Note: We've updated this story for TNG's 30th anniversary. Captain Picard, Will Riker, the Enterprise-D and all the rest of it (but not Ten Forward -- that wouldn't come until a year later!) first hit our not so big, and definitely not flat screen TVs 30 years ago today. On September 28, 1987, "Encounter at Farpoint," the premiere episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, aired -- and what a long, strange (and occasionally cheesy) trip it's been. I remember that fateful day, watching the premiere and trying to like the show more than I really did.