilliant engineer, and a loyal crew member.

8 Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf

As one of the few Klingons in Starfleet, Worf (Michael Dorn) sometimes struggled to reconcile his Klingon heritage with his duties as a Starfleet officer. Like most Klingons, Worf placed a high value on honor and loyalty and became an invaluable member of the Enterprise crew. It became a bit of a trope to have the alien of the week overpower Worf to show how strong and dangerous they were. Unfortunately, this mostly just made Worf look weaker than he actually was. The character would truly come into his own when Worf made the switch from TNG to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine after TNG ended in 1994.

7 Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher

In her role as the Enterprise's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) proved to be a smart, capable, and compassionate doctor. Though Dr. Crusher left the Enterprise in TNG season 2 to become head of Starfleet Medical, she returned at the beginning of season 3 and remained throughout the rest of the series. Beverly's empathy sometimes caused her to bend or break Starfleet rules, including the Prime Directive. Her late husband had been close friends with Captain Picard, and Beverly and Picard later developed feelings for one another.

6 Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi

The half-human half-Betazoid Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) served as the ship's Counselor and used her Betazoid senses to read people's emotions. Troi's ability to sense deceit made her a valuable member of the Enterprise crew, though her telepathic abilities sometimes made her more susceptible to alien influence. Although she had a few romances throughout the series, her most well-known relationship was with Commander Riker, whom she would eventually marry in Star Trek: Nemesis . Though Troi was not always given the best material to work with, she grew into a compelling character whose caring nature set her apart.

5 Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher

As the youngest of TNG's main characters, Wil Wheaton's Wesley Crusher sometimes struggled to fit in on the Enterprise. The son of Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Wesley had a brilliant mind and eventually became an acting Ensign on the ship. Despite his earlier desire to attend Starfleet Academy, Wesley eventually decided to become a Traveler and explore space and time. The writers seemed unsure about what to do with Wesley as a character some of the time, and he often got saddled with mediocre storylines. Still, Wesley and Wil Wheaton would go on to become important figures in the Star Trek franchise.

4 Denise Crosby as Lt. Tasha Yar

Though Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) was only around for the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation , she left a lasting impression on both the characters and the fans. As the Security Chief of the Enterprise, Tasha was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and was not afraid to confront dangerous situations head-on. Although Tasha Yar was killed on an away mission in season 1's "Skin of Evil," Denise Crosby would return as alternate versions of the character, as well as the half-Romulan daughter of an alternate universe Tasha Yar.

3 Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Lwaxana Troi

The mother of Deanna Troi, Lwaxana (Majel Barrett Roddenberry) made several appearances over the course of the series, much to Captain Picard's chagrin. Lawaxana acted as an Ambassador for her home planet of Betazed and had a larger-than-life personality that sometimes embarrassed her daughter, Deanna. Lwaxana appeared in several episodes of TNG and would go on to appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as well. Though she generally came across as vibrant and happy, her life was not without tragedy. Her first daughter, Kestra, passed away soon after Deanna was born and her second husband, Deanna's father, passed away when Deanna was young.

2 Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

As the bartender in the Enterprise's lounge, Ten Forward, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) would often provide a listening ear to the officers on the ship. As an El-Aurian, Guinan had a very long life span and was unusually perceptive. Guinan had a distinct dislike for Q (John de Lancie), and a hatred of the Borg, as they had destroyed most of her people. Guinan was close friends with Picard and only joined the Enterprise crew at his request. She developed friendships with many members of the Enterprise crew as they often came to her for advice and help with their problems.

1 John de Lancie as Q

Introduced in the pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint," the omnipotent being known as Q (John de Lancie) took an interest in Captain Picard and his Enterprise crew. In his first appearance, he put all of humanity on trial with Captain Picard and his crew as representatives of the entire human race. Q popped up on the Enterprise on several more occasions, becoming a bit of a thorn in Captain Picard's side. Most notably, in season 2's "Q Who," Q tossed the Enterprise into the far reaches of space where they encountered the Borg for the first time, far earlier in their timeline than they were meant to. Q would go on to appear in other Star Trek series, but he always had a particular fondness for Captain Picard and the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation .

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Full Cast & Crew

• 51   Metascore
• Drama, Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction
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A new crew boards a revamped USS Enterprise in the first spin-off from the '60s cult classic.

Screenwriter

Sound effects, special effects, executive producer, co-producer, line producer, cinematographer, production company.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: The cast of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' 36 years later

• "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ("TNG") aired from 1987 to 1994.
• It was the first live-action "Star Trek" show since the original series ended in 1969.
• The cast will reunite for the final season of "Star Trek: Picard," which premieres February 16.

The captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, was played by Sir Patrick Stewart for all seven seasons.

Stewart got his start as a theater actor and was a part of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966 to 1982. He then had various roles on British TV series until he was cast as the newest captain of the USS Enterprise in 1987 for "Star Trek: The Next Generation," kicking off decades of debates on who the superior captain is .

Arguably, "TNG" would never have been as successful as it was without the grounding presence of Stewart and his Shakespearean sensibilities. Some of the best episodes and arcs in "Trek" history come down to Stewart's performance, such as the iconic Locutus storyline and its aftermath in "Family," or classic episodes like "The Measure of a Man" and "The Inner Light."

He was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in 1995. He won a Grammy in 1996 for best spoken word album for children for his reading of "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf."

Stewart, 82, will conclude Picard's story in 2023 after three seasons of "Star Trek: Picard" on Paramount+.

By the time "TNG" wrapped up in 1994, Stewart had already  solidified his place in the hearts of nerds everywhere. He'd go on to star in four more "Trek" movies — "Generations" in 1994, "First Contact" in 1996, "Insurrection" in 1998, and "Nemesis" in 2002 — but that wasn't his last iconic role.

In 2000, he starred as the iconic Professor Charles Xavier, aka Professor X, in "X-Men." He reprised the role in 2003's "X2," 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand," 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," 2013's "The Wolverine," 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past," and 2017's "Logan" — the latter of which got him some Oscar buzz . He reprised the role in 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for services to drama.

He's played various other roles throughout his decades-long career, returned to the stage many times, and secured a Tony nomination in 2008 for his performance in "Macbeth." But Picard wasn't done with him yet.

In 2018, it was announced that Stewart would be returning to the role of Jean-Luc Picard for a series on CBS All Access (now Paramount+) following the former captain 30 years after the events of "Nemesis." "Star Trek: Picard" premiered in 2020. The third and final season will premiere on February 16.

Commander William T. Riker, Picard's right-hand man and first officer, was played by Jonathan Frakes.

Riker was more of the classic "Trek" rogue, similar in some ways to William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk, namely, his penchant for getting into trouble and getting women across the galaxy to fall in love with him. But he was also a trusted colleague and friend to Picard across seven seasons and four movies. Picking up Riker from Farpoint Station is actually one of the crew's first missions in the pilot.

Before "TNG," Frakes had appeared in various episodes of '70s and '80s shows like "Charlie's Angels," "The Twilight Zone," "Hill Street Blues," and more. But he quickly became best known for "Trek."

Like Shatner and Leonard Nimoy before him, Frakes also became interested in directing, and he was behind the camera for eight episodes of "TNG," as well as episodes of spin-offs "Deep Space Nine," and "Voyager." He also directed films "First Contact" and "Insurrection."

Frakes, 70, has appeared in "Picard" and "Lower Decks." He's also a successful director.

Soon after "TNG" wrapped up, Frakes began hosting the series "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?" from 1998 to 2002. A compilation clip of him saying things are false/fiction has since become a meme .

Frakes reprised his role as Riker in episodes of "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" in the '90s, the series finale of "Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005, two episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" in 2020, and three episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" in 2020 and 2021.

Over the last two decades, he's directed over 70 episodes of television, including shows like "Roswell," "Castle," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "The Librarians," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Seth MacFarlane's loving "Trek" homage "The Orville," and, of course, the new "Trek" shows like "Star Trek: Discovery" and "Picard."

Like the rest of the original "TNG" crew, Frakes has joined the cast of "Picard" for season three.

Marina Sirtis played Deanna Troi, the ship's counselor and an empath.

In some ways, Troi was like the exact opposite of Spock, a character from the original "Trek" who operated solely from a place of logic. Instead, Troi was a half-human, half-betazoid, which made her an empath (able to telepathically sense people's feelings and emotions). Her place on the ship was to counsel the captain and other members of the crew.

Notably, Troi and Riker were in a relationship before the events of the show, and they eventually get married during the movie "Nemesis," before moving to the USS Titan, where Riker would finally become captain.

Her mother, Lwaxana Troi, was a beloved "Trek" side character played by Majel Barrett, "Trek" creator Gene Rodenberry's wife and "Original Series" cast member. Barrett also played Christine Chapel.

Before "TNG," Sirtis had appeared in bit parts in films and was mainly doing theater in her native UK.

Sirtis, 67, reprised the role for one episode of "Picard" with her on-screen husband, Riker.

Sirtis appeared in all four "TNG" films," and she also reprised her role as Troi in "Voyager," "Enterprise," "Picard," and "Lower Decks." She also appeared in an episode of "The Orville."

She's steadily worked in TV over the last two decades, appearing in shows like "Without a Trace," "Make It or Break It," "Grey's Anatomy," "NCIS," and "Scandal."

Sirtis has also had a steady voice-acting career, lending her voice to "Gargoyles," "Adventure Time," and perhaps most famously, as Queen Bee in "Young Justice."

Sirtis will don her Starfleet uniform yet again in 2023 for the final season of "Picard."

LeVar Burton played the engineering genius Geordi La Forge.

Besides Stewart, Burton was easily the most well-known member of the cast. Ten years prior, he had played Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC miniseries "Roots," which was nominated for 37 Emmy Awards, winning nine, including a nomination for Burton . The series finale is still the second most-watched series finale of all time, garnering at least 110 million viewers. He reprised the role in the 1988 TV film "Roots: The Gift."

When he was cast as La Forge, the chief engineering officer who happened to be blind — a big step forward in disability representation at the time — Burton had already been hosting "Reading Rainbow" on PBS since 1983. "Reading Rainbow," which Burton produced, won a Peabody Award and 12 Daytime Emmys.

From 1990 to 1996, Burton also voiced Kwame on "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" for over 100 episodes. In 1999, he directed the Disney Channel Original Movie classic "Smart House."

Burton, 66, was recently at the center of a campaign to take over as the new host of "Jeopardy!"

Like the rest of the main cast, Burton appeared in "TNG's" four feature films . He also appeared as La Forge in an episode of "Voyager."

He will reprise his role for the first time on TV since 1998 during the third and final season of "Picard" — and he'll be joined by his daughter, Mica Burton, who will play La Forge's daughter Alandra, an ensign in Starfleet.

Burton has had a successful career in Hollywood since, appearing as Martin Luther King Jr. in 2001's "Ali," playing himself in iconic appearances on both "Community" and "The Big Bang Theory," and hosting "Reading Rainbow" until its end in 2006.

Like Frakes, Burton is also a successful TV director. He's directed numerous episodes of "Star Trek" and its spin-offs, as well as episodes of "Charmed," "JAG," and "NCIS: New Orleans." He made his movie directorial debut in 2008 with "Reach for Me," starring Seymour Cassel.

After the death of Alex Trebek in 2020 , fans began campaigning for Burton to take over as the new host of "Jeopardy!" Almost 300,000 fans have signed a petition to that effect. However, after a brief stint as guest host, Burton said he wouldn't be interested in taking over as the permanent host.

In October 2021, he was named next year's grand marshal of the Rose Bowl Parade.

Gates McFadden played the chief medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher for six seasons — she was replaced briefly in season two.

Dr. Crusher was introduced as the chief medical officer of the Enterprise with a long relationship with Picard — her late husband, Jack, and Picard were close friends, and Picard even brought back Jack's body after death.

However, as the show progressed, Dr. Crusher and Picard's relationship evolved into love and they even got married (and divorced) in an alternate timeline. We want to see Beverly in "Picard," please — and it seems like we're finally getting our wish.

After the first season, McFadden was written out of the show due to issues with head writer Maurice Hurley and replaced with Diana Muldaur, who played Dr. Katherine Pulaski. Muldaur's character did not gel with the rest of the cast, and McFadden was subsequently brought back for season three (and Hurley was ultimately replaced with Michael Piller).

Before "TNG," McFadden was a choreographer and a puppeteer involved with the Jim Henson Company, in addition to her career as an actress . She appeared in and choreographed 1984's "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and choreographed "Labyrinth" in 1986 . McFadden directed an episode of "TNG" in 1994.

McFadden, 73, has appeared in episodes of shows like "Franklin & Bash," "NCIS," and "The Practice."

McFadden appeared in all four "TNG" films , though she didn't have a huge role in them, considering how her relationship with Picard was left in the series finale. She even joked during a screening of the season three premiere of "Picard" that she didn't remember being in the films.

Hopefully, their bond will be addressed in season three of "Picard," which McFadden will return for, especially since season two of "Picard" seems very concerned with the lack of love in his life.

Since the end of the films in 2002, McFadden has mainly appeared on TV. She was in four episodes of "Franklin & Bash," an episode of "NCIS," and a TV movie called "A Neighbor's Deception." She was also in a 2009 holiday rom-com called "Make the Yuletide Gay."

Michael Dorn played Worf, the first Klingon in "Trek" history to be a main character.

Worf was the first Klingon to be a main character in "Star Trek" — in three of the original films, Klingons were, if not the main antagonists, one of the secondary foes.

By the events of "TNG," Dorn's character Worf had enlisted in Star Fleet and slowly became one of the series' best and most beloved characters, as well as the chief security officer. He went on to star on "Deep Space Nine" for four seasons, from 1995 to 1999.

Before the show, Dorn had appeared in shows such as "CHiPS," "Knots Landing," and "Days of Our Lives."

Dorn, 70, has been in more episodes of "Star Trek" than any other actor. He'll add to his lead by appearing in "Picard."

Overall, Dorn played Worf for 277 episodes and four films, making more appearances than any other actor in "Trek" history. The character was so popular that there were even talks to continue his story in his own show, called "Star Trek: Captain Worf" in 2012, though they never came to fruition.

He'll continue his reign, as Dorn was announced with the rest of the cast of "TNG" to be returning to "Trek" in season three of "Picard."

Besides acting in "Star Trek," Dorn also directed three episodes of "Deep Space Nine," as well as an episode of "Enterprise."

Like many of his co-stars, Dorn has had a successful voice-acting career . He used his voice in "Dinosaurs," "Superman: The Animated Series," "I Am Weasel," "Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time," "Regular Show," and "Arrow," among others. Most recently, he voiced Battle Beast in "Invincible."

Dorn appeared in two of the "Santa Clause" movies as the Sandman, and he was also in "Ted 2." In real life, he's also an accomplished pilot.

Wil Wheaton played Wesley Crusher, Dr. Crusher's son and a controversial character.

Poor Wesley. It couldn't have been easy losing your dad at such an early age, only to be dragged onto a spaceship with the man who survived instead ... a man who pointedly hated kids to boot. But that was Wesley's plight, and it didn't make for a very enjoyable character. He was written off as a regular after season four, at which point he went to Starfleet Academy. Wesley reappeared in the final season for a send-off.

The year before Wheaton began appearing in "TNG," he starred in the classic '80s film "Stand by Me" alongside River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, and John Cusack, all future stars in the making.

Wheaton, 50, made a surprise cameo at the end of season two of "Picard."

As Wesley wasn't a  hugely  beloved character, he only appeared in one scene of one film , "Nemesis." He didn't even speak.

But Wheaton hasn't let the haters stop him from having a successful career. He's appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies, and he hilariously played himself across 17 episodes of "The Big Bang Theory." He also had a recurring role on "Eureka," another recurring role on "Leverage," and a talk show on SyFy called "The Wil Wheaton Project."

Wheaton has also acted in many web series, including "Welcome to Night Vale." He's also had great success in voice acting, most recently voicing the Flash in "Teen Titans Go to the Movies."

He also hosted the web series "TableTop," in which he and guests play a game (like Settlers of Catan or Pandemic) each episode, which aired from 2012 to 2017.

Currently, he hosts "The Ready Room," the official "Star Trek" aftershow that features interviews with the cast and crew. He also made a brief, surprise appearance at the end of season two of "Picard."

Brent Spiner played Data, an android who was on a quest to become more human.

While most of the characters on "TNG" were almost entirely original, Data was clearly conceived as this show's version of Spock , another character who struggled with the concept of humanity.

However, as the show went on, Data solidified himself as his own character with his own fascinating backstory (Lore and Dr. Noonien Soong, anyone?) and a heartwarming desire to become human.

Before the series, Spiner enjoyed a successful career in theater , originating the role of Franz/Dennis in "Sunday in the Park with George" and starring as Aramis in "The Three Musketeers." He also appeared in six episodes of "Night Court."

In 1996, he appeared in the huge sci-fi blockbuster "Independence Day."

They keep finding ways for Spiner, 74, to stay in the "Trek" universe, even 21 years after Data's death in "Star Trek: Nemesis."

Spiner appeared in all four "TNG" movies . In fact, his character might have had the most complete arc, when you take in his sacrifice at the end of "Nemesis." He also played an ancestor of his character's creator, Dr. Arik Soong, in four episodes of "Enterprise's" fourth season.

In 2016, Spiner reprised his role as Dr. Brackish Okun in the sequel "Independence Day: Resurgence." Over the years he's appeared in dozens of TV shows, including "Friends," "Star Wars Rebels," "Ray Donovan," "The Goldbergs," and "Warehouse 13."

Spiner has also voiced two iconic Batman villains. He played the Joker in an episode of "Young Justice," and he voiced the Riddler in "Justice League Action."

In 2020, Spiner reprised his role as Data in "Picard," appearing as the character in dream sequences and as a virtual consciousness throughout the first season.

He also appeared as a descendant of his creator, Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, and as a similar android named B-4 who was originally introduced in "Nemesis." In season two, he played another one of Noonien Soong's ancestors, Adam Soong.

Spiner was announced, like the rest of the cast , to be part of "Picard's" third season, this time playing Data's evil "brother," Lore.

Denise Crosby only starred in one season of "TNG" as Natasha Yar.

Yar's death was one of the biggest shocks of "TNG" and proved this wasn't going to be like the original show — deaths weren't just reserved for "red shirts" here. No one was safe.

In actuality, Crosby asked to be written off the show , as she "was miserable. I couldn't wait to get off that show. I was dying." And so, her character was killed in the season one episode "Skin of Evil" by a malevolent tar-like creature. Yar would reappear two more times, in a season three episode called "Yesterday's Enterprise" (an all-timer), and the series finale.

Crosby also appeared in three episodes as a character called Sela, a future half-Romulan daughter of Yar's from an alternate timeline.

Before the show, Crosby, the granddaughter of Bing Crosby, had appeared in films like "48 Hrs.," "Pet Sematary," two "Pink Panther" films, and multiple episodes of "Days of Our Lives."

Crosby, 65, recently appeared in a few episodes of "General Hospital."

Crosby didn't appear as Yar in any of the "TNG" films, but that doesn't mean she's totally stayed away from "Trek." She produced and presented a 1997 documentary about "Trek" fandom called "Trekkies," and its 2004 sequel "Trekkies 2." As of 2017, there were plans for a third installment.

She's also appeared in multiple direct-to-video movies , in addition to her roles in "Southland," "Ray Donovan," "The Walking Dead," "Suits," "Creepshow," and most recently "NCIS" and "General Hospital."

Colm Meaney had a recurring role as the transporter chief Miles O'Brien.

Meaney appeared in over 50 episodes of "TNG" as O'Brien before he switched over to "Deep Space Nine," which he starred on from 1993 to 1999. His character got much more to do on the spin-off, though he did get married in a season four episode called "Data's Day," and he eventually had a child in the season five episode "Disaster."

During his run on "TNG," Meaney also appeared in a 1993 film called "The Snapper." He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance. 

Meaney, 69, continued to play O'Brien in "Deep Space Nine" through 1999.

After wrapping up his role in "Deep Space Nine," Meaney went on to be nominated for a Gemini Award in 2002 for his role in Canadian series "Random Passage." He also appeared in three episodes of "Stargate Atlantis," the miniseries "Alice," two episodes of "Men in Trees," and more.

Meaney was also nominated for a Saturn Award in 2013 for his role in "Hell on Wheels," appeared in 10 episodes of "Will" and in British series "Gangs of London" and "The Singapore Grip."

In 2021, he appeared in the 15th season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" as the father of Charlie Day's character.

He's had success on the big screen, as well. He was nominated for the Irish Film and Television Award for best actor in 2007 for "Kings," and he has been in other films like "Law Abiding Citizen," "Get Him to the Greek," "Tolkien," "Seberg," and "Pixie."

He recently starred in "The Serpent Queen" as King Francis I on Starz.

Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for "Ghost" as she was recurring on "TNG" as Guinan, an alien bartender who was hundreds of years old.

Goldberg had already been nominated for an Oscar (for "The Color Purple" in 1985) and had won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 1985 (Whoopi Goldberg: Original Broadway Show Recording), and had been nominated for an Emmy  for her performance on "Moonlighting" in 1986, when she was asked if she wanted to appear in "TNG" as Guinan, an alien bartender in the ship's lounge who acted as a sounding board for many characters.

She actually asked to be on the show due to her "Trek" fandom, which stemmed from seeing Uhura, a Black woman, in a position of power in the first "Star Trek" series. Goldberg appeared in 28 episodes across seven seasons.

At the same time, Goldberg was becoming a true A-lister. In 1990, she starred in "Ghost," which eventually won her an Oscar. In 1992, she starred in the classic "Sister Act" and its sequel the following year.

Goldberg, 67, accepted a personal invitation from Stewart during "The View" to return as Guinan in season two of "Picard."

Goldberg appeared in two of the "Next Generation" films, "Generations" and "Nemesis." During that time, she also appeared in films like "The Lion King," "Girl, Interrupted," "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella," and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back."

