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''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' is a science fiction show created by [[Gene Roddenberry]] as part of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise. Set in the 24th century, about [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|eighty years]] after the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original series]], the program features a new crew, new perspectives on established cultures (a Klingon Empire as a semi-friendly ally against a Romulan Empire emerging from decades of isolation), new antagonists and a new ''[[Cool Starship|Enterprise]]'' (''Galaxy''-class starship, registration NCC-1701-[[Legacy Character|D]]).
After struggling for a few seasons trying to establish itself apart from [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the ''Original Series'']], it exploded into one of the most well respected television shows ever made, partially because of a change in direction (its creator had health problems starting around season two of the show's run leading to co-producer Rick Berman taking over most of the show's daily production and his promotion to executive producer during season three) and an increased willingness to experiment with the format and scope of the show, and science fiction as a whole. At 176 episodes in length, it was the longest running Star Trek series at the time, and won many awards for everything from visual effects to writing. Additionally, the series has proved wildly popular in [[Rerun|Syndication]], despite having broadcast its final episode in 1994, well over fifteen years ago. To date, in the U.S. alone, it has been broadcast on no less than five different cable / satellite networks: G4, [[Spike TV]], [[Syfy]], WGN America and most recently [[BBC]] America. Three of these networks, SyFy, WGN America & BBC America still regularly air episodes of the program, sometimes against each other in
Although much of the show shared the premise of the ''Original Series'', there were also well-placed [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]]: the omnipotent [[Trickster]] character of Q would show up to put [[Humanity on Trial]] (becoming a [[Book End]] storyline [[Patrick Stewart Speech|epitomizing the series]]) or to amuse himself at the expense of others; redefining the Klingons as being [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] instead of the original "black hats"; various encounters with the hive-mind, cybernetic Borg (creating what is regarded as the pinnacle episode for the series and even the ''franchise'', "The Best of Both Worlds"); several episodes with [[Creator's Pet|Wesley]] that [[Rescued
The series formed the basis of the seventh through tenth Star Trek films: ''[[Star Trek Generations|Generations]]'' (1994), ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|First Contact]]'' (1996), ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection|Insurrection]]'' (1998) and ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis|Nemesis]]'' (2002). The success led to an expansion of the franchise and is single-handedly responsible for the creation of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'', ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]''. Though fans will usually agree that the quality of the episodes varies wildly, the best make for compelling and thought-provoking viewing.
See also the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation Relaunch]]'', a series of novels that follow the characters after the events of ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis]]'', as well as setting the direction for the [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] in terms of the original continuity (as opposed to the [[Star Trek (film)|latest film]], which is an [[Alternate Timeline]]).
Character tropes for the main characters can be found [[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Characters|in this character page]]. Episode recaps can be found [[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap|here]].
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{{tropenamer}}
* [[Growing the Beard]]
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Adventurer Outfit]]: Q.
* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: "Q Who".
* [[All Cavemen Were Neanderthals]]: [[Downplayed]] in ''Genesis''. Sometimes they were spiders!
* [[Alternate Universe]]: "Yesterday's Enterprise".
** Also the anomaly universe in "All Good Things".
*** Then hundreds of the damn things in "Parallels."
* [[Amnesia Danger]]: "{{spoiler|Conundrum}}".
* [[Amnesia Loop]]: "{{spoiler|Clues}}".
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* [[Art Evolution]]: A rare Live Action version, the ridge design on Worf's head changed as the show continued. This was explained as simply streamlining the make-up process.
* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: "Starship Mine". Absolutely.
* [[Badass in Distress]]: "The Best of Both Worlds Part II".
* [[Big Bad]]: Because the Klingons had become allies of [[The Federation]] by this point, their previous role of recurring antagonists went unfilled. The Ferengi were the first attempt at creating a big bad, and were found to be too comical. Then the Borg came along, but were found to be [[Too Awesome to Use]] by the writers. They eventually settled late on in the run of the show on the Cardassians, who were indeed developed into a true Big Bad on ''[[Star Trek:
** Individually, Commanders Sela and Tomalak and the Sisters of Duras fill the role of recurring villains, though even they don't go out of their way to antagonize the Enterprise except when Starfleet interferes in their schemes. Though, it turns out that they too were just Romulan pawns.
* [[Big No]]: "Timescape", said by Picard while suffering in temporal narcosis.
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** "Night Terrors", again Picard, when he experiences ''extreme'' claustrophobia on the turbolift and feels as if he's rushing up towards the ceiling.
* [[Big Secret]]: "The Drumhead". When it becomes clear Ensign Tarses is hiding something, he becomes the chief suspect in the trial with the investigative team going all out to prove he's the saboteur they're after. It's a waste of everyone's time as he's innocent, his [[Dark Secret]] being completely unrelated to the original crime.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: "The Vengeance Factor
**
*** For the uninformed, Kamala (Famke Janssen, rowr!) is an empathic metamorph whose personality changes to suit those around her. When she bonds with another, she permanently changes to suit him.
**
* [[Broken Aesop]]:
** As pointed out by [[SF Debris]], the metaphor for homosexual prejudice and coming out falls flat when you
* [[Bury Your Disabled]]: Averted in
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Next to Worf and Geordi, Deanna Troi filled this role many times. She was always being possessed by aliens, abused by aliens in crashed shuttles, abducted by aliens for political gambits, being nearly forced to marry an alien, having her psychic powers robbed by aliens, suffering nightmares at the hands of aliens, forced to listen to a virtual music box in her head for days by an alien, the list goes on. Her only real use on the show was to counsel the [[Red Shirt|random crew member of the week]] and to tell Picard when she sensed weird things happening while on the bridge.
* [[Call to Agriculture]]: Picard was managing his family vineyard as part of the alternate future in the [[Grand Finale]].
* [[Can't Live Without You]]: The Bynars are a race of being that always work and live in pairs and can't function alone; also, in one episode, Picard and Dr.Crusher received implants that allowed them to share thoughts but would killed them if they went beyond a few meters from each other.
* [[Chained Heat]]: "Attached".
* [[Character Shilling]]: Multiple examples, but the most well known was that of the shilling done for Wesley, which grated at the fans and became the former trope namer for the more negative and YMMV version of the trope, [[Creator's Pet]]. Apart from shilling Wesley, the story also shills a few other characters, even those who are actually popular like Riker. We are frequently assured that Riker could be a captain on any other ship in the fleet, but without a great deal of backing for the idea.
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*** Makes sense - people pull off some impressive tricks/scams today without godlike technology, stands to reason that the same will still be (relatively) possible in the 24th Century.
*** Plus, while it's not significantly advanced than the Enterprise's technology, it is sufficiently advanced for the technology of the planet in question. And some of the tricks the scam artists set up ("beaming" a holographic image over the actor and maintaining it outside a holodeck) the Enterprise couldn't replicate. When the Enterprise crew performs this trick, it's only because they've boarded the scammer's ship and used their setup to do it.
** The first season episode "Justice" has an idyllic planet that worships an
** The third season episode "Who Watches the Watchers?" again casts the ''Enterprise'' crew in the role of the ones with the sufficiently advanced technology, when a botched encounter with a pre-industrial
** In "The Next Phase", Ro and Geordi are invisible and intangible after an accident. Ro is at first convinced that they're ghosts now that need to make peace before moving on to the afterlife. Turns out they're just "out of phase" with normal matter, except for the plot-convenient floors (and oxygen).
* [[Cliff Hanger]]: One at the end of every season from year 3 onward. The first of these is probably the second most famous TV cliffhanger ever (behind "[[Dallas|Who Shot JR?]]").
** The cliffhanger in question resulted in months of speculation in the media, as the episode ended on the possibility that Captain Picard would die and be replaced by Riker. This led to rumors that Patrick Stewart was leaving the show and the episode was intended as a way to write his character out of the series. The first part even sets up a new first officer for the ship. These rumors proved untrue, and at the end of part two [[Status Quo Is God|everything returned to normal]], but the story was told so well that few viewers minded.
*** At the time, fans seemed to be divided between four possible scenarios: Picard would die and Riker would become Captain, Picard would live but remain a Borg and thus become the show's recurring [[Big Bad]], ''Riker'' would die saving Picard's life, or things would return to normal. Quite a few fanfics (and at least one official ''Star Trek'' comic) have been devoted to exploring the alternate scenarios.
**** The alternate scenarios are also given a nod in later alternate-timeline episodes, most notably "Parallels".
*** The official story is that Stewart was renegotiating his contract and they had to leave it open for the possibility of his leaving. The ending wasn't decided until after the first part was shot.
* [[Clip Show]]: "Shades of Grey
* [[Clone Degeneration]]: "Up the Long Ladder".
* [[Comes Great Responsibility]]: The ostensible basis of Q's argument in "True Q" that Amanda Rogers should be returned to the Q Continuum, or else killed.
