Some 20 years after the Original Series premiered on primetime television, the creators re-teamed to attempt a brave experiment. Could the Star Trek universe expand beyond Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy? Would audiences embrace a whole new cast of characters, and a new ship, in a new century? And would such a show survive solely in first-run syndication?

The answer to all those questions was yes. From 1987 until 1994, Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of the future brought us all new adventures of an Enterprise crew, this time the NCC-1701-D, featuring on a weekly basis some of the most advanced special effects to date. Star Trek: The Next Generation stayed in production for seven seasons, thanks to an ever-increasing audience of loyal fans, and concluded with a total of 178 episodes before moving on to motion pictures. The show became the highest-rated syndicated dramatic series on television as its run progressed, and is still in high demand today, playing in syndication around the world.

The Galaxy-class Starship Enterprise is guided by a leader who is both an intellectual and an explorer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). The second in command — often referred to as "Number One" — is First Officer William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), with their science officer — an android who continually tries to be more human — Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner).

Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) serves as the ship's counselor and resident empath, and seeing that all is well with the warp engines is Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). Running a tight sickbay is Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), who is joined for more than three seasons by her precocious son Wesley (Wil Wheaton) before his departure for Starfleet Academy. Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) filled in the post for one year while Dr. Crusher was heading up Starfleet Medical. In an interesting twist, Chief of Security Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) serves as the only Klingon in Starfleet — a symbol of détente between the former enemies. The ship's original security chief, Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), was killed in the line of duty.

Down below, in the lounge known as Ten-Forward, Whoopi Goldberg appears in a recurring role as the empathetic hostess Guinan. Frequently taunting the crew is the seemingly omnipotent being known simply as "Q" (John de Lancie).

Star Trek: The Next Generation is arguably the biggest of the Star Trek shows for several reasons. First, it ran for seven years, more than double the Original Series run of three years. Second, the audience brought up on Star Trek was thirsty for more, having seen the original 79 hours repeatedly in syndication. New storylines and characters on a weekly basis were just what Trek fans were looking for. The timing was right to take things to the next level, or — pardon the pun — to the next generation of viewers. Now, 15 years and four movies later, the Next Generation is still as popular as ever.

NEXT: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine