10 Abandoned Star Trek Ideas That Would Have Been Incredible
Given how much Star Trek there is, let's check out how much there isn't!
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00:00 Hello my friends, Sean Ferrick here for Trek Culture and today's video is brought to
00:03 you by Star Trek Fleet Command.
00:05 Hooray!
00:06 More on that now in a second.
00:07 When Star Trek first hit the screens in 1966, there were a lot of ideas that were swirling
00:12 around this brand new show and what Roddenberry's team of writers could come up with.
00:16 Ideas and suggestions abounded, with entire fleshed out proposals dismissed and hastily
00:21 rewritten.
00:22 Plot threads and episode ideas were hashed out and rehashed out over and over again until
00:27 a finished product could be brought to screen.
00:29 While some stories and ideas would fall foul of creative differences, some would be discarded
00:34 due to scheduling conflicts and production difficulties.
00:37 This is true of almost every television show, but given just how vast the franchise of Star
00:42 Trek has become over the decades since Captain Kirk first sat in the Captain's chair, there's
00:46 a lot that was left on the cutting room floor.
00:49 With a fanbase as passionate as Trek's, it's no surprise that many of these details have
00:53 been dug up and discussed at length.
00:56 So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, and here are 10 abandoned Star Trek
01:00 ideas that would have been incredible.
01:03 But first, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, Fleet Command.
01:10 Fleet Command is a free to play game available on both iOS and Android, and it's available
01:14 via the link in the description to this video.
01:17 You may be wondering why I'm dressed this way while talking about Fleet Command.
01:21 I think you know where this is going.
01:23 Star Trek Strange New Worlds is coming to Fleet Command.
01:27 Yes, that is true.
01:28 To coincide with the launch of the show on Paramount+, it is launching in-game.
01:33 What does that mean?
01:34 It means you get to use the souped up Enterprise.
01:36 It also means you get to use the holodeck, which is a little bit cool.
01:39 But we have new characters coming.
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01:51 Of course, as you know, the game itself is open world.
01:53 It's constantly evolving, so there's always new games, new things to do.
01:57 In fact, there's more than 25 new missions on the way with Strange New Worlds as well.
02:02 There's also a little bit of a surprise for those of you who feel he didn't get his due.
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02:13 Now, initially, he's only going to be available on PC before he extends into the mobile game
02:16 as well, so make sure that you grab him while you can.
02:19 Just to say again, thank you so much to Fleet Command.
02:21 It is available via the description in the link to this video.
02:24 Straight away, let's go.
02:25 Number 10 - Maurice Hurley's Plans for Q
02:29 After the tumultuous production of The Next Generation's first season, head writer Maurice
02:33 Hurley was ready to pack in the whole bridge crew and start afresh.
02:37 He had said in an interview with William Shatner that he had hoped to kill off the main cast
02:41 and build the second season around finding a new crew for the Enterprise.
02:45 Pretty drastic.
02:46 Maurice Hurley eventually left the show at the end of the second season, and the 1988
02:51 writers' strike put paid to many of his plans.
02:54 Many of the episodes that he had intended weren't produced, and those that did make
02:57 the screen were often last-minute replacements to scrapped plans.
03:01 Hurley's plans for Q would have been extensive.
03:04 The idea was that early in the second season, Q would pay another visit to the Enterprise
03:08 to torment Picard and warn him of the dangers that were out there.
03:12 Because of this, Q would be stripped of his powers and have to live on the Enterprise
03:16 for a time, until he was able to regain his abilities.
03:19 If all of this sounds familiar, it's because this plot was condensed into two episodes,
03:24 Q Who and Deja Q.
03:25 The missing Q arc was essentially Q having to adjust to humanity and learn how to get
03:29 along with Picard as an almost equal.
03:32 Ronald D. Moore later commented that Hurley's plans were more plot-focused, and after his
03:37 departure from the series, the show became much more character-focused.
03:41 He stressed that they didn't want to overuse characters like Q, which this arc may well
03:45 have done.
03:46 Privately, however, there was one difference in Q Who that didn't make it into this arc.
03:51 Q wouldn't have introduced humanity to the Borg.
03:53 That would have been something else entirely.
03:56 Number 9.
03:57 Maurice Hurley's plans for the Borg
03:59 Q wasn't the only Season 2 plan that Maurice Hurley had to leave by the wayside.
04:04 Initially, his plans were for the first season finale episode, "The Neutral Zone," to be
04:08 the first of two parts.
