15-11 The Next Generation Before Picard

Before Captain Picard. Before the Enterprise-D. Before Gene Roddenberry stepped back into the captain's chair of his own creation...

This week on The Trek Files, Larry Nemecek is joined by author and Star Trek historian Ben Robinson to examine one of the earliest surviving documents in the development of Star Trek: The Next Generation: a September 1986 memo from writer Greg Strangis to producer Rick Berman outlining the first concepts for a new Star Trek television series.

The document reveals some fascinating ideas: a Starfleet Academy setting, a young captain, a Klingon observer serving aboard a Federation starship, familiar themes of friendship, diplomacy, and the Prime Directive, but viewed through the lens of Cold War politics and 1980s television.

Together, Larry and Ben explore why some of these ideas disappeared, why others evolved into the Next Generation we know today, and how the process of reinventing Star Trek began long before Gene Roddenberry ultimately reshaped the concept himself.

Documents and Additional References

• Greg Strangis to Rick Berman — Early Notes on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (September 4, 1986)

Additional References

• Greg Strangis
• Rick Berman
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Gene Roddenberry
• Ben Robinson
• Related Trek Files episodes:
  • Season 1, Episode 4 — Early Star Trek: The Next Generation series treatment
  • Season 13, Episode 2 — Gene Roddenberry's response to the early Next Generation proposal