Star Trek: The Next Generation Original Series" in 1969, the "Star Trek" franchise had continued with "" (1973–74) and a series of films, all featuring the original cast. In the 1980s, franchise creator Roddenberry decided to create a new series, featuring a new crew embarking on their mission a century after that of "The Original Series". "TNG" featured a new crew that starred (for the majority of its seven-year broadcast run) Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, Brent Spiner as Lt Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, LeVar Burton as Lt Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as
Unification (Star Trek: The Next Generation) previously requested $1 million to cameo in the series, but he took minimum SAG pay to reprise the role of Spock to publicize "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", on which he was executive producer. This episode is one of four times that an original series character reprised his role in "The Next Generation"; the other three being "Encounter at Farpoint" (DeForest Kelley), "" (Mark Lenard), and "" (James Doohan). The episode was dedicated to the late Gene Roddenberry, who had died shortly prior to its broadcast. Unification (Star Trek: The Next Generation) "Unification" is a two-part episode of the