Star Trek Storylines That Disappeared Without Explanation

 

Star Trek Storylines That Disappeared Without Explanation

BY DYLAN ROTH   AUG. 2, 2021 5:04 PM EST

 

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When the original "Star Trek" series premiered in 1966, audiences didn't have much reason to expect long-running story arcs or a strict continuity from a television series. With very few exceptions, each episode of the original "Trek" introduces its own new alien cultures, planets, and guest stars whose stories are tied up neatly in about 50 minutes. Even major character developments like the death of a loved one or having your entire memory permanently erased by an evil space probe are totally forgotten in the next episode, and that was totally normal by the standards of 1960s television.

 

This had changed by the time "Star Trek" made the leap to the big screen in 1979 and returned to TV in 1986. Reruns and home video had made viewing audiences more sophisticated — they had a memory, now the stories had to as well. "Star Trek" as a whole (now consisting of over 800 episodes and films) has a pretty good track record of tying up loose ends, even when it's done sloppily. That doesn't mean there haven't been occasions when it feels as if the storytellers either forgot about a thread they'd left dangling or simply cut it off without comment. Here are a few of our favorite storylines from "Star Trek" — past and present — that seemed to have potential and then went nowhere.

 

Saavik was the future of Starfleet, until she wasn't

 

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"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" introduces Lt. Saavik, Spock's star pupil at Starfleet Academy. Saavik is a central character in "Khan," given significantly more screen time than Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, or Chekov — and it seems as if she's being set up to succeed Spock, who dies at the end of the film. In "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," Saavik again has a prominent role as a member of the party that discovers the reconstituted Spock on the Genesis Planet. But in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," Saavik has only a cameo, and she's left behind on Vulcan while the crew returns to Earth to face judgement for hijacking the Enterprise. Saavik is never referenced in the canon again.

 

While it didn't make it onto the screen, Saavik's disappearance actually did originally come with an explanation. A scene deleted from "Star Trek IV" would have explained that Saavik became pregnant from her sexual encounter with Spock on the Genesis Planet, and remained on Vulcan for her maternity leave. This would have provided Saavik a clear avenue to return in future stories, but instead, her journey simply ends.

 

Later, when creating the story for "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," screenwriters Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flynn wanted to bring back Saavik, but only if original actress Kirstie Alley was available to portray her. In Alley's absence, the new character of Lt. Valeris was created instead.

 

The missing parasites

 

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In "Coming of Age," a 1st season episode of "The Next Generation," the crew of the USS Enterprise comes under scrutiny from Starfleet Admiral Gregory Quinn, who believes that there is some sort of trouble brewing in Starfleet but will not elaborate. The Enterprise crew passes this inspection with flying colors, but still isn't privy to the nature of the investigation. The truth is revealed a few weeks later in "Conspiracy," when Picard and company encounter a sinister, unnamed race of parasites that has infiltrated the ranks of Starfleet by bodyjacking high-ranking officers — and they now have Admiral Quinn under their thrall. The Enterprise exposes the parasites' plot and (in an uncharacteristic display of brutality) kills their hive mother, but the episode ends with the ominous sound of a homing signal being sent into deep space, implying that the parasites would be returning.

 

This was not to be — the parasites never reared their ugly heads again. According to the official reference book "The Star Trek Chronology," the parasites were meant to tie in to the introduction of the Borg, who were originally envisioned as an insectoid race. It stands to reason that once the Borg were re-imagined as cyborgs, the connection was dropped. While the parasites were never referenced again, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" would have its own, more developed plotline centered around malevolent aliens infiltrating Starfleet as part of its years-long Dominion War arc.

 

Deanna and Worf broke up off-screen

 

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In the 5th season "Next Generation" episode "New Ground," Lt. Worf takes custody of his young son, Alexander, and struggles to adjust to life as a single parent. This storyline runs through the rest of the series, and gives him cause to interact with another member of the ensemble with whom he has little in common — Counselor Deanna Troi. Worf frequently seeks Troi's advice in handling his new responsibilities and his son's expectations. Their professional relationship grows into a friendship and, eventually, a romance. By the end of the series finale, "All Good Things...", they seem to be firmly established as a couple, the result of years of legwork by the storytellers.

