These are the episodes that started life as one thing, only to be transformed in the writers' room
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00:00Half the fun in researching the episodes of Star Trek is finding out what they started
00:03life as, because as any writer will know, the first time you put pen to paper, it does
00:08not always resemble what it ends up becoming.
00:12With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture, and here are 10 Star Trek Voyager
00:16episodes that were almost completely different.
00:19Number 10.
00:20Tuvix.
00:21Tuvix, endlessly doing the rounds and debating circles, originally came to life in a plot
00:25that would ensure no one, least of all Neelix or Tuvok fans, would ever really remember
00:29the episode.
00:30In truth, it was originally going to be a slapstick comedy, one that even the writers weren't
00:34proud of.
00:35Kenneth Biller, Brannon Braga, and Michael Biller all worked on the script after the pitch
00:38came in.
00:39Biller recalled joking with Braga over how to name the character, Nuloc, Tuvix, surely
00:44not.
00:45The jokes got so bad at one point that the pair even came up with a little theme song for
00:48the show.
00:49Then there was the ending.
00:50In the beginning, Tuvix was going to sacrifice himself upon realizing that the ship needed
00:54Tuvok and Neelix to survive, and would go about separating himself to ensure that happened.
00:59No one was happy with this idea of a comedic character effectively killing themselves to
01:02return to the status quo, never to be mentioned again.
01:05Biller set about adding darker plot points, ditching the theme tune, and adding that ending
01:10with Janeway.
01:11The resulting episode remains a fan favourite for debate and discussion to this day.
01:16Number 9.
01:17In the Flesh.
01:18The fifth season episode of Star Trek Voyager saw the return of the dreaded enemy, Species
01:238472.
01:24While the episode was always planned to have the CGI beasts return, it started as something
01:28quite different, and arguably ridiculously expensive.
01:32The first idea had a photo from the past turn up in Voyager's archives, showing a member
01:36of 8472 in Earth's distant past.
01:39This would begin an investigation as to how and why the alien race was visiting Earth via
01:43time travel.
01:44This version of the episode would see a large space battle, as well as a dream sequence
01:48showing Janeway's hometown being wiped out by the bioships.
01:51The conclusion would have seen a beat of understanding between the two, before reinforcements arrive
01:56and Voyager had to escape at high warp.
01:58The idea sounds like it would have made for a truly spectacular show, one that would require
02:02the budget of a season finale or opener to truly pull off.
02:06The released episode, while very different, is far closer to the Star Trek ideas of the
02:10original series.
02:11The resolution comes from diplomacy rather than violence, which is far more in keeping with
02:15Janeway's character as well.
02:17Number 8, Scorpion.
02:18The finale for Voyager's third season and the opening of its fourth, Scorpion went through
02:22several variations before the writers landed on the idea of the Borg.
02:26In fact, to be more specific, the idea of the Borg was there early, though the Alliance
02:30had not been.
02:31Star Trek First Contact had recently been released to much fanfare, and the third season episode
02:35Unity had shown a colony of Collective as well.
02:38It was the decision to shake up the cast before the fourth season that pulled Scorpion forward.
02:43Fear of Hell, having been telegraphed in Before and After, was set to bridge the seasonal gap,
02:47though it ended up being pushed out to the first two-parter of season 4.
02:51Another idea for the episode would have seen Voyager and her crew triumphantly returning
02:54to Earth, basking in the fanfare before they are all revealed to be biometric duplicates,
02:59then proceeding to cause chaos on the planet.
03:01While the idea was shelved, the genesis of it would be recycled into the later episode
03:06Coarse Oblivion.
03:07Number 7, The Raven.
03:09The original idea for The Raven, according to then freelance writer and future starter
03:13Discovery showrunner before the first season's release, was very different from the episode
03:17that delivered.
03:18While the one that was offered to audiences saw one or two of Seven's Borg programs coming
03:23back online thanks to an old beacon waking them up, this is a largely non-violent presentation.
03:28The original idea was far, far more bloody.
03:32In this script, Seven was again reawakened by the Borg, but in this version she becomes a
03:36vengeful drone.
03:38She moves through the ship, killing crew and aliens at random before ending up in engineering.