{{quote|'''Q:''' If that child doesn't learn to control her power, she could destroy herself. Or all of you. Or your entire galaxy.}}
* [[Come to Gawk]]: "The Most Toys".
* [[Costumer]]: Several times; mostly holodeck adventures, although the most famous was "Q-Pid", which is decidedly ''not'' set on the holodeck.
* [[Courtroom Episode]]: A number of examples. The best of which was "Measure of a Man".
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* [[Cuckoo Nest]]: "Frame of Mind".
* [[Custom Uniform of Sexy]]: Deanna Troi had three different ones.
* [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]]: [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] in "The First Duty" when one of these turns out to be {{spoiler|the direct cause of a crash that killed a friend of Wesley's at the Accademy while practicing for a
* [[Data Crystal]]: Isolinear chips.
* [[Day in the Life]]: "Data's Day".
* [[Devil's Advocate]]: In "Measure of a Man", a scientist wants to disassemble Data for study, and Data refuses as a sentient being. A hearing is held to determine whether Data is sentient. Picard is Data's defense counsel, and Riker is appointed as the prosecution - so he has to argue that Data isn't sentient. He risks summary judgement against Data if he slacks off on the job. Riker feels guilty about doing it, but Data is grateful - or anyway as grateful as an android allegedly with no emotions can be - since if Riker had refused to do it they would have decided against Data (for if he isn't a sentient being, he lacks the right to bodily autonomy, such are the rules of procedure in the 24th century).
* [[Die Hard on an X|Die Hard On The USS Enterprise-D]]: "Starship Mine".
* [[Do Androids Dream?|Do Borgs Dream]]: "I, Borg".
* [[The Dog Was the Mastermind]]: "Aquiel", where the crew finds out that a shape-shifting organism is behind the [[Mystery of the Week]]. Two people, a Klingon and the titular Aquiel, are suspected of being the monster, but {{spoiler|it's really Aquiel's dog, which served as a minor comedic subplot during the episode.}}
* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]: In "Skin of Evil", Armus tells Troi to take her pity and shove it. Picard later exploits Armus' extreme distaste toward being pitied.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Lieutenant Kwan in "Eye Of The Beholder". The first act of the episode also counts as [[A Very Special Episode]] about suicide.
* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]: Tasha Yar in "Skin of Evil", Captain Kirk in [[The Movie]].
* [[Dying Race]]: "Up the Long Ladder", "When the Bough Breaks".
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** In "Darmok", the phrase "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" means this.
* [[Evil Twin]]: Lore, to Data.
* [[Evolutionary Levels]] / [[You Fail Biology Forever]]:
* [[Exclusively Evil]]: Ferengi, Cardasians, and Borg. For the most part, the Romulans as well.
* [[Expospeak Gag]]: In "Time's Arrow":
{{quote|'''Data''': You may retain the surplus for yourself.
'''Jack''': Keep the change?
'''Data''': Exactly.
* [[Face Palm]]: The one done by Picard is particularly well-known thanks to [[Memetic Mutation]].
* [[Fat and Skinny]]: Ambassador Sarek's
* [[Father, I Don't Want to Fight]]
* [[Fire-Forged Friends]]: "Darmok".
* [[First Contact]]: ''First Contact'' (the episode and the movie. The first one reverses the polarity by having the aliens be the ones experiencing first contact with humans
* [[Fish Out of Water]]: "A Matter of Honor".
* [[Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon]]: The phaser lance from the alternate future version of the Enterprise-D in "All Good Things".
* [[Force Field Door]]
* [[Former Teen Rebel]]: Picard in "Tapestry".
* [[For Want of a Nail]]: "Parallels", "Tapestry".
* [[Fountain of Youth]]: "Rascals".
* [[Freak-Out]]: Had by Captain Picard in "Sarek", ''on behalf of'' the
* [[Freud Was Right]]: Inverted in "Phantasms", when Data recreates Dr. Freud in the holodeck with the hope of interpreting the disturbing images generated by his dream program. Freud, of course, proceeds to assume it's all about Data's issues with his mother and his sexuality, neither of which he has, because he's an android.
* [[Future Imperfect]]: Episode of the same name. An interesting [[Alternate History]] arises and thanks to a {{spoiler|fake}} [[Trauma-Induced Amnesia]] Riker (now Captain of the Enterprise) can't recall any of it.
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* [[God for a Day]]: "Hide and Q"- Q gives such powers to Riker and makes, unknown to Riker, a bet with Picard: Picard thinks that Riker will reject Q's offer and bets the Enterprise herself on him against Q offering to never bother them again. A generally well done example of the trope with the resolution not coming out of some arbitrary limit or failure of the powers. Picard wins after Riker finds every gift he tries to give to his friends rings hollow.
{{quote|"But it's what you've always wanted Data, to become human."
"Yes, sir. That is true. But I never wanted to compound one... illusion with another. It might be real to Q,... perhaps even you, sir. But it would never be so to me. Was it not one of the Captain's
* [[God Test]]: Inverted in "Who Watches the Watchers
* [[Government Drug Enforcement]]: "Symbiosis".
* [[Groundhog Day Loop]]: "Cause and Effect" - Actually occurred two years ''in advance'' of the ''[[Groundhog Day]]'' movie.
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* [[Harmful Healing]]: Accidentally caused everyone to [[Evolutionary Levels|"devolve"]] in "Genesis".
* [[Humanity on Trial]]: "Encounter at Farpoint" and "All Good Things..."
** Technically, {{spoiler|the whole series, the movies, and everything else in the Star Trek universe}}. As Q points out, {{spoiler|the trial that starts in "Encounter at Farpoint" continues through "All Good Things..." and beyond.}}
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Q:''' You just don't get it, do you, Jean-Luc? The trial never ends.}}
*** Regarding spoiler: {{spoiler|Not so much a threat from Q, but more of a reminder that human kind must never stop thinking outside of the box, and always work hard to better themselves.}}
* [[Hyperspace Lanes]]: There are shipping lanes which are the most frequently used ways of getting from point A to point B. At one point late in the series it's revealed that space is actually wearing down in those lanes; Starfleet sets a speed limit of warp five to minimize continued damage, but then they weasel out of that by giving authorization to exceed speed limits right and left.
** In the finale, "All Good Things", even relatively low-tech medical ships easily travel at warp 13, even though the Federation's speed limit was warp 5. Either the Federation figured out how to reduce the damage from their warp drives, or the writers forgot about the speed limit.
*** Both, really. The USS Voyager had "variable warp field geometry" to minimize damage to space/time. This is why the nacelles moved before it jumped into warp, but it was stated in later episodes of ''Voyager'' and ''Deep Space Nine'' that the technology was being retrofitted to older ships with fixed-mounted nacelles. Medical ships
**** I suspect they recalibrated the scale because it was getting cumbersome. Voyager's top cruising speed was stated as warp 9.975. That's already a bit of a mouthful. What happens when you're routinely able to travel at 9.9999999? There was also a link explained in the Technical Manual that integer warp factors on the warp 10 scale are much more energy efficient. If the design of the engines changes and that link is no longer true, recalibrating the scale becomes even more practical. This troper may have
**** "Warp 13" was such a nonsensical term (as if FTL travel is ever sensical), I thought the writers used it in the future-Picard scenes as an indicator of a made-up (by Q) future. Again, maybe
**** [[Word of God]] says that Warp 13 was used intentionally as a hint of new developments in warp technology in the alternate future.
* [[If You Can Read This...]]: Many examples; the set designers had a lot of fun adding in
* [[Imposter Forgot One Detail]]:
* [[In Another Man's Shoes]]: "The Inner Light".
* [[Industrialized Evil]]: The Borg assimilation process.
* [[Interspecies Adoption]]: Not only was Worf himself raised with loving care by the Rozhenko family, but they also adopted and took care of Worf's son, Alexander, when he realized that raising a son on the Enterprise by himself would prove to be too difficult.
* [[Invisible Main Character]]: "The Next Phase".
* [[It's a Wonderful Plot]]: "Tapestry" is a variation, in which Q shows Picard that without the recklessness of his youth and the mistakes he made, he would never have learned the balance of caution and courage he needed to become Captain and would be stuck in a dead-end job. This is still enough of an example for fans to nickname the episode "It's Picard's Wonderful Life".
** "Remember Me" is a subversion, in which Beverly finds people she knew vanishing, and [[Ret-Gone|no one remembering they ever existed]].
** The future timeline of "All Good Things..." has shades of this. {{spoiler|While Geordi and Data have fairly good lives overall, Picard is suffering a degenerative mental disease, he and Dr. Crusher are divorced, Troi is dead, and Riker and Worf had a bitter falling out. Most notably, the core characters have all drifted apart (at the end of the episode, Picard has told them what he experienced specifically to prevent that).}}
* [[Just a Machine]]: "Measure of a Man". Fortunately for Data, they decide that no, he's not.
