History Trivia / StarTrekTheNextGeneration

** [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E23IBorg "I, Borg,"]] in which they study a Borg drone separated from the collective. Changes them from [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot cyborg zombies]] into StarfishAliens.

* BilingualBonus : The "Harami Cluster." Harami means "bastard" in Hindi.

** Creator/MarinaSirtis despised the skant uniform she had to wear in "Encounter at Farpoint" Because the skirt portion was so short, the camera could see right up if she wasn't sitting with her legs squeezed together. She also hated the catsuits she had to wear for the majority of the series as it overly sexualized her and distracted from her performance. When Troi was forced to wear a proper uniform in "Chain of Command", Sirtis took the opportunity to lobby for the change to made permanent and the producers acquiesced.

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Stage actor Howie Seago, who is Deaf in real life[[note]]as well as a heavy Usenet groups poster, which helped him get the role as well as talk about doing the role online, too[[/note]], played the deaf negotiator, Riva, in season 2's "Loud As A Whisper." The episode was actually Seago's idea; he'd approached the producers about disability representation, and cast and crew worked closely with him to create the episode. Notably, they rewrote the original ending, where Riva somehow learns to speak, after Seago objected.

** A minor example having to do with the score. "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]" is the last episode to be scored by Ron Jones before the brilliant Rick Berman (not the soundest policy maker in the ''Trek'' franchise) fired him to '[[TallPoppySyndrome try out new composers.]]' There's a reason why people vividly remember the score to "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds The Best of Both Worlds]]" but why nobody remembers anything from the last three seasons of TNG. It wasn't until the latter half of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' -- barring the odd one-off composer managing to produce a decent score, and then usually being banned from working on the show again -- that the composers were finally allowed to produce anything other than Berman's favored "sonic wallpaper."

* ExecutiveVeto: Apparently Tracey Tormé has originally wanted to include an Andorian in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E24Conspiracy Conspiracy]]", but was informed by a producer (probably Berman) that, "We don't do antennae on this show." As such, the Bolians were rolled in as a compromise: blue, antennae-less aliens. Later, [=DS9=] writer and producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe reported that producer Rick Berman did not care for the antennae, and noted that, "if we'd been allowed to, I guarantee we'd've put an Andorian on the show so fast your head would've spun." The Andorians were finally given their day on ''Enterprise'', appearing in several episodes throughout the series.

** Diana Muldaur left after a single season due to hostility to her presence behind the scenes. She later stated, "Everybody was out for themselves. I don't think they were happy to have me there."

** Not only that, but Spot changed genders midway through Season 7. In one episode, Data is letting Worf take care of Spot, repeatedly referring to the cat as male: "And you must talk to him. Tell him he is a pretty cat. And a good cat." Only a few episodes later, Spot was suddenly female. And pregnant!

** Creator/JeanSimmons had been begging the producers for years for a role on the show as she'd been a fan of the original series. They obliged with the part of Satie in "The Drumhead."

** ''Boeckaspis geordii'', a trilobite, was named so due to its eye ridge's resemblance to Jordi's visor.

* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Most of the actors playing blood relatives to cast members look impressively like them. For longevity, Majel Barret very much seemed like Marina Sirtis' mother, in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E3ManOfThePeople Man of the People]]" where Sirtis had aging make-up on the similarity became uncanny. There was also Jeremy Kemp as Picard's brother Robert. Then there was the child actors playing Picard, Keiko, Ro and Guinan in "Rascals," David Tristen Burken previously played Picard's nephew in "Family" while Isis Jones also played a younger version of Whoopi Goldberg in ''Film/SisterAct''.

** Things got a bit better for the second season where Maurice Hurley took over the writing staff, but since a ''lot'' of TV writers chose to sit out the whole 1988-89 season after the 1988 WGA strike, it left no more than about four or five writers working on the show at any one point. It didn't help that, according to Tracy Torme at least, Hurley didn't get along with anybody as he lacked experience in the genre (having worked in crime shows like ''Series/TheEqualizer'' and ''Series/MiamiVice'') and was as dogmatic as Maizlish in enforcing Roddenberry's will, though he too clashed with Roddenberry after Roddenberry turned in a script that broke his own guidelines. Producer Rick Berman also cited Hurley for temporarily driving Creator/GatesMcFadden out of the show during the second season as he "had a bone to pick with her." Hurley would leave between the second and third seasons on bad terms, allowing Rick Berman and Michael Piller to gently steal control of the production.

