History YMMV / StarTrekTheNextGeneration

* {{Adorkable}}: A rare moment for Worf when Deanna makes herself at home in his quarters (with him not knowing that they're married). The icing on the cake is a visibly confused (and nervous) Worf peering into his bedroom while Deanna is on his bed.

%% Bring CompleteMonster examples to this thread before adding any: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok&page=1. Check the FAQ first to see what would qualify characters for the trope, and if there has been previous discussion on the work.
%%

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** During Data's comedy routine in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E4TheOutrageousOkona The Outrageous Okona]]", there is a scene where Guinan asks the comic (Joe Piscopo) "And you made a living doing this?" Modern viewers cannot help but feel a little bit of pity for Joe, considering the imminent collapse of his career.
** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E2Family Family]]" ends with Rene, Picard's nephew, declaring that someday, he'll enter Starfleet, following in his uncle's footsteps. In ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', we learn that Rene, as well as Robert, [[spoiler:both burned to death in a fire at the vineyard.]] What's worse is that the closing shot in "Family" has ''a burning fireplace'' in the background!
** Possibly HarsherInHindsight as well, but the first season episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E20TheArsenalOfFreedom The Arsenal of Freedom]]" has the ''Enterprise'' and its crew under attack by automated drones [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard that inadvertently destroyed the civilization that created them long ago]]. Today, with things like [=UAVs=] and computer-guided missiles becoming indispensable parts of modern warfare, it becomes less amusing.
** Sure, it may seem silly that in "Unification," the Romulans were planning to use only two ''thousand'' troops (essentially a single regiment) to annex an entire planet...until 2014, when {{UsefulNotes/Russia}} quickly annexed the Crimean Peninsula by using small groups of special forces to secure key areas and force out the Ukrainian military. Perhaps this is where UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin got the idea.

** For a more obvious example, the episode [[https://youtu.be/g_Vr9LnogLM?t=1m26s "Conspiracy"]] has a very laughable puppet that bursts out of [[spoiler:Dexter Remmick's]] chest. The fact that it was blue screened atrociously into the scene makes the effect even more laughable than it already was.

-->''"In a world where children blow up children, everyone's a threat."''

** Ensign Ro Laren, is a Bajoran and disgraced former Star Fleet officer approached by Star Fleet Admiral Kennelly, who says he will help arm Bajoran rebels against the Cardassians if she helps stop Bajoran terrorist attacks against the Federation. Ro uncovers a conspiracy by Kennelly to deliver the Bajoran rebels to the Cardassians and uses a Bajoran ship that is piloted by remote to fool the Cardassians into thinking they killed rebels and reveals the Cardassians were behind the terrorist attacks against the Federation. Later, when the ''Enterprise'' is damaged by a natural disaster, Ro is able to get a bridge control panel working by dumping power from the phaser array into the Bridge and suggests they separate the saucer section from the drive section and fly away when it looks like the Warp Core is about to explode. Later Picard has Ro join the rebel group, the Maquis, to undermine them, with Ro pretending to be on the run from Star Fleet officers and gains the Maquis' trust by stealing medical supplies from the ''Enterprise''. Eventually, Ro decides to [[BecomingTheMask really join the Maquis]] and reveals a Federation Fleet hiding in a nebula to ambush the Maquis, deciding to become a rebel over being a Star Fleet officer.

** Riker's... Unconventional method of sitting down (where he appears to mount the chair like a horse, caused by an old back injury and Johnathan Frakes' excessive height) is similarly known as the "Riker Maneuver."

** In [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E2WhereSilenceHasLease "Where Silence Has Lease"]], the Nagilum entity looks...[[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/1/1e/Nagilum.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20121216004711&path-prefix=en a bit goofy]], and the early-80s CGI hasn't aged well, but it's fairly creepy in context, given how it looks [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith almost human]]...[[UncannyValley but not quite.]]

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: As the first of the original seven of the series to pass on, it seems so fitting that Creator/DeForestKelley would the one who would pass the torch to the Next Gen crew.

