Star Trek: The Next Generation had a Writer/Director’s guide, commonly referred to as the bible. Within this guide was a list of 13 things that were not to ever happen on TNG (i.e. commandments).

Here we will look at each commandment, and show when TNG maybe didn’t follow their own rules.

All blockquotes and episode details are from Memory-Alpha.

Rule #1. Stories which do not materially involve our own crew. Yes, we do like to see interesting new characters — but only when used in addition to an interesting story line involving our continuing characters.

TNG Episode 7×15 “Lower Decks”

Junior officers speculate on the reasons for recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border.

This episode only has the main cast in the periphery, and focuses on four junior officers and their attempt to receive a promotion.

Rule #2. We do not do stories about psi-forces or mysterious psychic powers. No matter how fantastic the events in a story, the explanation must be extrapolated from a generally accepted science theory. (We have accepted telepath of Lt. Commander Deanna Troi because many reputable scientists acknowledge the possibility of such abilities, but you will not that we have limited Troi to “reading” only emotions.)

TNG Episode 1×11 “Haven”

Tensions mount as Counselor Troi’s arranged marriage nears, and her mother takes a liking for Captain Picard. Meanwhile, a plague ship threatens the planet where they are meeting.

While Deana is limited to just “emotional reading,” her mother, Lwaxana Troi, is a full on telepath.

It could also be argued that Q has psi-force powers, as he is able to create anything he thinks or wills.

Rule #3. We are not buying stories which cast our people and our vessel in the role of “galaxy policemen.’ (See Prime Directive) Nor is our mission that of spreading 20th century Euro/American cultural values throughout the galaxy.

TNG Episode 3×11 “The Hunted”

While the Enterprise-D is reviewing a seemingly idyllic planet’s application for Federation membership, an escaped prisoner leads its crew to discover an ugly secret: the government’s shameful treatment of its war veterans.

Enterprise is made to hunt down the fugitives and reach a peaceful solution. Sounds like a police action to me.

Rule #4. We are not buying stories about the original STAR TREK characters. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Chekov, Scotty and Sulu. Or their descendants. As much as we love our original cast (they are our children, after all), we need our audiences’s attention centered on our new characters.

TNG Episode 6×04 “Relics”

The Enterprise discovers a ship that crashed on a Dyson sphere more than seventy-five years prior with a single survivor suspended in the transporter buffer: Captain Montgomery Scott.

TNG Episode 5×07 & 5×08 “Unification”

To the Federation’s surprise, Ambassador Spock has traveled to Romulus. Fearing he has defected, they send Captain Picard and some of his officers on a covert mission to determine why.

Here we see two classic characters appearing in The Next Generation. Scotty and Spock. I could be wrong, but I think they were both specifically mentioned.

Rule #5. Writing FANTASY instead of SCIENCE FICTION. The difference between the two is profound. Despite the fact that both science fiction and fantasy can deal with unusual events, a science fiction story is based on an extrapolation of a generally accepted scientific fact or theory. Fantasy, which our format does not permit, need have no basis in reality.

Rule #6. Writing “SWORDS AND SORCERY”. Knights and princesses, stalwart yeomen and dragons are not science fiction for our purposes.

TNG Episode 4×20 “Qpid”

Q picks up on romantic tensions between Captain Picard and an old flame, transporting them and the senior officers into a representation of Robin Hood.

This episode breaks rules 5 and 6, in that is a knights and princess story which also has the fantasy that Q can go back in time and replace all the main characters of this legend with the command crew.

Rule #7. Treating deep space as a local neighborhood. Too often, script ideas show characters bouncing from solar system to solar system, planet to planet, without the slightest comprehension of the distances involved or the technologies require to support such travel. Fine (and even fun) on SPACE RANGERS but not on STAR TREK.

TNG Episode 1×06 “Where No One Has Gone Before”

When an experimental engine modification throws the Enterprise to the edge of the known universe, the crew must rely on a mysterious alien to guide the ship home.

