Diplomacy, family, destiny: The Next Generation

Abstract

In 1987, when Paramount announced the launch of The Next Generation, the appointment of Gene Roddenberry as its executive producer was a key part of its marketing strategy. Whereas the film series was directed at a broad cinemagoing public, TNG was projected at an audience with the kind of auteur-consciousness that was rapidly spreading from fans of the cinema to those of TV. A new Star Trek series made by anyone else but its ‘original creator’, who by now had become perhaps the most famous writer-producer in the history of television, would have lacked credibility among the fans. After the years of declining influence during the 1980s film series Roddenberry was now given virtually free rein to demonstrate his ‘authorial’ qualities and was provided with a generous budget of over $1m. per episode.