What was The Next Generation premise? What was its attitude and how did it differ from the first series?

The Next Generation was set approximately a hundred years in the future, after Captain Kirk. You could make a very strong argument that Next Generation was emblematic of the late 80s in the United States, because there was at least a feeling that, oh, we�ve had the glorious Ronald Reagan years, and everything�s going well.

As a result you have a starship that instead of having orange and powder blue interiors and a really harsh look to it, is a plush starship with carpeting and brass things mounted around the bridge and only the finest of computer technology on there. Everything was as good as it could possibly be.

All of a sudden you had situations where you have an enemy ship off the bow of The Enterprise, and rather than arming the torpedoes, Captain Picard is calling a conference, and they sit around and discuss it. You�re kind of wondering, "Well, what are these aliens doing all this time?" It�s a very different approach.

The characters on the show also are a little bit emblematic of the 80s and 90s, in particular Deanna Troy. You have a counsellor on a starship, and you could argue that psychologists were at the height of their popularity at that time.