Famke Janssen's Star Trek Episode Had Three Alternate Endings Fans Never Got To See
In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Perfect Mate," the U.S.S. Enterprise-D is tasked with transporting a Kriosian ambassador (Tim O'Conner) to an arranged peace ceremony with a species called the Valtians. As a peace offering, the Kriosians aim to deliver a mysterious, eight-foot pod to the Valtians. Thanks to the meddling of some traveling Ferengi, the pod is cracked open, revealing Kamala (Famke Janssen) to have been sealed inside. Kamala was roped into an arranged marriage with the Valtian ambassador, a humanoid gift to "sweeten the deal." She was being transported in stasis.
The reason for her stasis quickly becomes clear. Kamala is an "empathic metamorph," meaning she can sense the desires of the men in her vicinity and alter her personality to match what they might be attracted to. She also produces clouds of powerful pheromones, driving men wild with lust. Having her wander the halls of the Enterprise is a dangerous proposition. Attentive readers might be able to predict that Kamala ends up bonding with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). Indeed, she "imprints" on Picard, meaning she'll have to painfully leave the captain to marry an ambassador she will never come to love. It's tragic. Janssen gives a good performance, playing Kamala as effortlessly seductive, but still possessed of ambitions and agency of her own.
In the book "Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, "Mate" co-writer Michael Piller revealed that the episode had multiple endings. Piller recalled three endings beyond the one that made the final cut, and that two separate endings were shot. It seems that Kamala's fate was tinkered with a lot during production, and in certain endings, she ended up with someone other than the Valtian ambassador.
Endings #1, #2, and #3
Executive producer Rick Berman chimed in to say that "The Perfect Mate" was a great episode, but it was "an episode which, during the final stages of writing by Michael, went through a lot of changes with a lot of heated discussions that went on, and a lot of different things that could have happened to this woman." In the final ending, Picard merely watches in wistfulness as Kamala, a woman he knows is in love with him, leaves his side to marry an ambassador for the sake of interplanetary peace. Piller recalled the original ending was hated by just about everyone except him and Patrick Stewart. As Piller described it:
"I felt at the end of the show Picard has to deliver this woman into the hands of her arranged mate. By this time in the picture, he has become very close to her and I wanted to do an ending which, in fact, had three endings. I wanted to do an ending where he stopped the ceremony and said, 'No, she's staying with me.' The way that it was written was [Ferengi] Par Lenor [played by Max Grodénchik] delivers her, Picard cringes as she kisses this man she doesn't love."
When that ending was shot down, Piller wrote a "fantasy" ending wherein Picard only imagines himself stopping the wedding. Piller recalled:
"The second ending was he interrupts and says, I'm sorry, I can't allow this to continue,' and so while they were walking down the aisle and it seems each time it's the end of the show, we in fact cut back to them walking down the aisle so it's continuing and we understand these are things happening in Picard's mind."
That ending feels noncommittal. I like the first better with its grimmer sexual politics.
Ending #4
The fourth ending to "The Perfect Mate" might be the most satisfying, as it ends tragically for Picard, but not for Kamala. Here's how Piller described it:
"Finally, he gets to the end, and the third [unused] ending is she interrupts and tells both of them she isn't staying for either one of them. She says through Picard's influence she's been enlightened and is going off in search of adventure, leaving both men standing there. I was overruled. I think that those who overruled me would say that her leaving was not justified by anything else in the script, but I would argue with that."
Piller's opponents were correct in that there was nothing to directly indicate Kamala had a "way out" like that, but it's sort of endemic to the script. Part of Kamala's "imprinting" involved absorbing and taking on the personality traits of her intended paramour. Because she imprinted on Picard, she would have taken on his sense of propriety, his impulses to explore and ask questions, and his value of individualistic freedom. She would have, in a way, done exactly what Picard might have, calling out for her own liberation and leaving her betrothed behind.
But then, Jean-Luc Picard also has a strong sense of duty, so it could easily be argued that not breaking herself free is also a very "Picard" thing to do.
Which one is best? There doesn't seem to be a consensus on that. Piller seems to have liked the fantasy ending best but doesn't appear to hate anything about the final episode the way it turned out. Rick Berman seems to have summed up everyone's view of the episode by saying, "None of us will ever know which of the four would have been best."