10 Star Trek Episodes That Started As Something Completely Different

Harlan Ellison famously authored - and disowned after it was completely rewritten - this classic episode of Star Trek. His initial story didn't feature Dr. McCoy at all. Instead, he wrote a crewman named Beckwith, who was dealing drugs to the crew of the Enterprise.

Beckwith murdered a fellow crewman named LeBecque, before escaping to the planet that the ship was orbiting. There, he travels through a temporal vortex operated by a race of beings known as 'The Guardians.' This causes the Enterprise to vanish, with a ship full of vicious pirates, the Condor, taking its place.

Kirk and Spock then travel back to stop him, arriving in 1930s Chicago, rather than New York. With the help of Edith Koestler and a legless War World 1 veteran named Trooper, who dies at the climax of the story, they are able to save history. However, Edith is still marked for death in this version. Kirk is unable to bring himself to let her die, which leads Spock to step in and prevent him from acting, much as Kirk prevents McCoy in the final draft.

With history set straight, Kirk is a broken man by the end. Spock attempts to console him by telling him 'No other woman was offered the universe for love.'

As for Beckwith, he escapes from Spock and jumps through the temporal vortex, only to end up caught in a loop, arriving and falling into a supernova, again and again for all eternity.