10 Star Trek Voyager Episodes That Were Almost Completely Different

Half the fun in researching the episodes of Star Trek is finding out what they started life as

because as any writer will know, the first time you put pen to paper

it does not always resemble what it ends up becoming. With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture

and here are 10 Star Trek Voyager episodes that were almost completely different

Number 10. Tuvix. Tuvix, endlessly doing the rounds and debating circles, originally came to life in a plot that would ensure no one

least of all Neelix or Tuvok fans, would ever really remember the episode

In truth, it was originally going to be a slapstick comedy, one that even the writers weren't proud of

Kenneth Biller, Brannon Braga, and Michael Biller all worked on the script after the pitch came in

Biller recalled joking with Braga over how to name the character. Nulak, Tuvix, surely not

The jokes got so bad at one point that the pair even came up with a little theme song for the show

Then there was the ending. In the beginning, Tuvix was going to sacrifice himself upon realizing that the ship needed Tuvok and Neelix to survive

and would go about separating himself to ensure that happened. No one was happy with this idea of a comedic character effectively killing themselves to return to the status quo, never to be mentioned again

Biller set about adding darker plot points, ditching the theme tune, and adding that ending with Janeway

The resulting episode remains a fan favourite for debate and discussion to this day

Number 9, In the Flesh. The fifth season episode of Star Trek Voyager saw the return of the dreaded enemy Species 8472

While the episode was always planned to have the CGI beasts return, it started as something quite

different and arguably ridiculously expensive. The first idea had a photo from the past turn up in

Voyager's archives showing a member of 8472 in Earth's distant past. This would begin an

investigation as to how and why the alien race was visiting Earth via time travel. This version

of the episode would see a large space battle as well as a dream sequence showing Janeway's

hometown being wiped out by the bioships. The conclusion would have seen a beat of understanding

between the two before reinforcements arrive and Voyager had to escape at high warp. The idea sounds

like it would have made for a truly spectacular show, one that would require the budget of a

season finale or opener to truly pull off. The released episode, while very different, is far

closer to the Star Trek ideas of the original series. The resolution comes from diplomacy rather

than violence, which is far more in keeping with Janeway's character as well. Number 8. Scorpion

The finale for Voyager's third season, and the opening of its fourth, Scorpion went through

several variations before the writers landed on the idea of the Borg. In fact, to be more specific

the idea of the Borg was there early, though the Alliance had not been. Star Trek First Contact had

recently been released to much fanfare, and the third season episode Unity had shown a colony of

Collective as well It was the decision to shake up the cast before the fourth season that pulled Scorpion forward Year of Hell having been telegraphed in Before and After was set to bridge the seasonal gap though it ended up being pushed out to the first two of season four

Another idea for the episode would have seen Voyager and her crew triumphantly returning to

Earth, basking in the fanfare, before they are all revealed to be biometric duplicates

then proceeding to cause chaos on the planet. While the idea was shelved, the genesis of it

would be recycled into the later episode, Coarse Oblivion. Number 7. The Raven. The original idea for The Raven, according to then freelance writer and

future Star Trek Discovery showrunner before the first season's release, was very different from

the episode that delivered. While the one that was offered to audiences saw one or two of Seven's

Borg programs coming back online, thanks to an old beacon waking them up, this is a largely

non-violent presentation. The original idea was far, far more bloody. In this script, Seven was

again reawakened by the Borg, but in this version, she becomes a vengeful drone. She moves through the

ship, killing crew and aliens at random before ending up in engineering. There, she is dragging

herself across the deck as Torres has blown her legs off, and though she is trying to destroy the

ship, she begs Janeway to kill her so as to save them all. Suffice to say, that script didn't go

very far. Bran and Braga described it as an empty, soulless piece of action, one that neither pushed

the characters onward nor helped anyone learn anything about themselves. It was quickly scrapped

and the newer toned-down script took its place. Number 6. Living Witness

Living Witness, directed by none other than Tim Russ, is often considered to be one of the best episodes in Star Trek Voyager's run

It's about as close to a Mirror Universe episode that the show approached, using its what-if scenario to tell a tale of a badly garbled interpretation of history

The one thing that was constant in all versions of the story was the image of the Doctor awakening in a museum in the future

There was some debate as to where the museum would be, with Rick Berman putting his foot down

it had to be the Delta Quadrant, so that the show could avoid confirming that Voyager ever returned

home. In the early drafts, the Doctor discovered that he, in the past, had inspired cybernetic

lifeforms to push for great reform in society, thus leading to their acceptance as equals on

this world. While that was certainly an interesting idea, the writers also felt that it was more of a

data story rather than a Doctor story. The change of arc from returning Messiah to witness of a

very different history completely flipped the story around, turning what had been quite a

charming story of positive impact into a cautionary tale of how the truth is often misinterpreted and

twisted. Number five, Life Signs. This second season entry went through some large rewrites

during production, including a complete change of the ending. The introduction of Dinara Pell

offered a love interest for the Doctor, though her consciousness was not suited to a permanent

holographic interface. This meant that the ending of the episode could go in one of two ways

something that executive producer Jerry Taylor felt passionately about She advocated for the ending that was shot rather than the initial idea Pell would have originally opted to remain in her beautiful holographic body despite the death sentence that it carried She would have lived for a few more days and died spending that time with the doctor