In 2002, Goldberg secured her Tony Award win for producing "Thoroughly Modern Millie." That same year, she completed her EGOT by winning an Emmy for outstanding special class series. She's also hosted multiple award shows, including the Tonys and the Oscars. 

Goldberg has consistently acted in both TV and movies in the 2000s, appearing in "Glee," "The Middle," "Toy Story 3," "Nobody's Fool," and more.

Since 2007, Goldberg has hosted "The View," which won her her second Emmy — she won outstanding entertainment talk show host at the 2009 Daytime Emmys.

During an appearance on "The View," none other than Patrick Stewart extended an invitation to Goldberg to reprise her role as Guinan during season two of "Picard," which she emotionally accepted.

Both Goldberg's version  and  a younger version played by Ito Aghayere of Guinan appeared during the show.

John de Lancie played Q, a mischievous, omnipotent being throughout all seven seasons of "TNG."

In many ways, it would've been impossible to bring back Picard without bringing back Q. The Enterprise's captain meets Q in the very first episode of "TNG," and for almost every season after he pops back in to check in on the crew (and usually antagonize them a little bit). "TNG's" highly lauded series finale is also a Q episode, with Q attempting to conclude the trial of humanity he began in the first episode.

John de Lancie played Q in eight episodes of "TNG," along with one episode of "Deep Space Nine" and three episodes of "Voyager."

Throughout the '80s and '90s, de Lancie also appeared in "Days of Our Lives," "Trial and Error," and had small roles in films like "The Fisher King" and "Multiplicity."

De Lancie, 74, returned for season two of "Picard."

De Lancie has continued to work frequently on TV, with arcs in shows like "Breaking Bad," "Charmed," "The Librarians," "The Secret Circle," and more.

The actor returned to the "Trek" universe to play Q once again on the first season of the animated series "Lower Decks" in 2020. Two years later, it was revealed that Q would play a major part in season two of "Picard" since, as Q would later say in the season, " even gods have favorites ."

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Characters, Ranked in Order of Awesomeness

Engage! Star Trek: The Next Generation has long been arguably the favorite series for Trekkies, and these are the TV show's best characters.

Following on from the seminal original series' diverse cast of characters and thought-provoking storylines, Star Trek: The Next Generation would up the ante in every aspect. On screen from 1987 to 1994, and the first live-action follow-up to Star Trek , Next Generation ran for the course of seven series and four feature-length films, helmed behind the scenes by the mind of the original series, Gene Roddenberry, and charismatically on screen by Patrick Stewart.

Trekkies and critics alike would appreciate the show in equal high measure too: Next Generation won 18 Emmy Awards throughout its run, and was ranked 37th on Empire Magazine's list of the "50 Greatest Television Shows." Fronted by the extraordinary Patrick Stewart, Next Generation gave fans incredible storylines based on unity, race, sex and war. It was a smart science fiction prime time series that refused to dumb itself down for the sake of a quick click.

Diana Troi's mother and Wesley Crusher thankfully do not appear anywhere on this list.

8 Worf, Son of Mogh (Played by Michael Dorn)

With Worf came all the background and religious elements of the Klingon empire. Formerly just deformed villains in the original series, Worf humanized the warrior race above simply savage antagonists (despite that Worf seemingly never won a fight). While acting as Chief of Security, he would bring his forceful approach and battle skills to the role, which he later applied to his own parenting skills. A popular character, fans have often expressed interest in a Worf spin-off TV series .

7 Guinan (Played by Whoopi Goldberg)

Forget the Mos Eisley Cantina, Guinan is the definitive space bartender. The El-Aurian would stand in as a shoulder to cry on and dish out valuable advice to anyone who would seek it. When The Enterprise first encounters The Borg, Guinan is an invaluable resource for the crew when detailing that The Borg wiped out her entire race. Whoopi Goldberg's performance is excellent, and Guinan returns in the second season of Star Trek: Picard.

6 The Borg Queen (Played by Alice Krige)

YAAS, BORG QUEEN! Featured as the main antagonist in First Contact , The Borg Queen is equal parts villainous as she is seductress. The Queen gave the homogeneous Borg a new voice. She is conniving and sexualized, willing to manipulate and use her male opposites for the good of Borg universal domination, as she did with Data. Her introduction, as her head and shoulders are lowered into a torso, remains tremendously creepy. Another Borg Queen recently featured in Series Two of Picard .

5 Q (Played by John de Lancie)

A metaphysical trickster. A flim-flam artist. The boy with a magnifying glass. A god. With a self professed IQ of 2005, " Q " is an all-powerful being who lives to only cause mischief at the expense of The Enterprise and its forever frustrated captain. As a returning antagonist throughout the Next Generation , Q is one of the few characters on this list to appear in multiple Star Trek series: The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager .

Related: How William Shatner Could Return for the Next Star Trek Movie

Picard can only greet Q with a groan, as he appears at the most inopportune moments to mess with the team for his own curious desires. A fan of the theatrical and prone to multiple costume changes per episode, Q directly questions the human race while quoting Shakespeare with Picard. It's amazing that a character with unlimited power uses it to solely mess with people.

4 Geordi La Forge (Played by LeVar Burton)

Blind from birth, Geordi La Forge is forced to view the world through a futuristic visor covering his eyes. As another example of how diverse and forward-thinking the Next Generation (and Star Trek in general) was, Geordi La Forge showcases a young Black man excelling in his chosen field, and is forever likable while played by the overtly charismatic LeVar Burton. La Forge's almost brotherly relationship with Data really lets the series shine in the quieter moments.

3 Jean-Luc Picard (Played by Patrick Stewart)

Performed by high-profile English theater actor Patrick Stewart, who brought gravitas to this role, Picard had a cunning mind and a diplomacy with him, captaining his ship with an air of zero BS - and a penchant for earl grey tea. Picard is one of the enduring science fiction characters and the out-and-out leader of a crew of characters. His typical episodes would usually focus on games of wit, honor, and procedure, often showing that the Federation and its old guard have many cracks. Stewart's performance as Picard may have reached its zenith in the episodes "Chain of Command Pts I & II," when Picard is taken prisoner and tortured by a cardassian. Offered escape by giving in to the torturer's lie, an exhausted Picard refuses.

2 Data (Played by Brent Spiner)

Data (played by a pitch perfect Brent Spiner) remains one of the best on-screen androids ever committed to screen in a playful take on Wizard of Oz 's Tin Man. One of the best parts of Star Trek , over the course of the seven seasons, Data is seen to actually grow and learn.

Related: Wil Wheaton Responds to The Next Generation Reunion Snub in Picard

As a cutting edge piece of technology, with his distinctive chalk-white skin and yellow eyes, Data would learn and question the goings-on of the human race all while evolving himself. Sweet and childlike, while studious and imbued with otherworldly strength and speed, Data represents a future we can only aspire to achieve (when he hasn't malfunctioned and runs amok, that is).

1 William T. Riker (Played by Jonathan Frakes)

As a combination of the best and worst parts of both Picard and Kirk, Riker is a suave gentleman and lothario in equal measure. With his broad chest, and beard in season two, we as fans were robbed in never getting a Riker-exclusive iteration series of Star Trek . The will-they-or-won't-they push and pull of Riker and Diana (Miranda Sirtis) always kind of dragged, but when let loose, Riker is a backwards sitting, manspreading, trombone-tooting playboy. Captaining the ship when his captain was taken prisoner by The Borg, Riker's calmness in war would be needed to keep Earth safe. The best Number One a captain could ever ask for, he works hard, but plays harder.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Character Index Main Characters ( Jean-Luc Picard ) | Recurring Crew | Other Recurring Characters

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    Captain Jean-Luc Picard  See Jean-Luc Picard

Commander William T. Riker

Played By: Jonathan Frakes

Dubbed in french by: bernard bollet (tng), sylvain lemarié (movies), dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: alfredo martins (tng, season 1), josé augusto sendim (tng, season 2 on).

Riker: ( after Q gives him two attractive women ) I don't need your fantasy women! Q: Oh, you're so stolid! You weren't like that before the beard!

The quintessential Number Two (or One). Started life as an expy of Kirk: a womanizing, cocksure space ace. With the beard , however, came a newfound gravitas and sense of responsibility. Fiercely loyal, he is probably the one officer whom Picard is most open with. Riker is very charming and affable with his peers, though a few Lower Deck Episodes show that his subordinates are intimidated by him as he demands a performance up to the standards of the fleet's flagship.

Although an excellent officer, Riker was notorious for refusing promotions so that he could stay on board the Enterprise . Several alternate timelines or illusionary realities put him in the Captain's chair.

For tropes related to his appearances on some of the other shows, see his entries on:

• Lower Decks
• The Ace : Riker is good at everything. He's an inspiring leader, an Ace Pilot , a badass fighter, a nice guy, a ladies' man, a skilled poker player, and a talented trombonist. Picard says that Riker's the best officer he's ever worked with.
• Ace Pilot : Riker is famed among Starfleet for his piloting prowess. He establishes his credentials in "Encounter at Farpoint" with a manual spaceport docking. In "Chains of Command," Geordi says that the only way to have 100% certainty on a dangerous mission's success is to have Riker take the driver's seat.

• Anchored Ship : Though he dumped Troi a few years before the pilot, Riker is still pining after his imzadi , grilling her potential boyfriends like a jealous lover. This relationship was alluded to over seven long years but the actual mechanics never came to light. Unfortunately, Riker and Troi only got together properly during a B-plot in the movies, when nobody watching was really interested.
• Archnemesis Dad : Kyle Riker hasn’t been in touch with Riker for fifteen years and he came to the Enterprise to make his apologies and try and build a relationship with him. Good luck with that; he is extremely jealous of his son’s accomplishments and he has always been competitive with him. Will has been on his own since he was fifteen years old and everything he has achieved he did on his own. Naturally Riker and his dad decide to solve their differences with an Ambu-Jitsu contest (which Kyle wins via an illegal maneuver); Pulaski does try to point what babies they're being, but they go ahead and beat the crap out of each other regardless. Regardless of his parenting, it did encouage Riker to fight for what's his and get where he is today, so there's that .
• Bold Explorer : Sharing this role with Picard, Riker was closer to the classic model as seen in the original series.
• He has a habit of quickly falling for women from different planets, which occasionally gets the Enterprise in trouble.
• When two Klingon women make a pass at him, he gets asked if he could "endure" a Klingon woman, and he replies ‘one or both?’ That's the correct response.
• The outrageous "flirting" scene between Riker and Guinan ("The Dauphin"), intended to school Wesley on the finer points of love. Guinan barks " shut up kid " to Wes as she luxuriates in Riker’s pickup lines.
• When Riker hears that Betazoid women's sex drive quadruples in middle age, he looks delighted. He picked the right species to later marry!
• Frakes worked as a furniture mover before becoming an actor, and sustained a back injury that made certain actions painful for him (note his very unusual way of sitting in seats - that is, stepping over them!); the Captain Morgan Pose was Frakes' way of making standing around easier for him.
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough : Part and parcel of being the ship's XO. Ensign Ro takes an instant dislike to Riker's directives (i.e. barking at her to adopt proper Starfleet dress code) even though they're probably coming from upstairs.
• Carpet of Virility : As shown in the first-season episode "Angel One."
• In his first scene, Riker makes Geordi snap to attention when delivering a message. He never does anything like this again over the course of the series, and it comes across rather out of character.
• In early episodes he's portrayed as something of a ruthless careerist and it's stated that he and Troi broke up because he was too dedicated to his dream of commanding a starship. Later on, as listed below in Limited Advancement Opportunities , Riker became notorious for turning down multiple offers to command a starship of his own, preferring to be the XO of the flagship rather than the captain of a lesser vessel.
• Characterizing Sitting Pose : He likes to sit on a chair leaning to a side in a way that looks like a slouch and he sits down by walking to the back of the chair and stepping over it, reflecting his occasional Cowboy Cop tactics. Also a case of Real Life Writes the Plot because Jonathan Frakes has spinal problems and this was the most comfortable way he could sit on the chairs designed for the "Enterprise" sets.
• Chivalrous Pervert : Although he does seem to sleep around a lot, Riker is quite respectful of women and even goes into actual romance now and again.
• Commander Contrarian : Sometimes, and that's because it's his job to point out when his captain may be wrong. The fact that he did just that on the Hood is why Picard chose him to be Number One.
• Deadpan Snarker : One of the best in the Galaxy.
• Determinator : Data's analysis of his personality and record in "Peak Performance" that he will not give up, and that the weaker his position, the more aggressive will be his posture.
• Department of Redundancy Department : Shields up, Red Alert! What they keep forgetting to tell Riker is that going to Red Alert raises the shields automatically.
• Dirty Business : To have Riker act as the prosecutor against Data in "Measure of a Man" is a dilemma because he has never lost a fight. He agrees not to deliberately throw the case, or else Data will be handed straight to Commander Maddox to be taken apart. Riker gives a reasoned argument in proving that Data is a device rather than a man but is deeply ashamed of the things he says in the courtroom. Fortunately Data readily forgives him.
• Disappeared Dad : "The Icarus Factor" reveals that Riker feels bitter resentment to his father for not being around after the death of Riker's mother . Until that episode, they'd neither seen nor spoken to each other in nearly 15 years.
• Deuteragonist : Initially. Later eclipsed by Data .
• Drunk with Power : Could Riker possibly puff his chest out any further once he's been awarded with Q's powers? At the start of "Hide & Q," he considers being compared to the more modest Picard a compliment. Suddenly he starts behaving like a conceited jerk, calling Picard by his first name, demanding a meeting of the Bridge crew and walking away from the Captain whilst he is talking to him. Even the wishes Riker grants are in-character – he steals ten years of Wesley’s life and turns him into a beefcake, has a sexually rampant Klingon woman ravaging Worf (in the workplace), fixes Geordi’s eyesight and threatens to turn Data into a human. But Data's response sobers him up, and he acknowledges that he's been acting like a fool - though he does bristle just a bit when Picard bluntly affirms it.
• Duplicate Divergence : Has a transporter accident clone who was left abandoned on an alien planet for years before anyone realized he existed. After he was rescued he started going by his middle name "Thomas" and joined the Maquis.
• Ethical Slut : Riker has a lot of romantic relationships, including frequent flings with women on Risa, and tends to respond quite openly to invitations by women, and seems to remain on good terms with them afterwards , as long as no one is getting hurt or it's inappropriate (e.g. he refuses invitations by married women, but when the crew lost their memories, he jumped into bed with Ro Laren almost immediately when she offered). He's quite gallant and charming about it and on the rare chance that the relationship develops into something serious, he takes it very seriously. He also stops one sexual interlude with a woman who acts as though she were a Sex Slave instead of an equal partner.
• Expy : To Captain Kirk, with his way with (alien) women and his reputation as The Ace .
• Famous for Being First : Riker volunteers to be part of an Officer Exchange Program, becoming the First Officer of a Klingon battlecruiser, mostly because nobody's ever done it before. ("It" being OEP-ing on a Klingon ship, not OEP-ing in general.)
• As Frakes himself pointed out, this is all the more impressive considering Riker's usual opponents include an android who can remember every card in the deck, his empathic ex-girlfriend and a guy who can possibly see through the cards.
• Data notes that Riker is skilled at using "unusual cunning" and knowledge of his opponent to fool them. The Captain has to be aware of this talent for thinking outside-the-box.
• "A Matter of Honor" ended with Riker on the bridge of a Klingon Bird of Prey ordering the Enterprise to surrender. Not impressive enough? Okay, in a war games exercise in "Peak Performance," he helmed a nearly 80-year-old Constellation class ship (minimum power, skeleton crew, no warp drive) and still managed to survive a run-in with some Ferengi—ironically by making it look as if the derelict ship had blown itself up.
• His crowning moment of this came when he had to fight Picard/Locutus, who knew everything about Riker and all the plans the crew had cooked up to fight the Borg. He played poker for the Alpha Quadrant and won; you can see that he smugly knows it, when his plan to capture Locutus succeeds.
• Exaggerated in the movies: Riker exploits a fault in a cloaking device to lower a Klingon ship's shields in Generations , and later in Insurrection performs three practically insane tactical maneuvers when up against three ships, each of which is a match for the Enterprise : Destroying his own warp core to stop a Wave-Motion Gun 's attack, sucking up explosive gas and spitting it out in front of two enemy ships to make them blow themselves up, and flying at the third on a collision course and juking at the last second to land some point-blank shots to disable it.
• Honor Before Reason : While serving aboard the Hood , Riker refused to allow his captain to beam down into hostile conditions even when threatened with a court martial for disobeying orders. Picard made him his first officer based on that incident. Picard: I wanted someone who would stand up to me; someone who was more concerned with the safety of the ship and the mission than with how it would look on his record.

• It Runs in the Family : Dr. Pulaski would have married Kyle Riker in a heartbeat, but it seems he had other priorities. Something to do with his career.
• Jerkass : Occasionally invoked. He's capable of putting up an exceptionally cruel front if required. However, it's part of Riker's job as executive officer to be the 'mean' member of the bridge crew when it comes to dealing with delinquents or perceived substandards such as Ro Laren or Reg Barclay. Off duty, he drops the facade as quick as he can so he can remain friends with the crew. He's basically a really nice guy.
• The Kirk : Riker is a very interesting example of this trope. In short, Data will usually present a strictly rational solution to an ethical dilemma, while Crusher or Troi will present a more emotional one. Remember, usually they're people, not abstracts. At this point, Riker will weigh them internally and give his opinion to Picard, who then re -Kirks it and makes a decision. For a guy who hates bureaucratic admirals, he sure does like oversight.
• Large and in Charge : Riker is just a shade under two meters tall (6'4" or 193 cm), and as First Officer is responsible for most of the day-to-day operations of the Enterprise.
• Lethal Chef : Only Worf likes his cooking, which is pretty bad. He's no Ben Sisko, that's for sure (although, in fairness, the problem could have been the weird alien eggs he was cooking the one time we see him do it).
• By his own choice, no less. He was offered command several times during the series, but always turned them down because he would rather serve as first officer on the flagship than captain of an insignificant vessel *  and because Status Quo Is God .
• In "The Icarus Factor," he turned down a Captain's chair on the Aries because he saw it as another volley in the ongoing war with his father, Kyle. By turning down the job he allowed Kyle's legacy to supercede his and ended their rivalry.
• He explains his reasoning behind this to Captain Picard in Part I of "The Best of Both Worlds": "With all due respect, sir, you need me." In Part II of that episode, he's given a field promotion to Captain after Picard's capture and has four pips on his uniform signifying his new rank, but after Picard's return, he has three pips again for some reason. (No reason he couldn't have continued to serve as first officer while keeping his new rank, especially since there's already precedence for it. And after saving the Federation , he really deserved to keep that extra pip.) He finally accepts a promotion in Nemesis .
• The novels leading up to Nemesis make his decision more clear. He was ready to turn down his promotion to captain the USS Titan the same as he turned down many other ships, until he realizes what that decision would mean for Data. As an android, Data is supremely competent and not the least bit ambitious to move up the Starfleet ranks. And because Riker has always been there as Picard's right hand , he's never had a chance to move into a real leadership position. Riker realizes that in a way, he's taken advantage of Data's android nature, by using his talents but never feeling threatened with being overshadowed the way he would with a competent and ambitious humanoid officer looking to make their mark. So by limiting his own advancement, he is giving Limited Advancement Opportunities to Data and other officers beneath him note  This is true in real life militaries; it's known as the "up or out" system. It is a process designed to promote a steady stream of officers to ever-higher ranks as merited, while filtering out those who don't match up, in order to ensure that the top officers reach the top ranks and that those same officers don't linger to impede the upward mobility of those coming up behind them. In a real life system, if Riker hadn't been promoted to captain after X number of years, he'd have been retired to free up his billet for someone who can . For that reason, he takes the captain's job so that Data can have his chance to take over as the new Number One and develop his own leadership qualities in a way he'd never had the chance to.
• He also hints that part of the reason for turning down offered commands is that he hopes one day to command the Enterprise-D and believes that it would be easier to become captain of that ship by moving from XO to Captain than to pray for his name to get chosen for a transfer back to the Enterprise.
• Manly Facial Hair : He has a Seadog Beard , a commanding presence on The Bridge , and a lot of appeal to the females.
• Married to the Job : This commander isn't ready to settle down with Troi... yet. It took him seven seasons and a handful of films to bed Deanna – what he wants most is to Captain a Starship!
• Meaningful Name : Switch the consonants in "Kirk" and add an E for pronunciation. What does it spell? Bonus points for his first name coming from Kirk's actor.
• Military Maverick : Riker can be relaxed to the point of indolence sometimes, so it comes as a rude awakening when Jellico assesses him as arrogant, willful, insubordinate and not particularly good! He always assumed that he would be in command of the Enterprise if Picard was ever re-assigned. The look on his face when he realizes he is going to be supplanted by Jellico is priceless. Riker doesn't take kindly to this approach and can barely keep up with the demands of his new Captain.
• Missing Mom : He never knew his mother as she died when he was very young. With Betty gone, Will and Kyle grew apart; Kyle kept trying to challenge Riker to keep him strong but his son just saw it as bullying.
• My Greatest Failure : Standing up for then-Captain Pressman during a mutiny on the Pegasus . He was fresh out of the academy and only concerned with basic loyalty to a captain, so he thought the mutineers were selfish traitors and turned a phaser on them. It wasn't until later that he realized he made the wrong choice. It's implied his mistake on the Pegasus is why he was more willing to stand up to his superior officers in later assignments.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business : Riker is known for being a strong, commanding presence. He may be quietly grim in bad situations, but he does his best to keep it together for the crew. If he's ranting like a madman ("Frame of Mind", one alternate Riker in "Parallels"), you know things have really gone to hell.
• Phrase Catcher : "He's the best!" Said first by Tasha Yar and later echoed by Picard himself when his exceptional talents are doubted. Geordie too, to Jellico no less, about the perfection he exudes. Not entirely accurate, he can't play "Night Bird" .
• Raging Stiffie : "The Naked Now". While everybody else is flirting, shagging and generally having a good time, poor Riker is struggling to control his urges and save the ship.
• Really Gets Around : No one is immune to his charms.
• Running Gag : One wonders if it was intentional on the part of the writers, because otherwise it's remarkable that every time he's offered the Captain's chair, the ship in question ends up being destroyed in a later episode?!
• You feel really sorry for the guy as he is trying to impress his new Captain, but gets a right dressing down in return. Of course, this is just a test by Picard to see if Riker sticks to his guns and defends his record (which borders on insubordinate) or kiss up to the boss. Happily, Riker passes with flying colors. A year later, Picard acknowledges what a jerk he was when Riker first boarded the Enterprise and gives him some long overdue praise. In "Peak Performance," Picard suggests that only a fool would shrug off Riker’s advice and he is the finest officer with whom he has ever served.
• Q suggests that in the future there might come a time when humanity progresses beyond even them, which gives him a solid reason for wanting to study how Riker handles real power.
• Signature Instrument : His favorite instrument is the trombone, which goes nicely with his love of jazz. He once uses it to "talk" to Deanna, who then jokes that it's less confusing than how he normally talks.
• Theatrics of Pain : Bravo to Jonathan Frakes who demonstrates how a true action hero should fall when he is struck by a Ferengi whip. Theatrical doesn’t cover it.
• The Watson : Riker is the least scientifically knowledgeable of the command staff, so it usually falls to him to ask for clarifications and layman's translations of Techno Babble .
• What a Piece of Junk : Riker’s delighted face at the activation of the decrepit Bridge of the Hathaway (‘It's ours!’). If Riker had a choice of which ship to command, he would definitely take the old TOS ship which is short-handed, under-equipped, and required him to improvise.
• What the Hell, Hero? : He has a bad habit of making snap judgements about people without investigating, or basing his opinions on someone's Starfleet record rather than getting to know them personally and making a fair assessment - which is quite ironic considering the number of times he's been Wrongly Accused by people doing the same to him. He gets called out on it more than once.

