10 Star Trek Episodes That Never Got Made

10. The Next Generation's AIDS Allegory

In his original pitch document for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry had reportedly included AIDS as an issue to tackle in his new vision for Trek. David Gerrold's proposed Blood and Fire was concerned with the contemporary fear of AIDS and the impact on blood donation.

It would see an Enterprise away team board an abandoned ship which had been exposed to Regulan bloodworms. Due to Federation policy, any ship infected with bloodworms must be destroyed. The key to the away team's salvation was the donation of blood by the remaining Enterprise crew.

However, it wasn't the AIDS allegory that saw the pitch rejected. The script also included a same-sex couple of Starfleet officers, an addition that producer Rick Berman was firmly against. Citing the fact the episode would be airing in the afternoon in some regions, he didn't want angry letters from mothers. Gerrold puts this down to homophobia and left the show when he realised the TNG team wasn't interested in pushing the envelope.

After turning it into a novel, he was finally able to see Blood and Fire told as Star Trek episode when he was invited to adapt it for the fan series Star Trek: New Voyages.