10 Most Prolific Writers On Star Trek The Next Generation

The adventures of the crew of the Starship Enterprise are legendary, and fans still enjoy the episodes nearly thirty years after the series ended. Star Trek The Next Generation took the ideas of the original series and expounded upon them, adding rich new layers to the Star Trek mythos.

TNG was known for its exceptional writing and the show employed some of the most talented wordsmiths of the day to craft the episodes. Over the years, the show saw many one-time writers, but it was the show’s most prolific writers who contributed some of the best episodes.

10 Hans Beimler – 15 Episodes

Hans Beimler is mostly known today as a television producer but in the 90s he wrote and produced for both TNG and Deep Space Nine. Though he wore many hats during his time on TNG his writing contributions were a memorable addition to the show.

Many of his episodes were quite unusual for TNG and he often put the characters in unique situations or tried to work in stranger elements into the story. Some of his Star Trek episodes featured horror elements, such as the notorious “Skin of Evil” episode from the first season.

9 Melinda M. Snodgrass – 16 Episodes

Melinda M. Snodgrass has spent her entire career writing for sci-fi series and her first professional writing credits came on TNG. She wrote a wide variety of types of episodes for the show but her contributions were usually filled with heady themes.

One of her favorite subjects to write about was Lt. Commander Data and she penned several episodes that focused on the golden android. Perhaps her most memorable contribution to the show was her episode “Measure of a Man” which is not only a great episode about Data, it is one of the best episodes of the series.

8 J. Larry Carrol – 18 Episodes

J. Larry Carrol has a history as an editor, both of stories and within the actual editorial department of film and TV production. He contributed to TNG both as a writer and story editor and has done the same for dozens of films and TV shows in his career.

The episodes that Carrol took part in didn’t subscribe to a particular theme which showed his versatility as a writer. One highlight of his tenure was his episode “Future Imperfect” which was a taut mystery story that centered around Commander Riker and featured a great twist ending.

7 David Carren – 18 Episodes

David Carren’s tenure on TNG coincided with one of the best stretches of the entire series during the fourth season. He worked as both a story editor and writer and was a big part of some of Star Treks‘ classic episodes during that period.

Character development was a large focus of his episodes and often characters were given heavy focus to grow and expand. “The Final Mission” was a particularly memorable contribution from Carren that saw both Captain Picard and the departing Wesley Crusher get a chance to build their relationship and grow as characters.

6 Tracy Tormé – 27 Episodes

Tracy Tormé’s time with TNG actually started at the beginning of the series and carried through the first two seasons. He oversaw the writing process as executive story editor on top of his duties as a contributing writer.

Though the early days of TNG were a bit shaky, Tormé managed to contribute some of the most memorable early episodes of the series. “The Big Goodbye” was one of the show’s first holodeck episodes and introduced the fictional world of Dixon Hill that Captain Picard would frequently revisit throughout the series.

5 Naren Shankar – 29 Episodes

Since his time on TNG, Naren Shankar has become a prolific producer on some of TV’s biggest hit series. However, early in his career he was a frequent writer and story editor for The Next Generation and contributed some classic tales.

Shankar’s time on the show coincided with the last three seasons and though the quality of the later seasons began to slip, there was still gold to be found. “The First Duty” saw the character arc of young Wesley Crusher come to fruition as the moral lessons he learned on the Enterprise paid dividends when he got to Starfleet Academy.

4 Joe Menosky – 33 Episodes

Joe Menosky is a frequent Star Trek contributor and even worked on Star Trek Discovery in recent years. Menosky has worked in a variety of capacities in the story department and wrote many great episodes of TNG. 

His most memorable contributions to the Star Trek universe deal with a variety of topics and he rarely stuck to one theme or character when writing. The episode “Darmok” is Menosky’s most memorable episode and is one of the best episodes that really showed what made TNG a great series. The episode is about communication and overcoming prejudices in order to solve a problem.

3 Brannon Braga – 39 Episodes

Brannon Braga made a career out of Star Trek and was involved with TNG, Voyager and Enterprise, as well as the feature films of the ’90s. Braga started as a staff writer for TNG before graduating to story editor and finally to featured writing credits.

Braga’s contributions to the show are as varied as they are numerous and that ability to work was what kept him involved with Star Trek for so long. One of his most notable contributions as a writer was the classic two-part episode “Chain of Command” that added elements of intrigue and action to Captain Picard’s character.

2 Ronald D. Moore – 54 Episodes

Ronald D. Moore is a Sci-fi TV writing legend and has contributed to not only Star Trek but several other great series as well. Notably, Moore continued his tenure into Deep Space Nine and helped to contribute some of the best episodes of that series as well.

Moore’s writing is known for his innate ability to interweave complex storylines into one narrative and he excelled at developing characters. Moore was involved with TNG for years and he even wrote the memorable finale “All Good Things” which was the perfect way to send off the beloved show.

1 René Echevarria – 56 Episodes

René Echevarria saw his time in Star Trek The Next Generation through to Deep Space Nine and even contributed writing for other pieces of Star Trek media. He transitioned to mostly producing, but has continued to write sporadically for other series as well.

As a writer, Echevarria had a flexibility that made him perfect for a weekly TV series but he did specialize too. Echevarria contributed several episodes that focused on The Borg species including the two part episode “The Descent”, and the classic episode “I,Borg” which explored the complexities of the Borg identity.

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