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

Played By: LeVar Burton

Dubbed in french by: gérard malabat (tng), marc bretonnière (generations and nemesis), thierry desroses (first contact and insurrection), dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: marco ribeiro (tng, season 1), jorge jr (tng, season 2 to 6), marcos souza (tng, season 7).

"[...] We are gonna see something that people will talk about for years! I mean, think about it: no more bulky warp engines, or nacelles. A ship just generates a soliton wave and then rides it through space, like a surfboard. This is going to be like being there to watch Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier, or Zefram Cochrane engage the first warp drive! "

Engineering whiz and all-around Nice Guy . Born blind, he wears a spiffy VISOR which allows for some degree of sight, but he also is in constant pain with his eyes. He starts out as one of the ship's helmsmen alongside Data, but in Season 2 he was made Chief Engineer and stayed in that role for the rest of the series, making it his job to tell the captain that [ insert engineering feat here ] was impossible and then do it within an absurdly short timeframe.

• All Love Is Unrequited : He can never seem to get the girl. Creator interviews suggest that this is partly because Geordi is in love with the Enterprise , similar to the way that Kirk was (although it is much less of a Masochism Tango ). His relationship with the holographic Leah Brahms, the ship's designer, evokes this.
• Aura Vision : Occasionally the crew (and audience) gets to see what Geordi sees, which appears as a confusing mass of light and color. Geordi explains that he can choose what to focus on the same way he can focus on one conversation in a crowded room. In the book Metamorphosis , Geordi describes organic beings as having a shifting aura around them. Data's more machine nature has his aura look like a halo . When Data becomes human , Geordi observes that he's "lost his halo".
• Beware the Nice Ones : One of the nicest characters on the show, but in "The Next Phase" he still shoved an armed Romulan agent into the vacuum of space to save Ro.
• Black and Nerdy : Just like LeVar Burton.
• Blind Black Guy : This is the most immediately noticeable part of his character.
• Blind Without 'Em : Literally. There are a few episodes in which his VISOR is lost or stolen.
• Butt-Monkey : Geordi gets pwned nearly as much as Worf (suffering from The Worf Effect ). He's even hopeless with women. One particularly cruel episode had an alien taunt his blindness by moving his VISOR around, just because. The series seems to never let us go on the fact that he's blind (until the movies, well actually he gets taunted again in Star Trek: Generations , which may or may not have led him to go get cybernetic replacements by Star Trek: First Contact .). And apparently his mom disappears as some plot of the week. Worst yet is that nobody gives a damn about his mom afterwards. And to add insult to injury, in Voyager's "Timeless", he tries to stop Harry Kim and fails. Ouch. In "The Mind's Eye", he's heading on his merry way to Risa for some rest, relaxation and poontang. He gets kidnapped by Romulans and gets a Mind Rape from them.
• Deadpan Snarker : More deadpan than snark.
• Disability Superpower : The VISOR doesn't mimic normal human eyesight, but its ability to see infrared and EM spectrums comes in handy, and it can be jury-rigged to do some odd tasks.
• An example of Real Life Writes the Plot , as the VISOR prop was literally clamped onto Burton's temples. The appliance led to Burton having horrific headaches at the end of a day of shooting.
• The Engineer : Chief Engineer, after his promotion early in the series.
• Gadgeteer Genius
• Goggles Do Something Unusual : His VISOR allows him to "see" a lot of things that normal eyes can't. There are several times where the Enterprise comes up against something weird, and Picard orders LaForge to go look out the nearest window and report what he sees.
• Gone Horribly Right : In "Elementary, Dear Data", Geordi makes a very good point that a Sherlock Holmes mystery with no mystery is no fun at all and encourages Data to approach the scenario without all the answers so he can truly prove his worth as a master detective. Oops.
• Handicapped Badass : When he loses his VISOR he's almost helpless, but if he's got it, he's just as badass as the rest of them.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners : With Data.
• Klingon Promotion : Come Season 2, Geordi is now in charge of Engineering. Finally, somebody who will last more than five minutes in the job, since it became something of a death sentence in the first season.
• Living Lie Detector : In one episode, he states that he can detect subtle shifts in people's bio-signs (at least, with humans) that let him tell if they're lying. This doesn't really come up again.
• Loving a Shadow : Geordi gravitates towards this. In "Booby Trap," he fell in love with a holographic recreation of Dr. Leah Brahms, the architect of the Enterprise-D , a romance which collided with reality once the real Leah turned up in "Galaxy's Child". In a later episode, "Aquiel," he becomes smitten with the eponymous (supposedly) dead science officer after examining her personal logs. Flesh-and-blood women are not, to put it delicately, his strong suit; Geordi is simply too clingy and too tactless.
• Military Brat : Both parents were in Starfleet.
• Mr. Fixit : As Chief Engineer, it's his job to fix whatever thing's taken the warp core offline. He and Dr. Crusher are usually the ones who sift through Data's head when he has malfunctions as well (Geordi on account of technical know-how and Crusher on account of surgeon's hands)
• Nice Guy : Quite probably the nicest and most easy-going guy in the whole future. An android who is literally incapable of feeling affection for anyone or anything considers this guy his best friend. A Borg drone was turned away from the collective after a day of conversation with him, and when re-encountered, his first instinct was to ask if his old friend Geordi was alright. That's how likable Geordi is.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business : He’s the first one to get infected in “The Naked Now”, and shows it off by a bad-tempered joke. Riker mentions that he’s too nice for that to be in character for him.
• Technobabble : Far from the only source of it in the show, but he could well be the poster boy for this trope.
• The Professor
• Rank Up : Twice; Geordi starts out as a junior lieutenant in Season 1, gets promoted to full lieutenant and made Chief Engineer by Season 2, and by Season 3, he's become a lieutenant commander.
• The Smart Guy : The most likely cast member to Technobabble a solution to the problem of the week.
• In "Hide and Q," the Q-empowered Riker grants Geordi eyesight. Though he briefly sees without his VISOR, he soon declines. ("I don't like where it came from .")
• Reportedly, it was suggested that this trope be invoked early into the series' run, with the justification being 24th century technology could simply cure his blindness. Both Burton and Roddenberry were against it - considering it a disservice to blind people.
• Translator Buddy : For Data.
• Twofer Token Minority : African and blind.

Lieutenant Natasha "Tasha" Yar

Played By: Denise Crosby

Dubbed in french by: laurence dourlens, dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: marly ribeiro (tng, season 1), andrea murucci (tng, season 7).

Trent: Mistress Beata invites you to witness this morning's reaffirmation of Angel One's moral imperative. Tasha: Is that the civilized word for 'murder' on this world?

The Enterprise-D's first Chief of Security, preceding Worf. Although conceived as a tough-as-nails Action Girl with a dark past, the show still lacked its beard of quality , meaning she would regularly get hamstrung by the Monster of the Week . As a result, Denise Crosby left the show before the first season was over, and Tasha was unceremoniously killed by an evil slime monster.

• Ambiguously Bi : In “The Naked Now”, she talks like she’s always had a crush on Deanna, and touches her hand for long enough that Deanna looks questioning.
• Attack! Attack! Attack! : She suggests the (impractical and provocative) plan of blasting their way free of any situation.
• Back for the Dead : The episode "Yesterday's Enterprise." Tasha's meaningless death in the original timeline was discussed by her and Guinan, and Tasha decided that, if she was going to be "killed" by the restoration of the timeline, she would rather make a Heroic Sacrifice with the crew of the Enterprise-C .
• Back for the Finale : When Picard flashes back to the Farpoint mission.
• Beware the Nice Ones : Tasha is actually a sweet person to her comrades. But she is all business when it comes to doing her job. Her hotheadedness actually didn't last long beyond the first few episodes; this possibly being a vestige of when her character was originally written as a Vasquez expy . After this, she was typically affable and soft spoken. All of the hotheadedness was probably transferred to Worf in order to avoid character trait redundancy.
• Boyish Short Hair : She always keeps her hair short, and she's the most tomboyish woman on the Enterprise .
• Bridge Bunny : To Denise Crosby's displeasure.
• Characterization Marches On : In "Encounter at Farpoint", Tasha Yar loses her temper and essentially goes into a tirade against the illusionary postapocalyptic courtroom. This may be a carryover from The Series Bible where her character was originally called Macha Hernandez and was essentially meant to be an expy of Vasquez from Aliens (whom the series bible specifically refers to), in that she was fiery and feisty. This was evidently forgotten immediately when the producers realized that a characterization based on a Space Marine was not exactly compatible with the non-violent, Mildly Military vision of Gene Roddenberry 's future. After this, Tasha was regularly shown to be somewhat mild mannered but still capable and independent.
• Chickification : Just what the new Security Chief needed to put her stamp on this ship: a virus that makes you permanently blitzed! Hopefully this was the only instance when Tasha’s sexual throes were blasted across the Bridge intercom.
• Cosmic Plaything : Even an alternate-universe version of Tasha can't seem to avoid dying tragically and pointlessly.
• Dark and Troubled Past : She came from a planet that had descended into anarchy. This is incredibly dark material, so much so that DS9 would later be criticized for straying too far from the Federation and into lawlessness.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart : Tasha Yar from the reality where the Enterprise-C fell into a wormhole learns that in the soon-to-be-restored reality she was killed, but she still volunteers to go back through to help the C crew.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu? : It gets her frozen for her troubles, but she still tells Q and his Kangaroo Court to go to hell in a seriously ballsy Patrick Stewart Speech .
• Dropped a Bridge on Her : Infamously so, killed off by a random one-shot Monster of the Week in as abrupt a manner as would usually fit a Red Shirt . Unlike most red shirts, however, Tasha is never forgotten.
• Failed a Spot Check : This woman is a liability. In "Justice", she mentions that she has catalogued all of the Edo's laws and customs and yet she fails to mention that if you fall into some plants, you will be executed. "It’s a kind of syringe..." Tasha informs Riker, a little too late.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps : It was Starfleet officers who rescued Tasha from the Crapsack World on which she grew up, and she went on to serve in the organization herself, even singing it's praises to Q's face.
• Hot-Blooded : Q turns her into a yellow popsicle after she starts ranting on about how fabulous Earth is; the implication being someone needs to cool her down. ( "She’s frozen!" — Good catch, Troi.)
• Informed Attractiveness : Tasha is described as very attractive on several occasions. Geordi comments on her beauty, and multiple humanoid aliens - like the Ligonian ruler and a Romulan general - try to make her their concubine.
• In-Series Nickname : Tasha.
• Killed Off for Real : In the first season episode "Skin of Evil" . Denise Crosby left the show because she felt her character didn't have enough to do in the episodes. The producers probably felt that there were too many characters anyway and needed to trim the cast a bit. So they apparently took it pretty well. In fact, they worked with Crosby to make her departing episode special in terms of Star Trek , the show that was responsible for the Redshirt trope. Also, driven home is the fact that Yar's death was somewhat pointless and understated and not the type of dramatic heroic death usually reserved for main characters. But then, there was the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," which resurrects her in an alternate timeline, to give her a more heroic and meaningful death... only for the Redemption two-parter to undermine that too.
• Leeroy Jenkins : Tasha needs to calm down a bit: one of Lutan’s guards tries to hand a vaccine to Picard and she beats the crap out of him!
• The Lad-ette : Often participated in competitive/athletic activities. She wears her hair in a shorter, lower maintenance style (at least when compared to Deanna or Beverly). Subverted in the sense that she eschews the stereotypical affected crudity of many contemporary Ladettes and likes to relax into her femininity when off duty.
• Ms. Fanservice : Drunk Tasha wandering the ship with a Supermodel Strut ; her "blitzed" voice is very seductive. She later seduces Data, after changing into a revealing Bedlah Babe outfit.
• The One Who Made It Out : Unlike her sister, who appears later to manipulate the crew when they visit her homeworld.
• Rape as Backstory : Possibly implied. She mentions that she spent most of her childhood dodging Rape-Gangs, but doesn't explicitly say if they ever caught her. The fact that she first mentions this while hitting on Data before having sex with him, brings up another trope .
• Robosexual : While under the influence in "The Naked Now", Tasha hits on and has sex with Data.
• Sex Slave : Tragically, her alternate timeline self wound up being forced into this position by a Romulan general in order to save the lives of her fellow prisoners of war.
• Ship Tease : Besides Data, Tasha seemed to share feelings with Geordi and Worf, as well.
• That Didn't Happen : The night with Data. He agrees to keep it quiet, but we see that it's one of his most precious memories. (In an extended version of Yar's goodbye message, she says, "Data? It did happen.")
• Timey-Wimey Ball : As of "Yesterday's Enterprise".
• Tomboy and Girly Girl : The tomboy to Troi's girly girl. “The Naked Now” has her stealing Deanna’s clothes because she’s always loved how she dresses and does her hair.
• One of the worse examples in Star Trek , casually murdered by Armus like a Red Shirt.
• Her fate in the altered timeline of "Yesterday's Enterprise" is ultimately little better; after her attempt at a Heroic Sacrifice , she was taken as a concubine by a Romulan general, having a daughter , and ultimately being unceremoniously shot when said daughter ruined Tasha's eventual escape attempt.
• We Hardly Knew Ye : It would have been interesting to see how the character was handled once the show runners got their act together.
• The Worf Effect : How Tasha died. This was one of the earlier examples of the trope on the series , even before Worf himself replaced Tasha as the chief security officer.

Lieutenant Worf (later Lieutenant Commander) aboard Enterprise-D

Played By: Michael Dorn

Dubbed in french by: michel blin (tng), benoit allemane (movies), dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: guilherme briggs (tng-season one), josé santa cruz (tng-season 2 on, first contact, insurrection), antônio moreno (nemesis).

" I am not a merry man! "

The genesis for Worf was Gene Roddenberry's suggestion that there be a "Klingon marine" on the Enterprise bridge, thus symbolizing that the human-Klingon feud was a thing of the past. Didn't quite work since it turned out he was actually raised by humans and was the only Klingon in all of Starfleet, and the Klingons—while no longer enemies—still had a pretty tense relationship with the Federation. But it did set up some very good and long-running storylines.

Of all the TNG regulars, Worf underwent the most Character Development , partially because his early characterization was minuscule, and partially because the character has made more appearances across the Star Trek franchise than any other. Over the years, he thwarted a civil war on his homeworld (and got exiled for his trouble), became a father, got beat up ( a lot ), broke his spine (luckily he had a spare), got married to Troi (in an alternate dimension), crossed over to Deep Space Nine and became a series regular there, was promoted to Commander, got married again, and eventually cleared his name (finally) and became an ambassador to the Klingons, which was quietly ignored when the TNG films needed him back in uniform.

