These unmade Star Trek episodes failed to reach warp speed...
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00:00 Over the past five decades, there have been many failed pitches or abandoned projects
00:05 for each of the Star Trek titles.
00:07 Some storylines were rejected purely on grounds of budget, like Robert Sheckley's Predator-style
00:11 episode "Sister in Space" that would have seen Kirk and an away team take on an alien
00:16 killer capable of camouflage.
00:19 Other stories are deemed too gory for a family show, like an unmade Voyager episode where
00:24 Tom Paris' arm is stitched back together with Borg tech after a shuttle crash.
00:28 This list collects a number of abandoned projects from across the Star Trek franchise.
00:34 Some of them are exciting what-ifs, while others are probably best left on the reject
00:39 pile.
00:40 So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture and here are 10 Star Trek episodes
00:45 that never got made.
00:47 Number 10.
00:48 The Next Generation's AIDS Allegory.
00:51 In his original pitch document for Star Trek The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry reportedly
00:56 included AIDS as an issue to tackle in his new vision of Trek.
01:01 David Gerrold's proposed Blood and Fire was concerned with the contemporary fear of
01:05 AIDS and the impact on blood donations.
01:09 It would see an Enterprise away team board an abandoned ship which had been exposed to
01:13 regular blood worms.
01:15 Due to Federation policy, any ship infected with blood worms must be destroyed.
01:19 The key to the away team's salvation was the donation of blood by the remaining Enterprise
01:23 crew.
01:24 But it wasn't the AIDS allegory that saw the pitch rejected.
01:28 The script also included a same-sex couple of Starfleet officers, an addition that producer
01:33 Rick Berman was firmly against.
01:35 Citing the fact the episode would be airing in the afternoon in some regions, he didn't
01:40 want angry letters from mothers.
01:42 Gerrold put this down to homophobia and left the show when he realised that the Next Generation
01:47 crew were not interested in pushing the envelope.
01:49 After turning it into a novel, he was finally able to see Blood and Fire as an episode when
01:55 he was invited to adapt it for the fan series Star Trek New Voyages.
02:00 9.
02:01 Voyage's Dark Homecoming
02:03 Whilst Voyage's eventual homecoming was arguably just as abrupt, the original third season
02:09 finale was to open with the ship appearing over Earth to fanfare and fireworks.
02:15 Suspicious viewers would then be vindicated when, moments later, Janeway would murder
02:19 her fiancé Mark and the crew would be revealed to be alien duplicates intent on colonising
02:25 Earth.
02:26 Producer Brandon Braga pictured a scene where multiple Voyagers were heading towards a planet
02:31 in an invading force.
02:33 Another version of this storyline had the duplicate Voyager return to Deep Space Nine,
02:38 but unfortunately the writers' room couldn't make either concept work.
02:42 The story was abandoned in favour of the two-part Borg epic Scorpion, which introduced the character
02:47 of Seven of Nine.
02:48 That finale also introduced Species 8472, who later constructed their own replica Earth
02:54 in the fifth season episode In the Flesh.
02:57 Meanwhile, a replica Voyager crew would eventually feature in the episode's demon and cause
03:01 oblivion, proving that good Star Trek ideas don't stay abandoned for long.
03:07 8.
03:08 Kirk on Star Trek Enterprise
03:11 In a move that might have bolstered flagging ratings during Enterprise's fourth season,
03:16 the production team wanted to include William Shatner in a two-part story.
03:21 And with Shatner and series lead Scott Bakula both very keen, the writers began to work
03:25 out a workable way to include an older Kirk in the Star Trek prequel series.
03:31 Shatner pitched a concept which would allow him to play an older version of Tiberius.
03:35 The episode would reveal that the evil Mirror Kirk had been sent back in time rather than
03:40 executed.
03:41 When Archer's Enterprise come across the adrift Tiberius, he hijacks the ship's transporter
03:46 to attempt to return to the Mirror Universe.
03:48 Realising it no longer exists, he and Archer work together to discover that their meeting
03:53 is the divergent event that created the darker timeline.
03:56 Another concept revealed that the original Enterprise's chef was an ancestor of Kirk.
04:01 The chef is sent forward in time with Captain Archer to keep history on track when temporal
04:05 agents kidnap Kirk.
04:08 Shatner preferred his own concept of course, but neither storyline worked out due to negotiations
04:12 between Paramount and Shatner breaking down.