 

So it's surprising that, after "All Good Things...", the Deanna/Worf relationship is totally forgotten. The next appearance for both characters is the film "Star Trek: Generations," during which they share no significant interaction. After this, Worf becomes a regular on "Deep Space Nine" where he apparently arrives unattached. He begins a romance with Jadzia Dax while Deanna rekindles her prior relationship with Will Riker in the "Next Generation" film series. While both final pairings are admittedly more satisfying, it's bizarre that Deanna and Worf's relationship is simply dismissed offscreen, leaving their breakup to be explored in the non-canonical novel "Triangle: Imzadi II."

 

Thomas Riker is still rotting in prison

 

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Introduced in the "Next Generation" episode "Second Chances," the man who would eventually call himself Tom Riker is a transporter duplicate of Commander William Riker. Tom is created years before "The Next Generation" even begins, when the crew of the USS Potemkin beams up a then-Lieutenant Riker, not realizing that their transporter beam has been split and a copy has been marooned on a deserted planet. This Riker spends eight years totally alone before he is discovered by the crew of the Enterprise and learns that another Riker has been living out his life.

 

In the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Defiant," Thomas poses as his "twin" in order to steal the advanced Starfleet warship USS Defiant for the Maquis, a rogue organization fighting a desperate guerrilla war against the occupying Cardassian Union. At the end of the episode, Thomas is forced to surrender to the Cardassians in order to save his crew, and sentenced to life in a labor camp. Major Kira Nerys, a former resistance fighter herself, swears to Thomas that he'll be rescued. This rescue never comes, at least not on screen, and this is the last time Thomas Riker is ever mentioned in any canonical "Star Trek" work. It's surprising that this story never got wrapped up, considering how eager actor Jonathan Frakes is to participate in all things "Trek." (He's appeared as Riker on six different series.) 

 

The Equinox crew disappears

 

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In the "Star Trek: Voyager" two-parter "Equinox," the Voyager crew encounters the USS Equinox, another Federation starship that's been lost in the Delta Quadrant for five years. Unlike Voyager, Equinox is in terrible shape due to lacking the magical "reset button" that restores Voyager to perfect condition after the end credits of every episode. In order to accelerate their journey home, the Equinox crew resorts to hunting sentient extra-dimensional beings and using their bodies for fuel, becoming mass murderers in the process.

 

At the end of the "Equinox" two-parter, Equinox is destroyed, leaving only five survivors aboard Voyager — two of whom had been featured characters throughout this story. This remainder of the Equinox crew, who followed unconscionable orders and participated in an attempt to destroy Voyager, are integrated into the Voyager crew. They are stripped of rank and put under constant surveillance. Captain Janeway tells the survivors that they'll have to work to earn her trust, but they never get that chance. The Equinox survivors are never seen or spoken of again.

 

Like the integration of the Starfleet and Maquis crew at the start of the series, the introduction of the Equinox refugees could have been the source of some interesting conflict in future stories. The Maquis subplot ran its course over about two seasons, but the Equinox and its survivors were forgotten immediately, ironically becoming one of the most prominent casualties of the "Voyager" reset button.

 

The Vaadwaur had no teeth after all

 

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In the "Voyager" episode "Dragon's Teeth," the crew discovers six hundred humanoids who have been in preserved in suspended animation for nine centuries, and Seven of Nine decides to revive them. This culture, the Vaadwaur, turn out to be a colonizing empire who once controlled a significant portion of the Delta Quadrant. This was accomplished via their mastery of a secret method of high-warp travel called the Underspace Cooridor. The Vaadwaur were forced into stasis by a resistance movement comprised of species from their occupied territories, after which they faded into myth.

 

By waking up the Vaadwaur, Voyager unwittingly unleashes a deadly threat upon the galaxy, one determined to reclaim and expand their territory and destroy or exploit anyone in their way. While they survive this first encounter, the episode ends with Seven and Captain Janeway pondering the greater implications of Seven's act of compassion, certain that they would be butting heads with the Vaadwaur again. And yet, apart from one of their ships being sighted in a potpourri group of vessels in an unrelated episode, there's no trace of the Vaadwaur for the rest of the series.