04:10 The second part would focus on the Enterprise and the Romulans being forced to work together
04:15 to unravel the mystery of the missing colonies in both their territories.
04:19 The answer to that mystery?
04:20 A migratory, insectoid, hive-mind species called the Borg.
04:24 That's right, in the eyes of the man who came up with them, the Borg weren't meant to be
04:28 a race of cyborgs.
04:30 They were meant to be Space Army Ants.
04:32 They were extracting all materials from planets in their way.
04:35 The Enterprise would discover that they were heading deeper and deeper in the Federation,
04:39 and would have to scramble to collect allies in facing off against this threat.
04:43 The Romulans and Klingons would be among them.
04:46 This plan would have seen the complete defeat of the Borg at the conclusion of the second
04:50 season.
04:51 Just think on that for a moment.
04:52 The Borg were only meant to appear for a single season, and they weren't introduced by Q.
04:58 Perhaps it's for the best that the writers striked through these plans asunder, because
05:01 afterwards Maurice Hurley left the show and it took a very different direction.
05:05 A better one?
05:06 Perhaps not, but a fascinating one, certainly.
05:09 8.
05:10 Giant Ferengi
05:12 A script by Stephen DeKnight for Deep Space Nine was simply going to be called "Giant,"
05:16 and would have placed a humorous bent on Ferengi evolution.
05:20 Worf, while accompanying Jadzia Dax for a drink in Quark's bar, would have found a Ferengi
05:24 hitting on Jadzia and angrily dismissed him.
05:27 He would have uttered the line "There's no honor fighting a single Ferengi," only to
05:31 hear "I'd say the same thing about Klingons" from behind him.
05:35 Worf would then be faced with a Ferengi who was at least his equal in height and body
05:39 mass, and the two of them would engage in a traditional barroom brawl.
05:43 Eventually, it would turn out that these two Ferengi, one little and one large, were brothers
05:47 on the run from Ferengi space.
05:50 Worf and Dax would have been tasked with escorting them back there, discovering that the two
05:53 of them had discovered a scientific formula to activate the genes for physical strength
05:58 and prowess that was deep within the Ferengi genome.
06:01 They explained that Ferengi were once large and strong, but had developed down an evolutionary
06:05 path to be smaller, sneakier, and thus not considered a threat by larger species.
06:10 When the four of them were attacked by Jem'Hadar on the way, they'd all have to work together
06:14 to survive.
06:15 Eventually, Worf would have to acknowledge the history of the Ferengi as warriors in
06:19 their own right.
06:20 Could have been fun.
06:22 7.
06:23 Ronald D. Moore's obsession with musicals
06:26 Yes, before Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit us with its beloved musical episode, Ronald D.
06:31 Moore wanted the next generation to have a musical episode.
06:35 When the idea didn't go over particularly well there, he attempted to get it made on
06:38 Deep Space Nine, and was again shot down.
06:41 Ron's ideas were never fully fleshed out.
06:43 His desire sprang simply from thinking that making a musical episode for either show would
06:47 be fun.
06:48 He's quoted as saying, "There's some tech virus that infects the crew and they can only
06:52 communicate in song, you know?
06:54 And just do it and have a ball."
06:55 Alas, nobody was interested in pursuing it, and the idea went nowhere.
06:59 Coincidentally, Linda Park pushed to have a musical episode on Enterprise as well, given
07:04 that she was a trained singer, as were John Billingsley and Scott Bakula.
07:08 This idea didn't go anywhere either.
07:10 Given the enduring popularity of Buffy's Once More with Feeling, maybe it might have been
07:14 wise to cash in on the musical vibe.
07:16 Also, has anyone attempted to adapt that Buffy episode into a stage show yet?
07:20 If not, why not?
07:22 6.
07:23 The literal year of hell
07:24 Scuttlebutt would have us believe that the plans for Voyage's year of hell were much
07:28 more extensive than the two-part episode that we eventually received.
07:32 While this two-parter was sufficiently brutal as we witnessed the degradation and crippling
07:36 of our beloved Voyager over an extended period of time, it could have been more.
07:41 The plans for the year of hell were for it to have spanned an entire season, with the
07:45 Crennan temporal ship haunting them for more than 20 episodes.
07:49 Voyager would have accumulated more and more damage as time went by, as there would be
07:53 nowhere for the ship to repair itself and they would slowly lose crew members.
