Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tuvok

3. A Working Knowledge Of Vulcans Saved Flashback

Star Trek: Voyager got in on the celebrations for the franchise's 30th birthday with Flashback, the third season episode that saw Tuvok serving aboard the USS Excelsior. George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney, along with a host of familiar faces, reprise their roles from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, though the script for the episode initially came up short.

While much of the production focused on recreating scenes and sets from the earlier film, Tim Russ concentrated on his character. More specifically, the scene in which Tuvok explains to Janeway why he left, and then returned, to Starfleet was rewritten at Russ's behest.

In Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, Russ recalled being delighted with Brannon Braga's edits to the script. He called attention to the explanation as written, which Russ felt simply didn't work. He was then surprised that Braga wrote a page-and-a-half of dialogue for the scene, fully explaining Tuvok's thinking, thus fleshing out the character a little more.

Russ, extremely pleased, was surprised, believing that changes like that rarely happened in the industry. Flashback may be best remembered for bringing Sulu, Janice Rand, and the crew of the Excelsior (and Kang!) back to Trek, but it is also a critical episode in understanding how Tuvok's mind works.