03:42There she is dragging herself across the deck as Torres has blown her legs off, and though
03:46she is trying to destroy the ship she begs Janeway to kill her so as to save them all.
03:51Suffice to say, that script didn't go very far.
03:54Bran and Braga described it as an empty soulless piece of action, one that neither pushed the
03:58characters onward nor helped anyone learn anything about themselves.
04:02It was quickly scrapped and the newer, toned down script took its place.
04:06Number 6.
04:07Living Witness.
04:08Living Witness, directed by none other than Tim Russ, is often considered to be one of
04:11the best episodes in Star Trek Voyager's run.
04:14It's about as close to a Mirror Universe episode that the show approached, using its
04:18what-if scenario to tell a tale of a badly garbled interpretation of history.
04:22The one thing that was constant in all versions of the story was the image of the Doctor awakening
04:26in a museum in the future.
04:28There was some debate as to where the museum would be, with Rick Berman putting his foot
04:31down, it had to be the Delta Quadrant, so that the show could avoid confirming that Voyager
04:36ever returned home.
04:37In the early drafts, the Doctor discovered that he, in the past, had inspired cybernetic
04:42lifeforms to push for great reform in society, thus leading to their acceptance as equals on
04:47this world.
04:48While that was certainly an interesting idea, the writers also felt that it was more of a
04:51data story rather than a Doctor story.
04:54The change of arc, from returning messiah to witness of a very different history, completely
04:58flipped the story around, turning what had been quite a charming story of positive impact
05:03into a cautionary tale of how the truth is often misinterpreted and twisted.
05:07Number 5.
05:08Life Signs.
05:09This second season entry went through some large rewrites during production, including
05:13a complete change of the ending.
05:15The introduction of Dinara Pell offered a love interest for the Doctor, though her consciousness
05:19was not suited to a permanent holographic interface.
05:21This meant that the ending of the episode could go in one of two ways, something that
05:25executive producer Jerry Taylor felt passionately about.
05:28She advocated for the ending that was shot, rather than the initial idea.
05:31Pell would have originally opted to remain in her beautiful holographic body, despite
05:35the death sentence that it carried.
05:36She would have lived for a few more days and died, spending that time with the Doctor.
05:41Taylor felt that her choice to die, rather than live in a diseased body, was an irresponsible
05:45message to put out to the audience.
05:47In her opinion, it suggested that people with diseases were less deserving of consideration
05:51or respect.
05:52She pushed for the ending that was ultimately filmed.
05:54Pell returns to her body, aided as much as possible by the Doctor.
05:57This is the superior ending, in this presenter's opinion, as it displays a resolve to keep fighting
06:02the illness and never let it win.
06:04It also had the unintended side effect of leaving the door open for Pell to return in the later
06:08episode resolutions.
06:10Number 4.
06:11Hope and Fear.
06:12Close of Voyager's fourth season was a jumble of ideas before it eventually settled on Arturus,
06:16the Dauntless and the holographic game of Velocity.
06:19It was a standalone episode which presented the writers with a challenge, how to sum up
06:22a season, leave the audience ready for another, but do it all in 40 minutes.
06:27One of the earliest ideas was the introduction of slipstream technology, while the episode
06:30would also focus on the conflict between Janeway and Seven.
06:33There was even a pitch for Seven and Janeway to play a game of interstellar chicken, flying
06:37toward each other in opposing ships at breakneck speed.
06:40Another idea saw Voyager discovering, after deciphering Starfleet's message, a slipstream
06:44network.
06:45However, once they got inside, they would have found themselves to be trespassers, flying
06:48an antiquated ship targeted by the inhabitants of the stream.
06:52This was deemed a little too similar to Species 8472 and Fluidic Space, though before it was
06:57completely rewritten, Seven would commandeer an alien vessel with Janeway in hot pursuit.
07:02The one consistent theme between the drafts was the arc of Seven's humanity coming to a
07:06head with a fight or flight moment against Janeway, ultimately the final version, including
07:10Arturus, is the strongest idea of them all.
07:13Number 3.
07:14Night.
07:15Night was considered a risky season opener by the writing team, while the admittedly
07:18cool idea of the more realistic huge gaps in space between stars was fun to portray,
07:23the team had to figure out what the actual threat inside the void was going to be, other
07:27than Neelix's Nihilophobia that is.
