130 free Star Trek: the Next Generation trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Star Trek: The Next Generation ran for seven seasons between 1987 and 1994, and this quiz covers the whole run: the syndication gamble that made Paramount a fortune, the rocky first season, the Borg cliffhanger that changed television, and the finale watched by more than 30 million people. Easy questions ask who plays Data, what Geordi wears over his eyes and which crew member is a Klingon; harder ones dig into Picard's artificial heart, the Hugo-winning episode with the flute, the only clip show ever filmed, the price a filming model of the ship fetched at auction and which original-series star turned up in the pilot. It works for a rewatch night with fellow Trekkies or as a warm-up before a pub quiz round, and the mix runs from casual viewer to someone who can name Worf's adoptive parents. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the series, its characters and individual episodes, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
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Q 01On what date did Star Trek: The Next Generation premiere in syndication?
September 28, 1987
The pilot was shown as a two-hour TV movie, and more than 50 network affiliates pre-empted their own programming to carry it.
Q 02How many episodes of The Next Generation were made across its seven seasons?
178
That is more than double the 79 episodes of the original series, which TNG overtook during its fourth season with the episode "Legacy".
Q 03Who plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard?
Patrick Stewart
Stewart, a Royal Shakespeare Company veteran, was so unsure the show would last that he reportedly did not unpack his suitcases for weeks.
Q 04Which actor plays the android Data, as well as his brother Lore and their creator Noonien Soong?
Brent Spiner
Spiner said he spent more hours of the day in his pale make-up than out of it, and later played the ancestor Arik Soong on Enterprise.
Q 05Which crew member is a Klingon raised by human parents after being orphaned in the Khitomer Massacre?
Worf
Worf went on to appear in more Star Trek episodes than any other character, thanks to his later run on Deep Space Nine.
Q 06Geordi La Forge, who is blind, sees by means of what device worn over his eyes?
A VISOR
LeVar Burton called wearing it a living hell: it took away 85 to 90 percent of his vision and he spent the first season bumping into light stands.
Q 07Which actor plays Q, who puts humanity on trial in the pilot and returns in the finale?
John de Lancie
Q was written as a cosmic judge, but over seven seasons the pairing with Picard became as comic as it was menacing.
Q 08Whoopi Goldberg plays which bartender in the Ten-Forward lounge?
Guinan
Goldberg asked for the part herself; she had been inspired to act by Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and lobbied Roddenberry over lunch.
Q 09In which season two episode did the Borg make their first appearance?
Q Who
Q flung the Enterprise across the galaxy for that first encounter to prove humanity was not ready for what was out there.
Q 10What name did the Borg give the assimilated Picard in "The Best of Both Worlds"?
Locutus
The cliffhanger sat over the summer of 1990 with Riker's order to fire, and TV Guide later ranked it among the 100 most memorable moments in television history.
Q 11Where did Starfleet make its doomed stand against the Borg in 'The Best of Both Worlds'?
Wolf 359
Deep Space Nine's pilot later revealed that Benjamin Sisko lost his wife at that battle, tying the two series together.
Q 12Which Borg expert, played by Elizabeth Dennehy, became Riker's first officer during the Borg crisis?
Lieutenant Commander Shelby
Riker had by then turned down his own command three times, including the Melbourne, which was among the ships lost at Wolf 359.
Q 13In "The Inner Light", how much time passes on the bridge while Picard lives a lifetime as Kamin?
About 25 minutes
Q 21Which tar-like alien on the planet Vagra II killed the ship's security chief in season one?
Armus
Denise Crosby had asked to leave the show, and Roddenberry wanted a sudden, meaningless death typical of a security officer's risks.
Q 22Which Cardassian, played by David Warner, tortures Picard and insists there are five lights?
Gul Madred
The four-lights scene is a direct homage to Orwell's 1984, and the two-parter was the last TNG to air before Deep Space Nine premiered.
Q 23Who temporarily replaces Picard as Enterprise captain in "Chain of Command"?
Edward Jellico
Jellico later resurfaced as an admiral in the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy.
The episode won the 1993 Hugo Award, and its flute prop, valued at $1,000, sold at auction in 2006 for more than $40,000.
Q 14On which dying planet does Picard live out his life as the iron weaver Kamin in "The Inner Light"?
Kataan
Writer Morgan Gendel took the title from the George Harrison Beatles song, itself based on the Tao Te Ching.
Q 15In 'The Measure of a Man', which cyberneticist wants to dismantle Data to build more like him?
Bruce Maddox
Data bore him no grudge afterwards, and Maddox turned up decades later in Star Trek: Picard as the man behind Data's synthetic daughters.
Q 16Who is forced to argue the case against Data at his hearing in "The Measure of a Man"?
Riker
A shortage of qualified officers on Starbase 173 meant the first officer had to prosecute or the judge would rule against Data by default.
Q 17The Tamarian captain Dathon beams himself and Picard down to El-Adrel and utters which phrase?
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
The Tamarians speak entirely in mythological allusion, so the universal translator renders the words but not the meaning.
Q 18Which veteran actor played the Tamarian captain Dathon in "Darmok"?
Paul Winfield
Winfield had already died on Star Trek once, as Captain Terrell in The Wrath of Khan.
Q 19In "Yesterday's Enterprise", who captains the Enterprise-C, which emerges from a rift in time?
Rachel Garrett
Her ship had answered a distress call from a Klingon outpost on Narendra III, and sending it back to die restored the timeline.
Q 20Which season-one casualty is alive again in the alternate timeline of 'Yesterday's Enterprise'?
Tasha Yar
Denise Crosby returned again as Sela, Yar's half-Romulan daughter, born from the consequences of that episode.
Q 24Which Cheers star played Captain Bateson of the USS Bozeman in the time-loop episode 'Cause and Effect'?
Kelsey Grammer
Kirstie Alley was meant to reprise Saavik alongside him but was unavailable, and the Bozeman was a redressed Reliant model from The Wrath of Khan.
Q 25In "Cause and Effect", which number keeps appearing during the poker game as a clue to escaping the loop?
3
Data works out that the three stands for the pips on Riker's collar, meaning Riker's suggestion, not his own, will save the ship.
Q 26In "Tapestry", Picard has an artificial heart because he was stabbed as a young officer by which species?
A Nausicaan
Given the chance to avoid the bar fight, Picard ends up a timid junior science officer and begs Q to put the tapestry back as it was.
Q 27What is the name of the android daughter Data builds in "The Offspring"?
Lal
The name is Hindi for beloved, and the episode was Jonathan Frakes' first as a director.
Q 28Which cast member made his directing debut with "The Offspring" and went on to direct two Star Trek films?
Jonathan Frakes
Frakes directed First Contact and Insurrection, and Burton and Stewart later took turns behind the camera as well.
Q 29Which Sherlock Holmes villain becomes self-aware on the holodeck in "Elementary, Dear Data"?
Professor Moriarty
Geordi accidentally created him by asking the computer for an opponent capable of defeating Data rather than Holmes.
Q 30Which original-series star cameoed in "Encounter at Farpoint" and refused more than the minimum salary?
DeForest Kelley
Kelley played a 137-year-old Admiral McCoy inspecting the new ship, as a gesture to Gene Roddenberry.