Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation (also known as Star Trek: TNG) is an American science-fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired from September 28, 1987 to May 23, 1994 in first-run syndication, spanning 178 episodes over seven seasons.

Why We Should Travel To Space With Them Too?

 * 1) This is the Star Trek show that really established Gene Roddenberry's vision of a future where humanity is free from vice or prejudice (both of which were still present, albeit to a lesser degree than in modern-day society, in TOS and its movie follow-ups) and works to better itself, providing the template that future Star Trek shows would follow to varying degrees up until the end of Star Trek: Enterprise.
 * 2) Evolved Star Trek beyond the "monster/villain-of-the-week" formula that TOS tended to rely upon, allowing for more interpersonal drama and discussion of societal issues.
 * 3) A memorable cast of characters, almost all of whom quickly became just as iconic as the TOS characters.
 * 4) Very strong acting, especially from Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn.
 * 5) In addition to bringing back the Klingons and Romulans from TOS and evolving them from the generic bad guys they were depicted as on that show, it introduces some memorable new villains such as Q, the Ferengi, the Cardassians and the Borg Collective.
 * 6) The special effects are vastly improved over TOS, and sometimes even on par with what you'd have seen in movies from that era.
 * 7) After the entirely episodic TOS, we start getting long-term story arcs here, including Q's interactions with the Enterprise crew, Klingon politics and the rivalry between Worf's family and the House of Duras, a plot by parasitic aliens to take over Starfleet, and encounters with Data's evil prototype "brother", Lore. At the same time, these story arcs never become so overbearing that you'll be left in the dark by missing an episode, unlike a lot of modern sci-fi shows (including mh:terribletvshows:Star Trek: Discovery).
 * 8) The legendary two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds" started the television trend of ending seasons on a cliff-hanger.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Season 1 is pretty poor, and includes some infamously awful episodes like "Code of Honor", "Justice" and "Angel One". Season 2 is, for the most part, a lot better, but is still kind of hit-or-miss at points and also features a few terrible episodes of its own, most notably "The Child" and "Shades of Grey".
 * 2) A few characters stand out as annoying and/or under-written:
 * 3) * Wesley Crusher spent most of the first two seasons being an annoying "teen genius" who constantly ended up saving the day, usually with the other characters suddenly being turned into idiots just to make him look better. He was also a massive Gary Stu due to him being a "Creator's Pet" for the writers. His portrayal did start improving in Season 3, but it ended up being too little, too late, and he was demoted to being a recurring character early in Season 4.
 * 4) * Dr. Pulaski, who replaces Dr. Crusher for Season 2, is basically a gender-swapped and far less likeable female counterpart of Dr. McCoy from The Original Series. She also constantly bullies Data and tries to imply that his being an android means he can't be trusted to do his job, even referring to him as "it". Thankfully, Dr. Crusher was brought back at the start of Season 3, and Pulaski was never mentioned again.
 * 5) * Tasha Yar, the ship's original chief security officer, is written as a generic "tough chick" with zero personality outside of the fact that she frequently loses her temper. Her actress, Denise Crosby, quickly grew bored of the role and quit near the end of the first season, resulting in Yar getting an infamously poor death scene where a tar monster kills her ten minutes into an episode just to amuse itself.
 * 6) The music in Seasons 5-7 isn't nearly as good as the music from Seasons 1-4. Executive producer Rick Berman thought that the show's music shouldn't distract from the drama, which is a perfectly valid viewpoint, but he went too far in the other direction, even firing one of the show's regular composers (future Family Guy and American Dad composer Ron Jones) because he thought his music was still too noticeable.
 * 7) This series marks the start of the franchise forcing increasingly left-wing messages on the viewer, especially in the first two seasons, which feature a lot of usage of the Ferengi to lecture the viewer on the evils of capitalism, and the first season finale has Picard indirectly lecturing some 20th century humans (and thereby the audience) on the benefits of socialism.
 * 8) * The latter seasons tried to deliver their "message episodes" in more subtle ways, and they succeeded for the most part. However, it does result in the occasional episode where the intended aesop ends up being unclear and confusing - most infamously in Season 5's "The Outcast", which can't seem to decide whether it's trying to be an allegory for gay rights, transgender rights or feminism.

Trivia

 * The show created a lot of internet memes that persist to this day, including Picard and Riker's "facepalms", Worf's speeches about honor and various bad things happening to Wesley Crusher.