TNG Episode 2×16 “Q Who”

Q throws the Enterprise into uncharted space where it encounters and is engaged by a vessel of a previously unknown species: the Borg. When the vessel instantly and effortlessly overwhelms the Enterprise, Picard realizes that the Federation may not be as ready for the future as he thought.

Both times the Enterprise travels incredible distances in a matter of moments, and requires a supernatural being to help them return to “normal” space. I’m starting to detect a theme here though. Q is awful.

Rule #8. STAR TREK is not a melodrama. Melodrama is a writing style which does not require believable people. Believable people are at the heart of good STAR TREK scripts.

TNG Episode 1×12 “The Big Goodbye”

Captain Picard and some of the Enterprise crew get stuck on the holodeck on their way to an important diplomatic mission.

TNG Episode 3×21 “Hollow Pursuits”

Lieutenant Barclay, an introverted diagnostic engineer, is having difficulties dealing with his fantasies.

TNG Episode 4×19 “The Nth Degree”

After an encounter with a mysterious alien probe, Lieutenant Barclay begins to exhibit signs of profound intelligence, ultimately hooking himself into the ship’s computer and hurling the Enterprise into apparent danger.

Hey guess what? Every time you use that Holodeck, you create hokey melodrama.

Rule #9. No stories about warfare with Klingons or Romulans and no stories with Vulcans. We are determined not to copy ourselves and believe there must be other interesting aliens in a galaxy filled with billions of stars and planets.

TNG Episode 5×07 & 5×08 “Unification”

To the Federation’s surprise, Ambassador Spock has traveled to Romulus. Fearing he has defected, they send Captain Picard and some of his officers on a covert mission to determine why.

Obviously Romulans are out, and Vulcans are out. But not if you put them together.

Rule #10. Stay true to the Prime Directive. We are not in the business of toppling cultures that we do not approve of. We will protect ourselves and our mission whenever necessary, but we are not “space meddlers.”

TNG Episode 1×08 “Justice”

When Wesley Crusher is condemned to die on an idyllic, primitive planet, Captain Picard must face breaking the Prime Directive to save the boy’s life.

I’m pretty sure it is more of a guideline.

Rule #11. Plots involving a whole civilization rarely work. What does work is to deal with specific characters from another culture and their interactions with our own continuing characters.

TNG Episode 5×25 “The Inner Light”

An alien probe controls and disables Captain Picard, who wakes up as “Kamin,” a resident of the planet Kataan. While the crew of the Enterprise tries to jar the probe’s influence, “Kamin” lives through the final, dying decades of his homeworld in the span of approximately twenty minutes in the form of an interactive “ancestor simulation”.

Picard gets a front row seat to the destruction of an entire civilization.

Rule #12. Mad scientists, or stories in which technology is considered the villain. It doesn’t make sense for a group of 24th century interstellar travelers (whose lives depend on the successful workings of their technology) to be Luddites.

TNG Episode 1×13 “Datalore”

The Enterprise explores Data’s home planet, Omicron Theta. They find his brother, and the dark secret he carries.

Noonien Soong is definitely not a mad scientist, and Lore is definitely not a robot villain…

Rule #13. Stories in which our characters must do something stupid or dangerous, or in which our technology breaks down in order to create a jeopardy. Our people are the best and the brightest, and our technology is tried and proven. Likewise, our characters are very committed to their ship, their crewmates, and their mission. Please do not have them abandoning or betraying same because they have fallen in love with a beautiful pirate princess.

TNG Episode 3×01 “Evolution”

An obsessed scientist arrives on the Enterprise-D to perform a once-in-a-lifetime experiment. Accidentally released nanites, however, threaten both it and the ship.

Wesley Crusher, your stupidity caused technology to get out of hand and for things to break down creating jeopardy. To his credit, Crusher is the best and the brightest, at being a failure.

There we have it. Rules were made to be broken, sometimes within 8 episodes of the series starting. Lucky for them they didn’t have a rule against super all-powerful omnipotent alien beings.. like Q, or the Douwd.

Most of this list was compiled thanks to assistance of regulars in the Mos Eisley chatroom.