 

This was a serious missed opportunity for "Voyager." The nature of the protagonists' one-way journey through the galaxy made it difficult to justify recurring antagonists, leading to an over-reliance on the Borg. The Vaadwaur were a cool, fresh new villain who could easily have returned at any time, and never did.

 

The Borg insurgency apparently made no impact

 

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In the two-part "Voyager" episode "Unimatrix Zero," Seven of Nine discovers that there is a secret resistance movement building inside the Borg Collective. A quirk in the Borg's collective consciousness has allowed a small percentage of drones to commune with each other in a shared dreamspace while they recharge. On this plane, which they call Unimatrix Zero, they regain their original personalities and retain memories from previous visits. With some help from Voyager, these individual Borg are able to break free from the collective and function as free individuals, even commandeering a few Borg ships to take up arms against the Queen.

 

Though Unimatrix Zero itself is destroyed, the story ends with the news that a few of the liberated Borg ships are banding together to create an organized resistance movement, and that they would remain in touch with Voyager. A new wrinkle in the ongoing battle with the series' biggest bad would seem worthy of revisiting — but this development is never mentioned again, not even in the two-hour final episode that features Voyager's ultimate confrontation with the Borg Queen.

 

"Unimatrix Zero" also introduces Axum, a fellow Borg with whom Seven has developed a romantic relationship inside the shared dreamspace. Before the collapse of Unimatrix Zero, Axum makes a promise to Seven — "I'll find you." While the episode acknowledges how improbable their reunion would be, it still would have been less ridiculous than pairing her up with Chakotay at the last minute.

 

Ambassador Worf had a very brief tenure

 

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In the series finale of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "What We Leave Behind," much of the crew of the titular space station moves on to other assignments. This includes Lt. Commander Worf, who has been serving as DS9's Strategic Operations Officer. At the close of the series, Worf accepts an invitation to become the Federation's new ambassador to the Klingon Empire, now ruled by his close friend Martok. This is the completion of Worf's arc across 11 seasons and two television series, returning to Qo'nos after a lifetime of isolation from his people but doing so while still serving his adopted home in the Federation. He's spent his life split between two worlds, and now he can finally be a part of both.

 

Then came "Star Trek: Nemesis," the last feature in the "Next Generation" film series. Here, Worf has returned to his old post as chief security and tactical officer aboard the USS Enterprise with zero explanation whatsoever. This is particularly bizarre given how easily Worf's presence in "Nemesis" could have been explained — after all, the film opens with the wedding of two of his closest friends on the Enterprise's holodeck. Instead, he's just back in Starfleet, no further information offered. Like Worf's relationship with Troi, this dropped thread had to be explained retroactively in "Star Trek" novels, which depict Worf deciding that he does not have the temperament for diplomacy and resuming his Starfleet career where he left off.

 

Admiral Marcus starts a war we never see

 

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In "Star Trek Into Darkness," the second film in the rebooted "Kelvinverse" trilogy, militaristic Starfleet Admiral Alexander Marcus thaws out cryogenically-frozen genetic superman Khan Noonian Singh to help him develop the next generation of weapons and tactics. Marcus' stated motivation is to prepare the Federation for a war with the Klingons that he is certain is coming. Marcus plans to provoke the war on his own terms by sending the USS Enterprise to launch a first strike against the Klingon Homeworld. While this operation doesn't go exactly how Marcus expected, he's still certain that war with the Klingons is inevitable and that the Federation will be doomed if the likes of Captain Kirk are left in command.

 

The next film in the series, however, does not follow up on this thread at all. "Star Trek Beyond" is instead a more lighthearted standalone story (and a much better movie), but since no further installments of the Kelvinverse film series have yet been produced, the fallout from "Into Darkness" has never been explored. Granted, "Star Trek Into Darkness" is probably best forgotten altogether, and now that we've seen the Prime Universe's version of the Klingon/Federation conflict of the 2250s on "Star Trek: Discovery" (which was triggered by an entirely different set of events), there's not much excitement left in the prospect of seeing its Kelvinverse counterpart. Not every abandoned storyline is a tragedy — sometimes we're better off without.

