10 Star Trek Episodes That Started As Something Completely Different

Yesterday's Enterprise saw several versions before the final script was submitted. In the televised episode, the Enterprise-C is brought into the future during a pivotal moment in Federation/Klingon relations, leading to decades-long war between the two powers. The ship must return to the battle, despite now having the knowledge that it is a suicide mission. Tasha Yar, who had not been killed in this timeline, accompanies them.

The first idea for the story featured a classic Enterprise arriving, with Captain Richard Garrett commanding. Their presence would cause no issues to the timeline, though Picard had to deal with the moral dilemma of sending them home. Another idea was vastly different. It involved The Guardian of Forever and a Vulcan team who traveled back to the time of Surak but accidentally caused his death. This led to the Vulcan race never achieving enlightenment allowing them to become something akin to the Romulan Star Empire.

The climax of that story saw Ambassador Sarek going back to take the place of Surak, thus setting history straight again. Several elements of this story were retained. Yar, rather than Sarek, is the contemporary who goes back to the past, which allowed for the character to receive a far better send-off. Later, Deep Space Nine would borrow the Sarek idea in the two-part episode Past Tense, where Commander Sisko took on the role of Gabriel Bell.