15-12 Gene Roddenberry Rewrites The Next Generation

Following last week's look at the earliest concepts for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Larry Nemecek welcomes back author and historian Ben Robinson to examine Gene Roddenberry's handwritten response and the surprising conversation it sparked.

Revisiting documents first explored in earlier seasons of The Trek Files, Larry and Ben trace the pivotal weeks of September 1986, when Gene challenged early ideas for a Starfleet Academy-centered series, questioned the show's heavy emphasis on Klingons, and argued that Star Trek's true strength had never been its characters alone but the stories it told.

Some of Gene's observations proved remarkably prescient. Others reveal how his own thinking had evolved since the 1960s. Together, they paint a portrait of a franchise at a crossroads, just weeks before The Next Generation officially became the series we know today.

Documents and Additional References Document of the Week

• Gene Roddenberry's response to the early Star Trek: The Next Generation series proposal (September 19, 1986)

Additional References

• Early Star Trek: The Next Generation series proposal by Greg Strangis (September 1986) (revisited from Season 1, Episode 4)
• Gene Roddenberry
• Greg Strangis
• Rick Berman
• Ben Robinson
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Related Trek Files episodes:
  • Season 1, Episode 4 — Early The Next Generation series proposal
  • Season 13, Episode 2 — Gene Roddenberry's response to Paramount's proposal
  • Season 15, Episode 11 — Greg Strangis' earliest notes for The Next Generation