Why the different opening credit and then go back to the old?

[JesterFace]

Season 5 has a different STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION logo during opening credits. Anyone know why? Is there some other reason than some one decided it looks better?

And why did they return back to the old one on seasons 6 and 7?

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Hmm. I wonder if it had anything to do with 1991 being Trek's 25th anniversary?

 

[MacLeod]

TNG credits had a change every season.

 

[Trekker4747]

Season 5 has a different STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION logo during opening credits. Anyone know why? Is there some other reason than some one decided it looks better?

And why did they return back to the old one on seasons 6 and 7?

The "streaking effect" to the credits was added in TNG's 5th season in honor of Trek's 25th anniversary. The preceding and following years weren't significant anniversal years so they didn't get the streaking effects.

TNG credits had a change every season.

Other than cast changes and changes in the Executive Producer (Roddenberry or Berman) the only meaningful changes were between S2/S3 with the less Earth-centric opening, the streaking effect between S4/S5 and the removal of the effect between S5/S6.

Of the top, I can think of no meaningful change between S5 and S7, not even a cast change.

 

[SAndrews10]

It's our 25th anniversary...what shall we do to make it special...i know, let's add a streaking effect to the opening credits that no one will get or understand the meaning of why we did it! Perfect!

 

[Beta-Z]

Of the top, I can think of no meaningful change between S5 and S7, not even a cast change.

In S7 there was a slight change in the font.
The first letter of every name was bigger than before.

 

[Trekker4747]

Of the top, I can think of no meaningful change between S5 and S7, not even a cast change.

In S7 there was a slight change in the font.
The first letter of every name was bigger than before.

Yeah, I don't think that's a meaningful change to worth supporting the notion that the credits changed every year. By and large from Season 3 through the end of the series they were the same aside for the streaking effect in S5.

 

[Karzak]

There were notable changes each year.

McCarthy's arrangement of Goldsmith's theme was changed between the seasons. The instrumentation of the theme song itself is markedly different (much more brassy in season one, the trumpets specifically) between Season One and the subsequent seasons of the show. Some seasons have the extended ending of the theme, others have the shortened version.

Likewise, the interstitial bumpers of the show (the bit of the theme with the show logo that played at the end of each act before a commercial break) also changed between Season One and two to reflect that same update of the theme (brassy in Season One, not so much in Seasons 2-7.)

Further: Season Two saw the removal of Gates McFadden and Denise Crosby from the opening credits.

Season Three brought McFadden back. Season Three also saw the opening visuals updated to change from the exit from our solar system to an expansive, galactic tour before coming back to the Enterprise.

Season Four removed Wil Wheaton after "Final Mission."

Season Five added the streaking effect, ostensibly for the 25th Anniversary of the franchise. (I see that repeated a lot as the reason why it was done, but I've yet to see any official source for it.)

Season Six reverted to the post-"Final Mission" Season Four titles.

Trekker4747 said:
Other than cast changes and changes in the Executive Producer (Roddenberry or Berman) the only meaningful changes were between S2/S3 with the less Earth-centric opening, the streaking effect between S4/S5 and the removal of the effect between S5/S6.

Berman's name never once appeared in the opening credits of the show. It was always the cast and Roddenberry.

If you're talking about the names of the Executive Producers at the end each episode before the "Next time, on an all new episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation..." then yeah, that obviously did change. But so did a TON of other credits throughout the seven years.

Of the top, I can think of no meaningful change between S5 and S7, not even a cast change.

Season Seven's opening visuals remained the same however the titles themselves were changed from the all caps names of the actors being one single sized font to having the first letters of their names increased in size.

For the first broadcast of "All Good Things..." the interstitial bumpers at the end of each act before the commercial break were updated with a special "final episode" graphic complete with lens flare and 3D text:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxtqiEJ4Mv8[/yt]