** In the show, a mysterious entity called Q plays pranks on the ''Enterprise'' and highlights threats to the Federation because he craves attention. Talking about the character becomes more awkward with the growing popularity of "[=QAnon=]," an insane conspiracy theory in which a mysterious person called Q claims to have special knowledge about insidious threats to the USA and has attracted a cultish following of devotees, but most people outside of the cult believe that it's a giant prank.

** The relationship between Q and Picard. It would be very difficult to explain away a lot of Q's behavior without attributing it to a crush he's harboring for Captain Picard. Q makes it a point to pester Picard with numerous challenges and snarks at the man every chance he gets, ostensibly making him Picard's nemesis. However the level of chemistry and familiarity that Q has with Picard makes the tests seem like an excuse to flirt. This is '''not helped''' by Q's violation of Picard's personal space. Additionally, Q's punishments directed towards Picard's rejections often come off as the reaction of a scorned lover. In "Qpid", Q makes the observation that the feminine wiles of women are a weakness that Picard is vulnerable to; showcased by how embarrassing his interactions with Vash were around his crew. Q muses that had he known this earlier he would have shown up as a woman to exploit Picard's weakness (as an EnergyBeing Q isn't a he or a she, because he lacks a biological gender). Also take a gander at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXefQxyMj_A this scene]] from "Tapestry" shown out of context. [[note]]In context Q has saved Picard's life from a fatal injury received during a mission, and has taken him back in time to fix any mistakes he regrets from his past. One of the changes Picard makes is the decision to pursue a romantic affair with a female friend of his he knew right before his career started. After having sex with her Picard wakes up the following morning to the sensation of a hand touching his face, but when he turns around Q has taken her place. Despite a brief jolt, Picard stays in bed and proceeds to have a quite civil chat with Q while lying naked under the covers.[[/note]] Without context one would think the chat they have is about a relationship ''between them''. For what it's worth, [[WordOfGod John De Lancie and Ronald D. Moore were of the opinion]] that Q was in love with Picard, but it never really goes beyond subtext.

* FoeYay:

*** For all of Q's [[SmugSuper arrogance]], when Picard [[ScrewYouElves calls out him and the rest of the Continuum as having no real morality]] in "True Q", Q doesn't actually deny a word of it. When Picard says that Q have no right to judge whether humanity has the right to exist in "All Good Things..." Q responds with a LameComeback, and in the same episode reveals he had been going out of his way to help Picard. Does Q actually agree with Picard's claims about the Continuum's lack of morality, and the moments he abuses his powers he justifies by [[AtLeastIAdmitIt acknowledging he has no moral high ground]]?

** Dr. Crusher, is she a genuinely caring person with a calm bedside manner but an unwillingness to use patients as guinea pigs, or is she too soft, a bit incompetent and too afraid of deviating from the established norms of her profession? Some of her attitude is often brought into question by fans, especially her objection to replacing damaged organs with cloned copies when Worf's spine was broken. She refused to even offer the treatment to him and another doctor had to do it, and she seemed wholly unconcerned with and unsympathetic to Worf's cultural beliefs over being paralyzed (to a Klingon, they may as well be dead). She was willing to ignore her patient's wishes or a colleague's interest in creating new techniques solely because it was experimental. Despite the risk of death involved, real medicine is constantly creating new drugs or new surgical treatments that MUST be tested on live patients who are offered the choice to undergo an experimental procedure that may save their lives. In some ways Dr. Crusher seems unwilling to venture into unknown territory unless she's forced into it and even then sometimes seems weak. Compare her attitude with Dr. [=McCoy=] (who lacked the bedside manner but got the job done), Dr. Bashir (a man who tried to remain optimistic but knew that he may sometimes have to push himself), the EMH (who was constantly coming up with new medical procedures because he HAD to) or Dr. Phlox (a nice, cheerful man but his own medical science was vastly behind that of the others, and he had to experiment when the usual treatments did not work).

