Voyager War Story was shot by Rick Berman

Despite its great premise, Rick Berman scrapped the original idea for it Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 episode “Once Upon a Time,” forcing the creative team to come up with something new. Voyager Season 5 had a high percentage of impressive episodes, including several that are consistently ranked as some of them VoyagerThe best episodes. While it rarely gets as much love as some others, “Once Upon a Time” was important to the fifth seasonknown as the first major appearance of Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers) as Voyageris the youngest recurring character.

The premise of Once Upon a Time followed Naomi and her experiences in a holodeck program called “The Adventures of Flotter,” a program designed to teach children science and deductive reasoning. Other members of VoyagerThe show's cast also featured prominently, including Neelix (Ethan Phillips), who tried to distract Naomi to hide the fact that her mother was missing after an accident on a foreign mission. However, the originally rejected premise for Once Upon a Time would have shown Neelix and Naomi in a very different situation.

Why Rick Berman Rejected Star Trek: Voyager's “Once Upon a Time” War Premise

For a reason, Berman didn't want Voyager to engage in an act of war

The original premise for Once Upon a Time would have included the rest VoyagerNeelix's crew fought a war while Neelix protected Naomi in a fantasy world in the holodecksomething that executive producer Rick Berman shot down for a very specific reason. In conversation with Cinefantastique after the episode aired, Voyager Author Joe Menosky explained Berman's reasons for ultimately rejecting the idea, citing conflicts with another Star Trek Series that was also currently in production. Read Menosky's full quote below:

“Brannon Braga wanted to do the whole thing in a holodeck fantasy. Voyager was witnessing a war outside that we only caught a glimpse of. Rick Berman simply didn't want to see 'wars' in either Star Trek series. He rejected this idea.”

The other show that worried Berman was natural Star Trek: Deep Space Ninewhich has been an ongoing storyline about the Dominion War since the end of season five. DS9 is famous for its depiction of the Dominion War, and the storyline offered a unique perspective Star Trek had rarely explored. Berman's desire not to oversaturate the franchise with too many war episodes makes sense in view of this Voyager And DS9 were both on the air, but killing the original premise for Once Upon a Time eluded us Voyager a truly unique episode.

Once Upon a Time in Star Trek: Voyager almost had a much more unique premise

The original premise for “Once Upon a Time” would have made the episode better

The original premise of “Once Upon a Time” would have made the episode much more memorable and perhaps more unique among its peers Voyager Guess. Author Michael Taylor described the episode Cinefantastiquewith the statement “The idea was originally much bolder. It was supposed to be a real “Alice in Wonderland,” with Neelix and Naomi in this fantasy world for almost the entire show.“While “The Adventures of Flotter” is almost a… Alice in Wonderland-like world, The idea of ​​Neelix and Naomi both being forced to stay on the show would have added a lot of intrigue to the plot.

Related

Star Trek: Voyager used its holodeck differently than TNG and DS9

The way the Star Trek: Voyager crew used their holodeck was often very different from the way the Star Trek: TNG or DS9 crews used their holodeck.

The concept of Star Trek: VoyagerIt's really fascinating how Neelix's crew uses the holodeck to protect Naomi as they fight a major battle, and the contrast between the whimsical fantasy world that Neelix and Naomi had to contend with, even though they knew that outside of it Holodecks everything could go horribly wrong because everyone else would probably have kept the audience in suspense. Ultimately, there's no telling how Once Upon a Time would have played, but Rick Berman's decision not to give the original premise a chance is disappointing to say the least.

Source: CinefantastiqueVol. 31

Pour

Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, Majel Barrett, Jeri Ryan, Jennifer Lien, Scarlett Pomers, Martha Hackett, Tarik Ergin, Manu Intiraymi, Nancy Hower, Alexander Enberg, Dwight Schultz, Josh Clark, Simon Billig

Release date

January 16, 1995

Seasons

7

network

UPN

writer

Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor

Directors

David Livingston, Winrich Kolbe, Allan Kroeker, Michael Vejar

Showrunner

Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Brannon Braga, Kenneth Biller

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