07:29The original idea always had Voyager flying through a darkened area of space, but they would
07:32discover a planet that had somehow managed to form and evolve without any light or solar
07:37interference.
07:38Naturally, a landing party would travel down to the surface, where all sorts of craziness
07:41would ensue.
07:42The planet it transpired would have been akin to King Tutankhamun's tomb, though replete
07:47with half alive, half dead creatures defending its secrets.
07:50They would swarm the landing party and their vessels would come out from the nothingness ready
07:53to attack the ship itself.
07:55Writer Joe Minoski wrote about 10 pages of material around this before he and the rest of the team
07:59took a step back, took a breath, and realised that none of it was truly working.
08:03That was when they opted to concentrate on Janeway's melancholy, the introduction of
08:07the Maelon, and those badass looking void ships that sadly never returned.
08:11Number 2.
08:12Parallax.
08:13Parallax, the second episode of Star Trek Voyager, kicked off what would become a series
08:16of high concept episodes in the series.
08:19While the ultimate episode dealt with a duplicate Voyager and some time distortion, the original
08:23pitch was quite different.
08:24Jim Trombetta pitched the idea of finding a ship trapped in a quantum singularity, crewed by
08:29aliens who were a few steps removed from our reality.
08:32This pitch, titled Ghost Ship, interested Brannon Braga to the point that he bought it, but
08:36both he and executive producer Jerry Taylor felt that it would be too difficult to pull
08:40off.
08:41The episode sees Torres promoted Chief Engineer, which was a thread left over from Caretaker.
08:45This was a deliberate addition by Braga for a number of reasons.
08:48First, the obvious one was that Torres was always planned for the position, so that it
08:52needed to happen quickly.
08:53The second reason was to deal with the clashes between Starfleet and the Maquis.
08:57Torres, and Maquis herself, promoted to Chief over several Starfleet staff, such as Lieutenant
09:02Carey, was designed to piss off the Starfleet crew.
09:05For an episode that started as a ghost story, it ended up quite different.
09:08It may not have hit every note, but it was critical in establishing characters early on
09:12in the show's run.
09:13Number 1, Mortal Coil.
09:15Mortal Coil went through extreme changes in the scripting sessions, with Brian Fuller being
09:20told to drop tools and rewrite days of work twice along the way.
09:24Shannon Braga and Joe Minoski were responsible for the final version, though both commented
09:28on Fuller's excellent early drafts.
09:30The initial story pitch by freelancer Cathy Hankinson centered around a death fetishist,
09:35one who tricks the Doctor into killing and reviving them several times through the episode.
09:40Though that idea didn't get far, the idea of exploring death intrigued the writers.
09:44They then decided that Ensign Samantha Wildman would be killed on an away mission.
09:48It was soon decided that Borg Technology would revive her, though it would be similar to
09:52Pet Sematary, she would come back wrong.
09:55She would be more connected to death than life, with Naomi Wildman being her only link,
09:59which would lead Samantha trying to kill her.
10:02While the writers loved the idea, Rick Berman and the studio were nervous about showing a
10:05mother trying to kill her child.
10:07The character focus then shifted to Chakotay, with Fuller believing it could make for an interesting
10:11exploration of Native American attitudes towards death.
10:14Though this was quickly quashed as well, as many Native tribes had a less than positive
10:18view on the notion of an afterlife, which could have led to the episode being seen as distasteful.
10:23Finally, the episode settled on Neelix coming back from the dead, which is more than can
10:26be said for poor old Tuvix.
10:28That's everything in our list today folks, thank you so much for watching along, don't
10:31forget to check out the original article back on whatculture.com, thank you so much to
10:35our wonderful editor Martin who made all this possible, everyone remember that you can
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10:44as well.
10:45Don't forget to check out our podcast, which drops every Tuesday, catch you on ACAST or
10:49the podcast catcher of your choice.
10:51I have been Sean Ferrick, catch me on the various socials at Sean Ferrick and all that I want
10:56you to do for the next week is to look after yourself, stay safe, live long and prosper and
11:01remember you're a bit bloody brilliant.
11:03Thanks very much folks, bye.