Movies - TV
Why Star Trek’s Writers Cut An Enterprise-D Joke From TNG’s Finale
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In the finale of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Picard (Patrick Stewart) time travels uncontrollably, from seven years before the first episode to decades into the future.
In a 2014 interview while reminiscing with Yahoo! News, “Star Trek” writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga revealed an amusing subplot that didn't make it to the final draft.
Originally, writers envisioned a scene where the “NextGen” characters would steal the Enterprise-D from a ship museum, a comedic homage to “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.”
The plan was for Picard and the crew to take a guided tour through their old ship, filled with inaccuracies, before sneaking away from the main group to “steal” it.
The joke was the guided tour getting various details wrong, including the mispronunciation of Commander La Forge's name. Despite its comedic appeal, the sequence was excluded.
The sequence was too whimsical and distracting from the main plot to make it into the episode's final draft. “There was really no room for that kind of zaniness.” Braga said.