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Top Ten Star Trek: The Next Generation Characters

Star Trek: The Next Generation is all about the characters for better and for worse because most of them aren’t as greatly utilized or developed as they could have been, but the main ones are nonetheless so great that that character-driven approach ultimately worked out more than it didn’t. These are ten best characters from this show in my opinion.

10. Q

I know that he is a fan favorite to many, but to me Q is very annoying as this overly typical science fiction entity who’s to me always more annoying than entertaining in every single sci-fi show that includes such villains. And I really dislike the actor’s performance, but the creepiness factor to him did capture my interest at times and he did show a lot of potential.

9. Geordi La Forge

This one hurts because having a black character with a blindness disability is pretty cool for this show, especially for the eighties when it came out, but the character himself ultimately never came to his own. Yes, some of his episodes are a lot of fun and he’s overall serviceable, but he simply did not get enough time to shine unfortunately.

8. Lwaxana Troi

Lwaxana Troi is a mixed bag of course as most would state too. On the one hand, she’s overly caricaturist and ridiculous even at times with her over-the-top sexual energy and humor. However, on the other hand, she did get a couple of awesome episodes and her relationship with her daughter Deanna is mostly very well developed.

7. Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi is another unfortunately rushed and underdeveloped character who remains mostly a mystery to me as she could be badass and very capable, but also rather stupid at times. The female characters are really troublesome in this show, but their inclusion alone in the 80s is still quite commendable.

6. Guinan

Here we come to the pretty good characters and Guinan would be ranked much higher had she gotten more screen time (you can clearly see the pattern here). I definitely found her underused, but Whoopi Goldberg is great in the role as she always is and the character remains pleasantly mysterious, memorable and cool.

5. Beverly Crusher

Beverly Crusher is certainly the best female character on the show which doesn’t say a lot, but still her romantic relationship with Picard is wonderful, she’s professional in her job and clear-headed and I just adored a couple of her action-heavy, conspiracy episodes where she kicked some major ass and I wish she’d gotten more of such episodes.

4. Worf

Worf got a lot of episodes for himself which came as a detriment to the show as some of those are quite bad, including most of the Alexander ones as he’s an insufferable brat. But still Worf’s complex relationship with the other Klingons is well mined for some strong drama and he remains a well developed, complex character.

3. Data

Data comes in third mostly because he didn’t really progress as much as he could have and basically he remained more a robot than a human, but still that struggle of his to be human provided many iconic TNG episodes which are sophisticated and the kind of SF drama that I love most. The actor may be annoying in his overacting, but the character remains classic.

2. William Riker

I love Riker! He jumps over Data purely thanks to a very charming presence from Jonathan Frakes who’s very charismatic in the role. This is the most endearing and fun character on the show who’s got the most action throughout the episodes and he always remains bravado, but still endearing in each and every installment.

1. Jean-Luc Picard

How can you make a list of the TNG episodes without putting Picard on top? It’s just not possible. He’s the greatest because Patrick Stewart is the finest actor by a mile on the show and he excelled in each and every episode of his and the character remains complex emotionally speaking and always so suave. His care for everyone on the ship is obvious and his leader capabilities are immense. It’s an obvious, but necessary top pick.