• Accidental Child-Killer Backstory : Worf is exceptionally rigid and uptight, rarely allowing himself to relax around others. It's eventually revealed that as a child he was much less self-controlled, until a collision with another boy during a soccer game. Klingons are physically much tougher than humans, and the other boy died, which made Worf realize he had to maintain strict control of himself to avoid hurting the humans around him.
• Affectionate Nickname : Q calls him "Micro-brain."
• Ascended Extra : Worf’s around to add a little color in the pilot, but doesn’t really contribute a great deal besides grunts... yet.
• Bad Liar : Worf is terrible at poker playing because he can't conceal his frustration at being unable to play a winning hand (and thanks to his insistence that "Klingons never bluff"). He wears his heart on his sleeve. Picard : Lieutenant, I order you to relax. Worf : I AM RELAXED!! ...Yes, sir.
• The Big Guy : A big, badass Klingon security chief who mans the phasers. Unfortunately, this means that the Monster of the Week usually proves how dangerous it is by beating him up . If it can kick Worf's ass, then it must be serious!
• Big, Screwed-Up Family : With the exception of his adoptive human parents, who are embarrassingly proud of him. Worf's Klingon parents are dead, with his father posthumously branded a traitor. His wives have died, and he has a complicated relationship with his son Alexander. He's also at odds with both his brothers: his long-lost brother Kurn tries to bait Worf into killing him so he can die with honor after Worf's discommendation, and the Rozhenkos' biological son Nikolai is a Starfleet dropout who, during his one visit to the Enterprise, deliberately breaches the Prime Directive.
• Birds of a Feather : He and Data bond over the fact they are both "outsiders" among their human co-workers.
• Birthday Hater : Worf doesn't look forward to his birthday as he doesn't like to be surprised, and knows that his shipmates always want to throw him a surprise party.
• Bizarre Alien Biology : Klingons, as we discover in the episode "Ethics" (Season 5, Episode 16), have 23 ribs, 2 livers, an 8-chambered heart, and so on. This is Handwaved as backup in case anything goes wrong.
• Bizarre Taste in Food : Crossed with Foreign Queasine , Worf has a very strange palate probably owed to Klingons not actually cooking their meals. A recurring gag is Worf's eating habits bringing about total bafflement to his friends. His own mother learned to cook Klingon blood pie but admitted she "never learned how to eat it." When he asks her to cook some when she comes to visit, she can barely hide her horror. The trope is also given a twist when Worf discovers that he loves prune juice and sees it as "a warrior's drink." He was also the only one to enjoy the botched omelettes that Riker made in one episode, though whether that speaks more to his taste buds or Riker's cooking skills is up for debate.
• Born in the Wrong Century : Because they made love, Worf considers he and K’Ehleyr bonded for life (he makes the same mistake with Jadzia and Ezri on DS9 almost 10 years later, so he never learns), whereas she thinks the notion of marrying everyone you sleep with is absurd.
• Brutal Honesty : He refuses to sugar coat anything, even being willing to tell a mortally wounded crewman that he's going to die rather than try to give him false hope.
• Butt-Monkey : There's a reason why there's a trope called The Worf Effect .
• The Comically Serious : The series' go-to for this type of humor. If he weren't such a humorless stick in the mud, then lines like "Sir, I protest! I am NOT a merry man! " wouldn't be so hilarious.
• Culture Blind : Worf occasionally expresses bafflement at human culture in the first few episodes, but then it's established that he was raised on Earth by human parents, so his culture blindness gets dropped thereafter.
• Culture Clash : Worf's very conservative Klingon beliefs occasionally put him at odds with Starfleet values and the rest of the crew. Ironically, they also occasionally put him at odds with other Klingons, who grew up with a much less idealized impression of Klingon culture.
• Cultured Badass : He loves his Klingon Opera and love poetry.
• Deadpan Snarker : It's not overt, but Worf gets a bunch of really great snarks out over the course of the series (they acquired the nickname "Worfisms"). Michael Dorn's incredibly dry delivery is a big part of it. Q: I have no powers![...] What must I do to convince you people? Worf: [matter-of-factly] Die.
• Decomposite Character : Data, Worf, and Troi share Spock's persona from TOS. Worf takes Spock's token alien who's sometimes torn between his loyalties to his Federation comrades and his own people aspect.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance : Whenever his Klingon culture shows up, it's often at odds with standard human morality. Moreover, Worf's own idealized version of Klingon culture often clashes with the realities of life in the Empire, with most other Klingons regarding him as a hidebound traditionalist at best and a foolish naif at worst.
• Several years later , when he learns that the very same woman was "having a baby" again, his immediate response is an alarmed " Now?! ", followed by informing Bashir and O'Brien that he'll be on shore leave around the delivery date, which is still several months away.
• Determinator : Say what you will about Worf, but the man does not give up . Best exemplified on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Jem'hadar First Ikat'ika: I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him, and that no longer holds my interest.
• Disappeared Dad : Both his dad and his mom were killed in the massacre at Khitomer when Worf was six.
• Disappointing Heritage Reveal : Worf grew up with an idealized image of the Klingon Empire and its culture due to being a Klingon raised by humans. He eventually has to confront the reality that the Klingon Empire is mired in realpolitik, corruption, and schemes concocted by Klingons who lack honor.
• Drink-Based Characterization : Despite the Klingons' preference for bloodwine, firewine, and other badass beverages, Worf's favorite drink is the very human prune juice. It shows just how much humans and the Federation have rubbed off on him.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas : Worf isn't actually a bad guy, but he is an example of Good is Not Nice . He is, however, softer around his adoptive parents.
• The Eeyore : To other Klingons; he doesn't even think Klingons laugh . Worf doesn't realize this until he's in the company of other Klingons, and they treat him as a stuffy stick-in-the-mud. Guinan sets him straight, telling him that Klingons aren't honor-bound automotons. Guinan: You know, I had a bet with the Captain that I could make you laugh before you became lieutenant commander. Worf: Not a good bet today. Guinan: I've seen you laugh. I like it. Worf: Klingons do not laugh. Guinan: Oh, yes, they do ! Absolutely they do. You don't, but I've heard Klingon belly laughs that'd curl your hair!... Your son laughs. He's Klingon. Worf: He is a child and part Human! Guinan: That's right. And you're not; you're a full Klingon, except... you don't laugh.
• Worf completely loathes the Romulans, chiefly because his parents died in the Khitomer Incident and his family was later discommendated thanks to their machinations with a Klingon traitor. He flatly refuses to give a dying Romulan a blood transfusion to save his life (in fairness to Worf, the Romulan in question said he'd rather die than take blood from a Klingon) and also shuns a Klingon woman he was initially attracted to after learning she is actually half-Romulan. However, numerous characters routinely call him out on this attitude. He manages to cooperate with two Romulans to escape a Dominion prison camp and by the last movie, he (begrudgingly) praised the Romulans who helped them for their honor.
• He's also frequently on the receiving end as a result of being a Klingon.
• Fish out of Water : Upon leaving the Federation to fight in his people's civil war, Worf comes to learn that the Klingon culture he has idealized all his life isn't quite what he wants or expects.
• Fish out of Temporal Water : More comedy as Worf fails to summon the ‘turbolift’ or answer the telephone in "The Royale" (his gruff " HELLO! " is precious).
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps : After the Khitomer massacre, Worf was rescued and adopted by then-Chief Petty Officer Sergei Rozhenko. Like his adopted father, Worf went on to join Starfleet; according to his adoptive mother Helena, Worf getting his commission was the proudest day of Sergei's life, and Sergei never misses a chance to express pride in his son becoming an officer.
• Freudian Excuse : Worf's Fantastic Racism towards Romulans is born of them having murdered his parents when they attacked the Khitomer Outpost.
• Good Old Ways : Worf is something of a romantic in the way he adheres to Klingon rituals that even his own people aren't naive enough to follow.
• Happily Adopted : He and his parents are as close as if he was their own Human child.
• Has a Type : His son's mother was a Klingon/Human hybrid with a smart mouth and was the Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire. His later wife Jadzia was a Trill whose previous host was also the Federation ambassador to the Klingons (possibly K'Ehleyr's immediate predecessor?). She adopted Klingon ways of living so much she might as well be a reverse hybrid - with a smart mouth.
• So much that he successfully gets himself excused from a reception that will be full of it.
• 'Nice planet' is his impression of the Edo homeworld. When invited to tea, he hazards, 'Good tea. Nice house.' He always was a succinct one.
• Henpecked Husband : The ladies in Worf's life exist to torment him. For his own good, it seems. K'Ehleyr was a proud iconoclast who refused to run her life on Worf's terms. Busybody Deanna is always on hand to embarrass and cajole Worf into admitting his anxieties. Jadzia Dax flat-out admitted that she likes to troll Worf and didn't require encouragement from O'Brien in that department.
• Honor Before Reason : Nothing is more important to him than his honor. Every time he's forced to sacrifice something to preserve it he considers it to be Worth It , no matter how high the cost. Unfortunately, his brother Kurn suffers for this even more than Worf does.
• I Am X, Son of Y : "I am Worf, son of Mogh!" (In Klingon, "Son of Mogh" translates as "mogh puqloD".)
• Identical Grandson : Michael Dorn was already a regular as Lieutenant Worf for four seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation when he made a minor appearance in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , where he played a Klingon defense attorney who makes an earnest but futile attempt to argue on Captain Kirk's behalf during his mock trial in Klingon captivity. The defense attorney's name? Colonel Worf. Naturally, the Star Trek Expanded Universe confirms that Worf is Colonel Worf's grandson (that's right, the father of Worf, son of Mogh, is named Mogh, son of Worf) and was named after him.
• Ignored Expert : He's the head of security, but when he raises reasonable objections he tends to be ignored or shot down with little more reasoning than 'Nah, don't feel like it,' which frequently puts the crew or ship itself in grave danger on a regular basis. For example in "Samaritan Snare" he objects to sending their chief engineer instead of a lesser officer or just sending the needed technical information, but his caution is ignored, getting Geordi captured. In that particular case, they were trying to assist a spacecraft run by a species that appeared to be rather... special, and didn't appear to be capable of hostility. Worf's warning was still valid, of course, but Riker (who was in command at the time, long story) thought he was overreacting...
• Interracial Adoption Struggles : Worf, a Klingon, was adopted and raised by the Rozhenko family, humans with Russian ethnicity. The Rozhenkos wanted Worf to have a loving family, but they didn't want him to be ignorant of his Klingon heritage, either, so they tried to accommodate him by learning to make traditional Klingon dishes like rokeg blood pie. It's often noted that Worf is more serious and stern than most other Klingons, and this comes from a combination of him having actually studied the texts and history and taking them seriously, as well as an unfortunate incident in his past where he accidentally killed a young man during a sporting event, because his Klingon physiology meant he was far too strong to be careless around human beings. When he starts meeting other Klingons as an adult, he experiences some culture clash as the idealized version of Klingon culture he formed in his mind does not reflect reality.
• Interspecies Romance : Earth females are too fragile for Worf and he has to restrain himself. Grrr! This doesn't stop him from pursuing relationships with Betazoids, Trills, and Klingon-Human hybrids.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : He's not one for small talk, is Brutally Honest to the point of rudeness, and loathes Romulans, but he's also unshakably loyal to his friends and won't hesitate to lay down his life for anyone under his care and is capable of being very kind and gentle when he's in a good mood.
• Large and in Charge : Commander of the Enterprise's security department, and at 6'3", is only surpassed by Commander Riker in height.
• His Catchphrase is "It is a good day to die". Succinct and to the point.
• His classic rant in "Where Silence Has Lease". Clearly Worf took a dose of Tasha Yar pills that morning and he recommends going to Red Alert when nothing of consequence has happened. When things get a bit surreal he goes bonkers again, declaring that ship has ‘ONE Riker, ONE Bridge! This is impossible! IMPOSSIBLE! ARGGGHHHHH ’ which did his character no favors. Then again, he nearly blow a hole in the viewscreen when Q first appeared. "Explains something of why you defeated them." says Q of the Federation’s decisive victory over the Klingons.
• FOR BATTLE COME TO ME!! cries Worf.
• Worf has a refreshingly spotty record as a leader. In "Rules of Engagement", Sisko chews him out for firing on a Klingon vessel without verifying if there were civilians in the crossfire. During the inquisition which follows, Qu'nos sends an attorney to prosecute Worf for war crimes; he infers that Worf is ruled by his Klingon bloodlust and shouldn't have even been allowed in a Captain's chair.
• In "The Bonding", Worf shows himself to be a man of integrity by telling Jeremy what happened to his mother because he was in charge of the away team. He wants to honour Lt. Aster by performing the Bonding ritual with Jeremy and taking the child under his wing.
• Like Mogh, he took a very active hand in Klingon politics, to the point that he puts himself in the position to appoint a Chancellor. He was also disgraced due to an injustice.
• Like Sergei Rozhenko, he has a career in Starfleet wherein he discovers a son he never expected to have.
• Missing Mom : We hear loads about his biological father, the famed Mogh. But his biological mother barely even gets a mention, not even receiving a name.
• Momma's Boy : Worf absolutely loves his adoptive mother Helena Rozhenko. He insists that she makes the best rokeg blood pie in the entire galaxy, beat up five teenage boys he deemed "disrespectful" to her (with the implication that they had insulted her rather than him) at the age of 7, and one of his favorite places is her home of Minsk.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong : While being a Klingon already makes him strong, Worf mentioned that his adoptive father (who raised him in Minsk) took him camping in the Urals when he was a boy.
• My Greatest Failure : It's later revealed in Deep Space Nine that part of the reason for his stoicism is because as a boy he accidentally killed another child whilst playing football. Since then, Worf vowed never again to lose control.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much : And inverse of this. Most of the human characters only have Worf's view of Klingon culture to go on, so when other Klingons who have been living in that culture pop up, they're quick to point out (or show off) that he's been compensating. Notably, Worf's principled, disciplined, honorable nature clashes unpleasantly with the rest of the Empire when he serves in their military during the Klingon Civil War.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"! : Calling this proud Klingon a coward is a good way to commit suicide. It's a sign of just how nuts Picard is getting in First Contact when he does it, prompting a very calm yet very angry response from Worf. Worf: If you were any other man I would kill you where you stand.
• He's fairly close friends with Riker note  in "Ethics," after Worf is paralyzed, Riker is who he asks for help in performing the Hegh'bat (a Klingon suicide ritual), and in one of the alternate realities shown in "Parallels" where Riker is captain of the Enterprise, Worf is his First Officer , despite Will's amiable personality contrasting with Worf's stoic one. As a result, Riker enjoys taking the piss out of Worf at times.
• You'd think his friendship with Data would be odd, but both are socially awkward (due to Worf keeping his emotions in check and Data...well, having none) and have a hard time relating to humans, so why wouldn't they be friends? Data: Did I say something wrong? Worf: I don't understand their humor either.
• They started off fairly prickly towards each other, but eventually the stoic badass warrior develops a strong friendship, and later on a brief romance with the gentle empath Deanna.
• Offered the Crown : Played with. The Duras sisters attempt to convince him to change his loyalty to them, offering the older sister as his wife and him the Regency for their nephew, but don't directly offer to make him Chancellor of the Empire. Later, he actually becomes Chancellor for a brief moment through Klingon Promotion , but immediately abdicates for Martok, whom Worf believes is the most competent leader the Klingon Empire could have.
• Only One Name : Worf names himself in the Klingon style, "Worf, son of Mogh," even though he was raised by human parents, the Rozhenkos.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business : When Worf considers a fight lost, you know the situation is bad; in First Contact , with the Borg having overrun most of the Enterprise , it's Worf of all people who tries to drive home to Picard that the ship is lost and they should cut their losses and run, even arguing back when Picard tries to insist that they keep fighting.
• Parenthetical Swearing : He does this every few episodes, usually when speaking about something that offends his Klingon sensibilities, like diplomacy.
• Patriot in Exile : Rather than bring down the Empire by revealing that Duras was the son of a traitor who colluded with Romulans to cause the Khitomer Massacre, Worf accepts discommendation, basically being declared an exile from Klingon society. He is later reinstated during a Klingon Civil War. He is then kicked out again by Gowron for siding with the Federation during the events of Deep Space Nine , before being re-reinvited by being adopted by Martok. Worf has a complicated history with his Klingon heritage.
• Politically Incorrect Hero : Worf's Fantastic Racism towards Romulans stands out in a supposedly much more open and understanding future. In his defense, his Freudian Excuse gives him a good reason to dislike the Romulans, and most of the Romulans he encounters don't give Worf many reasons to change his attitude.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy : In his own words, "I am a warrior! I must show you my heart!"
• Raised by Orcs : Inversion — a Klingon raised by humans . In a fairly effective Deconstruction of the trope , Worf was often more true to Klingon principles and culture than most Klingons, due to having had more of an incentive to stand up for his identity in an alien environment. Also because he didn't grow up in a Klingon environment, Worf is only aware of how Klingons are supposed to conduct themselves — other Klingons have learnt (as we all do) that there's honor and then there's the subtle compromises you make to get along in life. This leads to several Honor Before Reason decisions by Worf , as well as a lot of Culture Clash with more "modern" Klingons in the "Redemption" two-parter. It also leads to a Reconstruction , as his devotion to true honor leads to him defeating the corrupt Chancellor Gowron and installing the far more competent and honorable Martok in his place.
• Rank Up : The first Next Generation era scene in Generations has the crew holding an elaborate ceremony to celebrate Worf's promotion to lieutenant commander.
• Real Men Can Cook : He bakes Wesley a Tarvokian pound cake to celebrate his visit to back to the ship in "The Game."
• When Duras killed his beloved K'Ehleyr, Worf boarded his ship and killed him in the Rite of Vengeance.
• When his second wife was murdered, he destroyed an entire Dominion shipyard in her honor. By causing a star to go nova.
• Russian Guy Suffers Most : Worf , whose suffering put name to the Worf Effect , was raised by Russians. Well, Belarusians, note  Most likely; they're from Minsk (the capital of Belarus), and while that doesn't prove anything on its own (plenty of ethnic Russians in Minsk), the family surname is characteristically Belarusian (or Ukrainian, but probably Belarusian). but Belarusians are the most Russian-like non-Russians out there, to the point where a majority of ethnic Belarusians have Russian as a native language and Belarus was still part of the USSR when the episode introducing his parents was written and aired.
• Sailor's Ponytail : After years of wearing a bob cut, Worf would start wearing his hair this way in season six's "Face of the Enemy", and would stay this way for the rest of the franchise. When undone, it turns into a Slipknot Ponytail .
• Shut Up, Hannibal! : When Worf engages Duras in a duel to the death after he murders K'Ehleyr , Duras tries to talk him out of it by promising to clear Worf's name. Worf isn't having any of it. Duras: I'm the only one, Worf - the only one who can prove your innocence! Kill me and you're a traitor forever. Worf: Than that is how it shall be!
• Sore Loser : You gotta love his way of dealing with the toy model he is making in "Peak Performance": he smashes it and tosses it in the trash, then tells Riker he will be irritated if he doesn’t get to a certain stage in the game with Kolrami because he has wagered on him .
• The Stoic : Most of the time — that is, unlike most Klingons. This was explained in Deep Space Nine as being the result of constant self-control after he accidentally killed a human friend whilst playing football as a child. The only time this image cracks is when he slips into Unstoppable Rage . This was showcased quite heavily in "Heart of Glory", TNG's first Klingon-centric episode.
• Frequently falls into this. He usually comes off more as a humorless stiff than a badass Klingon warrior.
• That super dramatic music when Worf heads off to stop Okona’s unending line of sexual conquests throughout the ship.
• Odds are that if somebody amongst the main characters was needed to take an unsympathetic position about a culture, species or anything else, that character would be Worf. His generally disapproving personality helps make it credible.
• Worf is all in favor of aborting an baby with no regard for Troi’s feelings whatsoever. Yes, she was violated by an alien lifeform, but that's still pretty harsh. He also agrees with O'Brien (and Quark!) that his rights as a father take precedence over Major Kira's as a mother.
• Token Heroic Orc : At the very start. This was the first time a Klingon was seen in an outright heroic role; in TOS they were Enemy Mine at best.
• Token Minority : Similar to Spock's role in the Original Series, Worf is an alien crewmember of partial human upbringing (in Worf's case, he is Klingon by birth, but was adopted and raised by humans after his parents were killed). He isn't the only alien/non-human onboard, mind you, since we also have Troi and Data among the crew. But the fact that Deanna is a Half-Human Hybrid , and Data is an android designed to resemble and mimic humans makes Worf stand out like a sore thumb.
• Trademark Favorite Food : Klingon bloodwine. He later develops a taste for prune juice once Guinan introduces him to it, declaring it to be a "warrior's drink." Apparently the two beverages taste somewhat similar, and the Federation eventually starts exporting prune juice to the Klingon Empire in large amounts. According to his mother, he is also very fond of her rokeg blood pie.
• Tranquil Fury : Worf being angry and bellowing is just standard for him. It's when he gets angry and goes calm that you need to be afraid as seen when Picard calls him a coward in "First Contact" and Worf quietly tells him that were Picard any other man, Worf would kill him on the spot.
• Underestimating Badassery : A Bar Brawl ensues when some Klingon warriors visiting Star Trek: Deep Space Nine decide to pick on Worf for his unlikely order of prune juice. note  A warrior's drink! Worf manages to use the Conservation of Ninjutsu to invoke The Worf Effect for a change by handily mopping the floor with them.
• Weaksauce Weakness : He's apparently allergic to cats.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy : Wait a minute, are there any proud fathers in the Trek universe? Ironically, his adoptive father, Sergei, is extremely proud of Worf's accomplishments.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? : Fighting Borg? No problem. Going for a space walk? Suddenly Worf looks like he's rather be anywhere else.
• Women Prefer Strong Men : Worf is the second physically strongest character after Data, able to hold a fight against multiple members of a species bred for war, proficient at hand-to-hand combat and pretty much an overall badass. While he gets beat up a lot , he gets compensation with the some of the hotter girls of the franchise (Deanna Troi, Jadzia Dax...) falling for him.
• The Worf Effect : The Trope Namer . Any time the writers needed to show how much of a threat the new enemy was, they would have Worf rush it and immediately be thrown across the room. It's a wonder how Worf got any work after he left the Enterprise . Whenever anybody wants to beam the Captain away from the ship they seem to have no trouble whatsoever. There is a very amusing moment in DS9 where Odo lists a number of security breaches that occurred on the Enterprise under his watch. Worf protests that they were the exception rather than the rule. Re-watching the series would suggest that it's the other way around! He's often the first one to learn that the Borg have adapted to the available phaser frequencies.
• Worf Had the Flu : The other Trope Namer , though oddly, Worf himself seldom encounters this trope, because otherwise it wouldn't be The Worf Effect if he was at half-speed.
• You Can't Go Home Again : For a while, Worf was disgraced and exiled from Klingon space. Twice .
• Younger Than They Look : As a race of warriors, Klingons age more rapidly than humans, to become battle ready more easily. Michael Dorn was thirty-five-years-old when he first started playing Worf, but the character was only twenty-four in the pilot episode. It's possible some mature-looking Klingons seen in the past were actually in the early prime of life, at least for their species.

Played By: Gates McFadden

Dubbed in french by: valérie jeannet (tng), anne rochant (movies), dubbed in brazilian portuguese by: selma lopes (tng, season 1), juraciara diácovo (tng, season 2 to 6), rita lopes (tng, season 7).

" When I look at my patient, I don't see a collective consciousness, I don't see a hive. I see a living, breathing boy who has been hurt and who needs our help. "

The redheaded Doctor in charge of Sickbay. Has a long and complicated relationship with Picard, who served over her late husband, Jack Crusher, as Captain of the ill-fated Stargazer . Picard, still troubled with guilt over Jack's death, often expresses romantic feelings toward Beverly, but will not act on them. Jack and Beverly had a son, Wesley, who lives aboard the Enterprise .

• Action Mom : She's pretty good whenever she has to use combat skills and not medical ones. She also has the best aiming skills of the entire main cast. In "Descent Part II," she's left in charge of Enterprise with a fraction of the normal crew, all no-names, while all the main cast is off hunting for Data. She takes on the Borg and wins.
• The Bus Came Back : After spending Season 2 away at Starfleet Medical, Crusher returns to the Enterprise in Season 3 and remains there for the rest of the series and the movies.
• The Cast Show Off : Gates McFadden made her name as a choreographer and, in "Data's Day," Crusher gets a scene where she teaches Data to dance, opening with a fairly impressive bit of tap-dancing from the doctor. Crusher, ironically, isn't too keen on word of her talents getting around the ship, not wanting to be known as " the dancing doctor " again .
• Combat Medic : One of the more prominent examples among Trek doctors, she's quite able and willing to shoot a phaser or throw a punch, and does surprisingly well when she's forced by circumstance to command the ship in a fight. In fact, she likes command and regularly commands the night shift "just to keep in practice." And when Picard visits the future in "All Good Things...." she's captain of a medical ship. There's a reason she is selected for the commando operation in "Chain of Command" alongside Picard and Worf.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character : Unlike the often grouchy Dr. McCoy, Dr. Crusher is warm, friendly, and maternal.
• A Day in the Limelight : "Suspicions", "Sub Rosa" and "Remember Me".
• Deadpan Snarker : According to the episode "Attached", she often has a snarky remark at the tip of her tongue, though she rarely vocalizes them. She is more prone to snarking in episodes that focus on her.
• Determined Doctor : Even when she’s infected with what is essentially horniness and is hot for Picard, she tries to push through to find the antidote in “The Naked Now”.
• Doctor's Orders : Comes with the territory.
• Dull Surprise : The major difference between Gates and the other regulars is that the former is a born dancer . Gates had a couple of stellar episodes, but she also took a few episodes off. Her inflections are all over the place.
• Embarrassing Nickname : "The Dancing Doctor" (due to having won several awards for tap and jazz dance before being posted to the Enterprise-D ).
• Gates McFadden later said on her Twitter that much of Beverly's hair was a wig, though the bangs were hers.
• Florence Nightingale Effect : In the series finale, "All Good Things..." Picard returns from the future and reports on a terminal disease he will one day contract. What does Beverly do? Plants a passionate kiss on him.
• Hidden Depths : She's an accomplished dancer, and also shows an impressive aptitude for command when the situation calls for it .
• It Never Gets Any Easier : She complains in “Code Of Honor” that doctors are meant to grow calluses over their feelings, and it hasn’t happened yet for her.
• The McCoy : Slips into this on occasion. She will always put her medical ethics first regardless of personal risk and refuses to not treat injured people, even if it's in the midst of a terrorist attack or if that person is a Borg.
• The Medic : She's the ship's head doctor and is almost always the one shown delivering medical aid.
• My Beloved Smother : Wesley suggests his mother is stunting his emotional growth.
• No Badass to His Valet : The only person onboard the ship who can give the Captain orders. She's also known Picard for long enough to give him honest advice.
• Noodle Incident : Whatever happened on Arvada III when she lived there with her Nana.
• Put on a Bus : Dr. Crusher goes back to Earth to teach medicine at Starfleet Academy for a season, but she returns in Season 3.
• Real Life Writes the Plot : When Gates McFadden left the show for the second season (conflicting reports can't agree if she was fired or quit due to personal issues with people on the set), Crusher was said to have been assigned to Starfleet Medical. When McFadden returned for the third season, Crusher transferred back to the ship. They even made her absence a b-plot in her first episode back, the season 3 premiere "Evolution."
• Satellite Character : Her initial description in the cast bible is a one line description of how she is Wesley's mother. Her other major character usage is UST with Picard. This contributed to her bus trip in season two, but after her return (and Wesley's departure) she gets a number of episodes and plots dedicated to her.
• Soapbox Sadie : Aboard the Enterprise , she's the loudest proponent for social justice. Just listen to her on "Symbiosis" Crusher : This isn't a symbiotic relationship. This is exploitation! .
• Stepford Smiler : She hasn’t actually gotten over feelings of her husband’s death, but pushes them down, claiming he died a long time ago.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension : With Picard. Ironically, even though it's Picard who has hang-ups about a romantic relationship, she shoots him down when he asks. They are ex-lovers with a grown son (Jack), as of Star Trek: Picard , and are married with a son (Rene) in the non-cannonical novel timeline .
• Women Are Wiser : Crusher is the one person on the ship who can give Picard an order, and she loves it.

