10 Star Trek Episodes That Started As Something Completely Different
6. Devil's Due
Devil's Due, a fourth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is a similar entry to The Child. It too was a recycled script from Star Trek: Phase II, although this one actually predates both The Next Generation and Phase II, as it was one of Gene Roddenberry's original suggestions for Star Trek: The Original Series.
In the episode, the being Ardra appears on Ventrax II. The planet is in chaos as she reveals herself to be their Devil, returning to take her due from a contract signed millennia ago. There follows a trial, several depictions of Satan throughout the Star Trek universe, and some standard seduction of Jean-Luc Picard.
In the original script, the female Ardra character was a male entity named Komether. The planet was named Neuterra and Kirk was to serve as a defender of the people. The Enterprise's computer would have served as the judge. Though the original episode would have worked nicely, the edits allowed for a fantastic interplay between Ardra and Picard, along with the cold open that features Data playing Ebeneezer Scrooge on the holodeck.
Overall, this episode benefitted from the rewrite and update.