Setting

Regular Cast

• Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T Riker
• Brent Spiner as Lt Commander Data
• LeVar Burton as Lt Commander Geordi La Forge
• Gates McFadden as Dr Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Michael Dorn as Lt Worf
• Denise Crosby as Lt Tasha Yar
• Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher

Recurring Characters

• Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan
• Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi
• Carel Struycken as Mr Homm
• John De Lancie as Q
• Diana Muldaur as Dr Kate Pulaski
• Patti Yasutake as Nurse Ogawa
• Colm Meaney as Chief Miles Edward O'Brien
• Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien
• Dwight Schultz as Lt Reg Barclay
• Michele Forbes as Ensign Ro Laren
• Brian Bonsall as Alexander
• Barbara March as Lursa
• Gwynyth Walsh as B'etor
• Susan Gibney as Dr. Leah Brahms
• Ashley Judd as Robin Leffler

Major Alien Species

• The Borg: (The Neutral Zone), Q-Who, The Best of Both Worlds, The Best of Both Worlds - Part II, I Borg, Descent, Descent - Part II.
• Cardassians: The Wounded, Ensign Ro, Chain of Command - Part I, Chain of Command - Part II, The Chase, Lower Decks.
• Ferengi: The Last Outpost, The Battle, Peak Performance, The Price, Captain's Holiday, Menage A Troi, Unification - Part II, The Perfect Mate, Rascals, Chain of Command - Part I, Suspicions, Bloodlines.
• Klingons: Heart of Glory, A Matter of Honor, The Emissary, Yesterday's Enterprise, Sins of the Father, Reunion, The Drumhead, The Mind's Eye, Redemption, Redemption - Part II, Unification - Part I, Ethics, Aquiel Birthright, Part I, Birthright, Part II, The Chase, Suspicions, Rightful Heir, First Born.
• Romulans: The Neutral Zone, Contagion, The Enemy, The Defector, Tin Man, Future Imperfect, Data's Day, The Mind's Eye, Redemption - Part I, Redemption - Part II, Unification - Part I, Unification - Part II, The Next Phase, Face of the Enemy, Birthright - Part I, Birthright - Part II, The Chase, Timescape, Interface, The Pegasus.
• Vulcans: The Schzoid Man, Sarek, Unification - Part I, Unification - Part II, Suspicions, Gambit - Part II.

General Information

Commander Riker has been offered the command of his own ship on the following occasions: In The Arsenal of Freedom, he is offered command of the USS Drake, in The Icarus Factor he's offered the USS Aries. In the Best of Both Worlds he is offered the USS Melbourne, which is later found destroyed at Wolf 359.

The saucer section of the Enterprise is seperated from the drive section in Encounter At Farpoint, Arsenal of Freedom, and Best of Both Worlds - Part II.

Picard surrenders to `Q' in Encounter at Farpoint, and tries to surrender to the Ferengi but they surrender first in The Last Outpost. In The Outragous Okona, Picard orders the shields dropped `In case we decide to surrender to them.' In A Matter of Honor, Picard surrenders to Riker who is in command of the Klingon vessel Pagh. In Peak Performance, Riker asks Picard `Would you care to surrender now?' even before the war games start. In The Defector, the Romulans ask Picard to surrender but he refuses.

Trivia

• Geordi LaForge is named after a real Star Trek fan named George LaForge who died from muscular dystrophy in 1975.
• Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) did the special effect shots only for Encounter At Farpoint but they still get credit in every episode because of the extra stock footage for Enterprise fly-bys and such.
• William Riker and Deanna Troi are based upon Commander Decker and Lieutenant Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation has earned over US$500,000,000 for Paramount in syndication and merchandising revenue.
• If you look closely at the Enterprise during the fly-by in the opening credits, you can see someone walking past the windows.
• The Child and Devil's Due were originally scripts for the proposed Star Trek II television series. When this idea was scrapped, the sets were used for the shooting of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
• There are numerous in-jokes in The Next Generation: In The Neutral Zone, the family tree called up by Deanna Troi for Clare Raymond includes the names of all the actors who have played the part of the Doctor in Dr Who. In Loud As A Whisper, the conference table is marked with the names of Kei and Yuri from the Japanese animation series, The Dirty Pair. In The Icarus Factor the mat has the chinese character of `sei' or star on it. In Up The Long Ladder a ship called Buckaroo Banzai is listed. In Qpid Picard says `There is something you should know ... I'm not from Nottingham.' - this is a reference to the film The Princess Bride. In Sub Rosa one of the gravestones says "McFly", a reference to Back to the Future.
• Professor Stephen Hawking is the only person ever to have appeared `as himself' in Star Trek: The Next Generation, in a cameo role at the start of Descent. He has already had a shuttle named after him which appeared in The Host.