Star Trek/Star Trek: The Next Generation
| Name: | Star Trek: The Next Generation | |
| Abbreviation(s): | STTNG | |
| Creator: | Gene Roddenberry | |
| Date(s): | 1987-1994 | |
| Medium: | Television series, movie series | |
| Country of Origin: | United States | |
| External Links: | ||
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TNG Meta
Paramount wanted to make more money off of the Star Trek concept. Fans were...cautiously optimistic. Star Trek had been ahead of its time in many ways; fans expected TNG to update that image, and continue to make statements of its own, but TNG was a profoundly conservative creation. One place where that became very obvious was homosexual inclusion. Gay SF fans organized a national letter-writing campaign to user Paramount to acknowledge a queer presence in the 24th century future represented on TNG. Roddenberry publically committed himself to do so in the last months before he died, but the producers never delivered.[1] Another reason TNG was not taken very seriously by many sf or media fans was the way the show didn't seem to realize that Wesley Crusher was a horribly obvious Mary Sue character.
TNG Canon
The idea was similar to the original Star Trek concept: large diverse crew on a ship called the Enterprise travels the galaxy, meets aliens, spreads goodwill. This time, the ship was even bigger, and there were more aliens.
| Name | Position | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jean-Luc Picard | Captain | Human |
| William Riker | First officer | Human |
| Geordi La Forge | Conn officer, later, Chief engineer | Blind Human |
| Worf | Chief of security and tactical officer | Klingon |
| Beverly Crusher | Chief medical officer | Human |
| Data | Second officer | Android |
| Wesley Crusher | Conn officer | Human |
| Natasha Tasha Yar | Chief of security and tactical officer | Human |
| Deanna Troi | Ship's counselor | Half-Betazoid (mother) / half-Human (father) |
Q, a alien with god-like powers and a rather flouncy and queenly mien, was a frequent gueststar, especially in later seasons.
Fans spent hours deciding the exact one-to-one relationship between the original Star Trek characters and the TNG versions of them.
TNG Fandom
Much TNG fanfic was posted on ASC and, later, ASCEM. Picard/Crusher and Riker/Troi were popular het pairings, with a number of communities such as BONC and the Imzadi mailing list developing around them. The Data/Yar pairing also attracted some fans, including some who usually considered themselves slashers.
TNG was a less popular slash fandom than its number of fans might suggest, although there was some f/f fic, especially Crusher/Troi and Tasha/Troi, and some m/m fic, including Data/LaForge and Picard/Riker. The relatively small amount of slash may be a result of the fact that two of the central male characters, Picard and Riker, had well-developed romantic interests in canon, Crusher and Troi. Late in the series, a Picard/Q fandom also started to develop.
Notable TNG Zines and Stories
Several TNG fanworks considered among of the best by some fans are actually crossovers with other fandoms, including:
- In The Dark series, by Kellie Matthews and Julia Kosatka is an X-Files/Highlander/ST-TNG crossover with Duncan MacLeod and Guinan becoming lovers.
- Married Dance -- a novella-length slash Highlander, ST:TNG, The Persian Boy crossover by Jane Carnall -- an deft mix of three fandoms, marred only by, in some Highlander fans view, the author's too-evident disdain for Duncan. (See Hero Bashing.)
One novel that is still searched for as a used zine, is Pulse of the Machine by Jean Kluge, a Data/Tasha novel gorgeously illustrated by both Jean and Marty Segrist.
In the early '90s, SF fans who'd heard of het and slash Trek fic, brought out a ST:TNG zine called Science Friction, which highlighted the gay subtext of the Borg episodes. Most long term media fans disliked it a great deal. This lead to much discussion about the difference between erotica in media fandom, vs. professional erotica/pornography of the time.
P/Q was probably the biggest slash pairing:
- A famous pair of early netfic stories -- His Beloved Pet & At the Centre of Things by Ruth and Atara -- was published on alt.startrek.creative.erotica back in 1996. They told a love story with a very heavy s/m dynamic (Q as top, Picard (relaxing from the cares of command) as bottom) with chains, whips, collars, and leather all over the place.
- The King Who Would Be Man was a P/Q zine story by M Fae Glascow in an Oblique Press zine. Q decides he wants to experience sex after "Deja Q" (the episode where he becomes human). He picks Picard to experience it with; Picard patently refuses to cooperate and Q starts shape-shifting trying to push Picard's buttons.[2]
A Picard/Data story that is still recommended is Mental Traveler, also by M Fae Glascow, in Concupiscence, a Manacles Press zine.
TNG art
TNG vids
- Tapestry by Mary Van Deusen, a sad Tasha Yar vid, that told her whole first-season story through a frame of Data putting away her things.
- I think I'm a Clone Now by ? On one level, a profoundly silly vid to Star Trek and TNG clips; on another, a lovely commentary on how much TNG ripped off original Trek.
- Kandy Fong's classic Riker vs. Kirk vid, "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better", a rare early vid with professional video effects
Archives
TNG mailing lists
References
- ↑ [The Audience Studies Reader By Will Brooker, Deborah Jermyn, pg 172]
- ↑ The King Who Would Be Man, on the Oblique Press site, in pdf