** However, it should be noted that the the judge's ruling is extremely specific: {{spoiler|That Data is not ''the property of Starfleet''. The ruling actually avoids addressing his sentience, innate freewill and status as a life form.}} Data, both before and after the trial, viewed Soong-type androids as unique life forms, as does most of the crew.
** In the episode "The Quality of Life", the crew discovers that a repair robot might be sophisticated enough to be considered alive.
** "Emergence": The Enterprise computer begins using the ship's replicators and transporters to change its own circuitry around, culminating in the creation of some sort of offspring. Unfortunately, this premise mostly took place in a broken holodeck simulation.
* [[Just Woke Up That Way]]: "Face of the Enemy".
* [[Kangaroo Court]]: "The Drumhead".
** Also, Nora Satie from that episode is a [[Knight Templar]].
* [[King in the Mountain]]
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* [[My Greatest Failure]]: Subverted in "Tapestry".
* [[New Media Are Evil]]: "The Game" doesn't even try to hide its contempt for videogames, which is ironic given how many videogames the NG crew helped with later on.
** It helps that as a rule, ''Star Trek'' games (especially ones that would involve the show staff) tend to be on the cerebral side as far as their plot and gameplay are concerned. "The Game" centers around a [[
** [[SF Debris]] made a compelling argument that this wasn't the point of the episode, since Holodecks are the ultimate expression of gaming and no-one seems to care. It was just another stupid brainwashing device.
*** Also the episode where Barclay was discovered to have a holodeck addiction (having created an Eden for himself with a sexy Troi and a bumbling midget Riker) that begins to interfere with the performance of his basic duties. Troi herself explains that everybody enjoys the fantasy of the holodeck, but it's self destructive to rely on it to the [[World of Warcraft|exclusion of REAL experiences and friends]].
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* [[No Sense of Humor]]: Data repeatedly attempts to understand humor as part of his quest to become more human.
* [[No Sense of Personal Space]]: Q. If he finds you interesting....you, uh, know.
* [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend]]: Isabella in "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Imaginary Friend]]".
* [[Not Himself]]: Data in "Clues". Troi in "Man of the People" is Not Herself due to [[Mind Rape]].
* [[Not Me This Time]]: In the episode "Firstborn
** In the episode "True Q", {{spoiler|Q offers Amanda Rogers the choice to remain with humans if she can resist the temptation to use the powers of the Q. Amanda agrees, but almost the moment she and Picard leave the ready room, all hell breaks loose on the planet they're orbiting, endangering the lives of millions of people, as well as Riker and Geordi on the surface. Picard immediately suspects that Q had something to do with it, but he shrugs and says, "Not this time, Picard."}} Of course, Q's not only an inveterate liar, but he's also omnipotent. So even if he ''didn't'' have anything to do with it (which is dubious), he could easily have known that something was ''about'' to happen and waiting to offer the choice until that precise moment.
* [[Once a Season]]: The Q episodes and the [[Holodeck Malfunction|Holodeck Malfunctions]].
* [[Once For Yes, Twice For No]]: "Darmok" ends up working this way in practice if not in theory.
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* [[Sinking Ship Scenario]]: "Disaster".
* [[Snap Back]]
* [[Space Mines]]: In "Booby Trap", the Enterprise is trapped in an asteroid belt seeded with "acceton assimilators".
* [[Stockholm Syndrome]]: Beverly shows signs of this towards Finn in "The High Ground". When Picard is captured by the separatists, he's quick to point this out to her.
* [[Strange Syntax Speaker]]: Used in "Darmok", as the alien race's language is entirely based around metaphors.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: In "Samaritan Snare", the Pakleds capture Geordi and demand access to the ''Enterprise'
* [[Take That]]: "Relics" chimes in on the iconic "Kirk vs. Picard" argument (specifically, which is the better captain) that tends to plague the fandom by the simple expedient of having Montgomery Scott brought [[Back
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Data and Worf.
* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: Sometimes it's best [[MST3K Mantra|not to think too hard about it]].
* [[Treacherous Spirit Chase]]: "Interface", "Eye of the Beholder".
* [[Two Plus Torture Makes Five]]: "Chain of Command", with lights instead of fingers
* [[The Virus]]: "The Best of Both Worlds", "Identity Crisis".
* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: "Measure of a Man".
* [[You Are in Command Now]]: "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Disaster", "Descent".
* [[You Were Trying Too Hard]]: "Booby Trap", "Hero Worship".
== Tropes A-G ==
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** The parasites would eventually show up in two divergent branches of the [[Expanded Universe]], one being a (rather forced and painful) tie-in in the novels with the Trill, and the other being in ''[[Star Trek Online]]''.
* [[Absentee Actor]]: Some episodes struggle to include all the actors, even with the [[Mandatory Line]].
* [[After Show]]: One reason Paramount felt confident in the risk of pouring so much money into the first season episodes - they figured if the show bombed, they'd just add the 13 ''Next Gen'' episodes to ''TOS'''s syndication package of 79 episodes and make the money back that way.
* [[Alike and Antithetical Adversaries]]: The Federation is a multi species organization, most of their enemies are [[Planet of Hats|at least a bit one dimensional]]. The Borg take the cake though, being a [[Hive Mind]] that removes individuality.
* [[Almighty Janitor]]: Boothby, grounds-keeper of Starfleet Academy and trusted mentor of almost every graduate of note.
* [[Alternate Universe]]
* [[Alternative Number System]]: The [[Meaningful Name|Binars]] use base 2.
* [[Anchored Ship]]: Picard and Crusher. {{spoiler|In the post-Nemesis [[Star Trek Expanded Universe|book series]], [[They Do]].}}
* [[And I Must Scream]]:
** Lore is burdened with this sort of fate after his first appearance. In order to get rid of him, Data beams his evil brother into outer space, where the [[Nigh Invulnerable]] android will be cursed to drift around aimlessly in the endless vacuum, completely helpless. It's [[Downplayed Trope|downplayed]], since he's rescued after a "mere" few years when the crew of an alien ship discover his body floating around in space at a thousand-to-one odds.
** The fate of Armus. He was created [[Made of Evil|out of the darkest aspects]] of the psyches of an entire alien race [[Jerkass Woobie|and then abandoned.]] After he murdered Tasha Yar in a rage, the crew of the ''Enterprise'' decided that it was fitting punishment to leave him ''again'' and deploy a warning beacon that meant no-one ever venture near the planet again. Armus
** To say nothing of those that the Borg assimilate. As Picard implied shortly after being removed from the Collective in "The Best of Both Worlds", they're
** Moriarty — the self-aware hologram intended to outsmart Data — is still conscious when he is deactivated, and speaks of "Brief, terrifying periods of consciousness... disembodied, without substance."
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: The ''Enterprise'' has received a few of these, including a couple [[Negative Space Wedgie|from themselves]].
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{{quote|'''Q:''' Morning, darling.}}
** In "Redemption II", after Worf is captured, B'Etor wakes him up with foreplay, and he briefly responds in kind-- and then wakes up, and immediately recoils.
* [[Berserk Button]]: In the premiere, it was established that Picard did not allow children on the bridge, and he ''screamed'' Wesley off the bridge. Wesley soon gained his acceptance, but Picard's [[Berserk Button]] was seen again in the second-season "Pen Pals", he was practically ''trembling'' with rage when Data brought Sarjenka onto the bridge
** A later episode involved Picard getting stranded on the ship with a group of children and relating to them poorly. By the end of the episode, he had apparently gained some understanding and acceptance of children, as the kids give him a medal on the bridge at the end, and he seems genuinely embarrassed.
* [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]]: In "Where Silence Has Lease", Picard chooses to set the ''Enterprise'' to auto-destruct (thus killing the entire crew) rather than allow Nagilum to continue with his experiments, which would kill one-third to one-half of the crew.
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: In "The Icarus Factor", the Japanese characters written on the side of the anbo-jyutsu ring are mostly martial-arts relevant elemental characters-- 火 (fire), 水 (water), etc. "ユリ" ("YURI") is a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Dirty Pair]]''. There are a few of them scattered around the show. The top of the ring says 星 (star).
* [[Blunt Metaphors Trauma]]: Data, though his [[Character Development]] starts to negate this towards the end.
* [[Brain Critical Mass]]: In the episode "The Nth Degree
* [[Brainwash Residue]]: After losing his superintelligence, Barclay seems to retain some chess-playing ability.
* [[The Bus Came Back]]: Tasha in "Yesterday's Enterprise" by way of an [[Alternate Timeline]].
