The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation consists of 26 episodes.
Season 1 premiered with “Encounter at Farpoint,” a feature-length introduction to the Enterprise-D and its crew, and concluded with “The Neutral Zone.” Although “Encounter at Farpoint” was originally presented as a two-hour premiere and some episodes are later described as two-part stories, season listings count it as two one-hour episodes, producing a total of 26 installments.
The season aired in first-run syndication from September 28, 1987, through May 16, 1988. It introduced Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander William Riker, Data, Geordi La Forge, Worf, Deanna Troi, Tasha Yar, Beverly Crusher, and Wesley Crusher as the main ensemble.
Viewers sometimes remember a different number because the series finale was also broadcast as a two-hour presentation, and episode counts can vary when multi-part stories are counted as single events. For standard television episode listings and home-video season numbering, however, the first season has 26 episodes.