History Characters / StarTrekTheNextGenerationMainCharacters

* BizarreTasteInFood: Crossed with ForeignQueasine, Worf has a ''very'' strange palette probably owed to Klingons not actually ''cooking'' their meals. A recurring gag is Worf's eating habits bringing about total bafflement to his friends. His own mother learned to cook Klingon blood pie but admitted she "never learned how to ''eat'' it." When he asks her to cook some when she comes to visit, she can barely hide her horror. The trope is also given a twist when Worf discovers that he loves prune juice and sees it as "a warrior's drink." He was also the only one to enjoy the botched omelettes that Riker made in one episode, though whether that speaks more to his taste buds or Riker's cooking skills is up for debate.

* BadassBaritone: Creator/MichaelDorn's voice has actually gotten ''deeper'' thanks to playing Worf for so long.

Of all the TNG regulars, Worf underwent the most CharacterDevelopment, partially because his early characterization was minuscule, and partially because the character has made more appearances across the ''Star Trek'' franchise than any other. Over the years, he thwarted a civil war on his homeworld (and got exiled for his trouble), became a father, got beat up ([[TheWorfEffect a lot]]), broke his spine (luckily he had a spare), got married to Troi (in an alternate dimension), crossed over to ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', was promoted to Commander, got married again, and eventually cleared his name (finally) and became a Klingon ambassador.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The ''Galaxy''-class ships were pretty cool when introduced, but later series, and especially the Expanded Universe books, pointed out they weren't great in practice. Having family, and especially ''kids'', aboard made going into combat much more hazardous than necessary. Notably, after the loss of the ''Enterprise'', later Starfleet designs would be purpose built for either combat or exploration, but rarely both.

* InformedAttribute: Even apart from the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, Data's frequently asserted emotionlessness is not born out by his behavior. We frequently see Data exhibiting desire, hesitation, confusion, awkwardness, fascination, regret, enthusiasm, and other states of mind that are generally considered emotional reactions. A genuinely emotionless character would be a lot less engaging. If you define an emotional state as considering one outcome preferrable to another, then Data certainly does have emotions, just relatively mild ones.

* KindheartedCatLover: Data comes to adopt a pet cat, Spot, in an attempt to be more human. In "All Good Things," Data is shown in his Oxford quarters, which is full of cats.

** And when Troi actually said something useful, she was often ignored. In the second season episode, "Samaritan Snare," Geordi is beamed over to a disabled ship to help the apparently dim-witted aliens out. Troi walks onto the bridge, sees Geordi on the ship through the viewscreen, and tells Riker Geordi is in danger and needs to be beamed back immediately. Riker ignores her warning because those aliens are just so stupid, and what harm can they do? Well, let's just say the main plot of the show is Riker's efforts to get Geordi back, which could have been avoided if he'd listened to the empath!

* UnresolvedSexualTension: With Picard. Ironically, even though it's ''Picard'' who has hang-ups about a romantic relationship, she shoots him down when he asks. They [[spoiler:get over themselves in the novels]].

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Geordi is canonically [[UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}} Somali]], but [=LeVar=] Burton never made any attempt to disguise his American accent.

* IgnoredExpert: He's the head of security, but when he raises reasonable objections he tends to be ignored or shot down with little more reasoning than 'Nah, don't feel like it,' which frequently puts the crew or ship itself in grave danger on a regular basis. For example, he objects to sending their chief engineer instead of a lesser officer or just sending the needed technical information, but his caution is ignored, getting Geordi captured. In that particular case, they were trying to assist a spacecraft run by a species that appeared to be rather... special, and didn't appear to be capable of hostility. Worf's warning was still valid, of course, but Riker (who was in command at the time, long story) thought he was overreacting...

The redhead Doctor in charge of Sickbay. Has a long and complicated relationship with Picard, who served over her late husband, Jack Crusher, as Captain of the ill-fated ''Stargazer''. Picard, still troubled with guilt over Jack's death, often expresses romantic feelings toward Beverly, but will not act on them. Jack and Beverly had a son, Wesley, who lives aboard the ''Enterprise''.