* [[Captain Morgan Pose]]: A
** Because Jonathan Frakes is freaking huge, and if he didn't he wouldn't fit in the frame.
*** Some fans, in homage to the behind-the-scenes use of the term [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Picard_Maneuver Picard Maneuver], call this the Riker Maneuver.
**** No, no, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIGhYMwRgs this is the Riker Maneuver].
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Many episodes feature Riker playing the trombone, because Jonathan Frakes really does play trombone. And the episode "Data's Day" features Dr. Crusher teaching Data how to dance, because Gates McFadden is an accomplished dancer and choreographer.
** Also, Patrick Stewart reciting Shakespeare. Well, they had to get it in there ''somehow''.
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'''Worf:''' I an Worf! Son of Mogh!
'''Troi:''' I sense that...
'''The Borg:''' Resistance is futile.
* [[Changed My Jumper]]: Any time the cast enters the holodeck in a period setting the artificial characters are the first to comment on their strange uniforms. In one of the few actual [[Time Travel]] episodes, Data received ''less'' comments on his Starfleet uniform than he would if he were in an artificial setting. It seems holodeck characters are just rude.
** To be fair, that time travel episode took place in [[City of Weirdos|San Francisco]].
** This could also be a standard holodeck subroutine meant to remind participants that they haven't changed into costume yet. It's much more polite than an "access denied" message from the computer and it helps the users get into character.
* [[Character Development]]: Part of the reason the show came into its own was building up the origin stories and social habits of the crew, which served to make them more ''real''.
** Gene Roddenberry, it turns out, wasn't so fond of character development. Some writers left after season 1 due to this and other strange restrictions he had.
** To clarify, Roddenberry apparently felt that not only would the races and nations have made peace in the future, but individuals would have evolved beyond petty arguments and emotional disruptions. A big part of why so many early episodes revolve around technical puzzles, and why it helps to have a completely flat, stoic character (or super-sensey empath) in the cast for contrast against the "normal" people.
** Characters introduced later in the show's run, Lt. Barkley and Ensign Ro Laren are significantly more complex and, importantly, flawed.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In the episode "The Defector", one of the coded communications Picard receives is from a Klingon vessel. We don't see the communication and it seems to be a throwaway line in the middle of the episode. {{spoiler|Turns out, he was enlisting the assistance of the Klingons. Three of their vessels joined the ''Enterprise'' under cloak through the Neutral Zone and defended them against two Romulan warbirds who attempted to ambush them.}}
** Another example of this trope involving Klingons takes place in "Reunion". We're given our first look at the ''bat'leth'' in Worf's quarters and see him showing Alexander the right way to hold and swing it. Later on, a grieving and enraged Worf takes it off the wall again and uses it to exact lethal revenge on {{spoiler|Duras}} for killing {{spoiler|K'Ehleyr}}.
** Something about Klingon weapons just seems to make it impossible to resist using them. In "Suddenly Human", Jono examines a dagger in Picard's quarters, observing that it's Klingon. Later, {{spoiler|he uses that dagger to try to stab Picard to death in his sleep.}}
** In "Genesis", La Forge and Barclay are accessing circuitry in the Jeffries tube. During dialog, Barclay, for no apparent reason other than to show the audience what he's about to work on, which tips the trope off, twirls a band of brightly-lit power cords like a lasso in his hand. Later, when Picard seeks escape from a frenzied Worf, he uses said cords to electrify the deck to electrocute Worf while Picard sits atop an insulated panel.
* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]: Will Riker (apparently, this is his way of interpreting the [[Officer and a Gentleman]] trope).
* [[Clarke's Third Law]]
* [[Combat Medic]]: [[Action Mom|Beverly Crusher]] is not only one of the best doctors in the Federation, she studies Klingon martial arts (and can [[Badass|drop you on your ass]] so fast you won't remember the trip down) and is fully capable of commanding a starship in combat. She also phasers a Starfleet Admiral in "Conspiracy".
* [[Communications Officer]]: This was the original duty for Worf, perhaps owing to his bicultural background.
* [[Complete Immortality]]: The evil liquid entity Armus in "Skin of Evil" is stated to be immortal and unkillable. He has already spent an immeasurable amount of time on a barren, uninhabited planet after his creators left him there.
* [[The Confidant]]: Guinan and Counselor Troi.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: One of the most commendable aspects of the show. ''TNG'' is ''excellent'' at making references to previous events in a variety of contexts, including other ''Trek'' shows.
** There are several instances during the third season that allude to the fact that Dr. Crusher wasn't on the ''Enterprise'' during the previous season-- and not all of them were directly related to Wesley. For example, in "Who Watches the Watchers?", Picard asks Crusher if the Mintakan's memory can be erased, mentioning it's been done before. Crusher replies that she's familiar with Dr. Pulaski's research (as seen in "Pen Pals" with Sarjenka). Then in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I", when about to join the away team onto the Borg ship, she asks Data what kind of resistance they can expect
** Fan Favorite episode "Relics" was written by [[Promoted Fanboy]] Ronald Moore and featured [[Continuity Nod|Continuity Nods]] to ''TNG'' and ''TOS'' in nearly every scene, most especially the holodeck recreation of the original series bridge.
** One of the most interesting, yet little known ones is the opening [[Captain's Log]] of episode 80 where Picard mentions the ship having recently left the same planet in which the last episode of
** One of the most unexpected nods is that Picard in an early Season 2 episode "Samaritan Snare" privately told Wesley Crusher that when he got stabbed in the heart by a Naussican, he inexplicably started laughing. Cut four years later to "Tapestry", when we find out ''why'' young Picard started laughing.
* [[Converging Stream Weapon]]: The Federation develops a 'collimator beam' made of dozens of small phaser banks spread along the rim of a ship; the energy can be seen flowing along the surface of the Enterprise until it meets at one point, and then fires off from the point on the phaser bank row closest to the target.
* [[Cranial Processing Unit]]: On at least one occasion, Data's "brain" is shown to be entirely in his head, including an instance of his head being removed and [[Losing Your Head|still talking]].
* [[Creating Life Is Awesome]]: Data is an artificial person. He's a good guy, and his creator is presented as a benevolent father figure. However, he also created another android, and ''that'' failed experiment goes into [[Creating Life Is Bad]] territory.
** Also, the sentient holograms in several series. Whether [[
* [[Cultured Warrior]]: Picard is usually the example, but ''TNG'' basically made ''everyone'' in Starfleet this. Though it also made Starfleet [[Mildly Military|less militaristic...]]
* [[Cyborg Helmsman]]: Geordi was the Helmsman in the first season.
* [[Dan Browned]]: In "I, Borg", Guinan and Picard are fencing. They are wearing epee costumes, using epee rules, however, the two are clearly using foils. Especially annoying because the writers [[Shown Their Work|did their research]] the last time Picard fenced in-show and had the correct weapons.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The episode "Conspiracy" was jarringly graphic.
* [[Dashed Plotline]]: Picard's alternate life in "The Inner Light" is portrayed with many large time-skips.
* [[Dead Guy, Junior]]: Troi's temporary baby, Ian Andrew, after her deceased father.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]:
** Q.
** Picard is one of these to some extent throughout the series, most notably in "The Survivors", after he beams Kevin and Rishaun Uxbridge to the bridge.
{{quote|'''Jean-Luc Picard:''' My apologies if I interrupted a waltz.}}
* [[Death Ray]]: The Varon-T Disruptor, capable of painfully killing rather than [[Disintegrator Ray|just disintegrating]].
* [[Demoted to Extra]] / [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]]: The ''TNG'' movies focused so much on Picard and Data that they might as well have been credited as them "[[Gilligan's Island|and all the rest!]]"
* [[Deprogram|Deprogramming]]
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]
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* [[Double Don't Know]]: "The Battle".
* [[The Dutiful Son]]: Robert Picard.
* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: In full effect; most noticeable in Season 1. Just a few examples:
** The ''Enterprise'' has eighties art-deco wallpaper in some of the corridors, instead of the smooth walls that would become normal in later seasons. Various other dated design choices also continued for awhile.
** Starfleet Academy is treated as being ridiculously, extremely elite, accepting only a handful of supergenius cadets each year, rather than the fairly standard university/military academy it would be shown as in later years. (Someone probably realized that it would become rather difficult to staff a fleet of ships when each graduating class might have about a hundred cadets in it, no matter how amazing those cadets were.)
** A lot of things about Worf and the Klingons fly in the face of later characterization. Klingons in early TNG were basically portrayed as a small step up from cavemen... and yet, simultaneously, were portrayed as either full members of the Federation, or a co-ruling power considered to be one half of the whole. Later seasons and series would instead show them as merely (somewhat uneasy) allies joined by a handful of treaties and armistices, primarily the Khitomer Accords.