Hologram Crusher

Played by: gates mcfadden.

For tropes relating to his appearance there, along with the other holograms, see, Star Trek: Prodigy .

Counselor (Lieutenant Commander, later Commander) Deanna Troi

Played By : Marina Sirtis

Dubbed in french by: anne plumet (tng), deborah perret (movies).

"Confidence is faith in oneself. It can't easily be given by another."

Half-Betazoid counselor who gets to sit right up front on The Bridge — a remnant of the touchy-feely 80s . Somewhat justified by her empathic abilities, which allowed her to detect lies and therefore give an edge to Picard in negotiations (though she mostly just stated the obvious ). In lieu of the standard Starfleet uniform, Troi was known for wearing a multitude of feminized (read: cleavage-baring ) versions. When Captain Jellico took temporary command of the Enterprise in the sixth season, he promptly barked at her to change into a proper uniform; this change was welcomed by the actress and viewers, who felt she was no less beautiful.

• '80s Hair : Troi looks like a hard rock singer with her massive frizzy hair and miniskirt in "Farpoint". They didn't start to get her hair under control until First Contact .
• An Alien Named "Bob" : Downplayed. Deanna is only half alien .
• Boomerang Bigot : Despite being half-human, Deanna will sometimes voice her low opinion of humans. Deanna (unlike Spock) doesn't really face an identity crisis as a result of her two races not getting along (Betazoids and humans are friendly Federation allies). She simply likes the cool powers that her non-human side gives her, so her need to feel superiority in her alien heritage comes across as arrogant. It's not until "The Loss" that someone ( Riker , no less) calls her out on it . And it seems to have worked.
• Break the Cutie : She gets broken to pieces psychologically more than any character except Picard. The writers seemed to be fond of having her be psychically violated more than once, and she's usually the first to trust someone and get her fingers burned badly due to her compassionate and empathic nature.
• Brought Down to Normal : In "The Loss," a multitude of two-dimensional organisms cause her to temporarily lose her empathic abilities.
• Captain Crash : Troi takes the helm twice during the movies, and both times, the ship ends up crashing into something. Despite the ribbing she gets from fans, both cases are justified; in Generations , the saucer section is already crashing and Troi manages to keep it under control to minimize casualties, and in Nemesis , Picard actually ordered her to ram the Enterprise into the Scimitar to disable the enemy ship.
• Captain Obvious : In the earlier seasons, she's often just confirming via empathic ability or psychological assessment what The Bridge already suspects or what is plainly obvious to the audience. One of her very first lines on the show is looking at a guy covered head to toe in ice and declaring "He's frozen!"
• Character Overlap : After Riker, Troi is the second-most frequently seen Star Trek character, showing up in Voyager , Pathfinder , Life Line , Inside Man ; Enterprise ( " These Are The Voyages... "); Picard (" Nepenthe ") and Lower Decks'' (" No Small Parts ").
• The Confidant : Part of her job, even to Captain Picard.
• Comfort Food : Troi is well-established to enjoy eating chocolate when she's stressed. Presumably the stuff she gets from he replicator is healthier than the real thing.
• Consistent Clothing Style : Deanna Troi tends to wear bodysuits (until she was made to wear a uniform in "Chain of Command"), and she wears sparkly hair bands.
• Custom Uniform of Sexy : Averted in the last two seasons, when she started wearing a standard blue science uniform after Captain Jellico ordered her to. Marina Sirtis had been pushing for that change for some time and fans wholeheartedly agreed that she looked great in one. (Sirtis noted that her character also seemed to start being portrayed as a great deal more competent after that, too.)
• She filled this role many times. She was always being possessed by aliens, abused by aliens in crashed shuttles, abducted by aliens for political gambits, being nearly forced to marry an alien, having her psychic powers robbed by aliens, suffering nightmares at the hands of aliens, forced to listen to a virtual music box in her head for days by an alien, the list goes on. Her only real use on the show was to counsel the random crew member of the week and to tell Picard when she sensed weird things happening while on the bridge... apart from being this show's Ms. Fanservice , that is.
• And when Troi actually said something useful, she was often ignored. In the second season episode, "Samaritan Snare," Geordi is beamed over to a disabled ship to help the apparently dim-witted Pakleds. Troi walks onto the bridge, sees Geordi on the ship through the viewscreen, and tells Riker Geordi is in danger and needs to be beamed back immediately. Riker ignores her warning because Pakleds are just so stupid, and what harm can they do? Well, let's just say the main plot of the show is Riker's efforts to get Geordi back, which could have been avoided if he'd listened to the empath! (And to Worf, who advised against sending anyone over to the Pakled ship, correctly guessing that the Pakleds could be laying a trap for the crew.)
• During "The Price", the episode begins with Deanna returning to her quarters and seeming slightly irritable and stressed, but her asking (and failing) to get any real chocolate from the computer is interrupted by Picard asking her to come to the gathering to view the wormhole up for sale. While she initially refuses, he insists and she agrees, leaving her quarters with this lovely line: Deanna: God forbid I miss my first look at the wormhole...!
• Decomposite Character : Data, Worf, and Troi share Spock's persona from TOS. Troi is the Half-Human Hybrid who often bickers with their same-sex/alien parent.
• Early-Installment Weirdness : In the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" during crew introductions, Troi is seen trying to communicate telepathically with Riker. In later episodes, it's all but stated that Deanna can only sense emotions as a result of only being half-Betazoid, and the only person she can telepathically talk to is her Betazoid mother. She's also much more emotionally affected by the emotions she senses in the pilot than in later episodes, where she has much more control over her reactions.
• The Empath : She is a very strong empath, and her empathic abilities do provide an edge and can confirm whether a life-form's intent is hostile or not, even in the earlier seasons. Apparently her empathic ability is like another sense to her, so much so that losing it for an episode is like being blind to her, and it breaks her pretty damn quick .
• Expy : Of Spock. They are both the token half-humans amongst the crew, but strongly identify with their alien half (likely due to having been raised on their respective alien home worlds), and frequently voice low opinions about humans (Spock moreso). However, Spock's issue with humans appear to stem from the blatant xenophobia he recieved from them, owing to being the product of two visibly different species. Troi, on the other hand, is of two species that are almost visibly indistinguishable from each other, and so can pass for either one of them at any time (she did not need to surgically alter her appearance when visiting 19th century Earth in one episode). Her neglect for her human side is likely due to their more irrational nature compared to the more peaceful Betazoids. And maybe their lack of psychic powers.
• The Fashionista : Deanna dresses fashionably (within Starfleet regulations as permitted), and is shown early in the series to have what others consider excellent taste in clothes. Unlike her mother Lwaxana, Deanna is more humble about it, unflamboyantly letting her outfits speak for themselves as she does her job.
• Fashionable Asymmetry : Her aquamarine outfit.
• Future Spandex : There was a lot of Future Spandex casual wear on the show, but as a main cast member she was the most prominent example. It would be used for the characters subjected to Ms. Fanservice in later series. Deanna definitely needs a new uniform by Season Four, because the purple all-in-one brings all attention to her figure. (Not that this stopped VOY from giving the even curvier Jeri Ryan the exact same look.)
• In "A Fistful of Datas," Alexander invites her because "she likes Westerns." She's even seen blowing smoke rings on a cigar. This is never mentioned again.
• The Expanded Universe establishes that her late human father was a fan of Westerns, justifying it as one of the things she remembers enjoying with him when she was a child before he died.
• Good-Looking Privates : As noted above, when Troi was finally ordered to drop her Custom Uniform of Sexy and wear a standard uniform (as Marina Sirtis wanted for years), fans agreed she looked terrific in it.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe : Although not actually green-skinned; she was half-Betazoid. She does have the Betazoid black irises, though.
• Half-Breed Angst : Deanna Troi's father was a human but her mother is a Betazoid, a type of alien with Telepathy . She usually doesn't mind, but some episodes have her angsting, such as in " Haven " when she doesn't want an Arranged Marriage despite it being the Betazoid way and in " The Loss " when her powers go away and she wonders if this is what it's like being fully human.
• Half-Human Hybrid : Her mother is fully Betazed and her father was human.
• The Heart : As the ship's counselor, it's her job to be sensitive and concerned about the crew's well-being. This also makes it hard for her to pass the Bridge officer's exam, since it required her to order a crewman to certain death in order to save the whole ship.
• Horrible Judge of Character : "The Cardassians are our allies now, Worf. We have to trust them." Yeeeah, no. You can see why she didn't follow her mom into the diplomatic corps.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl : Troi is quite short in stature even for a woman, yet gets paired with both Riker and Worf, who are both well over six feet tall.
• Human Aliens : Both she herself and full-blooded Betazoids like her mother Lwaxana are almost this. As noted under Green-Skinned Space Babe , Betazoids and Betazoid-human hybrids are actually visually distinguishable from humans (Betazoids don't have colored irises in their eyes, rendering their eyes completely black and white), but the difference is subtle enough that it can be easily be missed by the viewer unless you pay attention or have it pointed out to you, though it's easy to get a slight Uncanny Valley vibe. This makes Deanna perhaps the only alien crewmember to date who is able to visit Earth in the past (as seen in "Time's Arrow") without needing to be surgically-altered.
• Although she allegedly has strong empathic powers due to being part-Betazoid, those powers almost never pick up on anything that isn't head-slappingly obvious, to the crew and audience alike. Likely because her being able to use those abilities to their fullest potential would cut short a lot of the show's plots. Troi : (notices smashed table) You're upset. K'Ehleyr: Your finely honed Betazoid sense tell you that? Troi : That, and the table .
• Troi loves nothing more than to state the obvious but "Encounter at Fairpoint" is an example to all the doubters of her empathic powers: she realizes that the entities are feeling "great joy" to be reunited at the climax. (No shit, Sherlock.)
• "I sense healthy sensuality, sir!" she says after she has been groped by one of the Edo. To be fair, this may have been a joke.
• You've got to love how Okona (sorry, the Outrageous Okona) greets Picard not with a hello, but by mooning the viewscreen as he fumbles about his ship. "Mischievous, irreverent and somewhat brazen!" — no wonder they keep Troi so close at hand, you can't get insight like this just anyplace.
• When asked if she can sense what "Doctor Rasmussen" isn't telling them, she responds "I don’t know." Troi is as valuable as ever. Her suspicions about Rasmussen are based on little more than gut feeling.
• Fails to notice why the shy, socially awkward Barclay is so nervous around her (hint: he's got a massive crush on the good counselor), causing him to suffer a relapse into his holodeck addiction. Specifically, the one with a copy of her in.
• Informed Flaw : Her feelings for Riker might make her behave in a very unprofessional fashion! Not really, it's Riker who is barely holding himself together at the thought of Deanna marrying somebody else whilst Troi seems to have happily moved on.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline : Her informal blue outfit (shown here) comes close. But her grey, purple and red informal outfits had a more modest V-shaped neckline. Her standard Starfleet uniform (worn in the series pilot and in Season 7) did not show cleavage at all.
• Limited Wardrobe : Two different-colored catsuits of the same style and the turquoise dress.
• Her empathic abilities allow her to sense when someone's being deceptive or otherwise hiding something, but she notes herself that context is everything.
• There is a nice moment with Riker and Jellico. Jellico's all bluster, waving off the Cardassians as no threat. Riker, visibly annoyed at this cavalier Captain, allows that he is a 'confident' man—but Troi knows better. ' He's not. '
• The Load : She frequently plays the victim role when a member of the crew needs to be imperiled, partly due to the fact that her psychic abilities provide an additional way to mess with her and sometimes require her to be out of the picture to avoid screwing over the plot. As a result, her contributions are often limited to making Captain Obvious statements about a character's mood. Even her role as the ship's counselor gets sabotaged. In the early seasons, Roddenberry insisted that future people were extremely well-adjusted and therefore rarely needed counseling. In later seasons, Guinan overlaps her role by providing mentoring and guidance to crew members in crisis.
• Long Hair Is Feminine : She typically wears her hair long, and is more overtly feminine than either Dr. Crusher or Tasha.
• Male Gaze : Her ample breasts and cleavage are more than often on screen.
• Military Brat : Troi's late father Andrew also served in Starfleet.
• Ms. Fanservice : She sported prominent cleavage and a raging cameltoe for most of the series, with some mixed feelings from Sirtis. note  She's said she was pretty happy about it, having been something of an Ugly Duckling growing up, but she also said that she was very happy to "get her brains back" when the character was made to wear a uniform.
• Mundane Utility : Most of the time she uses her empathic skills to either confirm or deny what Picard already suspects - a useful but boring skill - or to help with her counseling, and even then she is just using her empathic skills to confirm what her psychological training already has her suspect. She hardly ever uses it for anything else.
• Nice Girl : Extremely nice, almost inhumanly so; fitting for a counselor.
• Non-Action Guy : While even Geordi and Crusher get to occasionally show some physical prowess, Troi is firmly this all the time.
• Not So Stoic : Troi tries very hard to be levelheaded and serene (as a counselor). When her facade is cracked, it's almost always a Funny Moment. Troi: (to her "Goddess" counterpart) Muzzle it!
• Power Loss Depression : In "The Loss", Troi suffers brain damage that cuses her to lose empath abilities. She becomes frightened, depressed, angry and even decides to resign as Ship's Counselor because she feels she can no longer perform her duties.
• Rank Up : In Season 7, Troi takes the Bridge Officer's Exam, and after passing, she receives a promotion to commander and is shown taking shifts in the Captain's chair afterward.
• Runaway Bride : Troi believed she would never be bonded to an arranged marriage because she joined the Enterprise to get as far away from Betazed as possible. Too bad her mother is an ambassador and can visit the ship whenever she likes.
• Sensor Character : When the writers remember that she's an empath, which can vary even within a single episode.
• Serious Business : " Chocolate is a serious thing."
• Story-Breaker Power : A character who is able to sense the emotions and intentions of others sounded like a good idea on paper , but in practice it meant that Deanna should logically be able to clear up any misunderstandings or call out almost any deceptions that make up the plot of every other episode, meaning there were many early episodes where she was functionally useless because other characters didn't listen to her, or because the writers just forgot or chose to ignore how her powers worked in the first place. In later stories, Troi was frequently either made part of the B-plot or just written out of the episode entirely, purely because of how useful the character should have been to the main story.
• Sweet Tooth : By her own admission, Troi never met a chocolate she didn't like.
• Team Mom : The crew should answer the annoying door chime with 'Yes, come in Counselor', since 9 times out of 10 it's just Troi. She takes an active interest in the emotional well-being of the crew, making lots of house calls.
• " Face of the Enemy " gave Troi some much-needed Character Development by thrusting her, completely unprepared, into the role of an authoritarian Romulan secret police agent. Though she flounders a bit at first, she ends up putting on quite a performance, and may have even enjoyed it a bit.
• She later takes a more literal level in badass in Thine Own Self by taking a command exam and being promoted to full Commander. This was motivated by a previous episode, Disaster , where she was forced to take charge in a life-or-death situation and found herself severely underprepared.
• Took a Level in Kindness : You wouldn't think it given how she's seemingly one of the gentlest and sweetest of the main bridge crew...but "The Loss" reveals that she's somewhat arrogant and, as Riker himself puts it, aristocratic in her opinion of herself in comparison to regular people. Despite this, when her empathic senses return at the end of the episode, she begins mellowing out more.
• Trademark Favorite Food : The resident chocoholic.
• Vision Quest : Aside from getting mind raped, this was the running theme of Troi's episodes.
• The Watson : Sadly, she's often used to ask questions to which any Starfleet officer, even a directly-commissioned shrink, should know the answer, but the audience may not.
• What the Hell, Hero? : Gets something of a mix of this and a VERY tame "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Riker during "The Loss", when the (temporary) loss of her empathic powers causes an episode-long panic attack where her arrogance and somewhat condescending view of humans and their more limited abilities in comparison to her comes to the forefront, leading to Riker calling her out as acting with an "aristocratic" snootiness and telling her that her real problem is she can't stand being an equal to everyone else. Thankfully, she starts easing out of this over time and regrets how horrible she had been.
• What the Hell Is That Accent? : Sirtis' real accent is north London; Troi's started out vaguely Eastern European before settling down into an approximation of American English, then reverting to her natural north London for the films. Marina Sirtis has said in interviews that she was told she had to do a "Betazed" accent, meaning she pretty much had to make one up. When Troi's mother, and eventually other Betazoids, showed up, it became increasingly clear that no one else was going to bother with the accent. Sirtis tried asking a producer about this, and was told that Troi got the accent from her father. We eventually meet her father, who doesn't have the accent note  he speaks with a General Amercian accent and his actor Amick Byram is from Central Texas either (much to Sirtis's exasperation). So her accent dialect continues to remain unexplained on-screen.
• You Are in Command Now : Troi's rank of lieutenant commander rarely comes up, but in "Disaster", she finds herself the ranking officer on the bridge during a crisis and is totally out of her element. The experience is part of why she later undergoes the Bridge Officer's Exam, wanting to be prepared should it ever happen again.

Lieutenant Commander Data

Played By: Brent Spiner

Dubbed in french by: jean-pol brissart (tng), yves beneyton (movies).

"I have often wished to be human. I study people carefully, in order to more closely approximate human behavior."

Gold-skinned android who serves as Second Officer and Operations Officer aboard the Enterprise . Though his presence was fairly inexplicable in the beginning, he was soon revealed to have been built by an eccentric scientist, who perished and left Data alone on a space colony. Upon his retrieval by Starfleet, Data reasoned that his natural path was to enroll in Starfleet Academy.

