Writer Ronald Moore was a Star Trek fanboy long before he joined Star Trek: The Next Generation, just as the television show found its interstellar footing during its third season. A few dozen sloppy episodes had left the impression that the show was nothing more than a sad clone of the groundbreaking ’60s sci-fi series.

 

“There was definitely a sense that The Next Generation was the Star Trek stepchild that nobody liked,” the Emmy-winning Moore told Wired by phone in a warp-9 interview about the series’ highlights and lowlights. “I’d go to conventions and see bumper stickers, T-shirts and paraphernalia basically saying that there was only one true Star Trek, and it wasn’t us.”