10 Times Star Trek Dared To Be Different

8. Galaxy's Class of 1987

It is an odd thing to think in retrospect, but Star Trek: The Next Generation was daring when it first began. No Kirk? No Spock? No Bones? No thanks! A new century, a new starship, a French captain played by an Englishman, and a Klingon on the bridge. This was different all right! The new Star Trek was also to be sold direct to syndication, a bold financial first for the franchise, and one that would pay off.

"There was an actual protest about The Next Generation [by fans of The Original…]," Larry Nemecek noted on The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek episode Queue for Q. Not even Patrick Stewart's LA agent, Steve Dontanville, thought the new series stood a chance. As Stewart recalled in Making It So: A Memoir, Dontanville told him before filming began that,

It is my opinion that you'll be lucky to make it through the first season. I don't think anyone can replicate the success of the original Star Trek. You'll be lucky to make it to Thanksgiving, to be honest.

It seemed everyone was forecasting a turkey. Looking back at the overall quality of seasons one and two, they were half right. But if no one had dared to do Star Trek again differently, we wouldn't have got three through seven and all that spun off.