07:57 The two-part episode did do an excellent job of conveying the damage that Voyager is continually
08:01 subjected to, but picture that breakdown spread over a whole season.
08:06 Picture the sense of loss and isolation that could have been worked into the very fabric
08:09 of the show as it progressed, mirrored by the increased frustration of Anorak's as he
08:14 tries to shape an entire quadrant to his liking until it's unrecognizable.
08:18 The ultimate conclusion of the season would still have been the same, with Janeway destroying
08:22 both the crippled Voyager and the Crennan timeship in a spectacular final space battle.
08:27 Eventually the plans for the season-long arc were reduced to the two-part episode we watched,
08:31 and Jerry Taylor and Bran and Braga felt that a season-long investment that would be reversed
08:36 at its conclusion was too much for the audience to bear.
08:39 Voyager for all of the excellent solo episodes that are within it, overall lacked cohesion
08:43 as a series, and this missed opportunity could have paved the way for more overarching stories,
08:48 the kind that Voyager's very premise demanded.
08:51 But it wasn't to be.
08:53 Number 5.
08:54 Who's Killing the Great Voyagers of the Delta Quadrant?
08:57 And why, yes, that title is directly taken from Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe.
09:01 The premise of this episode, put forward by Brian Fuller, was to follow the adventures
09:05 of several alternate reality Voyagers.
09:08 These different Voyagers are being systematically hunted down and destroyed by an unknown force
09:13 that can somehow jump between these realities.
09:16 Ideas included a completely Klingon version of Voyager, where the Klingon Empire had defeated
09:20 the Federation back in Kirk's day, complete with Kate Mulgrew in full Klingon makeup,
09:25 and a version that was completely crewed by holograms as well as a few others.
09:29 Eventually, our Voyager and her captain Janeway would discover what's happening.
09:33 They would be confronted by another Voyager, this one commanded by Chakotay, whose Marquise
09:37 crew had overwhelmed the Starfleet crew.
09:40 This alternate Chakotay had become convinced that Janeway was responsible for them being
09:44 stranded in the Delta Quadrant, and while he had found a way to jump timelines, he hadn't
09:48 yet found a way to cross the vast distance to return home.
09:52 While this episode never panned out, it would have given Chakotay a lot more to do and probably
09:56 would have been pretty fun.
09:57 We'd already seen Worf jump from timeline to timeline in the Next Generation episode
10:01 Parallels, so why not a rampaging alternate Voyager?
10:05 4.
10:06 The Tantalus Prison of James T. Kirk
10:08 You all remember the Tantalus device, yes?
10:11 It was a minor plot point in the classic original series episode "Mirror, Mirror."
10:15 When Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty are transported to the Mirror Universe by a
10:20 freak ion storm, Kirk discovers a device in his opposite number's quarters.
10:25 This is the Tantalus device, something that could simply make a selected target completely
10:29 disappear.
10:30 This device later cropped up in the palace of Emperor Georgiou when she used it to keep
10:34 an eye on a wayward Michael Burnham.
10:37 Frequent Star Trek novelist Judith and Garfield Reeve-Stevens had pitched a two-part episode
10:42 for Star Trek Enterprise that featured the Tantalus device, where it would have been
10:46 revealed that it didn't kill people at all.
10:48 It simply transported them back in time, about 150 years, to an isolated penal planet.
10:54 Since Mirror Spock, resplendent in his goatee, had used the device on Mirror Kirk just after
10:58 the end of "Mirror, Mirror," this means that Kirk could still be there in the 2150s, when
11:03 Captain Jonathan Archer and his crew would find him.
11:06 You see, in the original pitch for this episode, the Mirror Universe hadn't been created by
11:11 the 2150s.
11:12 It didn't exist yet.
11:14 Mirror Kirk and Archer would have tried to figure out what happened to it, and somehow,
11:18 in some grave experiment, they would have accidentally created it.
11:22 Yes, the plans for the Mirror Universe episode "In a Mirror Darkly" originally included a
11:26 role for the evil version of Captain Kirk.
11:29 While the episodes we did receive were amongst the strongest of Enterprise's fourth season,
11:33 just imagine having had Kirk in the mix as well.
11:36 3.
11:37 The First Season of Enterprise
11:39 So, the first season of Enterprise could have turned out very different from the one that
11:43 we watched.
11:44 The pitch by Rick Berman and Brandon Braga was for a show that was set entirely on Earth,
11:48 for the first season, at least.
