Movies - TV
Why Patrick Stewart ‘Rejected’ The First Draft Of Star Trek: Insurrection
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Patrick Stewart had disliked the original script for “Star Trek: Insurrection” so intensely that he handed it back to screenwriter Michael Piller in disgust.
Piller recounts the story of the “dark day” in “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams,” edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross.
Piller recognized that Stewart was right in demanding a rewrite of the script, with him admitting, “And he was right. No writer likes to hear that [...]”
The early drafts of the script included unconventional ideas, such as a plot where Picard had to eliminate Brent Spiner’s Data due to him malfunctioning.
Stewart's rejection of the story led to a focus on political ethics. The new plot involved an alien society wanting to relocate 600 people to access life-saving technology.