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The second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted on 21 November 1988, with twenty-two episodes that ran through 17 July 1989.

Episodes[]

Title Episode Production number Stardate US release date
"The Child" 2x01 40272-127 42073.1 1988-11-21
"Where Silence Has Lease" 2x02 40272-128 42193.6–42194.7 1988-11-28
"Elementary, Dear Data" 2x03 40272-129 42286.3 1988-12-05
"The Outrageous Okona" 2x04 40272-130 42402.7 1988-12-12
"Loud As A Whisper" 2x05 40272-132 42477.2–42479.3 1989-01-09
"The Schizoid Man" 2x06 40272-131 42437.5–42437.7 1989-01-23
"Unnatural Selection" 2x07 40272-133 42494.8 1989-01-30
"A Matter Of Honor" 2x08 40272-134 42506.5–42507.8 1989-02-06
"The Measure Of A Man" 2x09 40272-135 42523.7–42527.4 1989-02-13
"The Dauphin" 2x10 40272-136 42568.8 1989-02-20
"Contagion" 2x11 40272-137 42609.1 1989-03-20
"The Royale" 2x12 40272-138 42625.4 1989-03-27
"Time Squared" 2x13 40272-139 42679.2–42679.5 1989-04-03
"The Icarus Factor" 2x14 40272-140 42686.4 1989-04-24
"Pen Pals" 2x15 40272-141 42695.3–42741.3 1989-05-01
"Q Who" 2x16 40272-142 42761.3–42761.9 1989-05-08
"Samaritan Snare" 2x17 40272-143 42779.1–42779.5 1989-05-15
"Up The Long Ladder" 2x18 40272-144 42823.2–42827.3 1989-05-22
"Manhunt" 2x19 40272-145 42859.2 1989-06-19
"The Emissary" 2x20 40272-146 42901.3 1989-06-26
"Peak Performance" 2x21 40272-147 42923.4 1989-07-10
"Shades of Gray" 2x22 40272-148 42976.1–42976.3 1989-07-17

Summary[]

Season 2 saw the departure of Dr. Beverly Crusher to head Starfleet Medical and her subsequent replacement by Dr. Katherine Pulaski. A number of stories focus on the development of Data, introducing him to his "grandfather," revealing his interest in Sherlock Holmes, determining his status as a living being, and revealing to him the moral implications of the Prime Directive. He also clashes several times with Dr. Pulaski, who does not initially regard him as a living being.

Commander William T. Riker is also a focus of this season, settling his differences with his estranged father, deciding to give up an offer for his own ship to command so that he can remain on the USS Enterprise-D, becoming the first Starfleet officer to serve on a Klingon vessel, and nearly dying after becoming infected by a deadly alien parasite.

Lieutenant junior grade Worf becomes Chief of security and meets his mate, K'Ehleyr, and their son, Alexander, is conceived. Geordi La Forge is promoted to full Lieutenant and becomes Chief Engineer. Miles O'Brien is assigned as Transporter chief. Guinan comes on board the Enterprise-D to serve as bartender in Ten Forward, and significantly, Q introduces the crew of the Enterprise-D to the Borg, their most dangerous adversary yet.

Background information[]

Production[]

Michael Dorn in Webster

Michael Dorn with Emmanuel Lewis in Webster

  • Due to the Writers Guild of America Strike in 1988, Season 2 only contained 22 episodes, rather than the usual 26 episodes. The season premiere, "The Child", aired initially in late November 1988, and the script was adapted from one of the scripts for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II due to the strike. The season began with Patrick Stewart hosting The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation To The Next which filled two hours left absent by the abridged season. The special was the first time that "The Cage" was aired on television.
  • Showrunner Maurice Hurley planned to introduce the new villains, the Borg, in a cliffhanger which began in the first season finale, "The Neutral Zone", with the Romulans having their bases destroyed by an unknown force, and concluding in the second season premiere. However, the strike prevented this from happening, and introduction of the Borg was postponed until much later in the season, in "Q Who".
  • Additionally, as a result of budget overruns in earlier episodes, the finale episode "Shades of Gray" was required by Paramount to have a three-day shoot to recover costs. As a result, the episode was written as a "clip show", and was composed chiefly of clips from the previous 47 episodes. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was filmed and released during the run of this season. It was the first time a Star Trek feature film was shot simultaneously with a television series on adjoining sound stages. The same was true of every subsequent Star Trek film up to and including Star Trek Nemesis.
  • During the second season, Michael Dorn, Lorine Mendell, James G. Becker, and Dexter Clay reprised their Trek roles for the series finale of the Paramount Pictures television series Webster, titled "Webtrek". In the episode, Webster, played by Emmanuel Lewis, was transported aboard the Enterprise-D through his video game joystick, which was fixed by the Enterprise-D crew at the end of the episode.

