10 Star Trek: TNG Facts You Probably Didn't Know

In 1977, ten years before TNG would air, Paramount announced a new Star Trek series. Star Trek: Phase II (as it was sometimes called) was planned to reunite most of the original cast with new characters. Eventually, the series was dropped - but three of the new characters from Phase II ended up being re-imagined for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Ilia, a Deltan navigator who could sense emotions, eventually became Deanna Troi. Her Phase II love interest, Willard Decker, became Will Riker. The third character who helped shape TNG was originally written as a Vulcan.

In Phase II Spock was to be replaced by Xon, a full blooded Vulcan. Unlike Spock who grew up with a human mother, Xon would have been even more socially ignorant of his human companions. With little to no understanding of human emotions, Xon would have chosen to try to embrace the emotions within himself that his culture repressed.

The decision was made that TNG should not heavily reference the original series (at least not until it had established itself as a show in its own right), but they still wanted to have an outsider character who struggled with human culture and went on a personal journey to understand emotions. Instead of having a Vulcan character, the decision was made to have an android: giving us the well-loved Data.