Star Trek - The Next Generation

Visual Effects

1992 & 1995 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects for a Series (Winner) | 1991 & 1995 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects (Nominee)

Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that originally aired for 7 seasons from September 28, 1987 to May 23, 1994. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's five-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers set off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on their own mission across distant planets to seek out new life and to boldly go where no one has gone before. A more mature Captain Jean-Luc Picard heads the crew of various humans and alien creatures in their adventures in space – the final frontier.

The classic Trek ships seen in The Next Generation were physical miniatures filmed on Image G’s motion-control stage in Hollywood. Traditional oil matte paintings were also a mainstay of visual effects production. A typical ship fly-by back then might have taken an entire day to film with motion control.

One of the science fiction technologies featured was an artificial reality machine called the "Holodeck", and several award-winning episodes featured plots centering on the peculiarities of this device. The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.