1986... before TNG...

[Warped9]

Around 1985 or '86 I think is when I started to hear solid rumblings and news about a new Star Trek series. We soon learned that the original crew were not transitioning back to television and would remain on the big screen.

We began to hear about a new starship Enterprise with a new crew set a century after the original era. And this ship was supposed to be on something of a 10-20 year voyage of exploration, and consequently also had families aboard. We learned there would be a Klingon as a member of the new crew and that the ship's navigator was blind! We also began to get early pics such as one of Geordi with his visor.

My initial reaction was a mixture of apprehension and intense curiousity. How could you do Star Trek with Kirk, Spock and the rest? Could it even be close to as good? Or, heaven forbid, could it even be better?

Regardless of your opinion after TNG arrived what did you think and how did you feel about it all at that time leading up to TNG's debut?

 

[RandyS]

I too was skeptical, but curious. Like you, I didn't think Star Trek could be done without Spock.

Thank God I was proven wrong.....for once.

 

[EnsignRicky]

When I first started seeing and hearing things about the new show, I couldn't get over the fact that the captain was going to be that funny looking guy from Dune.

Needless to say, I got over it.

 

[Warped9]

I didn't recall Patrick Stewart from Dune. To me he was a complete unknown. The only one I had a passing familiarity with was Levar Burton.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I didn't recall Patrick Stewart from Dune. To me he was a complete unknown. The only one I had a passing familiarity with was Levar Burton.

Yeah, I recalled him at the time from Dune and Lifeforce.
It was Lifeforce that really gave me a little misplaced apprehension.

 

[Takeru]

Well, it wasn't 1986, it was 1990 (that's when TNG started in Germany) and I was 9 years old. I had watched TOS reruns for a year or two and loved it. I remember the first time I heard of TNG was when I saw a picture of the TNG cast in our TV guide, I remember that I thought Picard was really old, I thought he looked like a grandfather, not a captain and I was confused why Tasha was wearing pants ... seriously, I didn't understand it at all and to make things worse, Troi (with te frizzy pilot hair) was wearing a minidress like Enterprise women were supposed to.
Another thing I remember was thinking "That's NOT a klingon!", when I first saw Worf. I hadn't seen the movies yet, so I had no idea of the new klingon look.

I guess I was too young to really think about TNG "replacing" TOS, the latter was still new to me back then and TNG was just more Star Trek for me to watch.

BTW, what I loved most about TNG was that there were so many episode. Because it started so late in Germany I was able to plow through everything from Encounter at Farpoint to Final Mission in a very short time. TNG never aired weekly here, it was in a daily daytime slot from the start and I remember running home from school every day to watch a new episode.

 

[Newski]

See, I never had that.... I'm one of those people who is too late to be an Eighties kid, but too early to really be a nineties kid. I don't exactly have Nostalgia for things like Reboot or Gargoyles, but it's not exactly Thundercats or Voltron for me, either.


But some of my earliest memories are watching Star Trek. And yes, most of the time, it was Star Trek: The Next Generation. I only vaguely recall most of what I saw as a child. The first episode that actually sticks out to me is "Imaginary Friend" or "The Child". I can't say whether or not they were even the first broadcast or not....


But I believe the feeling must have been similar to waiting for the new, Recast version of Star Trek. Would it work,or would it be a bunch of kids playing Dress up?

 

[Jetfire]

I use to watch Reading Rainbow...that's why I tuned in(LeVar Burton)...as a kid TOS kinda scared me.

 

[xortex]

The ship was just plain ugly with all those windows it looked like a computer card. Picard was just plain off balence like many English people are, stiff and unnatural.

 

[FalTorPan]

The only part of the Enterprise-D that took a while for me to get used to was the red, rectangular main impulse engine. It reminded me too much of the braking lights that were just becoming a required feature in US cars.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Picard was just plain off balence like many English people are, stiff and unnatural.

Weird. I know loads of English people, and they're all quite natural, believe me.

My reaction was: blimey, it's Patrick Stewart out of I Claudius and Tinker Tailor. He's slumming it a bit doing Star Trek...

 

[Shaw]

I had high hopes for the show, but was let down by the first season. The second season wasn't much better for me, but it was still nice to have new Trek each week. From the third season on the show was absolutely awesome and I couldn't get enough of it.

The only thing that bugged me about the show before it started was the Enterprise-D. It looked too much like the really bad drawings of the original Enterprise from the old comic books.

I recall wondering why the lights were always off during the first season... and as it turned out the first TNG movie had the Enterprise just as dark inside.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I remember that time vaguely. I was excited to see Star Trek back on TV. Then I saw that horrible premiere episode and decided "Trek is dead for good."