** Data ''emotes'' fairly heavily in the first episode, and continued to do so more subtly for at least a handful of episodes. It wasn't until after "Datalore" that Brent Spiner really developed Data's distinctive manner. (Leonard Nimoy similarly took awhile to get a handle on Spock in TOS.)
** The Chief Engineer wasn't a large part of the show, and in fact seemed to change at least once without remark. Geordi seemed to randomly spend time in Engineering later in season one until he was (just as seemingly randomly) promoted to the position of Chief Engineer he's so heavily associated with.
** Picard was extremely... well, "dickish" is really the best word to describe it, especially in the first season. This may have had something to do with the fact that Patrick Stewart himself had a bit of a stick up his butt during this time, even at one point gathering the cast and chiding them for their "unprofessional" behavior (read: camaraderie). As Stewart relaxed, Picard grew into the warm and compassionate patriarch most people remember when they think of the character.
* [[Eighties Hair]]: Troi in the first season or so.
** The supporting cast of "Angel One". And ''Haven''.
* [[The Everyman]]: Reg Barclay. He's clearly not who you'd pick as the poster child for Starfleet, but in a crunch he's shows he's just as capable, if not more so, than the main characters. This is lampshaded by Picard
{{quote|'''Picard''': And yet he ''chose'' this way of life. He's made the ''same'' commitment to Starfleet we ''all'' have.}}
* [[The Evils of Free Will]]
* [[Evil Twin]]: Lore, which usually gave Brent Spiner a chance to show off more of his range as an actor outside of the stoic Data character.
** Brent Spiner actually stated in an interview that he preferred playing Lore to playing Data. Why? Because "we have more in common."
* [[Exclusively Evil]]: The Borg Collective. They try to assimilate the entire rest of the universe into their structured society or kill them in trying. [[Catch Phrase|Resistance is futile]].
* [[Expositron 9000]]: The ship's computer.
* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: In "Time's Arrow", a two-part episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', the ''Enterprise'' crew runs into Guinan, the El-Aurian bartender on their ship, while on a [[Time Travel]] trip to the 19th century. She's shown talking with [[Mark Twain]] and Jack London; but when Data approaches her, believing that she too, has traveled through time, she doesn't know him or the rest of the crew.
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** The face palm is even an emote in ''[[Star Trek Online]]''.
* [[False Innocence Trick]]: Captain Picard is the subject of an [[Alien Abduction]] along with several others, who conspire to escape. It turns out that one of them is really a member of the alien race which captured them all.
** In another episode, Deanna, Warf, O'Brien and Data are mentally taken over by noncorporeal beings who claim to have crash landed on a world, but they're actually convicted prisoners.
* [[Faux Action Girl]]: Tasha Yar had a habit of switching from regular [[Action Girl]] to [[Faux Action Girl]] almost on a whim. The first time she meets Q, she spends much of her time scowling and hitting people. The second time she meets Q, she spends much of her time crying and apologising to the Captain for it.
* [[Fighting From the Inside]]
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{{quote|'''Picard:''' There are many parts of my youth that I'm not proud of... there were loose threads... untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads... it had unraveled the [[Title Drop|tapestry]] of my life.}}
* [[From a Single Cell]]
* [[The Future Is Noir]]: The first two seasons often had this; the ''Enterprise'' bridge was usually floodlit, but everywhere else tended to have very minimal lighting levels. Inverted starting with the third season, when the lighting became uniformly bright and vivid.
* [[Future Spandex]]: Early-season uniforms; later seasons replaced them with something looser.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: There are a few instances of Picard using swear words in French that would never have been allowed on network TV if they were in English, most notably "merde" (French for 'shit').
** Another example of radar dodging is in "Masks". One scene involves Picard examining some artifacts, and when he grabs a rather [[Freud Was Right|phallic]] one, it is positioned suspiciously close to his crotch. Patrick Stewart also makes sure to put extra special focus on the word "enormous" in the speech he gives while holding the Fruedian artifact. Jonathan Frakes is [[Corpsing|doing his best not to smirk]] during this whole scene.
* [[Girl of the Week]]: This trope was in ''full force'' with Riker, especially in the first and second seasons. And then it got reversed, and Troi had a Guy Of The Week going on for several seasons.
* [[A God Am I]]: Q plays with this in "Tapestry". Picard dies and enters the "afterlife", where he finds Q awaiting him, who informs him that he's dead and that Q himself is God. Picard rejects this, because he doesn't think that "the Universe is so badly designed". Q just snarks that Picard is lucky Q doesn't smite him for his blasphemy.
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* [[Good Guy Bar]]: Ten Forward.
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: The Federation seem to take on this attitude after Wolf 359.
* [[Gorn]]: The death and destruction of
** The aftermath of Wolf 359. ''Star Trek Online'' reveals that 20 years on the entire system is ''still'' a starship graveyard, as the system is uninhabited so making it part of the memorial could be considered a fitting gesture.
* [[Government Drug Enforcement]]: The former plague cure that became a narcotic in "Symbiosis" plus the 21st-century drug-addled supersoldier Q conjures up in "Encounter at Farpoint".
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* [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]: The Borg.
* [[Hot Mom]]: Beverly Crusher.
* [[Humanity Ensues]]: The Continuum once meted out this punishment to Q. By the end of the episode, he was back to his all-powerful [[Reality Warper|Reality Warping]] self again.
* [[Humanity Is Infectious]]
* [[Humans Are Ugly]] GIANT BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER.
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* [[Hyperspeed Escape]]: Quite a few times, given the ubiquitousness of Warp Drive in this setting (as a general rule, if you don't have warp drive, nobody in Starfleet is terribly interested in dealing with you anyways). Occasionally [[Subverted]], either because the pursuing ship is faster, or because the heroes are trapped inside some sort of [[Negative Space Wedgie]] and literally have nowhere they can go.
* [[I Am X, Son of Y]]: "I am Worf, Son of Mogh."
* [[Identical Grandson]]: Also overlaps with ''literal'' [[Generation Xerox]] as Data and Lore were designed to resemble their creator Dr. Noonien Soong. Its later revealed that ''he'' was also an [[Identical Grandson]] of Dr. Arik Soong from ''Enterprise''.
** Although given how Arik Soong was a brilliant ''geneticist'', its entirely plausible [[Fridge Brilliance|the resemblance is the result of genetic manipulation or all-out cloning]].
** Michael Dorn, who plays Worf, played Worf's grandfather in ''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''.
* [[I Love You Because I Can't Control You]]
* [[Incessant Music Madness]]: In "Q-Pid", Q turns the bridge crew into Robin Hood and his merry men. Geordi becomes the Alan a-Dale analog, and keep plucking annoyingly at a lute. Finally Worf has had enough, walks up, snatches the lute and smashes it against a tree.
** In
* [[Informed Ability]]: Pretty much everything about the "outrageous" Okona.
** For the tactical officer Worf seemed to be a terrible shot both with the ship's weapons and his own phaser. Not all of this can be attributed to [[The Worf Effect]] or the necessity of the script - in one episode he's practicing on the phaser range and gets easily beaten by ''Guinan'' (although she's had a lot more years to practice, and explicitly tells him she's been doing this since before he was born).
*** Worf does, however, generally succeed more often than he fails when it comes to weapons fire, especially in episodes with the Borg (though everyone became a crack shot in those) and the movies. And when he's asked to target specific parts of ships, he delivers nine times out of ten.
**** Worf is also likely hampered by the fact that he's usually under orders not to destroy whatever he's shooting at, which is a rather delicate request and somewhat unfair to ask of someone with an aggressive personality and the firepower to wipe out a planet at his fingertips. When he's asked to target something specific, at least it's not his fault if the other ship blows up.
* [[I, Noun]]: The episode "I Borg", despite lacking the comma.
* [[Instant Seduction]]: Okona again.
* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]
* [[It Will Never Catch On]]: In a meta example, Patrick Stewart was so certain this series would fail that for the first six weeks of shooting he refused to unpack his suitcases.
* [[Jerkass]]: Q and most of the Cardassians that show up.
* [[Joker Jury]]: The onlookers in Q's 'courtroom
* [[Just Between You and Me]]: A lot of enemy plots are foiled when their plans are revealed, only to have the crew member in question escape and foil the whole thing.
* [[Just Ignore It]]: The Stone of Gol: a device that can kill anyone with a single thought. However, being a Vulcan invention, it only works on the aggressive.
** In more detail, it's a Vulcan superweapon from before they embraced logic and the planet was ruled by psionic warlords. Part of the success of Surak's movement for pure logic was that his followers were immune to such weapons.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: The solanogen-based lifeforms in "Schisms", who experimented on several crewmembers and caused the death of one of them, weren't ''really'' retaliated against. The crew simply sealed the rift into their universe. The writers decided they looked too non-threatening to ever be brought back, too.