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot : A cyberneticist in the know — such as Soong or a fellow android like Lore — can hack into Data's brain and make him wreak havoc. Such is the case in "Brothers," when Data uses his voice modulator and access codes to seal off the Enterprise and steal a shuttlecraft. With his robot strength, he can happy-slap goldshirts across the room and knock even a sturdy Klingon flat.
• Amazing Technicolor Population : Pale goldish skin-tone.
• Become a Real Boy : Data wishes to become more human. Riker lampshades it in the very first episode , calling Data "Pinocchio".
• In "The Gambit," Data, as temporary Captain, verbally rips Worf (his temporary First Officer) a new one for questioning his orders in front of the crew.
• In "The Most Toys," after the villain, Kivas Fajo mocks him for being unable to bring himself to kill him in cold blood, as Data's programming has instilled in him a fundamental respect for other all life. Data, however, after weighing his options and realizing that he had no non-lethal ways of subduing Fajo, raises the disruptor he is armed with and starts pulling the trigger, only to be beamed out just before the weapon fires. While Fajo was right that Data cannot kill in cold blood, he, in this case, reached the logical conclusion that the only way he could uphold his directive of protecting other lifeforms was to take Fajo's life . Essentially, Data can kill out of cold logic , if he believes he has no other options. Data: I cannot permit this to continue.
• Birds of a Feather : He and Worf have a surprising amount in common. Data's endlessly frank nature and Worf's sense of honor require them both to be honest and fair in whatever they do. They also don't have much of a sense of humor, or at least don't understand the humor of their crewmates.
• Bizarre Alien Biology : The technological equivalent, in particular the location of his 'off switch' and the fact that his head can be removed and still function without his body.
• Book Smart : Being an android, he has encyclopedic knowledge and can learn extremely quickly.
• The Bore : Picard manages to wrangle out of being Mrs. Troi’s date with a desperate bid to get Commander Data to join the table and regale them both with his spellbinding anecdotes. Even Mr. Holm is yawning in the background.
• Breakout Character : Oh yeah. To this day, Data is on Spock's level as the most popular Star Trek character in the franchise. Not such a big surprise, since he is essentially an inversion of Spock's character - instead of having emotions that he tries to deny, he actively searches for emotions he does not (yet) have.
• Brutal Honesty : Manifests due to his lack of emotions and struggles comprehending human behavior, though this trait becomes downplayed as a result of his Character Development over the course of the series. He would often retort, "But it is simply an observation of fact." His daughter, Lal, inherited this catchphrase.
• Cain and Abel : The Abel to Lore's Cain.
• Cannot Tell a Joke : One of Data's many attempts to become more human involves him trying to understand the nature of humor. He enlists the help of a holodeck comedian program and memorizes all the jokes... then proceeds to completely botch the delivery of every one. Ironically, this made him one of the funniest characters . Picard: He made us all laugh... except when he was trying to make us laugh.
• Character Death : In Star Trek: Nemesis . It's later revealed that Maddox attempted to reverse it by reconstituting his neural net in B-4, but the prototype android's positronic brain was too primitive to support it. He and Altan Soong eventually find success by uploading him into a simulated environment, but Picard honors Data's wishes to terminate the simulacrum, allowing him to finally die for good and thus give his sacrifice and the life leading up to it meaning.
• Character Tics : Data's head-tilt when confused or perplexed about human behavior, or when encountering something particularly fascinating. It's In the Blood , so to speak, as well; his daughter Soji , inherited it.
• This anomaly is justified in a conversation in Star Trek: The Lost Era : The Buried Age , where Data notes that he is trying harder to imitate emotion to help people accept him, suggesting that he might adjust this approach once people are more comfortable with him.
• Chekhov's Gag : Whilst the scene itself is eye-opening to say the least, Data’s sexual encounter with Tasha does set up some touching development for the character when she dies later in the season.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet : Data pulls a lot of girls in this series, almost as many as Riker. Although only one of those relationships (Tasha) was "consummated" on-screen, with the rest implied (Jenna D'Sora, the Borg Queen) or remaining in the flirtation stage.
• This trope is a cornerstone of his character. Being an android, he often has trouble grasping human idioms. note  He could download a whole dictionary of idioms and look them up instantly, but there are two explainations why he doesn't. 1.) An Expanded Universe novel reveals that he does this deliberately in order to keep people from fearing him. 2.) ST:TNG states that Lore was TOO similar to a human and feared for that, and its creator thus "dumbed down" on Data a bit. Chief O'Brien: ...We'll all be burning the midnight oil on this one. ( Data overhears this as he walks through the frame, but doesn't break stride ) Data: That would be inadvisable. O'Brien: Excuse me? Data: (walks back into frame) If you attempt to ignite a petroleum product on this ship at zero-hundred hours, you will activate the fire suppression system, which would seal off this entire compartment.
• Ripping up the wrapping paper after his gift has already been opened. After carefully removing the wrapping paper without ripping it.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character : To Spock. They're both logical, stoic, and polite, but both men are essentially what the other strives to be. Spock is an emotional and compassionate man who tries to bury his feelings and be completely rational, where Data is emotionless and cerebral yet desperately longs to feel human emotions. The two lampshade it when the meet in "Unification".
• Costumer : A Sherlock fanboy, Data is naturally a trained musician and can fiddle his way through a beautiful violin piece. He seems to be enjoying himself altogether to much as Holmes, kicking back with his dressing gown, puffing on a calabash pipe and pondering on the latest mysteries. In settings like these, the Pinocchio metaphor really comes to the fore: he is most human whenever he is playing dress-up.
• Custom Uniform : In several episodes, Data's uniform has a decidedly greener tint than the gold of the standard Operations.
• Deadpan Snarker : While he may not consciously understand humor (prior to finally installing his emotion chip in Generations ), Data's penchant for Brutal Honesty and his deadpan delivery naturally lends itself to this. For example his conversation with Pulaski about the proper pronunciation of his name. After installing the chip, he begins doing this deliberately. Pulaski: What's the difference? Data: One is my name. The other is not.
• Decomposite Character : Data, Worf, and Troi share Spock's persona from TOS. Data takes Spock's emotionless logician aspect and conflict between logic and emotion.
• Deuteragonist : Replaced Riker in this role after he emerged as the Ensemble Dark Horse , and remained so for the rest of the series (and especially in the movies). invoked
• Do-Anything Robot : Culminating in Data acting as a flotation device ("In the event of a water landing...") in the movies. In "Descent," it was mentioned that he wasn't neutrally buoyant in an earlier incident, so he'd had to walk along the ocean floor to get out of the water. The floatation may have been added as a response to that. Indeed, prior to inflating, Data is seen walking along the floor of a lake.
• Early-Installment Weirdness : Early episodes hinted that Data's body had more in common with organic life than was later established. He was infected with the Psi-2000 variant virus, though the crew remark that an android getting an infection should be impossible. He also mentions eating something unpalatable to humans to maintain certain elements within his body. This was dropped quickly from the series.
• Eating Machine : Needs to occasionally ingest chemical compounds to keep his internal machinery lubricated. He mentions it a few times in the early seasons.
• Eating Optional : Data can eat food even though he does not have to so that he can more closely emulate human behavior.
• Evil Twin : Has one named Lore.
• Exact Words : Known to use this technique when otherwise required to tell a lie. In one episode, he navigates a precipitous and increasingly ludicrous amount of half-truths in order to keep the amnesic crew from rediscovering a dangerous threat that he was sworn to keep secret (on Picard's orders, no less). In another episode he was beamed aboard the Enterprise while in the act of firing a weapon at his captor with the goal of killing him, to prevent the man from killing others in the future, When questioned by Riker about the discharging weapon, Data only says that "something must have happened during transport"; he neglects to mention that the "something" that happened was him deliberately pulling the trigger.
• Expy : The concept of Data - an android with a desire to be human and displaying very humanlike characteristics - was originally put forth by Roddenberry in an early 1970s TV movie/pilot titled The Questor Tapes that featured a similar character. (As he describes in an interview on the LP release Inside Star Trek , Roddenberry intended for the android to go to bed with a woman but the network wouldn't allow it; he finally got his wish with Data and Yar.) A few years after that, the TV series version of Logan's Run - script edited by Roddenberry collaborator and future TNG associate producer D.C. Fontana (who had also written the Novelization for The Questor Tapes ) featured a humanlike, emotional android character named Rem. (Although there were other humanlike androids in TV prior to TNG, these two are relevant due to being direct antecedents to Star Trek.) He's also an obvious stand-in for Spock with his unemotional nature, Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness and Deadpan Snarker personality.
• Fantastic Racism : Data is often treated like a walking calculator, even by members of Starfleet. The most prominent examples are Maddox, who tried to classify Data as Federation property, and Dr. Pulaski, who eventually comes to accept him as a colleague.
• First Time Feeling : Downside of the emotion chip is all the feelings Data has no real preparation for; humor renders him a giggling idiot, because he's unable to stop laughing, fear stops him from doing anything to help Geordi, and the resulting guilt and anger distract him. By the time of First Contact , he's still not got the best handle on fear, but now has a solution: Turn the chip off.
• Maddox evaluated Data when he applied for the Academy and was the sole member of the committee that objected to his entrance because he did not consider him a sentient being.
• Also with Spock, as discussed in "Reunification": both are not quite human, but while Spock opted to eschew his human side to be the ideal Vulcan, Data strives to become more human.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps : Starfleet officers found Data after the Crystalline Entity destroyed the Omicron Theta colony, and once he was reactivated, Data chose to join Starfleet himself.
• The Gambler : Data starts off as being terrible at Poker. His experiences playing against Riker teaches him that the game is about strategy and personality as much as it is about rules. Pretty soon he's in a casino wearing a Stetson hat, cutting cards like a pro and flipping 21s in "The Royale". (He seems to be having great fun at the craps table, too.) By "Time's Arrow," he's able to beat the worst card shark the Wild West can serve up.
• Genius Bruiser : He can knock a Klingon on his ass without even flinching, but at the same time can single-handedly outwit an entire Romulan fleet.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners : With Geordi.
• Hidden Depths : Data constantly ponders if he has any creativity, but the one medium seems to be a natural at is painting. In fact, he's something of a ruthless critic when it comes to art, able to critique and compare styles quite eloquently. He seems to favor Abstract Expressionism in his own work and keeps a modernist De Stijl-style painting hanging in his quarters.
• Hyper-Awareness
• Hypercompetent Sidekick : Despite being third in command, Data is fully capable of operating most of the ship on his own when the situation requires it. Aside from Super-Strength and lightning-quick reflexes, he is also quite a skilled tactician, capable of analyzing patterns of attack and coming up with countermeasures on a level even the Borg would respect. Many an episode, up to and including Star Trek: First Contact , have to contrive reasons for Data not being present for the main plot to unfold instead of Data being a walking Deus ex Machina .
• Immune to Bullets : Taking rounds from a submachine gun doesn't bother him in the slightest. They don't even penetrate his super-tough skin.
• Informed Attribute : Even apart from the Early-Installment Weirdness , Data's frequently asserted emotionlessness is not born out by his behavior. We frequently see Data exhibiting desire, hesitation, confusion, awkwardness, fascination, regret, enthusiasm, and other states of mind that are generally considered emotional reactions. A genuinely emotionless character would be a lot less engaging. If you define an emotional state as considering one outcome preferrable to another, then Data certainly does have emotions, just relatively mild ones. What he truly lacks is a frame of reference to compare them to.
• He is an "artificial life form" or "android", not a "robot"
• And his name is pronounced 'Dayta', not 'Datta'. Dr. Pulaski: What's the difference? Data: One is my name. The other is not.
• Innocently Insensitive : Combined with Brutal Honesty . Data at times has made comments that in most contexts would be hurtful, simply due to his lack of emotions and that he doesn't always grasp human social behavior. And to his credit, he does adjust once he understands the faux pas.
• Intrigued by Humanity : Data is, by any measure, physically, intellectually, and (barring outside influence) more often than not, morally superior to humans, yet he himself is deeply fascinated by humanity, seeing becoming human as the highest of aspirations.
• Irony : As pointed out by more than one character, Data is what a lot of people would consider the pinnacle of existence short of godhood; super-strong, super-smart, ageless, functionally immortal with proper care. And yet he would give it all up in a heartbeat to be human.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover : Data comes to adopt a pet cat, Spot, in an attempt to be more human. In "All Good Things," Data is shown in his Oxford quarters, which is full of cats. In the sequel series, Star Trek: Picard , he considers Spot his most cherished memory.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities : There is some element of racism involved in Data being an artificial life form, even after his rights as an individual are established. Neither Starfleet nor Picard to be in any hurry to promote him, despite the fact that every time he is placed in a command situation, he handles it superbly. Picard's advice to him on how to be an effective leader seems to suggest that, in Picard's mind at least, the opportunity is still available to him. At least some of this can be attributed to Data's lack of emotion leading to a lack of ambition; the novel "The Buried Age" observed that Picard had to encourage him to express an interest in certain roles rather than just doing the job he had been assigned.
• Locked into Strangeness : A flash-forward to the future ("All Good Things...") shows Data with a glaringly-obvious streak of grey hair, an attempt to make himself feel older and distinguished. His housekeeper disagrees, saying it makes him "look like a bloody skunk".
• Magnum Opus : Before Data, Dr. Soong created several androids, all of whom wound up non-functioning, flawed, or unstable (with one even turning out to be an unpredictable murderer). Despite some stumbling blocks, Character Development ultimately made Data everything his earlier models weren't. By the end of his life he possessed logic, intelligence, morality, self-awareness, and (eventually) feelings, fulfilling the dreams of his creator of making the perfect artificial human.
• When the head of Commander Data (in the episode "Time's Arrow") is found among 20th-century relics on Earth, the crew attempt to comfort him about his destruction. Rather than being morose about this, Data is delighted that he will have a "death," as his expected longevity means that so many of his friends in Starfleet will have lived and died that he will be unable to remember them all properly; whereas having only a limited few close friends means that Data can cherish them much more dearly.
• The novel Immortal Coil dealt with this again in connection with Data . Taking place not long after First Contact , the plotline includes Data's emotional realization of what he's always known intellectually — he will almost certainly outlive all of his friends on the Enterprise . And then another set, and another. The actual plot of the book assuaged these fears by introducing a league of artificially created organisms, to which Data could retire whenever he wants. And then Star Trek: Nemesis happened... note  Though it was implied Data could be resurrected via Brain Uploading afterward, Star Trek: Picard reveals it didn't take, as B4's neural pathways weren't advanced enough.
• Meaningful Name : Data's manner is dispassionate and matter-of-fact, contrasted with Lore's emotionality and spontaneity.
• Messianic Archetype : Played with in "Thine Own Self," where Data lands on a primitive planet and causes quite a stir. He is christened "Jayden" by the locals, is run through with a spear while attempting to save the village from radiation sickness (though it merely knocks him out), and is 'risen' when the Enterprise locks onto his grave and covertly beams him up.
• He can sometimes play the role of The Big Guy —with no effort—just by virtue of being inhumanly strong and resistant. He is, hands-down, the strongest main character of any Star Trek series.
• Captain Data was by far the best captain in any fleet. That guy was 10 steps ahead of whatever was going on. Not only that, but he showed an uppity lieutenant commander why an Android is the best choice for a captain.
• Moment Killer : Exploited, for once: Worf is unwilling to be left on his own with K’Ehleyr after their fight so drags in Data as a chaperone. Cunning man.
• Morality Chip : Has multiple "ethical subroutines" that prevent him from turning into a stereotypical Straw Vulcan or worse yet a sociopath . The one time this was shut off he wound up torturing and experimenting on his best friend at the behest of his homicidal brother (although it should be noted that he was also experiencing negative emotions due to said brother, who was preventing him experiencing anything positive).
• Motor Mouth : To his crewmates' chagrin. Although it occasionally works to their advantage, such as when Picard needs to brush him on off on, say, Lwaxana Troi.
• The Needless : He runs the night shift, and also commands the ship whenever the senior staff is away or otherwise out of action.
• Never Heard That One Before : Data's jokes are 5,000,000 years old. See him trying out his Henny Youngman routine on his co-workers. He heads to the holodeck to try and learn something about Earth humor, but before long Data and the 80s-era "Mister Comic" are gooning about on-stage with buck teeth and Jerry Lewis voices, proving that all jokes have a shelf life. "Take my Worf — please!"
• Nice Guy : For a supposedly emotionless android, Data is tremendously likable, polite, earnest, and well-meaning, making a lot of friends who deeply value him, and whom Data, although he technically shouldn't be able to return the sentiment , values equally deeply. Even when he has to lay into Worf for questioning him in front of the crew while they are acting as Captain and First Officer, Data takes a moment to note that he's sorry if the rebuke has damaged their friendship (it hasn't; Worf apologizes and says that if anyone risked their friendship, it was him for being insubordinate).
• No Sense of Humor : Not for lack of trying, though. The guy named his striped cat "Spot", for crying out loud. This lasts until the installation of his emotion chip in Generations , at which point he instead develops a ridiculously goofy sense of humour in which he uses a tricorder as a hand puppet and sings while programming in a life-form scan. He more or less settles down from there.
• Not Himself : His relationship with his "grandpa" Dr. Graves is an imperfect one to say the least. A dying man with no scruples about taking credit for a student's later success, he decides that Dr. Soong's android is the perfect home for his digital consciousness. Even when he is trapped inside Data, he cannot resist blowing his own trumpet and eulogizes himself as ‘a man for all seasons!’.
• Oblivious to Love : Kind of . He has a conceptual understanding of it and experimented with a "romantic subroutine" to date a crewman in one episode.
• Odd Friendship : With Troi. Data doesn't understand human emotion, which is Troi's entire profession as Ship's Counselor. Troi's empathic abilities also don't work on Data since he's an android, and he doesn't have any emotions for her to sense even if that weren't the case. He calls her, "The friend I understand the least." "I am sure she finds me as much a mystery as I do her."
• Oppose What You Suffered : In the second season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Measure of a Man" , Data's rights are contested, as a scientist argues he should be treated as a machine, rather than a person, and this fact is even demonstrated by Data being taken apart and switched off without his consent . In the season 6 episode "The Quality of Life" , Data then goes to extreme lengths to protect an emerging machine life-form from being treated in the same manner before they can fully achieve sentience , even going so far as to risk the life of his own best friend, Geordi La Forge .
• Papa Wolf : He was only a father to Lal for a single episode, but when a Starfleet admiral insisted that she be removed from Data's care, Data, in his own fashion, was ready to fight tooth and nail to keep his daughter safe. As Lal's neural net began to fail, Data's all but moved heaven and Earth to try (in vain) to save her, leaving that same admiral in absolute awe.
• Passing the Torch : The piano score when Data strolls down the corridors with McCoy conjures up many memories of the original Star Trek in a nostalgic way. Later, Spock will debate Data on the merits of emotion and compliment his application of the Vulcan nerve pinch.
• Phlebotinum-Proof Robot : Being an android, he's immune to many things that would be dangerous for the rest of the crew, and is occasionally required to handle such situations.
• Phrase Catcher : " Thank you, Mr. Data" after Data's explanations get gratuitous.
• In Generations , as the Enterprise is crashing, Data says what everyone's thinking: Data: Ohhhhh , shit!
• In First Contact : Data: I believe I speak for everyone on the ship when I say: "To hell with our orders."
• Quizzical Tilt : Often everybody looks at Data as though he's lost his mind, but he simply blinks back at them with that dispassionate android look of his. Data also did this frequently himself.
• Ridiculously Human Robot : invoked Justified . His creator was far more interested in the puzzle of creating fully-sentient mechanical life than any commercial applications. As a result, Dr. Soong equipped him with a slew of traits that imitates those of biological lifeforms. Many of these serve both a practical purpose in maintaining his body, but also make him appear more life-like in an aesthetic sense, very likely in an attempt to steer him away from the Uncanny Valley . Data has to occasionally eat a semi-organic nutrient to lubricate his biofunctions, and he breathes (as a way of regulating the temperature of his inner systems) and has a pulse (as a way of transporting biochemical lubricants around his body). He also has a built-in system dedicated to make him blink and make it appear somewhat random, as well as an aging program designed to simulate the external effects of aging in his physical appearance.
• Robot Kid : Soong often spoke of Data and Lore as his sons. When his options are reduced to survival or "death", Data's reaction is simple and unemotional: He objects to the idea of being taken apart but he has no emotional investment in trying to stay 'alive.' It's not ego or vanity that makes him sue Commander Maddox from Starfleet in "The Measure of a Man," but his wish to keep Dr. Soong's dream alive. Of course, Soong later points out that this is a very filial behavior.
• Robosexual : It's stated early on in the show that he's "fully functional" in that regard, and has had a number of relationships with organic beings.
• In the film Star Trek: First Contact , Data says that he was considering accepting the Borg Queen's offer for a mere 0.68 seconds. Picard smiles because that's just the span of a fleeting thought for a human, but Data says that "for an android, that is nearly an eternity".
• In "In Theory," Data dates a human woman. Near the end of the episode, she kisses him passionately, then asks what he was thinking of in that moment. Data: In that particular moment, I was reconfiguring the warp field parameters, analyzing the collected works of Charles Dickens, calculating the maximum pressure I could safely apply to your lips, considering a new food supplement for Spot...
• Running Gag : When hearing a saying, metaphor or other non-obvious expression, he will usually consult his databases and then start listing several synonyms for it, always being interrupted by someone listening. In one episode this was somewhat parodied by Data doing this to the ship's computer, and the computer interrupting him in a similar manner. Cue Data's puzzled expression.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! : "Pen Pals". Whilst Geordi, Riker and Picard get into a back-and-forth debate about the virtues of the Prime Directive, Data cuts right through all the red tape and says that this civilization is not a theoretical problem, but real people in big trouble.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness : He often speaks using very technical terms to describe basic idioms or slang. For instance, in "Best of Both Worlds," when Commander Shelby says "early bird gets the worm," he remarks to Geordi that there are no "avifaunal or crawling vermicular lifeforms" on the planet.
• Ship Tease : With Tasha. Curiously, most of it came after she died.
• Data is kind, innocent, and stoic in direct contrast to his manipulative, hyper-emotional and psychopathic twin brother Lore.
• He is also very smart in contrast to the simple-minded B-4.
• The Smart Guy : Given that he's an android, with a supercomputer in his head, he can usually come up with solutions that would be at best impractical if they didn't have an android on the crew.
• His pedantry and lack of understanding of human nature pegs him as TNG's Spock. And almost to drive the point home, Admiral McCoy (still kicking at 137!) tells him he sounds like a Vulcan. Data: No, sir. I am an android. Admiral McCoy: (scoffs, walks away) Almost as bad.
• Once again, Pulaski busts Data's balls in the holodeck, particularly when she suggests that Holmes understood the human soul and used it to match wits with the likes of Moriarty (claiming Data is all memorization and resuscitation). The weekly Poker game further proves Pulaski’s point about Data having no real instinct.
• Thinking Tic : His tendency to tilt his head to one side or the other when he is confused or doing some deep calculation. It's apparently the body language equivalent of a hard drive clicking.
• He was actually called this a few times during the series, the most memorable of which was in that ridiculous episode with the sentient, evil sludge. But there were many occasions where Data seemed to approach something like anger. Fajo learned that.
• Graves singing ‘If I only had a heart’ after seizing control of Data's body as a ghost!
• When asked if Pulaski will be "normal" after Picard’s plan to de-age the crew, Data replies "as normal as ever" which is very droll.
• Over the course of the show, Data the gambler loses his daughter, his father, his brother, his lover, and is tricked and betrayed more times than you can count. He’s learning that trusting somebody can lead to betrayal, another human failing for the mechanical man. He considers himself fortunate to be spared the emotional consequences but the way he stares into the middle distance proves that he is putting on his own poker face.
• He approaches it as a question of logic, but it feels like a matter of bruised ego when Data is passed over for a promotion! This is remedied when Jellico makes him an intermediary First Officer.
• By the time of "Redemption," Data has learned that raising his voice gets better results than giving out cold and dispassionate orders, and threatens to sack his First Officer for obstinacy.
• In "Time's Arrow," when Riker repeats his fancy way of saying "I've gotten used to your behavior", Data responds that he is fond of the rest of the crew as well.
• While handing Spot over to Worf's temporary care, Data briefly starts saying that Spot needs to be told that he is "a pretty cat, and a good cat", showing a definite emotional attachment to his pet.
• In the non-canon novel Strike Zone , he adds a new string to his bow for dealing with Pulaski: telling her where she could stick the entire conversation they'd just had. When Wesley tells him this was an insult, all Data can say is "Good."
• Token Robot : The only android on the Enterprise , and one of the very few sentient artificial lifeforms in The Federation .
• Truly Single Parent : To Lal.
• Though of note: while she is dying Data stops engaging in his human-emulations (especially blinking and subtle body motion) showing that while he cannot cry for her loss, he can focus entirely on her in her death throes.
• Averted in Generations after he gets his emotion chip.
• Brought up in "Brothers." Data: You know that I cannot grieve for you, sir. Dr. Soong: You will, in your own way.
• Also seen in "Skin of Evil," but like seen in the previous example, he does grieve, in his own way. Data: I find my thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking how empty it will be without her presence. Did I miss the point? Picard: No... no, you didn't, Data. You got it.
• Verbal Tic : Does not use contractions. This becomes key to telling him apart from Lore. There are a few slips in this early on thanks to Early-Installment Weirdness . After all, it's hard for a human to stop using them when it is a habit.
• What Have We Ear? : Data is much funnier under the effects of the "Naked Now" virus, as seen with his isolinear chip trick.
• Frequently explored and the focus of the season two episode "The Measure of A Man." A Starfleet scientist wants to dismantle and study Data, to replicate Soong's work.
• Even after android rights are recognized by the Federation, Data has a tough time of it in Starfleet. Data sounds so angry when he threatens to relieve Hobson of duty in "Redemption Pt. II". Hobson, perhaps rightly, suggesting that Data is more concerned with the functions of the ship than the people on board. Then after he begrudgingly complies with Data's order, Data then orders exactly what Hobson was suggesting in the first place.
• Wrong Genre Savvy : Data puffs on a pipe while deliberating over a murder in "Lonely Among Us". Riker lets him get away with his Sherlock Holmes pastiche ('My dear Riker, sir...'), but the unamused Picard slaps his wrist. This is not really the time or the place to be arsing about.
• You Talk Too Much! : Even the Borg Queen tires of his yapping before long. Hell, even the computer tells him to shut up once.