It wsn't till DS9 that Trek won me back.

 

[Tom]

Back then, I leaned everything about this new Star Trek show from Starlog magazine, i remember a few articles, even remember reading things like how Wesley was supose to be a teenage girl then they switched to a boy, stuff like that.

 

[Anji]

I heard about TNG while attending a con in Chicago. Roddenberry himself was there to make the announcement. We all packed into the Grand Ballroom to hear the Great Bird speak and when he made the announcement the room went crazy! We were thrilled Star Trek was back.

The only thing, he said, is that it was going to be with a new crew. We booed him. He wasn't discouraged though. He went on to explain about the series with the newer starship and who was going to be in the crew and why they were there.

He wasn't winning us over until he said that this was going to be the series he wanted to do. Keep in mind, at that time very few had known how much "input" NBC had in the making of Star Trek.

That statement won the crowd over. We had all loved the original series and thought that if he was allowed to do what he wanted to do we would love this new series even more.

We, at least I, loved it even more.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I was 13 in 1987 so I had that youthful excitement where I almost didn't believe the night in September when it premiered would ever come. I was sure I was going to get hit by a car before I got to see the show.
There were two different spots on Entertainment Tonighttalking about the new show in the summer of '87 that I must've watched about 4 or 5 times every day before the show started.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Around 1985 or '86 I think is when I started to hear solid rumblings and news about a new Star Trek series. We soon learned that the original crew were not transitioning back to television and would remain on the big screen.

We began to hear about a new starship Enterprise with a new crew set a century after the original era. And this ship was supposed to be on something of a 10-20 year voyage of exploration, and consequently also had families aboard. We learned there would be a Klingon as a member of the new crew and that the ship's navigator was blind! We also began to get early pics such as one of Geordi with his visor.

My initial reaction was a mixture of apprehension and intense curiousity. How could you do Star Trek with Kirk, Spock and the rest? Could it even be close to as good? Or, heaven forbid, could it even be better?

Regardless of your opinion after TNG arrived what did you think and how did you feel about it all at that time leading up to TNG's debut?

I was about 10 or 11.

I was actually looking forward to seeing how a new Star Trek would come about without Kirk and Spock; Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu.

I think they did a pretty good job of getting that TOS feel in the first season.

Of course, there are those who don't like the first season, but there are people--in regards to Star Trek--who dislike anything for any reason.

 

[Hober Mallow]

The first time I heard anything about this series was about two minutes before it premiered. I was 10. My dad, a Trek fan since September 8, 1966, got his snacks ready, sat down on the couch, and excitedly asked who was going to watch the new Star Trek with him. My mom couldn't have cared less. I kinda hung out in the living room and watched as the opening credits rolled. I saw Levar Burton's name, and thought, "Cool! Reading Rainbow guy!" Then I saw Michael Bell's name in the guest cast as Zorn. I recognized him as the voice of Prowl and Swoop on Transformers. Now I was really impressed!

Then the show started, and I heard my mom, who was still sitting in the living room, say, "I thought the Klingons were bad guys?" My dad was beaming, no pun intended, grinning from ear to ear. "I guess not anymore!" he said.

I must have been reading or playing a game or something, but about halfway through the show, my dad's screaming about Dr. McCoy.

It was a big night for my dad, needless to say.

My initial reaction to the characters was that the Captain was old -- I guessed him to be at least as old as my grandpa, late 60s or early 70s; Data looked like my friend Dan; and Riker looked like Captain Kirk.

 

[KingstonTrekker]

I was 16 in 1987 and had been a Trek fan for about five years. I remember reading about a new TV series in an article that speculated that it might take off from the end of Star Trek IV and feature Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura with younger cast members as well. I can't remember the name of the magazine.

As more details emerged, I learned that it would be set in the 24th Century. I was incredibly excited. I was worried though when I saw an Entertainment Tonight segment that I thought depicted the interior of the new Enterprise...and I was very worried...it looked like a shopping mall!!! (It turned out to be from the scene with the Crushers and Riker on Farpoint Station.) Then came the rumour that DeForest Kelley would be in the first episode -- more excitement!!!

I remember tuning in on the night of the premiere...they showed The Cage first and then Encounter at Farpoint....and I fell in love with a whole new chapter of the Trek saga.

 

[Finn]

Funny how people felt Picard was old. Stewart was only 47. Mulgrew was 46 when Voyager ended. Brooks and Bakula was like 50 when their shows ended.