11:50 Much of the premise still made it into pilot episode "Broken Boat," but some of the plot
11:54 points from the fourth season, such as anti-alien resentment amongst some humans, would have
11:59 made it into this storyline.
12:01 Essentially, the series would begin with first contact with the Klingons, which would have
12:05 left Starfleet Command scrabbling to finish their first warp-five-capable ship.
12:09 So far, so familiar, but there was no temporal Cold War in this proposal, and humanity would
12:14 have stumbled at the first hurdle.
12:16 The brand new Enterprise would have been destroyed in its first attempt at a launch, leading
12:20 the design team to go back to the drawing board.
12:22 Eventually, this idea was rejected, and the show we got was a lot more like its predecessors
12:27 in the original series, The Next Generation, and Voyager.
12:30 Eventually, Enterprise would shake up its format with The Zindi War, but the first two
12:34 seasons were not what they could have been.
12:37 2.
12:38 The Godhead
12:39 A scrapped episode from the third season of the original series, The Godhead was meant
12:43 to be the 26th episode.
12:46 This would have put it to be the very last, beating out the somewhat troublesome turnabout
12:50 intruder.
12:51 In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise would have discovered an ancient alien race
12:55 that had discovered a way to accumulate all of their vast knowledge and place it inside
12:58 a single person.
12:59 While the details of who this single person were to be weren't released, it was likely
13:04 to have been one of the crew, but unlikely to have been either Kirk or Spock.
13:08 Whoever they turned out to be, the Godhead themselves would have been driven mad with
13:12 power and would have become determined to use the Enterprise to conquer the galaxy.
13:16 This story was actually put into the first stages of production, but the final two episodes
13:20 of the third season were cancelled by NBC, and this one never saw the light of day.
13:25 The Godhead is one of many original series episodes that could have been.
13:30 In fact, our very own Bri has made a whole video talking about them, which includes some
13:34 Oscar-worthy acting by Adam Cleary, so be sure to check that out.
13:37 But for now, number one.
13:39 Star Trek The Beginning
13:41 The tentative title for an eleventh film that never came to pass, The Beginning was meant
13:46 to be the first of a trilogy of films that bridged the gap between Star Trek Enterprise
13:50 and Star Trek The Original Series.
13:53 A full treatment was approved and multiple versions of the script were written, but the
13:56 project fell apart in favor of going with J.J. Abrams' reboot film in 2009.
14:02 Set four years after the events of Terra Prime, the United Earth's Stellar Navy is being folded
14:07 into Starfleet, and a few officers are resentful of the move.
14:10 One called Tiberius Chase has family ties back to the Terra Prime movement, who wanted
14:14 to drive all alien influence from Earth.
14:17 Somewhat suddenly, a massive Romulan attack fleet emerges from behind Earth's moon.
14:21 They demand for Earth to turn over all of the Vulcans living on the planet, to which
14:26 Admiral Gardner refuses and manages to rally Starfleet and UESN forces.
14:31 When the Romulans are just barely driven off, it's discovered that the Romulans are planning
14:34 to regroup with reinforcements.
14:36 Tiberius Chase and his band of survivors track down the nuclear stockpile of an isolationist
14:41 group, then hijack the USS Spartan from its dry dock in Saturn and attempt to bring the
14:46 war to the Romulans.
14:48 This would be the opening moves of the much-talked-about Earth-Romulan War, during which the two sides
14:53 did not see each other face-to-face.
14:55 The war was fought entirely in ships, and a subsequent Neutral Zone Treaty was negotiated
15:00 over subspace transmission.
15:01 In one final detail, Tiberius Chase would be sending letters to Penelope Gardner, the
15:06 daughter of Admiral Gardner, who was a schoolteacher in Iowa, where a certain captain was born.
15:11 While the 2009 reboot of the franchise seemed like a better bet, the franchise lost a lot
15:17 by not following through with this project.
15:19 But given how much of Star Trek there is, we, its faithful fans, must always remember
15:23 that there were so many more ideas out there.
15:26 Many would have sucked, but so many would have been just awesome.
15:29 In theory, out there in an alternate timeline, they all got made for our viewing pleasure.
15:34 Just think on that one.
15:35 And that concludes our list.
15:37 If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments below.
15:40 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
15:44 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
15:48 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
15:50 I've been Ellie with Trek Culture.
15:52 I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
15:57 (upbeat music)