** Armus, who killed Tasha Yar, was immune from any attempts at physical retaliation. Ultimately, the worst thing they could do to him was to leave him alone
** Vulcan Ambassador T'Pel
** Taibak from "The Mind's Eye".
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Aside from Tasha Yar, Spock's father Sarek, who'd first appeared in the original series nearly 25 years earlier, died in "Unification I".
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: In "Ensigns of Command", while getting more and more frustrated in attempting to deal with the Sheliak-- or even communicate effectively with them at all-- Picard exclaims, "Ludicrous!" Troi calmly replies, "No, sir, the fact that any alien race communicates with another is quite remarkable."
* [[Limited Advancement Opportunities]]: The reason why any promotions were token, or short-lived, or part of.
** Riker has been up for promotion around seven times, He personally refuses because he feels it is more prestigious to be First Officer aboard the Enterprise than Captain of any other ship.
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* [[Mega Manning]]: The Borg have the ability to assimilate technology and knowledge from other species. It is at the very core of their philosophy. As a result most newly designed weapons or tactics will only be effective for a short period of time.
* [[Mexican Standoff]]: A staple of later seasons. There is plenty of exposition at gun/disruptor/phaser-point.
* [[Milky White Eyes]]: Geordi's blindness, later dropped in ''[[Star Trek:
* [[Mind Screw]]: Several episodes, with "Frame of Mind" being an outstanding example with a standout performance from Jonathan Frakes as Riker. Not so much a case of [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] as breaking the fifth, sixth and seventh walls. Into little pieces.
** Also occurs with the back-and-forth dialogue between Gul Madred and Picard in "Chain of Command (Part II)" too, along with some [[Mind Game Ship]].
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*** "Computer, end program." And that's when the episode ends. Roll credits.
**** As an aside point, when he says "Computer, end program", the computer apparently does not see fit to respond. It evidently realize that Barclay is just being a nervous yutz again and chooses to ignore him.
* [[
* [[Misery Builds Character]]: Subverted in the episode "New Ground
* [[Most Annoying Sound]]: [[In-Universe]] example in "Suddenly Human". The Talarians and Jono all make a wailing sound as their way of mourning their dead comrades while being treated in sick bay. Picard can't stand it and after asking them nicely a couple times finally shouts at them to be quiet. They do what he says that time, much to the relief of Dr. Crusher and her staff, who weren't enjoying it either.
* [[Motivational Kiss]]: In one away mission, Data gets such a kiss from a local girl. He is perplexed.
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** The terraformers in "Home Soil" are devastated to find out that there ''were'' lifeforms on Valera III after all.
** Picard in "Galaxy's Child" after accidentally killing a cosmozoan in self-defense. The ''Enterprise'' ends up playing mommy to it's [[Monster Is a Mommy|baby]].
** In "The Measure of a Man
* [[Mysterious Past]]
== Tropes N-S ==
* [[Near-Death Experience]]
* [[Negative Space Wedgie]]
* [[Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer]]. In one episode, Captain Picard calls up Riker and asks what's going on and all Riker can say is "Trouble."
* [[No Antagonist]]: After the first few seasons, most episodes were like this.
* [[Nobody Ever Complained Before]]: In "Half a Life", the entire species of people who ritualistically kill themselves on their 60th birthdays seems shocked and baffled when one of their own refuses to do so so (because he needs more time in order save the whole planet - also, he'd fallen in love with Lwaxana). Apparently none of their 60-year-olds had ever had any qualms about dying before.
** Though this may be a "polite fiction"... such things may actually happen fairly regularly, but both for the sake of the family's pride and the tradition itself, everyone just acts like it never, ''ever'' happens.
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** The [[Expanded Universe]] novel ''[[Star Trek: Stargazer|Stargazer: Oblivion]]'' explains that Picard helped her overcome her "serious trouble" (and she means "serious") from leaving [[Star Trek Generations|the Nexus]] in his ''Stargazer'' days.
** However, the reason why Q is so wary of Guinan is never explained.
* [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]]: Jean-Luc Picard, a Frenchman played by an obviously English actor '''using Yorkshire idioms''' - ''Grand
** Somewhat [[Truth in Television]] as many native speakers of other European languages speak English with a British accent.
** Patrick Stewart had tried speaking in a French accent but sounded so ridiculous that he gave up.
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* [[Not So Different]]: The Romulans and the Klingons. Despite their intense loathing, the two races actually have ''a lot'' of cultural similarities, both run [[The Empire|authoritarian Empires]], frequently under military coups, and are the main two powers in the Alpha Quadrant to equip their vessels with cloaking devices (which is implied in some non-canon sources that their initial development was due to a previous technology-sharing agreement, also stated as the reason for Romulans having occasionally been seen in the 23rd century with ship designs resembling Klingon D7s).
* [[Not So Harmless]]: Q in some instances, but especially after the Enterprise's first encounter with the Borg (which he engineered).
* [[The Nudifier]]: One Ferengi transporter does this when transporting women.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Sarek in "Unification I".
* [[One-Sided Arm Wrestling]]: Data vs a Klingon.
* [[One-Way Visor]]: Geordi's visor is an aversion; he's blind, and the visor enables him to see.
* [[The One Who Made It Out]]: Tasha Yar was originally from the [[Recycled in Space|planetary equivalent]] of Bosnia, but managed to get a job with Starfleet.
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** He even helped God with making life on Earth, Q's contribution? The [[Everything's Better with Platypi|platypus]].
* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Of the nine series regulars who had their names in the opening credits for all or part of the show's run, only Geordi had two parents as of the series's opening (and his mother died in the middle seasons). Worf, Beverly, and Tasha were all orphaned as children (though Worf wound up with a great set of adoptive parents). Riker, Troi, and Wesley each lost one parent when they were children (Riker's mother, Troi's father, Wesley's father). Picard's parents were both dead long before he became captain, though they probably died when he was an adult. The inventor who built Data disappeared when his home planet was attacked and was [[Disney Death|presumed dead]] until the middle of the episode "Brothers," then [[Killed Off for Real|really died]] just a handful of scenes later. We also get to meet a woman who claims to be Data's "mother" in the Seventh season. {{spoiler|She really is, after a fashion. She's actually an android duplicate of the (long-dead) woman who was both Data's co-creator and Noonien Soong's wife.}}
** Also, Guinan's family either died or were assimilated when the Borg all but destroyed the El-Aurians. Alexander, the only semi-regular child other than Wesley, lost his mother as a toddler (and was raised by her alone up to that point). And whenever we had a one-off guest star whose parentage was some sort of plot point, be it a child (Jeremy Aster, Salia) or an adult (Amanda Rogers, Jason Vigo), they had an excellent chance of being [[Conveniently an Orphan]].
* [[Phlegmings]]: Fek'lhr, the guardian of the Klingon hell, as seen in the episode
* [[Principles Zealot]]: Captain Picard (and thus his crew) in "Homeward" where he chose to let an entire civilization die, one that they could easily have saved. They commit this genocide-through-inaction for the simple reason that [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|the rules say so]]. Of course, it doesn't take long before a sympathetic civilian [[The Professor]] character goes all [[What the Hell, Hero?]] on them.
* [[Psycho Prototype]]: Lore.
* [[Racial Remnant]]: The early episode "Haven" has a shipful of Tarellians, the last survivors of a deadly plague.
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** After Lt. Barclay gained (and later lost) huge amounts of knowledge, as he's talking with Counselor Troi they pass by a chess game. He moves one piece and says "checkmate in nine moves."
{{quote|Troi: I didn't know you play chess.
Barclay: I don't!
** In the [[Grand Finale]], Picard is in the past, on the first voyage of the ''Enterprise-D''. He demands something of the engineering crew, and O'Brien says that they'll have to "burn the midnight oil." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiIlJaSDPaA Data happens to be passing by and mentions that it would not be advisable to do so.]
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Guinan. In "Time's Arrow", Data notes that he knew that Guinan's species was long-lived, but he had no idea that she was actually on ''Earth'' during the 19th Century.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: At the end of "Ethics", Beverly has a beautifully scathing one for Dr. Russell, and does it without even raising her voice:
{{quote|'''Dr. Crusher:''' I am ''delighted'' that Worf is going to recover. You gambled. He won. Most of your patients aren't so lucky. You scare me, Doctor. You risk peoples' lives and justify it in the name of research. But ''genuine'' research takes time... sometimes a lifetime of painstaking, detailed work to get results. Not you-- you take shortcuts... right through living tissue. You put your research ahead of your patients, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a violation of our most sacred trust. I'm sure the work you've done here will be hailed as a stunning breakthrough. Enjoy your laurels, Doctor. I'm not sure I could.}}
* [[Remember the New Guy?|Remember The New Species]]: The Cardassians are introduced in the season four episode "The Wounded
** It makes sense that the Federation's flagship would be one of exploration as opposed to one of war. At many points throughout ''TNG'' it's been made clear that the ''Enterprise'''s mission is one of peace. Keeping it on this mission in a time of conflict may be Starfleet's way of demonstrating their commitment to diplomacy. Moreover, the Cardassians aren't exactly the Borg.