** Creator/PatrickStewart wasn't too thrilled with his stodgy, preachy, apparently sexless Captain in Seasons 1-2, and intimated that he might leave the show if something wasn't done about it. (Actually, the phrase he used according to Creator/RonMoore was "there isn't nearly enough shooting and screwing on this show.") The vacation episode, "Captain's Holiday," was tailor-made to please Patrick.

* DummiedOut: One of Troi's lines, "I believe they have evil intentions," is not used in the game at the request of Marina Sirtis. It is accessible in the sound test, however.

** Marc Alaimo appeared as a minor RubberForeheadAlien in Season 1's "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E6LonelyAmongUs Lonely Among Us]]"; Romulan Commander Tebok later that season in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E25TheNeutralZone The Neutral Zone]]"; a 19th century gambler in Season 5's "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow Time's Arrow]]"; and most notably, he played the first-ever Cardassian in ''Star Trek'', Gul Macet in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded The Wounded]]". Marc Alaimo would become, in ''Deep Space Nine'', Gul Dukat, the main adversary of Captain Sisko.

** Eric Pierpoint had guest roles in all four spinoffs: a shape-shifter who attempted to try it on with Picard (" [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E2Liaisons Liaisons]]"), a Starfleet Captain in "For the Uniform" ([=DS9=]), the Klingons' answer to Judas Iscariot in "Barge of the Dead" (VOY), a big game hunter in "Rogue Planet" (ENT), and a Section 31 honcho during the Terra Prime arc (ENT). He is probably best known for his role as Det. Francisco in the cult show ''Series/AlienNation''.

** Creator/WhoopiGoldberg said in the ''50 Years Of Star Trek'' documentary that she considers her character Guinan to Picard's distant ancestor.

** Deanna Troi switches to wearing a proper uniform in Season 6 because Creator/MarinaSirtis used a plot point in "Chain of Command" -- where Jellico forced Troi to change out of her usual catsuit -- to lobby for the change to made permance.

** For his recurring stint on the show, Alexander was re-cast from Jon Steuer to the slightly older Brian Bonsall. Whether {{Justified}} or simply a case of the production team being painted into a corner by having Klingon children grow so fast in the first place is anyone's guess.

*** Creator/WilWheaton [[http://wilwheaton.net/2021/03/the-william-fucking-shatner-story/ recounts]] an incident with Creator/WilliamShatner in 1988, during which time ''Series/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'' was being shot at the set next door. After taking weeks working up the nerve to introduce himself to any of the Holy Trinity, he finally got the opportunity to meet his childhood hero Shatner, who simply said he would never allow a kid on his ship. After receiving supportive comments from several of TNG cast and crew members, Wheaton was contacted by Gene Roddenberry, who said that Shatner was an ass to work with. The following day, Wheaton received a note from Shatner stating he was a fine young man and Shatner would be pleased to have Wheaton on his ship. Wheaton reports since then he has worked with Shatner a dozen times; and Shatner has always been cordial with him.

** [[http://www.geekychef.com/2012/04/cellular-peptide-cake-with-mint.html Bake your own cellular peptide cake (with mint frosting!)]]"

** Fully Functional: Any episode with Data & Lore or their "father" Dr. Noonien Soong. (Also see the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E3Brothers Brothers]]" which was Acting For Three (including one stint in enough make up to make a Klingon's actor cry.) And let's not forget "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E8AFistfulOfDatas A Fistful of Datas]]", where Data plays... a fistful of [[WesternCharacters stock characters of the Ancient West]].

** The cast, particularly Creator/PatrickStewart, hated the first iteration of their uniforms. They were made deliberately small -- to create a sleeker appearance -- while the spandex material retained sweat and oils. Once the constant back problems and odors became too much to bear, the actors lobbied argued for a redesign that was introduced in Season 3.