A Brief Guide to Star Trek

Leave II’.
    Jerome Bixby wrote four episodes for
Star Trek
in the 1960s (‘Mirror, Mirror’ – introducing the mirror universe concept and a Hugo Award-winner – ‘By Any Other Name’, ‘Day of theDove’ and ‘Requiem for Methuselah’), but even he had other ideas rejected, including ‘For They Shall Inherit’, ‘Mother Tiger’ and ‘Skal’, about which few details survive.
    George Clayton Johnson, one of the few regular writers for
The Twilight Zone
other than Rod Serling, developed a story under the imaginative title ‘Rock-a-Bye Baby, or Die!’ following his initial episode, ‘The Man Trap’. His second attempt at a
Star Trek
script saw a juvenile alien being enter the
Enterprise
’s computer system, where it incubated and grew to adulthood. Kirk would have become a father figure to the entity, coaching it through its life trapped within the computer. Gene Coon was not keen on the idea and it was rejected. However, both he and Roddenberry liked Johnson’s ‘The Syndicate’ (drawn from Roddenberry’s ‘President Capone’ idea) well enough to develop it into ‘A Piece of the Action’ (originally called ‘Mission into Chaos’ and written by Coon and David P. Harmon).
    Other science fiction authors didn’t fare as well. Comic science fiction writer Robert Sheckley had several ideas rejected, including ‘Rites of Fertility’ and ‘Sister in Space’, although he did write a tie-in
Deep Space Nine
novel in 1995. Larry Niven eventually wrote an episode for
The Animated Series
(‘The Slaver Weapon’, linked to the author’s own ‘Known Space’ stories), but he first submitted ideas to the 1960s show. ‘The Pastel Terror’ concerned a ‘star beast’ plasmoid life form that fed off the energy of stars. The
Enterprise
was to be enveloped by the creature, which was intent on draining the ship’s energy. One method of escape suggested by Spock was to separate the saucer section of the ship (a possibility built in by Roddenberry, but not seen until the 1987
The Next Generation
pilot episode ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ and in the 1994 movie
Star Trek Generations
). Spock replaces Kirk and proceeds with the saucer separation, destroying the secondary hull in an attempt to wipe out the plasmoid life form. The saucer section of the
Enterprise
lands on a remote planet and the crew prepare to establish a colony. Aided by the planet’s giant dragon-like inhabitants, however, they are able to return to the Federation.
    Niven himself realised that the special effects required by his story made it virtually unproducable, while Spock’s betrayal of the captain did not go down well with Roddenberry. The rather apocalyptic storyline puts the
Enterprise
crew in a desperate situation and virtually destroys the ship (as eventually seen in
The Search for Spock
and
Generations
). Niven’s outline was eventually published in the
Star Trek
fanzine
T-Negative#17
in 1972. Niven would go on to contribute to the syndicated
Star Trek
newspaper strip, pitting the
Enterprise
crew against his own Kzinti once again.
    Even those most closely involved with writing and producing the original
Star Trek
had ideas that failed to be produced. Story editor D. C. Fontana made several attempts to give Dr McCoy a daughter called Joanna, but each story was rejected. The first, simply entitled ‘Joanna’, was heavily rewritten to become the episode ‘The Way to Eden’ (an infamous episode featuring space hippies). The original outline saw McCoy’s free-spirited daughter having a romantic fling with Captain Kirk, much to the horror of her father. Another Fontana script introducing Joanna McCoy and intended for the unmade fourth season of
Star Trek
was called ‘The Stars of Sargasso’.
    Associate producer Robert Justman tried his hand at an ori -ginal story with ‘The Deadliest Game’, a riff on the 1932 movie
The Most Dangerous Game
about an insane hunter who pursues the most dangerous game of all: man. Justman gave the setting as a ‘hell planet’, with the
Enterprise
crew trapped aboard a ship like the
Mary Celeste
and on a quest for something akin to the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which turns out to be the fountain of youth.
    John Meredyth Lucas, producer of the second season of
Star Trek
from ‘Journey to Babel’ to ‘The Omega Glory’, wrote four episodes (‘The Changeling’, ‘Patterns of Force’, ‘Elaan of Troyius’ and ‘That Which Survives’) and directed three (his own ‘Elaan of