*** It may also be that the last few years of the war weren't that "hot", but mostly involved a lot of glaring across borders while the peace was negotiated. It's entirely possible they were even in a ceasefire, but still technically at war. (This would make sense from the way some characters act in ''Deep Space 9'' during the Dominion war... they talk about the Cardassians pulling back behind their borders when on the verge of defeat to rebuild for future aggression like it might not be the first time it's happened.)
* [[Removing the Earpiece|Removing The Combadge]]
* [[Requisite Royal Regalia]]: Lwaxana Troi brags she's "Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed", among other boasting of her position (which likely means she's high nobility at the very least).
** Another of her boasts is "Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Riix", which her daughter quite bluntly points out is nothing more than:
{{quote|"An old clay pot with mold growing inside of it."}}
* [[Robo-Family]]: Data has a 'brother', Lore, and even creates his own android 'daughter' Lal.
** Also,
** And don't forget his 'father', who said he never liked living anywhere without an escape route, and was last seen, apparently mortally wounded, in his fully equipped lab
* [[Robosexual]]: Data and Yar.
** Also Data and Jenna D'Sora in "In Theory", though not the sexual part.
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* [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]: So much so that it is often difficult to tell alien species apart.
* [[Sapient Cetaceans]]: A frequent theme in the series.
** The [[Diane Duane]] ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' novel ''Dark Mirror'' involves an alien race that's essentially dolphins <small>IN SPACE!</small>
** The ''Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual'' notes that the Cetacean tanks on board contain the dolphin and whale navigational specialists. This is pretty much shout out to ''[[Gunbuster]]'', where cybernetically enhanced dolphins form the main navigational computer of the Eltreum.
** One ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' novel had a dolphin as a supporting character, which held the rank of commander in Starfleet. At one point, Riker whistles a specific sequence of notes to get its attention, implying he can speak (or at least swear) in Dolphin.
* [[Screaming Birth]]: If your midwife was a Klingon, you'd be screaming too.
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'''Worf:''' [[[Beat]]] Why has it not begun?
'''Keiko:''' I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T THINK IT'S UP TO ME! IT HAPPENS WHEN IT HAPPENS!
'''Worf:''' The computer simulation was not like this. The delivery was very orderly.
* [[Secret Test]]: When Wesley is taking the Starfleet entrance exam his final test is "facing his biggest fear." While he's waiting for the test to start, a fire breaks out in a nearby lab and he can only save one of the techs working there. It turns out that that was the test, his fear was having to make a decision like that, since his own father died in a similar situation when Picard chose the other guy.
* [[See the Whites of Their Eyes]]: This trope is most prominent with this show as most ship-to-ship conflicts were tense stand-offs rather than the more action oriented battles of later series.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Due in large part to Rick Steinbach being a ''huge'' otaku, there are tons and tons of shoutouts to 80s anime, in particular ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' and ''[[Gunbuster]]'', some blatant, some very very subtle.
** Noonien Soong, the scientist who created Data and Lore, is named after Khan Noonien Singh, the prominent villain from the original series.
** Episode 80 of ''Next Gen'' begins with Picard reporting in his log that they just left the same planet that ''TOS'' visited in their 79th and last episode.
** "The Mind's Eye" borrows heavily from ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'', most notably with a scene where Geordi is instructed to kill a holographic version of Chief O'Brien.
** In "QPid", Q transforms the crew into characters from the [[Robin Hood]] stories. Geordi is Alan A'Dale, and as a result gets a lute to play with. After a few minutes of tuneless strumming, Worf can't take it anymore, and gets up and smashes the instrument, then hands it back to Geordi, muttering, "Sorry." Much like [[John Belushi|a certain]] [[Animal House|seven-year pre-med student]] did once.
** In "Arsenal of Freedom", when asked by a computer-generated image of Captain Rice what ship he's come from, Riker responds that he's serving aboard the ''Lollipop
** The [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Nebula_class Nebula-class starship] was the first new design of Federation ship seen in the series (besides the ''Galaxy''-class ''Enterprise''), and is similar in configuration to the [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Miranda_class Miranda-class starship] (the class that the [[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|U.S.S. Reliant]] is), which was the first new design of Federation ship seen in [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the first series]] and the first new Federation design of the franchise.
** In "The First Duty", the motto of Starfleet Academy is "Ex Astris Scientia" ("From the stars, knowledge"), which was derived from [[Apollo 13]]'s mission motto "Ex Luna Scientia" ("From the moon, knowledge"), which, in turn, was derived from the United States Naval Academy's motto "Ex Scientia Tridens" ("From knowledge, sea power").
** In "Phantasms", Data has a nightmare where Counselor Troi is a cake being eaten, which is an awful lot like the music video for [[Tom Petty]]'s "Don't Come Around Here No More".
** In "The Nth Degree", Barclay who has integrated his mind into the computer responds to an order from Picard with "I'm afraid I cant do that, sir
* [[Single-Purpose Planet]]: The "Pleasure Planet" Risa.
* [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]]: Alexander. He had several leaps in age to make him more suitable for the role he played to Worf each time, and by the time he was a surly, rebellious teenager over on ''[[Deep Space 9]]'', he was all of nine years old. [[Word of God|The creators said Klingons mature faster.]]
* [[Solar CPR]]: "Half Life".
* [[Space Clothes]]: The uniforms worn by the engineering staff (a tunic-miniskirt one-piece and knee-high boots, to be specific - and yes, men and women wear the same uniform) and several other crew members during the first season are truly astonishing. And the [[Fetish Fuel|clothes worn]] [[Brain Bleach|by the denizens]] [[Your Mileage May Vary|of the utopian paradise]] in "Justice" make them look sensible.
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* [[Space Is Cold]]
* [[Space Is Noisy]]
* [[Space Jews]]: In the second-season episode "Up the Long Ladder", the ''Enterprise'' is transporting an entire Irish village, complete with accents, apparel, drinking problems, and chickens.
** The Ferengi, oh so much. The Space Africans of "Code of Honor" are even worse, portrayed as barbaric, patriarchal, er... matriarchal, er... some kind of savages with complex but still demeaning gender roles.
* [[Space Mines]]: Appear in "Chain of Command Part II".
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{{quote|'''Dr McCoy:''' Now she's a new ship, but she's got the right name, y'hear? Treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home.}}
* [[Start X to Stop X]]: In one episode, a scientist intentionally causes a tear in space with a self-destructed warp drive, just to convince the Federation to stop using warp travel so she can prevent that very type of tear from occurring elsewhere.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: In yet another ''[[Star Trek]]'' film, the commanders of a Klingon vessel give the order of "Fire at will." There is an immediate cut to the bridge of their target, the ''Enterprise'', currently commanded by Commander Riker. Will Riker.
** Picard did the same thing in the series during a training exercise.
** And in a [[Star Trek: New Frontier]] novel, we get "[[I Always Wanted to Say That|I've been wanting to say this for ages]]...Fire at Will."
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* [[Still the Eighties]]: Wood paneling. 'Nuff said.
** [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ishara_Yar Ishara Yar's] haircut also qualifies.
* [[Stock Subtitle]]: This was the [[Trope Maker]] for the subtitle "The Next Generation".
* [[Story Arc]]: Both the pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" and the finale "All Good Things" feature Q putting [[Humanity on Trial]];
{{quote|'''Q''': [[Wham! Line|The Trial never ended, Captain!]] We never reached a verdict. But ''now'' we have. You're Guilty!}}
* [[Strange Syntax Speaker]]: The Tamarians, who speak mostly in metaphor. The universal translator can easily deliver the literal meanings, but without knowledge of the myths upon which the sayings are based, it's still near-impossible to understand. <ref> Tamar, when speaking of the lost and remembered. [[Harry Potter|Harry]], with speech beyond the Alley. Picard, his brow furrowed, his mind clouded.</ref>
* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]]: K'Ehleyr. Worf avenges her almost immediately afterwards.
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* [[Tainted Veins]]: Borg infection.
* [[Tantrum Throwing]]: According to Worf, this is a stock feature of Klingon courtship.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: The show ''ran'' on this. If there were two options, both of them bad, you can bet that before the end of the episode the characters would [[The Great Luke Ski|make some shit up]] to avoid making an actual moral choice.
* [[Techno Babble]]: Teraquads of it.
* [[Teleporter Accident]]
* [[Teleporters and Transporters]]
* [[Teleport Interdiction]]:
** In the episode "Attached", the ''Enterprise'''s transporters are redirected by an alien force, so Picard and Crusher end up on a strange planet instead of where they intended.