 

The Spore Drive's environmental impact was immediately forgotten

 

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In the "Star Trek: Discovery" episode "An Obol for Charon," Ensign Tilly's body is inhabited by a jahSepp, a being from the mycelial realm through which USS Discovery travels using their experimental Spore Drive. The being, who has taken the form of Tilly's childhood friend May, tells Lt. Stamets that Discovery's jumps through the mycelial network have been devastating their ecosystem. Stamets, a staunch environmentalist, is prepared to shut down the project immediately, but before he does so, May abducts Tilly into the mycelial realm. In the next episode, "Saints of Imperfection," May reveals that she's brought Tilly into her world to hunt a "monster." This turns out to be Stamets' presumed-dead partner Dr. Hugh Culber, who is unwittingly damaging their habitat by his presence. When Culber is returned to normal space, this appears to satisfy May's concerns about her environment, but it doesn't seem as if it should.

 

When May first explains the damage to Stamets, she says it's been caused by "an alien intruder [who] began to arrive at random intervals," which perfectly describes the way Discovery uses its Spore Hub drive to travel through mycelial space. Culber, on the other hand, arrives in the jahSepp's realm upon his death, and then remains until his rescue — nothing random about it. "Saints of Imperfection" seems to toss out the idea of the Spore Drive as an environmental hazard without so much as a line of dialogue to explain it away.

 

Photons Be Free! (Or don't?)

 

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One of the running threads across all seven seasons of "Star Trek: Voyager" is the gradual evolution of the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram (or EMH, but usually just called "The Doctor") from a tool designed for short-term emergency use to a fully sentient being. Late in the series, The Doctor learns that other copies of his program, with the same potential for personhood, have been retired from service as physicians and forced into a life of manual labor. This inspires him to compose the semi-autobiographical political holonovel "Photons Be Free," whose publication becomes the first small step in establishing legal rights of personhood for sentient holograms.

 

The wheels of justice turn slowly and the parameters for holographic life are still sketchy at the end of "Voyager," but even by the time of "Star Trek: Picard," set 21 years later, nothing about the relationship between holograms and organic sentients appears to have changed. Holograms such as La Sirena's own EMH and other holographic crew supplements are still interactive programs with personalities, quirks, and preferences — and they still appear to be property. It's possible that these programs are deliberately limited in scope and potential as to avoid true sentience, thus remaining tools and skirting the issue of their rights. But given that "Picard's" first season is so preoccupied with the rights of physical artificial lifeforms, it's a bit strange that the implications on photonic life are ignored. Perhaps future seasons (or series) will explore this further.

 

 

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Scenes Star Trek Actors Regret Filming

BY DAVID L. LEBOVITZ   UPDATED: MARCH 27, 2025 10:37 AM EST

 

Star Trek can tell us wonderful things about the human condition. It can also be deeply, deeply embarrassing for both fans and the cast. On sheer volume alone, it makes sense that many episodes would be mediocre to bad, but some transcend that. Some caused the actors to silently protest. Others made the cast worry that they'd never live it down. And many are ones that all parties involved — cast, crew, producers, and fans — wish they could forget.

 

Though cast members may be reluctant to badmouth the show that's paid their bills for years, a few have talked about the Star Trek moments that evoke shame or confusion. A few were only there for a movie or even just one episode. Many others are lifers almost synonymous with the franchise. And thanks to the relentlessness fanbase, the convention scene, and intrepid journalists, we have answers to these shameful questions. Here are scenes that the Star Trek actors regret filming.

 

Jonathan Frakes truly regrets that Enterprise finale

 

Few people have been in more Star Trek projects than Jonathan Frakes as William Riker. This means, despite all the wonderful memories, the actor remembers a whole lot of bad moments. After all, Riker has many an ignoble scene, from becoming a himbo in the Next Generation episode "Angel One" to his time seducing the Space Irish in "Up the Long Ladder." Frakes himself called "Code of Honor" a "horrible racist episode" and allegedly tried to get it pulled from syndication.

