The Enterprise-D Joke That Got Axed From Star Trek: The Next Generation's Finale
The final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," called "All Good Things..." (May 23, 1994) saw Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) becoming unstuck in time, very similar to what happened in Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse-Five." Picard finds himself in his present, but frequently traveling uncontrollably to a point seven years in his past, just before the first episode of "Next Generation." Then, just as uncontrollably, Picard would be thrown several decades into his future, now a bearded old man wrestling with a brain ailment. Picard's time jumps, it seems, are a test of Q (John De Lancie), the trickster god intent on gauging humanity's moral worthiness for space travel.
The future sequences would likely be most fascinating to Trekkies. Where would the "NextGen" characters be in several decades? Would the Enterprise-D still be in use? Would their careers change? Would the show's main characters remain friends or drift apart? As it so happens, yes on all counts. Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) was now a starship captain, and Geordi (LeVar Burton) was now a novelist. Data (Brent Spiner) was now a professor, Worf (Michael Dorn) an ambassador, and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) was still a careerist. Troi (Marina Sirtis) had died.
In 2014, the writers of "All Good Things...," Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, reminisced about making the episode with Yahoo! News, talking about how the story came into being, and how they were both working double duty, writing the feature film "Star Trek: Generations" at the same time. They also revealed a subplot — relegated only to an early draft — wherein the "NextGen" characters would have to steal the Enterprise-D from a ship museum ... and how little Starfleet cared for the ship's actual history.
The new Enterprise-D
The Enterprise-D does play a role in "All Good Things...," although it's not the central vessel featured in the future timeframe portions of the episode. When Captain Crusher's ship, the U.S.S. Pasteur, is under attack from Klingons, the Enterprise-D, commanded by Admiral Riker, charges to its rescue. It's the same ship, but it's been souped up with a third warp nacelle on its dorsal section and possesses a lot of new, ultra-destructive weapons. The Enterprise enters the scene unexpectedly, a fun surprise for the Trekkies watching.
Evidently, there was going to be a scene in "All Good Things..." wherein Picard and co. found the Enterprise-D having been decommissioned, now sitting in a starship museum. Braga and Moore conceived of a theft sequence wherein Picard and several other characters would take a guided tour through their old ship before sneaking away from the main group and stealing it. Moore admitted that it was meant to be a comedic scene directly reminiscent of the scenes in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" wherein Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew had to steal the original Enterprise from a starbase. In Moore's words to Yahoo! News:
"There was a sequence that was cut at some point in the process that I wish we had. The idea was that the Enterprise-D was actually a museum ship and [Picard] had to go steal it, which was somewhat of an homage to 'Star Trek III,' where they stole the old Enterprise."
One of the central jokes, though, was that the "guided tour" of the Enterprise-D was going to get a lot of details totally wrong.
Commander La Farg
Moore continued:
"But it was also an opportunity to go on a guided tour, where they were gonna infiltrate and become part of the guided tour, taking them around to all their old stations. They'd be standing on the bridge while some docent was saying, 'Over here would stand Commander La Farg,' mangling his name. It was gonna be a really fun little thing that sort of had them looking back at their own life and history through the eyes of the future."
Picard may have been a prestigious captain several decades prior, but his accomplishments wouldn't be well remembered in a universe as broadly full of incidents as "Star Trek." Other captains likely rose in his wake to achieve far more impressive feats, and the actual details of the Enterprise-D — including Lieutenant Commander La Forge's name — would be lost to time.
Sadly, this sequence was too whimsical — and likely too much of a distraction from the main plot — to make its way into the episode's final draft. Braga noted, "There was really no room for that kind of zaniness." "Star Trek" can certainly be humorous and whimsical, but it was too much of a tonal departure from an episode that spent a lot of time examining the past, present, and future of its own timeline. "NextGen" wasn't a very wacky show in general, so a comedic moment would have been out of place here. They saved their humor for episodes like, say, "QPid" wherein the cast found themselves transformed into characters from "Robin Hood."
Star Trek ... Legacy?
Moore and Braga may be chuffed — or miffed — to know that their idea would eventually be used 29 years later in the final few episodes of "Star Trek: Picard." In that series, the conceit of "All Good Things..." played itself out on a more natural timeline. The actors, now older, returned to their old roles and revealed that their characters had indeed taken new career paths, lost contact, or died. Like in the original draft of "All Good Things...," their legacy seemed to be erased from history. Picard says out loud that he has no interest in a legacy, and Riker finds that the Enterprise-D is an unpopular ship among the new generation of starship enthusiasts. Indeed, when Riker and Picard ask a younger Starfleet captain for help on a secret mission, he bluntly refuses and forces the old men to sleep in some ensign bunks on the ship's lower decks. No one remembered Picard and legacy was unimportant.
The whole third season of "Picard," however, was devoted to catching up with each character one by one, and having them investigate a mystery surrounding Picard's long-lost son Jack (Ed Speleers). Notably, Geordi La Forge was now the curator and director of a starship museum, giving the showrunners an excuse to dig up some fan-favorite vessels and put them on display. In the show's ninth episode, Geordi revealed that he had, over several decades, been secretly reconstructing the Enterprise-D, and he and his old co-workers — also like in Moore's and Braga's script — steal it and take it into battle.
Sadly, the latter theft sequence wasn't played for laughs. Indeed, it was wrung for maximum nostalgia, with the camera lingering sentimentally on the old ship as if it was still important.