** In another episode, the ''Enterprise'' is in a confrontation with a Romulan warbird. There is a severely injured Romulan on board the Enterprise who can't be beamed to the Romulan ship unless the ship not doing the beaming lowers its shields.
* [[Terminally Dependent Society]]
* [[That Cloud Looks Like...]]
* [[Theme Tune Extended]]
* [[This Is My Chair]]: Picard to Wesley in the Pilot. "Get out of my chair!"
** Played with the time Worf was temporarily put in command of the Enterprise to deal with recently thawed [[Human Popsicle|Klingon Popsicles]] who were unaware that the war between the Empire and The Federation was over.
{{quote|'''Riker:''' How did you like your first command?
'''Worf:''' ...Comfortable chair.
** [[Truth in Television]] to a degree. It was an accepted custom during the series run that none of the actors except Patrick Stewart himself sit in the captain's chair unless it was as part of a scripted scene.
*** They let [[Stephen Hawking]] sit in it when he came to film his cameo.
* [[This Is Sparta]]: Picard's "THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS!!" from part 2 of "Chain of Command".
* [[Those Two Bad Guys]]: The Duras Sisters.
* [[Time Is Dangerous]]: In "Timescape", Picard is injured when he sticks his hand across the edge of a "time bubble", which causes his fingernails to age faster than his arm. Later, he experiences symptoms of "temporal narcosis" due to a malfunction of the equipment protecting him from being frozen in time.
* [[Tin Man]]
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* [[Try to Fit That on A Business Card]]: Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Riix, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed.
* [[Turing Test]]: Data, as a very sophisticated AI, often demonstrates he passes this test.
** Data tests this out on
* [[Two-Keyed Lock]]: Used for the auto-destruct.
* [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]]: Riker/Troi and Picard/Crusher run through the whole series. {{spoiler|Riker and Troi are married in ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis]]''. Picard/Crusher is never fully resolved, although a [[Deleted Scene]] from the end of ''Nemesis'' hints that they might have [[Hooked Up Afterwards]].}}
** Data and Tasha Yar gave hints of this after they hooked up in "The Naked Now", but this was curtailed by his being an Android unable to express emotion, and her eventual death.
* [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]]: The solution Worf comes up with against the formerly-frozen Klingons in "The Emissary" is an example of this.
* [[Unwanted False Faith]]: In the episode "Who Watches the Watchers?", Picard inadvertently becomes a deity to a group of vaguely-ancient/medieval-tech-using Vulcanoids.
* [[Voice Changeling]]: Data has shown this ability a few times.
* [[Voice of the Legion]]: The Borg.
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* [[We Hardly Knew Ye]]: Tasha Yar, actress Denise Crosby felt she wasn't useful and asked to be let go. Her death was so sudden that it took a while before you realized she wasn't coming back. A [[Time Travel]] episode briefly brought her back and the subsequent timeline screw-ups resulted in a recurring enemy that [[Identical Grandson|looked exactly like her.]]
** Leading to an amusing fourth-wall break: Her parts in the episode where she died, ''Skin of Evil'', were shot ''before'' those shot in the episode that aired just before it. If you watch closely, during the prior episode, ''Symbiosis'', you can see her ''waving goodbye''--that was the ''last'' scene that they shot with her.
** This all becomes [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] when you realize that Denise Crosby was pretty much the '''first''' ''Next Generation'' actor to return and do voice acting for ''[[Star Trek Online]]'', where her character Sela is pivotal to the entire metaplot of the game. That's right... if she'd never asked to be let go for not feeling useful, it's unlikely that she ever would have become such an important part of the only part of the franchise currently in constant, active development.
* [[We Have Become Complacent]]: The Federation thought they were prepared for anything. Then Q introduces them to the Borg.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: We never do find out the final fate of Geordi's mother, who's vessel completely vanishes without a trace, in "Interface".
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* [[Will Not Tell a Lie]]: Betazoids.
* [[Working with the Ex]]: Will Riker & Deanna Troi are ex-lovers.
* [[Wrote the Book]]: In "The Best of Both Worlds
* [[Yandere]]: A piece of [[Phlebotinum]] turns Troi into one in "Man Of The People".
* [[Year Inside, Hour Outside]]: "The Inner Light" has a variation that happens in a [[Mental World]].
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** For a species so obsessed with "honour", many Klingons depicted in the series seem to be perfectly comfortable with stabbing each other in the back to get ahead. Worf [[Defied Trope|defies this trope]], however, as he gives several epic [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|verbal putdowns]] on just why this sort of behaviour is hypocritical and just what having true honour actually ''means''.
* [[You Look Familiar]]: Suzie Plakson as Selar, K'ehlyr, and the female Q on ''Voyager'' to name one.
** Look out for the future Tuvok (Tim Russ) playing a human terrorist in "Starship Mine"
*** He also plays an unnamed human bridge crew member in the 23rd century in ''Generations''.
** Marc Alaimo who would become, in ''Deep Space Nine'', Gul Dukat, played 4 different characters in ''TNG'', including the first Romulan seen in ''TNG'' in "The Neutral Zone". Most notably he played the first ever Cardassian seen in ''Star Trek'' (Gul Macet in "The Wounded").
** Robert Duncan McNeill, ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'''s Tom Paris, as Nicholas Locarno in "The First Duty
** Ethan Phillips, ''Voyager'''s Neelix, as Dr. Farek in "Ménage à Troi
*** He also plays the holographic maître d' in ''First Contact''.
** Most jarring of all is James Cromwell as the leader of a potential new Federation alliance world in "The Hunted", when he later played Cochrane in ''[[Star Trek:
** David Tristan Birke, who played Rene, Picard's nephew in "Family", later played the young Picard himself in "Rascals".
** Max Grodenchik as the very typical conniving, treacherous Ferengi Sovak in "Captain's Holiday"; better known for his later role as the very ''a''typical (and somewhat dim) Rom from ''[[Deep Space Nine]]''.
** Armin Shimerman played both Letek, one of the first Ferengi ever shown onscreen in "The Last Outpost", and the better known Quark -- also from ''[[Deep Space Nine]].''
** Majel Barrett (who played [[Hospital Hottie|Nurse Chapel]] in ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', as well as [[Number Two]] in the original pilot) as Lwaxana Troi, and also the voice of the ship's computer in both series.
** Diana Muldaur, who played Dr. Pulaski in
** Christopher Collins, AKA [[The Starscream|Chris Latta]] played a Klingon Captain in
* [[You Need to Get Laid]]: This is the real reason why Riker asked Picard to buy him a Horg'ahn on Risa in "Captain's Holiday".
* [[Your Head Asplode]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REoN1sEYVZo Not for the faint of heart].
* [[Your Mom]]: Riker invokes this when speaking to a holographic representation of Captain Rice in "Arsenal of Freedom", which is trying to get as much tactical information about the ''Enterprise'' and its mission as possible. When the ''faux'' Drake asks who sent them there, Riker says, "Your mother. She was worried about you."
* [[Your Normal Is Our Taboo]]: Riker falls in love with an alien woman who gets really hated by her own people for their love. Not because he's a human, but because he's a man. Her culture require her and her partner to both be intergender. Essentially, it's inverted homophobia and inverted heterophobia, a fear of having a gender at all. Which is also a cisphobia, an inverted transphobia.
* [[You See, I'm Dying]]: [[Evil Twin]] android Lore is about to walk out on his creator Dr. Soong when the latter reveals that he is dying — as Lore, for all his faults, does have emotions, this makes him stop.
* [[Zeerust]]: So far the show's managed to avoid falling into this trap ''quite'' as hard and as quickly as TOS did... but the biggest exception is noticeable for the kind of computer nerds who love ''Trek.'' In the late 80s and early 90s, the LCARS computer interface looked incredibly slick and high-tech (''touchscreen controls?!'')... but as of 2010, many people would wonder why there doesn't seem to be tabbed displaying, the apparent inability to have multiple applications running at once, and the laughably slow speed at which text appears on screen, line by line, although the latter could easily simply have been implemented as a form of [[Extreme Graphical Representation]].
** The ''Original Series'' was, naturally, far worse. Not just aesthetically - searches of the computer database for particular terms also seem to be conducted manually- ''by hand''- and can take hours (such as in
** In-universe. After Wolf 359, ''everything'' changed. The Federation in early series was depicted as filled with [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|eternal optimists]]. After Wolf 359, the Federation leaders are shown to be clearly more [[Knight in Sour Armour|jaded]] and should they have to, will not hesistate to remind everyone just ''why'' they are one of the [[Good Is Not Nice|dominant]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|powers]] of the Alpha Quadrant.
{{reflist}}
{{TV Guide's 50 Greatest}}
{{Star Trek Franchise}}
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