 

However, the scenes he regrets the most aren't in The Next Generation. Instead, they come in his one-episode appearance in Enterprise, where he provided the framing story for the series finale "These Are The Voyages." He's admitted that his presence was a disservice to the regular cast of the show, as Riker permeates the episode, appearing at dramatic times that should belong to other characters. For example, when Trip is dying, the camera keeps panning to Riker, who's watching in the background. Even the last line of dialogue in the entire series is spoken by Riker — not Archer, not Tucker, not even T'Pol ... but Riker.

 

Frakes has called it an "unpleasant memory." Sure, he was delighted to work with Marina Sirtis again, but that was a small consolation for an awkward situation. "They said it would be a Valentine to the fans," Frakes said (via High-Def Digest), "but all of it ended up doing I think was hurting Scott Bakula's feelings." Bakula himself has never spoken about the finale, but writer/producer Brannon Braga called it "the only time Scott Bakula was ever mean to me," so tensions were there. 

 

Malcolm McDowell isn't crazy about Kirk's death scene

 

 

Malcolm McDowell played one of the most important villains in Star Trek history. As Dr. Tolian Sora in Star Trek: Generations, he was the force that united Jean-Luc Picard and James T. Kirk. He was also the man who, via weird bridge collapse, killed William Shatner's beloved character. While McDowell relishes being known as "the man who killed Kirk," he regrets how the scene went down.

 

In an interview with StarTrek.com in 2011, McDowell was asked what he thought about Kirk's death. He did not hold back. "If you have – which they had – this icon of American television, why the hell didn't they give him a spectacular death? Why did they give him such a really paltry death? Me shooting the bridge out or some BS whatever it was? They should have sent him off in a glorious fashion, and they didn't."

 

The scene originally had Soran shoot Kirk in the back before reshoots. McDowell also found this disappointing, and he lamented that they couldn't "have seen Shatner off in a big way." More than anything, he considers it a wasted opportunity. As he explained to Metro (via io9), "It was feeble, I thought, because I thought he deserved better."

 

Leonard Nimoy was embarrassed during this Star Trek episode

 

As Spock, Leonard Nimoy was there for many of Star Trek's greatest moments. It's easy to picture him performing a Vulcan nerve pinch or explaining how the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. But he was also front and center for one of Trek's worst hours, "Spock's Brain," an episode that was deeply embarrassing for him.

 

Though it aired a half century ago, perhaps no episode has come to symbolize Trek at its worst more than "Spock's Brain." The episode sees Spock's brain surgically removed and kidnapped by an alien species. Vulcan physiology lets their bodies stay alive for 24 hours without a brain, so Kirk goes hunting for it. Even for '60s sci-fi, that was a bridge too far.

 

In his autobiography I Am Spock, Nimoy singled it out as a particularly painful memory. "Frankly, during the entire shooting of that episode, I was embarrassed, a feeling that overcame me many times during the final season of Star Trek." It's worth noting that the final season also includes Spock jamming with space hippies, which he's never mentioned, but it isn't one of his finer moments, either.

 

There are two Star Trek moments that make Avery Brooks cringe

 

Though Deep Space Nine is considered the gritty Star Trek, it still had a fair number of foolish moments. These even included some from no-nonsense Benjamin Sisko. When asked what his least favorite scenes were, Avery Brooks said it was a tossup between two choices.

 

The first was in "Move Along Home," specifically the scene in which he and his crew had to sing a song and play space hopscotch to get past a door. "There's nothing wrong with the melody," he said. "It's the hopscotch part." He knew right away that he'd never live it down and jokingly said he's glad he didn't go home to Gary, Indiana, right after that.

 

The second was "Apocalypse Rising," in which he played a Klingon. This involved enough prosthetics that it necessitated a dentist appointment. But while he didn't want to do it, Brooks had no choice — it was "pay or play" — but he wants fans to know that he didn't like it. As he put it, "The resistance you observe with Sisko playing a Klingon was real."

 

William Shatner has some strong opinions about Kirk's farewell

 

William Shatner has spent more time than anyone as the face of Star Trek. And when you're the head honcho of the USS Enterprise, this comes with many great moments, but it also comes with many deeply embarrassing ones. Some of these were a product of the time period. Others were a product of Shatner's own ego. But the scene he publicly regrets most is his final scene.