Taylor felt that her choice to die rather than live in a diseased body was an irresponsible message to put out to the audience

In her opinion it suggested that people with diseases were less deserving of consideration or respect

She pushed for the ending that was ultimately filmed. Pell returns to her body aided as much as possible by the doctor

This is the superior ending, in this presenter's opinion, as it displays a resolve to keep fighting the illness and never let it win

It also had the unintended side effect of leaving the door open for Pell to return in the later episode resolutions

Number 4. Hope and Fear The close of Voyager's fourth season was a jumble of ideas before it eventually settled on Arturus, the Dauntless, and the holographic game of Velocity

It was a standalone episode, which presented the writers with a challenge. How to sum up a season, leave the audience ready for another, but do it all in 40 minutes

One of the earliest ideas was the introduction of slipstream technology, while the episode would also focus on the conflict between Janeway and Seven

There was even a pitch for Seven and Janeway to play a game of interstellar chicken, flying toward each other in opposing ships at breakneck speed

Another idea saw Voyager discovering, after deciphering Starfleet's message, a slipstream network

However, once they got inside, they would have found themselves to be trespassers, flying an antiquated ship targeted by the inhabitants of the stream

This was deemed a little too similar to Species 8472 and Fluidic Space

though before it was completely rewritten, Seven would commandeer an alien vessel with Janeway in

hot pursuit. The one consistent theme between the drafts was the arc of Seven's humanity coming to

a head with a fight or flight moment against Janeway. Ultimately, the final version, including

Arturus, is the strongest idea of them all. Number three, Knight. Knight was considered a risky season

opener by the writing team. While the admittedly cool idea of the more realistic huge gaps in space

between stars was fun to portray, the team had to figure out what the actual threat inside the

void was going to be, other than Neelix's Nihilophobia that is. The original idea always

had Voyager flying through a darkened area of space, but they would discover a planet that had

somehow managed to form and evolve without any light or solar interference. Naturally, a landing

party would travel down to the surface, where all sorts of craziness would ensue. The planet

it transpired, would have been akin to King Tutankhamun's tomb, though replete with half-alive

half-dead creatures defending its secrets. They would swarm the landing party, and their vessels

would come out from the nothingness ready to attack the ship itself. Writer Joe Minoski wrote

about 10 pages of material around this before he and the rest of the team took a step back

took a breath, and realized that none of it was truly working. That was when they opted to

concentrate on Janeway's melancholy, the introduction of the Malon, and those badass

looking void ships that sadly never returned Number 2 Parallax Parallax the second episode of Star Trek Voyager kicked off what would become a series of high concept episodes in the series While the ultimate episode dealt with a duplicate Voyager and some time distortion the original pitch was quite different Jim Trombetta pitched the idea of finding a ship

trapped in a quantum singularity, crewed by aliens who were a few steps removed from our reality

This pitch, titled Ghost Ship, interested Brannon Braga to the point that he bought it

but both he and executive producer Jerry Taylor felt that it would be too difficult to pull off

The episode sees Torres promoted to Chief Engineer, which was a thread left over from Caretaker

This was a deliberate addition by Braga for a number of reasons. First, the obvious one was that Torres was always planned for the position, so that it needed to happen quickly

The second reason was to deal with the clashes between Starfleet and the Maquis. Torres, a Maquis herself, promoted to Chief over several Starfleet staff, such as Lieutenant Carey, was designed to piss off the Starfleet crew

For an episode that started as a ghost story, it ended up quite different. It may not have hit every note, but it was critical in establishing characters early on in the show's run

Number 1. Mortal Coil Mortal Coil went through extreme changes in the scripting sessions

with Brian Fuller being told to drop tools and rewrite days of work twice along the way

Brannon Braga and Joe Minoski were responsible for the final version, though both commented on Fuller's excellent early drafts

The initial story pitch by freelancer Kathy Hankinson centered around a death fetishist

one who tricks the Doctor into killing and reviving them several times through the episode

Though that idea didn't get far, the idea of exploring death intrigued the writers

They then decided that Ensign Samantha Wildman would be killed on an away mission

It was soon decided that Bored Technology would revive her, though it would be similar to Pet Sematary

She would come back wrong. She would be more connected to death than life

with Naomi Wildman being her only link, which would lead Samantha trying to kill her

While the writers loved the idea, Rick Berman and the studio were nervous about showing a mother trying to kill her child

The character focus then shifted to Chakotay, with Fuller believing it could make for an

interesting exploration of Native American attitudes towards death, though this was quickly

quashed as well, as many native tribes had a less than positive view on the notion of an afterlife

which could have led to the episode being seen as distasteful. Finally, the episode settled on

Neelix coming back from the dead, which is more than can be said for poor old Tuvix

That's everything in our list today folks, thank you so much for watching along, And don't forget to check out the original article back on whatculture.com

Thank you so much to our wonderful editor, Martin, who made all this possible

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I have been Sean Ferrick. Catch me on the various socials at Sean Ferrick. And all that I want you to do for the next week is to look after yourself

stay safe, live long and prosper. and remember you're a bit bloody brilliant thanks very much folks bye