It's always funny to look back at an idea and see ideas that creators came up that never came to the screen. These were ideas which for one reason another, such as budget or just realizing the idea was idiotic, never made it to the show. However, what's even more interesting is when an idea does make it to the show-before it gets dropped because creators realize it made no sense for one reason or another.
Here are five Trek examples of an idea that made it to air before vanishing.
Yeomans-TOS
I think most people know how and why Grace Lee Whitney left the show. But what is often overlooked is that not only did Janice Rand leave, but the whole concept did as well. The first pilot had a yeoman, who literally stood there looking worried all episode. In the series proper Rand was supposed to the captain's personal yeoman, and we see that in a couple early episodes where Rand is keeping his organized and serving him coffee. In one episode Kirk barks at the idea of a female yeoman because he doesn't need another female to worry about. I love 60's sexism, I mean it's not as if a female yeoman would be competent! Anyway as I think i mentioned before after Grace Lee Whitney was let go the yeoman's made less and less appearances on the show and Kirk certainly never had his own personal valet again.
Saucer Sep-TNG
Being someone who was very much around when TNG was being conceived, this is a favorite of mine. One of the cool things that the new Enterprise was supposed to be able to do was a saucer separation. The idea being the saucer section containing the families and children could get out of harms way and let the drive section do the fighting. This was proudly shown off in the pilot, and then used a whole two other times after. It would get mentioned a few times, but we never saw it again, And it makes sense, while a cool idea it would get annoying if every episode had to stop the story cold just to do this separation. Also if the danger to the families is that bad, why have them on the ship in the first place? And yes the idea was mentioned in the classic show and was supposed to be seen in the first movie, On paper it's cool but in reality all it does is slow the story down,
T'Rul (DS9)
When DS9 was reinventing itself and gave us the Defiant, it came with a very important condition. Part of the agreement for the use of the cloaking device was that a Romulan officer was supposed to be on board to monitor things. And that's what they did, with Martha Hackett in the role. Not a bad idea, since it causes tension having an enemy standing there watching over things. But for whatever reason the officer named T'Rul disappeared fast probably because creators didn't know what the heck to do with her. But Hackett was just fine as she ended up in the much more badass role of Seska on Voyager.
Janeway's Holo Novel-Voy
Much like with the saucer separation on TNG, the creators were really excited about this idea. Unlike that TNG example, I have no idea what made them think the idea would do anything but crash and burn. Since Voyager was thrown into the vast reaches of space, getting a romantic interest for Janeway would be tricky. There solution was that Janeway would use her off time to experience a "holo novel" which were supposed to be recurring with a story line and everything. They were boring as hell which even the creators must have figured out. They vanished fast and Janewa was given other chances for romance, some even included the holodeck but that's another story. It's one thing to do a holodeck episode but expecting viewers to be so invested they'd want to keep coming back week after week to a story that has nothing to do with the main series is ludicrous.
Temporal Cold War-ENT
Enterprise really tried hard but after a decent pilot it just had no idea what to do with itself. The temporal cold war, and the Suliban, were supposed to be the arc that set the tone of the show. And these awesome new villains no ever heard of before. Kind of lle how the Ferengi were suposed to the huge menace of TNG. However while the Ferengi would get retooled and did manage to make an impact, the Suliban were dull only having a CGI gimmick and the so called temporal cold war was just boring. Eventually it was all but dropped when Season 3 focused on the Zindi only to be quickly wrapped at the top of Season 4. So quickly wrapped we never even got full resolution, such as just who that future guy was supposed to. The concept involved someone from the far future influencing the 21st century..abd frankly I don't care I found the arc as dull as everyone else did.
Did I leave off any you think should be here? Comment and let me know.
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