Cast and characters[]

  • In the second season, Lieutenant, J.G. Worf serves as permanent chief security officer, begins wearing a gold uniform, and transfers from Emergency Manual Override aft bridge station to the tactical station. His rank is still Lieutenant Junior Grade and he will not be promoted to full Lieutenant until the beginning of Season 3. Actor Michael Dorn now has a different prosthetic forehead and different sash as part of his costume for Worf. Also, La Forge is promoted to full Lieutenant and chief engineer during the break between Seasons 1 and 2 and begins wearing a gold uniform in "The Child". The Ten Forward set appears with Whoopi Goldberg in the recurring role of Guinan; Riker starts wearing a beard; also, during this season, Diana Muldaur as Dr. Katherine Pulaski replaces Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher. Out of all seven seasons of The Next Generation, this is the only one in which Gates McFadden does not appear, other than through "flashback" footage from Season 1 in "Shades of Gray".
  • Guest star Diana Muldaur is generally considered a regular cast member, as her character appears in all but two episodes and otherwise fulfills the role of a main character. The actress was offered a place in the opening credit sequence, but declined and was listed instead as a Special Guest star. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd ed., p. 64)
  • During the hiatus between the first two seasons, which was longer than a usual hiatus due to the writer's strike, Jonathan Frakes grew a beard, mainly because he dislikes shaving. According to the Trek: The Next Generation Crew Book, Gene Roddenberry liked it – Frakes recalled at a convention that Roddenberry said it had an appropriately "nautical" look – and the beard became a permanent part of Riker's character. The executives had some reservations, however. According to Frakes, they told him to shave off "eighteen percent" of the beard." The only explanation behind a number of such bizarre precision is that each executive chose a percentage (ten, twenty, twenty-five, etc.) and the average number was chosen. Frakes would not be seen beardless again until Star Trek: Insurrection, though he was seen wearing only a circle beard or moutee, a type of goatee, in "Defiant" while playing Thomas Riker and would have has beard regrown for Star Trek Nemesis. "Growing the Beard" has since become a term for when a show turns "good," a reverse of "Jumping the Shark," in reference to this. [1]
  • No characters from the original Star Trek "crossover" to The Next Generation in this season.

Settings[]

  • The Enterprise bridge set was modified for the second season. The access panels in the port and starboard sections were changed from wood to beige fabric. These panels would then be changed to grey fabric on Season 3. In addition, all three of the command chairs were replaced with new versions. Picard's new chair had the panels on the armrests permanently opened, and the two additional small seats added on the sides of Riker's and Troi's chairs were removed, in favor of a transparent bench. The conn and ops station chairs are replaced with new swiveling chairs. Some of the aft computer terminals were reassigned. Worf's previous station "Emergency Manual Override" and "Environment" are now maintained under the names "Mission Operations" and "Engineering." [2]
  • A new sickbay set was constructed featuring portions of the set from the first season combined with a new intensive care ward, freeing up the portion of the set that also doubled as the observation lounge.
  • The Ten Forward lounge makes its debut this season, being the last TNG set designed by Herman Zimmerman before he left for Star Trek V. He was replaced by Richard James.
  • The observation lounge got two big viewscreens installed on the walls.