04:15 7.
04:16 The Day Q Went Mad
04:19 Of all the unmade Q stories on Star Trek, the most intriguing is Ronald D. Moore's
04:24 idea of what would happen if Q lost his mind.
04:28 The result of this omnipotent trickster god losing his grip on his sanity would have devastating
04:33 effects on the fabric of reality itself.
04:36 In his memo, Moore pitched an incredibly surreal cold open for the episode.
04:42 It would begin with Jean-Luc Picard walking down a contemporary New York street, still
04:47 in Starfleet uniform but carrying a briefcase.
04:50 Across the street, Will Riker was banging a loaf of bread against a building.
04:54 Meanwhile, a knight in shining armour is the local police officer, while a Klingon cab
04:58 driver cruises past Picard.
05:00 The camera pans across to an alleyway where a dishevelled Q in tattered clothes and living
05:05 on the street mumbles "I used to be a super being".
05:08 The writing team were behind Moore's wild vision of a Q episode, but it was eventually
05:13 vetoed by the producers.
05:15 It was potentially too weird for a network television audience.
05:19 But the idea of Q unravelling the universe as he unravels mentally is a strong one that
05:25 is prime for revisiting.
05:28 6.
05:29 Star Trek The Musical
05:30 The closest Star Trek has come to a musical episode is arguably Voyager's Virtuoso, where
05:36 the Doctor's opera singing enchants an alien race.
05:39 However, there have been numerous attempts to do a musical episode over the years.
05:44 Ronald D. Moore originally pitched a musical episode for The Next Generation, unfortunately
05:49 for Moore, who was a passionate advocate for the idea, none of the staff writers wanted
05:53 to take it on.
05:54 Moore attempted to pitch the idea again when he was working on Deep Space Nine.
05:58 Again, the writing staff weren't keen to do it.
06:01 The closest Deep Space Nine comes is in various scenes set at Vic Fontaine's holographic nightclub,
06:06 where Kira sings "Fever" and Sisko sings "The Best is Yet to Come".
06:10 The prospect of a musical episode reared its head again on Enterprise when Linda Park voiced
06:15 her desire to do a musical episode.
06:17 She was a trained ballroom dancer and wanted to showcase her own talents, as well as the
06:22 singing voices of Jon Billingsley, who played Phlox, and Scott Bakula, who played Archer.
06:27 It was another unsuccessful Star Trek musical pitch.
06:30 I mean, to me, Lower Decks seems like the natural home for a potential musical episode.
06:36 Number 5.
06:37 Star Trek's inverted slavery plotline.
06:40 While Star Trek dealt with racial tensions in the far more allegorical episode "Let
06:45 This Be Your Last Battlefield", Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to tackle these issues in
06:50 a far more overt fashion.
06:53 In his original series proposal, "Star Trek Is", Roddenberry provided a story concept
06:59 known as "Congo".
07:01 The central premise was the discovery of a planet that had parallel development to Earth's
07:05 own.
07:06 On this world, the white savages were enslaved by the black traders.
07:10 Writer Barry Trivers took Roddenberry's concept and adapted it into "Portrait in Black and
07:15 White", set on a militaristic planet where Lieutenant Uhura was the only crew member
07:19 allowed to communicate with the population.
07:21 As a southerner, DeForest Kelly was taken with the concept and disappointed that the
07:25 episode was never made.
07:27 It was rejected by NBC for being too violent and unacceptable for network television.
07:32 The script was worked on by a series of writers who attempted to make it more palatable to
07:36 network executives, but were ultimately unable to do so.
07:40 It was likely too incendiary a concept for network television to tackle in the 1960s,
07:45 and ultimately it's probably for the best.
07:48 Number 4.
07:49 Deep Space Jam Actor Siroc Lofton, who plays Jake Sisko,
07:55 once pitched an episode idea to the Deep Space Nine writers room.
07:58 It would have seen Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan go into space two years prior to 1996's
08:06 Space Jam.
08:07 In a subplot to an episode about one of Quark's schemes causing havoc on the station, Lofton
08:12 proposed a disagreement between Sisko and his son.
08:15 The source of their dispute would be Jake's newfound interest in basketball, to the disappointment
08:20 of his baseball-obsessed father.
08:22 Their argument would culminate in father and son receiving words of wisdom from Michael
08:26 Jordan in the holosuite.