Ensign Wesley Crusher

Played By: Wil Wheaton

Dubbed in french by: nicolas grossetête.

A much-maligned, much-hated character in his prime, Wesley was inserted into the series by Gene Roddenberry as a wunderkind who single-handedly saves the ship (or, more commonly, imperils it) from week to week. Unfortunately, his bloated screentime and infallible genius did not ingratiate him with many viewers.

• Always Second Best : He was beaten into the Academy by his Benzite colleague Mordock, though the episode never actually shows why Mordock was judged superior.
• Eugene Wesley Roddenberry openly admitted that Wesley Crusher was a younger, idealized version of himself . Oddly enough, though, the character was originally envisioned as a teenaged girl named Leslie .
• Even in real life. When Wesley aced his second entrance exam for the Academy, Roddenberry commemorated it by presenting Wil with the second lieutenant bars Gene earned in the Air Corps. Present at the ceremony was General Colin Powell!
• Book Smart : He is exceptionally smart even by the higher standards of the 24th century, but by the third season it's pretty clear he also feels a lot of pressure to always be an overachiever.
• He'd quit Starfleet Academy in "Journey's End," but returned at some point between this episode and Star Trek: Nemesis , in which he's a Lieutenant. In a deleted scene, he tells Picard that he'll be part of Riker's engineering crew aboard the USS Titan .
• And he turns up briefly in a second season episode of Star Trek: Picard , as a Traveller.
• Disappeared Dad : His father died while on a mission with Picard while serving on the Stargazer. Wesley was mad at Picard initially but eventually admitted to Picard that he did everything to please him .
• Evil Genius : Seems to be at times, when he doesn't bother to explain himself. Although in his case, it was more like Accidental Evil Genius thanks to his science experiments. In one episode, his nanotech experiment almost destroyed the ship and, in another, he managed to get his mom trapped in a space/time bubble after a test on the warp drive, which nearly killed her as it collapsed in on itself.
• Hidden Depths : It takes the Traveler to convince Picard that Wesley might amount to something worthwhile in the future, which is why the Captain decides to take an active interest in "the boy's" development.
• Impossible Genius : Wesley accomplishes things in his teens that surprises the best engineers in Starfleet didn't think of.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation : Dr. Stubbs sizes Wesley up in about two seconds and questions what he does beyond fly the ship, ditch his friends and read all day. It's a wake-up call for Wesley, meeting a man who could well be a future version of himself—married to his work, lonely, and anti-social—and he sounds almost angry when he tells Guinan that he always gets an "A" in his coursework. All study and no play makes Wes a dull boy, and "Evolution" is a step toward Wes living out a more unorthodox life.
• Like a Son to Me : By episode 1x06, Picard is already developing a protective instinct toward the boy.
• Military Brat : He's the son of a Starfleet doctor and command officer.
• Plucky Middie : IN SPACE! . He's a teenage officer in Starfleet who often saves the day.
• Put on a Bus : He eventually leaves to join Starfleet Academy, something the show had been putting off for several seasons.
• Teen Genius : In spades. The prevalence of this trope in TV series during the 1980's may have contributed to Wesley's scrappydom, as by the time TNG came to air near the end of the decade the trope had begun to cross over into being a cliché and Wesley's manifestation of it was not even remotely novel.

The Enterprise -D

Played By: Majel Barrett (computer voice)

" Well this is a new ship. But she's got the right name. Now you remember that, you hear?[...]You treat her like a lady. And she'll always bring you home. " — Admiral McCoy , "Encounter at Farpoint"

• For a ship designated the "Flagship" of the Federation she rarely acted in that manner as we would understand it in relation to Earth navies. Never having the staff of an Admiral on board and rarely leading any squadrons of Federation ships. Instead she was treated more like a patrol & long range exploration vessel. The only time the Enterprise served as the command ship of a fleet was during the Klingon Civil War, and even then, the Fleet Admiral which approved Picard's plan of blockading the Romulan border to keep them from interfering gave Picard broad discretion to command the fleet as he saw fit (which included transferring Riker, Data, and Geordi to other understaffed ships), rather than travel with the fleet.
• There was also an alternate universe where the Enterprise was leading a war against the Klingons, in which the ship was much more military than the original one.
• Awesome, but Impractical : The Galaxy -class ships were pretty cool when introduced, but later series, and especially the Expanded Universe books, pointed out they weren't great in practice. Having family, and especially kids , aboard made going into combat much more hazardous than necessary. Notably, after the loss of the Enterprise , later Starfleet designs would be purpose built for either combat or exploration, but rarely both, while Galaxy -class ships that served in the Dominion War were refitted to be used as The Heavy of the Federation fleets, transporting ground troops and supplies instead of families, similar to how the alternate timeline Enterprise appeared in Yesterday's Enterprise .
• For tropes pertaining to the Enterprise -D as it appears in Picard , see the "PIC" character page .
• The Battlestar : She's an exploratory version of this, given that she's well-armed and carries a large wing of shuttles for various mission types.
• The Comically Serious : Not programmed for humor, but her answers to some questions posed by the crew could be unintentionally hilarious at times.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her : She is destroyed very suddenly and unexpectedly in Star Trek: Generations (the Trope Namer , incidentally), after being outfought by a century-old Bird of Prey. This is despite the fact that previous episodes showed her to be capable of wiping the floor with multiple Bird of Preys at once, and she was only seven years into what was expected to be an operational lifespan of 100 years or more. note  This was apparently a case of Real Life Writes the Plot ; the show's Enterprise model didn't look particularly good on film (due to being designed for television), so the writers wrote the ship's destruction into Generations as an excuse to destroy the model and build a more detailed one that looked better.
• Due to the Dead : In the DS9 episode "The Way of the Warrior", Captain Sisko respectfully gives his condolences to Worf about her destruction, while Worf and Miles O'Brien later eulogize her.
• Elites Are More Glamorous : Unlike the TOS Enterprise , this ship is brand spanking new in the pilot and is the most advanced ship in the fleet upon her commissioning. She's also explicitly said to be the flagship of the Federation and is always given the hardest tasks by Starfleet Command.
• Heroic RRoD : Top of the line, she may be, but she can't go past Warp 9 for too long, or the engines start to give out.
• Heroic Sacrifice : Not as dramatic as the original, but her destruction helps prevent the deaths of an entire civilization on Veridian IV.
• Legacy Vessel Naming : She's the fifth Federation starship to bear the name Enteprise , as evidenced by the "D" in her NCC designation. There's even wall models of some of her predecessors in the briefing room.
• Lightning Bruiser : Very fast, as in almost able to breach the Warp 10 barrier all on her own, and she went toe-to-toe with a Borg Cube on more than one occasion.
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet : "Yesterday's Enterprise" would identify her as a battleship and Star Trek video games tend to give other Galaxy -class ships a similar role.
• Starship Luxurious : The Enterprise -D is the most prominent example in the franchise, what with having family aboard, numerous holodecks, and a bridge that was criticized as looking more like the lobby of the Hilton than an actual navy-style bridge. Captain DeSoto almost says this trope by name when needling Commander Riker in "Tin Man". Apparently the smallest quarters aboard ship are better than what an admiral would have rated a century prior, according to Scotty.
• Took a Level in Badass : In the alternate future of "All Good Things", the Enterprise gets some major upgrades that include an Invisibility Cloak , a third warp nacelle, and a bigass phaser cannon that demolishes a Klingon warship.
• The Worf Effect : She tended to get hit with this a lot to demonstrate other races' abilities. Star Trek: Generations took this to its logical conclusion .

Hologram Enterprise -D

For tropes relating to her appearance there, along with the other holograms, see, Star Trek: Prodigy .

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‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’: Ranking the Crew, From Picard to Pulaski

Liz shannon miller.

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Thirty years ago, “Star Trek” proved it wasn’t just a story about Kirk and Spock; it was a story universe rich with possibilities, including a whole new cast of characters.

Ranking the men and women of “ Star Trek: The Next Generation ” is a far more brutal task than initially anticipated because, as the series kept telling us the whole time, this wasn’t a crew. This was a family. That said, let’s be honest. Family might inspire love on an equal playing field, but when it comes to actually spending time with people, favorites do emerge.

This is strictly limited to those who served as actual crew members (sorry, Q and Lwaxana Troi) because one of the best things about “Trek’s” approach to a military structure is how it still allows the show to celebrate individual personalities. Because as much fun as space travel is, a “Trek” series lives or dies by its characters.

17. Dr. Katherine Pulaski

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For the record, this is not actor Diana Muldaur’s fault. When Gates McFadden left “Next Generation” at the end of Season 1 (for  a variety of complicated reasons ), the ship needed a new doctor. But while the idea of bringing in a new female character over the age of 40 (Pulaski dated Riker’s dad once!) was conceptually a fresh approach for the genre — hell, for television in general — Dr. Pulaski never gelled with the rest of the crew, and McFadden’s return in Season 3 was a welcome relief.

16. Lieutenant Reginald Barclay

On a ship full of humanity’s best, Barclay was decidedly flawed. In fact, he was set up as essentially a parody of nerd culture (which is pretty rude, considering that “Next Generation” featured a passionate, perhaps even “nerdy” fanbase). More importantly, he caused way more problems than he solved and was never much of a sympathetic character despite his lighter moments.

15. Tasha Yar

A character inspired by Vasquez (Jeanette Goldberg) from James Cameron’s “Aliens,” Yar was the ship’s muscle for much of the first season… until Denise Crosby decided to leave the show. She was essentially replaced by Worf in this regard, which could be seen as an improvement, except that there could always be more badass women in science fiction, especially on “Trek.”

14. Keiko O’Brien

A botanist we first meet as she’s about to marry Miles O’Brien (an in media res sort of move that we have a lot of respect for), Keiko was an interesting example of how the show was able to build a world beyond each week’s missions.

13. Miles O’Brien

Colm Meaney made semi-regular appearances for six seasons of “Next Generation” before becoming a regular on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” While on that show, the character’s full potential was truly revealed. But while on “TNG” O’Brien had some charming moments, there’s a reason why  one of the best webcomics ever made  is based on the ennui that he must have experienced, humbly operating that transporter pad.

12. Ensign Ro Laren

This tough-as-nails Bajoran officer was our initial introduction to the Bajor-Cardassian conflict, which would be a fundamental foundation of “DS9.” Unfortunately, because Michelle Forbes was infamously skittish about signing up for ongoing series during the ’90s, Ro never got the character development enjoyed by other folk. That said, the episode “Rascals,” where she learned how to have fun as a child was… um. Fun.

11. Ensign Alyssa Ogawa

A very minor character, in theory, but the show’s erstwhile nurse made 16 appearances during the show’s run and had her own arc, with a romantic life that eventually led to her becoming a mother. Nurse Ogawa was always a pleasant presence and much appreciated.

10. Wesley Crusher

Wesley was, um,  a polarizing figure for sci-fi fans at the time , given the fact that as a teen genius who was perhaps rightly labeled as a Marty Sue, he could be a bit grating. But Wesley was also a nice, decent kid, and “TNG” showcased him best by letting that side peek out. The episode where he makes out with Ashley Judd will always be a classic.

9. Deanna Troi

Playing an “empath” is an odd requirement for an actor, and Troi had to deal with a lot of odd storylines. But she occasionally got some meat to chew into, especially given the fact that her rank as a Starfleet officer meant that she was technically more integrated into the military aspects of the series than expected. And she wore some fun jumpsuits! Troi was great.

Continue Reading: ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’: Ranking the Crew, From Picard to Pulaski Next »

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10 Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Characters

The Next Generation moved Star Trek beyond Captain Kirk and his crew. Between Jean-Luc Picard, Worf, and Beverly Crusher who are the best characters?

Quick Links

• Tasha Yar Is the Enterprise-D's Lost Soul
• Deanna Troi Becomes Far More Than a Counselor
• Geordi La Forge Is the Ever-Dependable Engineer
• Will Riker Thrives on Both Sides of the Camera
• Q Is Picard's Omnipotent Foil
• Worf Brings The Klingon Empire to Life
• Beverly Crusher Is the Enterprise-D's Conscience
• Guinan Dispenses Drinks and Sound Advice
• Jean-Luc Picard Redefines Starfleet Captains
• Data Is a Star Trek Icon

Star Trek: The Next Generation remains one of the most beloved series in the entire Star Trek franchise. For seven seasons, it followed the adventures of the Enterprise-D 100 years after the five-year mission of Star Trek: The Original Series . In the process, it successfully opened up the franchise to every series that followed, and liberated Star Trek from the limitations of just a single crew.

The show's characters have since become icons, and now rank among the most popular figures in the entire franchise. In addition to The Next Generation, they starred in four theatrical movies, and delivered a triumphant reunion in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard to bring that series to a successful close. They're an essential and indelible part of Star Trek, and for many fans, they will always be their first and strongest introduction to what Gene Roddenberry's utopian future is all about.

10 Tasha Yar Is the Enterprise-D's Lost Soul

An episode of star trek: tos inspired one of the next generation's best villains.

The crew of The Next Generation is haunted by Tasha Yar, the ship's Chief of Security in Season 1, who was infamously killed off when actor Denise Crosby didn't feel the character was going anywhere. But the memory of her lingers long past her departure, and leads to her return in an alternate timeline during the fan-favorite "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Between that and her half-Romulan daughter Sela, Yar never strayed far from The Next Generation , making her loss all the more acute. In some irrefutable way, she was supposed to be a part of the crew's subsequent adventures, and yet she wasn't. It gives her a presence far beyond her comparatively short screen time.

9 Deanna Troi Becomes Far More Than a Counselor

Deanna Troi is half Betazoid, giving her the ability to sense the emotional state of others. Though ostensibly a ship's counselor, her real strength lies in her diplomatic and political acumen, making her one of Jean-Luc Picard's most valued advisors. She gives the crew its emotional core, and eventually marries her longtime paramour, Will Riker.

Troi's journey is notable in how effortlessly it rose above the empty eye candy the character might have been. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry intended Troi to be far more objectified, which resulted in her infamously tight costumes for most of the series. But Marina Sirtis routinely turned that notion on its ear, creating a winning character and an essential member of the crew in the bargain.

8 Geordi La Forge Is the Ever-Dependable Engineer

Star trek: the next generation's riker wasn't always called will.

La Forge actually began his tenure on the Enterprise-D as a helmsman, but he quickly rose through the ranks to become Chief Engineer. In many ways, he was the antithesis of The Original Series' Montgomery Scott : careful, thorough and dependable where his predecessor constantly flew by the seat of his pants. The character's VISOR became an indelible call sign for the series, even when it was replaced with more comfortable cybernetic eyes.

La Forge's pairing with Data is one of The Next Generation's greatest strengths, as he helps guide his android best friend through the vagaries of the human experience. Ironically, La Forge himself is far from an expert, with a string of romantic misfires that bring a lot of sympathetic humanity to the inhumanly reliable engineer.

7 Will Riker Thrives on Both Sides of the Camera

Ostensibly, Will Riker is the James Kirk stand-in, beaming down to dangerous planets while Captain Picard delegates from the bridge. He soon grew past that simple definition to become one of the most memorable characters in the franchise. He's far warmer and more approachable than his rather distant captain, and often ribs his crewmates even while on duty. Riker wears his passions on his sleeve, even when he's not necessarily good at them, such as his penchant for jazz music.

Actor Jonathan Frakes flourished behind the camera as well, becoming an accomplished director on The Next Generation and a creative staple of the franchise for decades. That has allowed Riker to guest star on a number of other Star Trek series -- from Enterprise to Lower Decks -- turning him into The Next Generation's de facto ambassador in the bargain.

6 Q Is Picard's Omnipotent Foil

Star trek: the next generation — why denise crosby's tasha yar left after season 1.

The all-powerful Q only made eight appearances on The Next Generation , but all of them were memorable and helped make him a strangely beloved antagonist for The Next Generation's crew . He thinks little of humanity and puts the protagonists on trial for their species' crimes in the series premiere. He also finds them quite fascinating given his penchant for vexing and tormenting them.

Picard, in particular, becomes a favorite target for Q's machinations, and the Picard sequel series couldn't resist bringing him back during its second season. It's not hard to see why actor John de Lancie has a potent rapport with Patrick Stewart. Watching the two of them play off each other is one of the big reasons why Q remains such a viewer favorite.

5 Worf Brings The Klingon Empire to Life

Worf is a poster child for one of the core tenets of Star Trek : finding common ground with former enemies and resolving disputes peacefully. The orphaned son of a noble Klingon house, he's raised by humans and eventually becomes the first Klingon ever to join Starfleet. After a slow start in Season 1 of The Next Generation , he becomes the Enterprise-D's stalwart Chief of Security before moving on to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for its final four seasons.

Worf also managed to steal the show in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard : on the trail of the season's big villains well before anyone else. Besides his strong sense of honor and loyalty to his friends, Worf allows the franchise to more fully explore the Klingon culture . This is accomplished by moving away from them being one-note villains in The Original Series to a complex and fascinating species with a unique perspective on galactic affairs. His position on the Enterprise-D gave fans a relatable character through which to view them, rapidly transforming him into a fan favorite.

4 Beverly Crusher Is the Enterprise-D's Conscience

10 biggest differences between star trek: tos and the next generation.

Dr. Beverly Crusher almost went the way of Tasha Yar , by departing the series at the end of Season 1 and presumably never to return. Thankfully, The Next Generation reversed course after her absence was keenly felt in Season 2. The show truly hit its stride in Season 3, and Dr. Crusher's presence feels like an integral part of that resurgence.

Actor Gates McFadden brings a certain knowingness to Crusher that endears her to the rest of the crew, especially Picard who she treats like a peer as much as a captain. Above all, Crusher's strong sense of conscience causes her to put those in need first, even if it sometimes puts her at odds with her crewmates.

3 Guinan Dispenses Drinks and Sound Advice

Guinan doesn't belong to Starfleet, and her capacity on the Enterprise-D is strictly a civilian one: she's bartender in the ship's 10-Forward lounge where she helps the crew forget their troubles when they're off-duty. She and Picard share a past as well -- unspoken but binding -- which informs her connection to the crew.

There's more to Guinan than meets the eye. She's hundreds of years old, for starters, and her advice reflects a wisdom and profundity that comes from such experience. She's weighed in on everything from the imminent threat of the Borg to whether or not Data possesses a soul, and helped nudge the crew towards the better angels of their nature. While, like Q, she doesn't appear in every episode, every time she plays a part, the story becomes all the more memorable as a result.

2 Jean-Luc Picard Redefines Starfleet Captains

Star trek: the next generation and the roddenberry box, explained.

James T. Kirk had been the sole captain of note for the first 20 years of Star Trek , and created a lot of expectations in the bargain. Jean-Luc Picard breaks those expectations in every way: he's diplomatic and cerebral whereas Kirk shoots from the hip, and he often relies on his crew instead of going it alone. Yet, he becomes iconic in the process, a Starfleet captain on his own terms and no one else's.

Picard is the essence of leadership in Star Trek , which he demonstrates not only through his adroit handling of galaxy-threatening crises, but in the way he brings out the very best in those around him. His return in Picard is both a sign of his enduring popularity, and a validation of why so many fans take such inspiration from him.

1 Data Is a Star Trek Icon

Originally billed as The Next Generation's answer to Mr. Spock, Lieutenant Commander Data quietly matches his predecessor in distinctiveness and popularity. Data is a perennial outsider -- an android whose positronic brain grants him all manner of wondrous abilities, but who lacks the capacity to understand or experience human emotions.