** In "Timescape", Deanna tells the others about an older professor making inappropriate advances on her in the guise of "research" as a funny story, and Geordi notes that the professor is knowledgeable enough about his subject (interspecies mating rituals) to get away with it. Two decades into the 21st century, women in academia are their own subset of the [=MeToo=] movement because they're sick of being harrassed (or worse) by men who are institutionally protected because of the money and/or prestige their reserch generates.

** Is Deanna Troi's real job a Soviet style Political Officer, stationed on the bridge to keep Picard and Riker in line? Her empathic abilities seldom seem to provide more than rather obvious readings of alien contacts, but likely work quite well on the human bridge staff. And seated right beside Picard helps her ensure he stays with the party line...

** Riker is supposedly an ambitious officer, yet turns down one command after another, remaining first officer on ''two'' versions of the ''Enterprise'' over the span of roughly a decade and a half, plus his previous stint as first officer of the ''Hood'', he also reacts poorly when Vice Admiral Nechayev reassigns Picard and installs Captain Jellico to command of the Enterprise. The flattering interpretation is that he wants to stay with his friends and continue learning from Picard. The unflattering implication is that he refuses to command any starship less cool than a ''Galaxy''-class and perhaps nothing less than command of the Enterprise. Either suggests he's gotten a bit too comfortable. Even Picard had previously served as captain of the ''Stargazer'', a ship which by his own admission was plagued by mechanical problems and nowhere near top-of-the-line, before being given command of the brand-new ''Enterprise-D''.

** Captain Jellico inspires a lot of this. Some see him as a micro-managing {{jerkass}} who enforces his own standards just because he can and thereby alienates those who serve him, others see him as a responsible officer who had every right to run the Enterprise as he saw fit and saved the day through his genuine competence. The funny thing is that neither interpretation is actually mutually exclusive with the other. The ExpandedUniverse occasionally references him with both depictions, DependingOnTheWriter. Probably depending on whether the writer thought it was a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome or a MoralEventHorizon that he told Troi to put her boobs away and don an actual uniform.

* WeirdAlEffect: Data's line "It is... It is green." from "Relics" has since overshadowed the original "It's, uh... it's green." exchange from TOS's "By Any Other Name".

* WhatAnIdiot: Though Geordi is by no means a stupid man, he does miss a rather obvious solution in "The Next Phase". When he's rendered intangible but discovers he leaves detectable particles when interacting with solid matter, he starts sticking his hand through panels that Data is decontaminating in an effort to be noticed. When Data failed to realizes this wasn't random, Geordi just gives up in frustration rather than trying to draw letters or some other pattern that would make it obvious the contamination had a sentient source.
** Picard and Data not seeing how dangerous Dr. Marr might be in dealing with the Crystalline Entity. She practically blurts out to Picard's face that she'd like nothing more than to kill it, and then murders it right in front of them.
** This may not be entirely her fault, but Troi sabotaged Geordi's plan to prevent Barclay from taking over the ship in "The Nth Degree." He told Geordi earlier that once he has an idea, he can explore all permutations of it in a nanosecond. Fed up with his behavior, Troi informs Barclay "The Captain will do everything he can to stop you." Within seconds, Geordi's tools and computer access are shut off by Barclay.

*** This especially applies to their treatment of the Bajorans. They allowed the Cardassians to use them as a slave race for 50 years, using their non-interference policies as a justification. While we do get some information about a brief war between Starfleet and the Cardassians, it was apparently unrelated to Najor's "occupation". Then there's the on-screen treatment of Bajoran Starfleet members that begins in their first appearance- notably their earrings, which are considered an important part of their cultural & spiritual beliefs, yet are generally not allowed to be worn because they violate the '''dress code'''(Tuvok even enforces this against a Voyager crewmember at one point). This might make sense if not for the fact Worf is allowed to wear a heavy piece of chain mail at all times simply because it's part of '''HIS''' cultural beliefs. This makes Starfleet look sympathetic to only certain races, not others. Even some Bajorans are wary of the Federation's offers of assistance after Cardassia withdraws and a lot of them wonder if the Federation is being charitable or simply wants something in return(which may be the case- they want Bajor to join the Federation at some point). There is no apparent effort made by the Federation to apologize for any of this when they all but beg Bajor to join, either, yet a lot of anger when they're talked out of it.