08:27 At the time of Lofton's pitch, Jordan had left basketball to pursue a career as a baseball
08:32 player, thus bridging the gap between the two Sisko boys.
08:36 Lofton believed that the presentation of Jordan as both a basketball and baseball legend would
08:41 appeal to Michael Jordan's ego, but the Deep Space Nine production team weren't convinced.
08:45 The proposal was dropped, but Lofton enjoyed the experience even if he was more convinced
08:50 of Jordan's involvement than the production team were.
08:53 Avery Brooks had promised his on-screen son that he could get Jordan, because he was friends
08:58 with the star's father, but seeing as the idea was never picked up, Brooks never had
09:02 to call in that favour from James R. Jordan.
09:06 Number 3.
09:07 The Crushers' LGBT Story At a 1986 convention, Gene Roddenberry responded
09:14 to a fan question about LGBTQ representation in his upcoming Star Trek The Next Generation.
09:20 He acknowledged that it was time to feature gay crew members on the Enterprise, but as
09:25 demonstrated by the rejection of Blood and Fire, this never transpired in any meaningful
09:30 way.
09:31 Another rejected Next Generation episode was to push things further and explore themes
09:35 of identity, gender fluidity and sexuality.
09:39 Proposed by writer Rene Echevarria, the episode would focus on Wesley Crusher and his friend
09:44 Lowe's from the Academy.
09:46 The two are very close, but Lowe's decides to change his gender in order to become closer
09:50 to Crusher.
09:51 His species is able to biologically swap genders for a limited amount of time, so the episode
09:56 would explore the prospect of what a romantic relationship for the pair would be like.
10:01 It's a concept that is quintessentially Star Trek, and it would have given Will Wheaton
10:06 some strong thematic material to work with as a returning guest star.
10:10 But disappointingly and unsurprisingly, given the response to Blood and Fire, the story
10:16 was never picked up and developed into a finished episode.
10:20 Number 2.
10:21 Evil Chekhov According to actor Walter Koenig, the Next
10:25 Generation team were keen to have Chekhov make an appearance in the series.
10:29 Following in the footsteps of McCoy, Scotty and Spock, Chekhov would be the next original
10:34 series character to come into contact with the crew of the Enterprise-D.
10:38 The only issue which made it difficult for the writers was how to achieve this successfully.
10:43 One story outline worked on by story editor Naren Shankar would revolve around the character
10:48 being freed from a prisoner of war camp after decades.
10:52 Chekhov would work with the Enterprise crew to instigate diplomatic relations with his
10:56 former captors.
10:57 There would be a dark twist however, and it would transpire that Chekhov was actually
11:01 the villain of the week.
11:02 It would be revealed that he was using the situation to take revenge against his brutal
11:06 captors and avenge himself against the Federation for abandoning him.
11:11 The sabotage plot would be uncovered by Worf, the orphaned Klingon who had been raised by
11:15 Russians and saw Chekhov as a national hero.
11:18 It's a compelling story idea, but the idea to bring back Koenig was eventually dropped
11:23 by the production team.
11:25 Number 1.
11:26 Hitler's Dad
11:27 The original writer of this potential original series episode is unknown, but the presence
11:32 of the pitch document in the Roddenberry archives suggests it was an idea from the show's creator.
11:38 The episode would have revolved around a temporal scientist on board the Enterprise whose time
11:43 experiment accidentally brings aboard an Austrian from the 19th century.
11:47 The man is revealed to be Aloy Schickelgruber, who would adopt his stepfather's name Hitler
11:52 much later in life.
11:54 Aloy's Hitler would go on to father a young Adolf Hitler.
11:57 The Enterprise crew are then left with one of the most enduring conundrums in time travel
12:02 fiction.
12:03 Should they change the future by averting the birth of Adolf Hitler?
12:07 A thorny ethical debate over sterilization ensues involving a Jewish geneticist who's
12:11 a crew member on the Enterprise.
12:14 They eventually decide to send Aloy back to father his son, concluding that it was nurture
12:18 rather than nature that made Hitler the monster that he was.
12:21 It never developed any further than that original pitch idea, and I'd say that's probably for
12:26 the best.
12:27 Given the lingering trauma of World War II in the two decades between the end of the
12:32 war and the start of Star Trek, it would have been a very difficult tonal balance to strike.
12:38 And that concludes our list.
12:40 If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments below.
12:44 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
12:49 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
12:53 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
12:55 I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to boldly
13:00 go where no one has gone before.