Despite that, Data is one of the warmest and most ethical members of the entire crew, bonding with the other characters very quickly. He's selfless, heroic and stalwart, and would cheerfully give his life for any of his friends. His longing to be human gives him a touch of tragedy, something that actor Brent Spiner always keeps close with his performances. It's enough to make Data one of Star Trek's most enduring characters.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

TNG recurring characters

• View history

This is a list of recurring characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

• Allenby , played by Mary Kohnert
• Argyle , played by Biff Yeager
• Armstrong , played by David Keith Anderson
• Reginald Barclay , played by Dwight Schultz
• Bennett , played by Tim McCormack
• B'Etor , played by Gwynyth Walsh
• Bok , played by Frank Corsentino and Lee Arenberg
• Leah Brahms , played by Susan Gibney
• Eric Burton , played by Rickey D'Shon Collins
• Chekote , played by Bruce Gray
• Jack R. Crusher , played by Doug Wert
• Duras , played by Patrick Massett
• Garvey , played by Joe Baumann
• Gates , played by Joycelyn Robinson
• Diana Giddings , played by Lorine Mendell
• Sonya Gomez , played by Lycia Naff
• Gowron , played by Robert O'Reilly
• Guinan , played by Whoopi Goldberg and Isis J. Jones
• Herbert , played by Lance Spellerberg
• Homn , played by Carel Struycken
• Hugh , played by Jonathan del Arco
• Jae , played by Tracee Lee Cocco
• Edward Jellico , played by Ronny Cox
• Jones , played by Randy Pflug
• K'Ehleyr , played by Suzie Plakson
• Kellogg , played by Cameron
• Kurn , played by Tony Todd
• Robin Lefler , played by Ashley Judd
• Longo , played by Steve Casavant
• Lore , played by Brent Spiner
• Lursa , played by Barbara March
• Madeline , played by Rhonda Aldrich
• Martinez , played by Michael Braveheart
• Minuet , played by Carolyn McCormick and three unknown actresses
• James Moriarty , played by Daniel Davis
• Mot , played by Ken Thorley
• Nakamura , played by Clyde Kusatsu
• Alynna Nechayev , played by Natalia Nogulich
• Nelson , played by Rachen Assapiomonwait
• Keiko O'Brien , played by Rosalind Chao and Caroline Junko King
• Miles O'Brien , played by Colm Meaney
• Molly O'Brien , played by Angela and Angelica Tedeski , and Hana Hatae
• Alyssa Ogawa , played by Patti Yasutake
• Patti , played by Denise Lynne Roberts
• Katherine Pulaski , played by Diana Muldaur
• Q , played by John de Lancie
• Gregory Quinn , played by Ward Costello
• Dexter Remmick , played by Robert Schenkkan
• Ro Laren , played by Michelle Forbes and Megan Parlen
• Alexander Rozhenko , played by Brian Bonsall and Jon Steuer
• Helena Rozhenko , played by Georgia Brown
• Russell , played by Debbie David
• Sela , played by Denise Crosby
• Elizabeth Shelby , played by Elizabeth Dennehy
• Sito Jaxa , played by Shannon Fill
• Noonien Soong , played by Brent Spiner
• Spot , played by Monster , Brandy , Bud , and Tyler
• Tomalak and Tomalak (hologram), played by Andreas Katsulas
• Toral, son of Duras , played by J.D. Cullum
• Torigan , played by Arvo Katajisto
• The Traveler , played by Eric Menyuk
• Lwaxana Troi , played by Majel Barrett
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Lena Banks
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Karin Baxter
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Steve Blalock
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Thomas J. Booth
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Steven Boz
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Darrell Burris
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Juliet Cesario
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Dexter Clay
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by John Copage
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Gerard David, Jr.
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Jeffrey Deacon
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Debra Dilley
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Susan Duchow
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Gunnel Eriksson
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Keith Gearhart
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Shana Ann Golden
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Bill Hagy
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Eben Ham
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Grace Harrell
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Christie Haydon
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Kerry Hoyt
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Gary Hunter
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Mark Lentry
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Nora Leonhardt
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Ken Lesco
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by James McElroy
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Rad Milo
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Michael Moorehead
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Susan Raborn
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Keith Rayve
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Steve Reed
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Michael Rider
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Richard Sarstedt
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Noriko Suzuki
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by John Tampoya
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Mikki Val
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Christina Wegler Miles
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Harry Young
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Brad Zerbst
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by an unknown actor
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by an unknown actress
• Unnamed Enterprise -D officer , played by Marti Avila
• Unnamed female civilian , played by an unknown actress
• Unnamed male civilian , played by an unknown actor
• Unnamed post-atomic trial spectator , played by David B. Levinson
• USS Enterprise -D computer voice , performed by Majel Barrett
• Vash , played by Jennifer Hetrick
• Darien Wallace , played by Guy Vardaman
• Wright , played by David Eum
• Youngblood , played by James G. Becker
• 3 USS Antares (32nd century)

Star Trek: Characters Who Were In Both The Original Series & Next Generation

Taking a look as some of the retuning familiar faces, and what their character have been up to since TOS.

Over the years there have been many additions made to the Star Trek universe. The franchise now includes a plethora of old and new TV shows, movies of varying successes , and a near countless amount of (technically not canon) books and video games. All this world building, character development, and amazing real world influencing technology all stemmed from The Original Series created in the late 1960s by Gene Roddenberry, a space sitcom with a very low budget but big dreams.

Each proceeding show owes their very existence to TOS. They occasionally pay homage to it within the fictional universe, including some great character crossovers between different shows. Among the sequel series, no show did this more than The Next Generation, the show that was made next after TOS. Here are the top reappearing characters in TNG.

RELATED: Star Trek: How Kirk Used His Trauma & Pain To Become A Great Captain

Potentially the most iconic of all Star Trek characters, the original pointy-eared, meme magnet Vulcan played a big part in creating the wonderful and often wacky world of TOS. Spock was one of the main characters in the old show, and his importance within the fictional world was just as influential

Spock played a pivotal role in the TNG episodes “Unification 1” and “2,” a two-part story in Season 5. Spock at this time has left his iconic role within Starfleet and spends his time as a Federation Ambassador, working hard to try and reunite his people with their long-lost cousins the Romulans . The episode is praised not only for the nostalgia of seeing a friendly, if stoic, face of Spock, but for introducing a duality to the previously one-dimensional villain Romulans. The episode features a peaceful Romulan faction, something not seen before.

Leading on from Spock was his father Sarek, who appeared as a much younger Vulcan in the TOS episode “Journey to Babel.” Mark Lenard, who played the character, returned in the “Sarek” TNG episode, but did also make a short appearance in “Unification 1.”

His appearance within the newer show is a memorable one, as it shows the Vulcans in an entirely new light. Sarek is suffering from Bendii Syndrome , a degenerative illness that affects the Vulcans' ability to control their emotions. Sarek is shown barely managing to control these feelings, projecting them onto others aboard the ship. It’s one of the best episodes of TNG. Seeing a familiar face not only sprinkles some nostalgia over audiences, but adds level of emotional depth not often seen within the Vulcan characters.

DeForest Kelley came back to play a much older version of his wisecracking, no-funny-business Dr McCoy in the very first episode of TNG, “Encounter at Farpoint.” While all the familiar faces on this list can be linked heavily with fan service, this one was potentially the most overt and intended. It brought back a beloved and iconic character to be part of the new show, kickstarting it into a whole new narrative.

The episode featured many of the fictional characters swooning over McCoy's presence, much like many long time fans would have been. His involvement in the show was kept quiet until it aired, happily surprising audiences.

One of the more memorable appearances comes from surviving redshirt , TOS chief of engineering Montgomery Scott. His return to the franchise was also a canonical return to the world of the living after 75 years of being presumed dead. The crew of the new Enterprise, captained by Picard, discover him trapped within a transporter buffer onboard the previously missing USS Jenolan, a transport ship that went missing years ago with Scotty on board. Disability icon and new Enterprise chief of engineering Geordi LaForge finds a way to extract Scotty’s pattern from the transporter and restores the man to physical form. In his appearance,

Scotty has no idea how many years have passed. His appearance is a great one, and connects the vastly different worlds of TOS and TNG. Scotty is amazed by all the developments over the years. It’s a great way of empathizing the differences between the two shows in an organic way. Plus, it’s always great to see the charming Scotsman back.

Kirk’s appearance is a bit of a stretch. While he does make a lengthy appearance, it’s within the movie Generations , which is technically a TNG centric movie. While McCoy showed visually how many years had passed, Scotty and Kirk were able to maintain some of their youthful vigor.

In the film, Kirk has been trapped within the ‘Nexus’ for 78 years. His ‘death,’ shown at the start of the film, happened during the inaugural flight of his iconic ship's replacement, the USS Enterprise-B . They were damaged by an energy blast from the nexus that breached the hull and seemingly killed Kirk, evaporating his body in the process. In reality he was trapped, rather peacefully as it turns out, within the Nexus. He was there until Picard came along and persuaded him to leave, which, ironically, led to his actual death at the end of the film.

MORE: Star Trek: The Best Fourth Wall Breaks In The Franchise

Star Trek: Discovery’s TNG Connection Explained - "The Chase" & Who Are The Progenitors?

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episodes 1 & 2!

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 continues the story of the Progenitors discovered by Captain Picard 800 years ago.
• Captain Burnham embarks on a treasure hunt to uncover the Progenitors' technology with potential for peace or conflict.
• The legacy of the Progenitors in Star Trek: Discovery raises questions of power, unity, and morality in the 32nd century.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a surprising sequel to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase", continuing the story of the enigmatic Progenitors 800 years after they were discovered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). As Discovery is set 800 years after the TNG era, it can often feel forced when the show tries to marry up these two ends of the Star Trek timeline . However, the magnitude of Picard's discovery about the Progenitors justifies the secret being hidden for centuries, and it could have fascinating implications for the future of Star Trek 's 32nd century.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive" opens with Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) exploring an 800-year-old Romulan scout ship at the behest of Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg). Kovich was less forthcoming than usual with information about the USS Discovery's "Red Directive" mission , forcing Burnham to seek help from Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) in learning more. Tilly uncovered recordings left by the Romulan scientist Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman), revealing Discovery 's links to Star Trek: The Next Generation 's original Progenitor treasure hunt, led by Captain Picard.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Picard’s original progenitor treasure hunt in tng explained.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase", Picard's former archeology teacher, Professor Galen (Norman Lloyd) asked the Enterprise captain to join him in solving a 4.5 billion-year-old mystery. Picard initially declined Galen's offer, but circumstances forced him to reconsider when his mentor's shuttle was attacked. Galen left behind files that contained huge blocks of numbers that were indecipherable without further information . Picard had the Enterprise retrace Galen's journey in the hope of finding out more about the archeology professor's strange code.

"The Chase" was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who returned to direct the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Eventually, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) discovered that the numbers refer to DNA strands of multiple different alien species. The combined strands form a shape that resembles an algorithm, a program implanted in the DNA of multiple species, for reasons unknown . It quickly became clear that Picard was not the only person seeking answers about Galen's mystery, as the Cardassians and Klingons also sought to understand what this ancient program could be. Negotiating a truce between the two factions, Picard and Crusher gained enough information to lead the Enterprise, Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans to the planet Vilmor II, where they make a monumental discovery.

TNG’s Progenitors Created All Humanoid Life In The Star Trek Universe

The treasure on Vilmor II was knowledge about life itself, delivered via a holographic message left behind by an ancient humanoid species. The sole humanoid species in the universe, these aliens wanted to leave a lasting legacy after their own extinction. And so, 4.5 billion years earlier, the ancient humanoids seeded their DNA across multiple planets in the Star Trek universe , influencing the evolution of countless species. Star Trek: Discovery reveals that since Picard revealed his findings, Starfleet have been calling the ancient humanoid species The Progenitors.

The Ancient Humanoid in Star Trek: The Next Generation was played by Salome Jens, who would go on to play the Female Changeling in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Not unlike the broken treasure map from Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons" , the Progenitors' message was broken into fragments and contained within multiple alien species' DNA. The Progenitors' intention was that, upon coming together to piece the fragments together, the disparate alien races would unite under their common origins. Sadly, this wasn't the case in Star Trek: The Next Generation , as the Klingons and Cardassians refused to believe that they could possibly originate from the same species . However, the Romulans were more thoughtful, setting up Discovery 's season 5 premiere.

Star Trek: Discovery's Huge Season 5 TNG Connection Explained By Showrunner

Discovery’s romulan scientist and his tng link explained.

At the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Chase", Captain Picard discusses the Progenitors' message with a surprisingly open-minded Romulan commander. The message has had an effect on the Romulan, who tells Picard that he hopes to one day stand alongside humanity as friends. Star Trek: Discovery reveals that one of the members of TNG 's Romulan landing party, Dr. Vellek, continued to research the Progenitors and eventually found where their ancient technology was hidden. However, Vellek was very aware that such technology could be as deadly as it is profound, and went to extraordinary lengths to hide his findings .

Both the crew of the USS Discovery and intergalactic outlaws Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) have access to Vellek's journals. However, both parties have very different intentions for the Romulan scientist's life's work. Captain Burnham hopes that recovering the Progenitors' technology will provide a sense of meaning, while Moll and L'ak are attracted by the price tag . Vellek remained hidden for 800 years, until his corpse was discovered in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, which proves just how desperate he was to keep the location of the Progenitors' technology a secret.

What Does Star Trek: Discovery’s Progenitor Link Mean For Its Final Season?

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , the Progenitors had hoped the truth about humanoid life in the galaxy would bring a new era of peace and understanding . However, rather than become inspired by their commonality, the Klingons and Cardassians instead feud with each other, disgusted that they could be somehow genetically related. 800 years later, and in the wake of the hostilities caused by The Burn, the Progenitors' message could be the very thing that finally unites the galaxy in Star Trek: Discovery 's finale . However, it may not be that simple.

For one thing, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will continue the story of the 32nd century, and the Progenitors' message of commonality will dramatically reduce any sense of conflict in the universe. More interestingly, Dr. Kovich seems to want to get his hands on the technology, not the message. The Progenitors' technology would allow Starfleet to influence the evolution of other species , power that would set them up among the gods. This feels like too much power for a shifty character like Kovich to possess.

Whoever possesses the Progenitors' tech in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 has the very building blocks of life itself. In the right hands, that could lead to profound discoveries that lead to renewed peace and prosperity for the Federation in the 32nd century. In the wrong hands, enemies of the Federation could use those building blocks for their own nefarious purposes. That's a huge concern as Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery continue their treasure hunt. Sooner or later, Captain Burnham will have to make a choice about how she deals with the legacy of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Progenitors.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 5, Episode 1 of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” now streaming on Paramount+.

By the end of the episode, however, the mission has pushed Burnham and her crew to their limits, including slamming the USS Discovery into the path of a massive landslide threatening a nearby city. Before they risk their lives any further pursuing this object, Burnham demands that Kovich at least tell her why. (MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.)

Kovich’s explanation evokes the classic “ Star Trek: The Next Generation ” episode “The Chase” from 1993 in which Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) — along with teams of Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians — learn that all humanoid life in the galaxy was created by a single species that existed billions of years earlier, and seeded thousands of planets with the DNA to pass along their legacy. (Along with presenting a profound vision of the origins of life, the episode also provided an imaginative explanation for why almost all the aliens in “Star Trek” basically look like humans with different kinds of forehead ridges.)

Kovich tells Burnham that the Romulan scientist was part of a team sent to discover exactly how these aliens — whom they call the Progenitors — made this happen; the object they’re seeking winds up being one part of a brand new “chase,” this time in the 32nd century, to find the Progenitors’ technology before it can fall into the wrong hands. 

“I remember watching that episode and at the end of it just being blown away that there was this huge idea where we all come from,” Paradise says. “And then they’re going to have another mission the next week. I found myself wondering, ‘Well, then what? What happened? What do we do with this information? What does it mean?’”

Originally, Paradise says the “Discovery” writers’ room discussed evoking the Progenitors in Season 4, when the Discovery meets an alien species, the 10-C, who live outside of the galaxy and are as radically different from humans as one could imagine. “As we dug deeper into the season itself, we realized that it was too much to try and get in,” Paradise says.

Instead, they made the Progenitors the engine for Season 5. “Burnham and some of our other characters are on this quest for personal meaning,” Paradise says. Searching for the origins of life itself, she adds, “feels like a big thematic idea that fits right in with what we’re exploring over the course of the season, and what our characters are going through.”

That meant that Paradise finally got to help come up with the answers to the questions about “The Chase” that had preoccupied her when she was younger. “We had a lot of fun talking about what might’ve happened when [Picard] called back to headquarters and had to say, ‘Here’s what happened today,’” she says. “We just built the story out from there.”

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This Obscure 'Next Generation' Character Will Return in 'Star Trek: Section 31'

Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou will meet an interesting familiar face.

The Big Picture

• Paramount+ reveals cast member Kacey Rohl will play Rachel Garrett in the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie.
• Originally planned as a series, the film follows Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou in her work for Section 31.
• Rachel Garrett captained the USS Enterprise-C in the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Details on Paramount+'s upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie have so far been as top-secret as its namesake Starfleet spy agency. But now we know one of the characters who will encounter Michelle Yeoh 's Philippa Georgiou - and she's an important part of Star Trek history. A new feature in Variety goes behind the scenes of the filming of the streaming-original film, which recently wrapped filming , and reveals that previously-announced cast member Kacey Rohl ( Hannibal ) will be playing Rachel Garrett, a character who captained the USS Enterprise-C in the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise".

Little else is known about the upcoming film; it was originally planned as a series, but with Yeoh's busy schedule following her groundbreaking Best Actress Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All At Once , it was compressed into a single standalone film. It will follow Georgiou's work for the shadowy Starfleet intelligence agency Section 31, following her return to the 23rd century in the third season of Star Trek: Discovery . In addition to Yeoh and Rohl, it will also star Omari Hardwick , Sam Richardson , Sven Ruygrok , Rob Kazinsky , Humberly Gonzalez , James Hiroyuki Liao , Joe Pingue , Miku Martineau , and Augusto Bitter .

Who is Rachel Garrett?

In "Yesterday's Enterprise", which aired in 1990 as part of The Next Generation 's third season, the 24th-century Enterprise-D finds itself confronted with its long-thought-destroyed predecessor, the Enterprise-C , captained by Rachel Garrett ( Tricia O'Neil ). Somehow, the Enterprise-C being thrown into the future has altered the future; instead of the relatively peaceful galaxy familiar to the show's viewers, the Federation is embroiled in a desperate war with the Klingon Empire . The crew soon realizes that the Enterprise-C must respond to a Klingon distress call in its own timeline, even though it means the ship will be destroyed by the Romulans ; Garrett is soon killed in an ambush by the future Klingons, forcing helmsman Richard Castillo ( Christopher McDonald ) to take over the ship with Enterprise-D security officer Tasha Yar ( Denise Crosby ), leading it to its fate in the past. Ultimately, the Enterprise-C 's sacrifice averts war with the Klingons and restores the Enterprise-D 's future to its rightful state, while Garrett and her crew are remembered as heroes. However, the Enterprise-C 's legacy later came back to haunt the Enterprise-D ; Yar survived and bore a half-Romulan daughter, Sela, who would become one of the crew's recurring foes.

"Yesterday's Enterprise" is considered to be one of The Next Generation 's finest episodes. Collider's Liam Gaughan deemed it to be the best episode of season 3 , calling it a "fascinating look at a darker version of the setting we know and love" while also serving as a proper sendoff for Tasha Yar, who had been unceremoniously killed off in the show's first season.

Star Trek: Section 31 is now in post-production, and has not yet set a release date . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

Why Star Trek: Discovery Chose That Classic Next Gen Storyline To Explore In Its Final Season

Shields up! This article contains major spoilers for the season 5 premiere of "Star Trek: Discovery."

Who knew that "Star Trek: Discovery" would be saving its biggest reveal for last? After being responsible for kickstarting the new era of "Trek" on streaming , the fifth and final season is signaling the beginning of the end for the flagship series. But as fans would expect, the opening episode proves the writing team has no intentions of taking its final bow without crafting one last adventure worthy of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Mr. Saru (Doug Jones), and the rest of the Discovery crew. (For more on that, you can check out /Film's "Discovery" season 5 premiere review by Jacob Hall here .) So perhaps it was inevitable that the biggest twist of the young season would have its roots in one of the most game-changing hours of "Trek" lore ever.

Trekkies will no doubt remember the classic "Next Generation" episode "The Chase," which first introduced the extinct race known as the Progenitors. Responsible for seeding humanoid life throughout the galaxy, these ancient beings were meant as an in-universe explanation for why almost every alien race encountered by Starfleet looked mostly like, well, ourselves ... give or take a few random ridges on foreheads and such. This also had the side effect of linking even the biggest enemies — humans, Romulans, Cardassians, and even Klingons alike — on a foundational genetic level.

"The Next Generation" mostly breezes past this revelation and reverts to business as usual in later episodes, despite the startling implications, so leave it to "Discovery" to pick up this major dangling thread and weave it into the fabric of this new season. At the season 5 world premiere, producer Michelle Paradise addressed why the show's creatives went back to this  storyline in particular.

'Huge ideas and huge themes'

How do you raise the stakes even higher than the time-traveling shenanigans of "Discovery" season 2, the mysterious dilithium "Burn" of season 3 that caused the breakdown of Starfleet, and the impossibly advanced species of extraterrestrials that put the entire galaxy at risk in season 4? Well, going all the way back to the origin of life as we know it is definitely one way to get the job done and end things with a bang.

It took until the closing moments of the season 5 premiere for the full picture (or part of it, at least) to round into shape, but what a twist it is! As it turns out, the pair of scavengers who absconded with an item of top priority to Starfleet couldn't have possibly picked a more important piece of "Trek" lore: the leftover Progenitor tech that helped them create humanoid life in the first place. So why tie things back to that underrated "The Next Generation" episode , of all things? At the SXSW premiere of "Discovery," producer Michelle Paradise had this to say:

"'The Chase' is an episode that had stuck with many of us because it addresses such huge ideas and huge themes. Where do we come from, the creation of life. And then it was this one episode, and then that was it [...] And it just left us with many, many questions."

That's putting it mildly. Even for a sci-fi franchise like "Star Trek," those are some incredibly heady ideas to attempt to tackle. It's one thing for a random episode in the early 1990s to suddenly establish such a massive change to canon. It's quite another for "Discovery" to double down. According to Paradise, however, this was done with character and theme in mind.

Tackling the big questions

Arguably more than any other ongoing series, "Discovery" has always worn its heart on its sleeve. That doesn't appear to be changing in season 5, but it's only fitting that the final adventure for this cast digs deeper into the psyches of the characters than it ever has before. The biggest question on the minds of the creative team, as it turns out, revolved around ideas of meaning and purpose for Burnham, Saru, and all the rest. According to Michelle Paradise, those are existential topics that translate naturally from the events of "The Chase," set hundreds and hundreds of years before the future timeline of this current season of "Discovery." She went on to say:

"And so when we were thinking about this season in particular and what we were going to be doing thematically and our characters looking at questions of meaning, questions of purpose. It felt like that was a really great place to go back to as a launching point for this adventure and that it was going to have that resonance."

For a crew that's been stranded in the future and cut off from everyone they used to know, these are poignant issues that previous seasons of "Discovery" have sought to explore. After having rebuilt Starfleet to something close to its former glory and putting the officers of the Discovery through the wringer, the rest of season 5 is now primed and ready to push these characters where they have never gone before.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5 premiere on Paramount+ every Thursday.