Credits[]

Cast[]

Crew[]

Creator

Line Producer

Producers

Co-Executive Producers

Executive Producer

Associate Producer

Executive Script Consultants

Story Editors

Creative Consultant

Casting by

Music by

  • Dennis McCarthy ("The Child", "Elementary, Dear Data", "The Schizoid Man" – "Unnatural Selection", "The Measure Of A Man" – "Contagion", "Time Squared", "Pen Pals", "Samaritan Snare", "Manhunt", "Peak Performance")
  • Ron Jones ("Where Silence Has Lease", "The Outrageous Okona" – "Loud As A Whisper", A Matter Of Honor", "The Royale", "The Icarus Factor", "Q Who", "Up The Long Ladder", "The Emissary", "Shades of Gray")

Main Title Theme by

Director of Photography

Production Designer

Editors

  • Tom Benko ("The Child", "The Outrageous Okona", "Unnatural Selection", "The Dauphin", "Time Squared", "Manhunt", "Shades of Gray")
  • William Hoy ("Where Silence Has Lease", "The Schizoid Man", "A Matter Of Honor", "Contagion")
  • Bob Lederman ("Elementary, Dear Data", "Loud As A Whisper", "The Measure Of A Man", "The Royale", "Pen Pals", Up The Long Ladder", "Peak Performance")
  • Jon Koslowsky ("The Icarus Factor", "Samaritan Snare", "The Emissary")
  • Monty De Graff ("Q Who")

Unit Production Manager

First Assistant Directors

  • Les Landau ("The Child", "Elementary, Dear Data")
  • Merri D. Howard ("Where Silence Has Lease", "The Outrageous Okona" – "Loud As A Whisper", "A Matter Of Honor", "The Dauphin", "The Royale", "The Icarus Factor", "Q Who", "Up The Long Ladder", "The Emissary", "Shades of Gray")
  • Robert J. Metoyer ("The Schizoid Man" – "Unnatural Selection", "The Measure Of A Man", "Contagion", "Time Squared", "PenPals", "Samaritan Snare", "Manhunt", "Peak Performance")

Second Assistant Directors

Costume Designer

Starfleet Uniforms Created by

Original Set Design

Visual Effects Supervisors

  • Robert Legato ("The Child", "Elementary, Dear Data", "The Schizoid Man" – "Unnatural Selection", "The Measure Of A Man", "Contagion", "Time Squared", "Pen Pals", "Samaritan Snare", "Peak Performance")
  • Dan Curry ("Where Silence Has Lease", "The Outrageous Okona" – "Loud As A Whisper", "A Matter Of Honor", "The Dauphin", "The Royale", "The Icarus Factor", "Q Who", "Up The Long Ladder", "The Emissary", "Shades of Gray")

Visual Effects Coordinator

Post Production Supervisor

Set Decorator

Script Supervisor

Special Effects

Property Master

  • Joe Longo ("The Child", "Elementary, Dear Data", "The Schizoid Man", "Unnatural Selection", "The Measure Of A Man", "Contagion", "Time Squared", "Pen Pals", "Samaritan Snare", "Manhunt", "Peak Performance")
  • Alan Sims ("Where Silence Has Lease", "The Outrageous Okona", "Loud As A Whisper", "A Matter Of Honor", "The Dauphin", "The Royale", "The Icarus Factor", "Q Who", "Up The Long Ladder", "The Emissary", "Shades of Gray")

Make-Up Supervisor

Make-Up Artists

Hair Designer

Hair Stylists

Production Associate

Senior Illustrator

Scenic Artist

Set Designer

Construction Coordinator

Sound Mixer

Chief Lighting Technician

First Company Grip

Costume Supervisor

Key Costumer/Costumer

Music Editor

Supervising Sound Editor

Sound Editors

Post Production Sound by

Casting Executive

Production Coordinator

Casting Associate

Researcher

Computer Monitors by

Editing Facilities

Lenses and Panaflex ® Cameras by

Special Visual Effects by

Additional Motion Control Facilities

Video Optical Effects by

Special Video Compositing

"Entity" Animation Sequence by

Uncredited[]

Production companies[]

Remastered crew[]

  • Jayme Wing – Digital Compositor ("The Emissary", "Peak Performance", "Shades of Gray")

See also[]

External links[]

Previous season:
TNG Season 1
Seasons of
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Next season:
TNG Season 3
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