Star Trek Next Generation should have been called Phase II

[Lord Garth]

it implies that its a lot closer in time period to the original, not 70-100 years later. It only seems like a good name now, because people got used to it.

Not true for me. My first exposure to Star Trek was the TOS Movies. I was taken to TFF at the age of 10 and it didn't convert me, but my parents showed me TVH a year later, which did hook me, and what was at the beginning of the VHS Tape? Everyone of a certain age knows this:

A teaser for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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"The Next Generation" made the series sound cool. And that feeling didn't go away afterwards. In TVH, Kirk and crew were from the 23rd Century and their time looked better than our time. So, to my 11-year-old brain, I thought TNG being in the 24th Century and further in the future sounded even better.

Renting and watching "Encounter at Farpoint" scared me off from TNG initially, but I don't blame that on the title of the series.

Star Trek: The Fifth Generation would've sounded like a shitty title. And in fact, this stands out to me because I remember Peter David (RIP) being the person to mention this in an editorial at the top of the letters page in an issue of DC Comics Star Trek run, when they were talking about the 25th Anniversary. I remember that sticking out to me. And I agreed with him. He said The Next Generation, in his view, meant the next generation of fans and the next generation of there being TV series.

 

[at Quark's]

I have the feeling it might have been inspired by the Pepsi, the choice of a new generation slogan that was in use around 1985, but I have no idea whether that's actually true or not.

 

[Greg Cox]

From a marketing standpoint, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was the perfect title for 1987 because it bluntly got across the idea that this was a brand new captain and crew, something that absolutely needed be communicated because, up until then, "Star Trek" = Kirk, Spock, McCoy etc.

Nowadays, sure, we're used to the idea that different Trek shows have different cast and titles and premises, but back in 1987 that was unheard-of, so the title needed to hammer that home with brute force.

By contrast, "Star Trek: Phase II" could and would be mistaken for the further adventures of Captain Kirk -- as, indeed, was the original plan back in 1979.