What was the point at which The Next Generation really kicked off?

The Next Generation really took off when The Best of Both Worlds aired. That was the first episode in which you had the humans facing off against the Borg and it really clicked. You had great special effects, a great script. You had tension, you had drama, and you had one of the best cliff-hangers that they�ve ever had on television.

That was the episode that absolutely got people talking about it. Especially since part one was a season-ender so you had people talking about it for two or three months, "What�s going to happen to Captain Picard? He�s been assimilated by the Borg". At that point you really had a lot of word-of-mouth, a much more intense fan interest, and a realisation that this show wasn�t cheesy science fiction, that it was actually a quality product.

Most of the first season�s episodes were kind of questionable. They had moments of quality and moments of cheese. Even second season, they were still kind of feeling their way through it. And so it really took them until season three to really get things rolling. They got a pretty solid writing staff and got everything going in the right direction.

The people watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, for the first time had a really tough time taking to the new crew at first, and especially taking to Patrick Stewart. Which was ironic, because here is maybe the most talented actor they�ve ever had involved with Star Trek, a Shakespearean actor. Yet he was following on the heels of William Shatner�s Captain Kirk, a cinematic icon.

People just loved Captain Kirk, and they couldn�t imagine somebody, older and bald, who wants to sit around and talk about things rather than actually pick up the phaser and shoot, in charge of the glorious Starship Enterprise, so it actually took people a while to warm up to Patrick Stewart as well.