Star Trek: The Next Generation
Encounter at Farpoint
TV Flash files “Encounter at Farpoint” as a desk essential hour — Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) on Syndication, season 1, episode 1, aired 1987-09-28, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 178 in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1987-09-28 (60 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Encounter at Farpoint” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “Encounter at Farpoint”. Encounter at Farpoint is the first-run syndication contract: Stewart's Picard, a new Enterprise, and franchise television regenerating without Kirk.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Captain Picard takes command of the Galaxy Class Federation starship, the ‘Enterprise. Picard not only takes over the ‘Enterprise' but has his first encounter with a extremely powerful life form known as ‘Q' who proceeds to put humanity on trial for their crimes. Q makes their first mission to the Farpoint station on Daneb IV a extreme test for the existence of humanity.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Encounter at Farpoint sit in the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 178 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Star Trek: The Next Generation S01E01 air?
Encounter at Farpoint aired 1987-09-28 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Should I skip season one?
You can sample it, then jump. The pilot and early hours wobble; fandom's own catechism is that the series finds its voice mid-run. Stewart's Picard is already the instrument.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth — Stewart's Picard is a master class in quiet authority, and Data, Worf, and the Borg made franchise television feel weekly and serious. First-run syndication revived Trek without Kirk. Start with mid-run classics if the pilot feels stiff; Make it so is still a management style.
First-run syndication is a window, not a shrine. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) regenerated Gene Roddenberry's universe without Kirk by putting Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard on a new Enterprise and selling **178 hours across seven seasons** outside a single network night. Rex can keep the original series in amber. This was franchise television learning to drop weekly at scale: idea-driven starship hours, a more ensemble bridge, prestige sci-fi as appointment TV that did not need a peacock to…
Open the Star Trek: The Next Generation package · Season 1 hub
Filed against
- Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Patrick Stewart’s Sejanus hissed through I, Claudius’s palace poison — BBC studio rooms that feel like power, Jacobi’s stammer as the sharpest weapon — then made Picard’s quiet authority the philosophical teeth of Star Trek: The Next…
- Jonathan Frakes as William Riker
Jonathan Frakes’s William Riker made Star Trek: The Next Generation a first officer with a beard and a lean — peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth, Stewart’s Picard as quiet authority, Data, Worf, and the Borg making…
- Brent Spiner as Data
Brent Spiner made Data the android with philosophical teeth on Star Trek: The Next Generation — gold skin, a curiosity that turned first-run syndication into weekly seriousness. Stewart's Picard owned quiet authority; Spiner owned the…
- LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge
LeVar Burton’s breakthrough as young Kunta Kinte on Roots made miniseries history — eight ABC nights, event television that forced a nation to watch and talk together. Later Star Trek: TNG and Reading Rainbow sealed educator-icon status.…
- Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi
Marina Sirtis read the room as Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation — peak optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth, Stewart’s Picard, Data, Worf, the Borg, first-run syndication reviving Trek without Kirk. Counselor as…
- Michael Dorn as Worf
Michael Dorn’s Worf gave Star Trek: The Next Generation its ridge-and-honor bass — 1980s first-run syndication, Stewart’s Picard as quiet authority, Data, the Borg, optimistic space opera with philosophical teeth. Franchise television…