The Pilot Many a just word has been written about just how much of a darn fine show Star Trek: The Original Series really was. But, as etched in the program's much-explored history, the crew of the USS Enterprise originally stuttered into life original pilot The Cage, was rejected by NBC, which was followed up with second crack of the whip in the average Where No Man Has Gone Before as opposed to soaring in front of our very eyes. Warping forward twenty years to the late eighties, creator Gene Roddenberry and his team went through some painstaking casting and pre-production processes when creating the The Next Generations opening episode, Encounter At Farpoint. On the whole, this episode was a sturdy set up for a series that went on to deliver much better things. The reviews weren't kind and, in all honesty, the whole of season one lagged somewhat, but from this opening episode a glimmer of light emanated from the vastness of the Milky Way. What Did It Change? The Next Generation's first episode taught TV execs to show a little restrain; the pilot was promising, nothing more, and the episodes that followed only built on this promise. But by allowing Patrick Stewart and co to get to grips with their characters the show soon took off and ran for seven seasons, vastly beating its predecessor in terms of longevity on the small screen. The faith that was put into this show to succeed is quite commendable and, should The Next Generation have failed to take off, the Star Trek franchise as we know it may not exist. Legacy The Next Generation spawned four movies and paved the way for Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise and J J Abrams' rebooted series to follow in its wake. But having this series settle on our screens for such a long time set a precedent that made it commonplace for great sci-fi show's such as Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to air for prolonged runs, which is key to creating a devout fanbase.
Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing.
He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.