 

Star Trek: Generations ends with Captain Kirk's death, one that never quite sat right with fans. It never quite sat right with Shatner, either. When asked by Crave Online whether he was satisfied with Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations, Shatner said, "No, no, I would have done something else."

 

According to Shatner, the suits at Paramount figured the Star Trek franchise might make a lot more money (hopefully $200 million) if they included the Next Generation cast. They also allegedly reasoned that there wasn't much milk left in the Original Series cash cow. So it was a perfect time for Kirk to meet Picard. However, the filmmakers also realized they needed to up the stakes by killing off a character in Generations. And specifically, they wanted to kill James T. Kirk.

 

So as Shatner explained to TrekMovie.com, he was presented with two options. "It was either I was going to appear and die, or they were going to say he died. So, I chose the more practical of the two." This led to his ultimately unremarkable death scene, where his death is less "noble sacrifice" and more "bridge collapse."

 

Between the lackluster box office — which hit $118 million, meaning they didn't even break their ceiling — and the pathetic death, Shatner wasn't happy. "I wish," he said, "that there had been more trumpets for the death of the character.

 

Alexander Siddig absolutely hated a certain DS9 storyline

 

Dr. Julian Bashir received some backlash during Deep Space Nine's early days. He was seen as boring, brash, and worst of all, kind of annoying. But while the producers had a plan to make him more interesting, this blindsided actor Siddig El Fadil, who now goes by Alexander Siddig. It started a storyline that he had no say in and wanted no part of, and in fact, he eventually forced the regretful storyline to stop.

 

"Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" reveals that Bashir was genetically modified as a child, which made him much smarter. But Siddig didn't learn about this plot development until the day before shooting. He was upset that the producers wouldn't go over a major character arc with the actor actually playing the character. This was, in his estimation, a response to the character's unpopularity and an attempt to turn him into another Data.

 

"I did it the only way that an actor can," he said to TrekMovie.com, when asked how he coped. "I completely destroyed the lines that they gave me regarding the situation." He tanked the storyline, putting no effort into it. One time he "pinned the lines to the back of someone's shoulders" to read them. He also "pinned them around the office as if they were lines needed for daily modification." The producers eventually got the literal and figurative memo, and the story was phased out.

 

Connor Trinneer majorly regrets his death scene

 

 

Though Enterprise is by and large considered a malign part of Trek's history, fans still have an affection for it. And few characters from the series get more love than Trip Tucker, played by Connor Trinneer. Tucker was front and center for some of the show's best moments, such as dealing with the ethics of cloning in "Similitude," captaining the ship in "Twilight," and getting pregnant in "Unexpected."

 

He was also there for one of the franchise's worst hours, Enterprise's finale, which specifically included his pointless death. And it's been a source of frustration, if not regret.

 

Trinneer has the same criticisms of "These Are The Voyages" that most fans do. By including characters from The Next Generation, it did a disservice to the Enterprise crew. While it was nice to see Riker and Troi, it meant that the finale was just another TNG episode.

 

More importantly, Trinneer hates the way Tucker died, nearly blowing himself up to ward off exactly two attackers. He found the death arbitrary and rash, telling Trek Today, "I've gotten out of much worse scrapes than that." Trinneer does count himself as lucky in one way, though — at least he got an ending. As he explained to TV Guide, "I'm the only one who went out with a bang ... no pun intended. I got the goodbye no one else did."

 

Gates McFadden can't stand that Star Trek episode with the lamp

 

Every crew member on The Next Generation had a skeptical streak, but few were more grounded than Dr. Beverly Crusher. Spending six seasons as the chief medical officer of the Enterprise demands it. But there's also actress Gates McFadden, who to this day is baffled by what the writers were thinking when they gave her "Sub Rosa."

 

"Sub Rosa" is often listed as one of the worst episodes of The Next Generation. An attempt at Gothic romance in space, the story — in somewhat reductive terms — involves Beverly falling in love with a ghost inhabiting a lamp. It's worth mentioning that this lamp ghost has also seduced several generations of her family.