** Data [[TinMan does have emotions]], his programming just bypasses them deliberately. This is the cause of his ''almost'' emotional moments throughout the series, the times where he states a want to do things (like become more human, serve in Starfleet, paint), expresses friendship for Geordi and the others, and lies about trying to kill Kivas Fajo. The emotion chip just removes the overwrite and allows Data to experience full emotion. Given that his predecessors turned out to be incapable of growth beyond his most basic programming (B-4), and then turned out to become sociopathic when given free rein over their emotions (Lore), [[ItMakesSenseInContext there is a certain progression in Soong designing Data to be capable of limited emotion, but with an inhibitor in place to suppress its excesses]].

*** For all of Q's [[SmugSuper arrogance]], when Picard [[ScrewYouElves calls out him and the rest of the Continuum as having no real morality]] in "True Q", Q doesn't actually deny a word of it. When Picard says that Q have no right to judge whether humanity has the right to exist in "All Good Things..." Q responds with a LameComeback, and in the same epsidoe reveals he had been going out of his way to help Picard. Does Q actually agree with Picard's claims about the Continuum's lack of morality, and the moments he abuses his powers he justifies by [[AtLeastIAdmitIt acknowledging he has no moral high ground]]?

** Dr. Crusher, is she a genuinely caring person with a calm bedside manner but an unwillingness to use patients as guinea pigs, or is she too soft, a bit incompetent and too afraid of deviating from the established norms of her profession? Some of her attitude is often brought into question by fans, especially her objection to replacing damaged organs with cloned copies when Worf's spine was broken. She refused to even offer the treatment to him and another doctor had to do it, and she seemed wholly unconcerned with and unsympathetic to Worf's cultural beliefs over being paralyzed (to a Klingon, they may as well be dead). She was willing to ignore her patient's wishes or a colleague's interest in creating new techniques solely because it was experimental. Despite the risk of death involved, real medicine is constantly creating new drugs or new surgical treatments that MUST be tested on live patients that are offered the chance to agree to an experimental procedure that may save their lives. In some ways Dr. Crusher seems unwilling to venture into unknown territory unless she's forced into it and even then sometimes seems weak. Compare her attitude with Dr. [=McCoy=] (who lacked the bedside manner but got the job done), Dr. Bashir (a man who tried to remain optimistic but knew that he may sometimes have to push himself), the EMH (who was constantly coming up with new medical procedures because he HAD to) or Dr. Phlox (a nice, cheerful man but his own medical science was vastly behind that of the others, and he had to experiment when the usual treatments did not work).

** The doomed science vessel in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E2TheNakedNow The Naked Now]]", the ''SS Tsiolkovsky'', has a plaque stating that it was [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp built in the USSR.]]

** [[Deanna BrainlessBeauty]] [[Troi TheEmpath]], is a very debated character on the series for self-reasoning and situationalism. While one side will aggressivly defend this charater from her very obvious flaws that would completly ruin her in {{Real Life}}, then there's the other side of the fandom that unapogenically calls her "Trek's view of the Modern-Woman" while adding a lot of FringeLogic and attempts to disuade more of the other-sides hypocrisy. There are clear conflicts in the character but all the audience sees in a literal whiney-bitch.

* BizarroEpisode: "Sub Rosa", aka the Scottish ghost episode. It's got the corpse of Beverly's grandma force-lighting Geordi and Data, Bev having sex with a ghost (who lives in a candle!) on network television, and conversations about reading your grandmother's erotic journal entries. It was written by Jeri Taylor, who was also responsible for Janeway's holonovel subplot in early VOY episodes. Maybe she just really wanted to write Gothic-Romance rather than Sci-Fi.