* TheBusCameBack: After spending Season 2 away at Stafleet Medical, Crusher returns to the ''Enterprise'' in Season 3 and remains there for the rest of the series and the movies.

* DroppedABridgeOnHer: Infamously so, killed off by a random one-shot MonsterOfTheWeek in as abrupt a manner as would usually fit a RedShirt.

* UndignifiedDeath: One of the worse examples in ''Star Trek'', casually murdered by Armus like a Red Shirt.

** [[BrickJoke Several years later]], when he learns that the very same woman was "having a baby" again, his immediate response is to alarmingly inquire "''Now?''" And then arrrange for shore leave around the delivery date, which is still several months away.

* FantasticRacism: Worf completely ''loathes'' the Romulans, chiefly because the Khitomer Incident discommendated his family thanks to their mechanations with a Klingon traitor. To the point where when he refuses to give a dying Romulan a blood-transfusion to save his life and also shuns a Klingon woman he was initially attracted to after learning she is actually half-Romulan. However, numerous characters routinely call him out on this attitude. By the last movie, he (begrudgingly) praised the Romulans who helped them for their honor.

* LoserSonOfLoserDad:

* TheCastShowOff: Gates [=McFadden=] made her name as a choreographer and, in "Data's Day," Crusher gets a scene where she teaches Data to dance, opening with a fairly impressive bit of tap-dancing from the doctor.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Sirtis' real accent is north London; Troi's started out vaguely Eastern European before settling down into an approximation of American English, then reverting to her natural north London for the films. Marina Sirtis has said in interviews that she was told she had to do a "Betazed" accent, meaning she pretty much had to make one up. When Troi's mother, and eventually other Betazeds, showed up, it became increasingly clear that no one else was going to bother with the accent. Sirtis tried asking a producer about this, and was told that Troi got the accent from her father. We eventually meet her father, who doesn't have the accent[[note]]he speaks with a General Amercian accent and his actor Amick Byram is from Central Texas[[/note]] either (much to Sirtis's exasperation). So her accent dialect continues to remain unexplained on-screen.

* CharacterOverlap: William Thomas Riker holds the record for most crossover appearances within the franchise, having appeared in five more shows beyond this one: ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E09Defiant Defiant]]"[[note]]This one requires a bit of LoopholeAbuse as Frakes is technically playing [[CloningBlues Riker's clone]], Thomas, from "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E22SecondChances Second Chances]]," who himself is impersonating Will[[/note]], ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager VOY]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E18DeathWish Death Wish]]", ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise ENT]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E21TheseAreTheVoyages These Are The Voyages...]]" (whose FramingDevice is of Riker trying to figure out what to do during the events of ''TNG'': "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E11ThePegasus The Pegasus]]"), ''[[Series/StarTrekPicard PIC]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E07Nepenthe Nepenthe]]" / "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E10EtInArcadiaEgoPart2 Et In Arcadia, Ego, Pt II]]", and most recently ''[[WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks LWD]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]]".

* SexSlave: Tragically, she wound up being forced into this position by a Romulan general in order to save the lives of her fellow prisoners of war.

* TheAce: Riker is good at everything. He's an inspiring leader, an AcePilot, a badass fighter, a nice guy, and a lady's man. Picard says that Riker's the best officer he's ''ever'' worked with.

* {{Fanservice}}: Drunk Tasha wandering the ship with a SexyWalk; her "blitzed" voice is very seductive. She later seduces Data, after changing into a revealing BedlahBabe outfit.

* SacrificialLion

* TheChick: As the ship's counselor, it's her job to be sensitive and concerned about the crew's well-being. This also makes it hard for her to pass the Bridge officer's exam, since it required her to order a crewman to certain death in order to save the whole ship.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Geordi is canonically UsefulNotes/{{Somalia}}n, but [=LeVar=] Burton never made any effort to disguise his American accent.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In his first scene, Riker makes Geordi snap to attention when delivering a message. He never does anything like this again over the course of the series, and it comes across rather out of character.

* TheBusCameBack: He'd quit Starfleet Academy in "Journey's End," but returned at some point between this episode and ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', in which he's a Lieutenant. In a deleted scene, he tells Picard that he'll be part of Riker's engineering crew aboard the USS ''Titan''.