 

As maligned as the episode is, criticism rarely falls to McFadden, who put on a particularly intimate performance without showing anything explicit. That's a credit to her as a performer, and content aside, the nature of the story gave the actress some enthusiasm. She called it "thrilling" to be "outside her uniform" and perform in a more creative way.

 

Nonetheless, she found the whole concept absurd. The script was written by Jeri Taylor, who some cast members credit with improving the writing for female characters. That seems to have made it more confusing for McFadden. As she explained at the 2012 Austin Comic-Con, "I was reading this, going, 'This woman became a doctor, and she's in love with a lamp?'"

 

Armin Shimerman regrets the first time he played a Ferengi

 

Armin Shimerman is best known as Quark on Deep Space Nine. But years before DS9 was even conceived, he had a part as a Ferengi on The Next Generation. And not just any Ferengi, either, but one of the first ones ever put to screen. 

 

He regrets every second of it.

 

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry imagined the Ferengi as the main antagonists for TNG. They were introduced in "The Last Outpost," just a few episodes into the new series. The Ferengi were meant to be menacing, threatening, and anything but funny. Nonetheless, they came across as comical, and the episode is held in low regard to this day. Their credibility as villains tanked, and they were mostly comic relief until Deep Space Nine. Shimerman blamed himself, telling Gamespot that he "failed miserably" and that "no one one bears the brunt of that mistake more than I do."

 

So Shimmeman approached Quark as an attempt to salvage the Ferengi. "All of my work on Deep Space Nine, for the first four seasons, was me trying to eradicate that original performance from everyone's mind."

 

Teri Garr doesn't like talking about her Star Trek appearance

 

One of the all-time comedic actresses, Teri Garr has played in classics like Tootsie, Young Frankenstein, and After Hours. She also played Roberta Lincoln in "Assignment: Earth," the season two finale of The Original Series. It was one of her first speaking parts, and she later credited it in her autobiography with getting her real roles. That doesn't mean she likes it or even wants to talk about it.

 

Gene Roddenberry intended "Assignment: Earth" as a backdoor pilot to a new series, hedging his bets in case Star Trek got canceled. Ultimately, Star Trek got a third season, and "Assignment: Earth" remained a standalone episode. But years later, when interviewed for Starlog magazine, Garr expressed resentment towards the role. "I did that years ago," she said, "and I mostly deny I ever did it."

 

Garr is cagey about why it was a negative experience. Part of it likely had to do with Roddenberry, who was especially hands-on in hoping this would get picked up as a pilot. Producer Bob Justman, in his book Inside Star Trek, theorized that a costuming incident may have played a part. Roddenberry allegedly wanted Garr's skirt shortened to be more revealing.

 

Whatever happened, it was enough to sour her on the whole franchise and fanbase. She was glad "Assignment: Earth" never launched, saying, "Otherwise, all I would get would be Star Trek questions for the rest of my natural life — and probably my unnatural life. You ever see those people who are Star Trek fans? The same people who go to swap meets."

 

Garrett Wang has regrets about what could've been

 

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Garrett Wang doesn't openly regret many scenes he played as Ensign Harry Kim. Rather, he regrets the scenes he didn't get to play — namely, any as a senior officer.

 

Wang still takes umbrage with the fact that Harry remained an ensign throughout Star Trek: Voyager. "I mean, come on people!" he said to StarTrek.com. "Kim was probed, beaten, tortured and held the distinction of being the first Voyager crew member to die and come back to life. What more does a guy have to do to get promoted to lieutenant for frak's sake?" This was made worse by the fact that Tuvok and Tom Paris were both promoted during the series, despite being members of the Maquis.

 

Wang called writer/producer Brannon Braga during the fourth season to ask why Harry hadn't been promoted. He was told, "Well, somebody's gotta be the ensign." He became so frustrated by this that he even appealed to Kate Mulgrew, Captain Janeway herself, about it. He finds this hilarious in hindsight. 

 

He also regrets that he was never given a chance to direct an episode, saying that he's the first Trek cast member to be outright denied a chance to step behind the camera. Wang thinks the most likely reason for this was an off-the-record comment he made to TV Guide early in the series where he complained that human characters weren't allowed to show emotion.

 

Read More: https://www.looper.com/201989/scenes-star-trek-actors-regret-filming/